The Magician's Own Book, or, the Whole Art of Conjuring / Being a complete hand-book of parlor magic, and containing over one thousand optical, chemical, mechanical, magnetical, and magical experiments, amusing transmutations, astonishing sleights and subtleties, celebrated card deceptions, ingenious tricks with numbers, curious and entertaining puzzles, together with all the most noted tricks of modern performers.

by George Arnold; Frank Cahill

The following pages are not intended to make the young reader either a cheat or a trickster; there is nothing, perhaps, so utterly contemptible in every-day life, as trickery and deception, and we would caution our young master not to obtain by these amusements a love of deception, which is only allowable in such feats of amusement, and which is in no way culpable, when every one knows he is deceived. But we would advise him strongly to cultivate in his own mind the virtues of sincerity, straightforwardness, candor, openness, and truth; to shun subterfuge and deception as he would a venomous reptile; and to hate a lie as he would hate that same old gentleman whom we were too polite to name, and who is the father of it.

With this sage advice, we shall present a collection of amusing conjuring tricks.

SLEIGHT OF HAND.

It is my intention, in the following pages, to lay more stress upon those tricks which require no apparatus, than upon those for which special apparatus, or the assistance of a confederate, is required. No one is nearly so well pleased by a trick whose essence evidently lies in the machinery, while every one feels pleasure at seeing a sleight of hand trick neatly executed. For my own part, I despise all the numerous boxes, bottles, variegated covers, and other gimcracks which are generally seen on a conjuror's table; and I have never been so pleased with any performer as with one who did not even require a table, but pressed into his service articles borrowed from his audience, as he stood before them, or walked among them. The spectators should never be able to say, "Ah! the trick lies in the box; he dares not show it to us!"

The following tricks have almost all been successfully performed by myself, and have caused me some reputation in the magic art. Some are my own invention:

1. THE FLYING DIME.

This trick must be frequently practiced before it is produced in public.

Borrow two colored silk handkerchiefs from the company, and have three dimes in your hand, but only show two, keeping the other one firmly fixed against the first joint of the second and third fingers. You must also have a fine needle and thread stuck inside the cuff of your coat. Then take one of the handkerchiefs, and put in both dimes, but pretend that only one is in the handkerchief; then put the handkerchief into a hat, leaving one corner hanging out. Now hold up the third dime (which the spectators imagine is the second), and ask one of the company to lay the second handkerchief over it. You then ask him to hold the dime tight between his finger and thumb, while you twist up the handkerchief. While doing so, with both hands concealed under the handkerchief, you pass a few stitches under the dime, and replace the needle. This being done, spread one corner of the handkerchief over the hand of the person who is still holding the dime, and, taking hold of another corner, tell him to drop the dime when you have counted three. At the word "three," he lets go the dime, and you whisk the handkerchief into the air, when the dime appears to have vanished, but is really held in the handkerchief. You then tell the astonished individual to draw the other handkerchief out of the hat by the corner that is hanging out. The two dimes are heard to fall into the hat, and every one is persuaded that you have conjured one of the dimes out of a person's hand, and sent it into the hat.

2. ANOTHER METHOD.