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Pick a Card · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
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  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
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  Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
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  Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
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  Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. A magician is in a precarious
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  Speaker 1: position every time they approach an audience. For one, the
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  Speaker 1: magician doesn't know how a spectator is going to react.
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  Speaker 1: People walking into a performance are already in a skeptical mindset,
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  Speaker 1: trying to unravel the illusions. As they unfold. Their eyes
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  Speaker 1: are telling them one thing, but their minds no more
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  Speaker 1: is going on. They just can't see it, And so
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  Speaker 1: the magician must overcome that skepticism with feats of wonder,
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  Speaker 1: such as objects that levitate without any visible wires, or
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  Speaker 1: signed cards that appear in an audience member's wallet. Today's
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  Speaker 1: magicians hone their skills by building upon the techniques of old.
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  Speaker 1: Many of today's tricks, the kinds that are performed on
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  Speaker 1: television competitions and variety shows, have their roots in well worn,
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  Speaker 1: hundred year old slights. But one trick, no matter how
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  Speaker 1: it has changed or how it's performed, has stumped magicians
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  Speaker 1: for decades. The concept is simple, but one man's execution
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  Speaker 1: has blown the minds of those privileged enough to see it.
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  Speaker 1: And his name David Burglass. Burglass spent his early childhood
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  Speaker 1: in Nazi Germany, having once sat near Adolf Hitler at
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  Speaker 1: the nineteen thirty six Olympics in Berlin when he was
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  Speaker 1: just ten years old. As the political climate got worse, however,
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  Speaker 1: burglass family left Germany for England. World War two broke
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  Speaker 1: out a few years later, and in ninety five, as
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  Speaker 1: things were coming to it end, nineteen year old Burglass
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  Speaker 1: volunteered to help. He didn't use a gun, though, Instead
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  Speaker 1: he joined an initiative being spearheaded by the Americans known
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  Speaker 1: as d Nazification. As a result, he spent eighteen months
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  Speaker 1: helping to rid Germany of Nazi propaganda, including books and
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  Speaker 1: other media. It wasn't until nineteen seven when he found
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  Speaker 1: his true love magic. He met Ken Brook, a talented
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  Speaker 1: magician who had been performing since the age of seven.
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  Speaker 1: Brooke ran a magic shop at London, and with his help,
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  Speaker 1: Burglis spent the next several years studying intensely. On most
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  Speaker 1: nights he would go to a magic club or at
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  Speaker 1: send a show, all while developing his own routines. But
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  Speaker 1: it was in nineteen fifty three when he unveiled the
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  Speaker 1: trick that would put him on the map. Now most
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  Speaker 1: versions of it are known by the name any card
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  Speaker 1: at any number, or a can to magicians, but David's
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  Speaker 1: rendition was so powerful it has earned its own name,
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  Speaker 1: the Burglass effect. Although executions changed depending on the magician,
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  Speaker 1: and every iteration of a can follows the same conceit
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  Speaker 1: dating all the way back to the eighteenth century. One
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  Speaker 1: member of the audience is asked to name a card
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  Speaker 1: in the deck, such as the seven of Clubs, and
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  Speaker 1: then another spectator is asked to pick a number between
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  Speaker 1: one and fifty two. If they pick twenty seven, then
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  Speaker 1: twenty six cards are dealt from the top of the deck,
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  Speaker 1: and as the seven card is turned over, it is
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  Speaker 1: revealed as the seven of Clubs. The trick often receives
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  Speaker 1: a positive reaction, but every performance always has the same
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  Speaker 1: fatal flaw. The magician has to touch the deck at
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  Speaker 1: least once. They might shuffle it or push it towards
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  Speaker 1: the spectator sitting across the table, and in doing so,
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  Speaker 1: a manipulation of the cards is achieved right under the
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  Speaker 1: audience's nose. The Burgleiss effect, though it was different. Burgleis
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  Speaker 1: never touched the cards for the duration of the trick.
