Pages from westminster wizardry

I //f > Go ^i^^v %#

T H E WORLD'S GREATEST F A C T O R Y SHOULD

FOR

EVERYTHING MAGICAL. LISTS F R E E

YOU DESIRE

MAGICAL

GOODS

OF THE BEST QUALITY THEN YOU MUST DEAL WITH THE HOUSE OF

JANOS BARTL

WE CLAIM TO HAVE INTRODUCED MORE ORIGINAL EFFECTS THAN ANY MAGICAL HOUSE IN THE WORLD. LET US PROVE IT TO YOU. QUALITY THE BEST— PRICES THE LOWEST

WRITE AT ONCE TO :

JANOS BARTL, GANSEMARKT 64. HAMBURG 36, GERMANY.

.1*1

BY

FREDERICK MONTAGUE, M.P. (Vice-President The Magicians' Club).

ILLUSTRATED BY

CLIFFORD THOMPSON. r STOYAN G. MIRKOVICH = 5 1714 Littlestone Road — - Grosse Pointe 36, Michigan ~

Publishers: WILL GOLDSTON, LTD. LONDON, W.C. 2.

WSoldstonbl PUBLISHERS.

"

ALADDIN HOUSE, 14, GREEN STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.2.

WILL GOLDSTON'S CARD SYSTEM OF EXCLUSIVE MAGICAL SECRETS. Dear Magician, I beg to call your attention to my Card System of Exclusive Magical Secrets.

No doubt you have often wished to obtain new ideas for really first-class tricks, red hot from the brains of the inventors. You have longed to be able to " get in first," to put on a tip-top programme composed entirely of novel material. When you have tried to do this you have probably been overwhelmed by the appalling difficulties of such a task. Even to hear of the existence of new first-class tricks is difficult; to obtain possession of the working of such tricks is well nigh impossible. New and Exclusive Magical Secrets are very rare.

You will find that my Card System solves all your difficulties. The System has two great advantages, which will be apparent at once to every experienced magician.

First. A subscriber to the System is put in possession of a new and original exclusiveTrick directly it has been invented and privately tried out. No time is lost, as there is—and always must be—when ideas are collected and published in book form. Before a book on magic can be completed and published part of the material may be common property.

Every subscriber to this System will receive immediately a number of cards, the balance at frequent intervals, a card on which will be printed all details of one First-Class Exclusive Magical Secret. There will be Sixteen cards in the System.

Every subscriber will possess Sixteen New, Exclusive, First-Class Tricks. No magician really requires more material than will be supplied by this System.

Second. The material will be arranged in a very convenient form. Everyone knows that a " card index " is much more convenient, for the purposes of references, than a book. By this System a magician will be able to find exactly what he wants directly he wants it.

The subscription is 12/- ($3.00). The terms are exceedingly low. The System is the work of magicians for magicians. It would have been a simple matter to put the ideas into a book, publish it at a moderate price, and so secure a wide sale. But the value of such a book to any experienced magician would have been trifling, because the contents of the book would have been known to all magicians. By preserving the secrets in my Card System I prevent a large number of inquisitive people from becoming acquainted with them and therefore increase their high value to all subscribers.

The number of subscribers for complete sets will be strictly limited to 250.

The list of subscribers was nearly completed directly this project became known. If I may add your name to the list of subscribers I shall be glad if you will send your remittance for 12/- ($3.00), and the address to which the cards are to be sent.

I would ask you to bear in mind that a full subscriber obtains Sixteen New and Exclusive Tricks, all of v/hich are thoroughly practical. The illustrated explanations on each card will be very clear and concise.

Faithfully yours,

CONTENTS. PAGE A B O U T THE A U T H O R AND H I S B O O K .

INTRODUCTION

-

-

-

-

-

.

-

.

5

-

7

T R A N S P A R E N T CYLINDERS AND COLOURED SILKS

9

T H E SILKEN " FLIGHT " PAR EXCELLENCE

-

13

BALLS, CONE, T U M B L E R AND GAS GLASS -

-

17

" As Y o u

LIKE THEM "

.

.

.

.

.

20

ANOTHER METHOD S C R E E N AND SHADOW R I N G S

23 -

23

T H E V E R Y LATEST SPIRIT SLATES

.

T H E " PHOENIX " RESTORED ROPE

-

T H E " D O I T AGAIN " R O P E TRICK

.

GLASS TUMBLER LEVITATION

.

28 36

.

.

42

-

47

A CIGARETTE AND A B O X OF MATCHES STARTLING CARD E F F E C T S

.

.

.

.

.

51 54

A M I R A C L E OF F L I G H T

56

A MAGIC " SPELL "

60

SPELLING CHART

62

" UNDER YOUR VERY NOSE "

-

64

T H E TORN CARD WITH A N E W T O U C H

-

-

68

T H E " MONTAGUE " PIVOTAL P A S S AND PALM

72

T H E " B L U F F " P A S S AND PALM

75

.

.

.

SOMETHING L I K E A F L A S H T H E CARD IN THE CRYSTAL

77 -

80

A N E W COIN VANISH

81

T H E W A N D AND R I B B O N

83

A N O V E L CUT AND R E S T O R E D T A P E -

84

B U R N T AND R E S T O R E D H A N D K E R C H I E F

-

-

SILENT SECOND SIGHT ONE VALISE—Two TABLES

86 89

.

.

.

.

91

All Communications to be addressed to :

Registered Office, 14, GREEN STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON. W.C.2.

