Mr. Feilding assured me I was correct about her antipathy towards
magicians and suggested that the only way I could ever hope to attend
one of her seances was to convince the medium that I was not one of the
biased prestidigitator class, and proposed as a means to attain this
end a theatre party to see my performance and thus enable Mme. Bisson
and Mlle. Eva to judge for themselves. This was arranged and the night
they came to the theatre to see me I did the Torture Cell Mystery, in
which I am completely submerged, head foremost, in a tank of water,
and it is a physical impossibility to obtain air while locked in the
device. They were so much mystified that they expressed a desire to
attend another performance of mine sometime in the near future. I had
just accepted a challenge to escape from a packing case which was to be
built on the stage by experienced carpenters and thinking that it would
be an interesting performance for Mme. Bisson to witness I extended her
an invitation and received the following letter in reply.
“May 19, 1920.
“Dear Mr. Houdini:
“We, Mlle. Eva and I, shall be charmed to see you at the
performance of which you have spoken to me, on next Wednesday.
Since you have had the great kindness to offer us several
tickets, it gives me great pleasure to accept, and if you wish,
you may send us four, as we expect to join in the applause with
Mr. and Mrs. Feilding.
“I also wish to tell you something else!
“You know that we give seances here, showing the phenomena
of materialization. These are not spirit studies. They are
scientific.
“It would interest Mr. Feilding and ourselves to have at
our seances a master in the art of prestidigitation, but
I have always refused to admit to my house, an ordinary
prestidigitator, or even one of better rank. Our work is
serious and real, and the gift of Mlle. Eva might disappear
forever, if some awkward individual insists on thinking there
is fraud involved, instead of real and interesting facts, which
especially interest the scientific.
“For you this does not hold! You are above all this. You are a
magnificent actor, who can not call himself a prestidigitator,
a title beneath a man of your talent.
“I shall therefore, (rather we shall) be proud to see you
attend our seances and hear you tell us all, after you have
been thoroughly convinced yourself, that their merit is far
beneath your own, for these manifestations depend merely upon
allowing the forces of nature to act, and lie simply in truth
of fact. Whereas with you, it is your merit, your talent, and
your personal valor that have enabled you to attain the place
of King in your art.
“With kind and esteemed regards to Mme. Houdini and yourself,
(Signed) Juliette Bisson.”
(Translated.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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