Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/227

 AMUSED ON-LOOKERS

the poor find money in their hands; that the rags of the blind have begun to exude precious metals. The sleight-of-hand performance threatens to win for us a very dangerous popularity. A delegation of citizens, headed by a butcher's boy, presents itself to beg the American wonder-workers to repeat a few of their miracles for the benefit of late-comers. We are kept busy swallowing coins, pulling them out of turbans and burnooses, making the jack of spades jump out of the pack, and mending holes in flowing garments from which we have apparently cut small bits of cloth. That we successfully deceived the simple audiences requires no further proof than that afforded by their black faces on which amazement and amusement are painted with convincing force. We are saluted as supernatural beings; we are followed everywhere by a patient crowd demanding a sign, and we continue to give "signs" until our repertory is exhausted. We almost
 * workers, are in town; that miracles are being done; that