(USA: 8th July 1852 - 24th September 1920)
John William Sargent, aka "The Merry Wizard". Pro. Joined the SAM in May 1902 as Member #9. SAM President 1905-06. Secretary to Houdini 1918-20. Mentor of John Mulholland. SAM Hall of Fame 1990.
This talk was given before The Society of American Magicians at the Regular Meeting, Saturday, January 7th, 1905. A few years earlier, Sargent wrote in Mahatma on the same subject.
It was Voltaire, the French freethinker, who said: “Speech was given to man to conceal his thoughts”; and it was the French school of conjurers that first reduced patter, or, as they named it, Boniment, to a fine art which not only concealed thoughts, but concealed actions as well.
1st edition 1906, PDF 6 pages.