This wordy announcement is signed by W. Sahm, of Holland. In my collection there is also an interesting handbill advertising the tour of "The Mysterious Lady" who offered second-sight tricks in the eastern part of the United States in 1842-43. Her name was never stated on the programmes, but the latter, together with a clipping dated Boston, February 20th, 1843, will suffice to prove my claim that she was offering second-sight before Robert-Houdin did, and therefore could not be copying his trick. She also appeared in England fully a year before Robert-Houdin "discovered" second sight. Henri Robin and his wife featured second sight in Italy just when Robert-Houdin first offered it in Paris. It is barely possible that they antedated Robert-Houdin in the production of this trick, for I have in my collection a brochure entitled "Album des Soirées de M. et Mme. Robin," which contains an engraving of the couple offering second-sight, a short poem in honor of Mme. Robin's remarkable gifts as a second-sight artist, and a poem generally eulogistic of M. Robin's talents dated distinctly February 7th, 1846. Robert-Houdin presented second-sight for the first time, according to his own "Memoirs," on February 12th, 1846. [Illustration: Second sight as offered by M. and Mme. Robin, in which Robin employed the bell and the goblet. From the latter she sipped liquor, claiming it tasted like the wine secretly named by a spectator. Robin's stage was equipped with electrical appliances. From the Harry Houdini Collection.] To prove the utter folly of Robert-Houdin's claims to having trained his son's eye and memory by patient effort so as to have a mutual transferrence of thought, I will next show that animals had been trained for years to do tricks by secret signals before the alleged "discovery" of second sight. Two rare old bills in my collection advertise the marvellous "mind-reading" performances of a goose and a blindfolded dog respectively. The first, dated 1789, announces that a Mr. Beckett, a trunk-maker of No. 31 Haymarket, is exhibiting "a Learned Goose, just lately arrived from abroad. "It performs the following tricks: performing upon cards, money, and watches, telling the time of the month, year, and date, also the value of any piece either English or foreign, distinguishing all sorts of colors and (most prodigiously and certainly unbelieving to those who know the intellects of a goose) she tells the number of ladies and gentlemen in the company or any person's thoughts; any lady or gentleman drawing a card out of the pack, though ever so secret, the Goose, blindfolded at the same time, will find out the card they drew. Admittance two shillings each person."