SECRETS OF MY MAGIC

By DAVID DEVANT

In which are disclosed for the first time the Secrets of some of theGreatest Illusions of this Master of the Art of Magic

With Contributions by Thirty otherFamous Magicians, including

OSWALD WILLIAMS—HORACE GOLDIN—CECIL LYLE

With Fifty-seven Illustrations

Copyright 2004Jose Antonio Gonzalez Campos

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION By S. H. SHARPE

CHAPTER I: CARD MAGICMisdirection of the Senses—How Cards are Forced—Tricks with Forcing Cards—The“Pass” and the “False Shuffle”—Prepared Card Packs.

CHAPTER II: CARD MAGIC (continued)The Art of Palming Cards—"Changing" a Card-"La Carte Generale" and How it isDone—Sleights-of-Hand—The Multitude of Cards Trick.

CHAPTER III: BILLIARD BALL MAGICMultiplication of Billiard Balls—Transformation of Balls into Eggs—Ball and EggProduction—Transfers, Sleights and Apparatus Used in Ball Conjuring.

CHAPTER IV: BILLIARD BALL MAGIC (continued)How to Present a Billiard Ball Illusion—Method of Working—The Cup and BallsTrick—Transforming Balls into Oranges.

CHAPTER V: FLOWER MAGIC“The Dream of the Dove” Illusion—Flower Materialisation—Producing Blooms fromseeds—The Electric Conservatory and the Beast who turns into a Prince

CHAPTER VI: OPENING ILLUSIONSProducing a Rabbit from a Top Hat—The Silver Ball Trick—Importance of Details—HowMaskelyne Began.

CHAPTER VII: MECHANICAL MAGIC“The Golliwog Ball”—Juggling with Milk—The Paper, Ribbon and Flag Trick explained.

CHAPTER VIII: FAMOUS ILLUSIONS REVEALED“The Mascot Moth” or “The Disappearing Lady”—"The Magician’s Heart"—"The Artist’sDream"—The Man who turns into a Woman.

CHAPTER IX: MORE FAMOUS ILLUSIONS“Beau Brocade”—"The New Page-boy"—"The Mystery of the Magic Mirror"

CHAPTER X: EGG MAGICAn Abundance of Eggs—A Boy, a Girl and Some Eggs—Hatching a Chicken from anEgg—The Egg-bag Trick Improved.

CHAPTER XI: THE INDIAN ROPE TRICKA Stage Version of this Mythical Illusion Presented and Explained.

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CHAPTER XII: MAGICAL MYSTERIES“The Window of the Haunted House”—The Ink that becomes Water—"The ChocolateSoldier" Illusion, or “The Man who Diminishes”

CHAPTER XIII: MORE MAGICAL MYSTERIESWines and Liqueurs from a Kettle—"The Burmese Gong" Illusion—The Magician whoVanishes Himself

CHAPTER XIV: MAGICAL SKETCHES“St. Valentine’s Eve,” or “The Envelope which becomes a Girl”—"The Enchanted Hive"Illusion—The Great Ghost Trick

CHAPTER XV: MASTERPIECES OF MAGIC“Biff,” or “The Disappearing Motor-Cyclist”—"The Gnome’s Grot"—"The Educated Fly"Illusion

CHAPTER XVI: MENTAL MAGICThought-Reading Extraordinary—The Secrets of Mental Magnetism—"Translucidation," or “The Blindfold Letter-Reader”

CHAPTER XVII: THREE UNPRODUCED ILLUSIONS“The Advent of Peter Pan ”—" Transformation"—"The Cage of Good Luck"

CHAPTER XVIII: CREATING AN ILLUSIONIdeas and Effects—A Novel Illusion—"The Man who Makes Money"—Misrepresentation

CHAPTER XIX: SOME AWKWARD MOMENTSIn the Eyes of the Law—An Unexpected Wetting—The Gunpowder Plot

CHAPTER XX: MAGIC OF MY CONTEMPORARIES

A New Method for the Spirit Slates—by Oswald WilliamsThe Card and Tack Trick—by Horace GoldinInvisible Dye—by Douglas DexterA New" Thought-Wave" Experiment—by H. Park ShackletonSurprising Finish to Cigarette Production—by Len BurnellThe Spirit Message—by G. W. Eade£1000 Challenge Effect—by Fred HockingA “Tee Bee” Effect—by Tom BurnettMisdirection—by Arthur Sherwood

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CHAPTER XXI: MAGIC OF MY CONTEMPORARIES (continued)

A. B. C. Watch and Card Trick—by Herbert J. CollingsA Pack of Cards—by Graham AdamsThe Caledonian Mystery—by W. Donald ForsythThe Diminishing Card Trick—by Edward VictorThe Indestructible Handkerchief—by Allen BenbowThe Torn Strip of Paper—by Ralph DelvinThe Miracle Paper—by Ellis StanyonHandkerchief, Tumbler and Flowers—by Will Blyth“The Allottment” By Vincent DalbanShopping by Wireless—by Ralph ChartBlindfold Card Reading—by George JohnsonThe Vanity Bag Illusion—by Cecil LyleThe Presto Painting Mystery—by W. G. SticklandThe Optical Pass—by Chris Van BernNew Spirit Message Effect—by Oswald RaeCoin and Card Divination—by Edward BagshaweThe Multiple Laundry Mystery. By Kershaw ThomasTests of the Court Magician—by Francis WhiteEarly Days of Magic—by the late Charles MorittThe Mystery of Asrah—by Servais Le RoyThe Sunshade Trick—by L. Davenport

APPENDIX: NOTES FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONSERVATORY IN “THEADVENT OF PETER PAN” ILLUSION

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INTRODUCTION

THE ETHICS OF EXPOSURE

By S. H. SHARPE

“IT is pleasanter to be deceived than to be undeceived,” would be a good conjuring maxim.People go to see a conjurer for enjoyment, and if he does not set them wondering they havereason to complain. If, having bewildered his audience, a conjurer explains the methodsused, he kills the feeling of wonder and leaves them disillusioned; just as a child gazes inawe at a rainbow, but the sophisticated adult is liable to think nothing of it. Personally, Iwonder just as much after being told the “trick” only consists in refracting light throughraindrops; because, after all, every effect must be produced in some way. The point to con-sider is that it is produced, and why? But most people lose interest when the mystery goes,and turn from wondering at the effect to wonder at their own credulity. A conjurer gets nocredit from the layman once his secret is found out. It is only other conjurers who can fullyappreciate the art and technical skill displayed; and to them, a masterly effect does not loseits interest when the trick is known. It is only conjuring of the parlour-magic and trap-doorillusion kind, that depends more on the secret than on ability, which palls when the noveltyhas gone.

