DETAILS OF THE APPARATUS.
The magician takes a large table cover, and, standing at the rear of table, proceeds to cover it by throwing cloth over table, so that it reaches the floor in front of the table, then slowly draws it up over the table top. The moment that the cloth touches the floor in front of the table, the trap is opened and the box containing the lady is drawn up under the table by means of the windlass, and the trap closed. This is done very quickly, during the moment’s time in which the magician is straightening out the cloth to draw it back over the table. All that now remains to be done is for the lady to open the trap in table and slowly take her place on top of the table, and close the trap.
The top and bottom of the box by means of which the lady is placed under the table are connected by means of three strong elastic cords placed inside of the cloth covering. These elastics are for the purpose of keeping the bottom and top frame of box together, except when distended by the weight of the lady. Thanks to this arrangement of the box, it folds up as the lady leaves it for her position on the table top, and is concealed inside of the frame of table after her weight is removed from it. A somewhat similar trick is called “[The Disappearing Lady].” In this illusion the process is worked in the reverse order.
“THE DISAPPEARING LADY.”
The accompanying [figures] illustrate a trick in which the prestidigitateur, after placing a chair upon an open newspaper and seating a lady thereon, covers her closely with a silk veil, and after the words “one, two, three,” lifts the veil and shows that the lady has disappeared.
