pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 327
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 327 | THE UNMASKING OF ROBERT-HOUDIN was one of Anderson's cleverest imitators and a rival of Robert-Houdin in the English provinces. The adroit manner in which Robert-Houdin flays Pinetti, Anderson, and Bosco would arouse admiration were his pen-lashings devoted to men who deserved such treatment. Under existing circumstances-his debt to Bosco and Pinetti, whose tricks he filched remorselessly, and the fact that Andersoi.'s popularity outlived his own in England-his efforts to belittle these men are unworthy of one who called himself a man and a master magician. The truly great and successful man rises above petty jealousy and personalities. This, Robert-Houdin could not do, even when he sat pen in hand, in retirement, with the fear of competition removed. It seems almost incredible that Robert-Houdin should ignore Henri Robin in his "Memoirs," for Robin was one of the most interesting characters of that day. He still stands in magic's history as the Chesterfield of conjuring, a man of many gifts, charming address, and broad edu- cation. Even in his dispute with Robert-Houdin regard- ing the invention of the inexhaustible bottle, he never forgot his dignity, but proved his case by that most potent of arguments, a well-edited magazine published under his direction, in which an illustration showed him actually performing the trick in 1844, or a full three years before it appeared on Robert-Houdin's programme. Robert-Houdin was indebted to Robin for another trick, the Garde Française, introduced by Robert-Houdin in October, 1847. Henri Robin had precisely the same figure, doing precisely the same feats, in the garb of an Arab. An illustration from Robin's magazine, L'Alma- [298] |