pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 297
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 297 | THE UNMASKING OF ROBERT-HOUDIN and at fairs, as well as in the better grade of houses. Having worked on the same bill with genuine Arabian performers, I know just how the tricks are accomplished. Robert-Houdin undertakes to explain these tricks in chapter XXII. of the American edition of his "Me- moirs." So long as he quotes reliable authorities like the Journal des Sciences, the explanations are correct. Di- rectly he attempts an independent exposure, he strikes far from the correct explanation. On page 424 he states: "In the following experiment, two Arabs held a sabre, one by the hilt, the other by the point; a third then came forward, and after raising his clothes so as to leave the abdomen quite bare, laid himself flat on the edge of the blade, while a fourth mounted on his back, and seemed to press the whole weight of his body on him. "This trick may be easily explained. "Nothing proves to the audience that the sabre is really sharpened, or that the edge is more cutting than the back, although the Arab who holds it by the point is careful to wrap it up in a handkerchief-in this, imitating the jugglers who pretend they have cut their fingers with one of the daggers they use in their tricks. "Besides, in performing this trick, the invulnerable turned his back on the audience. He knew the advantage to be derived from this circumstance; hence, at the mo- ment when about to lay himself on the sabre, he very adroitly pulled back over his stomach that portion of his clothing he had raised. Lastly, when the fourth actor mounted on his back, he rested his hands on the shoulders of the Arabs who held the sabre. The latter apparently [ 268 ] |