Stick a halfpenny (or a shilling) under the edge of a table secretly with a small piece of wax. Show another halfpenny to the company, and when it is returned to you, place it in front of you on the table while you turn up your sleeves. Then place the fingers of your left hand under the table, and with your right hand sweep the halfpenny on the table into your left, at the same time getting hold of the halfpenny under the table, taking care that one coin does not strike the other. Then place your right hand over your left, and pretend to rub the halfpenny the audience have examined very vigorously, and, showing both coins, say you have rubbed one halfpenny into two. You can improve on this trick by using four halfpence on the table and one stuck under the edge. Sweep two coins into your left hand, get possession of the stuck halfpenny, and close your hand. Hold it up, and say: “There are two halfpennies on the table, and I have two in this hand.” Picking up the two halfpennies with your right hand, tell the company that you intend to pass one of them into the other hand. Then lay both hands flat on the table, lift your left hand, and show three halfpennies under it. Slide your right hand off the table, leaving one halfpenny behind, and carrying the second coin away with your fingers. As 35 your hand leaves the table, press the halfpenny with your thumb against your two middle fingers, and nip it with your first and little fingers. Remove your thumb, and you will find you can hold it securely “palmed.” Then with the right hand sweep the three halfpennies back into the left hand, at the same time letting the “palmed” coin fall with them. Close your fingers over them quickly, and picking up the remaining halfpenny from the table with your right hand, say: “I intend to make this halfpenny join its companions. One, two, three—go!”
Pushing it with your thumb against your two middle fingers, palm it as before, and throw the four coins which you hold in your left hand on the table. While the attention of the company is on them, drop the “palmed” coin in your pocket.
CHANGING APPLE AND COINS
Procure two small apples exactly alike, and in the bottom of one scoop out a hole large enough to hold a pile of three sixpences. Make a conical cover out of cartridge paper large enough to cover the apple and about nine inches in height. Obtain six sixpences, three of which place in a pile on an inverted glass goblet. Conceal the other three and the hollow apple in your left hand. Ask some one to examine the cover, and, on receiving it back, transfer it to your left hand and slip it over the apple. Then give the duplicate apple for examination, and, taking the cover by its lower part, and the apple concealed in it, place both over the three sixpences on the glass. Take the apple that has been examined, and put it under the table with your left hand, hold it between your knees, and say: “I command 36 this apple to pass through the table and take the place now occupied by the three sixpences, and the sixpences to fall into my hand.” Bring your left hand from under the table and show the coins, lift up the cover and show the apple on the glass. Then reverse the procedure. Cover the apple on the glass; place the three sixpences under the table; secure the apple held between your knees and roll it on the table; lift up the cover and hollow apple together, and, dropping the latter into your lap, show the former is empty. This trick should be performed sitting.
AN OBEDIENT SIXPENCE
Place two half-crowns (or pennies) on the table and a sixpence between them. Then cover the coins with an inverted wine-glass, the edges of the latter resting upon the larger coins. Challenge any one to remove the sixpence without touching the glass or the money. It is done very easily, and in an amusing manner. You have only to scratch the tablecloth with your finger-nail in the direction you wish the coin to come, saying: “Come hither, sixpence,” and it will at once obey you.
COIN AND GLASS
Cover the mouths of two glasses with newspaper, by gumming it on them, and trim off the edges neatly.[A] Stand them inverted upon two pieces of newspaper in such a manner that the type on the paper over the glasses fairly corresponds with that on the paper on the table. Make two cones of newspaper to fit closely over each glass. Unobserved by the company, place a penny under the glass 37 on your left, which will of course be concealed by the paper on the mouth of the glass. Then borrow a penny, and, placing the cone over the glass on your right, lift the latter covered by the former from the table; lay the borrowed penny on the newspaper, and cover with the glass and cone. You call attention to the fact that there is nothing under the other glass, and you then cover it with the second cone. You now tell the company that at your word of command the penny will leave one glass and travel invisibly over the table to the other glass. You lift the cone from the glass on your right, under which the borrowed penny was placed, and the coin is not to be seen. Then, lifting both the cone and glass together on your left, the concealed penny is brought into view. You now announce your intention of sending the penny back. Place the covered glass over the penny and replace the cover over the glass on your right. “One, two, three—go!” you exclaim and, lifting the cone off the glass on your left, the penny under it appears to have disappeared, and on removing the other glass, still covered by the cone, the borrowed penny will once more be seen. This trick can be worked with one glass only and the penny made to appear to drop through the table in your hand placed under the latter ready to catch it (the penny, of course, being already palmed in your hand); but the use of two glasses makes the trick more effective, and it can be repeated many times without fear of detection. The paper upon which the glasses stand can, of course, be examined; but the glasses when removed from the paper must be covered with the cones, or the paper cover on the mouth of each will be seen.
[A] This piece of apparatus neatly constructed can be obtained at a trifling cost at any of Messrs. Hamley Bros.’ Conjuring Depôts, London.