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MAGIC AT THE WHITE HOUSE
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ninger. It was a lifelike bust suspended between a pair of slanted riblx)ns in a sort of half'domed temple, and it answered questions put to it by spectators.
This illusion, which remained unsolved for a long time, depended upon a hollow tube that ran inside one of the ribbons. In another room, an assistant who could hear the questions gave the proper answers through a mouthpiece connected to the tube, and the audience was deluded into thinking the image itself spoke.
Decker's exhibit had a five-year heyday in New York, where Congress met, and it was attended by many notables of the era, including two future presidents — John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
For a half-dozen administrations after Jefferson, apparently there was a dearth of magicians worthy of appearance in Washington. In that period, too, presidents were beset by the overpowering problems of shaping our country into a workable union, and had little time for deceptive diversionists. Perhaps a little hokum applied at the right moment might have saved many an administrative headache in those days.
Wizards of sorts, however, roamed the land, selling their wares to a beguiled populace. The public became very much acquainted with the ways of wizards, and when Martin Van Buren won the presidential chair, he was dubbed "The Little Magician," because of his diminutive size and political astuteness.
At a general gathering before Van Buren, one Captain Cobb had the occasion to introduce a very dignified
stranger to the tiny president. After they had shaken hands, Cobb turned to Van Buren and said, "I wanted the Little Magician to meet the Great Magician."
The Great Magician was Signor Antonio Blitz, who imported his big magic show from Italy, giving Americans their first view of staged witchery. Accustomed to appearing before the crowned heads of Europe and building his business by advertising that fact. Blitz capitalized on his casual meeting with Van Buren. The president thereafter attended Blitz's performances regularly, enhancing his prestige considerably.
Then a rival to Blitz sprang up, a young American named John Wyman, Jr., who billed himself as Wyman the Wizard. He claimed that as a boy magician he had antedated Blitz's introduction to Van Buren by many years. A hot race for White House favoritism between the two magicians livened the period of heavy presidential turnover during which we had eight incumbents during sixteen years.
Blitz solidified his position in Washington during the term of John Tyler, and ingratiated himself among cabinet members as well. Figuring the Tyler administration would be short-lived, he curried the favor of other aspirants to his seat, among them Henry Clay. At one time Clay proposed to Blitz that the Signor come to the Senate gallery and by means of ventriloquism cause certain Democrats to vote against their own measures when their names were called. Can you imagine the consternation today if a secreted Charlie McCarthy caused Senator