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A Master of Modern Magic

The Life and Adventures of Robert-Houdin

Henry Ridgely Evans, Litt. D., Author of The Old and the Nczc Magic; History of Conjuring and Magic; Cagliostro, a Sorcerer of the Eighteenth Century; Etc.

New York MACOY PUBLISHING COMPANY 1932

Printed in the I'nited States of America

To the Memory of my Brother FRANK GARRETTSON EVANS (1863-1931) / dedicate this book

CONTENTS PAGE

Proem

The Count and the Conjurer

Episodes in the Career of an Escamoteur

III.

The Old Age of Rohert-Houdin

IV.

Bibliography of Robert-Houdin

Feats of a Famous Fantaisistc

II.

Appendix A.

The Chess-Playing- Automaton

4.")

Appendix B.

Psychology of Prestidigitation

Appendix C.

Two of Robert-Houdin's Favorite Magical Experiments

Appendix D.

Autographs of Robert-Houdin

Appendix E.

Cagliostro's Signature

Appendix F.

Chris Charlton, an Appreciation

Proem OSTRADAMUS is said to have constructed a magic mirror of great power. In its shining surface he conjured up> many remarkable visions. But I know of a more wonderful wizard's glass than that of the French necromancer. It is the "mirror of the mind"—that mystery of mysteries. I am able, at will, to evoke in it a phantasmagoria of the past. I need no aid from cabalistic spells, no burning of incense. Presto!—a picture appears radiant with light and life. I see a wainscoted room in a quaint old mansion. Logs are ablaze on the hearthstone. A boy is ensconced in the deep embrasure of the window. He is immersed in a book, and entirely oblivious of the scene without, where the snow is falling fast upon the frozen earth. The wind rumbles in the ancient chimneys. It is the mystical Christmastide. Let us take a peep over the reader's shoulder at the volume in his hand. It is the autobiography of Robert-Houdin, ambassador, author, and conjurer. And the reader is myself. O vanished years of boyhood, you still live in the magic mirror of memory! And intimately associated with those years is the magic book of Robert-Houdin. Can I ever forget the enjoyment I had in poring over the faded yellow leaves of that fascinating work? Happy the youth who early dips into its golden pages. The Arabian Niyhts forms a fitting prologue to it. In imagination I followed Robert-Houdin in the conjurer's caravan ; rejoiced in his successes at the Palais-Royal; and in far-off Algeria watched him exhibit his magic feats before the Marabouts. Speaking of this autobiography, the late Prof. Brander Matthews, of Columbia College, says: "These Confidences of a Prestidigitator are worthy of comparison with all but the very best autobiographies—• if not with Cellini's and Franklin's, at least with Cibber's and Goldoni's. Robert-Houdin's life of himself, quite as well as any of the others, would justify Longfellow's assertion that 'autobiography is what biography ought to be.' " In my humble opinion Robert-Houdin's autobiography is worthy to be classed with the best, even those of Cellini and Franklin. It is replete with interesting information about old-time escamoteurs and constructors of automata ; good stories of contemporary magicians ; exposes of Marabout miracles; and last, but not least, the fascinating adventures of Robert-Houdin himself—the archmaster of modern (7)

A Master of Modern Magic.

magic. It should be placed in the hands of all students of psychology and pedagogy. His Trickeries of the Greeks, an expose of gambling devices, also is an interesting work and should be read in conjunction with his The Secrets of Stage Conjuring and The Secrets of Prestidigitation and Magic. The autobiography ends with Robert-Houdin's retirement from the stage to his villa at Saint-Gervais, near Blois. The Secrets of Prestidigitation and Magic gives us a slight sketch of his villa and the ingenious contrivances arranged therein for the amusement and mystification of visitors. The curtain, alas, then falls on the scene. The theatre is left dark and cold. We are told nothing more concerning the great conjurer's life, or the manner of his death. All is a blank. Through my own efforts, however, and those of my friends made in recent years at my instigation, I have been able to supply the missing data. Robert-1 loudin will ever remain for us the beau ideal of a conjurer, and one of the most romantic hgures in the annals of natural magic. He was a psychologist, a scientific man, an actor, a prestidigitator, and an author. When other magicians are dead and forgotten, his memory will be kept alive through the medium of his immortal autobiography ; and of his works on magic, in which the student will find the psychology of the art of necromancy set forth in a lucid and admirable manner. No other book written by a prestidigitator can compare in human interest with Robert-IIoudin's memoirs. The charming style, the strange adventures, and the secrets revealed make it one of the most fascinating works extant. It possesses a perennial charm for me. T pick it up, and again, as of old, the curtains of the past are lifted, and I am a hoy once more at "Glen Willow," on the heights of Georgetown, D. C, seated in the old Colonial window, devouring the mystic pages of the memoirs. How fascinating is Robert-Houdin's account of his adventures in Torrini's little theatre-on-wheels. When a lad 1 longed for such experiences in a conjurer's caravan. Felicien Trewey, the celebrated French fantaisiste, had similar adventures when he organized his company of Funambules; and so did Katterfelto. There is, of course, considerable vagabondage in this method of rolling about the world, but it has its enticements for youth. Victor Hugo, in his powerful romance, The Man Who Laughs, tells the story of a troupe of mountebanks who travel around Kngland in a "Green Box," half home, half theatre. 1 never see the tail end of a circus van that I do not think of Torrini, Robert-Houdin, Katterfelto, Trewey, and Hugo's mountebanks, and their romantic wanderings.

