| 4 | 9 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | 7 |
| 8 | 1 | 6 |
Making a Bird Enter a Cage. Draw upon a sheet of paper an empty bird-cage and then very near the cage at the right draw a bird. The problem is to make this bird enter the cage.
Place a visiting-card between the two figures, holding the card perpendicularly on the paper. Press the end of your nose on the border of the card and look at the cage and the bird. You will thus see the cage with your left eye and the bird with your right. But in a moment the bird will seem to move, then enter the cage.
The Handkerchief Snake. A fine black-silk thread is stretched across the stage from one side to the other, the ends being in the hands of two assistants. Having obtained the loan of a handkerchief, the performer, standing behind the thread, takes it diagonally by two corners and twists it up rope fashion. He then ties three knots in it, one a little below the centre, one a little above the centre, and the third at one end. While this is being done, the assistants raise the thread, around which the last knot, forming the head of a snake, is actually tied; but owing to the thread being invisible, this will pass unobserved.
Having made the last knot, the performer drops the handkerchief on the floor, when its imitation of a live snake will depend entirely on the adroit manner in which the assistants manipulate the thread.
Finally, it should be made to jump into the hand of the performer, who should at once hand it with the knots still tied to the owner. This is managed by the assistant at one end dropping the thread and the other one pulling it clear of the handkerchief. Other tricks may be invented.
To Pass your Body through a Postal Card. Fold the card once lengthwise in the middle so that there will be two equal flaps. Now commence at the folded edge and cut almost to the straight edge, double thickness, then commence at the straight edge and cut almost to the folded edge, and so on alternately, until there have been about twenty-five or thirty cuts made, leaving a very small margin between each cut. Then cut each loop on the folded edge except the two outside loops, and open.
Silhouettes. Choose a part of the room where there is a clear wall space. Attach a piece of silhouette paper to the wall with thumb tacks or pins (or against a broad board if you fear that the tacks may injure the wall), the white side of the paper being out.
A lamp, or better a candle, having been placed so that it will throw a strong light on the sheet of paper, turn off all the other lights in the room. Each one then takes his place between the lamp and the wall so that a clear shadow of his profile may be thrown on the paper. Now draw a firm, strong line carefully around this shadow. The sitter must sit perfectly still, during the drawing. If possible have a head-rest, the shadow of which must not be seen upon the paper. Having thus outlined the shadow, take the paper from the wall and cut out the silhouette neatly or pass it to another to do the same.
Gymnastics for the Tongue. Say these several times as rapidly and distinctly as you can: “She sells sea shells at the sea shore,” and these also: “John sawed six sleek, slim, slender saplings.” “There was an old woman and she was a thistle sifter. She had a sieve of sifted thistles, and a sieve of unsifted thistles, and she was a thistle sifter.” “Mixed biscuits.” “Gig whip.” “Six thick thistle sticks.” “She stood at the door welcoming him in.” “Shoes and socks shock Susan.”