The famous Magician from Bundelpore

The famous Magician from Bundelpore

"More wondrous still, six lovely doves 

now fly up in the air..."

This illustration and poem are from the book A museum of wonders and what the young folks saw there explained in many pictures, published in 1884 by Frederick Burr Opper. Mr. Hopper was known for his illustrations for the comic magazine Puck, as well as his comic strip Happy Hooligan.

His poem is particularly Victorian.

The Magician

The Magician

This is a famed Magician, who has come from Bundelpore;
He reads the stars by midnight, and studies magic lore;
He takes a watch and pounds it up into a powder small—
The owner never more expects to see his watch at all—
Then suddenly it is produced from out his neighbor’s hat,
And, strange to say, it is all right, though it was pounded flat.
He makes a pudding in his hat, and then, to your surprise,
He takes a dozen eggs from it—you cannot believe your eyes!
More wondrous still, six lovely doves now fly up in the air—
No wonder this magician can make the children stare!
But there is a magician—I know him very well—
Who has more power in his touch, more magic in his spell;
He can raise you from a hovel, he can give you house and land,
Costly jewels, lovely fabrics, all will come at his command;
Though you are in rags he’ll clothe you in garments fine and fair;
If you’re starving he can bring you a feast both rich and rare.
He turns the yellow wheat to flour—he changes grapes to wine,
The apples into cider, the wool to cloth so fine.
He builds the grandest bridges; he quarries marble fair;
He paints such wondrous pictures; he carves such statues rare;
He can weave the fragile laces; he can crush the iron ore—
Drill the eyes of finest needles—through the giant mountains bore.
He can drain a mighty river, and build cities where it ran;
He can raise up tons of metal, or gently waft a fan;
He can spin a thread of gossamer—twist iron bars in two;
There’s no end to the miracles that he can show to you,
Or the wonders he’ll accomplish, if you will strive aright
The task that lies before you to do with all your might;
But he must be your master, and he'll rule you like a Turk.
The name of this Magician: Well, I’ll tell you—“ Mr. Work!”

A museum of wonders and what the young folks saw there, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida Digital Collections>>