Page:The wonders of optics (1869).djvu/280

 effect of the excellent acting of Mr. Toole and Mrs. Alfred Mellon, in the dramatic version of Dickens' "Haunted Man," by the introduction of various spectral effects. And the same trick was also called into requisition with some success in several of the minor theatres in New York and other cities of the United States. At the Polytechnic, in London, very remarkable effects were produced, and few who ever saw them will forget the surprise they felt at seeing the first representation of an imponderable ghost endowed with motion, and even speech. Amongst the most successful productions in this way was the entertainment of M. Robin, one of the cleverest of the many successors of the great Robert Houdin, the prince of prestidigitators. M. Robin claims to be the inventor of the ghost illusion, and to have shown it frequently since 1847. Whether this be so or not it is not our business to decide, but we can testify that his exhibition in the Boulevard du Temple drew all Paris to see it. Evening after evening he not only "called spirits from the vasty deep," but "made them come." He pierced them with swords, he fired pistols through them, and he made them appear and disappear at his slightest wish. He showed the Zouave at Inkermann, lying dead amongst a heap of slain, who at the familiar sound of the drum, rose, pale and grave, and showed the bleeding wounds from which he died. Amongst other scenes shown by M. Robin was one of a spectre appearing to an armed man, who after trying in vain to shut out the vision from his sight fires a pistol at the intruder. Fig. 72 shows the scene as seen by the audience, and fig. 73, the method by which the illusion is worked. The theatre is shown in section. On the left, at the end, are seen the spectators; on the right is the stage upon which the scene is represented. Beneath the stage is an actor clothed in white to personate a ghost, whose image is reflected by the glass above.