pages: practicalmagicia00harr.pdf, 29
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practicalmagicia00harr.pdf | 29 | THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 19 - CHAPTER III. TRICKS WITH AND WITHOUT COLLUSION. I' resuming my hints to amateurs, I shall now offer some re- marks upon two subjects. Frrst.--] will notico the class of tricks th at are performed by the collusion of a confederate. Old books on conjuring record several of this description, and some conjurors still practise them. But I do not advise the inexperienced frequently to ex- hibit tricks of this sort, for the co-operation of assistants used in them is liable to be traced by spectators, or to be divulged by the person who has been employed to aid in the exhibition of them. They may, indeed, be very well as a make-shift until dexterity of hand is acquired; but they will always rank as an inferior branch of the science of conjuring, and if the collusion is discovered, it will throw discredit even upon those tricks which the same performer may exhibit without such collusive arrangement. An instance of the annoying failure of such de- pendence upon confederates is recorded in "Houdin's Memoirs." It is thero related that Torrini, at the commencement of his ca- reer, was insidiously induced by an envious rival (Pinetti) to undertako a public exhibition of his art before a very grand as- sembly. Torrini was at the time diffident of his own attain- ments, but he was persuaded to make the attempt by the assur- ance of Pinetti that he would take care that several confeder- ates should be present, and should help in carrying out sundry illusions which he would have to display. One of these was, that the conjuror, after borrowing a ring, was to restoro it magi- |