The Art of Manliness - Manvotionals - Brett McKay [77]
Houdini set out to learn the secrets of every lock in the world, unable to rest until he knew how to pick them all with ease. He took up running, swimming, and biking long distances to build his body and endurance. He took classes on speech and debate to hone his skills as a charismatic showman.
In his home, he built a large sunken tub in which to practice escaping underwater and holding his breath (he got up to over four minutes). To train himself for stunts in which he would jump from bridges into frigid rivers while handcuffed and shackled, he would add ice to the water to increase his stamina. When guests came to visit, he would work a deck of cards with his fingers or untie knots with his toes, letting his digits get a workout while he carried on an engaging conversation.
Houdini’s practice and study sessions were so all-consuming he would frequently forget to eat and bathe; his wife Bess had to remind him to change his underwear.
The quotes below clearly show how this rigorous discipline of body and mind allowed Houdini to attain supreme success.
I want to be first. I vehemently want to be first. First in my profession … For that I give all the thought, all the power, that is in me. To stand at the head of my rank: it is all I ask … so I have struggled and fought. I have done and abstained; I have tortured my body and risked my life, only for that—to have one plank on the stage where they must fall back and cry “Master!”… I am strong, as you see; strong in flesh, but my will has been stronger than my flesh. I have struggled with iron and steel, with locks and chains; I have burned, drowned, and frozen till my body has become almost insensible to pain; I have done things which rightly I could not do, because I said to myself, “You must”; and now I am old at 36. A man is only a man, and the flesh revenges itself. Yet the will is its master when the will is strong enough. Do you think that these religious martyrs—the willing martyrs—those in India, say—who torture themselves by driving hooks through their flesh and swinging suspended—do you think they suffer pain? I say “No; they do not.” I have proved it in myself. To think vehemently of a thing, of the feat, that conquers the pain—some kinds of pain. If the thought is intense enough, the pain goes—for a time. Sometimes the task before me is very hard. Not every night, but sometimes. I must fling myself down and writhe; I must strive with every piece of force I possess; I bruise and batter myself against the floor, the walls; I strain and sob and exhaust myself, and begin again, and exhaust myself again; but do I feel pain? Never. How can I feel pain? There is no place for it. All my mind is filled with a single thought—to get free! Get free! And the intoxication of that freedom, that success is sublime.
Successive entries from Houdini’s journal:
Jan. 7. Gee whiz! Another ice bath. They want to see me earn my money.
Jan. 9. Took cold bath, 49 deg.
Jan. 10. Took cold bath, 48 deg. Doctor stops ice bath.
Jan. 16. Cold bath, 40 deg. Gee, it’s cold.
Jan. 18. Taking icy baths to get ready for bridge jump. Water about 36 deg.
My chief task has been to conquer fear. When I am stripped and manacled, nailed securely within a weighted packing case and thrown into the sea, or when I am buried alive under six feet of earth, it is necessary to preserve absolute serenity of spirit … I have to work with great delicacy and lightning speed. If I grow panicky I am lost. And if something goes wrong, if there is some little accident or mishap, some slight miscalculation, I am lost unless all my faculties are working on high, free from mental tension or strain. The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick; they have no conception of the tortuous preliminary self-training that was necessary to conquer fear.
My second secret has been, by equally vigorous self-training, to enable me to do remarkable things with my body, to make not one muscle or group of muscles, but every muscle a responsive worker, quick and sure for its part, to make my fingers