A CLEVER ILLUSION.
Fig. 1 shows an original method for a novel window attraction. It consists in having a plush covered box on a table in the center of the show window, and arranged in the rear as shown in Fig. 2.
The box should be about the right size to accommodate the head and shoulders of a person. A hole is cut in the cover, through which the person’s head projects. The entire bottom of the box is removed and a corresponding opening is cut in the top of the table. By looking at the arrangement from the front, the head, flags, box and table are seen, and every one wonders where is the rest of the person. The box is of course much too small to hold a person, and as the space beneath the table appears perfectly clear, the mystery is increased. This illusion is easily performed. Fig. 2 shows a side and rear view.
The whole plan is effected by means of two pieces of plate mirror, A and B. These pieces should be high enough to reach from the floor to the lower side of the table top, and wide enough to extend at an angle with each, of about 45 degrees, the angle forming C, where the sides join, and ending far enough back to cover the person. The angular formation of the mirrors will reflect the floor in front, and if the edges of the mirror are draped so as not to show from the front, the appearance from the street is that the space below the table top is open, and that the person of the individual whose head projects from the box is in some mysterious way confined in the very limited room which the box affords. The plate mirror is the only costly article, and as this is not injured by use for a few weeks, it can be resold, or perhaps rented in the beginning.