Then he did several stock tricks; one of them being the bringing forth of a small jar of goldfish seemingly from a man’s derby hat.
There was no trick about the hat. The professor went down off the stage and borrowed it, but, on his way back, while his back was toward the audience, he slipped into the hat a flat dish filled with water and live goldfish. This dish Joe had passed to him a moment before from behind the scenes, through one of the slits in the curtain.
The professor concealed the flat jar of goldfish, water and all, under his vest, but the dish had over it a tightly fitting cover, made of a thin sheet of rubber.
As he walked back on to the stage Professor Rosello slipped the dish into the hat, and, as he lifted it out, in full view of the audience, he, unseen by the spectators, snapped off the rubber cover with his thumb. Thus he seemed to bring out a jar of fish in real water, and there was no doubt about the realness of the water, nor the life of the fish. They could be seen swimming about, and the professor dipped his hand in the water, sprinkling it about the stage. Then he passed the hat back to the man.
The goldfish had been purchased in a store that day, and kept in water until needed, Joe putting them in the flat dish, and slipping over the rubber cover just before they were to be used.
“Now for my next trick,” began Professor Rosello, “I shall want to borrow a boy or young man. I don’t want one who has any friends, as I am going to cause him to disappear, and of course no one wants that to happen to a friend. I am going to make him totally disappear. Who will lend me a young man for that purpose?
“Come now,” he went on, as there was a pause. “I see several young ladies here with young men. Surely one of them can be spared. No? No one will volunteer?”
There were smiles and some laughter.
“I see a nice young man right here,” the professor said, coming down the steps, and standing close to a young girl and her escort. He laid his hand on the youth’s shoulder.
“You haven’t any use for him, have you?” he asked the blushing girl. “May I not make him disappear?”