WOES OF A WIZARD
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WOES OF A WIZARD BY
DAVID DEVANT (Managing Partner of Maskelyne & Cookes Provincial Company)
LONDON S. H. BOUSFIELD & CO., Ltd. NORFOLK HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, W.C.
TO MY FRIEND
JOHN NEVIL MASKELYNE THE MASTER OF MY CRAFT
PREFACE OMETIMES, when the work has been finished and we have been sitting round the fire, some of my friends have been kind enough to be interested at hearing me relate my experiences. It has been suggested to me that these true tales which amused my friends might also interest the public. I can only hope that the man who put that idea into my head knows the public. If my little book helps anyone to pass an hour away pleasantly, I shall be well satisfied. D. D. Hillside, Belsize Road, Hampstead. July 1903 .
CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE GREAT COURT CONJURER
PAGE 9
CHAPTER II THE HOT PUDDING
19 CHAPTER III
OTHER PEOPLE’S WOES
27 CHAPTER IV
PISTOL STORIES
39 CHAPTER V
DEADHEADS
49 CHAPTER VI
THE LADY WHO WOULD NOT VANISH
67
CHAPTER VII THE MAN WHO MAKES MONEY
78 7
8
Contents CHAPTER VIII
SOME QUEER REQUESTS
PAGE
CHAPTER IX CONFEDERATES AND MESMERISTS
97
CHAPTER X A REAL ROMANCE
113 CHAPTER XI 126
A FEW PUPILS CHAPTER XII MINOR WOES
135 CHAPTER XIII
MY NOTE BOOK
151 CHAPTER XIV
SELLS
162 CHAPTER XV
SOME COMPENSATIONS
173
WOES OF A WIZARD CHAPTER I THE GREAT COURT CONJURER
HE only lessons in conjuring that I ever received were obtained in rather a curious way. I came across a man who was giving conjuring and second-sight performances in a small shop in Islington. The price of admission was a penny, and even then business was not always good. In order to stimulate the curiosity of those who hung about outside the shop door, the conjurer would occasionally emerge from the shop and give a free show on the pave ment. His usual plan was to produce money from the whiskers of benevolent old gentle men, from babies’ feeding bottles; in fact, from any place where money is not usually to be found. The conjurer once made the fatal 9