[THE MAGIC SACK.]
BY HENRY HATTON, MAGICIAN AND VENTRILOQUIST.
Yes, boys, real Simon-pure "magic." Just such tricks as you have seen the "magician" do; just such tricks as some of you may have seen your humble servant do. Many of these you can do yourselves—when you know how; others require more practice than you ought to give to such nonsense, and others again are too expensive. But there are some that any boy—or girl, for that matter—can do with little rehearsing and at slight expense. The magic sack trick, which I had the honor of introducing to America in 1873, is as clever as it is simple.
A muslin sack large enough to contain a boy of fourteen is handed out for examination, and after the audience are satisfied that the seams are not only secure and perfect, but that its only opening is at the mouth, the performer's assistant gets inside. The sack is gathered over his head, and the mouth tied fast with a silk handkerchief, and then with a tape, the knots of the latter being not only sealed in any way that seems best to the audience, but the ends, which are left long, given to some one to hold.
A screen is now placed between the audience and the boy in the sack, the ends of the tape passing either over the top of the screen or through holes in its side.
It would seem impossible for the person thus securely enveloped to get out of the sack without cutting or untying the tape and handkerchief; and yet, O mystery of mysteries! in a few seconds the screen is thrown open, and the late occupant of the sack walks out, while the sack is found still tied up, the knots not tampered with, and the seals unbroken.
Surprising as this appears, there are needed but three requisites for its successful accomplishment: first, an assistant upon whose secrecy and faithfulness the young conjurer can rely, for he will require his help in very many tricks; second, two sacks, exactly alike, made of very light material, so that they will fold into small compass; and third, unlimited impudence, assurance, or whatever you may be pleased to call it.
When about to exhibit the trick, the performer comes forward, holding a silk handkerchief in one hand, and sack No. 1 in the other. The assistant, who is to be tied up, has the duplicate, or sack No. 2, concealed about him, say, inside his vest, or in some such suitable place.
As soon as he gets fairly into No. 1, he whips out the duplicate, and puts the mouth of it inside the mouth of No. 1. The exhibitor, who is fumbling about as if to gather No. 1 over the assistant's head, seizes No. 2, and drawing out about nine inches of it, at once wraps the silk handkerchief over the two so as to cover the point where they meet. This he does deliberately, as an appearance of haste would give rise to suspicion among the audience. As it is now impossible for any one to distinguish between the parts of the two sacks, the exhibitor turns to his audience with the remark: "I have now tied up the mouth of the sack in such a way as to make it next to impossible for the young man to get out. But to make assurance doubly sure, I should like one of the audience to tie it again; this time with a piece of tape." As he says this, he produces the tape and ties it once around the part between the handkerchief and the mouth of No. 2. The person selected from the audience then draws the knots tight, seals them, and retains the ends of the tape in his hand.