This platform is known technically as a run or slip-stage. With Sir Kellar this run crosses the footlights and goes over a short distance on the stage, where it is slightly elevated, and is boxed in at the sides. A hole is cut in the stage, and through this hole, shielded from view by the run, sits Mr. Kellar's assistant. With the help of an ordinary opera-glass he can see everything that is written on the blackboard or is placed against it, and by a simple mechanical means, either of a speaking-tube leading under the stage from his hiding-place to the back of Mrs. Kellar's chair, or some similar arrangement, he can at once convey to her the needed information. If the cube root or square root of any number is asked for, he has merely to turn to some such work as Haswell's Engineer's Companion to find the answer; should a word be selected from the dictionary, he refers to a second copy of the dictionary, which he has at hand, apply his mouth to the speaking-tube, and Mrs. Kellar answers:
"The ninth word in the second column on the steen-hundredth page is vicarious, and the definition is, 'acting, performing, or suffering for another.'"
Let us hope this word may never be selected, as it would be too suggestive.
FIG. 1.
The reader will understand that there is scarcely a limit to what Mrs. Kellar (? or the assistant) can tell.
As this trick is not practicable for the drawing-room, let me give one that my young friends will be able to accomplish. For the want of a better name I will call it "The Flying Watch."
A watch is borrowed, and to prove that it is not obtained from a confederate, one of the audience is allowed to select paper of such color as he may prefer in which to have it wrapped, and another to choose the ribbon with which the package is to be tied. The packet is then placed in a handkerchief and handed to some one to hold. At word of command the watch leaves the handkerchief, and is found in the innermost box of a nest of three boxes, each of which is tied with tape and sealed.
For this trick are needed: 1. A large handkerchief with a cheap watch sewn in a sort of pocket at one corner. This pocket must be sewn carefully and strongly on all sides so that the watch cannot slip out. 2. A nest of three small plain boxes, each a trifle larger than the other, and the smallest of a size to easily hold a watch—that is, about 3½ in. long, by 3 in. wide, by 2 in. high.
