TO PULL A STRING THROUGH A BUTTON-HOLE.
Tie together the ends of a piece of string about two feet long; pass it thus tied through a button-hole of your coat. Hitch the two ends on your thumbs, and catch up with each little finger the upper string on the thumb of the opposite hand; then, stretching the hands apart, the string will appear in a very complicated tangle. If the hold of the right thumb and left little finger, or vice versâ, be then loosed, and the hands quickly separated, the string will come away from, and appear as if it had passed through, the outside edge of the button-hole.
TO UNITE A PARTED STRING.
Take a piece of string about four feet long; hold the ends, pointed upward, between the first and second finger and thumb of the left hand, and the first finger and thumb of the right hand, letting the remainder of the string hang down in a loop. Now bring the right hand close to the left, crossing at right angles that end of the cord held in the left hand, and continue to pull until half the length of the string has passed the left hand, at the same time slipping the third finger of the left hand between the two parts of the string.
The first finger and thumb of the right hand should then seize the string at a point just below the little finger of the left hand, the third finger of that hand at the same time drawing back the string toward the palm of the hand.
The part of the string now held horizontally between the two hands is only the continuation of the end held in the left hand, though it will appear to be the middle of the string.
This piece of the string some one of the audience should be invited to cut, and thus apparently divide the string in halves, although in fact he only cuts off two or three inches.
Place all the ends of the string between the teeth, withdraw the short piece with the tongue, and show the remainder, apparently as the string was at the commencement.
Of course, the string must not be measured, or the trick will be detected.
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