STUDENTS' SECTION OF THE MAGICIANS' CLUB. Dear Brother Magician, Acting upon my suggestion the Council of the Magicians' Club have decided to establish a Students' Section of the Club and to invite all Magicians from the age of eighteen upwards to belong to it.

Members of this Section will be admitted to the Social Meetings held every Wednesday evening at the Club's Headquarters.

At these Meetings informal performances, lectures on magic, demonstrations of the newest sleights, tricks, apparatus, etc., will be given and the Captain Van der Kiste Silver Cup will be awarded to the Member who produces the most original trick or illusion or gives the best perfonnance during the year. Members will also be entitled to free legal or medical advice and the use of the Club's library which contains many very rare works on magic.

Members will be entitled to wear the Club's Jewel.

There will be NO ENTRANCE FEE in this Section of the Club, and the Yearly Subscription will be only Half a Guinea ($2.60), but only one thousand Members will be enrolled. Should you decide to belong to this Section of the Club—of which all the leading Magicians of the day are Members —I can assure you that you will be heartily welcome, but in view of the Council's decision to limit the number of Members early application is absolutely necessary.

Yours faithfully, WILL GOLDSTON, M.C.L., President.

WESTMINSTER WIZARDRY

5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND HIS BOOK.

BY WILL GOLDSTON. The author of this book has earned for himself the title of " Conjurer of the House of Commons."

Judging from what I have heard from other Members of Parliament, I imagine that any man who spends day after day listening to dreary debates in the House feels the need of some good hobby directly he is released from his Parliamentary duties. Mr. Frederick Montague has made Magic his hobby. He is intensely interested in it, and because he has given much time to the study and practice of the art he has become one of the finest amateur conjurers in the country. His performances are always given with the ease and assurance which one expects only from a professional performer. Mr. Montague has given a great number of his entertainments before the very critical audiences of the Magicians' Club, of which he is a Vice-President.

He is also Adviser to the Committee of the Student Section of the Club.

But Mr. Montague has not been content to perform other people's tricks. He is a very able inventor, and many of his tricks are being performed by professional magicians with very great success. This book contains some of his best work. All the tricks described (with few exceptions which were presented to him by their inventors) were invented by Mr. Montague, and one glance at the book will be sufficient to show the reader that the author is a man of great originality. I would earnestly advise every reader, however, not to be content with glancing at this book, because it deserves better treatment than that. Much hard

6

WESTMINSTER WIZARDRY

thinking went to the making of this little volume, which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest magical books of its kind published in this country for many years. The book is without any padding and it is so written that the author's meaning can be easily understood.

All the tricks explained in the book are thoroughly practical; that I should know if I had not seen the written explanations of the secrets, because all the tricks described in this book have been performed by the author at the Magicians' Club. That being the case, I strongly recommend the reader to study the book thoroughly and thus add some of the tricks to his repertoire ; he will be amply repaid for the trouble he has taken. The reader will find that the majority of the tricks are suitable for the platform, stage and drawing-room.

The enthusiastic student of magic will also derive much pleasure from close examination of the very original methods devised by the author and, I do not doubt, some readers will discover that these methods can be advantageously used in tricks which are not described in this book. Possibly some readers will find that tricks which have always been a little beyond them can be simplified by applying methods which are fully explained in this volume.

It has often been said that if the man who purchases a book on magic gets one good practical idea from it— either a good trick complete in itself or an idea for a good one—then the purchaser has received excellent value for his money. If we judge this book in that way we shall have to admit that the value given is super-excellent ! The magician who fails to make good with any of the tricks here explained has only himself to blame. Having said that I am sure that the reader will be eager to get to this feast of magic, so I will not detain him. He is in for a very enjoyable time.

WESTMINSTER WIZARDRY

INTRODUCTION. men_in business, the professions, or politics, need mental as well as physical recreation. Thejnind requires a complete change. Literature, philosophy, and subjects of a more or less abstract character are not in themselves sufficient to provide the necessary mental relaxation f o r e m a n to,whom intellectual life is the normal weft of existence. That is why the theory and practice of magic have so great a fascination for many barristers, members of well-known business firms, civil servants, etc., and, may I add, for some Members of Parliament.

BUSY

Those who come among the magical fraternity for the first time are struck by the fact I have just indicated.

Quite apart from professional entertainers there are hundreds of people who study magical problems for their own sake and who practice harmless deception for the fun of mystifying others. Many reach a highly finished degree of skill. Others are content with the real pleasure gained in watching or workingout clever illusions.

The fascination and the artistry of good magic places the science upon a very high level among those things in human life that are not productive, except magically, and minister primarily to pleasure. Magic is, in fact, something more than a means of entertainment. It has the power to satisfy an instinct of some apparent depth, that of, shall we call it, " wondermonger ing?" Discussions about what is called " the

8

WESTMINSTER WIZARDRY

occult," about fa often intense enougr possessing an element of mystery, detective fiction— all these and much more demonstrate the strength of that instinct. Magic " canalises" it in a clean, healthy way.

I have gathered together a few secrets of my own which in this book I venture to whisper to the magical world. It may be a somewhat loud whisper, since anyone having the price of the book in his pocket may listen in. But there is this reflection to be made. If any non-magical reader is interested enough in illusions, not merely to read about them for their passing intrigue, but also to retain exact knowledge of methods, he is by way of becoming a magician himself and would certainly do well to join such a body as " The Magicians' Club " of London or one of its pattern somewhere in the world. It is the performer who " exposes " in the actual work of leger-de-main that does harm to magic, for he deliberately breaks up a very subtle atmosphere.

It is my hope that magician readers will find here more hints than one of a suggestive and practical nature.

FREDERICK MONTAGUE.