The most exclusive and aristocratic salons of Paris and Vienna have
engaged his services for private séances. In Spain, Belgium, Austria,
Russia and England he was the sensation of the day. At the present
time he is living in retirement at Asnières, near Paris, where he
has purchased a charming home known as the Villa Traversière _au
clair de la lune_. During the Exposition of 1900 he was the manager
of the Theatre Phono-Cinéma. Trewey was a great friend of the French
inventor, Lumière, and was the first to introduce the cinematographe
to the public of London and Paris. At his villa he spends his
time inventing and improving devices to be used in moving-picture
apparatus, corresponding with his friends, meditating upon the works
of his favorite authors, Confucius and {346} Epictetus, and writing
songs, farces and dramatic articles. In the year 1903 he was made
an _Officier d’Académie_ by the French Government. He married Miss
Ixa, of Trocadero fame. Among his pupils may be mentioned the lady
conjurer, Mlle. Patrice.
[Illustration: FROM “THE ENTR’ACTE,” LONDON, MAY 7, 1887.]
Trewey relates many interesting anecdotes of contemporary French
magicians whom he has met on his travels. He is literally a man
without envy. His admiration for Buatier de Kolta was unbounded. They
were close friends.
He once toured the Continent with the Hungarian conjurer, Velle, who
was the first to give exhibitions within a marked circle, where the
audience could gather on all sides. Velle impersonated Mephisto to
perfection. Trewey and August Lassaigne were once partners. Lassaigne
was born in Toulouse, in 1819. Besides being a magician he was an
æronaut, having made 347 ascensions. He died in Montpellier in the
year 1887.
When Trewey first toured the United States, under the management
of Alexander Herrmann, he was very much annoyed by impostors, who
advertised themselves as _Drewey_, but their performances were only
weak imitations of the original—the merest shadows of a shade. In
the wake of the whale follow little fishes—“pikers”—who grab at
the crumbs dropped by the monarch of the sea, being too lazy or
indifferent to find hunting seas of their own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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