Of course, people think they want to know how mysteries are produced and often pesterfor them to be explained; but as to comply invariably leads to disappointment—a factwhich the public seldom realises but which conjurers should realise-exposures can hardlyever be in the public interest. When seeking an answer to the question, “Should a conjurertell?” this fact may well be borne in mind.

I know that some people—mostly ladies—say: “Conjurers always annoy me because itmakes me so vexed when I can’t understand how the tricks are done.” But even they appre-ciate magic still less if they have their curiosity satisfied by being shown by what simplemeans their senses have been misled. In fact, the whole fabric of conjuring is built up onrousing the emotions of curiosity and wonder, but not in quenching them.

To tackle the problem from a rather different angle one might enquire: “When is exposingjustified?” and “Why do some conjurers expose their secrets?”

Now all secrets are either common property or private property; and their exposure maybe judged on either moral or utilitarian grounds.

A secret can, I suppose, be called private property only when it has been invented by aknown living person, or it is owned by the legitimate purchaser. All published secrets obvi-ously belong to the common weal because they are secrets no longer after being explained.

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But this does not mean that they can be republished or used without permission; becausepublication secures copyright. Surely a man has no moral right to explain any secret that isnot of his own devising without the inventor’s permission, if he be alive. “Do unto others asyou would be done by,” is not a bad motto for anyone in doubt about the ethics of exposing.All written exposures are read either to satisfy curiosity or to help imitation. Imitation isjustified when the secret is not a proprietory one, because originators are few and mostconjurers would be without material if they did not perform effects created by others; justas would musicians.

I think it will be universally agreed that both conjurers and the general public gain mostpleasure from witnessing magic that bewilders them, and that many people lose interestonce the secret is known: For example, people have sometimes said to me of “Sawingthrough a Woman”: “Of course the girl is a contortionist and squeezes into one end of thebox.” That is enough to make them disinterested. This being so, it would seem that expo-sures intended to satisfy curiosity can never be justified because they spoil people’s enjoy-ment and are therefore against the public interest.

Where fraudulent mediums and similar gentry are concerned it is a different matter.Knaves of any kind are parasites living on society, and it is right and just for their methodsto be aired, even if it does mean some of the conjurers having to alter their own effectsbased on similar principles, in consequence. No man yet lost through doing the right thingor by putting personal security aside for the sake of justice.

It is not of primary importance for a conjurer to question the advantage of an exposure tohimself or to conjurers in general, but to ask himself: “Is it in the public interest?” If the an-swer is: “No,” then it is against his own interests too and no good will come of carrying itthrough.

Even the first exposer, Reginald Scot, apologised for giving the game away, and only did soto prove how easily men’s senses can be beguiled. He says at the beginning of his Chapter,“The Art of Juggling Discovered”:

“I thought it good to discover it, being sorie that it falleth out to my lot to laie open the se-crets of this mysterie, to the hinderence of such poore men as live thereby, whose doingherein are not onlie tollerable, but greatlie commendable, so they abuse not the name ofGod, nor make the people attribute unto them His power; but alwaies acknowledgewherein the art consisteth, so as thereby the other unlawfull and impious arts may be bythem the rather detected and bewraied.”

Whether there is such a thing as a genuine medium I have no idea, but every conjurer, byreason of his training, is in a better position than the average person to detect fraud of thischaracter, and is in duty bound to expose the methods used whenever the chance occurs.By doing so he becomes a public benefactor.

Other exposures for utility are those explanations designed to instruct the student; to rec-ord inventions; and to arouse interest in the casual.

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This last type obviously includes only simple impromptus that awaken a desire for deeperknowledge in a few minds and amuse the others without harming real conjurers. From thefuss some conjurers make about exposures of these trifling tricks, one would think theywere capable of performing nothing better themselves.

Ever since I was a boy I have regularly been doing several card tricks out of Devant’s Tricksfor Everyone, without coming across anyone, conjurer or layman, who had even heard ofthem, and this book is one of the most widely circulated of all. So perhaps there is lessharm done by explaining effects in popular books than is often thought.

In my opinion, the reason why magic is less popular than other arts is because the numberof amateurs is so much less; and by amateurs I do not only mean amateurs who perform inpublic, but also people having a casual interest in a subject. Nearly everybody sings, whis-tles, draws, and acts instinctively from childhood without any instruction, but the very na-ture of magic prevents anyone from just “picking it up.” He has to learn how to set aboutthe job from somewhere. The great mass of people have no idea whatever of conjuringmethods and will say: “What made you take up magic?” and, “However did you begin?”

The essentially secret nature of conjuring makes it exclusive, and naturally, at the sametime, less popular than arts more generally understood, because the chief supporters ofany art are the amateurs.

The second conjurer whom it was my lot to see, appeared with his bag of tricks one Satur-day morning at Retford Grammar School where I was one of the young hopefuls. I can onlyremember two of the tricks he did, probably because the wicked man exposed them! Theywere the “Moving Pip Card” and “The Glass Casket.” The latter he presented by dropping alittle piece of red cloth in and making it change into a red ball; which I still think a muchbetter effect than just producing a spring-ball. Were I using this trick again I should be in-clined to drop a flake of cotton-wool into the casket and make it suddenly expand so thatthe casket was full of wool. This would be arranged by having a spring-ball as big as the boxwould hold, covered with cotton-wool and hidden under the flap.

