SOMETHING OUT OF THE COMMON.
Having picked a stick or stone off a common, you tell a person that you are about to show him something which will surprise him,—something, in fact, quite out of the common. Having thus excited his curiosity, you produce the stick or stone, or whatever else you may have picked up, which of course he will examine very intently, and at length observe, that he sees nothing extraordinary in it. “That may be,” you reply, “and yet, I assure you, that it is really something out of the common.” This will, no doubt, set him upon a fresh examination, which will naturally end in his asking for an explanation. This you give, by telling him that “though not uncommon, it is out of the common, for it is out of —— Common;” and no doubt, the company present will indulge in a hearty laugh at the querist’s expense.
TO RUB ONE SIXPENCE INTO TWO.
Previously wet a sixpence slightly, and stick it to the under edge of a table, (without a cover,) at the place where you are sitting. You then borrow a sixpence from one of the company, and tucking up your sleeves very high, and opening your fingers, to show that you have not another concealed, rub it quickly backwards and forwards on the table, with your right hand, holding your left under the edge of the table to catch it. After two or three feigned unsuccessful attempts to accomplish your object, you loosen the concealed sixpence with the tips of the fingers of the left hand, at the same time that you are sweeping the borrowed sixpence into it; and rubbing them a little while together in your hands, you throw them both on the table.
MAGIC CIRCLE.
You tell a person you will place him in the centre of a room, and draw a circle of chalk round him, which shall not exceed three feet in diameter, yet out of which he shall not be able to leap, though his legs shall be perfectly free. When the party has exhausted his ingenuity in trying to discover by what means you can prevent his accomplishing so seemingly easy a task, you ask him if he will try, and on his assenting, you bring him into the middle of the room, and having requested him to button his coat tightly, you draw with a piece of chalk, a circle round his waist, outside his coat, and tell him to jump out of it!
It will greatly improve this trick if the person be blindfolded, as he will not be aware of the mode of performing it till the bandage is removed, provided his attention be diverted while you are drawing the line round him.
