FIG. 3.
FIG. 4.
FIG. 3.
FIG. 4.
At this instant the operator actuates a spring, which opens the trap in the floor. The lady passes between the legs of the chair ([Fig. 4]), and then through the two traps, the one in the paper and the one in the floor. As soon as she reaches the floor beneath the stage she closes the trap in the newspaper with gummed paper, and shuts the one in the floor, and it might be thought that she was still on the stage, although she has disappeared. In fact, the veil, on account of the wire frame, seems always to outline the contours of the vanished subject.
After the operator has said “one, two, three,” he lifts the veil and causes the wire frame to fall back.
Since this trick was first introduced it has been more or less perfected or modified in its form, but the preceding description states the methods generally employed in performing the trick. In some cases if the newspaper is carefully examined, it will be found to be made of India rubber and to contain a large rent at about the center. In the next chapter will be described an interesting illusion called “[She],” in which the lady disappears while being supposed to be cremated. This ingenious trick depends for a portion of the effect upon mirrors, so it is placed with the other illusions requiring the aid of mirrors.