As the flowers fall out, he pretends to guide them with his left hand, and this gives him an opportunity to catch the wire loop of one of the bundles on the table between his fingers.
When the cone is emptied, the performer unrolls it and straightens out the paper, prior to working in the second bundle. This bundle, understand, is back of the left-hand fingers. Taking the sheet of paper at one edge by the tips of the fingers of that hand, and letting the paper fall in front, he smoothes it with the right hand, and presently seizing the lower edge by that hand, he brings the sheet back over his left hand, thus leaving the second bundle inside the cone thus formed. This is a remarkably neat and clever move, almost impossible to detect, and is well worth the little practice needed to acquire it.
The cone is now emptied, and the third bundle picked up in the same way as the second, and the cone again formed over the back of the hand. The flowers for the umbrella are loaded into the cone in an altogether different way, but one quite as difficult to detect if well done.
FIG 5.
About three hundred flowers are placed between two sheets of stiff card-board, and these are tied together in a single bow-knot with silk floss, the end which unties the knot being allowed to hang down, and having a tiny shoe-button fastened to it, so that it may be found easily. Hanging from one of the pieces of card-board is a loop of strong black thread. This bundle is placed in the inside right breast pocket of the performer's coat, and the loose end of the loop is passed over a button or small hook sewn on the vest.
To load the bundle into the cone, the performer holds the open flat sheet of paper in his right hand, which hangs at his side. Turning it front and back, he says, "Absolutely empty, as you all can see." And while his audience have their eyes fixed on it, his left thumb finds the loop, and passing through it, lifts it off the button. "I shall hold it away from my body," he continues, and as he says this he raises the sheet in front of him so that it nearly covers his breast. As he does this, almost simultaneously, his left hand grasps the upper edge of the sheet about the centre, and thus pulls the bundle out and holds it dangling behind the sheet. The left hand, still holding bundle and paper, is pushed well out, so that the sheet is not near the body. The right hand now seizes the upper right corner of the paper, and drawing it towards him, the performer twists it into a cone. His hand is thus left inside, and as he withdraws it, what more natural than to catch hold of the shoe-button, give a steady pull, and release the flowers? Walking round and round the umbrella, the performer continues to shake flowers from the cone until the novel receptacle is filled.
The professional conjurer has large deep pockets inside the breast of his coat, the mouth towards the front; but as many of my readers will not care to have specially prepared coats, they may substitute a large oblong black bag, which can be fastened to the coat by small black safety-pins. The mouth should come within about two inches of the front. Similar but smaller pockets can be pinned to the back of the trousers leg, when they will be covered by the coat tails, but will prove handy for small articles.
Some conjurers allow themselves to be firmly tied with ropes, and yet while in this condition perform feats that apparently require the free use of both hands. These, however, are always done behind a curtain or other screen. Just how this is done I may explain later, but for the present here is a very good substitute. The performer locks his hands, and his crossed thumbs are tied tightly together with a long strong cord, the ends of which are held by two of the audience. A soft hat or handkerchief is thrown over the hands, and almost instantly one is waved in the air. It is as quickly thrust back, and on removing the covering the knots are found as firmly tied as at first.
There are two ways of doing this, both of which I shall explain.