pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 160
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 160 | THE OBEDIENT CARDS of French encyclopaedias described the trick and exposed it according to one method or another, and Robert-Houdin admits having been a great reader of encyclopaedias. The trick first appears in print in various editions of "Hocus Pocus," twenty in all, starting with 1635. The majority contain feats with cards, showing how to bring them up or out of a pack with a black thread, a hair spring, or an elastic. In 1772 the rising-card trick was shown in Guyot's "Physical and Mathematical Recreations," also in the Dutch or Holland translations of the same work. In 179I it was minutely explained by Hofrath von Eck- artshausen, who wrote five different books on the sub- ject of magic. The fourth, being devoted principally to the art of the conjurer, was entitled "Die Gauckel- tasche, oder vollständiger Unterricht in Taschenspieler u. S. w.," which translated means "The Conjurer's Pocket or Thorough Instructions in the Art of Conjuring." The title was due to the fact that in olden days conjurers worked with the aid of a large outside pocket. The five books, published under the general title of "Aufschlüsse zur Magie," bear date of Munich, Germany. On page 138 of the third edition of Gale's "Cabinet of Knowledge," published in London in 1800, will be found a description of the rising-card trick as donc with pin and thread, and the same book shows how it is saccomplished with wax and a hair. This book seems to have been compiled from Philip Breslaw's work on magic, "The Last Legacy," published in r782. Benton, who published the English edi- tion of Decremps' famous work on magic, exposing Pinetti's répertoire, also described the trick. "Natural Magic," by [ 143 ] |