Page:Magic (Ellis Stanyon).djvu/214

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212
Magic

the whole strain coming on the pole and the steel work of the harness.

The performer now lifts the lady into a horizontal position (Fig. 61), where she is maintained
Fig. 61.—Girl Suspended
by a check which drops into one of the teeth of the ratchet at A. While in this aerial sleep she is adorned in various costumes. Finally she is placed in the first position, and awakes from her supposed mesmeric slumber. Herrmann improved this apparatus by causing the lady to assume the horizontal position without his intervention. This was accomplished by machinery beneath the stage, a sort of windlass affair worked by a stage assistant. The well-known Fakir of Ooloo still further improved this trick by knocking both poles away. Says Arprey Vere on this subject: "What, then, will you ask, becomes of all the