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  Speaker 1: There was no sleight of hand, no funny business. The
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  Speaker 1: entire illusion was performed from a distance, and it puzzled
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  Speaker 1: both audience, says and his fellow magicians. Now, the immediate
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  Speaker 1: reaction is that people assume he had a plant in
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  Speaker 1: his audiences, someone who had been told to call out
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  Speaker 1: a card or a number that had been predetermined by
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  Speaker 1: Burglass before the effect had begun. Yet every time he
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  Speaker 1: performed for others in his industry, he won them over.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes he would do it only for one or two
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  Speaker 1: people at a time, not a stooge insight, Burglass had
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  Speaker 1: seemingly done the impossible, and his talents extended beyond any
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  Speaker 1: card at any number. Two. Another magician named Stephen Cohen
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  Speaker 1: had been a regular performer at New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel.
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  Speaker 1: On a two thousand two trip to London, Cohen had
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  Speaker 1: gone to dinner with Burglass. At the end of the night,
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  Speaker 1: his host offered to take him back to the subway
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  Speaker 1: station where he could take his train to the hotel.
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  Speaker 1: They reached the station and Cohen told Burglass that he
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  Speaker 1: hoped the next time they met he could see his
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  Speaker 1: legendary version of the card trick. Immediately, the mood in
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  Speaker 1: the car shifted. Things got tense, and Burglass told him
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  Speaker 1: that he would never forget what he was about to see.
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  Speaker 1: He asked him to name a card, and Cohen called
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  Speaker 1: out the Three of Diamonds. Burglas then asked him to
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  Speaker 1: reach into his own coat and select the deck of
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  Speaker 1: cards from its pocket, the only deck that Burglass had
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  Speaker 1: been carrying that night, and sure enough, right there on
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of the deck, just as he had predicted,
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  Speaker 1: was the Three of Diamonds. The Burgless effect continued to
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  Speaker 1: baffle amateurs and professionals for years. Eventually, David Burglass allowed
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  Speaker 1: an explanation to be published, but even some seasoned magicians
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  Speaker 1: found themselves perplexed by the methods described. David Burglass had
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  Speaker 1: changed the face of magic with a simple idea. It
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  Speaker 1: wasn't about the cards or the numbers. He made the
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  Speaker 1: impossible possible. He made adults feel like kids again, and
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  Speaker 1: most importantly, he made people wonder and that perhaps was
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  Speaker 1: the greatest trick of all. The California gold Rush was
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  Speaker 1: technically never supposed to happen. In the months following the
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  Speaker 1: end of the Mexican American War, California was set to
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  Speaker 1: officially become a part of the United States. The population
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  Speaker 1: was small but growing, and it wasn't ready for what
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  Speaker 1: was about to happen. Businessman John Sutter had come from
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  Speaker 1: Switzerland to Alta, California, to establish a new colony. It
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  Speaker 1: was called Nueva Helvetia Spanish for New Switzerland, and although
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  Speaker 1: history paints Sutter as a pioneer, he enslaved many of
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  Speaker 1: the native tribes there to help him build his settlement,
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  Speaker 1: but he also employed a number of people, including some
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  Speaker 1: Native peoples as well as several Europeans. One such employee
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  Speaker 1: was a New jerseyman named James Marshall. In January, Marshall
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  Speaker 1: was working on the construction of a new water powered
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  Speaker 1: lumber mill along the American River when he noticed something
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  Speaker 1: shining in the water. They were flakes of metal. Marshall
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  Speaker 1: rushed them back to Sutter, who had the pieces tested,
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  Speaker 1: and sure enough, the two men had struck gold. They
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  Speaker 1: tried to keep the news quiet for a while, knowing
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  Speaker 1: that if word got out about Golden California, there would
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  Speaker 1: be a massive rush of people into his territory. Well,
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  Speaker 1: things didn't stay quiet for too long. By March, San
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  Speaker 1: Francisco journalist and business owner named Samuel Brannon had also
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  Speaker 1: discovered gold near Sutter's mill. Realizing what he had found,
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  Speaker 1: Brandon set up shop nearby. Literally, he opened a store
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  Speaker 1: selling prospecting supplies, then returned to San Francisco, where he
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  Speaker 1: walked the streets a little bottle of gold flakes in hand,
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  Speaker 1: announcing where he had found them. And the rest, as
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  Speaker 1: they say, was history. The gold Rush brought hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: thousands of people from across the globe to California in
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  Speaker 1: search of the American dream, But the ships docking in
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  Speaker 1: the San Francisco Bay brought more than just eager gold hunters, entrepreneurs, families,
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  Speaker 1: and ne'er dwells off locked to the West Coast for
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  Speaker 1: a chance at fortune. Of course, this also led to overcrowding.
