The Old and the New Magic

by Henry Ridgely Evans

BY

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.

CHICAGO

SKETCH OF HENRY RIDGELY EVANS.

“Henry Ridgely Evans, journalist, author and librarian, was born in Baltimore, Md., November 7, 1861. He is the son of Henry Cotheal and Mary (Garrettson) Evans. Through his mother he is descended from the old colonial families of Ridgely, Dorsey, Worthington and Greenberry, which played such a prominent part in the annals of early Maryland. Mr. Evans was educated at the preparatory department of Georgetown (D. C.) College and at Columbian College, Washington, D. C. He studied law at the University of Maryland, and began its practice in Baltimore City; but abandoned the legal profession for the more congenial avocation of journalism. He served for a number of years as special reporter and dramatic critic on the ‘Baltimore News,’ and subsequently became connected with the U. S. Bureau of Education, as one of the assistant librarians. In 1891 he was married to Florence, daughter of Alexander Kirkpatrick, of Philadelphia.”—National Cyclopedia of American Biography.

Mr. Evans is an ardent student of folk-lore, masonic antiquities, psychical research, and occultism. Many of his writings have been contributed to the Monist and Open Court. He is the author of a work on psychical research, entitled “Hours with the Ghosts,” published in 1897, and many brochures on magic and mysticism, etc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

	PAGE
Introduction by Dr. Paul Carus	[ix]
History of Natural Magic and Prestidigitation	[1]
The Chevalier Pinetti	[23]
Cagliostro: A Study in Charlatanism	[42]
Ghost-making Extraordinary	[87]
The Romance of Automata	[107]
Robert-Houdin: Conjurer, Author and Ambassador	[123]
Some Old-time Conjurers	[160]
The Secrets of Second Sight	[188]
The Confessions of an Amateur Conjurer	[201]
A Day with Alexander the Great	[215]
A Twentieth Century Thaumaturgist	[237]
A Gentleman of Thibet	[254]
Magicians I Have Met	[271]
The Riddle of the Sphinx	[318]
Treweyism	[331]

THE OLD AND THE NEW MAGIC