SECOND SIGHT
Evidently second sight was the foundation-stone of Robert-Houdin's
success. Reading between the lines of his autobiography, one finds that
this was the trick which carried him into the salons of fashion and
royalty. Before he introduced second sight into his répertoire, his
tricks were so commonplace that they did not arouse the interest of the
court circle, whose approval furnished the seal of success.
This trick of second sight he claims body and soul, as the favorite
child of his brain. He even goes as far as to relate a story to prove
that the trick came to him in the form of an inspiration. I quote
directly from the American edition of his "Memoirs," page 255:
"My two children were playing one day in the drawing-room at a game they
had invented for their own amusement; the younger had bandaged his elder
brother's eyes and made him guess the objects that he touched, and when
the latter happened to guess right they changed places. This simple game
suggested to me the most complicated idea that ever crossed my mind.
Pursued by the notion, I ran and shut myself in my workshop, and was
fortunately in that happy state when the mind follows easily the
combinations traced by fancy. I rested my head in my hands, and in my
excitement laid down the first principles of second sight."
[Illustration: Robert-Houdin and his son Emile, presenting second sight.
Here the bell is used as it was by Henri Robin. From an illustration in
the original French edition of the Robert-Houdin "Memoirs."]
Then, picking up the long idle quill of Baron Munchausen, he proceeds to
explain the methods by which he perfected the trick and trained his son.
To the layman these methods read most entertainingly. To the experienced
conjurer or his humblest assistant they appeal as absurd and impossible,
a sheer waste of time, of which a man who reproduced the tricks of his
predecessors as rapidly as Robert-Houdin did, would not be guilty.
[Illustration: Robert and Haidee Heller from photographs taken at the
time that they were presenting second sight according to the
Robert-Houdin method by an electric code. From the Harry Houdini
Collection.]
He claims to have trained the eye and memory of his son, by leading the
latter past shop windows, and after allowing him one glance, demanding
the names of articles seen at this single glance. When the boy could
mention forty things after passing the window, his education was
pronounced good. Robert-Houdin also tells in his "Memoirs" of spending
hours with his son in poring over an enormous collection of coins,
medals, etc., which severe lesson helped them both in future
performances. To the conjurer, this tale is farcical. Not only was there
no need of forcing the boy to become a coin expert, but the task was one
which could not be accomplished in the brief time which Robert-Houdin
allowed himself for perfecting the trick.
The only knowledge required about coins is to recognize a coin when you
see it. Some one may hand a coin of peculiar stamp, and the operator
must signal to his medium the metal and all he knows about it. Of
course, if both know the various coins, then they can understand each
other with less signaling than if the coins were unfamiliar to either.
Inaudi, the French calculator, can look at a blackboard filled with
numbers for a few seconds, then turn his back upon them and add the
entire amount that he has just seen and memorized. But let the reader
understand that Inaudi is peculiarly gifted by nature, while second
sight is a trick in which the person on the stage known as the medium is
assisted by words, signs, prearranged movements, or articles or figures
in rotation, which to the layman have the appearance of being
unprepared. At a familiar cue, however, the operator touches articles
that have been memorized, a ring, a watch, a scarf-pin, a lady's fan, an
opera glass, all in rotation. At a snap of the fingers the medium will
know that the articles are to be named in consecutive order, and only
after the snap of the fingers or another cue agreed upon.
[Illustration: Programme used by Robert Heller in 1851-52, when he was
about eighteen years of age. Probably the only programme of this date in
existence. Now in the Harry Houdini Collection.]
Robert-Houdin presented the trick for the first time at his own
theatre, February 12th, 1846. Unquestionably at this time he employed
the speaking code, wherein the answer is contained in the question asked
of the medium by the performer. As he describes scene after scene in
which he and his son participated, it is almost possible for a conjurer
or any one interested in magic to follow his code. Apparently the
amusement-loving public became familiar with his speaking code, for
three years later, according to the illustrated appendix of the French
edition of his "Memoirs," he adopted a code of signals, which he states
was especially arranged to confuse those whom he terms his "fearless
discoverers."
