Fig. 18
There is also a cardboard cover which fits over the vase, a little metal cup, acting as a lid, which fits loosely into the top of the lining, and a lid with a knob for a handle which fits closely into this secret cup or lid. The secret lid has a little cotton wool placed on it.
This is the usual way of working the trick. The lining, with its "secret" lid on the top of it, is placed inside the cover and stood upon the table. The conjurer shows the vase, and as at the moment it is free from preparation he can rattle his wand inside it and show that it is really empty. He then fills it with cotton wool, taking care to put in the wool in little pieces and not pressing it down. He then "explains"—and I ask you to remember that this is not my way of presenting the trick—that the original way of doing the trick was by covering the vase with a cardboard cylinder. He puts on the cover and so gets the lining into the vase. The lining, of course, has been previously filled with coffee, or milk, or water, or some other liquid; the bottom of the lining presses down the cotton wool in the vase into a very small compass.
Now, when the conjurer removes the cover the audience see the pieces of cotton wool at the top of the secret lid on the lining, and apparently no change has been made. The conjurer goes on to explain that the modern method of doing the trick consists in merely putting "this little lid" on the cotton wool. (Cotton wool, is easily compressible, and there is sufficient space between the bottom of the lining and the bottom of the vase for all the cotton wool which was placed loosely in the vase.) Naturally, when the conjurer takes off the lid he brings away inside it the secret lid and the little pieces of cotton wool which were on that lid, and he can pour out any liquid which was in the "lining" to the vase.
Every trick has its weak point, and it seems to me that the weak point of that version of the trick is found by the audience when they realise that they are not permitted to see that the cover is empty before it is placed over the vase. I admit that the appearance of the vase is not altered in any way after the cover has been removed. The exterior is just the same and the audience see the little pile of cotton wool at the top. Still, I have never liked that method.
I dispense with the secret lid or cup to the lining and, therefore, with the "visible" lid to it. At the commencement of the trick I have the inner lining, nearly filled with water, in the vase, and the cover empty. I begin by showing that the cover really is empty, and to show that it fits over the vase I drop it over the vase and lift it off again. I replace the cover and then, as a kind of afterthought, say: "I never showed you the vase; of course, there is nothing in that." This time, when taking off the cover I take off the inner lining by pinching the cover tightly and leave it for a moment hidden in the cover. Then I fill the vase with cotton wool and put on the cover. The audience have seen the cover empty and they have seen the empty vase filled with cotton wool. Of course, when I take off the cover I can at once pour out the water.
It is advisable to have the cover made of tin. When you are putting a cardboard cover with the metal lining inside it over the vase it is not an easy matter to prevent the lining from knocking against the top of the vase, and if you are performing at close quarters the audience may hear the "chink" of metal against metal. You get over that difficulty by having the cover made of tin.
If you want to raise a laugh easily at the close of this trick you can pretend to overhear someone say that the water is not real water. You at once pour some into a cup and throw it—apparently—over the heads of the audience, but instead of a shower of water they get a shower of confetti.
