IN THE EAST INDIES. 203 
: Han Kow, China, June 1, 1907. 
Dear Fritz : 
The other night at the hotel in Pekin we saw a 
most wonderful Chinese conjuror and we kept wishing 
you could have been with us to see him. He squatted 
on the floor a few feet from us and I watched every 
motion and move he made most earefully but could not 
detect how he did any of the tricks. One remarkable 
one was this : He held a large, square piece of cloth in 
his hands and shook it out well, then sat down hard on 
it, got up, lifted the cloth up and underneath it was 
a large blue China bow] filled with water and two gold 
fish swimming about in it. It sounds impossible, I 
will admit, but Tom and I actually saw it. Another 
odd thing he did was to place a small China bow] with 
a hen’s egg underneath it right next to my feet; he 
then made a few magic pases over it and kept saying, 
‘‘Look ! See !’’ lifted the bowl up and the egg had 
gone, but in its place a large green frog hopped about. 
But the most effective trick he did was this : He gave 
one of the American men in the audience a round ball 
about half an inch in diameter and told him to hold 
it tightly in his hand; then he took the dupheate to it 
and put it in his own hand, made a few passes over 
it and it disappeared. He then told the American to 
open his hand and, truly and honestly, he had two 
balls in it. We begged him to do the trick again but 
he would not. I learned a few tricks in India whieh 
I’11 show you when I get back. 
With much love to every one from us both, 
Affectionately yours, 
Ros. 
