THE MAGIC PALANQUIN.
This trick, which preceded by many years Buatier de Kolta’s experiment, in which also a woman was made to disappear, but by an entirely different process, as will be explained [later on] in this chapter, was performed as follows: The four uprights arranged at the four corners of the apparatus were hollow, and each contained at the top a pulley over which a cord passed. These cords were attached by one end to the double bottom of the palanquin, and by the other end to a counterpoise concealed in the canopy.
At the precise moment at which the curtains were drawn, the carriers disengaged the counterpoises, which, sliding within the uprights, rapidly raised the double bottom, with the actress, up to the interior of the canopy. The person thus made to disappear was quite slender and took such a position as to occupy as little space as possible. By making the shadows of the mouldings of the canopy and columns more pronounced through painting, and by exaggerating them, the affair was given an appearance of lightness that perplexed the most distrustful spectator.
“CASSADAGA PROPAGANDA.”
One of the most mysterious among Kellar’s repertory of successful illusions is the “Cassadaga Propaganda,” an explanation of which is herewith presented.
