Miss Delbridge came from an interesting family, closely connected with the history of Fitzroy. Her mother was Ann Saundry Bennetts (1834-1867) and her father was Edward Martin Delbridge Jnr (1835-1887). Edward’s father, who had arrived in South Australia in 1850 and trekked to the Mount Alexander goldfields, became a builder and constructed numerous houses in Fitzroy including “Mythian Terrace” (still standing at 101-103/105 Kerr Street) and the Wesleyan Church still existing at 408 Fitzroy Street. Father and son were in the building business together until 1865, and they were both active in politics, including periods as Councillor,  and Edward Jnr as the Mayor of Fitzroy. There is still a Delbridge Street in Fitzroy. So Ada’s family, living at 138 Moor Street, was of good repute and standing in the Fitzroy community. Sadly, her mother Ann, died in 1867 while giving birth to a son; and the boy died a week later. Ada was just three; at least four of her eight siblings died before the age of six.

It is difficult to sort out the reasons why Wilhelm and Ada Peters stopped performing together. Their initial entry onto the stage would have indicated an intention to continue performing professionally and it seemed that they had a very successful show on their hands, which might have continued to grow. They were still living together in the years to come. We can only speculate on family and financial demands, and the possibility that each took it in turn to care for their children. However, of the two, ‘Ada Fitzroy’ would have the more active career.

Allowing for the fact that Ada’s stage name was already set before she joined with Stuart, and that ‘Cissie and Geordie’ came at a later stage which we will examine in 1895, he certainly had found a profitable act in Fitzroy. Her engagement was extended and audiences flocked to see her, “a fact which is due no doubt to the freshness of her entertainment … which [are] clever and laughable.” The Leader, July 11, said, “She rivals the Davenport Brothers in her dexterous disentanglement from the ropes … and her shadow pictures are both ingenious and entertaining … since Haidee Heller LINK we have not had in Melbourne a more accomplished and pleasing artiste in her line.”

Ada’s engagement continued right through to the end of August 1891, when the Leader expressed general regret at her closing.  She had, in the meantime, made the acquaintance of another magician and ventriloquist, W.A. Davis who had commenced at the Waxworks. Davis had appeared there in 1890 as a ventriloquist, and was settling into a long run as both a vent and magician. It seems that he did not partner with Ada in those performances, but the two must have shared their knowledge, and by 1893 until at least 1900, Davis toured Australia and New Zealand under the management of Waxworks  manager Philip Stuart, heavily featuring anti-spiritualist and second-sight routines with his assistant, Grace Stanley, and later his wife, billed as Miss Stella Davis. The question arises; was Davis a mentor (14) to Ada Fitzroy, or was it the other way about?

It was noted by Melbourne Punch, in November 1891, that Miss Fitzroy was now “at home” in the township of Stawell, where she had given a couple of shows. The Peters family was still together, as Wilhelm Peters also began to advertise his new career from Stawell at this time.

Whatever the domestic arrangements for looking after the children, Ada did not seem to be constrained by the prevailing notion that a mother must stay at home. In January 1892 she returned to the Waxworks, again displaying her memory, monologues, shadows and ‘Davenport Mystery’ routines, with the added skill of “finding the needle a la Cumberland.” This feat, now known as Contact Mindreading, involved an object being hidden by an audience member, and then being found by the blindfolded performer, who held the volunteer’s hand and took them on a chase around the hall, often finding the object in obscure locations such as underneath a gentleman’s wig. One of the early practitioners of the feat was Stuart Cumberland, and in modern times it has been made a feature by the Amazing Kreskin. Along with Professor Davis, still performing his magic and ventriloquism, Ada had a profitable full month’s run at Kreitmayer’s. During this time a long-running “most popular actress” poll was conducted in the press. Ada, though hardly an actress in the conventional sense, was included in the list, though some way down.

Philip Stuart was clearly reluctant to give up his money-spinner. From early April he introduced a Professor Hoffman, assisted by Miss Ada Daven, in “extraordinary experiments of clairvoyance, supernatural vision or Second Sight, magical illusions, refined fun and profound mysteries. Ada Daven ‘from the Royal Polytechnic’ was an upcoming singer of minor prominence, while Professor Hoffman cannot be identified beyond his stage name – he continued to perform under that title in a modest fashion for a few more years.

After finishing at the Waxworks, Ada is not seen for many months, but she was clearly in preparation for her next professional venture and, on October 7, 1892, she made her debut in New Zealand, at the Dunedin City Hall. It is unclear who was managing her, as the advertising simply stated “Under responsible management”, but the appearance is that Ada was not being strongly promoted as a solo artiste, and she was appearing alongside “Jack, the Fighting Kangaroo” which tended to imply to the public that Ada was just a member of a travelling troupe. Walter Price was her advance agent.