I am quite certain the showing of how these simple tricks were done did not spoil my inter-est in conjuring—in fact, it probably had the reverse effect, for I left the show in a dream.On this account I am inclined to think that an occasional exposure to audiences of school-boys is beneficial to magic; especially if a romantic touch is added by cautioning them tostrict secrecy.

Broadly speaking, one may say that exposures which help the appreciation of good conjur-ing are beneficial, and vice versa. When a layman sees or reads about a minor effect he willgenerally say: “Yes, but you should see So-and-so. He can make your hair stand on end,” orsomething similar, showing that he realises the difference between a trifling trick andmasterly conjuring.

Some exposures are made for personal gain and glorification regardless of the conse-quences.

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A good deal of controversy arises over the explanations in conjuring literature of methodswhich the author does not claim to be those used by the inventor but simply ways in whichthe effects could be produced. An original conjurer introduces a new effect to the public,and before long, a secret of producing a similar effect is offered for sale or is published in aperiodical.

This generally peeves the originator. He naturally wants to know why some dead-headshould be allowed to broadcast information that may spoil work which has perhaps takenhim months or years to perfect. There seem to be four main answers available to the ex-poser.

(1) That if he didn’t expose the trick somebody else would. If you caught a burglar red-handed and asked him why he did it, I doubt whether the answer: “Bill would have pinchedthem if I hadn’t,” would soften the magistrate’s heart.

(2) That he needed the money. A pick-pocket might say the same.

(3) That conjurers could not be expected to avoid discussing new tricks among themselves,and that publication and speech are only similar forms of expression. I should say that thisanswer would be justified were it not for the fact that the publication of a practical methodis bound to encourage imitation and so diminish interest in the original production. Thereare plenty of copyists who cannot work out methods for themselves but are ready to plagia-rise with somebody else’s imitation of a novelty.

A few conjurers consider imitation beneficial on the grounds that it popularises an effectand makes more people want to see the original. There is certainly something in this the-ory because the more an effect is performed the more it is spoken about. On the otherhand, rarity is a quality that makes most things valuable. Moreover, bunglers can sicken anaudience of a particular effect if they expose the method or ruin the mystery by poor pres-entation. This doubtful popularity was a source of great annoyance to Bautier with his“Vanishing Lady” illusion and to Selbit with his “Sawing through a Woman.” Such imita-tion is, naturally, annoying, but provided a conjurer presents his effects in a finished dra-matic form, he is not likely to be very much harmed by such imitators. Many people will goover and over again to see a first-class artist. Dramatic setting and presentation can becopyrighted if the author desires; and in any case it makes exposure of the tricks employedless harmful than when the stark mystery is the whole attraction. Practically all imitatorsshow off bare tricks and illusions; they cannot steal a man’s personality which is probablyhis greatest asset. Anyone may play the same compositions that Kreisler plays or sing thesongs that Harry Lauder sings, but that does not prevent people from flocking to hearthese artists themselves. It is just the same with a Houdini, a Herrmann, or a Devant.

Sir Joshua Reynolds said in one of his Discourses on Art: “The well-grounded pain-ter...conscious of the difficulty of obtaining what he possesses, makes no pretensions to se-crets, except those of closer application. Without conceiving the smallest jealousy againstothers, he is contented that all shall be as great as himself, who have undergone the same

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fatigue; and as his pre-eminence depends not upon a trick, he is free from the painful sus-picion of a juggler who lives in perpetual fear lest his trick should be discovered.”

Of course the main charm of a conjuring entertainment is mystery, since that is its charac-teristic, but the “juggler” who depends entirely upon tricks instead of personal ability is noartist, as, once his secrets are exposed, there is nothing left to admire and he can be easilyimitated.

(4) The fourth excuse seems to be the only really satisfactory one. That publication recordsa new effect. The originator will naturally say that it is for him to decide whether his inven-tions shall be recorded or not; but I doubt whether he has really a moral right to deny oth-ers the benefit of his discoveries, and certainly a man who scatters the fruit of his laboursso that it may re-seed and grow again will die happier than one who seeks to take it to thegrave with him. An originator may fairly claim the benefit of his work for a certain period,after which I think it should be made available to others. If inventors would co-operate tolodge records of their originalities with one or other of the societies or periodicals for pub-lication after an agreed lapse of time, there would be no excuse left for the exposer and thepest might be stamped out. As things are, I am inclined to think exposers are due forthanks as well as abuse.

Neither, I think, has an originator any moral right to expose his own effects to the public,because they will only be his in a small degree, and exposure will disclose principles usedby other conjurers.

The conjuring societies might frame a rule by which originators could be protected for theinitial run of an effect and a suitable period after, unless the originator agreed to release hisinventions earlier. Meanwhile, the law is one of honour. But when all is said and done mostnovelties are based on old effects, and an inventor always owes more to the stock than heputs into it. He can say “This is my discovery,” but not, “This is mine.”

After passing through the stages of annoyance and disgust at plagiarists and exposers, Ihave come to the conclusion that the best way is to ignore them. Attack of any kind onlystimulates the adversary to greater effort, advertises him, and shows the attacker to befrightened of what the exposer is doing. Take no notice, and his efforts lose most of theirsting. Every pest has its uses, and this variety keeps the originator active; whereas hemight feel inclined to drop into a coma without some kind of irritant, just as weeds leavethe gardener no choice but to keep turning his land over.

The sooner conjurers realise that locked books or secret codes will never prevent the se-crets of tricks being found out and broadcast, the better. The real intellectual secrets ofmagic are guarded much more securely. So safe are they, no matter how openly they aredisplayed, that the only key to unlock them is the student’s own mind, which—if hewishes—can be shaped into a master-key. A simple trick can easily be learned, but artisticconstruction and presentation form a wall that few care to climb, because hoc opus, hic la-bor est.

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A man who can be great-hearted enough to ignore imitation and such-like petty injusticesaltogether, will soon find they are not worth his attention.

If others are poor in ideas and want some of yours, give them a free choice, then they won’tbe able to steal any.

