pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 329
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 329 | THE UNMASKING OF ROBERT-HOUDIN truth about his so-called innovation, he must have given Frikell credit, wherefore he conveniently ignores Frikell completely. It is entirely characteristic of Robert-Houdin that he did not openly assail Pinetti in the pages of his "Mem- oirs." With cleverness worthy of a better cause, he quotes the bitter verbal attack as issuing from the lips of the friend and mentor of his youth, Signor Torrini. The major portion of chapter VI., pages 92 to IO4 inclusive, American edition of his autobiography, is de- voted to assailing Pinetti's abilities as a conjurer and his reputation as a man. Granted that Pinetti did put Tor- rini to shame on the Neapolitan stage, such revenge for a wholesale duplication of the magician's tricks might be termed almost human and natural. Had a minor magi- cian, amateur or professional, dogged the footsteps of Robert-Houdin, copying his tricks, the entire répertoire upon which he depended for a livelihood, thus endanger- ing his future, I doubt that even the author of "Confi- dences d'un Prestidigitateur" would have hesitated to un- mask and undo his rival. In fact, by reference to the editorial note, foot of page 421, American edition of Robert-Houdin's "Memoirs," it will be seen that in 1850 Robert-Houdin appealed to the law for protection in just such a case. An employee was sent to prison for two years, as judgment for selling to an amateur some of his master's secrets. But in attacking Pinetti, Robert-Houdin goes a step too far and falsifies, not directly but by innuendo, when he permits the impression to go forth that Pinetti was hounded and ruined both financially and professionally [300] |