Kellar's New Karmos

Effect--On the stage is seen a platform with four feet. On this stands an ordinary looking chair. The lady sits down on the chair facing the audience, and is securely blindfolded by the performer, who then makes some magnetic passes over her.

He then passes an unprepared pack of cards out for examination and has them shuffled. Going back to the stage, he stands behind a small table, and, holding the cards so that their face is turned toward the audience, he draws off one card after the other and throws it on the table, the lady naming each card as soon as it becomes visible.

For the next test he borrows a banknote and with it walks to a blackboard on the stage; the lady dictates to him the value and the number of the banknote, he writing it down on the blackboard. He also borrows a check and the lady states at what bank it is payable, who made out the check, who is its owner, what the amount is, etc.

A spectator next chooses a word out of an unabridged dictionary and asks the lady what the word is anti she instantly tells him and describes the word.

Another spectator writes a couple of numbers on the blackboard, brought down in the audience by the performer; the lady instantly squares and even cubes the number.

For the final test some one writes four rows of figures on the blackboard, each row containing four figures. The lady audibly adds the numbers and dictates the result to the performer, who then carries the blackboard away to the front of the stage and she now adds the rows in any manner desired, that is, from right to left, up and down, etc. She also mentions any number struck out or touched by the performer.

The secret of this seemingly remarkable performance is a very simple one. Everything that the performer does is seen by an assistant behind the scenes, who tells the lady what to say by means of an invisible speaking tube, which consists of a rubber hose, passing from behind the wings, underneath the floor up to the platform, the rear leg of which is hollow. There is a small opening here on which the rear leg of the chair, which is also hollow, rests.

The chair used is a cane seat one, of the kind known as "Vienna Bent Wood" Chairs. The rear leg of chair is hollow, also part of the seat of chair, also spindle in back of chair where connection is made. The lady who enters from the rear does not show the back of her dress, on which is fastened another tube, leading up to her ear and hidden by her hair, which hangs down loosely.

Under cover of making passes over her the performer connects the tube on her back with the crosspiece in back of chair, thus completing the connection. Anything spoken by the assistant into his end of the tube, which has a mouthpiece there, is heard distinctly by the lady. The rest is easy. The assistant sees the faces of the playing cards and tells them to the lady who calls them off. The performer holds the banknote in such a manner against the blackboard, which is turned slightly sideways, that the assistant can read its number and value by means of a spy glass, Same with the check.

In the dictionary test, the performer requests the gentleman to ask the lady what the 10th word on the 35th page is. The assistant who has a duplicate dictionary, hears this, looks the word up and tells it to the lady. The squaring and cubing of two figures is done by means of assistant referring to a table of numbers, already squared and cubed before the trick, the table including all numbers from 1 to 100.

The adding of four rows of figures will be easily understood now. Meanwhile the assistant copies the four rows and the performer now moves the blackboard to the front of the stage, thus bringing it out of the assistant's range of vision; but as the assistant has copied the figures, he can tell the lady what the result of adding the first row comes to and any other question pertaining to the figures.

The trick of the lady telling any figure touched by the performer is one of prearrangement, the lady and performer having learnt by heart a number of figures, which are touched and called off by the lady in their regular order. The performer then makes some more passes over the lady, under cover of which he disconnects the speaking tube and then removes the blindfold from her eyes. She bows and leaves the stage but does not show her back.