The Smashed Watch.
You request some one of the company to lend you a watch, and put it immediately into a mortar; a few moments afterward you cause it to be pounded, by another person, with a pestle; you exhibit the wheels, face, mainspring, and drum barrel broken and smashed; and finally, after a few minutes, you return the watch, whole and safe, to the proprietor, who recognizes it.
After all that we have said, it will easily be perceived that the mortar must be placed near the trap in the table of which we spoke in the last trick, and covered with a napkin, in order that the confederate may substitute another watch.
To produce a complete illusion in this case, you must take care to put in the mortar a second watch, the hands, works, and case of which should, in some degree, resemble those of the borrowed one. And this is by no means difficult; for you can either have an understanding with the person lending the watch, or you may manage to ask the loan of some one whom you have seen elsewhere, and whose watch you may have had an opportunity of examining shortly before, with a view of procuring a similar one.
After replacing the fragments in the mortar, cover them a second time with the napkin, and amuse the company with a riddle or conundrum, or by some other tricks, to give your partner time to collect all the bits, and replace the perfect watch in the mortar.