Magicians!
One of these days I’ll have Jasper Maskelyne and Carter the Great running around in here as well.
According to “The War Magician”, Jasper Maskelyne pulled a similar stunt to Robert-Houdin’s bullet catching while engaged in a magical duel with an Egyptian Imam.
I forget what the political significance of this duel was supposed to be. The account of Maskelyne’s wartime career has been heavily disputed, but it is such a good story that whenever Japser shows up here it will be with a “Hey presto” right out of “The War Magician.”
–Geoff