The New Zealand tour has been more fully described in Bernard Reid’s history of NZ magicians LINK, but in essence Ada had gone touring at an inopportune time. In early November, the Bendigo Independent (15) reprinted an article from the Melbourne Standard:

“They are having a rare old time of it in New Zealand. The island colony is inundated with shows and showmen. The Chinese invasion is not a patch on it in point of numbers. The position has become so serious that the Protectionists are considering the advisableness of putting a poll-tax on players, by way of encouraging the local article, which is languishing except in Parliament, where the comic element has been making great progress of late  …  there is no denying the serious aspect of the exodus that is now going on from the Australian colonies to the other aide. Every theatrical, musical, or necromancing show that outlives its popularity here (as well as those whose popularity is perennial) makes for New Zealand. At present every town there is painted red with the flaming posters of one combination or another. In the big centres the theatres and halls are all open, circuses race each other from village to village, concert companies woo the public at street corners, and ni**er troupes, phonographs, dwarf men and fat ladies, giant frauds, and other human abortions of every conceivable nature pitch their tents in the highways, and compete with the Salvation Army for the stray coppers of a generous but sadly impoverished public.

... “For God’s sake,” writes one actor, “advise our people to keep away from here. Only a few are doing anything, and that is not much. The people here are very generous when they have money; but with thirty different companies on tour, what can you expect? They cannot all live. Many are living, heaven knows how.” Of the thirty companies referred to, there is the Italian Opera Concert Party, with Williamson’s Opera Company, Walter Bootley (boomed by the Rev. Marshall controversy), Grattan Riggs, the Dobson Kennedy Dramatic Company, David’s Bright Lights Company, the Young Australian Variety Company, the Steen Spiritualistic Company, Wills’s Surprise Party (the surprise is with the “party,” not the public), Judo, the musical evangelist, the Dampiers with Australian drama, the Foli combination, Snazelle, Holloway’s dramatic company, Professor Archibald and his phonograph, two other phonograph lecturers, a batch of circuses, three ni**er troupes, Heller, the conjuror [George Waldo Heller], Alice Burnett, the pianist, Ada Fitzroy, Kangaroo Jack, Mexican cowboys, Montague Turner Opera Company, Jubilee singers, Lyons Surprise Party, a genius who calls himself the “New Zealand Snazelle,” two fat women, and a world-famed dwarf. With many the business has been so bad that they have found themselves completely stranded, in inland towns with not sufficient to pay their train fares.”

If that were not bad enough, Ada found herself in direct competition with a far more experienced mind-reading act, the husband and wife team of Prof. Charles N. Steen and Martha E. Steen. They were skilled in the Second Sight routine, and presented their mediumistic act without any pretence at being anything but entertainers. Amongst the many struggling acts listed above, the Steens were managing to rake in the money, and Ada had little chance of holding her ground against them. Instead, she put her mind-reading  routines in the background and concentrated on the many other strings to her bow, the memory work and silhouettes, while she tried to stay a few steps ahead of the Steens in the South Island.  

By November, Ada had joined with the comic singer, lightning costume changer and humorous speaker, Horace Chester. In Christchurch on November 9, their acts were (16) reviewed: “attendance .. fairly good, but the entertainment provided was deserving of a better one. Those present were astonished by Miss Fitzroy’s marvellous memory which was more severely tested than on the previous evening, as Maori names, difficult even to pronounce, were given her to remember. Her rope-tying séance and exhibition of silhouettes were as successful as on Tuesday. She sang the pretty balled ‘What Shall I say, Love?’ with excellent effect.”

As 1893 rolled around, Ada threw in her lot and joined forces with the Steens, at least for a short time. This was probably a beneficial choice for both parties, as Mrs. Steen had been severely unwell and had undergone surgery before returning to the stage. While Ada was not named in advertising, press reviews showed that she was with the “Steen-Smith Company” in Christchurch from the end of February. The “Smith” of the combination was ventriloquist Mr. Oscar Smith (real name William Michael Smith), who also managed the company. Ada’s role in the show introduced her to a whole new feature in her already diverse repertoire. She became an exponent of the “Georgia Magnet” stunts in which a young lady, with no apparent exercise of muscular power, resists the united efforts of strong men to lift or move her; an act based on the principles of deflection of force, originated by Miss Lulu Hurst and widely imitated by many. Probably at the same time, Ada learned to perform the “Knight’s Tour”, another feat of mental agility in which the artiste, blindfolded, guided a Chess Knight across the board starting at a randomly chosen spot, moving only in the approved “L” move, and landing on every square of the board just once.

Ultimately the Steens finished their New Zealand tour on March 22, and it is likely that Ada Fitzroy had already returned to Australia. From March 31, 1893, she appeared for several weeks in a lineup of variety and specialty artists with the Slade Murray New Lyric Company at the Opera House, King Street Sydney, presenting her silhouettes in a bill which also featured Oscar Smith, “the renowned ventriloquist, having just returned from his highly successful tour through the United State of America.” By April 10, Ada had changed from her silhouettes act to performing her blindfolded mentalism routine, calling out the figures written on a blackboard behind her back and naming the cards in a shuffled pack. Oscar Smith assisted her to perform the Knight’s Tour as well as performing his own routines with two figures and a ‘remote voice’ routine. She must have done well to stay clear of the Steens, as they arrived in Melbourne and were performing much the same repertoire at St. George’s Hall during April.