It is more satisfying when setting a hot pace to help those who scramble after, than to treadthem down and try to hoard one s originalities like a miser with his gold. Again, though athousand thieves steal your ideas you still have them left for your own use; no conjurer isclever enough to give ideas away to such an extent that he no longer has them himself.

So let us be more tolerant to those who try to follow-my-leader—and hope the devil won’ttake the hindermost!

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CHAPTER I

CARD MAGIC

ONE of the greatest secrets of Magic is “misdirection of the senses.” I was amused theother day, while reading a book purporting to explain conjuring, by a description of Bau-tier’s great trick, “The Vanishing Lady,” giving a bald description of the illusion, but leav-ing out one of the greatest pieces of misdirection ever conceived by a conjurer.

Bautier commenced his performance of this trick by unfolding a large sheet of newspaperand laying it upon the floor. On this he placed an ordinary-looking chair. He handed a ladyto the chair and she sat down. He then covered her with a large piece of silk, the corners ofwhich he pinned together behind her head. He next took hold of the silk by the part cover-ing the head and at another spot near the waist, and he appeared to throw it up in the air. Itvanished instantaneously and with it the woman.

Now the first thing a person thought of as a solution was a trap-door in the stage, so Bau-tier replied to that by removing the chair from the newspaper, picking up the latter, foldingit carefully and making his bow. “Ah!” said the spectator to himself, “it couldn’t have beena trap-door with that newspaper there,” and he goes away admiring the mystery of thetrick, forgetting that a trap-door can be cut in a newspaper and the parts reinforced, theflap itself be on tape hinges and so measured to drop with the trap-door in the stage. Ofcourse a certain amount of dexterity is needed to fold the newspaper up without disclosingthe loose part to the audience.

A maitre d’htel gives a lesson in misdirection every time he takes an order for a dinner. Hesizes up his customer at a glance, approaches him with an ingratiating smile and offers themenu. The customer hesitates over the French words, and the waiter hands another menuto the maitre, who promptly begins to read off the dishes in English. For instance, he says:“Oysters and hors-d’oeuvres. Monsieur only likes oysters. I remember Monsieur also likesthick soup. No, bisque de homard. Yes?” Now he runs over the entres in the same way. Nolonger has the customer any choice in the matter. The headwaiter practically forces uponhim the dishes he wants him to buy, all the time misdirecting him so that the customer isflattered into believing that he himself is choosing these good dishes, and thinks himself afine fellow indeed.

Many of the most successful card tricks are done in much the same way. For example, theperformer approaches the onlooker, and as he goes towards him he spreads out a pack ofcards fanshape and, having got up to him, he closes them again. “Now,” says he, “I wishyou to take any card you please,” and he rapidly runs the cards from one hand to the other,that is, from left to right. While the auditor is hesitating the fraction of a second, he says:

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“Now, take one, and don’t let me see the face of the one you take,” and again he rapidly runsthem through his fingers. But this time he allows the cards to pause just as the finger andthumb of the spectator close on one side of the cards. Curiously enough, this is the very onethe conjurer wishes him to take. The card is brought to the centre by a device of sleight-of-hand called “the pass,” made by transposing two halves of a pack, thus bringing a cardwhich was on the top half of a pack to the centre of it. This is done by holding the pack inthe left hand and taking hold of about half of it with the right hand. The right hand holdsthe upper half by the ends, and the left hand holds the lower half by the fingers, and the ballof the thumb holds the sides. Now the bottom half is pushed into the fork of the thumb andthe right hand takes the pack it is holding a little to one side. Then comes a slight raising ofthe left-hand packet and a slight lowering of the right-hand packet, so they are transposedand brought together. The reader will find the little finger of the left hand is of great use inthis operation, both for separating the packs ready for the transposition and for keepingthem separate afterwards until the card is “forced.” The whole movement can be disguisedby a sweep of the arms at the crucial moment, or the same effect can be brought about by aquick turn to the left or right.

An accomplished performer can make this “force” by spreading the cards fan-shape in onehand, offering to the spectator, and moving the fan with a twist of his wrist so that it bringsthe card into the desired position just as the spectator’s fingers close upon it.

But in using the “forcing” method it is important to be able to do a trick if the wrong card istaken. One of the simplest is to offer to bring the chosen card to a certain number in thepack, such number to be chosen by the spectator. We will assume that he chooses thetwelfth card. You hand him the pack and ask him to count twelve cards upon the table andhe looks at the twelfth card and finds it is not his. You then boldly put the cards back on topof the pack and ask him again to count down. This time he finds the twelfth card is the cardhe chose.

To do this you have to have the card replaced in the pack on the lower half you offer thespectator. You then put the upper half on the top of it and make the “pass,” thus bringingthe chosen card to the top. The rest works itself automatically.

You then try again to “force” your card, this time with better success perhaps. Then you canreproduce it by having a substitute in any surprising place you prefer. For instance, if youare able to slip it on a person’s chair just before he sits down and then force a similar cardupon him, the effect is astonishing.

Of course a “force” can be made by having a pack made up of cards all alike. In this case youask a person to take a card, letting him have free choice. Then ask permission to turn yourback on the audience for a moment while you invite the gentleman who is holding the cho-sen card to exhibit it to the rest of the audience. Meanwhile you change the pack that youare holding for another ordinary pack in your waistcoat opening, so as to be able to handback an ordinary pack to shuffle the card into.

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If you wish to “force” three cards, you make up a pack of a series of threes, repetitions of thethree cards. Bring forward this pack on a tray and ask a spectator to cut it into severalheaps, then to choose one heap and from it take the three top cards, keep one himself, andhand the other two to his neighbours.

I once designed a “force” of three cards as follows:

I first invited a gentleman on to the stage and handed him a pack of cards, requesting himto shuffle them. When he had done so, I took the cards from him and handed him a rectan-gular tray and asked him to hold it in front of him. I then proceeded to deal the cards out onto one end of the tray quite slowly, requesting him to stop me at any moment. When hesaid “Stop,” I took the card I was about to place on the tray and placed it on the other end ofthe tray, repeating this three times. I then gathered the dealt cards together with the rest ofthe pack and handed the whole pack to the gentleman assisting, at the same time takingthe tray from him containing the three chosen cards.

