Published 1800-1899 in Magic & Conjuring: page 1

The type of 'mind-reading' George Beard means here is what we today call muscle-reading, which is a term that Beard himself coined. Beard describes several experiments he conducted and describes very clearly the physiology of muscle-reading, and that it is an involuntary muscle contraction that has nothing to do with animal magnetism or thought transference.

1st edition 1877; PDF 10 pages.

As Alfredson and Daily write in their Conjuring Periodical Bibliography, Mahatma is the 'first English language magical serial of any substance'. It is a fantastic resource for historians, researchers and other treasure hunters. A few of the prominent names you will find in Mahatma are Conradi, De Kolta, Downs, Elliott, Evans, Hilliar, Hoffmann, Houdini, Kellar, Leipzig, Plate, Selbit, Trewey and many more.

Some interesting facts about this periodical are:

• Mahatma was printed in the rear of the storied Martinka's magic shop in New York City, then the central hub of all things magical.
• Among the delightful period advertisements in Mahatma are some...

On the covers you will find:

• Robert Houdin - father of modern magic
• Herrmann - prince of conjurers
• Jewett - the greatest coming 20th century magician
• Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Robinson
• W. D. Leroy
• Davenport Brothers
• Frederick Eugene Powell
• David Devant and his spirit wife
• Frencesca Redding and Hugh Stanton
• A. J. Martyne
• Bernice Nata
• Imro Fox
• Harry Kellar
• Clivette
• Prof. Ziska
• Prof. Elliott

Mahatma, Volume 1, George H. Little, editor

[Note: Page numbers refer to those in the PDF files when the collection was assembled. Originally each issue began with page 1. However, the original page numbers were retained for issues of The Vaudeville and Artist Era.]

184 pages

1. Mahatma - Volume I, Number I - March 1895 - 8 pages
1. Robert Houdin: Father of Modern Magic - biography
2. To Our Readers...

On the covers you will find:

• Sargent
• Soto Sunetario
• Stevenson
• Robert Ankele
• Leon Herrmann
• J. Burlingame of Chicago
• Adrian Plate
• Albert E. Smith - the popular Lyceum prestidigitateur
• Prof. Samri S. Baldwin
• Francis J. Werner
• T. Nelson Downs
• Marshall the Mystic 136 pages
  125. Mahatma - Volume II, Number I - July 1898 - 8 pages
  125. Sargent - biography
  126. Manchester Notes - news
  126. Boston News
  126. Is Magic Dead - Sargent, The Merry Wizard
  127. Spiritualism - F.D. Hewes
  127. News of the Day
  128. My First Performance as a Star - tory by J.W.
  128. Postal Card Trick
  129. Wine and Water Trick
  129. New Vanishing Performer...

On the covers are:

• F. Robert Lanskail
• John Hamley
• John Henricks
• Hal Merton
• C. Milton Chase
• John Whalen
• Zanzic
• Walter G. Peterkin
• Ellis Stanyon
• The White Yogi
• J. Witt Dougherty

Note: Page numbers refer to those in the PDF files when the collection was assembled. Originally each issue began with page 1.

253. Mahatma - Volume III, Number I - July 1899 - 12 pages
253. F. Robert Lanskail - photo & cover story
254. New Card Tricks - Elliott
     • New Card Reading
     • Mystic Flight of Card
254. The Modern William Tell - Chas. L. Burlingame - continued
256. Juggling Tricks - Wm. E. Robinson ...

A collection of graceful arts, merry games, and odd tricks, intended to amuse everybody and enable all to amuse everybody else. Full of suggestions for private theatricals, tableaux, charades, and all sorts of parlor and family amusements. With nearly 150 illustrative pictures.

In the days without the Internet, TV, or even radio, people entertained themselves. This book covers all kinds of things one can do from arts and crafts, little plays, simple conjuring tricks, and other activities.

1st edition 1866, 302 pages; PDF 157 pages.

This is an all time classic with 57 beautiful illustrations. It is one of the most complete books written on magic, because it teaches both stage and close-up magic (cards, coins, silks, cups and balls, etc.), technique, presentation, and all the peripheral skills necessary for great conjuring.

