THE INVISIBLE TRANSIT.
(Le Vase aux Grains.)
Mr. Panky borrows a half-crown, which he politely requests some one in the party to mark, and having had a fruit examined, such as a shaddock, melon, marrow, &c., he puts it in a box.
Then holding a large cup or vase full of seed or corn, as he proves by taking a pinch out of it, and casting the grain amongst the audience, he sets it on a table.
At a word, the coin vanishes to enter the fruit. Next, the fruit is commanded to cross and bury itself in the vase filled with seed, without displacing its contents, which is assuredly remarkable. Indeed, on plunging the hand into the vessel, the fruit is produced, and in its centre is found the marked coin. The seed has disappeared.
Fig. 13.
Explanation.—The vase is of metal with a secret bottom or with a trap in the stand, by which the contents, in this case seed, will run down out of it and down through the hollow leg of the table on which it is placed. The box in which the fruit is put is that called the Box of Disappearances.
Fig. 14.—The Box of Disappearances.
It is a case with a double drawer, into the inner of which an object is placed and both shut up; only the outer or false drawer is pulled out, and the disappearance is performed.
As for the fruit, the coin is placed in it beforehand, or introduced by means of the coin knife.
Performance.—The marked coin is passed to your agent, who pushes it into a fruit by a cut made in it while you are letting a duplicate fruit be examined. The prepared one is buried in seed in the vase which is brought in upon the stage. The second fruit is put into the disappearing box and made away with. A touch to the spring releasing the trap of the vase makes all the seed run off, and the fruit containing the coin is triumphantly opened.