A mysterious bell was used in this connection, but he admits that it
mattered not whether the bell struck or was silent, his son could name
the object under consideration or answer the question. While
Robert-Houdin asserts that he did not employ electricity for working his
silent code, investigations make it almost certain that this was the
method used. It is known throughout the world of conjuring that in
1850-51 Robert Heller (William Henry Palmer) reproduced Robert-Houdin's
entire répertoire of tricks, with the exception of the suspension, and
all worked precisely by Robert-Houdin's methods. In the second-sight
trick, which he first presented with a young man as the medium, then
later with Miss Haidee Heller, the medium was seated on a sofa fully
equipped with wires and electric batteries. Heller's second sight was
worked with both the speaking and silent codes. His confederate was
concealed behind the scenes watching Heller through a peep-hole, or
possibly he used another, seated in the audience, and had the wires
strung under his chair, arranging the signal button so that it could
be easily reached on the arm or front part of the seat. The receiving
instrument was attached to the sofa on which the medium was seated. The
latter would be silently informed as to what was being shown and would
answer all questions. As proof that these statements are not mere
hearsay, the Heller sofa can now be seen in the possession of Mr.
Francis J. Martinka, of New York; and Dr. W. Golden Mortimer, who once
presented "Mortimer's Mysteries," a show on the style of Heller's
performance, furnishes the information that when Heller died in
Philadelphia, November 28th, 1878, he engaged the dead magician's chief
assistant, an expert electrician named E. J. Dale, who had acted as
secret confederate, assisting the medium.
[Illustration: Poster used by Robert Heller during his Boston engagement
in 1853. From the Harry Houdini Collection.]
After travelling with Mortimer some time, Dale eventually returned to
England, and retired from the profession. He opened a large shop in
London under the firm name of H. & E. J. Dale, Manufacturing
Electricians, 4 Little Britain, E. C., in October, 1882.
It was the easiest thing imaginable for Robert-Houdin to have his
theatre arranged with secret confederates and wires back of the scenes,
where a man with powerful opera-glasses could stand. The place being
small, he could look all over the room and see the minutest article.
When not making use of the talking code, the simplest method employed by
second-sight artists is to have a confederate in the audience, with
either an electrical push button or a pneumatic bulb, who gives the
medium the signal. This is received by a miniature piston, which
requires only a small hole in the stage, while the medium has a matching
hole in the sole of his shoe. This allows the piston to touch the sole
of the foot whenever the confederate presses the bulb or pushes the
button.
[Illustration: The author at the long-neglected grave of Robert Heller,
in Mt. Moriah Cemetery, Philadelphia, U. S. A. From a photograph in the
Harry Houdini Collection.]
From this array of facts it will be seen that second sight is and always
has been a matter of well-drilled phrases or signals, prearranged
rotation of articles, well-built apparatus or well-trained confederates,
but never a feat of actual thought-transferrence.
Some of Robert-Houdin's ardent supporters insist that in claiming the
invention or discovery of second sight, the French conjurer was merely
an unconscious plagiarist, having stumbled upon, quite by accident, a
trick which he did not know that others had offered before him.
Such a statement is illogical and absurd. Books of magic to which
Robert-Houdin had access and which he admits having read describe the
trick in a more or less crude form. Pinetti, whose tricks were fully
described to Robert-Houdin by his old friend Torrini, used the
second-sight mystification with excellent effect. Robert-Houdin could
not have been ignorant of its existence as a trick. In making the claim
to its discovery in his "Memoirs" he simply trusted to the ignorance of
the reading public in the history of magic.
According to programmes and newspaper clippings in my collection, Philip
Breslaw was the first conjurer to feature second sight in his
performance. Breslaw was a clever German who so established himself in
the hearts of amusement-loving Englishmen that he remained in England
for forty years, dying in Liverpool in 1803. In 1781, while playing at
Greenwood's Rooms, Haymarket, London, he announced as Part One of his
entertainment:
"Mr. Breslaw will exhibit his new magical deceptions, Letters, Medals,
Dice, Pocket pieces, Rings, etc., etc., and particularly communicate the
thoughts of any person to another without the assistance of speech or
writing."
Pinetti comes next as an eminent presenter of second sight. Between
these two well-known conjurers there may have been various unimportant,
unchronicled performers who made use of Breslaw's trick, but they have
no place in the history of magic.
The trick appeared on a Pinetti programme at the Royal Haymarket,
London, England, December 1st, 1784, almost sixty-two years before
Robert-Houdin presented it as his original invention.
[Illustration: Clipping from the London _Post_, December 1st, 1784, in
which Pinetti featured second sight. From the Harry Houdini Collection.]
The London _Morning Post and Daily Advertiser_ of December 1st, 1784,
contains the above advertisement, reproduced from my collection.
