In the August 1912 issue of The Magician Monthly its editor, Will Goldston, was dealing with a problem. He had launched a column interviewing amateur magicians and, after eight installments, received a letter “complaining that so far no Scotsman had been interviewed for this series, and asking for an explanation of the apparent boycott.” To remedy the situation he commissioned an interview with John Ramsay.
After explaining the reason for the interview, checking Ramsay’s heritage, and setting out that the previous subjects included “half-a-dozen Englishmen, a Welshman, and a South African,” the interviewer asked Ramsay if his most recent performance was a success.
“Yes, I think I may say it was. But I had of course rehearsed the tricks many times previously,” replied Ramsay. “Your Editor is very insistent on the necessity for much careful preliminary rehearsal. So for the matter of that, are all authoritative writers on magic. But the advice is really not needed by us Scotsmen. We are as a race thorough in all things we take in hand. I, for instance, would never have dreamed of giving a show in public unless I had made sure by much previous practice that every item in my programme would go smoothly. No, the advice in question is not applicable to Scotsmen—however much it may be to Englishmen, Welshmen, and South Africans.”
Ramsay went one to demonstrate some of his work with thimbles—I suspect the interviewer was taken aback in more ways than one.