I now explained to the audience how impossible it was for myself or any other person pres-ent to be able to tell which cards they were, and having repeated this statement emphati-cally, I turned the cards over and, spreading them out, showed everyone present what theywere. I then handed them, one at a time, to the gentleman to put into the pack and shuffle.

The tray used was especially made for the “force” described. The inner part of the tray wascovered with a small patterned cloth of darkish texture. Furthermore, there was a hingedflap at one end of the tray. This flap was covered with the same cloth as the tray and affixedto each side of it were two thin wire springs, one at the top edge of the flap, and one at theside. The flap was a little larger than a playing card, prepared by putting three cards on oneside of it under the spring wires and face upwards.

The spring wires were just long enough to hold these cards in position. The flap was thenturned so that the cards were underneath. These were the cards that were intended to beforced and in laying the other cards down, the selected ones were laid one at a time on theupper side of the flap and inserted beneath the light springs.

When the performer says, “I will turn the cards over,” he actually turns the flap, just liketurning the leaf of a book. It must be understood that slight cavities were made in the woodof the tray underneath the cloth. The cloth was so arranged as to sag when the flap wasturned on it.

At the same time, the flap stretched the cloth on the other side to keep all level over the de-pression. There was also a small knob at each side which the flap had to pass before it laidflat. A slight pressure would push it past the knobs, and a slight pull would pull it out, themoment the flap was turned over. Appearing to be the cards on the other side, the cardswere quickly spread by the performer’s fingers so everyone could see the names of allthree. It may be added that this change would be a suitable one for a bank-note, an enve-lope, or folded paper.

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The performer must be careful about the light that is cast on the tray. Of course, in a stageperformance the trick is best done close to the footlights so that the glare of the lightsmakes the top of the tray comparatively dark. The best conditions can easily be found outby experiment and precautions taken with the lights used in any particular cases.

Another way of using a change of packs as described, is to give a pack into a spectator’shands and ask him freely to select one card. The performer then takes back the rest of thecards and, turning his back on the audience with due apologies, requests the spectator todisplay the card he has chosen to the rest of the audience. The performer then turns roundand hands the spectator the pack, requesting him to replace the card and shuffle it amongthe others. The pack is then returned to the conjurer who immediately extracts the chosencard. The secret of this trick lies in the preparation of the pack. The preparation consists inshaving the whole pack from the ends for just a fraction of an inch. He substitutes this packwhen he turns so that the card replied in the shortened pack can, by its difference in size,be instantly located by the performer. Then he has knowledge and possession of the cardand can end the trick in any way he pleases. Of course, the same thing can be done with twoor three cards.

Another way of keeping track of a card—and a good substitute for the “pass”—is what isknown as the “false shuffle.” I always believe in simplifying the means of performing any il-lusion. Thus I have always taught amateurs to eliminate the “pass” in card tricks as muchas possible. For instance, it is usual to receive back a chosen card on the lower half of thepack; then put the two halves together; then make the pass, and then “false shuffle” thecards. I suggest the pass in this instance is not necessary. I receive back the card on thelower half, bring the top half to it, and keeping the two separated by the little finger of theleft hand, leave it thus for a few seconds, then separate again by commencing to “falseshuffle.” To do this I naturally take the top half. This leaves the chosen card on the top and Icontinue to “false shuffle” by slipping the chosen card each time I transfer cards from theback to the front of the pack.

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CHAPTER II

CARD MAGIC (continued)

HAVING dealt with two of the primary sleights for card work, namely, the “force” and the“pass,” we will proceed to two other sleights—the “palm” and the “change” and a few tricksthat can be done by the aid of all four sleights.

“Palming” a card merely means concealing it in the hand. Of course, it cannot be strictly inthe palm as a coin may be, but it is sufficiently concealed to hide it. The great secret of the“palm” is to keep the hand natural-looking, with the fingers half curled. The thumb can befreely used for such actions as fiddling with the bottom button of one’s waistcoat, or hold-ing a pack of cards by its side. The method of getting the card, or cards, into the hand, is tocount them from the top of the pack held in the left hand by pushing the cards one at a timeover the further edge, that is, the furthest from the performer. The right hand conceals thismovement and the thumb gets underneath the cards and pushes them into the position re-quired. When this is done the right hand takes hold of the pack, while the left hand doessomething else. Anything will do. The pack is again replaced in the left hand, and the righthand is naturally, but carefully, held so as not to show the cards within it.

The “change” consists in changing one card for another in full view of the audience. Thecard is rapidly passed from left to right, but in doing so is allowed to touch the pack for afraction of time. The card must be held loosely between the first two fingers of the righthand. As it passes the pack the thumb of the right hand takes a card, which is allowed toprotrude from the top of the pack in the left hand and is seized by the thumb and forefingerof the right hand. The left hand also receives the bottom card, taking it with fingers under-neath the pack, and it is simply slid in between the fingers and the pack.

There is a brilliant trick called “La Carte Generale,” ages old, which one never sees nowa-days. It has always been a favourite of mine and I should much like to see it revived.

The conjurer comes forward with a pack of cards and has them shuffled by one of the spec-tators. Then he asks him to select a card. He then asks another person to select a card andso on until five cards have been selected. Having had them all replaced in the pack, the per-former holds the pack behind his back, and selecting five cards from it presents them toeach of the choosers and asks them if their card is amongst those. Each one having repliedin the affirmative, they are again replaced in different parts of the pack.

The performer now undertakes to select the individual cards, and taking one out of thepack, he addresses one person remarking: “This is your card, sir.” The person addresseddenies this. “Oh, it must be yours,” says the performer, addressing another of those con-

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cerned. “No, not mine,” says he, and so on until everyone has denied the card. He thencommences again at the first person who is now surprised to find the card is his; the sec-ond person also agrees, the card appearing to have changed to his. Also with the third,fourth, and fifth. “So it’s everyone’s card,” and showing it once more to the whole audience,the performer says: “Now it’s no one’s card.”

