The Flying Ring.—This is a dummy ring, attached to a piece of elastic passing up the sleeve, with the other end fastened to the brace, or elsewhere. On a ring being borrowed, it is apparently placed in a handkerchief, the Flying Ring being substituted, and held by a spectator, of course through the handkerchief. At a given signal the ring is released and at once disappears up the performer's sleeve.
Magician's Eggs.—These are merely blown eggs, which should always be used when the employment of solid ones is not imperatively necessary. Their lightness enables the performer to palm them with considerable ease, and the same peculiarity renders them less liable to break; and, when they do, by chance, crack, no disconcerting emission of glutinous contents ensues. Besides this, a stock can always be kept on hand ready for any performance, which cannot be done with real eggs. Imitation eggs are made in indiarubber. These are of everlasting wear, bodily, but the exterior paint wants renewing occasionally, in order to maintain the resemblance to the real article, at no time any too exact.
Productive Eggs.—These are blown eggs containing lengthy slips of coloured paper, rolled up tightly. The introduction of the paper is thus managed. The egg blown and dried, a slit is made along one side with a piercing saw or fine file. A wire is then passed longitudinally through both thick and thin ends, one end of the paper inserted through the slit, and rolled up by means of the wire, twisted from the outside, until the egg is full. A piece of cotton is attached to the loose end of the paper, and the slit and holes in the ends of the egg closed up with plaster of Paris. At the conclusion of any trick in which real eggs have been used, one can be exchanged for a prepared egg, which is then broken, and the paper extracted, the piece of cotton at once showing where the loose end is to be found. Into a good-sized egg some fifty or sixty feet of paper may be secreted. The paper may be purchased at conjuring shops in large rolls; and the conjuror will find it better to prepare a quantity of eggs at a time.
The Coin-vanishing Tumbler.—This is an ordinary tumbler, with a horizontal slit at the side, on a level with the interior bottom, large enough to allow of the passage of a half-crown. If the tumbler be held in such a manner that a finger closes the slit, liquid may be poured into it. This should be done casually, and not professedly for the purpose of showing that there is nothing peculiar about the tumbler, such a suggestion being unnecessary and dangerous. The company would naturally say, "If there be really nothing wrong with it, why does he not place it in our hands for examination?" A coin placed in the tumbler may be got into the hand at any moment viâ the slit, the top being covered with cards, &c., to prevent the exit of the coin that way: as if coins were in the habit of leaping out of tumblers into which they have been placed, and deceiving audiences! Nevertheless, an audience is invariably satisfied when inanimate articles are covered up, and so supererogatorily prevented from performing acts which are not possible to them.
The Magic Plateau.—This is a glass plateau, in form like a school slate, there being a broad fancy wood border, glass taking the place of the slate. The plateau is held like a tray in the hands of the performer, and coins are placed upon it, which disappear when it is waved in the air. The secret lies in the fact that the wooden border is undermined, and, when a sideways movement is given to the plateau, the coins disappear underneath. The plateau is then carried with that side in which the coins are concealed, downwards. It makes a trick of itself, but is more useful as an adjunct to other tricks. As it is advisable to have a very narrow frame, shillings should be used: in no case coins larger than a florin. The plateau is also of great use when the performer is desirous of changing several borrowed and marked coins for some of his own. Taking the plateau, with the marked coins upon it, in the right hand, he pretends to pour them off into the left hand, where the conjuror has his own coins concealed. The marked coins disappear under the frame, and the concealed ones are exhibited. When the reappearance of the coins on the plateau is desired, they may be shaken out of the frame as easily as they were sent there; but I do not advise this addition, as it is very likely to give a clue to the mystery. The article is not difficult of construction, and the fact of the greater part of the material being transparent glass, lends it a desirably innocent appearance.
[CHAPTER XII.]
TRICKS WITH CARDS.
HOW TO VANISH AND RECOVER A PACK—THE EGYPTIAN POCKET; HOW TO MANUFACTURE CARDS—THE MISSING LINK—ASCENDING CARDS; VARIOUS METHODS—THE CARD-HOLDER—WHAT APPARATUS NOT TO USE—THE SALAMANDER CARD—A LEGITIMATE USE FOR "FORCING" PACKS—HERRMANN'S BOUQUET—A HUMAN HEN—THE HATCHED CARD—THE WAND, AND HOW TO MAKE IT—MORE ABOUT APPARATUS.
Nearly every modern conjuror of any pretensions to skill commences with a card trick. There is something about a good card trick well executed that always takes with an intelligent audience. When a performer does not commence with the cards, it is generally because he does not possess skill enough to do anything effective with them, although he will generally make a virtue of necessity (at which conjurors are particularly apt), and give some totally different reason.