For an impromptu puppet to answer questions about cards, concealed watches, and so forth, cut a hole in a potato at one end for a forefinger to enter. Scoop out for eyes, nose, and mouth; put on a horsehair wig and beard. Drape the hand in a handkerchief to represent the cloaked body, while the thumb and middle finger play the part of arms, and you have such an improvised Talking Hand as Edmund Kean employed to hold Byron spellbound for hours, and as is described of more elaborate manufacture in the “Art of Amusing.”
Fig. 145.
A MASQUERADE TRICK.
At the height of the merriment of a grand ball in an opera house, there suddenly is heard in an upper tier, a sound as of a violent quarrel, amidst which uproar such shouts of terrible import as, “Over with him!” “Turn him out!” “Throw him over!” are distinguishable.
Suddenly a tumultuous group are seen from below to approach the railing, among the furious combatants of which one figure is seen battling fiercely. But all his frantic resistance is seen to be useless; his hold is detached from the seats, and slowly but surely he is bent over the rail, and—as a cry of horror breaks from the onlookers’ pale lips—is flung over upon the mass of spellbound revellers beneath.
Fig. 146.
Dashed to the floor? Dear, no! for his descent is abruptly suspended at about the height of a man, and he swings calmly above the plumes and head-dresses.
It was but a puppet with a rope round under the armpits regulated to prevent it from falling among the people in the pit.