Houdin never revealed the secret of this remarkable trick, but plainly indicated in his autobiography that it was the result of an ingenious combination of questions that gave the clue to the supposed clairvoyant on the stage. One of the first to come forward with an exposé was F. A. Gandon, who wrote a work entitled La Seconde vue dévoilée, Paris, 1849. Robert Heller saw Houdin give an exhibition of “second sight” in London. It was the idea of people at the time that the experiment was the result of animal magnetism, but the acute Heller thought otherwise, and he went to work to perfect a system that far exceeded any of his predecessors in the art, adding certain subtle improvements that made the trick all but supernatural.
Briefly stated, the effect is as follows: A lady is introduced to the audience as possessed of clairvoyant powers. She is blindfolded and seated on the stage. The magician, going down among the spectators, receives from them various articles which the supposed seeress accurately describes; for example, in the case of a coin, not only telling what the object is, but the country where it was coined, its denomination and date. In the case of a watch, she gives the metal, maker’s name, what kind and how many jewels in the works, and, lastly, the time to a dot. And the same with other objects, no matter what they may be. Nothing offered by a spectator seemed to baffle Houdin and Heller. Half-obliterated Roman, Grecian, and Oriental coins were described with wonderful ease and accuracy by the assistant on the stage; also secret society emblems and inscriptions thereon, numbers on bank-notes, surgical instruments, etc.
ROBERT HELLER.
At a performance in Boston, described by Henry Hermon in his work, “Hellerism,” a coin was handed to Heller. He glanced at it for a moment and asked his assistant to name the object.
“A coin,” she quickly replied.
“Here, see if you can tell the name of the country, and all about it,” he next inquired.
Without a second’s hesitation she answered, “It is a large copper coin—a coin of Africa, I think. Yes, it is of Tripoli. The inscriptions on it are in Arabic; one side reads, ‘Coined at Tripoli;’ the other side, ‘Sultan of two lands, Sultan of two seas, Sultan by inheritance, and the Son of a Sultan.’”
“Very well,” said Heller, “that is correct. But look, what is the date, now?”