This trick is not suitable for a stage performance, but excellent at an after-dinner concert,or any other function at which the performer can be among the audience. The secret is this:

The first, second, and third persons freely choose their cards. They are simply asked totake one from the pack, and no attempt is made to “force” cards. They are asked carefullyto note the name of the card. The third card to be selected is put back into the pack and“forced” on to the fourth person. He puts it back and it is “forced” on the fifth person andput back. Then the other two cards are collected so that the performer has the three cardskept in position at the top of the pack by using the “pass” method, that is, each time hepresents the lower half of the pack while he holds the other half in the right hand, the cardhaving been placed on the lower half. The two halves are brought together and secretlykept apart by the little finger. Then the “pass” is made, bringing the desired card to the top.The first time this is done is with the third card. This is “forced” for the fourth and again forthe fifth and, finally, the first and second are replaced. When the performer puts the packbehind his back he simply takes off the five top cards and shows them to each one who haschosen a card, asking the same question: “Is your card among these?” Each one havingsaid, “Yes,” the audience are led to believe that the five cards are the five different cardschosen.

He then commences with one card. He now changes this by means of the “change” andtransforms it into the first person’s card, which was the last replaced. Again he transformsthis into the second person’s card, again making the “change.” The card becomes the thirdperson’s. He now has only to get as much effect as he can out of the apparent change of thethird card into those belonging to the fourth and fifth persons. Now he makes the “change”once more and shows a card which belongs to nobody. One hint—take care the personswho select the third, fourth, and fifth cards are seated as far as possible from one another.

Another excellent trick much neglected of late is one in which the performer asks a gentle-man to come and assist him. Handing him a pack of cards, he requests him to shuffle it,spread the cards out face downwards, and then go to four persons in the audience and askeach one of them to select and retain one card. Then taking the pack from the assistant theperformer requests him to hold his right hand in front of him and ask each person who hasselected a card to place them on his outstretched hand, one on top of the other. The per-former has meanwhile gone up on the stage with the pack, and asks the assistant to joinhim and also invites him to give back the cards, offering half of the pack to put them on. Hethen himself puts the other half on and begins to shuffle them. Now addressing the gentle-man he enquires: “Have you an inside pocket in your coat, sir?.... You have.” “Would youmind emptying it of the contents and put them on this table? Take out all the little bills,that’s right. Now will you shuffle the pack, sir? Are you sure your pocket is empty? I amnow going to place the cards in your pocket, so. Now if you will give me your hand, sir, and

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look into my eyes, I will try and influence you in such a way that you will select from yourpocket the very cards that have been chosen by these ladies and gentlemen.

“For instance, madam, what was the name of your card?” She replies, saying: “The Queenof Hearts.” “Now, sir, look at me, I’m going to count three, then I will leave go of your hand.

I want you to plunge it into your pocket and pick out one card from the pack, and it will bethe very card that the lady chose. But remember you must be quick about it so that the in-fluence doesn’t evaporate."

This programme is duly carried out four times running, and each card picked out repre-sents one of those chosen by the audience.

“Now, sir,” continues the performer, “will you give me the rest of the cards from yourpocket. I’m afraid they are not all here, sir.” The performer then plunges his hand into thewaistcoat of the assistant with a whispered apology and pulls out from the waistcoat sev-eral cards. He also takes a fan of cards from behind the man’s ear and shakes some moredown from underneath his waistcoat, and, from underneath the shoulder of his coat, sur-prisingly produces a string of cards, which reach half-way across the stage. The performerthrows these round his own neck and produces another string from the other shoulder ofthe assistant. The performer then plunges his hand under the coat of the assistant and pro-duces a string of large cards, amidst roars of laughter. The assistant is now allowed to pickup his belongings, and once more the performer puts his hand into the waistcoat of the as-sistant, and produces a long barber’s pole, which, when developed, reaches to the top ofthe stage.

“You apparently carry the North Pole about with you, sir,” remarks the conjurer as he bowshim off the stage.

The explanation of this is very simple.

When the cards are collected, the performer has to note the order in which they are re-placed, so that the last replaced will be the first produced. It must be remembered also thatthe auditors are requested not to forget their individual cards. When the four are replacedon the lower half of the pack, the performer brings the two halves together and makes the“pass.” Then he begins to shuffle the cards by taking about half the pack or more and trans-ferring the cards, a few at a time, to the other side of the pack remaining in the left hand,taking care not to let the four top cards go, but keeping them at the top. He then palmsthem off under the cover of the assistant emptying his pockets. He afterwards hands thepack to the assistant to shuffle and, taking it back again, enquires once more about thepocket. Meanwhile the performer bends the whole pack slightly inwards, and in this con-dition puts them into the assistant’s pocket. The assistant, eager to comply with the per-former’s directions, invariably selects the top card simply because it is the first that comesto hand and he is being hurried on all the time by the performer. If by any chance he shouldhappen to select a wrong card, the performer suggests that he wasn’t quick enough andshows him how to do it by selecting the card himself.

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The last part of the business is managed chiefly by palming the cards which are material-ised. They are kept in the side pocket of the performer’s coat, or in the pochette (a smallpocket in the lining of a tail-coat used for “vanishing” small articles, or producing them).The large cards are held,in position by a paper clip under the left armpit of the performer,and boldly going to the assistant, he opens his coat, at the same time pulling down the packof giant cards, quickly puts them underneath the assistant’s coat, and holding them in thatposition with the other hand, pulls them out, unfolding them at the same time.

The so-called “North Pole” is a long strip of coloured cartridge paper, which is rolled upand pulled out again by the centre. Pulled out at equal lengths, this attains a surprising ef-fect of solidity.

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CHAPTER III

BILLIARD BALL MAGIC

Use has been made in this and the following chapter of certain material from myportion of the book Our Magic (now out of print) by Nevil Maskelyne and myself, with

the kind permission of the Publishers, Geo. Routledge & Sons, Ltd.—Author’s Note.

