28. THE SHILLING IN THE BALL OF COTTON.

Get a tinman to make a flat tin tube, which will just allow a shilling to pa.s.s through it. Wind a quant.i.ty of worsted round it, so as to make it into a ball.

These preliminaries having been accomplished, perform any trick that will get a shilling out of sight, such as No. 1 or 2. Then tell the spectators that you will bring the marked shilling into the middle of a ball of worsted. Take down the ball from the place where it is lying, drop the shilling into the tube, and withdraw the tube, leaving the shilling in the ball. A good squeeze or two will hold it tight, and obliterate every mark of the tube. Place the ball in a tumbler, take the end of the worsted, and give it to some one to unwind. This being done, the shilling will be found in the very centre of the ball, with the end of the worsted wrapped tightly round it.

29. THE EGG AND BAG TRICK.

Get a chintz or cloth bag made double, and between the two bags make six or seven pockets, each of which will hold an egg, and having an opening into the bag. Fill the pockets with eggs, and you are ready for the performance.

Hold the bag by the place where the eggs are, shake it, turn it inside out and show that there is nothing in it. Then tell the spectators that you are sure that there is a hen in the bag. Put your head near the mouth of the bag, and make a clucking like a hen. You then say, "I knew I was right, and she has laid an egg." So saying, you put your hand into the bag and take out one of the eggs, taking care to pretend to grope in one of the corners for it.

This is repeated until all the eggs but one are gone. You then, after taking out the last egg, say that some people think that the eggs are not real, but you will convince them by ocular inspection. Saying this, you break the egg in a saucer with your right hand, and while the people are occupied with it, you drop the bag behind your table, or hang it on a hook out of sight, and take up another exactly like it, into which you have put a hen. "These are real eggs," you then say, "and if any one doubts their reality, they cannot doubt that this is a real hen." You then turn the bag upside down, and shake out the hen. If any one wishes to inspect that bag, he can do so without being much wiser for it.

30. THE DANCING EGG.

Send for some eggs, and take care to place among them one which has been emptied of its contents, and to which is fastened a long hair, at the other end of which is tied a crooked pin. Borrow a small stick from one of the spectators, and as you go behind your table contrive to hook the bent pin into your coat, pa.s.sing it over the stick. Then place the egg on an inverted hat, and ask for some music, and directly it begins to sound, a slight and imperceptible depression or elevation of the stick will cause the egg to twist and roll about upon it as if it had life.

You must be careful to turn gently round now and then, so as apparently to vary the distance of the egg from the body.

31. BELL AND SHOT.

Get a wooden bell made, so thick that there is a considerable s.p.a.ce between the outer and inner surfaces, especially on the upper part of the bell. A hollow must be cut in this, and the handle so made, that when it is at rest, it is forced upwards by a spring, and draws up the round piece of wood to which the clapper chain is attached, and closes the aperture, as shown in the engraving.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

You have a cardboard measure, which is of precisely the same capacity as the cavity in the bell, and just wide enough to hold a farthing. Into this you privately put a farthing, and then fill up the measure with shot, heaping it a little, to compensate for the farthing. You make up a tale about a man going out shooting, and ringing the bell of the gunmaker's shop. (You then ring your wooden bell.) How the man bought a measure full of shot for a farthing, (you pour the shot into the bell and back again two or three times,) but was so long haggling over three shots, that the gunmaker took away the shot, (here you again pour the shot into the bell, and by pressing on the handle, allow them all to run into the hollow,) and kept the farthing for his trouble. The man went out of the shop, but soon came in again, and rang furiously. (Here you again ring the bell, which is now apparently empty, and invert the measure on the table. The farthing not being held by the finger and thumb will now fall on the tablecloth.) Then finish the story with an account of the manner in which the man got back his farthing. When you have finished, invert the bell over the empty measure, and on pressing the handle, the shots will refill it. Do not touch, it until you have done another trick or two, and then, when you put the bell aside, ring it again, and remark that the purchaser was a silly fellow after all, for here are his shots in his measure.

32. THE BURNED HANDKERCHIEF RESTORED.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Get a tinman to make a double canister, such as is shown in the cut, with an opening at each end. This must so slide within a tin tube, that either end can be concealed within it alternately, as seen in the engraving, where the end A is shown, and B is concealed. In this position it looks like an ordinary canister. The interior is divided into two parts. Into B put a piece of cambric made to look like a handkerchief.

Borrow a cambric handkerchief, and say, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, I shall burn this handkerchief to ashes, place them in this canister" (so saying, you put it into A), "and when I have uttered a spell, it will be restored perfectly whole. Will the owner say what mark it has?" While the audience are looking towards the owner, you turn the canister over, and push up the canister until the shoulder of B is on a level with the top of the tube. When the mark has been declared, you open B, take out the cambric, and pretend to verify the mark. You then put it into a candle flame, and when it has burnt entirely to ashes, put the ashes into B, shut it up, and rapidly reverse it as you turn round to your audience, so that A is uppermost again. Then, utter any nonsense you like, open A and take out the handkerchief uninjured. It rather adds to the trick if you drop a little eau de cologne into A before commencing.

33. THE FIRE-EATER.

If the young conjuror is desirous of appearing in the character of a fire-eater, it is very easily managed. He must prepare a piece of thick string, by soaking it in a solution of nitre, and then drying it. He cuts off a piece about an inch in length, lights one end, and wraps it up in a piece of tow which he holds in his left hand. The trifling smoke will be concealed by a huge bundle of loose tow also carried in the left hand.

