(Le Vase aux Grains.)
Mr. Panky borrows a half-crown, which he politely requests some one in the party to mark, and having had a fruit examined, such as a shaddock, melon, marrow, &c., he puts it in a box.
Then holding a large cup or vase full of seed or corn, as he proves by taking a pinch out of it, and casting the grain amongst the audience, he sets it on a table.
At a word, the coin vanishes to enter the fruit. Next, the fruit is commanded to cross and bury itself in the vase filled with seed, without displacing its contents, which is assuredly remarkable. Indeed, on plunging the hand into the vessel, the fruit is produced, and in its centre is found the marked coin. The seed has disappeared.
Fig. 13.
Explanation.—The vase is of metal with a secret bottom or with a trap in the stand, by which the contents, in this case seed, will run down out of it and down through the hollow leg of the table on which it is placed. The box in which the fruit is put is that called the Box of Disappearances.
Fig. 14.—The Box of Disappearances.
It is a case with a double drawer, into the inner of which an object is placed and both shut up; only the outer or false drawer is pulled out, and the disappearance is performed.