CONJURING

advancement in conjuring is mainly to be measured in the improved manner of achieving the limited number of effects possible to the art. these are, chiefly, apparent creation; destruction and restoration; disappearance (‘‘ evanish- ment ’’); surprising transformations; substitutions; transporta- tion (‘‘ apporting ”’) and similar acts seemingly done in defiance of natural laws. the decapitation act (involving the apparent severance of the left arm, left leg or head of a man), introduced by dr. lynn in 1874 under the title of “ palingenesia,” was revived, and a vari- ation presented in the form of “ sawing a woman in half.”? the effects depend on optical illusions and mechanical principles cleverly utilised. among acts done in apparent defiance of the law of gravitation is that known as “ asrah,’”’ which involves the disappearance of a floating form and its reappearance. houdinw’s performances.—the most radical development in conjuring in the present century is the series of sensational es- capes which have been devised or developed by houdini. his success depends partly on his great physical strength and the fact that he is slightly bow-legged. in an outdoor exhibition he allowed himself to be suspended, head down, some 75 ft. above the ground, in which position he freed himself from a straight jacket previously fastened upon him. the release is accom- conjuring—connaught plished by first gaining slack of about two inches at the shoulder. another remarkable act is that from the so-called ‘‘ chinese water torture cell.’’ the “cell” is a metal-lined mahogany tank having a front of plate glass. this tank is filled with water, into which houdini is lowered head first, his feet being fastened in stocks, that is, a mahogany cover in two sections, brass-bound. when he is submerged, the cover is padlocked on the tank, which is enclosed in a curtained cabinet. by his unaided effort he effects an escape within the space of two minutes. in his “ overboard act ” he is shackled with irons and placed in a box, which is locked, roped and weighted. the box is then submerged from a boat, to which he returns after frecing him- self under water. the ‘ milk-can escape ” involves the use of a trick can. the top is locked to an outer section, which envelops the inner can containing the liquid. a simple lifting movement puts the operator safe from harm and makes escape easy. other sensational effects produced include the ‘‘ evanishment ” of an elephant from a cabinet situated in the centre of a fully-lighted stage and the so-called “‘ hindu needle trick,” in which upwards of 100 needles and several yards of thread are apparently swal- lowed, and afterwards withdrawn from the mouth with the needles threaded at intervals. mind reading—logically classifiable under conjuring are those effects produced through natural means by many so-called spirit mediums and mind readers. the mortality of the world war quickened interest in psychic phenomena and thereby opened a frequently lucrative field for clever charlatans. a noted performer claimed a vision able to penetrate metal, reading the time through a closed watch case and deciphering messages placed in a closed metal box. it was subsequently shown that his power depended on normal vision, view of the objects being obtained by such adroit handling of the object that he was able to obtain a glimpse of the contents. a medium, “‘ eva ” of paris, attracted much attention by her ability, in suitable surround- ings, to emit and reabsorb “‘ ectoplasm,” the movement of which, on investigation, was shown to be obstructed when a veil was placed over her mouth. another notable instance was that of ‘“‘ margery ” (mrs. crandon of boston), whose acts of levitation, bell ringing and other phenomena, ostensibly through a spirit, “ walter,” were investigated in 1924 by a committee on which were psycholo- gists from harvard and other universities and shown to be re- producible by natural means. among other effects commonly produced by mediums are slate writing, spirit photography and the revelation of information of which the medium is presumably unaware. the devices for securing these effects by natural means are very numerous, many of them requiring great adroit- ness of mind as well as much mechanical ingenuity. brstrograeny.—a. plate and h. hatton, afagrctan tricks (190); w. goldston, exclusive secrets; n. maskelyne and d. devant, our magic (1911); l. hoffmann, latest magic (1918); h. houdini, a magician among the spirits (1924). (h. ho.) connaught, arthur william patrick albert, dvuke of (1850- }, the third son of queen victoria (see 6.950), went, in 1910, to south africa to open the union parliament on behalf of king george v. he was appointed in ro11r to succeed earl grey as governor general of canada, retiring from this office in 1916. in dec. 1920 he went to india as the repre- sentative of king george in order to inaugurate the provincial legislative councils of madras, bengal and bombay. it was agreed, on his return to england, that valuable help had been given by his speeches to the work of self-government in india under the new regime. the duchess of connaught died in london march 14 1917. the duke’s only son, prince arthur of connaught (b. 1883), married, in 1913, princess alexandra, duchess of fife, daughter of the princess royal, who had succeeded in 1912 to her father’s dukedom by special remainder. prince arthur was, in 1920, appointed governor general of the union of south africa. the duke of connaught’s elder daughter, margaret (1882), was married in 1995 to the crown prince of sweden, and died at stockholm may 1 1920. the younger daughter, patricia connecticut—conrad, joseph (b. 1886), married, in 1919, the hon. alexander robert maule ramsay, third son of the 13th earl of dalhousie. [trincess patricia of connaught resigned her royal title on her marriage, and clected to be known as lady patricia ramsay.