In May, still in conjunction with Oscar Smith, Ada presented her ‘Magnet’ and mentalism feats at the Royal Standard theatre in Sydney:

[Sydney Morning Herald, May 9, 1893] “At the Royal Standard Theatre last night Miss Ada Fitzroy made her first appearance in a new character as the "Georgia Magnet" and performed more than one of the mysterious feats generally attributed to the exercise of strong magnetic force and will-power. The most conclusive of the tests applied was that in which a burly member of the impromptu committee held a chair in his arms with the fixed determination to remain rooted to the spot where he stood. Miss Fitzroy made a few passes over the chair, and then quietly pushed the strong man, manifestly struggling to resist her, all across the stage. The second member of the committee, a slighter but very lively looking individual, was not so easily dealt with, but he, too, did not quite hold his ground. Miss Fitzroy was also successful in preventing a committeeman from lifting her from the ground but the well-known test with the billiard-cue, in which the magnet appeared to resist the united efforts of half-a-dozen committeemen who tried to push the cue from her open palms, was so obscured by the actors in the "farcical comedy" that it was difficult to say what was or was not done. However, the audience was much interested in the novel experiments, and the "Georgia Magnet" who was introduced by Mr Oscar Smith, the well-known ventriloquist, was heartily applauded at the close of the seance. Quite as mystifying in another way were the mnemonic feats performed by the young lady. Miss Fitzroy repeated 30 different objects enumerated by the audience, both forwards and backwards and then identified each when the numerical order in which it stood was called out by those present.

Examples of mind-transmission were given, when Miss Fitzroy correctly informed several of the audience of the date and hour of their birth and whilst blindfolded, the thought reader named the figures chalked on the board behind her by the committee, added up a whole row of unseen numbers, and in many other ways perplexed the house.”

Fitzroy and Smith moved up to the Hunter region with the Dan Tracey Vaudeville and Specialty Company, but during June they had become the “Smith-Fitzroy Entertainers, direct from America” at the Maitland Town Hall and most nearby towns including Morpeth, Singleton and Scone. The small troupe included vocalist Amy Kennedy and comedian Jas. Parlatto. Until late October the company was seen as far north as Armidale and in other country locations such as Hay and Cootamundra.

In late October, however, news broke of a court case in which Ellen Jane Smith (professionally known as Nellie Harley) sought a divorce from William Michael Smith (Oscar) on the grounds of adultery and cruelty. The marriage, from 1882, appeared to have been unhappy from the start, and throughout their travels together in the U.S.A.  It was alleged that Smith was often drunk, left his wife without support, and although the two had not been living together since returning to Australia she had heard stories that Oscar Smith had committed adultery with a number of unknown women, and had been “unduly familiar” with Ada Fitzroy. On the basis of the allegations, the bench issued a decree nisi with costs. Whatever the truth, this was the end of any Smith-Fitzroy collaboration, and by December 1893 Oscar Smith had returned to the theatre as a solo act.

In December 1894, however, a controversy erupted which played directly into Ada’s area of expertise. The artist Thomas Shekleton Henry, once an admirer of spirit medium, Annie Fairlamb Mellon, had, almost by accident, discovered her to be a fraud, and had written an explosive booklet titled “Spookland!” (17) which exposed her techniques. Mrs Mellon was engaged in a highly risky form of spirit materialisation, in which several ghostly figures (which she named ‘Cissie’, ‘Geordie’ and ‘Josephine’) physically manifested themselves in a semi-darkened room. The danger, for the medium, was always that a sceptical sitter might rush forward and seize the spirit figure; and that is exactly what happened, when T.S. Henry found himself clutching, not a ghost, but Mrs Mellon on her knees with some white muslin cloth around her head.

The whole affair, and arguments and offensive name-calling which resulted during December 1894, has been extensively detailed on this website, in the essay “Hosking, Davis and Barker – Spookbusters” and the interested reader is invited to learn more about Shekleton and Mellon there.

The upshot was that, on December 18, Mr Shekleton Henry appeared at the Melbourne Town Hall, coincidentally under the agency of Waxworks entrepreneur Philip Stuart, to give his account of how he had detected and exposed the “audacious trickery” of Mrs. Mellon in her “so-called Spirit or Ghost-raising”.  T.S. Henry was not a magician, nor even a public speaker of any experience – but if one was searching for a performer to replicate the apparent materialisation of ghostly figures,  who better than Miss Ada Fitzroy, who had been raising spooks since the Eldorado Entertainment days of 1889?

The Geelong Advertiser reported on Skekleton and Fitzroy’s appearance in the Exhibition Theatre on December 20:
THE "SPOOK" SHOW AT THE THEATRE. A SUCCESSFUL PERFORMANCE.
“Public interest having been so much aroused by the exposure of the trickery in connection with the alleged materialisation of spirit forms in Sydney, it seemed a certainty that a crowded house would have witnessed the production of Mrs Mellon's celebrated spooks at the Exhibition Theatre last evening. The audience, however, was limited. Prior to the materialisation process a lecturette on spiritualism was given by Mr Henry, the gentleman who was so prominently identified with the bursting up of Mrs Mellon's claims to be the medium of spiritual manifestations. In the course of his remarks, which met with the approval of the audience, the lecturer traced the progress of spiritualism from the time of its initiation by the Fox sisters. After a close study of the so-called phenomena of spiritualism, and the experience of innumerable seances he was convinced that the whole thing was based upon trickery, having nothing to show that it was connected in any way with the supernatural. He recounted the incidents leading up to the exposure of Mrs Mellon, which he maintained to be so complete as to leave no possible room for doubting that her performance was a fraud. The pretensions of the spiritualists were condemned, particularly those of the class which undertook, while in the state of clairvoyance, to look into the future. This form of spiritualism was most demoralising and pernicious in its effects, particularly upon otherwise well intentioned people, who through vanity were led to believe that they would make first-class mediums.

