"Aw, g'wan with your act," came Willard's rough reply as the audience stilled itself. "I paid for my seat here." "But, Mr. Willard," expostulated Houdini, "I-- "Give me the same wages you pay those other fellows and I'll come down," rumbled Willard's deep voice. The audience, scenting something unusual, was very quiet. "Sir, I will gladly do so," returned Houdini, heatedly. "Come on down--I pay these men nothing." "Aw' g'wan with the show," roared Willard, growling something that sounded like "four-flusher" and "faker." Willard's boorish replies evidently displeased those present, for a few scattering hisses came about this time. Houdini stepped to the footlights and held up his hand for silence. It was readily granted. "Jess Willard, I have just paid you a compliment," said Houdini dramatically. "Now I want to tell you something else. "I will be Harry Houdini, Jess Willard, when you are NOT the heavyweight champion of the world." A roar of applause shook the house. Men and women alike joined in the clapping and cheering. A deep rumble from the balcony indicated that Willard was trying to make some retort, and the cheers veered suddenly to hoots and groans. "I made a mistake," said Houdini, addressing the audience. "I asked GENTLEMEN to step on this stage and GENTLEMEN only." A renewed outburst occurred, during which Willard evidently left the theater. He was not to be found after the next act had started. THE PICTURE SHOW. Mar. 20th, 1920 Half-an-hour with Houdini, THE EXPERT OF EXTRICATION "Danger does not mean anything to me; I was just born without the ingredient of fear. Apart from the many risks I have taken in the course of my professional career, I have saved lives any number of times, and I have simply taken it all as a matter of course. People talk of being afraid to die; on the contrary, I am so well prepared for such an emergency that not only is my will drawn up, but I have a bronze memorial bust all ready, because I thought it better to have one that was really like me!" THE HANDCUFF KING Thus spoke Houdini, the "handcuff king," the great magician and genius of escape, on a certain sunny morning a few weeks ago. He sat with his back to the light, but though his face was in shadow the compelling blue grey eyes, and strong, bronzed features glowed with an intensity and vitality such as one rarely meets. "Tell me," I begged, "are the feats you do on the screen different to those you do enact before the footlights?" "Entirely different," was the reply. "In fact, some of the biggest critics have said that I am more wonderful on the screen than on the stage. That, I consider, is one of the greatest compliments ever paid me. But it has taken years of training to produce the tricks, or problems, I do in my films."