Fig. 12.
(g) Another very pretty trick is the following, although also well known. Procure (a "magical repository" will be found the best place to go to in the long run) a "nest" of round boxes, one fitting inside the other. If the outside one is of the size of a crown piece, and the inner one large enough to contain a shilling, the "nest" should consist of nine or ten boxes. Have the lids arranged in order, one within the other, and the bodies in the same manner, beside the lids. If you are performing with a retiring screen, the boxes can be arranged behind it. Lacking this, the next best plan is to have them at the bottom of a bag, which will stifle the noise made by shutting them. Borrow a marked coin, which you will exchange for a similar one in your palm ([Palm No. 1]). Give this to be held. Say, "Now, here I have a small box." But as you have purposely left the "small box" behind your screen or in your bag, as the case may be, you will have to go and fetch it. As soon as your hands are out of sight, pop the coin (which will be the marked one) into the smallest box, and shut all the lids down together. If you have to do this inside the bag, and consequently in full view of the audience, your face must bear an anxious and slightly annoyed expression, as if the box could not be found. As soon as the manœuvre is executed, exclaim, as if much relieved, "Ah, here it is. Now, ladies and gentlemen," &c., &c. The operation of shutting all the boxes down at once is a very simple one if the lids are taken in one hand and the bodies in the other, the two halves meeting, as it were, half way. A little practice will soon show the futility of attempting to turn the lids over on the bodies. Place the box in a prominent place (do not give it to be held, as a slight shake will reveal the fact that there is a coin already inside), and, taking the coin out of the handkerchief, "pass" it into the box, which now ask someone to open. Of course, box No. 2 will be found inside, at which you will say, "Dear me!" or make any other expression of surprise. Boxes Nos. 3, 4, and so on will in turn be revealed, amidst great amusement, and in the innermost one, which the performer must, on no account, open himself, the coin will be discovered. You cannot very well avoid allowing an examination of the boxes, but always take care that the lids are in one place and the boxes in another, and all in great confusion as to gradation of size, and at the earliest opportunity sweep them away. It is the fashion to perform this trick with a coin previously sewn in a handkerchief, which handkerchief is whisked in the air. The effect is decidedly good, if not spoilt (as it certainly will be, ever and anon) by a demand to examine the handkerchief, which demand, I need hardly say, it is impossible to accede to. This sort of thing the conjuror must never indulge in. Let him borrow and return his handkerchief like a man, and trust to his sleight of hand.
(h) Palm a penny ([Palm No. 1]); borrow another, and a florin. Ask one of the audience to extend his or her hands (palms open and upwards) towards you; give the borrowed penny to be held by someone else, hold the florin at the ends of the fingers of the left hand, and execute the pass described in [trick c], which will leave the florin in the palm of the left hand. The penny in the right hand must not, however, be actually exhibited, as is the coin in [trick c], but be immediately placed in one of the outstretched hands before you. If the owner of them is at all restive, and anxious to see what is in his or her hand, or is a person you know or think you cannot trust, ask the nearest person to assist in the operation by holding the hand in one of his or her own. This, you will explain, is to show that you have no confederates. If the two parties are of opposite sexes, you can improve the occasion by some gentle sally about the gentleman being honoured by holding a lady's hand, &c. This operation concluded, the audience, including the holder of the coin, is, you may have no fear, under the impression that the florin is in the holder's hand. You have now to make believe to place the penny into the other outstretched hand. To do this, you must execute the same pass as before, only reversed; i.e., the right hand will hold the penny, and the left the palmed florin. This trick affords an instance where palming with both hands is a requisite accomplishment. If the performer is not able to palm with both hands, an opportunity must be made for getting the coin in the left hand back into the right. By repeating the change as before, you will be supposed to place the penny in the other hand of the holder, and, drawing particular attention to the exact position of the coins, command them to change places. This trick, so simple to look at, is one of the most difficult to perform of those yet described; for not only must the sleight of hand be well executed, but the whole demeanour of the performer must be impressive of the fact that he really is doing what he says he is, instead of exactly the reverse. Yet the impressiveness must not be too pointed, or the natural suspicion in human nature will be aroused. The "happy medium" is well hit if the performer, in giving the florin (in reality the penny), says, "Now, sir" (or "madam," as the case may be), "I will ask you to take great care of this coin for me. Conjurors are but poor people, and cannot well afford to lose money; for this reason I have given you the florin to hold in your right hand, it being the stronger." On giving the penny, you can say that "I would rather, for safety's sake, that it were along with the florin in the right hand, only, in that case, there would be no trick." In giving the coins into the holder's hands, it is highly essential that you close the latter rapidly, the coins being so covered by your own fingers during the operation that nothing is seen of them. Otherwise, it would be unnecessary to proceed further with the trick. The florin may be marked, but not so the penny, unless the audience insists upon it, as they sometimes will, at the instigation of Mr. Interference; in which case the pennies must be once more exchanged—a very simple matter—before the coins are returned to their owners.
