You profess yourself able to show any one what he never saw, what you never saw, and what nobody else ever saw, and which, after you two have seen, nobody else ever shall see.
After requesting the company to guess this riddle, and they have professed themselves unable to do so, produce a nut, and having cracked it, take out the kernel, and ask them if they have ever seen that before; they will of course answer, No; you reply, neither have I, and I think you will confess that nobody else has ever seen it, and now no one shall ever see it again; saying which, you put the kernel into your mouth and eat it.
AN OMELET COOKED IN A HAT, OVER THE FLAME OF A CANDLE.
You ask the company if they would like an omelet cooked; then you break four eggs in a hat, place the hat for a short time over the flame of a candle, and shortly after produce an omelet, completely cooked, and quite hot.
Some persons would be credulous enough to believe that by the help of certain ingredients you had been enabled to cook the omelet without fire; but the secret of the trick is, that the omelet had been previously cooked and placed in the hat, but could not be seen, because the operator, when breaking the eggs, placed it too high for the spectators to observe the contents. The eggs were empty ones, the contents having been previously extracted, by being sucked through a small aperture, but to prevent the company from suspecting this, the operator manages, as if by accident, to let a full one fall on the table, which breaking, induces a belief that the others are also full.
THE IMPOSSIBLE OMELET.
You produce some butter, eggs, and other ingredients for making an omelet, together with a frying-pan, in a room where there is a fire, and state, that the cleverest cook will not be able to make an omelet with them. The wager is won by having previously caused the eggs to be boiled very hard.
GO IF YOU CAN.
You tell a person that you will clasp his hands together in such a manner, that he shall not be able to leave the room without unclasping them, although you will not confine his feet, or bend his body, or in any way oppose his exit.