At the close of his address he announced that, with the assistance of Miss Ada Fitzroy, he would produce forms exactly similar to which Mrs Mellon claimed to have been materialised through her mediumship. This would be effected by simple trickery, under conditions of the most rigorous character. Mr Henry was as good as his word. A number of persons in the audience, including Captain Parsons and Messrs Cunningham and Lt. H. B. Downes, stepped on to the stage and supervised the preparations for the show. The cabinet, curtained in black, was found to have nothing concealed within it, and there were no trap doors to permit of spooks rising from the earth. Then Miss Fitzroy had her wrists bound tightly behind her back with a piece of ordinary thin rope, and the knots, shown to the audience, were sealed. The lady then stepped into a bag. previously examined by the committee, and the mouth was fastened around her neck by a running tape, the ends of which were tightly knotted. Having been fastened in the bag, Miss Fitzroy entered the cabinet, and the ends of the tape around her neck were fastened to the chair upon which she sat and passed through the cabinet to Mr Downes, by whom they were held during the subsequent operations. Having thus submitted to conditions which seemingly rendered it impossible for her to move without being detected, Miss Fitzroy directed the curtains in front of the cabinet to be drawn together.

The lights were lowered, and a little soulful music was turned on by the pianist. Within a few seconds there was a sound of rattling tambourines, and a ghostly hand was put through the curtains. Then something shadowy came forward, and the outline of "Cissie" was brought into view. Amidst laughter Mrs Mellon's little black angel expressed a preference for chocolate, and retired after cautiously moving about the stage. Some more tambourine rattling followed, and "Josephine" a decidedly spiritual form, made her appearance. She danced noiselessly round the committee, and gave proof of being substantial by shaking hands with them. The process of dematerialisation, though effective was palpable. Last of all the form of "Geordie" made its appearance, and then the lights were turned up. The curtains being pushed aside Miss Fitzroy was found in the position that she occupied before the performance began, and the knots of the rope around her neck, and the cord by which her hands were bound were intact. The performance was loudly applauded.”

This lecture/performance was repeated several times during December, at the Victorian Academy of Music (Bijou Theatre) in Bourke Street, Ballarat’s Alfred Hall, and back at the Melbourne Town Hall. At this stage, T.S. Henry must have felt that his task was accomplished, and he left the public arena, making way for a wave of stage magicians to step in and take advantage of the controversy.

Those mainly involved were (as detailed in the Spookbusters essay) Prof. W. A. Davis (Fitzroy’s old acquaintance from the Waxworks), Gordon A. Barker who was a Sydney semi-professional, and Ernest Hosking for whom the anti-spiritualism crusades became his entry point into a professional career lasting another decade. He would eventually become the long-standing President of the Australian Society of Magicians’ Sydney branch.

[Herald, Melbourne December 20]

“Mr Ernest Hosking's spiritualistic materialisations at the Princess's Theatre last night were decidedly successful, and it was noticeable that the reserved stalls were occupied by many prominent spiritualists. The first part of the programme consisted of a well-diversified concert programme, arranged under the direction of Mr W. J. Turner. Mr Hosking, after giving an exceedingly clever ventriloquial sketch, turned his attention to the main item of the evening. Under the critical supervision of Professors Laurie and Spencer, Mr S. V. Winter, J. P., and Mr Gordon, a long cord was fastened round the performer's neck and sealed. Mr Hosking, who had previously changed his clothing under the watchful eye of Mr Gordon, secretary of the Caledonian Society, was then placed in a black silesia bag, a portion of the sewing of which had been personally superintended on the stage by Prof. Laurie, and the cords round the performer's neck drawn tight, were knotted and sealed. Then, after the floor and the curtains of the Cabinet had been closely scrutinised, Mr Hosking took his seat on a chair inside. The ends of the sealed cord from round his neck were drawn through the wood-work, sealed, and held on the outside of the cabinet by Professor Spencer.

These precautions taken, the lights were lowered, and almost simultaneously a hand appeared through the curtains. A minute later Geordie appeared and was followed successively by Cissie and Josephine. The ghastly figures shook hands with the committee, all of whom pronounced the extended hands to be of material plumpness. On the lights being turned up the conjurer was found still in his seat and the cords and seals were intact. Thu performance was undoubtedly clever and apparently mystified the committee. Professor Laurie briefly explained what had been done, and Mr Winter announced that the cabinet had been watched from all sides and that there had been no outside communication either from the back or through any trap-door, so that the performer did his work unaided by any confederate. It may be added that the drapery used by Mr. Hosking presented a more ghost-like appearance than any used here, and that the performer paid great attention to the manner in which the figures disappeared. Thus presenting the appearance of their de-materialisation which so greatly struck Mrs [Annie] Bessant at Mrs Mellon's seance. The former lady, it will be remembered, afterwards declared that she verily believed one of the figures had actually de-materialised before her eyes. The bag in which Mr. Hosking was fastened was presented to Professor Laurie, who took it away with him. The concert and Mr. Hosking's clever performance will be repeated this evening.”

