THE ROPE TRICK
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—This letter is no more than a supplement to Lieutenant- Colonel Elliot's comprehensive article on the Indian Rope Trick. The trick is not, even by repute, supposed to be ex- clusively Indian. Professor Middleton told me many years ago—as he also told Lord Conway of Allington (Episodes in a Varied Life : by Lord Conway of Allington, p. 254)—that he had himself seen the trick in Morocco. Professor Giles, in a letter which appeared in The Times on February 10th, 1919, described the trick as being legendarily not only Indian, but Chinese. It is easy to find people who speak freely about the performance of the trick, but it is difficult to find people who have been competent eye.-Witnesses of its performance. I have myself travelled with two sea-captains who professed to have seen the trick ; but they had seen it—if at all their boyhood, and their testimony to its actual performance must at the best be regarded as unsatisfactory.
I asked Lord Curzon once, when he was Viceroy of India; if he would kindly arrange for the performance of the trick ; but it was not perfornied, and I think he did not succeed in finding anybody who could perform if. Mr. Maskelyne, with whom I corresponded about the Rope Trick some years ago, did not believe in it. He insisted that the conjurer, who professed to perform the trick, always arrived at midday, and always stationed himself between the sun and his audience, knowing that, as nobody can look full upon the sun at midday in India, nobody would be able to observe what he did or how he did it. Houdini, whose description of the trick goes in some details beyond its ordinarily alleged features, ex- pressed the clear opinion that the trick did, not take place. There is said to be some photographic evidence, such as Lord Frederic Hamilton, in his book, Here, There and Everywhere, relates, on the authority of Colonel Barnard, that, whatever the spectators of the Rope Trick believe themselves to have seen, no magical trick has been actually performed.
In all the circumstances the testimony of individual eye- witnesses to the reality of the trick, even if the testimony were freely adducible, would be inconclusive. But if a number of persons, who are credible witnesses, should agree in declaring that they had seen the trick, the question would arise whether their so-called experience was the result of mesmerism or hypnotism or of some other mysterious influence which is known in the. East but not in the. West.
I think I am right in saying that the project of exhibiting the Rope Trick at the Wembley Exhibition was raised, but it was given up, probably, if Mr. Maskelyne was right, because the sun in England, would not be sufficiently. powerful to pre- vent or obscure the vision of the _spectators.. For the present, then, it seems wise to acquiesce in Lieutenant-Colonel Elliot's conclusion that " the Rope Trick never has been done, and never will be done."—I am,
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