Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

by Professor Hoffmann

Fig. 80.

A further improvement may be made in the trick by using, in place of an ordinary plate, a special plate or salver, generally made of tin japanned, but sometimes of crockery or china. The speciality of this plate (which is known as the “money plate,” or “multiplying salver”) consists in a flat space running along its bottom, between its upper and under surface, just wide enough and deep enough to hold concealed a row of coins (florins or shillings, as the case may be), and closed at the one end, but open at the other, the opening being concealed by the edge of the plate. (See [Fig. 80].) You prepare the plate beforehand by placing in the concealed space three, four, or six coins, and place it on your table. When you first take it up, you take hold of it near the opening, when you may, of course, handle it as freely as you please, as, the mouth of the passage being upwards, the coins cannot possibly fall out. Letting the plate hang downwards in a perpendicular position, and passing it carelessly from hand to hand, the audience cannot help observing that you have nothing concealed in your hands. Then collect (or count out, if already collected) the money in the plate, and, after taking away and handing to A a number equal to the coins concealed, pour the remainder direct from the plate into the hands of B, first, however, so reversing the position of the plate (which you may do by merely transferring it from the one hand to the other) as to turn the opening of the passage away from you. When you now slope the plate to pour the remaining coins into his hands, the money in the concealed passage will naturally pour out with them (see [Fig. 80]), thus making the required addition with hardly a possibility of detection.

It is a good plan to perform the trick first without, and then to repeat it with, the aid of the money plate, making a great point in the second instance of the fact that you do not even touch the money, and accounting for the use of the plate as designed to preclude all possibility of the use of sleight-of-hand, or any other mechanical mode of deception. The spectators, having already seen you perform the trick without the aid of the plate, are precluded from supposing that this latter has any special connection with the secret; and seeing clearly that you have in this instance no coins concealed in your hands, naturally conclude that the same was the case on the former occasion. Thus the repetition of the trick, instead of assisting them to a solution, rather increases the mystery.

The trick may be varied at pleasure so far as regards the manner of the disappearance of the coins which are supposed to be passed invisibly into the hands of the person holding the larger number. One mode is to ask one of the company to wrap them up in a piece of stiff paper, for which you forthwith secretly substitute a piece of similar paper, in which a like number of coins have been wrapped, but have been removed, the paper, however, retaining the form of the coins. Taking this in the left hand, you pretend to take from it, invisibly, with the finger and thumb of the right hand, each coin in succession, and to pass it in the same manner into the hand of the person holding the remaining coins, finally tearing the paper in half to show that they have really passed away from it. Or you may, if you prefer it, place the coins in question on the “vanishing plate,” to be hereafter described, whence they mysteriously disappear as you take them off one by one. This is a very effective mode. Or you may place them in the “plug-box,” the “Davenport cabinet,” or any other of the various appliances after-mentioned for vanishing money.

To make a Marked Sixpence vanish from a Handkerchief, and be found in the Centre of an Apple or Orange previously examined.—Have ready, concealed in either hand, a sixpence of your own, with a little wax smeared on one side of it. Roll another minute portion of wax into a round ball half the size of a peppercorn, and press it lightly upon the lowest button of your waistcoat, so that you may be able to find it instantly when wanted. You must also have at hand an ordinary full-sized table-knife and a plate of oranges.

Fig. 81.

You begin by borrowing a sixpence (requesting the owner to mark it) and a handkerchief. You spread the handkerchief flat on the table, with its sides square with those of the table. Then standing behind your table, you place ostensibly the borrowed sixpence, but really your own (with the waxed side up), in the centre of the handkerchief, then fold over the corners, one by one, beginning with one of those nearest to yourself, in such manner that each shall overlap the sixpence by about an inch, gently pressing each corner as you fold it down. Ask some one to come forward, and ascertain by feeling the handkerchief, that the sixpence is really there. Then offer the knife for inspection, and after all are satisfied that it is without preparation, hand the plate of oranges to be examined in like manner, requesting the audience to choose one for the purpose of the trick. While they do so, your fingers go in search of the little ball of wax, and press it against one side of the marked sixpence, which still remains in your hand. Press the sixpence against one side of the blade of the knife, at about the middle of its length, and lay the knife on the table, the sixpence adhering to its under side. Then taking hold of the handkerchief, as represented in [Fig. 81], and blowing on its centre, draw the hands quickly apart. The two corners of the side next to you will thus be brought one into each hand, and adhering to one of them (the one which you first folded down), will be the substitute sixpence, which will thus appear to have vanished. Hand the handkerchief for examination, that it may be seen that the coin has really disappeared, and meanwhile get rid of the substitute into your pocket or elsewhere. Turn up your sleeves, and show that your hands are empty. Then take up the knife (taking care to keep the side on which the sixpence is away from the spectators), and cut open the orange. Cut about half way down with the point, and then finish the cut by drawing the whole length of the blade through the opening thus made. This will detach the sixpence, which will fall between the two halves of the orange, as though it had all along been contained therein. Wipe it with the handkerchief to remove the juice of the orange from it, and at the same time rub off any wax which may still adhere to it, and hand it for identification.

The coin may, if preferred, be found in an egg instead of the orange, the audience being invited to choose which shall be used. This trick is sometimes performed by the aid of a knife made for this special purpose, with a small spring lever, after the manner of a flute key, soldered against one side of the blade. The coin is held in position by the short arm of the lever, which answers the same purpose as the wax in the form of the trick above described. The disadvantage of using this, which is known as the “fruit knife,” is, that you cannot hand the knife for examination, and this, to our mind, spoils the trick.