[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—This correspondence is becoming
diffuse and lengthy ; a concentration on the central facts is necessary ; it is useless for Mr. Morbury to accuse Mr. Price of inefficient bandaging—the conditions at the beginning and at the end of the phenomenon are of importance only if it is established that they have not been tampered with and altered in the interval ; every schoolboy student of " magic " knows this as one of the elementary principles.
The vital observation that Bux interfered with the " seal," and that a passage is visible alongside the nose under the dough, also the remarkable obscuration of a page to the un- bandaged eyes by a thin sheet of paper and the inability of Bux to read an open book on a tray above the level of the aper- ture, are ignored by Mr. Morbury (they may be repeated any time he chooses !). If his guileless neglect to ensure that the
test conditions were maintained throughout the demonstration invites unfavourable comparison with the mental alertness of a well-informed schoolboy, it may perhaps be excused by his obvious attitude which he lets slip out of the bag—" to my gratification.... . . . Bux appeared to read subjects off the line of vision." But his statement that Bux was forced to go on the music-hall stage because of lack of interest from the scientists must be challenged, for within a fortnight of the test at which I was present, Bux was appearing as a turn in the cabaret of the same restaurant, at every table of which was a clip of Press cuttings of the Ballyhoo type I referred to in my letter, and within a few weeks my colleagues and I received from the legal representatives of the establishment an unreserved apology for this commercial exploitation and misrepresentation of the matter. (It may interest Mr. Jenkins to hear that Bux was announced at the test as having just come from the borders of Tibet, never having been in England before !) I may also point out to this gentleman that I studiously avoided expressing an opinion in my letter ; the statement of observations made seems to have made up his mind for him !
Finally, the fact that a personal appeal was made after the séance to one of my colleagues not to reveal the method of performing the trick might also seem to carry some weight in this matter, which I feel must scarcely interest your readers
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