pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 294
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 294 | ROBERT-HOUDIN'S IGNORANCE OF MAGIC the man sent by an editor to criticise a conjurer's per- formance knew little or nothing about the art and could not institute comparisons between different magicians. To-day Robert-Houdin would shine as an exhibitor of illusions or mechanical toys. A pistol shot, a puff of smoke-and his confederate or assistant has done the real work behind the scenes. His lack of finesse as a sleight-of-hand performer is nowhere more clearly shown than in his own writings. On page 37 of his French exposé of the secrets of magic, entitled "Comment on Devient Sorcier" (page 5I of the English translation by Professor Hoffmann, "The Secrets of Conjuring and Magic"), he thus naïvely describes his masterpiece of coin-palming: "I myself practised palming long and perseveringly, and acquired thereat a very considerable degree of skill. I used to be able to palm two five-franc pieces at once, the hand, nevertheless, remaining as freely open as though it held nothing whatever." An amateur of his own day would have blushed to admit that he could palm but two coins. Men like T. Nelson Downs, "The Koin King," think nothing of palming twenty five-franc or silver dollars, or forty half- dollars, and even this record has been broken. Even two writers who contributed to the translation and editing of his works, R. Shelton Mackenzie and Pro- fessor Hoffmann (Angelo J. Lewis), and who have drawn rich royalties for the same, apologize for his flagrant mis- statements, which, they realize, any man or woman with but a slight knowledge of conjuring must recognize. His first contribution to the history of magic was his [ 265 ] |