In the pursuit of that most admirable of theatrical goals (ticket sales), Mr. Hosking and Miss Fitzroy joined forces in January 1895, and started with an appearance at the Hamilton Town Hall on the 22nd and 23rd which, due to extreme summer heat, were poorly attended but well applauded. Hosking gave his ventriloquial and singing routines while Ada (“a most accomplished and versatile artiste”) played the piano, showed her memory feats and silhouettes, and the pair concluded with the anti-spiritualistic demonstrations. The show then moved on to many regional towns including Portland, Colac, Warragul, Lorne, Traralgon, Bairnsdale and Maffra during February. Every review was favourable and seemingly there was never any detection of the methods by which the ‘cabinet mystery’ was achieved.

During March and April the show was kept on the move all over Victoria as far up as Beechworth and Wangaratta, where Mr. Hosking added the Clay Pipe smoking trick and playing of various musical instruments alongside Ada’s piano to his repertoire. They made a move south to Hobart, Tasmania and opened on April 15 at the Tasmanian International Exhibition. The following review from the Mercury (April 16) is representative of most other reviews, and indicates the division of duties between Hosking and Fitzroy – Ernest acting as the tied medium, and presumably Ada creating the illusion of all three spirit figures. The only problem with this, is that at Wangaratta, the Ovens and Murray Advertiser had made a point of noting that Miss Fitzroy “was at the piano during the whole performance”. Another review would state “Miss Fitzroy … explains what is going on, and keeps up the amusement”, so it appears that Fitzroy was not using her own skills during the séance portion of the show.

"Summed up in a single sentence, the entertainment given in the great hall last night by Mr. Ernest Hosking is by far the most clever and amusing performance given in Hobart for many a year. In fact, it is questionable whether anything like his exposure of the mysteries of spiritualism has ever been seen here before. Exposures might have been made in private "circles," but not in a huge hall filled with hundreds of people who, from a spiritualist's point of view, would rank as nondescripts, and certainly not as assistants to the production of supernatural forms.

Passing over the first part of the programme, which was remarkable chiefly for the display of extraordinary ventriloquist powers by Mr. Hosking and clairvoyance by Miss Ada Fitzroy, as well as some highly amusing situations in which a committee of gentlemen who went on the platform became involved, a brief account of the spiritualistic seance will probably be most interesting. This performance was prefaced by a statement from Mr. Hosking, who informed the audience that he would do what Mr Justice Windeyer, of Sydney, had declared was impossible without supernatural aid. Mr. Hosking frankly admitted that there was nothing supernatural about his work, and that it was really the essence of simplicity to the initiated. All the same, it mystified the hundreds present.  A committee consisting of the Hon. Adye Douglas, M.L.C, Mr. Justice Page, of Calcutta, Colonel Warner, and Rev. Father Kelsh ascended the platform. They first examined the black cabinet standing in full view of the auditorium, and placed black silesia underneath to prevent spirits being "poked" up through the stage, as Mr Hosking explained. Mr Hosking was to be the medium, and left to change evening dress for ordinary attire under the supervision of Father Kelsh. The committee then tied a rope round his neck, and placed a private seal on the knot. A black bag into which the medium got was similarly tied and sealed. Mr. Hosking got into the cabinet, rested himself in a chair and the ropes were passed through the cabinet woodwork, and tied and sealed again on the outside. Then the lights were lowered, and to slow and melancholy music the form of "Geordie Thompson" appeared gradually rising from the floor until it assumed the proportions of a fall grown man. It stayed in full view, having a decidedly ghostly and uncanny form, and subsequently gradually dematerialised. The next figure was "Cissie" the little negress, who seemed to have retained the voracious appetite for chocolate, which was her chief characteristic at the Mellon seances in Sydney.  She was also decidedly humorous, and spoke audibly. Then came the silent "Josephine," first appearing on the floor as a speck of white and gradually assuming the form of a beautiful and fully developed woman. She walked in the most approved churchyard style, knelt to the committee, and finally disappeared as slowly and mystically as she came. When the lights were turned on Mr Justice Page announced, after the committee had examined Mr. Hosking, that the knots were sealed and intact as they were made. Mr. Hosking and Miss Fitzroy will repeat their entertainment tonight."

Following the end of the Exhibition in late April, the duo went on a whirlwind visit to other parts of Tasmania including Huonville, Ulverstone, Zeehan, Stanley, Wynyard, Burnie, Waratah, Launceston, and back to Hobart by June 10. Reviews in mid-June were still excellent, but the audience numbers seemed to be dwindling, and it appears that the Hosking-Fitzroy combination came to an end after six successful months.

It was certainly not the end for Ernest Hosking, who would go on to nearly the end of the 1800s performing magic and anti-spirit shows. For Ada, however, her performing days came to an end and she is no more to be seen with her clever and varied feats of mental acuity and mediumistic trickery.