"I beg to say that it is far and away the very best work of its kind ever published" - Harry Kellar

"My den contains a large collection of books on magic, but none has a cover so worn as 'Sleight of Hand' by Edwin Sachs." - David Devant

Reminiscences of the life of humorist Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne) and pictures of a showman's career in the Western world.

A wonderful account of show business by the example of the humorist Artemus Ward during the 19th century. In particular, it describes how performers had to travel through the US during the 1860s, how they had to advertise and promote their shows, including the characters they encountered and the situations they had to master.

For conjurers most interesting is chapter 25: Spiritualism And Conjuring. This tells of how Hingston and Browne helped a conjurer by...

Barton-Wright, one of the first Europeans to study Japanese martial arts, explains eleven pseudo-strength tricks in words and photos. Forty years before this publication Lulu Hurst created a sensation demonstrating similar stunts as manifestations of 'unexplainable forces'.

The tricks explained in this article are:

1. How to Master a Man with Two Fingers
2. How to Hold a Chair in the Palms of your Hands, and to Defy Anyone to Pull it through your Hands
3. How to Lift from the Ground a Chair in which a Person is Seated
4. How to Lift a Chair with Four Men Packed upon it
5. How to Defy Anyone Standing in Front...

Includes chapters on conjuring, fortune-telling and card-sharping.

• Preface
• Part The First. The History Of Cards
  • I. Introduction
  • II. Oriental Origin Of Cards
  • III. Introduction Of Cards Into Southern Europe
  • IV. Date Of Introduction Of Cards
  • V. Introduction Of Cards Into France
  • VI. The Cards Of Charles VI
  • VII. Invention Of The French Cards And Game Of Piquet
  • VIII. Cards In England
  • IX. History Of Tarots, As Told By Themselves
  • X. Modern History Of French And English Cards
  • XI. The Application Of Cards To Science
  • XII. Card Miscellanies
• Part The Second. Card Playing And Card Players...

A humoristic manual about swindling, how to become a successful swindler, as well as why it is such a good thing - featuring the late captain Barabbas Whitefeather.

• Preface Of The Editor
• Chapter I. The Reader Is Introduced To Captain Whitefeather's Relations.
• Chapter II. Captain Whitefeather Takes An Enlarged View Of Swindling - Social Evils And Their Remedy.
• Chapter III. Of The Face Necessary To A Swindler - (An Incidental Speculation On The "Division Of Property") - And Of The Use And Abuse Of Mustachios.
• Chapter IV. Of The Parentage And Name Of A Swindler - Of His Equipage - Of His...

This is a wonderful account of a traveling showman's trials and tribulations in England and Scotland during the middle of the 19th century. Among other things, he was a conjurer. While this is not a book of tricks, one coin trick is explained as part of one story of his life. But much more interesting are the descriptions of various scams and the modus operandi of various ways to defraud the public by traveling hucksters the author encountered. The operation of the thimble rig is explained in detail. It is an account of how traveling showmen struggled essentially their entire life to make...

For anybody interested in Erdnase, this poker story compilation should be of interest because many poker stories are from Chicago. It was published in 1887 which means it likely overlaps somewhat with the active time of Erdnase. We are not saying you will find a story featuring Erdnase. But such poker stories, even if they are often exaggerated or purely fictional, do provide one with some sense of the times of Erdnase.

In particular, it is educational to compare the stories with the ones from Eugene Edwards' Jack Pots. There isn't any significant overlap, however one aspect is noticeably different. Eugene...

A history of magic interwoven with Charles Bertram's recollections.

From the introduction:

This is quite an interesting relatively early book on card moves, tricks and cons. It was published in 1877. Some believe that the author C. H. Wilson could be the elusive Erdnase, the author of The Expert at the Card Table, because the S.W.E. Shift is explained in The 52 Wonders.

Chapters are:

• Chapter I: The Double and Single Passes
  • The Long Pass
  • The Short Pass
  • The Magic Pass
  • The Rolling Pass
  • The Grand Pass
  • The Invisible Pass
  • The Vizard Pass and Change
  • The Circle Pass
  • The Dovetail Pass
  • The Single Short Pass
• Chapter II: Miscellaneous Passes
  • The Elbow Pass
  • The Side Pass
  • The Monte Pass
  • The Table Pass ...