(i) Borrow or produce (it is immaterial, save for appearance, which you do) six to nine coins, and lay them, apart from each other, on a table or slab. Have one of the coins marked by several persons in the room (use the "no confederate" excuse), and placed along with the unmarked ones in a hat and the whole shaken up so as to be well mixed. Whilst this is being done, have yourself blindfolded. Placing your hand in the hat, feel every coin, and you will at once detect which is the marked one, by its warmth. The heat is imparted to it from the many hands through which it has passed. It is always advantageous to have the other coins lying on as cold a place as possible; but never turn back a tablecloth for the purpose of allowing them to lie on the bare mahogany, or a clue to the solution of the mystery will be given. Sometimes some clever people will pretend to put the marked shilling into the hat without doing so. This you can easily detect by counting the coins. Of course, you would not count them until you failed to find the marked one, as the trick should be performed as quickly as possible. No sleight of hand whatever is required; but it is a trick which never fails to excite the greatest wonderment whenever successfully performed. By allowing the audience to arrange the preliminaries, you disarm suspicion. The blindfolding, which is an innovation of my own, I find a great improvement. Of course, make the most of it.
(k) Have a shilling palmed ([Palm No. 1]), and borrow another; also a handkerchief. Place the borrowed shilling in the handkerchief, which roll up very loosely, the coin from the palm being included in the folds, and as near the other one as possible without actually touching it. Place the whole in a hat, with one end of the handkerchief hanging out. Now borrow another shilling, which say you will pass invisibly into the handkerchief. Make a pass, and ask someone to shake the handkerchief into the hat, when the two coins will jingle together. This is a simple trick, and is capable of variation according to circumstances.
(l) The trick I am now going to describe, as a drawing-room experiment with coins, surpasses, for simplicity and effect, all others. But its simplicity must not lead the learner to attempt it without having attained some proficiency in the foregoing tricks, for considerable neatness is required to execute it effectively. Procure a piece of glass of the size and thickness of a penny, and have the edges ground smooth, but not polished. This is best obtained from a lapidary—not an optician. Have it palmed in either hand ([Palm No. 1]). Borrow a penny, and, whilst it is being marked, ask one of the audience to half fill a wineglass, which has been well examined, with water. Always let the audience attend to such matters as these, as it tends to disarm suspicion, and also saves you trouble. You will, of course, not omit to make the most of there being no possible deception in the glass, which you will give a lady to hold by the stem or foot. Now borrow a white handkerchief, as coarse as you can procure it (do not ask for a coarse handkerchief, for that would be impolite, but say you want a gentleman's handkerchief, and then you can select which you prefer), and, taking the marked coin in the same hand as that in which the glass is palmed, spread the handkerchief over it. Approach the lady holding the wineglass, and affect to take up the coin, with the handkerchief, from the outside, by means of the disengaged hand, but in reality take up the glass, palming the coin ([Palm No. 1]). Now spread the handkerchief over the wineglass, with the supposed coin exactly above the latter, and within an inch of its rim. Let the holder of the wineglass grasp the coin (i.e., the counterfeit presentment thereof) with the thumb and forefinger of the disengaged hand, and keep it in the same position, with the understanding that at the word "three" it is to be allowed to fall into the glass (see [Fig. 13]). Take great care that the piece of glass is held exactly over the wineglass, and utter the word of command only when there is a dead silence. The jingling of the falling glass will, of course, be assumed by the audience to be that of the penny. You will now express your intention of invisibly extracting the coin from the glass. Use any cabalistic form you may choose, and, with a flourish of the wand from the wineglass towards your hand, exhibit the coin, and give it to be examined. Let the lady withdraw the handkerchief from the wineglass, which at once seize and show rapidly round. The glass at the bottom will not be perceived, and you must take an early opportunity of extracting it. Some tricks "take" in various degrees at different times, but this one never fails to throw the audience into a state of bewilderment. Always obtain possession of the wineglass as soon as you can after the completion of the trick, for people will sometimes feel to the bottom of it with their fingers, although without the faintest notion of what they are looking for. When you bewilder people, you must not be surprised if they do inexplicable things, and must prepare yourself for all emergencies.