IN billiard balls we have a moderate-sized object, dear to the heart of the manipulator. Aswith the cards, so with billiard balls. The manipulator finds the temptation strong uponhim to linger lovingly over sleights, passes, and palms galore, whilst losing sight of the ulti-mate effect on the mind of his. audience. I do not remember ever to have seen an illusionwith billiard balls in which the effect was not blurred by this sort of thing instead of beingmade to stand out in relief like a clear-cut cameo. On being asked afterwards what the con-jurer did with a billiard ball the spectator probably replied: “Oh, all sorts of things.”

Now, one does not wish to hear a criticism like that if one has been displaying a feat ofmagic; rather would one hear a greatly exaggerated description. Again, manipulation pureand simple will not carry a conjurer very far if he is using billiard balls and eggs. Let us sup-pose that a modern conjurer was in the power of some cannibal tribe and that his very lifedepended upon proving to them that he was a real “magic” man. Even the cleverestsleight-of-hand performer would stand a very poor chance of living if all he had with himwas, say, half a dozen ivory billiard balls and the same number of eggs. He would not knowone cumulative feat of magic with them simply because no genius has as yet invented one.But give the same conjurer twenty silver coins and a top hat and he would know what to do.The natives would be astonished to see him catching money from the air, picking coinsfrom all sorts of places, and throwing them into the hat. Even if the savages were so fortu-nate as not to know what money was they would still wonder at this medicine man whocreated those shining discs at his fingertips. If, instead of the money and the hat, the con-jurer had three cups and a few cork balls of different sizes and three oranges or apples, hemight still convince his audience that he was a genuine magician because his play withthese articles would have a plot—a beginning, a middle, and an end. In brief, it would be asatisfactory effect.

As a matter of fact, apart from playing-cards, there are very few complete feats of magicwhich are not dependent on some form of mechanical aid. I believe that “The Cups andBalls” and the “Catching Money Trick” are the oldest and best illusions that have ever beenaccomplished by pure sleight-of-hand, or manual dexterity, alone. But, to return to ourbilliard balls and eggs. Given a little help in the shape of mechanical devices the modernmagician can make a very good showing with these objects.

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Disraeli said of description that it “was always a bore both to the describer and the de-scribee.” I will do my best to curtail the description of multiplication, and I believe that theshortest way in the case of the deception which is the subject of this chapter will be to de-scribe first the illusion exactly as it ought to appear to the audience, and then follow thatwith the plan for imparting the secrets.

Imagine, then, the conjurer commencing by coming forward to the audience with nothingin his hands and asking permission to pluck a billiard ball from a gentleman’s beard, pref-erably a snow-white beard. After indicating to those near just where the ball is nestling, hereaches forward with his right hand, just touches the beard with his fingers, and sureenough a red billiard ball is produced. On the stage, or part of the room which forms thestage, is a table. The table is on the prompt side, that is to say, on the right-hand side asseen from the auditorium. The conjurer goes up to the table and drops the billiard ball on aplate which is lying there in readiness.

Everyone can hear that the billiard ball is a solid one. It is, in fact, an ivory ball. To usewood or other imitation substance detracts much from the experiment. When the balls areknocked together one hears that little click peculiar to real billiard balls. This convinces theaudience that the balls are heavy and consequently difficult to manage, which they usuallyare. But the effect of using ivory balls well repays one for the extra work required in prac-tising the manipulations.

“I am very glad you brought a white beard,” continues the conjurer, “because you see Ihave a red ball. Now, from a red beard I usually get a white ball, but it is really all the sameto me. You observe that this ball is distinctly red. I have only to pass my right hand lightlyover it and it becomes a white one. I will tell you how that is done. I use two. The red one ishidden behind the white.” On saying this the conjurer, with the fingers of his right hand,takes a red ball from behind the white, which is between the finger and thumb of his lefthand.

“I will explain how a conjurer can pocket the white.” Here he picks up the white ball whichhe had dropped with the other on the plate. “Look! I throw this into the air and it seems todisappear. In reality it has dropped into this little pocket behind my right knee.”

Apparently he throws it up into the air and it vanishes; immediately afterwards, he repro-duces it from behind his right knee.

“I am covered with secret pockets. I had nine tailors to make that one.” Saying this hetransfers the ball to his left hand. “There is another thing I can do with a billiard ball. I cancause it to multiply. I simply touch this one and it becomes two, each quite solid.” Again hedrops them on the plate.

“That is quite easy with two hands, but it is much more difficult with one hand only. I willroll up one of my sleeves, and show you what I mean.” He pulls his right coat sleeve over hiselbow, and rolls up his shirt sleeve over it, and picking up one of the white balls and rap-

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ping it on the table top to prove again its solidity he holds it in position and is ready to com-mence the most important part of the experiment.

It will be noticed that if the body be twisted to the left without altering the position of thehand holding the ball the performer will naturally show both sides of the hand as well asthe ball and it will be obvious that nothing but the ball is in the hand. When a second ballappears suddenly beside it, whilst the conjurer holds his hand thus outstretched the fulllength of his arm from his body, and when the conjurer further proves that they are bothsolid ivory balls by knocking them together, then indeed we have a surprise which savoursof real magic.

A rule laid down by Professor Hoffmann, and insisted on by most other writers, is to the ef-fect that no feat of magic should be repeated at the same performance. But that rule doesnot apply to an effect such as this. If it is wonderful to see one ball produced, it is morewonderful to see two balls, and then three. The fourth is considered more wonderful still,but were there a weak point in the trick of obtaining these balls or any suspiciously unnatu-ral movement used, then it would not bear the repetition which, as it is, forms the perplex-ing part of this feat. The conjurer, having proved the two balls solid, stretches out the handcontaining them, holding one ball between the thumb and first finger and the other be-tween the second and third fingers. Again he describes a half-circle with his arm, showingall sides of both hand and balls, and again a new ball appears from nowhere.

The inexplicable thing about this is that the balls are solid ivory, which fact the conjurertakes care to impress upon the onlookers by taking one of the three with his disengagedhand and rattling it on the other two. Having done this the three are shown as before.Slowly the hand is turned in every direction; only three balls can be seen. Again that slightshake of the one hand, and once more a ball mysteriously joins those already there. Thereare now four balls between the five fingers of the hand. The hand can hold no more. Theballs are dropped on the plate, one at a time, to show again that they are solid ivory.

