Four pound weight of playing cards.—These make a tremendous show when strewn about the stage. A good plan, also, is to have a number joined together in a long string by means of cotton.
A cannon ball.—This is usually made in zinc, five inches in diameter, hollow, and provided with a sliding lid. It can be filled with various soft goods, such as handkerchiefs, ribbons, etc., also sweets and bonbons for distribution.
A solid wooden cannon ball.—This should have a three-quarter inch hole, two inches deep, bored in it toward the centre, for facility in introducing it into the hat.
A barber's pole, about thirty feet long and four inches to five inches thick at the base.—This is made with stout colored paper, and pulls out from the centre. If the pole be constructed of red, white, and blue paper the performer, when introducing the trick, may announce that he is about to erect the American Colors at the North Pole.
Fig. 27.—Bowl of Gold Fish
A bowl of gold fish.—This really consists of two bowls, one within the other. The space between the two contains the water and fish, which are inserted through a hole in the bottom of the outer bowl, the latter being afterward corked. The inside bowl is filled with bonbons, etc. (Fig. 27). The fish used are imitation, being made from pieces of carrot cut to shape.
A large cage containing a live canary.—The cage, which is telescopic in action, the upper part sliding down into the lower, is nearly twice the height of the hat, and when once taken out cannot be put back. This is owing to the fact that the seed boxes, which in their normal position are on the inside, revolve on spring pivots, as the cage is withdrawn, thus making it impossible to return it to the hat until they are replaced.
Twenty pint tumblers, ruby and green.—These are made in celluloid and fit one in the other. They are all of the same size, but being very thin occupy very little more space than a single one.
Six champagne bottles.—These are not quite so substantial as they look, being merely half-bottles in thin metal, japanned black, and decorated with labels taken from the genuine article. A bottle with a horizontal division in the centre, the upper part containing wine, and the lower part a tumbler, is generally introduced with the shells.