Book of parlor tricks: How to perform them

MULTUM IN PARVO LIBRARY.
Entered at the Boston Post Office as second class matter.
Vol. 2.
APRIL, 1895. Published Monthly.
No. 16.
How to Perform Them.
Smallest Magazine in the world. Subscription price 50 cts. per year. Single Copies 5 cts. each.
PUBLISHED BY A. B. COURTNEY, Room 74, - - 45 Milk Street, BOSTON, MASS.
The point of this trick consists in divining a word which is named, together with several others. Two of the players commonly agree between themselves to place it after an object that has four legs; for instance, a quadruped, a table, etc., etc.
Example. —If Emily wishes to have Henry guess the word which Susan has secretly told her, she says to him, “Susan has been shopping; she has bought a rose, a dress, some jewelry, a table, a bonnet, a shawl——” Henry, of course, will easily guess that the object in question is a bonnet , for the word “ table ,” which precedes it, has four legs.
Take half an ounce of camphor, dissolve it in two ounces of aqua vitæ, add to it one of quicksilver, one ounce of liquid storax, which is the droppings of myrrh, and prevents the camphor from firing; take also two ounces of hematis, which is a red stone, to be had at the druggists’; and when you buy it, let them beat it into a powder in their great mortar, for, being very hard, it cannot well be reduced in a small one; add this to the ingredients already specified, and when you purpose to walk upon the bar, anoint your feet well with it, and you may do so without the slightest danger.
Have two pieces of colored ribbon of exactly the same size and appearance, one of which, being damped, may be secured in the palm of the hand, previous to exhibiting. The other may be cut in pieces and burned in a plate by the audience. Taking now the ashes, you call for a basin of water, with which you moisten them, stating by the magical influence of the “cold water cure,” the color and form of the burned ribbon will be restored. Rubbing the damp ashes in the hand, you draw forth, at the same time, the concealed ribbon, which will appear to be the same that had been consumed.