Angelo Lewis

“Professor Hoffmann”

LATEST MAGIC

BEING
ORIGINAL CONJURING TRICKS

INVENTED AND ARRANGED
BY
PROFESSOR HOFFMANN
(ANGELO LEWIS, M.A.)

Author of “Modern Magic,” etc.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS

First Edition

NEW YORK
SPON & CHAMBERLAIN, 120 Liberty St.
1918

Copyright, 1918
By SPON & CHAMBERLAIN

CAMELOT PRESS, 226-228 WILLIAM ST., NEW YORK, U. S. A.

TO
J. N. MASKELYNE, ESQ.
FOREMOST OF ENGLISH MAGICIANS,
AND
Fearless Exposer of Falsehood and Fraud
This Book is Dedicated
BY
His Friend and Admirer,
THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

The tricks described in the following pages are of my own invention, and for the most part are entirely new departures: not only the effects produced, but the appliances by means of which they are produced, being original.

From the nature of the case, it follows that few of the items described have been submitted to the supreme test of performance in public, but all have been thoroughly thought out; most of the root-ideas having in fact been simmering in my mind for more than two years past. One or two of them may demand a more than average amount of address on the part of the performer; but the majority are comparatively easy, and I believe I may assert with confidence that all will be found both practicable and effective. Should any of my modest inventions be found, as is not improbable, susceptible of further polish, the keen wits and ready fingers of my brother wizards may safely be trusted to supply it.

The items entitled The Mystery of Mahomet, The Bewildering Blocks, and The Wizard’s Pocket-book, have been described in the columns of an English magical serial, but have never appeared in book shape, and are by special desire, included in the present volume.

A final word on a personal matter. Had I been prophet, as well as magician, when I first began to write on conjuring, I should have chosen a different pen-name. In the light of later events, my selection was unfortunate. My identity has long been an open secret, but as I cannot flatter myself that it is universally known, I take this opportunity to assure all whom it may concern that I am British to the backbone.

Louis Hoffmann.

CONTENTS

Portrait of Professor Hoffmann[Frontispiece]
PAGE
Preface[vii]
Some New Appliances of General Utility[1]
Magical Mats[1]
Fairy Flower-Pots[5]
Patter Introducing the Flower-Pots[8]
Adhesive Cards and Tricks Therewith[10]
The Missing Card[12]
Novel Applications of the “Black Art” Principle[17]
Black Art Mats and Black Art Patches[17]
A Magical Transposition[23]
The Detective Die[26]
Dissolving Dice[32]
Where is It?[38]
Card Tricks[46]
Arithmetic by Magic[46]
Those Naughty Knaves[49]
Magnetic Magic[55]
The Telepathic Tape[57]
A Card Comedy[60]
The Fast and Loose Card-Box[63]
A Royal Tug of War[64]
Sympathetic Cards[66]
Tell-Tale Fingers[68]
Divination Doubly Difficult[72]
A New Long Card and Tricks Therewith[77]
The Mascot Coin Box[83]
Miscellaneous Tricks[88]
Money-Making Made Easy[88]
The Missing Link[92]
Culture Extraordinary[97]
The Bounding Beans[104]
Lost and Found[110]
The Riddle of the Pyramids[115]
The Miracle of Mumbo Jumbo[123]
The Story of the Alkahest[130]
The Oracle of Memphis[137]
The Mystery of Mahomet[146]
The Bewildering Blocks[156]
An “Od” Force[162]
The Mystery of the Three Seals[170]
The Wizard’s Pocket-book[180]
Concerning Patter[192]
The Use of the Wand[203]
A Few Wrinkles[215]
L’Envoi[222]