What was Herr Wilhelm Peters doing, following the conclusion of the Eldorado season in 1890? The public record is quiet, until the end of February 1892, when the Portland Guardian advertised “Wilhelm Peters, practical piano maker and tuner, Stawell”.  Herr Peters had returned to his family trade and relocated to central-west Victoria, some 235km from Melbourne. He was acting as an agent for the large Melbourne music firm of Allan & Co, and announced regular visits to the southern coastal town of Portland, a long journey of 200km by buggy. Presumably he took on piano repairs and tuning along the way, and his field of work gradually expanded into a circle of regional towns around Stawell. He would also advertise himself as a “practical piano maker” which may have kept him busy in a home workshop. This was the time just after Ada had finished her second appearance at the Waxworks, and prior to her New Zealand tour, during which Herr Peters would have been responsible for the children.

He had not, however, given up performing, although there seems to have been no further ambition for a career as a celebrated illusionist – in fact he declared himself an amateur in a letter to the Portland Guardian on January 3, 1893:

"Sir,- I have frequently been asked by my numerous friends at Portland to give one of my psychological entertainments there, and, knowing that funds are required for the Hospital and Benevolent Asylum, I shall be most happy to place my services at the disposal of the committee of the above institution who have decided that the entertainment shall take place on the 19th inst. and am willing to hand over the full amount of the net receipts for such a worthy object. Although an amateur I have devoted much time, careful study and a great amount of expense towards gaining a thorough knowledge of the art and secrets of the modern magician; and have no hesitation in stating that I have succeeded in that object. Being the same entertainment in which I have appeared before the nobility of Europe and the Australian colonies, I can safely promise my friends and patrons a performance which will excel anything of its kind before seen in Portland. Several gentlemen of Stawell, and also Herr Schmidt (late conductor of the Melbourne Turn Verein Liedertafel), a vocalist of great repute and ability, have kindly offered their services to assist me, and in conjunction with them I hope to give an evening's amusement that will induce every man to bring his wife, "his sisters, and his cousins and his aunts" to ensure a "boomer house" and make the donation worthy of acceptance.  Yours, &c., Wilhelm Peters, Stawell, January 3, 1893."

Portland was behind him in this generous offer, and the ‘Guardian’ of Jan.18 reported that “from the photographs in the windows of various business places in the town it will be seen that Herr Peters has a perfect maze of apparatus, and as before remarked the critiques of the metropolitan press show that he is unusually competent to use it.” The show went off in triumph – “the most hearty applause was accorded the performer after each item, and he kept the audience in a state of transition between wonder and laughter the whole time he was on the stage.”

On February 22, 1893 the Mechanics’ Institute at Horsham held an orchestral concert for the Horsham Races season, at which Peters gave the second-half entertainment of “high class and unparalleled feats of legerdemain, Soiree Fantastique.”

For a brief while in December 1893, Peters reverted, for the final time, to his old stage name, Professor Perron in the  Continental Eldorado and, according to the Ballarat Star (Dec.11) he had “appeared before the late Emperor Wilhelm of Germany and also Prince Bismarck and General Moltke, and has gained a high reputation in the leading theatres on the Continent … with all the gorgeous appointments used by him when he appeared at Berlin by special command of the late Emperor.” In this appearances at the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute over the Christmas / New Year period, he introduced his daughter, Ruby Peters ’Perron’, at the tender age of five, presenting the “La Sonnambula” feats of her mother:

[Ballarat Star, December 27, 1893]

"The Mechanics’ Institute was well patronised last night on the occasion of the first performance by Professor Perron, a magician of repute from Germany. The professor certainly understands how to dress a stage to make it brilliant and effective. His paraphernalia is of a most elaborate description, and adds materially to the attractions of his entertainment. Concerning the entertainment itself, it may be said that Professor Perron is undoubtedly one of the finest performers in that line that has visited Ballarat for a long time. Everything he does is done so neatly and well. His style upon the stage is also attractive and gentlemanly. The experiment in which he produces eggs in an unlimited quantity from an empty bag, and causes them to increase in size at will, is most amusing, and last night created roars of laughter. The same may be also said of the item which the professor calls “Jolly Good Company,” during the performance of which a gentleman from the audience is invited to drink four or five glasses of wine produced in a most mysterious way. The production of a number of solid ivory billiard balls in a really artistic manner, apparently from nowhere, is an experiment in pure sleight of hand that would be extremely difficult to excel. In fact, the whole of the programme was so good that it is difficult to particularise. The invisible flight of canary birds from a glass casket held by a lady in the audience to a cage on the stage is a very pretty experiment, and the production from an empty cloth of five large glass bowls filled to the brim with water, in which goldfish are seen swimming, is a most marvellous feat.

- And on January 2, “Professor Perron concluded his short but highly successful season at the Mechanics’ Institute last night. His dexterous conjuring and cleverly dressed feats have won the continuous approbation of large and well pleased audiences, and his little daughter, Miss Ruby Perron, is really a wonder. Her second sight performance would be extraordinary for a grown-up artist. In a child it is marvellous.”

