The “Magician’s Omelette.”
The magician has never proved himself an adept at the art of cooking, from an epicure’s standpoint; yet the ease with which he can bake cakes in borrowed hats and cook omelettes in empty pans has long been a source of wonder to the economical housewife, as well as to the professional cook.
To see the magician hold a small, shallow, empty pan over the blaze of a spirit lamp for a few moments, when an omelette, done to a turn, appears in the pan and is cut up and distributed to the audience, one is almost convinced that at least one person has solved that most perplexing of all problems—how to live without work.
But has he solved it? No! my friend, no more than you or I. He has merely deceived you; but most cleverly, you must admit.
The pan is without any preparation whatever; but as much cannot be said of the wand, which he is continually stirring around in the pan. This wand is hollow, with an opening at one end only; and in the wand, previous to the trick, of course, are placed the properly seasoned ingredients of an omelette, after which the end is closed with a metal plug that is turned and enameled to correspond with the opposite end of the wand.
When the pan is being examined the performer is holding the wand in his hand, and such an innocent-appearing black stick is never suspected of being in any way connected with the trick.
Just before holding the pan over the lamp the performer finds it a most easy matter to remove the plug from the end of the wand, when, by holding the wand by the closed end, he can empty the contents into the pan in the mere act of passing the open end of the wand around the inside of the pan. (Fig. 45.)
Fig. 45.—The “Magician’s Omelette.”
The metal of which the pan is made being thin, and there not being a great quantity of the omelette, assisted by a large flame from the lamp, it only requires a few moments to cook the omelette, when it is turned out on a plate and carried down to the audience.
It is hardly necessary to say that when the cooked omelette is carried down, the wand is left on the stand, which prevents any inquisitive person asking to see it.