But that power of memory which my son possessed in an eminent degree certainly did us the greatest service.  When we went to private houses, he needed only a very rapid inspection in order to know all the objects in a room, as well as the various ornaments worn by the spectators, such as chatelaines, pins, eyeglasses, fans, brooches, rings, bouquets, etc.  He thus could describe these objects with the greatest ease, when I pointed them out to him by our secret communication.  Here is an instance: 

One evening, at a house in the Chaussee d’Antin, and at the end of a performance which had been as successful as it was loudly applauded, I remembered that, while passing through the next room to the one we were now in, I had begged my son to cast a glance at a library and remember the titles of some of the books, as well as the order they were arranged in.  No one had noticed this rapid examination.

“To end the second-sight experiment, sir,” I said to the master of the house, “I will prove to you that my son can read through a wall.  Will you lend me a book?”

I was naturally conducted to the library in question, which I pretended now to see for the first time, and I laid my finger on a book.

“Emile,” I said to my son, “what is the name of this work?”

“It is Buffon,” he replied quickly.

“And the one by its side?” an incredulous spectator hastened to ask.

“On the right or left?” my son asked.

“On the right,” the speaker said, having a good reason for choosing this book, for the lettering was very small.

“The Travels of Anacharsis the Younger,” the boy replied.  “But,” he added, “had you asked the name of the book on the left, sir, I should have said Lamartine’s Poetry.  A little to the right of this row, I see Crebillon’s works; below, two volumes of Fleury’s Memoirs”; and my son thus named a dozen books before he stopped.

The spectators had not said a word during this description, as they felt so amazed; but when the experiment had ended, all complimented us by clapping their hands.

III

THE MAGICIAN WHO BECAME AN AMBASSADOR

[It is not generally known that Robert-Houdin once rendered his country an important service as special envoy to Algeria.  Half a century ago this colony was an endless source of trouble to France.  Although the rebel Arab chieftain Abd-del-Kader had surrendered in 1847, an irregular warfare was kept up against the French authority by the native Kabyles, stimulated by their Mohammedan priests, and particularly through so-called “miracles,” such as recovery from wounds and burns self-inflicted by the Marabouts and other fanatic devotees of the Prophet.

Thus in 1856 the hopes of the French Foreign Office rested on Robert-Houdin.  He was requested to exhibit his tricks in the most impressive form possible, with the idea of proving to the deluded Arabs that they had been in error in ascribing supernatural powers to their holy men.]