Fig. 6.
HALF A BURNT MESSAGE FOUND RESTORED IN A CANDLE
Procure two candles and from one cut one-third off, in which piece drill a hole lengthwise and remove the wick. Put this piece in your pocket and place the other candle in a candlestick. Give a small piece of paper to a member of the company and request him to write a short sentence on it. Tear the paper in two, and giving him half, retain the other half yourself, which you fold up. Have a similar piece of paper, folded, concealed in your right hand, and as you turn to get the candle (which should be lighted), substitute one for the other. Burn the plain piece of paper in the candle, and obtaining the piece of candle from your pocket put your hands behind your back, and, having rolled up the half message, work it into the hole in the piece of candle. In order to gain the time to do this stoop over the lighted candle and make several unsuccessful attempts to blow it out. When the paper is in the piece of candle give one good hard blow and extinguish the light. With the piece of candle concealed in your left hand, take the candle out of the candlestick, lay it on the table, and with a knife cut off the burnt end, which throw away and divide the remainder into three equal parts. Then ask the person who wrote the message to select one piece. When he does so pick up the selected piece with your right hand and pretend to transfer it to your left, but retain it in the right and show the piece concealed in your left, which you present to the 47 person who wrote the sentence and request him to pull out the piece of paper, which he will find to be the corresponding half of the piece in his possession.
TWO GOOD RING TRICKS
Take a common ring, about the size of a wedding-ring, and suspend it to the centre of your handkerchief by a piece of cotton four inches long. You can hold the handkerchief up by the corners with the ring hanging in front of you, and the latter will not be noticed. Then let the handkerchief fall over your left hand and the ring in your palm. Request the loan of a wedding-ring, and, having obtained one, put it under the handkerchief, drop it in your palm, and pick up the other ring, which push up in the centre of the handkerchief, requesting some one to hold it there. Next take a drinking-glass in your right hand and request the person to drop the ring in it and the handkerchief over it. Shake the glass, and the ring will be heard to rattle inside. Then stand the glass in the palm of your left hand with its bottom over the borrowed ring, which is concealed there. With your right hand pinch the centre of the handkerchief and lift it up quickly, of course, carrying the suspended ring with it, being very careful not to let the ring strike the glass. The glass is seen to be empty; lift it up and show the ring underneath. Say, “You see, the ring has passed through the bottom of the tumbler.”
A similar and a better trick can be performed with a short cane—say about eighteen inches long—instead of a glass. Commence as in the previous trick, and after you 48 have asked some one to hold the suspended ring through the handkerchief, show the cane, and, holding your left hand back upward, push it through the latter and the borrowed ring, and grasp the cane with, of course, the ring on it, in the centre. With your right hand take the ring and handkerchief from the person who holds them, and request him to take hold of each end of the cane. Now lower the handkerchief until it hides your left hand, when you must move the latter away, leaving the ring on the cane concealed by the handkerchief. Then let the suspended ring fall out of the handkerchief, and if it strikes the cane so much the better. Whip the handkerchief away, and the ring on the cane will be seen. How that ring could have got on the cane while the ends of the latter were being held will puzzle everybody. Pocket the handkerchief with the suspended ring at once, and don’t allow it to be examined.
SIMPLE ARITHMETICAL PROBLEMS
TO ASCERTAIN A NUMBER THOUGHT OF
Every schoolboy knows the old puzzle: Think of a number; double it; add 10, divide by 2, subtract number thought of; and 5 left. Here is a great improvement upon that problem, which I have seen puzzle some excellent accountants.