Although most ardent smokers will admit there is little pleasure in smoking in the dark, there are few who will not be surprised at the following trick.
Induce a cigarette devotee to have his eyes bandaged, and make him moisten the ends of two cigarettes. Having lighted one of them, allow the victim to have a few whiffs and then take it out of his mouth and replace it by the unlighted cigarette. Continue changing the cigarettes in this manner for a few minutes, and you will presently find that he is quite unable to tell which he has in his mouth, and is quite at a loss to know whether he is puffing away at the lighted “cig.” or not.
Fig. 23.—The mysterious bands—first stage.
The Mysterious Bands
Take a full sheet of a large newspaper, e.g. the first and last pages (which make one sheet) of a paper like the New York Times, and cut three straight strips (a, b, c) about three inches wide, as shown in [Fig. 23]. Now join the ends of these strips in the following manner in order to make three loops.
In the strip a bend round D, and paste it on to the under side of E.
Make a loop of b in a similar manner, but giving the strip a half turn, and pasting the under side of F to the under side of G.
In the third strip this twist is replaced by a full turn of the paper, so that H is pasted on the under side of N, as in the first instance.
When making these bands it will be quite easy to conceal from the spectators the twists you have given to the paper; and, indeed, the success of the trick depends upon this part of your preparation not being observed.