This illusion is a very ingenious improvement on the “Talking Head.” On entering the small booth in which it is usually exhibited, we perceive an elegant little room decorated with flowers and lights and hung with tapestry. In front there are two railings and the floor is covered with a carpet. In the center is seen a small table on which rests a kind of three-legged stool supporting a cushion and the half body. The lady shows she has arrived by moving her arms and head and speaking and singing. The visitor can see the four legs of the table and can perfectly distinguish the space under the stool, the whole scene being brilliantly lighted, contrary to the usual custom in any such illusions. The secret of the illusion is as follows:
The stool is formed only of a hollowed out disk whose supports are connected by two mirrors that make with each other an angle of forty-five degrees. These mirrors rest on the top of the table which was decorated in regular designs in mosaic and reflect the latter in such a way that they seem to continue uninterruptedly under the stool. The table presents an analogous arrangement, its side legs being connected with the middle one by two mirrors. These mirrors reflect not only the designs of the carpet which by their continuity produce the illusion of a vacancy, but also two table legs located on each side behind the railing, as shown in our small [engraving]: the mirror to the left transmits to the spectators on that side the image of the leg placed on the left and this image seems to them to be the fourth leg of the table. The mirror to the right plays the same rôle with regard to the spectators on that side. These mirrors in addition hide the lower part of the girl’s body.
EXPLANATORY OF THE HALF-WOMAN.
“SHE.”
During the season of 1891-92, among various interesting things to be seen at the Eden Musée, perhaps the most interesting, and at the same time the most scientific, was the weird spectacle entitled “She,” exhibited by Powell, the well-known illusionist, and suggested by the Cave scene in H. Rider Haggard’s celebrated novel “She.”