Roterberg was a dealer, but he also wrote excellent magic books - four altogether. The Card Tricks and how to do them is an excerpt from New Era Card Tricks. So actually he wrote only three books. The Modern Wizard was his first one. It explains tricks with silks, eggs, glasses, billiard balls, coins, candles, pill boxes and more. Roterberg has a very efficient style of describing a trick. He supplies no patter or other fluff, but still manages to explain a trick thoroughly. He packs 68 tricks or methods into merely 120 pages. He closes his book with the chapter "The Art of Magic" where Roterberg gives a crash course in how to be a good magician....

This book is the continuation of The Modern Wizard; same format almost same number of pages and same style. For example the 'handkerchief productions' are continued with methods twelve, thirteen fourteen, fifteen and sixteen. You will find many interesting plots with eggs, glasses, coins, silks, tubes, plates, flowers, nest of boxes, ...

1st edition, 1896; 112 pages.

5. Robinson's Flying Handkerchiefs
9. The Improved Soup Plate and Handkerchief Trick
10. First Method
10. Second Method
11. Third Method
12. Fourth Method
13. The Four Soup Plates and Handkerchiefs
15. The Handkerchief Coloring Trick
16. Handkerchief Productions,...

New Era Card Tricks is the masterpiece of Roterberg's publishing efforts. Scholars are pretty sure that the elusive Erdnase must have known and read this book. It is still today an extremely good and important work on cards. It is a book any serious card man should read. This is to a large part the foundation on which a lot of the later card work has been built. A good part of this book is essentially a translation of the German work Der Moderne Kartenkünstler by Friedrich W. Conradi. Richard Hatch wrote a wonderful introduction that by itself is worth reading. He starts:

This is the first catalog Roterberg issued, titled: "Descriptive Catalogue of the Latest European Novelties in Magic, Second Sight, Anti-Spiritualism".

Noteworthy here is that Roterberg states that he corresponds not only in English but also German, French and Volapük - a universal language created by the German catholic priest Johann Martin Schleyer in 1880.

1st edition ca. 1894, 20 pages.

The title page reads: "Superior, New and Standard Conjuring Tricks, Spiritualistic Manifestations and Books on Conjuring."

Particularly noteworthy are the pages in the back where he reprints quotes and praises from customers who have read his books including John Northern Hilliard and Harry Kellar.

1st edition ca. 1898, 76 pages.

At one point it was believed that only one copy of this book existed. This and other myths are addressed in the introduction by Frank Lehmann, who has studied this book in detail.

The book exposes various ways in which the game of Faro was crooked. It was a very popular betting game in the United States and usually was rigged in one way or another. It was published by Richard K. Fox, the proprietor of the Police Gazette.

• Introduction
• Part I
  1. The Game Of Faro
  2. The Cards In Faro
  3. Dealing The Cards
  4. Keeping The Game
  5. Technical Terms Used In Faro
  6. Laws Of The Game
  7. The Chances Of The...

Life and adventure on the prairies, mountains, and Pacific coast.

Beyond the Mississippi is a travel log of Albert Richardson from a few years before and after the American Civil War. As the title suggests, he traveled west of the Mississippi through states and territories such as Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Iowa, Oregon, California, Nevada, etc. He describes nature, people, politics, and commerce. It includes exciting adventures as well as fairly dry facts such as how many bushels of grain a particular area produces. Overall it is quite readable and the...

Containing over fifty of the latest and best tricks used by magicians. Also containing the secret of Second Sight.

Excerpt from the introduction:

Containing over one hundred highly amusing and instructive tricks with chemicals.

• Chemical Affinity
• Sympathetic Inks
• Alum Baskets
• Easy Crystallizations
• To Make a piece of Charcoal appear as though it were Coated with Gold
• To Give a Piece of Charcoal a Rich Coat of Silver
• Combustion
• Chemistry of The Air
• Amateur Air Pump
• Asphyxia
• Balloon in Vacuum
• Boiling Cold Water
• A Sucking Tube
• Cupping
• The Barometer
• A Novel Barometer
• Compressed Air
• Noiseless Bell
• The Bursting Bladder
• Weight of the Air
• Spoons which will Melt in Hot Water
• Effect of Compression
• To Cover Iron with Copper ...