AN ANIMATED BOUQUET.
[PARLOR MAGIC.]
HOW TO GET A RING OUT OF A HANDKERCHIEF.
Bend a piece of wire into the form of a ring, having previously sharpened both ends. You have a real ring made of the same sort of wire, and, concealing the false ring in the corner of your hand, offer the real one to be inspected.
When it is returned, borrow a handkerchief, and while taking it from the lender, slip the real one into your left hand, and take the false one at its point of junction. Throw the handkerchief over the ring, and give it to some one to hold between his finger and thumb. Let the handkerchief fall over it, and give a piece of string to a second spectator, directing him to tie it round the handkerchief about two inches below the ring, so as to inclose it in a bag, and tell him to do so as tightly as he can.
While he is doing this, take up your conjuring wand—a rod of some hard wood, about eighteen inches long—and when the knot is tied, step forward, passing the rod into your left hand, taking care to slip over it the real ring, which has lain concealed there. Slip your left hand to the centre of the rod, and direct each of the two persons to hold one end of it in his right hand. Then tell the one who has the ring and handkerchief to lay them on your left hand, which you immediately cover with your right. Then tell them to spread another handkerchief over your hands, and to say after you any nonsense that you like to invent. While they are so doing, unbend the false ring, and draw it through the handkerchiefs by one of its points, carefully rubbing between the thumb and finger the place where it came through.
Hang the empty handkerchief over the ring which is on the rod, and take away your hands, which you exhibit empty, as you have stuck the false ring inside the cuff. Take away the upper handkerchief, and let a third person come to examine, when he will find the ring gone out of the handkerchief, and hung upon the rod.