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A Master of Modern Magic.

Robert-Houdin was the founder of the "scientific school of conjuring," so to speak. He was one of the four great fantaisistes who exerted a potent influence on magicâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the others being Pinetti, Frikell, and J. N. Maskelyne. Modern magic was divided by Robert-Houdin into five classes, as follows: 1. Feats of Dcxtcritx. The hands and the voice are the only means used for the production of these illusions. 2. Experiments in Natural Magic. Expedients derived from the sciences, and worked in combination with feats of dexterity; the combined result constituting "conjuring tricks." 3. Mental Conjuring. A control acquired over the will of the spectator; secret thoughts read by an ingenious system of diagnosis, and sometimes compelled to take a particular direction by certain subtle artifices. 4. Pretended Mesmerism. Imitation of mesmeric phenomena, second-sight, clairvoyance, divination, trance, and catalepsy. 5. Imitation of Spiritualism. Pretended evocation of spirits: table-turning, -rapping, and -writing, mysterious cabinets, etc. The foregoing divisions, with the History of Magic added, making six, might well serve as a classification scheme of modern magic for up-to-date libraries.

A Master of Modern Magic I. The Count and the Conjurer

N a certain day in the year 1843, the Comte de l'Escalopier, a scion of the old regime of France, and a collector of curios, was strolling along the Rue de Vendome, in the Marais Quarter of Paris. He stopped to look at some mechanical toys displayed in the window of a dark little shop, over the door of which was painted the following modest sign: "M. Robert-Houdin, Pendules de Precision." This sign noted the fact that the proprietor was a watchmaker, and that his wares were distinguished for precise running. What particularly attracted the nobleman's attention was a peculiar looking clock of clearest crystal that ran apparently without works, the invention of M. Robert-Houdin.1 The Comte, who was a great lover of science amnsantc, or science wedded to recreation, purchased the magic clock, and, better than that, made the acquaintance of the inventor, the obscure watchmaker who was destined to become a great prestidigitator, author, and ambassador. The Comte became a frequent visitor at Robert-Houdin's shop, and watched the construction of various automata which the inventor intended to use some day in public performances. Says Robert-Houdin: "A kind of intimacy having thus become established between the Comte de l'Kscalopier and myself, I was naturally led to talk to him of my projects of appearing in public; and, in order to justify them, I gave him, on more than one occasion, examples of my skill in sleight of hand. Prompted doubt1

"This very remarkable timepiece consists of a dial composed of two juxtaposcdi disks of glass, one of which is stationary and carries the hours, while the other is movable and serves for the motion of the hands. This latter disk is provided with a wheel or rather a toothed ring concealed within the metallic ring forming a dial. The glass column which constitutes the body of the piece is formed of two tubes which operate according to the principle of the dial, that is to say, one is stationary and the other movable. To each of the extremities of the latter is fixed a wheel. These wheels gear with transmission pinions which communicate, one of them at the top with the movable plate of glass of the dial, and the other at the bottom with the movement placed in the wooden! base which supports the glass-shade covering the clock. All these concealed transmissions are arranged in a most skillful manner, and complete the illusion. The movable glass of the dial, carried along by the column, actuates a small dial-train mounted in the thickness of the stationary glass, and within an extremely narrow space in the center of the dial. It is covered by the small hand and is consequently invisible. The hands are very easily actuated by it on account of their extreme lightness and perfect equilibrium."â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Scientific American, .Yrzc1 Vork. (10)