The casket may be used in many tricks with good effect. In combination with the magic glass, last above described, it is employed as follows:—The four coins which have been substituted for the genuine ones are placed, in sight of all, in the magic casket, which is then closed, and handed to one of the audience to hold. The performer then states that he is about to order the four coins now in the casket to pass one by one into the glass upon the table. “One!” he exclaims. A coin is heard to fall into the glass. The person who holds the casket is requested to open it; three coins only are left. It is again closed, and the performer says, “Two!” Again the chink of the falling coin is heard, and another coin is found to have disappeared from the casket. The operation is repeated till all have vanished, and the operator pours forth from the glass four coins, which, on examination, are found to be the same which were originally borrowed, and which the audience believe that they saw placed in the casket.
The casket may also be used with capital effect in conjunction with
The Half-crown (or Florin) Wand.—This is a wand, apparently of ebony, but really of brass, japanned black. It is about twelve inches in length, and five-eighths of an inch in diameter. On one side of it, and so placed as to be just under the ball of the thumb when the wand is held in the hand, is a little stud, which moves backwards and forwards for a short distance (about an inch and a quarter), like the sliding ring of a pencil-case. When this stud is pressed forward, a half-crown or florin, as the case may be, appears on the opposite end of the wand (see [Fig. 93]), retiring within it when the stud is again drawn back. The half-crown is a genuine one, but is cut into three portions, as indicated in [Fig. 94], which represents a transverse section of it at right angles to the actual cuts. Each of the three segments is attached to a piece of watch-spring, and from the direction of the cuts it is obvious that, when these pieces of watch-spring are pressed together (as they naturally are when drawn back into the wand), c will be drawn behind, and a in front of b. (See [Fig. 95].)
Fig. 95. Fig. 93. Fig. 94.
The wand is used as follows:—The performer palms in his left hand as many half-crowns as he intends to produce. Then, taking the wand in the right hand, and lightly touching with it the spot whence he desires to (apparently) produce a half-crown, he pushes forward the stud, and the split coin appears on the opposite end of the wand. He now draws the upper part of the wand through the left hand, at the same moment pressing back the stud, and causing the split coin to retire within the wand, immediately handing for examination with the left hand one of the half-crowns already placed there, and which by this gesture he appears to have just taken from the top of the wand. This is again repeated, and another half-crown exhibited, till the stock in the left hand is exhausted.
It is desirable, on each occasion of pressing forward or withdrawing the stud, to place the opposite end of the wand in such a situation as to be a little shielded from the eyes of the spectators, so that they may not see the actual appearance or disappearance of the coin. A very slight “cover” will be sufficient. The end of the wand may be placed within a person’s open mouth (and withdrawn with the half-crown thereon), within a pocket, or the like. Where no such cover is available, a quick semi-circular sweep should be made with the wand as the coin is protruded or withdrawn.
With the aid of this wand the passage of the four half-crowns from the casket to the glass, just described, becomes still more effective. The four substitute half-crowns having been placed in the casket, and the latter closed, the performer announces that he will withdraw them visibly, one by one, and will then invisibly pass them into the glass. Further, to prove that the trick is not performed by any mechanical or physical means, he will not even take the casket in his hand, but will withdraw the coins one by one with his wand, and thence pass them direct into the glass. Touching the casket with the wand, he presses the stud, and shows the half-crown on the end. Apparently taking off the coin with his left hand, as before described (the hand, however, being in this case empty), he makes the motion of throwing the coin from the hand to the glass, saying, “Pass!” The sound of a falling coin is heard (as already explained), and he shows that his hand is empty, the same process being repeated as to the remaining coins.
The wand may also be effectively introduced in the trick of the Shower of Money, which next follows. After having caught in the ordinary manner such number of coins as he thinks fit, the performer perceives, or pretends to perceive, that the audience suspect that the coins are in some manner concealed in his right hand. To show that this is not the case, he offers to catch a few coins on the top of his wand instead of in his hand, and finishes the trick by producing two or three on the wand accordingly. Wherever you can, as in this instance, produce the same result by two wholly different methods the effect on the audience is most bewildering. Their conjectures as to the explanation of the first method being inadmissible as to the second, and vice versâ, the more they puzzle over the matter, the further are they likely to be from a correct solution.
The Shower of Money.—The magical phenomenon known under this name surpasses the philosopher’s stone, in the pursuit of which so many of the wise men of old expended their lives and fortunes. The alchemist’s secret aimed only at producing the raw material, but the magician’s quick eye and ready hand gather from space money ready coined. Unfortunately, the experiment is subject to the same drawback as the more ancient process—viz., that each twenty shillings produced cost precisely twenty shillings, leaving hardly sufficient profit to make this form of money-making remunerative as a commercial undertaking.