Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

by Professor Hoffmann

The effect of the trick is as follows:—The performer borrows a hat, which he holds in his left hand. Turning up his sleeves, he announces that he requires a certain number, say ten, of florins or half-crowns. The spectators put their hands in their pockets with the idea of contributing to the supposed loan; but the professor, anticipating their intention, says, “No, thank you; I won’t trouble you this time. There seems to be a good deal of money about tonight; I think I will help myself. See, here is a half-crown hanging to the gaselier. Here is another climbing up the wall. Here is another just settling on this lady’s hair. Excuse me, sir, but you have a half-crown in your whiskers. Permit me, madam; you have just placed your foot on another,” and so on. At each supposed new discovery the performer takes with his right hand, from some place where there clearly was nothing an instant before, a half-crown, which he drops into the hat held in his left hand, finally turning over the hat, and pouring the coins from it, to show that there has been “no deception.”

The explanation is very simple, the trick being merely a practical application of the art of “palming,” though its effect depends on the manner and address of the operator even more than on his skill in sleight-of-hand. The performer provides himself beforehand with ten half-crowns. Of these he palms two in his right hand, and the remainder in his left. When he takes the hat, he holds it in the left hand, with the fingers inside and the thumb outside, in which position it is comparatively easy to drop the coins one by one from the hand into the hat. When he pretends to see the first half-crown floating in the air, he lets one of the coins in his right hand drop to his finger-tips, and, making a clutch at the air, produces it as if just caught. This first coin he really does drop into the hat, taking care that all shall see clearly that he does so. He then goes through a similar process with the second; but when the time comes to drop it into the hat, he merely pretends to do so, palming the coin quickly in the right hand, and at the same moment letting fall into the hat one of the coins concealed in his left hand. The audience, hearing the sound, naturally believe it to be occasioned by the fall of the coin they have just seen. The process is repeated until the coins in the left hand are exhausted. Once more the performer appears to clutch a coin from space, and showing for the last time that which has all along been in his right hand, tosses it into the air, and catches it visibly in the hat. Pouring out the coins on a tray, or into the lap of one of the company, he requests that they may be counted, when they are found to correspond with the number which he has apparently collected from the surrounding atmosphere.

Some performers, by way of bringing the trick to a smart conclusion, after they have dropped in all the coins, remark, “The hat begins to get heavy,” or make some similar observation, at the same time dipping the right hand into the hat, as if to gauge the quantity obtained; and, giving the money a shake, bring up the hand with four or five of the coins clipped breadthwise against the lowest joints of the second and third fingers. Then pretend to catch in quick succession that number of coins, each time sliding one of the coins with the thumb to the finger-tips, and tossing it into the hat.

It is by no means uncommon to see a performer, after having apparently dropped two or three coins into the hat in the ordinary way, pretend to pass in one or more through the side or crown. This produces a momentary effect, but it is an effect purchased at the cost of enabling an acute spectator to infer, with logical certainty, that the coin seen in the right hand was not the same that was, the moment afterwards, heard to chink within the hat; and this furnishes a distinct clue to the secret of the trick.

It is obvious that, in the above form of the trick (which so far should be classed among “tricks without apparatus”), the performer cannot show the inside of his hands; and it is not uncommon to find an acute observer (particularly where the performer is guilty of the indiscretion we have just noted) so far hit upon the true explanation, as to express audibly a conjecture that the money which the performer catches is really the same coin over and over again. There is, however, a mechanical appliance known as the “money-slide,” which is designed to meet this difficulty, and to enable the performer still to catch the coin, though he has but a moment before shown that his hand is empty.

Figs. 96, 97.

The money-slide is a flat tin tube, about eight inches in length, an inch and a quarter in width, and of just such depth as to allow a half-crown or florin (whichever coin may be used) to slip through it freely, edgeways. It is open at the top, but is closed at the lower end by a lever, acting like the lever of a shot-pouch. (See [Fig. 96], which shows the external appearance of the tube, and [Fig. 97], which represents, on a somewhat larger scale, a section of its essential portion.) The normal position of the lever (which works on a pivot, a) is as shown in [Fig. 97], being maintained in that position by a small spring. Under such circumstances, the passage of the tube is barred by the pin d (which works through a small hole in the face of the tube); but if ac, the longer arm of the lever, be pressed down, the pin d is withdrawn, but the extreme lower end of the tube is for the moment barred by the bent end of ac. The pressure being withdrawn, the lever returns to its former condition. When required for use, four or five half-crowns are dropped into the tube from the upper end, and the tube is fastened, by a hook affixed to it for that purpose, inside the waistcoat of the performer, so that its lower end hangs just above the waistband, the lever side of the tube being next the body. If the tube be lightly pressed through the waistcoat, the longer arm of the lever is thereby pressed down. The pin d is lifted, and the row of half-crowns slide down to the bottom of the tube, where, however, they are arrested by the bent end of ac. As soon as the pressure is removed, the lever returns to its position. The mouth of the tube is left open, and the first of the half-crowns drops out, and would be followed by the others, but the pin, d, which at the same moment returns to its position across the tube, stops their further progress. Thus each time the lever is pressed and again released, one half-crown, and one only, drops out at the mouth of the tube.

The use of this appliance in the trick we have just described will be obvious. The performer, having turned up his sleeves to prove that they have no part in the matter, shows that his right hand is absolutely empty. Continuing his observations, his hand rests for a moment with a careless gesture against his waistcoat, the ball of the wrist being above and the fingers below the waistband. A momentary pressure causes a half-crown to fall into his hand. This he palms, and in due course proceeds to catch, as already described.

As the capacity of the slide is limited, and the same gestures frequently repeated would be likely to excite suspicion, it is best to begin the trick in the ordinary manner, and after having produced three or four coins in this way, to overhear, or pretend to overhear, a suggestion that the coin is all the while in your hand. Ostentatiously throwing the coin with which you have so far worked, into the hat, you draw special attention (not in words, but by gesture) to your empty hand (the left hand is never suspected), and then have recourse to the slide. You throw the coin thus obtained into the hat, and again show your hand empty. You produce another coin from the slide, and make this serve you for the next two or three catches, and so on, as circumstances may dictate.