Message #12731

[Bianca]

THE RIDDLE OF HOUDINI                                                                        continued



Apart from his amazing courage, he was remarkable for his cheery urbanity in
every-day life.

One could not wish a better companion so long as one was with him, though he
might say and do the most unexpected things when one was absent.

He was, like most Jews, estimable in his family relationships.  His love for his
dead mother seemed to be the ruling passion of his life, which he espressed on
all sorts of public occasions in a way which was, I am sure, sincere, but is stran-
ge to our colder Western blood.

There were many things in Houdini which were as Oriental as there were in our
own Disraeli. 

He was devoted also to his wife and with good reason, for she was as devoted
to him, but again, his intimacy showed itself in unconventional ways.

When, in his examination before the Senatorial Committee, he was hard-pressed by
some defender of Spiritualism who impugned his motives in his violent and vindicti-
ve campaign against medium, his answer was to turn to his wife and to say,
 
"I have always been a good boy, have I not?"