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  Speaker 1: With so many people taking over, it got harder and
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  Speaker 1: harder to make a living as a miner. But there
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  Speaker 1: was another place out there where fortune was waiting to
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  Speaker 1: be found, and all one had to do was make
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  Speaker 1: the twenty eight mile journey by sea to get there.
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  Speaker 1: Off the coast of San Francisco is a cluster of
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  Speaker 1: islands known as the Farallon Islands or the fairy Lands.
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  Speaker 1: The forty two acre territory had been untapped during the
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  Speaker 1: gold rush, and for good reason, it was almost impossible
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  Speaker 1: to reach. The waters were choppy and the islands were
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  Speaker 1: surrounded by sharp rocks and even sharper teeth. You see.
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  Speaker 1: The seals that shored there attracted great white sharks. But
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  Speaker 1: many forty Niners were undeterred by the dangerous hurdles between
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  Speaker 1: them and riches beyond their wildest dreams, because upon reaching
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  Speaker 1: the islands, enterprising men like pharmacist Doc Robinson began sailing
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  Speaker 1: back with loads of eggs. That's right, eggs. You see,
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  Speaker 1: the miners who had come to California weren't just draining
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  Speaker 1: the rivers and mountains of gold. They were also eating
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  Speaker 1: the local farming community into bankruptcy. The agricultural industry couldn't
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  Speaker 1: keep up with demand. But even if the prospect of
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  Speaker 1: gold wasn't to guarantee, one thing was always certain. People
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  Speaker 1: had to eat. So Robinson started selling the eggs he
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  Speaker 1: stole to local markets and restaurants, kicking off a whole
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  Speaker 1: new kind of rush on the West Coast. Unfortunately, one
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  Speaker 1: basic tenant of business held true even then. When one
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  Speaker 1: person found success, they also found competition. By the early
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixties, other egg hunting outfits started coming to the
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  Speaker 1: island for a slice of the pie, though Robinson's Pacific
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  Speaker 1: Egg Company had laid claim to the islands for their
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  Speaker 1: exclusive use. One man in particular, David batch Elder, didn't
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  Speaker 1: care who owned the far Allns. He had grown tired
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  Speaker 1: of the egg company running the show, so he gathered
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  Speaker 1: up enough men to fill three boats and sailed over
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  Speaker 1: to confront him on June three of eighteen sixty eight.
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  Speaker 1: Robinson's men had been waiting, though. When batch Elder's crew arrived,
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  Speaker 1: one of the egg company employees shouted a warning that
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  Speaker 1: went ignored. Batch Elder was going to get what he
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  Speaker 1: felt was his. In response, Robinson's eggers fired at the boats,
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  Speaker 1: and batch Elder's men fired back. One of the egg
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  Speaker 1: company employees was struck by a bullet and killed, as
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  Speaker 1: was a rival egger on batch Elder's side. Despite each
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  Speaker 1: side's losses, though Robinson's men had successfully driven Batch Elder
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  Speaker 1: and his boats away from the island. After the short
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  Speaker 1: lived Egg War of the Farallons, the federal government stepped
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  Speaker 1: in and ordered an end to all commercial egging on
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  Speaker 1: the island, but that didn't stop unscrupulous people from sneaking
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  Speaker 1: over from time to time whenever they needed more. Luckily,
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  Speaker 1: for the native birds, though illegal egging eventually came to
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  Speaker 1: a stop, chicken farming became the new and easier way
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  Speaker 1: to harvest eggs for cooking, and so people no longer
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  Speaker 1: had to risk life and limb by sailing to the
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  Speaker 1: Farallon Islands anymore. The native bird population at an opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to recover, and that, my friends, is what I would
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  Speaker 1: call an excellent outcome. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
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  Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
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  Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of lore dot com
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  Speaker 1: and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,