The Invisible Coin.
“Is silver a visible or invisible thing?” What a singular question! You will reply, certainly silver is a visible thing. A good many poor creatures, however, are of a different opinion; and possibly they are not altogether wrong, as we are about to show.
Will you kindly lend me a quarter, having first marked it, that you may know it again. Very well! There is a little handkerchief which will serve for me to make the experiment I have promised you. In the middle of this handkerchief, as you will perceive, I will put the quarter, which you have marked with a small cross. I am only folding the handkerchief that the quarter may be well wrapped up in it; you can have no difficulty in recognizing its shape. However! You are suspicious! I will make an improvement. There, sir, hold the handkerchief yourself, first above the little parcel formed by the coin. You may touch it, and convince yourself that it is still in its place. Now, I take the handkerchief by the opposite corner, I draw it toward me, unfolding it entirely; I then turn it over, shake it, and wave it in the air, to convince you that the coin has disappeared. The fact is evident. But, did you see it go? No! Certainly, then, silver is sometimes an invisible body.
Which fact you may prove by the foregoing process, if you have a handkerchief in one corner of which a quarter dollar has been sewed. You appear to put the borrowed quarter in the middle of the said handkerchief; then, instead of this coin, which you retain in your hand, concealed between the fore and middle fingers, you fold the handkerchief making the little parcel in the middle with the quarter sewed in the corner, in a sort of hem, so that the coin is not seen, and cannot drop out. When you quickly pull the handkerchief out of the hand which held it, the illusion is complete.
As to the marked coin which it is easy for you to have put on the table, or in your pocket, you may make it reappear in a cup, a box, or anything else, which adds to the effect of the trick you have performed.
The Wizard Skeleton.
This is an animated figure, fourteen inches high. It represents a skeleton, miniature but lifelike in appearance. You may pass it around for examination, then stand it upon the floor and it will begin to dance without any visible motive power. Just think of it! People will imagine that ghosts or demons are near. This trick can be done in any room very easily. The skeleton will dance to music, jump, lie down, etc., just as you command. We will send the apparatus and secret of Wizard Skeleton for 6 cents in stamps. Address, A. B. Courtney & Co., 493 Washington street, Lynn, Mass., or the firm from whom you purchased this book.
Magic Writing.
Present a person with a slip of paper, a pen and a tumbler of water, and desire him to dip the pen in the tumbler, and write down whatever he pleases. When dry, the words will be invisible, but, if the paper is immersed in the contents of the tumbler, the writing will make its appearance quite distinctly. To perform this the pen should be a quill one, and new, and the water in the tumbler should have one or two crystals of sulphate of iron (green vitriol) previously dissolved in it, while the writer should be careful the pen does not get dry in use. When the writing has been executed, the tumbler should be taken away, on pretence of the water being rather dirty, and wanting changing; another similar tumbler is brought back, filled to the same height with water, in which a few drops of tincture of galls have been poured. When the paper is immersed in this, the writing will quickly appear.