The Old and the New Magic

by Henry Ridgely Evans

PINETTI AND THE DOVE. (From an Old Print.)

Pinetti’s magical bouquet was a very pretty trick. In a vase were placed the dry, leafless stems of a bunch of flowers, tied together. At the magician’s command, leaves, flowers and fruit appeared, transforming the bouquet into a thing of beauty; but all its splendor disappeared again at the command of the performer. His feat of the “recovered ring” was as follows: A ring was borrowed from a lady and fired from a pistol into a casket, which had been previously shown empty and devoid of preparation. When the casket was opened, after the shot was fired, a dove was seen within, holding in its bill the ring. But, in addition, the pretty bird knew precisely the possessor of the ring, for it shook its head in rotation at each lady to whom the trinket did not belong. When the owner appeared, the dove {29} voluntarily presented the ring to her in its beak. In Naples, where Pinetti’s theatre was situated directly on the sea shore, he varied the trick by firing the pistol loaded with the ring out of the window. On opening the casket a large fish was seen, bearing the ring in its mouth.

Another clever experiment was the mechanical bird, which, when set upon a flask, fluttered its wings and whistled any favorite melody called for by the audience, also blowing out a lighted candle and immediately relighting it. It would accomplish these feats just as well when removed from the flask to a table, or when held in the performer’s hand upon any part of the stage. The sounds were produced by a “confederate who imitated song birds after Rossignol’s method, by aid of the inner skin of an onion in the mouth, and speaking trumpets directed the sounds to whatever position was occupied by the bird.” Though the two last described feats were the most celebrated of Pinetti’s masterpieces, the most remarkable, without doubt, was the one he called “The stolen shirt.” In spite of its somewhat unseemly appearance, it was shown before the king and his family, and consisted of this: A gentleman from the audience, not in league with the performer, came upon the stage and, at Pinetti’s request, unfastened the buttons of his shirt at the neck and cuffs, and Pinetti, with only a few movements of his hand drew the shirt from his body, though the gentleman had not removed a single article of his clothing.

PINETTI’S CARD TRICK.

Pinetti eventually revealed the process by which this surprising result was obtained. He was moved to do so, because all those who saw the trick performed in the Theatre des Menus-Plaisirs held the conviction that the other party to it was in collusion with him. The public was not to be blamed for this erroneous conclusion, for not only at that time, but much later, many of the astonishing feats of the magician were effected through the complicity of assistants seated among the audience. Such confederates were called by the French, Compères and Commères, which translated into the vulgar vernacular, stand for “pals,” “cronies.” These gentlemen brought articles, of which the magician possessed duplicates, and loaned them—apparently as unrelated spectators—when such articles were asked for in {30} the course of the experiments. Robert-Houdin ended this régime of confederacy. When he asked for the loan of an article, he genuinely borrowed it, and exchanged it for a substitute by sleight of hand. This is the modern method. The following is Pinetti’s explanation of the shirt trick: “The means of performing this trick are the following—only observing that the clothes of the person whose shirt is to be pulled off be wide and easy: Begin by making him pull off his stock and unbuttonning his {31} shirt at the neck and sleeves, afterwards tie a little string in the buttonhole of the left sleeve; then, passing your hand behind his back, pull the shirt out of his breeches and slip it over his head; then, pulling it out before in the same manner, you will leave it on his stomach; after that, go to the right hand and pull the sleeve down, so as to have it all out of the arm; the shirt being then all of a heap, as well in the right sleeve as before the stomach, you are to make use of this little string fastened to the buttonhole of the left sleeve to get back the sleeve that must have slipt up, and to pull the whole shirt out that way. To hide your way of operating from the person whom you unshift, and from the assembly, you may cover his head with a lady’s cloak, holding a corner of it in your teeth. In order to be more at your ease, you may mount on a chair and do the whole operation under the cloak.”

III.

Pinetti’s explanation of the shirt trick was contained in a work entitled Amusements Physiques, Paris, 1784. An edition in English of this book was published in London in the same year. It was called: “Amusements in physics, and various entertaining experiments, invented and executed at Paris and the various courts of Europe by the Chevalier M. Jean-Joseph Pinetti Willedale de Merci, Knight of the German Order of Merit of St. Philip, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, pensioned by the Court of Prussia, patronized by all the Royal Family of France, aggregate of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belle-Lettres of Bordeaux, etc.” As an exposé of conjuring feats in general this work was an imposition on the public. It was intended to mislead the reader. In spite of the high-sounding title of the work, it contained nothing outside of the solution of the “stolen shirt” mystery. There was no explanation of any trick upon which Pinetti set value, but merely experiments already published in preceding books on the juggler’s art, and which belonged to a long-past time, consisting mostly of chemical experiments and childish diversions. {32}

This unworthy publication, and Pinetti’s custom of speaking of himself as endowed with preternatural powers, aroused an adversary in the person of M. Henri Decremps, of the Museum of Paris, an accomplished and enthusiastic lover of the art of magic. From him appeared a book entitled, La Magie blanche dévoilée, Paris, 1784, addressed, as he declares in the preface, not to the great public, since “the world loves to be deceived, and would rather believe the fairy tales of the imposter than the unvarnished truth of his opponent,” but to the real lovers of an entertaining art. As this work set forth the real explanation of Pinetti’s wonders, one may imagine what reception it met with from him and his admiring public. Characteristic of Pinetti is the manner in which he sought revenge on Decremps. In one of his performances he deplored the fact that an ignorant imposter, solely with the intent of injuring him (Pinetti), sought to reveal mysteries which his intelligence was insufficient to grasp. All knew to whom he referred, who had the slightest knowledge of Decremps. And what now ensued? Hardly had Pinetti finished speaking, when a shabbily-dressed and unprepossessing individual arose, assailed Pinetti with abuse and bade him take care, he would be fully exposed. The audience, indignant at the disturbance of an amusing performance, jeered the man from whom it proceeded, and made preparation to expel the poor devil. Here intervened, however, the “good” Pinetti. In conciliatory, kindly fashion, he accompanied his assailant to the door, ostentatiously presenting him also with several louis d’or as indemnification for the harshness shown him.