Bluebeard's Seven Wenches

The performer has seven drug envelopes which he explains represent the seven doors behind which Bluebeard incarcerated his wives. Seven cards picturing the seven beheaded ladies are shown, and their names are read from each as the performer puts them into the envelopes. The performer says, “It is not probable, but it is highly possible that Bluebeard, when on deviltry bent, and desirous of a fresh victim for his chamber of horrors, ambled benignly up and down the corridor selecting the lady by some simple whim or caprice.” The performer offers to let the members of his audience play “cut throat” for a while, and asks that two of them merely think of the name of the lady who might be his next victim. Carelessly mixing the envelopes, the performer places the packet on the outstretched hand of one person and asks him to whisper loudly the name of the fair one destined for a gory fate. Now the spectator moves and envelope at a time, from top to the bottom of the packet, spelling a letter o