A LUMINOUS BOTTLE, WHICH WILL SHOW THE HOUR ON A WATCH IN THE DARK.
Throw a bit of phosphorous, of the size of a pea, into a long glass phial, and pour boiling oil carefully over it, till the phial is one-third filled. The phial must be carefully corked, and when used should be unstopped, to admit the external air, and closed again. The empty space of the phial will then appear luminous, and give as much light as an ordinary lamp. Each time that the light disappears, on removing the stopper it will instantly re-appear. In cold weather the bottle should be warmed in the hands before the stopper is removed. A phial thus prepared may be used every night for six months.
RUSES.
THE WONDERFUL HAT.
Place three pieces of bread, or other eatable, at a little distance from each other on a table, and cover each with a hat; you then take up the first hat, and removing the bread, put it into your mouth, and let your company see that you swallow it; then raise the second hat, and eat the bread which was under that, and do the same with the third. Having eaten the three pieces, give any person in company liberty to choose under which hat he would wish those three pieces of bread to be; when he has made choice of one of the hats, put it on your head, and ask him if he does not think that they are under it.
TO BRING A PERSON DOWN UPON A FEATHER.
This is a practical pun:—You desire any one to stand on a chair or table, and you tell him that, notwithstanding his weight, you will bring him down upon a feather. You then leave the room, and procuring a feather from a feather-bed, you give it to him, and tell him you have performed your promise,—that you engaged to bring him down upon a feather, which you have done; for there is the feather, and, if he looks, he’ll find down upon it.