How to Behave and How to Amuse: A Handy Manual of Etiquette and Parlor Games

by George H. Sandison

The Dancing Egg.

Boil an egg hard, and peel off a small piece of the shell at one end; then thrust in a quill filled with quicksilver, and sealed at each end. As long as the egg remains warm, it will not cease to dance about.

To Put an Egg in a Bottle.

You may make an egg enter a bottle without breaking, by steeping it in strong vinegar for some time; the vinegar will so soften the shell, that it will bend and extend lengthways without breaking; when put in cold water, it will resume its former figure and hardness.

The Ice Candle.

Cover a small portion of the upper end of a tallow candle with paper, and give the remainder of it a coat of fine coal and powdered sulphur, mixed together; dip it in water, and expose it to the air during a hard frost, and a slight coat of ice will form round it, which may be, subsequently, rendered thicker, in proportion to the number of immersions and exposure to the air which it receives. When it arrives at a sufficient consistency, take off the paper, light the upper end of the candle, and it will burn freely.

The Changing-Colored Ribbon.

Dip a rose-colored ribbon in nitric acid, diluted with eight or ten parts of water, and as soon as the color disappears, which it will do in a short time, take out the ribbon, and put it into a very weak alkaline solution; the alkali will quickly neutralize the acid, and the color will then reappear.

Consulting the Oracle.

Some amusement may be obtained among young people, by writing, with common ink, a variety of questions, on different bits of paper, and adding a pertinent reply to each, written with nitro-muriate of gold. The collection is suffered to dry, and put aside until an opportunity offers for using them. When produced, the answers will be invisible; you desire different persons to select such questions as they may fancy, and take them home with them; you then promise, that if they are placed near the fire, during the night, answers will appear written beneath the questions in the morning; and such will be the fact, if the papers be put in any dry, warm situation.