WOWSIM AwOWSi
by
G.
E.
ARROWSMITH
M.A., F.R.G.S., F.R.E.S.
President of the Exonian Magical Society Member of the Inner Magic Circle Inventor of the "Arrowsmith" Glass Penetration Author of " Magical Mentalia "
COPYRIGHT
MANUFACTURING RIGHTS RESERVED
Published
by
LOUIS TANNEN 120 West 42nd Street New York 18, N. Y.
FOREWORD The kindly reception given to the recently published book " Magical hlentalia " has encouraged me to write a sequel—hence the following pages. Herein will be found a score or so of originalities which owing to wartime exigencies (paper restriction and so forth) had to be crowded out of the previous work. One section is devoted entirely to the " Devil's Pasteboards " and should be of interest to card enthusiasts provided they have already mastered one or two elementary sleights. Readers of "Magical Mentalia" will recall a telepathy routine described under the title "A Silent Mental Act," and in that connection an interesting letter has been received from a well-known Leeds magician embodying two original ideas that, under similar circumstances to those he mentions, will heighten its effect. Mr. Winder has given permission to publish his letter, and we gladly do so in the Kope that it may be of help and interest to other war-time entertainers. G. E. A. TORQUAY.
CONTENTS Page 2.
PHOTOGRAPH OF AUTHOR.
3.
TITLE.
5.
FOREWORD.
7.
CONTENTS.
9.
PREFACE.
13.
LETTER EMBODYING TWO MAGICAL IDEAS.
15.
A N ANTI-GRAVITATIONAL MARVEL.
Card Tricks 17.
POCKET PICKING.
19.
THE
FLASHING
21.
THE
"SUCKER"
25.
A NEW
26.
AN
28.
ABOUT
X-RAY
LIGHT. RISING CARDS. PACK.
IMPOSSIBLE
PROBLEM.
TURN.
29.
THE
31.
MAGICAL
POINTING
34.
A
FINGER.
OSCILLATION.
Psychic Tricks BODY HAS BEEN DISMEMBF.RED.
40.
THE PSYCHIC JOKER.
43.
THE
47.
MENTAL
55.
A
G.E.A. LIVING
AND DEAD
TEST.
TRANSLUCIDATION.
Miscellaneous Tricks MAGICAL SUGGESTION.
57.
MAGNETIC
60.
THE
PEAS.
61.
PATRIOTIC
63.
CHAMELEON SILKS.
65.
A
MAGICAL
ELECTRICIAN.
RELEASE.
MIRACLF. OF UNCONSCIOUS PREDICTION.
PREFACE " Magic " is a subject that covers a very wide field, for it dates back to the very earliest days of recorded history. We know that magic and its professors flourished in Egypt under the Pharaohs of the first dynasties. Frequent reference to magicians and their miraculous powers are to be found in ancient papyrus writings, and from the Biblical record we learn some of their tricks. As, for instance, the transformation of rods into serpents (as mentioned in Exodus) which is a feat performed by conjurers in the Near East to this day, as witness Robert Heller, who was himself a conjurer of repute and a great traveller. He tells us in his memoirs that he had seen this feat performed in Cairo by the Dervishes. " The rods actually were serpents which had been hypnotised to such an extent as to become perfectly stiff and rigid. When thrown upon the earth and recalled to life by sundry mystic passes and strokes they crawled away alive and hideous as ever." An ancient papyrus tells us that the magician Abaaner had a mystic box in which he kept his apparatus. He seems to have been an adept in black magic for he used his powers for purposes of revenge. His wife had been unfaithful and so he made a model in wax of a crocodile and cast a spell over it; then he flung it intcy the river Nile and it turned into a live alligator which lay in wait for his wife's lover, and the next time he went to bathe it gobbled him up ! Another of these Egyptian Magi is said to have decapitated several geese and placed the heads at some distance from the bodies, "At the command of the magician the heads and bodies moved towards each other and the heads became united to their respective, bodies and the geese quacked." This marvel also has its counterpart in these modern times, for there is a trick often performed at village fairs that is very similar. A fowl is taken and apparently its head is cut off, but later it is restored and the rooster appears to be none the worse for the experience. Page Nine
Sympathetic magic was another branch of the astrologers art in ancient Egypt. The wizard would make a model in wax of the person he wished to influence, and having made it duly sensitive by reciting magical formulae, he imagined that whatever he did to the model would in due course happen to the living original. Thus if he stuck pins into the body or limbs of the image the man whom it represented would be racked by cruel, stabbing pains in the same place ! This superstition of sympathetic magic has survived through the ages. Many of the wretched women who were burnt as witches a century or so ago were supposed to be adepts at it, and it is on record that even so exalted a lady as Queen Elizabeth was brought under its baneful influence. "A wax figure of the Queen, with a pin stuck in the breast, was found set up in Lincolns' Inn Fields. This caused consternation in the city as it was believed that this happening foreboded some grievous harm to the person of the Queen, and a distinguished astronomer was summoned to London to advise as to the safeguarding of Her Majesty." Modern conjurers base some of their finest tricks on this old idea of sympathetic magic As, for example, Mr. Maskelyne's illusion called " The New Page " that •was shown at the St. George's Hall some twenty years or more ago. A page-boy was placed in a coffin which just contained him in an upright position. It was raised vertically above the stage a few feet by ropes, and the lid was then put on. Maskelyne took a doll that was meant to represent the boy in the box, and said that whatever he did to the doll would happen to the boy. He then turned the doll upside down, and when the lid was removed from the suspended coffin the page-boy was seen to be standing on his head. Maskelyne used to conclude this clever illusion by saying: " You may wonder why this trick is called the ' New Page'; the reason is because it shows you a page turned over ! " From these few instances that I have quoted it will be seen that modern conjurers derive many of their most Page Ten