Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin Elephant", that every magician of the 20th century was "haunted" by Robert-Houdin, "…who cast an enormous shadow over their generation." American magician and escape artist Harry Houdini (born Ehrich Weiss) was so impressed by Robert-Houdin that, after reading his autobiography in 1890, Ehrich adopted the stage name of "Houdini" in honour of Robert-Houdin. He incorrectly believed that an "i" on the end of a name meant "like" in French; but Houdini, his own career and reputation established by that time, later lost his youthful respect for Robert-Houdin, believing that he took undue credit for other magicians' innovations, and wrote "The
Louis R. Ehrich subject. In 1896, he was the sole delegate from the Rocky Mountain Region at the 1896 Democratic National Convention, also known as the Gold Convention of 1896. He wrote and published "The Question of Silver" to further explicate his views on the Free Silver issue. Despite his early opposition to William Jennings Bryan because of their differing opinions on the Gold Standard, Ehrich reconciled with him by the date of the 1900 election, largely thanks to Bryan's firm stance against the American annexation of the Philippines. In the mid 1890s, Ehrich combined his interest in European paintings with his knowledge