Memoirs of Robert-Houdin [pp. 401-410]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
A MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART.
RICHMOND, DECEMBER, 1859.
MEMOIRS OF ROBERT-HOUDIN.*
would be to attain the highest pitch of
all human felicity!"
In our boyhood (it is some years now,
as Mr. Dickens says) pantomimes were
unknown in the place which had the
honor of giving us birth and education.
We were strangers even to Mr. Punch,
till we had attained to the dignity of
long-tailed coats, round hats, and Wellington boots At the theatres, when the
first play was over, and when (we quote
Mr. Dickens again) "the lovers were
united, the ghost appeased, the baron
killed, and every thing made comfortable
and pleasant," instead of the pantomime,
there succeeded the English farce, and we
relaxed our intense excitement, in sympathy with the wit, and roguery, and comic
embarrassments, of Fag, and Scrub, and
Jeremy Diddler-Jerry Sneak and Paul
Pry. We do not complain of the exchange-w.e only lament that one source
of boyish pleasure-one class of those
early enchantments, which shed a twilight of romance over all the succeeding
years of life-was not opened to our
eyes.
But there was another, and a kindred
delight, which we enjoyed in no slight
degree, and in no stinted measure-the
marvels of the Conjurer. The juggling
with cups, balls, and boxes-the tricks
with cards, handkerchiefs, and watchesthe empty bag, which produced dozens of
werle our speculations confined to clowns
alone: they extended to Harlequins, Pantaloons, and Columbines-all of whom
we believed to be real and veritable personages, existing in the same forms and
characters all the year round. HIow
often have we wished that the Pantaloon
were our god-father! and how often
thought that to marry a Columbine
* MEMOIRS OF ROBERT-HOUDIN, Ambassador, Author, and Conjurer. Written by himself.
Edited by Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie. Philadelphia. Geo. G. Evans. 1859.
VOL. XXIX-26
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