After the professor had invited some one in the audience to make an egg stand up on end on the point of a straw, which the person, of course, could not do, the professor did it himself, deftly slipping the projection of the celluloid cup into the hollow of the straw. The egg then stood up in the little piece of celluloid, which, being the exact color of an egg and as thin as the shell, was never noticed.
As Joe watched this familiar trick being done, there came into his mind the idea for another one, even more simple, and requiring no apparatus whatever except an ordinary glass jar. He spoke to the professor about it the next day, and was given permission to work it.
Just before he “put on” his watch trick the next night, Joe announced that he would try a little experiment with an egg.
“You all know that a perfectly fresh egg will sink in water,” he said. “In fact, that is a test for a fresh egg. Now I have here three perfectly good and fresh eggs. I know they are fresh because I bought them this afternoon from your popular grocer, Mr. McCabe, and he told me he never sold any but fresh eggs.”
There was a laugh at this, and every one turned to look at the grocer, who was in the audience, a fact that Joe knew, for he had really purchased the eggs at the grocery. Thus he had his audience with him at the start, a reference to a local personage from the stage by a traveling performer invariably producing an effect.
“Now as you all know,” Joe went on, “a fresh egg sinks in water. You can prove it at home, and I’ll prove it here for you. Just pick out any one of these eggs,” he said, and, extending them on a plate to a woman in the audience, he took from her the egg she picked up.
“The lady looks like a good cook, she ought to know good eggs,” said Joe, and again there was a laugh.
“Now I’ll just put this egg in this jar of water,” went on the young magician; “but instead of sinking, when I speak the magic word, it will remain floating half-way between the top of the water and the bottom of the jar. Now watch me closely.”
Joe gently lowered the egg into the jar of water that stood on a table near him. Slowly the egg settled through the limpid fluid.
“By the magic of this wand, I command you to stop!” cried Joe, as the egg was half-way down, and as he waved his stick the egg did stop midway.