On the December 30 performance, it was noted that Perron had been assisted by “a local amateur conjuror”, Mr. A.G. Lumsden.  Amateur he may have been in 1893, but by the early 1900s, Alfred Lumsden was a significant professional magician, working under the stage name “Czerny”.

Buoyed by the reception given to his Ballarat season, Peters gave a profitable charity performance in Portland on January 18, 1894, in aid of the local Benevolent Asylum, and on this single occasion he was again assisted by his wife, sharing the billing as “Madame Aide Peters” whom the Guardian described as “a partner equally as clever and entertaining as himself.”

Finally, the Peters family appear to have settled into private domestic life. Daughter Ruby Peters was mentioned a couple of times in the news for her achievements in piano playing.

Mr. Peters occasionally advertised his travels all across the Victorian regions, not only tuning pianos and organs but arranging the sale of instruments on behalf of Allan & Co, and by 1898 he was advertising his services almost weekly in the press, and on occasion it was noted that he had offered his services to perform magic while he was in a particular town. Venturing right across to Mt. Gambier in South Australia (May 1898), he raised funds amounting to £40 for the creation of Frew Park, and it was noted, “the stage was richly dressed, being surround with heavy dark velvet curtains, relieved with gold and white and red, all tastefully arranged – the whole was fairly calculated to make the audience look and wonder…. Was certainly one of the best of the description ever given at Mount Gambier.”

These shows were usually a generous donation of his skills to support a worthy charity. On October 8, he presented a major part of the Annual Concert in aid of the Widows and Orphans Fund, at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Hall in Collins Street. “There can be no doubt that nothing better has ever been seen in Melbourne than Herr Peters’ exposition of the mystic art”, said the ‘Traveller’. “There is a completeness and artistic finish about his tricks … that carried his audience with him. Not a single hitch occurred … and their mystification was profound … it is interesting to know that conjuring and magician’s business has been a hobby of Herr Peters since his childhood; the first performance he gave at the age of twelve, at a school break-up.”

On July 23, 1898, the Border Watch news (Mt. Gambier) had published an advertisement for Herr Peters, with a testimonial from Allan & Co, stating “we have much pleasure in stating that we know Mr. Wilhelm Peters to be an experienced a competent Tuner, and in our business transactions, extending over seven years, we have always found him straightforward and thoroughly reliable. We only hope our relations will continue as pleasantly in the future as they have been in the past.”  A more ironic letter of praise could not have been written, as in the next two years Herr Peters’ reputation would be brought down in a completely unexpected turn of events.

1899 was the start of some problems for Wilhelm Peters. In mid-March he was laid up with badly sprained ankles after a buggy accident, yet he managed to perform the complete second half of a concert at Horsham around March 18:
[ Horsham Times, March 21, 1899]  “The performances of conjuring and magic of Herr Wilhelm Peters occupied the attention of the audience for the second part of the programme. The ever laying hen, which was a red cloth bag and was turned inside out and reversed several times before the eyes of the audience, would enable the performer to bring out of her, whenever he pleased, an egg. All that was necessary was to give a blow with the mouth before diving the hand in, and an egg could be procured. Ten eggs having been thus got. Herr Peters saying he would like to take tea as he had not had any that evening, borrowed a high hat from a member of the audience, which hat proved to be a remarkable one, as the performer produced from it no less than 18 ladies' hand bags and a wig. The hat being cleared of these articles, two rings were borrowed from ladies in the front seats, and were placed in the hat. Omlet was required for tea. A good fresh egg was broken and stirred up in the hat over the rings, when immediately two beautiful bouquets of flowers with the rings attached by bridal ribbon rose from the hat end were gracefully presented to the lady ring owners. Several excellent card tricks were then done. The last trick was one of which the performer requested close scrutiny. A blue cloth, measuring about a yard and a half square, was produced and examined by the audience. The performer, standing in the centre of the platform, wrapped himself in the cloth, and then produced from underneath the cloth a bowl of water containing a live gold fish. The audience marvelled at this, whereupon several other bowls of fish of larger sizes were brought forth in like manner. The performance altogether was of exceptional interest and merit, and such as to go far to establish Herr Peters’ claim to be the premier magician of Australia.”

He was back performing in Mount Gambier in June and August, again in support of the local community, and at Narracoorte (S.A.) in early October where he continued to combine his piano business with a magic performance (“we are at a loss to know where to start … it was the most finished and brilliant exposition of illusionism ever seen at Narracoorte…”)

Undaunted, Peters was still able to perform at a fancy garden party event in Melbourne in January, with his eggs from bag trick. On March 14, in aid of the Narracoorte Racing Club, he took on a full evening’s entertainment at the Institute Hall, though it is difficult to identify individual tricks or apparatus that he may have used, other than his mind-reading, coin productions and memory feats. By April, however, he had decided to move back to Melbourne, and it has to be considered whether financial reasons compelled the move. In his honour, the people of Stawell held a “smoke night” at which he was presented with a handsome gold locket, inscribed. The Horsham Times made a point of stating that, during his residence in Stawell, Herr Peters had given no fewer than 174 entertainments for charitable purposes.

