Jinx Indexes are all gone so don’t order from us direct. Try your dealer. We had no idea so many were keeping complete files although the fact that back numbers have never appeared on counters at nickel and dime prices should have tipped us off.

And speaking of sellouts, the Hilliard book has passed 800 of the 1000 edition. There is talk in the air of another printing. There has been some discussions about the number of card tricks in the tome. Well, The Art Of Magic is still selling, isn’t it? And you consider it a textbook, don’t you? Now figure this way. The Art Of Magic has 18 chapters with cards taking up the first 11. That’s 61.1%. Greater Magic has 32 chapters with cards in the first 19. That’s 59.3%. And if you want to figure it by pages instead, you’ll find that The Art Of Magic has 69.5% devoted to cards while Greater Magic has but 57.7%. Either way you go, the twenty year old book (and still strong) has more card material than Greater Magic.

The book has been reviewed thoroughly in the magical journals by more capable people than myself. There are points and details here and there which might be picked up and tossed around but under the circumstances Jean did a swell job under what must have seen tough mental wraps. What hasn’t seen print as far as I know is that all profit goes to John Hilliard’s wife and daughter, the entire accomplishment being made possible through Carl Jones’ admiration for a great individual. And it’s worth every last dime you pay for it. That, to my way of thinking, is the best review any book can get.

It’s bad manners to point but it’s for a hearty chuckle: The Eagle Magician for August 1919 carried a page ad for a new magical society. Big letters at the top — SOLVED AT LAST! Goodbye Exposing!

Why hasn’t someone reported that Blackstone, when playing Brooklyn, N.Y. lately, won a shag dancing contest in the Rainbow Room (N.Y.) and got a letter saying he was entitled to one dinner at the place?

There’s a “back number” news store a block from Times Square which can sell you lots of magic magazines. One fellow recently picked up a year’s run of Tops for a nickel each, 8 Sphinx for 10 cents each and 2 Genii for 15 cents each.

Dunninger’s Inside the Medium’s Cabinet is on the 49 cent bookstore racks.

Around 1920 Thayer put out Dr. Q’s Three Shell Game and reference was made to it being Soapy Smith’s method. Years later Hilliard told me about learning the reverse back principle from a gambler in Skagway, Alaska and mentioned Soapy Smith. The other day I found a book, The Reign of Soapy Smith, and the biography of this shell game, three card monte, bunco man is interesting reading. No tricks but good history for those who collect gambling data.

Here’s a phase of magical collecting which is revealing, to say the least. Robert Doidge searches for magic music, i.e., pieces written especially for magicians and with their pictures on the covers. At present he has Hermann, Anderson, Baldwin, Heller, and Hartz. All of this started while he was digging up Foster music. Incidentally, Bob’s collection of that is one of the largest in the country.

Mulholland’s Beware Familiar Spirits is easy reading but John shouldn’t have classed Anna Fay, Samri Baldwin, Washington Bishop and others in the stage category with the downright fakers. Weren’t the former openly entertainers? Or doesn’t John like mental workers of any type? And it is impressed upon one that Washington Bishop originated contact (muscle) reading. Burlingame makes it clear that Bishop was a soda-jerker who got the yen to become a mind reader after seeing Brown perform. As for history along that subject’s lines, C.A. George Newmann is undoubtedly the most learned today and can tell some very interesting anecdotes about most all of the greats who have been famous for that kind of work.

I wondered how long it would be before someone started selling a method for the bullet trick. Mystic Craig just put out a manuscript of one page on the stunt. I’ve checked reviewers and they have been O.K. on it so who am I to kick? However, if you try it, keep away from people who know anything about guns and bullets. And just remember that if you’re close enough to the muzzle to get powder marks on a plate, you are close enough to get them in your eyes, or on your face. And tell me, if you get powder marks on a plate and produce the slug from somewhere else, why doesn’t the plate break? I don’t think the trick is worth a hoot unless the slug is marked too, and at the finish bears the rifling marks of the gun (it took two years for me to figure how to get rifling marks of the SAME gun so a ballistic expert could check). But if you want to do the bullet trick, this manuscript will teach you a safe if simple way.

Tops has just started its fourth year and Percy Abbott deserves all the credit for making it a welcome visitor each month. I remember well several well wishers (?) who said it wouldn’t last six months.

That fellow who took Lugosi and Karloff for a ride and came back with the name Dracstein tells (Tops, January) how he put on a scared act for Will Rock (that looked like the real McCoy) when he went on stage as a volunteer for the sawing. Then he tells how he slipped Rock his (Dracstein’s) professional card and says “You should have seen the look on his face”. Well, I would have looked mad too! Years ago I did that very same thing, and later, in his dressing room, the illusionist did me a swell turn by bawling me out plenty. There’s plenty of time to tell a magician who you are after the show. But don’t start being clever in front of an audience and begin slipping things to the performer with the idea that no one will see. And even if you do it’s not good sense to give the magus anything else to think about but his show.

Charley DeMont took a Houdini unit out one year and played Waverly. By some unknown factor I was downstairs in the Opera House. Came the box escape. I rushed up with others and got stymied upstage with an assistant keeping me in line. During the lull and while Charlie was straining his ribs, I had to whisper to the girl “I’m a magician, too. I do that trick.” She didn’t even turn her head to say “When did you get out?”