[HOW MAGIC IS MADE.]
BY HENRY HATTON.
III.
There is no trick that makes a better impression on an audience, and requires less practice on the part of the performer, than that known as "The Protean Pitcher."
The performer has on his table an ordinary quart pitcher filled with water, and a dozen or more tumblers. To prove that it is pure water, a glass is filled and offered to the audience, and the performer drinks of it.
All suspicion being thus set at rest, the trick is begun by alternately filling with water and wine the glasses, which stand in a row at the front of the table.
"This may seem strange," says the performer, "that I can pour from this pitcher, which certainly is not prepared in any way, water or wine at pleasure. The fact is, however, that when once the fumes of the wine have thoroughly permeated the atmosphere, it is a difficult matter for the ordinary spectator to tell positively what I do pour out. No doubt many of you imagine that I have filled these glasses with water and wine, while others are just as positive that there is nothing but wine. The pitcher is empty, nothing in it, as all can see. Let us pour the contents of the glasses back." Here he empties the water and wine into the pitcher. "And now what have we? Wine, wine, wine—nothing but wine." Filling the glasses again. "Again return it to the pitcher"—which he does, "and this time, on refilling the glasses, there seems to be nothing but water. No, I am wrong, for here is a glass of wine."
For a third time he returns the contents of the glasses to the pitcher, and this time pours out nothing but wine, and finally, for a fourth time, goes through the same routine, and ends the trick by pouring water, water—nothing but water.
Let us suppose that sixteen glasses are to be used in the trick. Six are left clean; in each of six others is put one drop of a strong tincture of iron about half an hour before beginning the performance. Two other glasses are about half filled with a saturated solution of oxalic acid in water, and in still another glass is poured some strong ammonia. To prevent the fumes of the ammonia from escaping into the room this glass must be covered with a handkerchief folded several times, or, what is still better, with a piece of transparent mica cut to fit the top. Lastly a glass is quarter filled, with a saturated solution of tannin in water. Beginning with a clean glass, the six clean glasses and the six containing the iron are placed alternately in a row at the front of the table. Behind them, in the following order, stand the tannin glass, an acid glass, the ammonia glass, and the second acid glass.