The talking code employed by Pinetti was not original with him, as it
dates back to the automaton worked by a concealed confederate who
controlled the piston for the mechanical figure or pulled the strings to
manipulate the dancing coins or moving head. It was novel only in its
application to the supposed thought-transferrence by a human being
instead of an automaton.
This code is described by various reliable authors. On page 388, Volume
III. of Hooper's "Recreations," edition 1782, it is stated that the
confederate worked the apparatus from another room. "By certain words,
previously agreed on, make it known to the confederate," is the advice
given to would-be conjurers.
Beckman in his "History of Inventions" relates that he knew an exhibitor
of a "talking figure" whose concealed confederate was cued to answer
certain questions, the answers being given in the manner of putting the
question, also by different signs. These instructions will be found on
page 311 of Volume II., edition of 1817.
[Illustration: Reproduction of front and back of original handbill
distributed on London streets in 1831, to advertise Master M'Kean. From
the Harry Houdini Collection.]
Decremps undertook to expose Pinetti's method of working the
second-sight trick in his famous book, but in this attempt he scored one
of the few failures which marked the bitter fight he waged against
Pinetti. In his book "La Magie Blanche Dévoilée" (White Magic Exposed),
first edition, 1784, he offers on page 40 "Les Cartes dévinées, les yeux
bandés" (The Divination of Cards with the Eyes Blindfolded). In this
feat Decremps explains that Pinetti would allow cards to be drawn, then
a lady (Signora Pinetti) would appear on the stage, would be
blindfolded, and would name all the cards that were drawn. Decremps
explains the prearranged pack of cards for this trick, also outlining
the manner of giving the medium the cue for certain phrases. For
instance, while explaining to the audience that he will not speak at
all, in the very sentences addressed to the spectators he informs the
medium which cards have been selected.
Pinetti's code must have been clever, as Decremps was unable to explain
the entire second-sight act. He has omitted the principal part of the
mystification, that is, naming the articles held up for the performer to
see.
That the card trick was only one test of his second-sight performance,
and that Pinetti's medium did not retire after naming the cards, are
facts shown by the following clipping from one of his announcements:
"Signora Pinetti will have the special honor and satisfaction of
exhibiting various experiments of new discovery, no less curious than
seemingly incredible, particularly that of her being seated in one of
the front boxes with an handkerchief over her eyes, and guess at
everything imagined and proposed to her by any person in the company."
Third on the list of second-sight performers, according to the data in
my collection, was Louis Gordon M'Kean, who created a sensation at the
Egyptian Hall Bazaar, Piccadilly, London, in 1831, or fifteen years
before Robert-Houdin, according to his claims, "discovered" second
sight. Young M'Kean was featured as possessing double, not second,
sight, and one of his bills is reproduced on page 212.
Another programme in my collection, dated the Théâtre Scarboro, Friday
evening, August 4th, 1837, announces "For a limited engagement of three
nights the Three Talented Highlanders and most extraordinary
Second-Sighted Young Highlanders."
[Illustration: Decoration on the broadside used to advertise a young
Dutchwoman who created a sensation in the early part of the eighteenth
century. From the Harry Houdini Collection.]
These lads, I believe, were three brothers, one the original M'Kean, or
the latter working in conjunction with two other boys trained to the
tricks in order to secure more impressive results. The trio appeared
eight years before Robert-Houdin became a professional entertainer.
Holland also contributed a successful performer of second-sight tricks,
the medium in this case being a Dutchwoman who created a profound
sensation while touring Germany in the early part of the eighteenth
century. The billing used at the yearly fairs is an enormous poster
which would be unintelligible if reduced to a size suitable for
reproduction.
It is now a part of my collection and reads as follows:
[Illustration: Reproduction of original billing matter used by the
mysterious lady who offered second sight in the United States in
1841-42-43. From the Harry Houdini Collection.]
[Illustration: Reproduction of the cut used on the mysterious lady's
handbills, distributed in America in 1841. From the Harry Houdini
Collection.]
"The Holland Maid, Twenty Years of Age, from Amsterdam, whose powers,
both in her residence there and in all other places to which she has
gone, have excited great astonishment and much applause, and she will
also in this place endeavor to obtain the same tribute of public
applause. She will after the exhibition place herself before the eyes of
all the spectators on the outside and gravely stand thereon and at all
times give an answer of assurance to any one present to whom her
judgment in all questions gives the most accurate response. She
contrives also by her acuteness to discover and reply to the least
thought, not until then explored. She guesses the age of every one,
whether they be married or not; how many children they have, of what
sex, and whether they be living or dead at the present time, etc. She
does the like for any one having a chance in the lottery, as to what is
its number, and what will be its share of gains. She also guesses at
every one of the most different sorts of coin, and even at the year with
which they were stamped. She guesses at every number which any one shall
secretly set down, even though it amount to upward a million. She
moreover tells exactly whether any one be in the Army, under how many
Monarchs he has served, in how many battles he has been engaged, and
whether he has ever been wounded and how many wounds he has received. By
throwing the Dice, she will every time exactly tell the very number of
spots which may have been determined on."
