During the Christmas holidays, when families are home for the season, and entertainments are the principal things desired in the long bright evenings, perhaps a few more tricks may not come amiss.
Among these the spirit jew’s-harp will be sure to amuse and at the same time mystify both the older and younger members of the company, who will probably form the audience on these Christmas or New-year’s evenings; and will form a pleasant entertainment between the acts of a charade or the lapses in the music. Briefly described, the trick is as follows:
A jew’s-harp is placed in the mouth, and played upon for awhile with the finger in the ordinary way. Gradually, however, the performer moves his hand away, but continues the motion of playing some distance from the mouth, while the instrument continues to play quite as clearly and distinctly as before. The hand may wave above the head, or in any position, to show the audience that no thread or string is connected with the tongue of the instrument, but must keep up the motion of playing as long as the sound continues to come.
Procure a jew’s-harp with a very flexible tongue, and cover the end with a smooth ball of sealing-wax. Now place the instrument in your mouth with its tongue pointed inward, and if your tongue is placed against the ball of sealing-wax and suddenly pushed out, and as suddenly released, a sound will be produced much as if it was pushed out in the ordinary way with the finger.
After a time you will find it possible to produce different notes upon it, and with some practice will find it as possible to play tunes as by the common method.
It will now be seen that during the whole performance the music is elicited by the tongue, and not by the finger as at first appears; the placing the forefinger of the right hand to the mouth, and moving it as if playing in the ordinary way, is simply a little ruse to mislead the audience.
The performer should so stand that the light does not shine too strongly upon his face, and thus expose the absence of the tongue of the jew’s-harp, and a complete mastery of the instrument in the inverted position should be acquired before one attempts the trick in public.
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A NEW WAY TO KINDLE THE FIRE.
There are many ways given for producing fire, but the following is the most unique, and at the same time convenient, of all these various methods, as it consists in simply blowing the flame from the mouth, and so igniting the camp-fire or whatever else one wishes to burn.