From his advertising, however, it appears that Peters moved into the Castlemaine area, or possibly Ararat, where the Mt. Alexander Mail regularly offered his pianoforte services through until September 1900.

Completely out of the blue, on April 23, 1901, the press reported that Wilhelm Peters had been committed for trial at the Stawell Police Court, on a charge of obtaining a cheque for £44 on false pretence that he was authorised to receive the money. The allegation was made that his permission to receive money had been withdrawn by Allan & Co, but that he had secured a cheque for sale of a piano, cashed the cheque and made use of the money, representing to Allan’s that the piano had been sold “on terms”.  In his defence, Peters said there was no intention to defraud, and that he was negotiating with Allan’s for the settlement of the case. However, it was noted that some eight transactions, amounting to £300, were in question. Had Peters been on a downward financial spiral since the destruction of his home?

Arraigned to appear at Stawell Assizes on Tuesday, June 4, before judge Mr. Hood, Herr Peters astonished the population by breaching his bail of £100 and failing to appear in court. A warrant for his arrest was issued, but it was believed that he may have fled the state.

What happened to Wilhelm Peters? There are no further public reports of his whereabouts, but our historian, Harrie Ensor, pencilled a note under a photograph of the magician – “Got into trouble … and absconded on a German ship to Germany in 1899 [sic.] – leaving apparatus behind. Most still in my possession.”

What became of Herr Peters’ apparatus? Harrie Ensor, in his “Magical Reminiscences” articles for the magazine of the Independent Magical Performers of Sydney (IMPS), wrote about his friend, the magician Don G. Merle (real name George Henry Peter Armstrong) of Ararat, Victoria:

Armstrong became a busy and successful professional magician under the name “Don G. Merle”, travelling both locally and through the Dutch East Indies, Spain and India. Sadly, he became a heavy drinker, and Ensor relates “In 1928, Don was showing about the coal fields … most of the money he had made in the East had gone … he sold most of his larger effects (some … were left in the back of Mrs Hinchley’s Hotel at Maitland) … as age crept in, he gradually drifted out of magic … he was disillusioned, broken in spirit and had no incentive … I wrote him, offering to buy the few remaining “sticks” that he possessed. That never eventuated.
[In 1946] Don hung himself in the rear of his home in Picnic Road, Ararat.”  

But what of the Peters family? We have very little to show where they went from Australia, and no indication that either Ada or Wilhelm were ever seen again as magicians, but it seems the whole family left together. A single clue from September 1912 shows that Ludwig Wilhelm Peters, piano-tuner of Victoria B.C. (Canada) applied to purchase land just south of Upper Campbell Lake. (18).

Ada Elizabeth Delbridge/Peters passed away in 1920, in San Bernadino California, where Ruby Mary Helen Victoria Peters also died on January 22, 1955. Son Rudolph Edward Peters had died in the Somme on September 26, 1916.

Ludwig Wilhelm Peters died on January 22, 1940 in the sprawling Yakima County of Washington, U.S.A. , and is buried in an unmarked grave at Tahoma Cemetery in Yakima.

From their very first performances in 1889, Fitzroy and Peters received exceptional praise in all their stage work, whether or not they were working as part-time professionals. Ada Fitzroy can be listed as one of very few female Australian magicians of the day,  meeting with such success and showing tremendous versatility. Herr Peters, without a doubt, could have become one of Australia’s stars of magic, had he chosen to remain on the professional stage.  

(1) Troedel Collection at the State Library of Victoria, including 40 theatrical posters at http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo-explore/search?query=creator,exact,Troedel%20%26%20Co.%20lithographers.&tab=default_tab&search_scope=Everything&vid=MAIN&facet=local2,include,Troedel%20collection.%20Theatre%20posters.&offset=0

(2) The Amphitrite Illusion: https://jamaica-history.weebly.com/amphitrite.html

(3)  Professor Perron poster in high resolution:  

(4) The Victoria Theatre, the oldest remaining theatre building in New South Wales (1876) is, at 2022, undergoing major restoration work to return it to life as a working theatre.

(5) Professor Anderson – not John Henry Anderson but another using the Anderson name, and requiring more research to unravel a complex and obscured identity.

(6) Dexter the Man of Mystery is yet to be fully researched, though there is some speculation that ‘he’ may not have existed but was a title used by several magicians in a comedic sketch.

(7) Referee (Sydney) October 30, 1889

(8) Australian Star November 6, 1889

(11) Sergeant Rudolph Edward Peters died on September 26, 1916 in France, fighting with the 31^st Battalion of Canadian infantry. He is buried at Albert cemetery at Picardie.

(12) Kreitmayer’s Waxworks https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/such-was-life/the-marvellous-and-macabre-waxworks-part-one-the-more-murderers-the-more-it-thrives/

(13) Philip Stuart wrote “An Old Showman’s Recollections” for the Daylesford Advocate in the March 19, 1918 issue.

(14) Charles Waller in “Magical Nights at the Theatre” nominates Davis as the mentor to Fitzroy.

(15) Bendigo Independent, November 5, 1891 p. 2

(16) The Star, November 10, 1892

(17) Read “Spookland!” online at  https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-33617559/view?partId=nla.obj-33617568#