Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

by Professor Hoffmann

Where it is desired to produce a child, or other specially bulky object, the portfolio is for a moment placed on the table, behind which such object is placed. The object having been introduced into the portfolio, the latter is then transferred to the proper stand.

The Glove Column.—This is an ornamental column, sometimes of brass, sometimes of glass, on a massive foot and standing about two and a half feet high. It is surmounted by a metal cup, about an inch and a half in depth and two inches in diameter.

The mode of using the column is as follows:—Three or four rings are borrowed, also a white kid glove, and the whole are placed in the magic pistol. The column is then brought in, and placed upon the table. The magician takes aim at it, and fires. At the instant of his doing so, the glove, expanded as though containing a living hand, appears at the top of the pillar, with one of the borrowed rings on each of its fingers.

The glove and rings, as the reader will probably conjecture, are exchanged at an early period of the trick. There are plenty of ways of effecting this exchange. Perhaps, as regards the rings, the expedient of having them collected on the performer’s wand by the assistant (see page [399]) is as good as any. The assistant, having thus gained possession of the borrowed articles, arranges them as follows:—The glove is placed upon the end of a tube, which runs through the whole length of the column, terminating just within the cup at top, and is kept in position by an india-rubber ring slipped over it, and holding it tight to the tube. One of the borrowed rings is now placed over each of the fingers, and the glove thus prepared is pressed down into the cup, so as not to show above the rim. The column is now placed upon the table in such manner that the lower opening of the tube shall correspond with a small hole in the table, communicating by means of an india-rubber tube with a hollow ball of the same material, filled with air, and so placed as to be within reach of the hand or foot of the assistant. At the moment of firing a smart pressure is applied to the ball, thus causing a rush of air through the tube, and inflating the glove, which instantly springs up into a perpendicular position, with the rings upon it. The articles are now returned to the owners, and are identified as those which were borrowed.

Some columns have a large hollow black or gilt ball at the top, divided vertically into two parts, and so arranged as to fall apart at the moment of the inflation of the glove.

The Vanishing Pocket Handkerchief, found in a Candle.—This was a favourite trick of Robert-Houdin, by whom, we believe, it was invented. The performer borrows a lady’s handkerchief, drawing particular attention to the fact that he takes the first handkerchief which may be offered, and that it is wholly free from preparation. Fixing upon some gentleman among the audience, he asks him if he thinks he could set fire to the handkerchief. The person addressed naturally expresses his belief that he could. The performer ventures to doubt it, and at once fetches a lighted candle to enable him to try the experiment, meanwhile spreading the borrowed handkerchief over the top of a small round table, or guéridon, where it remains in full view of the spectators, showing clearly that it is not tampered with in any way. Returning with the candle, the performer hands it to the gentleman, and requests him to go and set fire to the handkerchief. Hardly, however, has he taken the first step to do so, when the handkerchief suddenly vanishes, its disappearance being so rapid that the spectators cannot even decide in which direction it travelled. The performer accuses the gentleman, who is still holding the candlestick, of having the handkerchief about him. This he naturally denies. The professor insists, and after keeping up the dispute as long as the audience are amused by it, offers to prove his assertion, and taking the candle from the candlestick, breaks it in half, and produces from it the borrowed handkerchief, which is immediately identified by the owner.

This capital trick requires the aid of a special table. The top is thin, and without fringe or ornament of any kind, allowing no apparent space for the concealment of even the smallest article. The centre pillar, however, is a hollow tube, and it is into this that the handkerchief is made to vanish. The first step in the trick is to exchange the handkerchief for a substitute. (See page [240].) This substitute is spread over the top of the table. The real handkerchief the performer carries with him when he leaves the stage under the pretence of fetching the candle, and utilizes his momentary absence in placing it inside the candle, which is hollow, and of the description mentioned at page [251]. When the gentleman advances to set fire to the handkerchief, the pulling of a string by the assistant causes a clip to rise up in the centre of the table, and nip the middle of the handkerchief, which is instantly drawn down within the tube through a small trap at its upper extremity.

The Sphinx.—Few tricks have of late years caused so great a sensation as this now well-known illusion, which was first introduced to the London public by the late Colonel Stodare, in 1865. We cannot better preface the explanation of the trick than by quoting a portion of the Times notice on the subject, of October 19, 1865:—

“... Most intricate is the problem proposed by Colonel Stodare, when, in addition to his admirable feats of ventriloquism and legerdemain, he presents to his patrons a novel illusion called the ‘Sphinx.’ Placing upon an uncovered table a chest similar in size to the cases commonly occupied by stuffed dogs or foxes, he removes the side facing the spectators, and reveals a head attired after the fashion of an Egyptian Sphinx. To avoid the suspicion of ventriloquism, he retires to a distance from the figure supposed to be too great for the practice of that art, taking his position on the borderline of the stalls and the area, while the chest is on the stage. Thus stationed, he calls upon the Sphinx to open its eyes, which it does—to smile, which it does also, though the habitual expression of its countenance is most melancholy, and to make a speech, which it does also, this being the miraculous part of the exhibition. Not only with perspicuity, but with something like eloquence, does it utter some twenty lines of verse; and while its countenance is animated and expressive, the movement of the lips, in which there is nothing mechanical, exactly corresponds to the sounds articulated.

“This is certainly one of the most extraordinary illusions ever presented to the public. That the speech is spoken by a human voice there is no doubt; but how is a head to be contrived which, being detached from anything like a body, confined in a case, which it completely fills, and placed on a bare-legged table, will accompany a speech, that apparently proceeds from its lips, with a strictly appropriate movement of the mouth, and a play of the countenance that is the reverse of mechanical? Eels, as we all know, can wriggle about after they have been chopped into half-a-dozen pieces; but a head that, like that of the Physician Douban, in the Arabian tales, pursues its eloquence after it has been severed from its body, scarcely comes within the reach of possibilities; unless, indeed, the old-fashioned assertion that ‘King Charles walked and talked half-an-hour after his head was cut off,’ is to be received, not as an illustration of defective punctuation, but as a positive historical statement.