The Yogi Wonder Card Trick

Happy Friday the 13th!

This was the smallest, most folded set of instructions I have come across. The scan makes it readable, but in reality the print is so small it is nearly microscopic!

I'm going to have to go through my sets of random cards and see if I can find that 6/7 of spades!

Stunts of the Coulon Order Excite Wonder and Speculation

This is a great addition to my growing Coulon collection. If you've never heard of Johnny Coulon, try reading my previous posts on the subject here and here!

Japanese Chameleon Handkerchief Puzzle Box

Patent Pending!

It was interesting to me that someone took the time to meticulously rip and flatten this box for preservation, but did not bother to save the handkerchief that it once housed. I have seen a red small cloth in one of the boxes, but it didn't really look "handkerchief" size.

As for the Japanese Puzzle Co, I am guessing their patent didn't go through. I could not find even a mention of them having ever existed in St. Louis.

Via Google Books, I was able to find a chapter from Hoffman's "More Magic" in which he describes several handkerchief tricks:

Cigars (Cigarette)

What a strange thing to save! I can only assume this is part of a trick in some way. I am filing it under mystery items, because I could not find exactly what kind of trick this facilitates. What I did notice is that the "burnt" end of the cigarette contains red metal foil and slightly appears lit from far away. I also noticed that it does not smell like a cigarette.

There are a ton of cigar and cigarette trick instructions online. The video below was one of my favorites:

Johnny Coulon: His Occult Trick Knocks 'Em Dead

The first sentence of the article really caught me: Gay Paree continues to be the main hangout of occult boxers. The concept of "occult boxers" makes me giggle when I compare it to my ideas about modern boxing.

Johnny Coulon weighed barely over 100 pounds and yet won all but 5 of his 200 (although some say 97....and still others say 300) matches. He was the bantamweight boxing champion of the world from 1910 until 1914. He wasn't actually summoning demons in the ring and willing them to do his bidding, but apparently he understood pressure points and how to use them to his advantage. After retiring from boxing, he even took his "trick" and toured with vaudeville as "The Man They Cannot Lift". It earned him enough money to buy a gym!

I was excited to find a ton of information about Johnny around the web. Here are some great sites & articles to start with:

• A Popular Science article from May of 1921
• Cyber Boxing Zone's entry on Johnny
• An old NY Times article (opens pdf)
• BoxRec.com's entry

The Siberian Transport Chain

I love this illustration, and I hope I can find the chain in one of the boxes. Unfortunately, the entire page seemed to have ripped off a long time ago. I have been lifting things out very carefully since the pages are so fragile. Whenever this ripped, it would seem the bottom half was discarded. I found an ad for this trick in an old scan of Popular Mechanics Magazine from May of 1930. I am not sure if that is from where this particular trick was purchased, but I think it is a good start to discover where all of this came from.

The Pull

This caught my attention as it was folded into a tiny sliver of paper and was stuck at the bottom of the box. I don't see the "enclosed pear shaped mysto pull" anywhere in the box this was in, but there are 3 other boxes of things, so maybe I will discover it. The closest info I could find on this trick was via ClassicMagic.Net.

Multiple Tricks

This was the first page from box one. The boxes are all old cigar boxes. Some of them are from Chicago where I know my Grandfather lived. The page, like many I will scan and show you, seems to be clipped from a larger source. There is nothing on the other side of the page.