He takes a handful of tow in his right hand, puts it into his mouth, chews it up, and appears to swallow it. He then takes another handful, and with it the piece in which is the string. As he puts this into his mouth, he takes out the piece which he has already chewed. By taking breath through the nostrils, and breathing it out through the mouth, smoke begins to issue forth, and the whole interior of the mouth is soon lighted up with a glow. When the mouth is shut, and the tow pressed together, the fire goes out, except the piece of prepared string. More tow is then taken into the mouth, and treated in the same manner.

In this short account of conjuring, I have purposely avoided such tricks as require expensive apparatus. Such apparatus is either entirely beyond a boy's reach, or at all events he ought not to be encouraged in the notion of spending much money on objects of no real use. A boy of any ingenuity will make the greater part of the apparatus himself, or at least he can do the painting and polishing of his machinery. I have mentioned no machinery that need cost more than two or three shillings at the outside, and not that, if a boy is acquainted with the use of tools.

TRICKS WITH CARDS.

In accordance with the previous rule, the princ.i.p.al stress is laid on card tricks that require no apparatus, and may be performed with ordinary cards.

1. TO MAKE THE Pa.s.s.

This is a necessary beginning for card tricks. "Making the pa.s.s" is the technical term for shifting either the top or the bottom card to any place in the pack that you like. It is almost impossible to describe it, and I can only say that it will be learnt better in five minutes from a friend, than in as many hours from a book. As, however, a friend is not always to be found who can perform the pa.s.s, I will endeavour to describe it.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The cards are held in both hands, right hand underneath and left above, as in the engraving, where, as the _bottom_ card is to be raised to the top, the little finger is seen between that card and those above it. By a quick movement of the right hand, the bottom card is slipped away towards the left, and is placed upon the top card, under shadow of the left hand, which is raised for the moment to allow of its pa.s.sage.

This movement must be a.s.siduously practised before it is exhibited in public, as nothing looks more awkward than to see it clumsily performed, in which case two or three cards generally tumble on the floor.

2. TO TELL A CARD BY ITS BACK.

While shuffling the pack, cast a glance at the bottom card, make the pa.s.s, and bring it to the top. Continue to shuffle, and lay upon it by degrees as many cards as you like, say six. Then lay the pack on the table, face downwards, and divide it into seven heaps, beginning at the bottom, and leave the seventh heap larger than any of the others.

When you have done this, take one card from the top of the seventh heap, appear to calculate, and lay it, face upwards, on one of the other heaps. Do so with five more cards, thus leaving your slipped card at the top of the seventh heap. You then announce that by the aid of the six cards you will name the seventh. You name it accordingly, after carefully studying the other cards, and on asking a spectator to take it up, it will be seen that you are right.

If you place five cards above the slipped card, you will lay out six heaps, and if eight cards, there will of course be nine heaps.

3. THE CARD NAMED WITHOUT BEING SEEN.

As in the last trick, cast a glance at the bottom card, say the ace of spades. Lay out the pack in as many heaps as you like, noting where that one is laid which contains that bottom card. Ask any one to take up the top card of any heap, look at it, and replace it. You then gather up the heaps apparently by chance, but you take care to put the heap containing the bottom card upon the card which has been chosen. You then give any one the cards to cut, and on counting them over, the card that immediately follows the ace of spades is the card chosen.

If by any accident the two cards should be separated when cut, the upper card of the pack is the chosen one, and can be picked out with seeming care.

4. THE CARD TOLD BY THE OPERA GLa.s.s.

Make out a table, such as is given on the next page, Fig. 1, and place it in an opera-gla.s.s, so that the figures will be visible when you look through it. For convenience, I have made mine as seen in Fig. 2, the numbers 1, 2, 3 in each series being understood. The best plan is to write the numbers, or cut them out of a book, and paste them on a circular piece of cardboard, which must then be soaked in oil, so as to make it semi-transparent. The light will then easily pierce through it, and the figures will be better visible than if it were opaque.

It will be seen that Fig. 2 contains as much matter as Fig. 1, and that two-thirds of the figures are saved by it.

+------------+--------------+-------------+ | 1. 131 | 10. 132 | 19. 133 | | | | | | 2. 231 | 11. 232 | 20. 233 | | | | | | 3. 331 | 18. 332 | 21. 333 | +------------+--------------+-------------+ | 4. 121 | 13. 122 | 22. 123 | | | | | | 5. 221 | 14. 222 | 23. 223 | | | | | | 6. 321 | 15. 322 | 24. 323 | +------------+--------------+-------------+ | 7. 111 | 16. 112 | 25. 113 | | | | | | 8. 211 | 17. 212 | 26. 213 | | | | | | 9. 311 | 18. 312 | 27. 313 | +------------+--------------+-------------+

FIG. 1.

-------+------- / | / | / | / 1. 31. | 10. 32. / | / 4. 21. | 13. 22. / | / 7. 11. | 16. 12. | | | +---------------+--------------+ | | 19. 33. / / 22. 23. / / 25. 13. / / / / ---------------

FIG. 2.

These preliminaries being arranged, tell any one to take any twenty-seven cards out of a pack, and to think of any one of them. Deal them into three heaps, and ask him in which heap it is, and what number from the top he would like it to come after the third deal. Suppose he chooses it to be the twenty-sixth card, you take up your opera-gla.s.s, and look for the number 26. This you will find last but one, arranged thus,--26. 213. The meaning is, that if the chosen card is to be the twenty-sixth, the heap in which it was found must be for the first time placed second, the second time first, and the last time third. So you pick up the cards, taking care to keep that heap number two. You again deal them in three heaps, and this time you place the heap in which is the chosen card at the top, being number one. Deal them a third time, and on gathering up the heaps, place it at the bottom.

Then, on counting from the top, the chosen card will be found to be the twenty-sixth.