This wordy announcement is signed by W. Sahm, of Holland.
In my collection there is also an interesting handbill advertising the
tour of "The Mysterious Lady" who offered second-sight tricks in the
eastern part of the United States in 1842-43. Her name was never stated
on the programmes, but the latter, together with a clipping dated
Boston, February 20th, 1843, will suffice to prove my claim that she was
offering second-sight before Robert-Houdin did, and therefore could not
be copying his trick. She also appeared in England fully a year before
Robert-Houdin "discovered" second sight.
Henri Robin and his wife featured second sight in Italy just when
Robert-Houdin first offered it in Paris. It is barely possible that they
antedated Robert-Houdin in the production of this trick, for I have in
my collection a brochure entitled "Album des Soirées de M. et Mme.
Robin," which contains an engraving of the couple offering second-sight,
a short poem in honor of Mme. Robin's remarkable gifts as a second-sight
artist, and a poem generally eulogistic of M. Robin's talents dated
distinctly February 7th, 1846. Robert-Houdin presented second-sight for
the first time, according to his own "Memoirs," on February 12th, 1846.
[Illustration: Second sight as offered by M. and Mme. Robin, in which
Robin employed the bell and the goblet. From the latter she sipped
liquor, claiming it tasted like the wine secretly named by a spectator.
Robin's stage was equipped with electrical appliances. From the Harry
Houdini Collection.]
To prove the utter folly of Robert-Houdin's claims to having trained
his son's eye and memory by patient effort so as to have a mutual
transferrence of thought, I will next show that animals had been trained
for years to do tricks by secret signals before the alleged "discovery"
of second sight.
Two rare old bills in my collection advertise the marvellous
"mind-reading" performances of a goose and a blindfolded dog
respectively. The first, dated 1789, announces that a Mr. Beckett, a
trunk-maker of No. 31 Haymarket, is exhibiting "a Learned Goose, just
lately arrived from abroad.
"It performs the following tricks: performing upon cards, money, and
watches, telling the time of the month, year, and date, also the value
of any piece either English or foreign, distinguishing all sorts of
colors and (most prodigiously and certainly unbelieving to those who
know the intellects of a goose) she tells the number of ladies and
gentlemen in the company or any person's thoughts; any lady or gentleman
drawing a card out of the pack, though ever so secret, the Goose,
blindfolded at the same time, will find out the card they drew.
Admittance two shillings each person."
The second bill features Don Carlo, the Double-Sighted dog, which gave
an exhibition of his mysterious skill at the Pavillion by special
command, before King William and the royal family on December 17th,
1831. This dog was blindfolded and could present almost in duplicate the
second-sight tests offered by the Highland lad who five days later gave
a similar exhibition before the royal family at the same place.
[Illustration: Rare poster announcing the performance of the learned
goose, one of the first of the second-sight animal artists. Traced from
the original poster in the British Museum by the author.]
[Illustration: Billing used for Don Carlos, the double-sighted dog. From
the Harry Houdini Collection.]
This proof regarding the use of animals as "mediums" is offered not to
belittle the human mediums, but to prove that from start to finish, from
the day that Breslaw offered the trick to the present moment, when a
number of skilful so-called mind-readers still mystify the public, some
sort of speaking or signal code has been used. Robert-Houdin used both
the speaking and the signal code, but so did Breslaw, and all evidence
points to the fact that Robert-Houdin merely improved upon the trick
employed by Breslaw, Pinetti, and others among his predecessors in
magic, by utilizing the newly found assistant to the magician,
electricity. In his tiny theatre it would have been entirely feasible to
have had electric wires run from all points of the auditorium to the
stage, thus doing away with both the speaking and ordinary signal codes,
even the pneumatic tube. For this improvement, and this alone, should
Robert-Houdin be given credit. Nearly all magicians improve or redress
tricks or apparatus handed down to them by their predecessors, but
Robert-Houdin was not willing to admit that he owed anything to his
predecessors.