It must be remembered that we are taking these examples of magic from an actual, existingrepertoire and, therefore, although the billiard ball feat is now virtually over, there is still asecond phase of the experiment to describe in which eggs are used. The conjurer contin-ues:

“There is still another little thing I can do with a billiard ball. I can transform a billiard ballinto anything that I happen to want. Suppose I want a mutton-chop or a footbath. All Ihave to do is to pass my hand lightly over a billiard ball and I get what I require, which inthis case is an egg.” Here the transformation is effected in exactly the same way as theformer change from the red ball to the white. In this case it is also as well to use the red ballfor the sake of the contrast in colour. It will be found that white balls can be seen by anaudience much better than red ones, and that is why white is chosen for the principal effectI have described.

Having got the egg, the billiard ball is produced from the back of the hand and thrown onthe plate with the others. Sundry movements are executed with the egg—in dumb show, of

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course. During the production of the billiard balls the conjurer has been talking. I haveonly indicated the patter actually used here and there, because I cannot communicate themanner of speaking together with the words. The style of delivery cannot be taught here.For instance, one of my little jokes was to say: “You notice, ladies and gentlemen, that myhand never leaves the end of my arm.” This looks inane in type, but said in a certain man-ner it always elicited a laugh.

Placing the egg on the left hand the conjurer makes it vanish and reproduces it from the el-bow. It is then put into the mouth, swallowed, and reproduced from underneath the edgeof the waistcoat. Again it is placed between the lips, swallowed, and found behind the rightear. Once more it is put into the mouth, and rediscovered in the right-hand waistcoatpocket, and then taken in the left hand and passed from the left side of the left knee to theopposite side of the right knee. The effect in this case ought to be as though there were atube through which the egg is thrown. It goes in at one endand is met by the other hand on emerging at the other. It ispassed through the body in the same way. The performerputs the egg in the left hand, smacks himself on the back,and meets the egg at about the top button of the waistcoat.Now, as a variant, he drops it into his left sleeve from the lefthand, and to all appearances it travels across his back andvisibly rolls out of his right sleeve. Lastly he bangs the top ofhis head with the left hand in which he has once more depos-ited the egg, and this harlequin of an egg appears betweenhis lips. Receiving it in the palm of his right hand he places itin his left, and, then seemingly to his own great astonish-ment, another appears in his mouth. This he also meets withhis right hand and transfers to his left. This is repeated thricemore, and thus four eggs have been produced from hismouth to the accompaniment-as a rule—of hearty laughterfrom the whole audience. (Fig. 1.)

The last part of the feat must be done delicately, and with the light comedian’s sense of hu-mour, but these touches I cannot impart. I have described the illusion and it must be left tothe student as to whether it suits his style. Done in the wrong way, the production of eggsfrom the mouth would appear vulgar. Done in the right way it is simply amusing and an ex-cellent finish to multiplication.

Now for the secret. First of all, since we are no wizards, we require the following fakes anddevices. First, a shell of celluloid to represent half a white ball. It fits neatly, but not at alltightly, over three of the five white balls used. The remaining two white balls are made a lit-tle larger than the others. One of them is so large that the shell fits over it fairly tightly, andthe other is a little bigger, so that when the shell is pressed on to it the ball can be thrownabout without dislodging the shell.

The exact sizes of the balls are as follows:

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A, RED, 1-3/4 inches. B, WHITE, 1-13/16 inches. C, WHITE, 1-25/32 inches. D, E, F,White, 1-3/4 inches. SHELL, 1-7/8 inches. Celluloid eggs. G, H, I, J, K.

I will refer to the balls and eggs by these letters.

A very useful device is the wire ball-holder, made of one piece of brass wire twisted into theform seen in the sketch of the apparatus (Fig. 2). Three of these are used, but more may beused if the performer desires.

Sleights. Two modes of concealing a ball or egg in the hand are used. The first is what isknown as “palming,” and consists of holding the object between the ball of the thumb andthat raised part of the palm on the opposite side of the hand. (Fig. 3.) The ball is held by aslight contraction of the muscles at the base of the thumb. To learn how to palm the ball in

this way place the ball in the centre of the open hand, with all the fingers wide apart, andtry to grip the ball by moving the whole length of the thumb inwards without bending anypart of it. After considerable practice it will be found that a small object can be held in thisway without moving the fingers to any appreciable extent, and the hand can be turnedright over and held in any position without danger oF dropping the object. (Fig. 4.)

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The next thing to acquire is the power of using the fingers freely by handling other things atthe same time that the concealed object is “palmed.” As concealment is the sole reason forthis sleight it follows that the last and not the least important part of the practice must bedevoted to drilling oneself into always holding the hand in such a position that no one seesany part of the palmed article.

Another and easier way of concealing the ball in the hand is used in this combination; Ishall refer to it hereafter as the finger palm.

The ball is held as in Figs. 5 and 6 and the method is learnt in this way: slightly bend thefingers of one hand and lay the ball in the hollow thus formed (Fig. 5). Then bend the fin-gers just sufficiently to grip the ball and turn the hand over afterwards (Fig. 6). Practisegripping the ball with the two middle fingers leaving the other two free for such use as canbe made of them without disclosing the presence of the concealed ball. They can be

stretched out but cannot be spread wide apart. There are also two “transfers” to practise. Iwill allude to them as the single transfer and the double transfer. To acquire the first,which is used to convey the ball from the finger palm to the palm proper of one hand, it isnecessary to bend the two middle fingers quickly inwards. This ought to be done withoutmoving the other fingers. Try it first without the ball and, when the tips of the middle fin-gers can be made to touch the ball of the thumb without much movement of the remainingfingers, palm one of the balls and make the same movement, which will roll the ball veryquickly into the right position for the palm proper. A pressure of the fingers must be madesimultaneously with the grip of the receiving palm which holds the ball, leaving the fingersfree to be stretched out again immediately.

The “double transfer” is easier when once the pupil has acquired facility in the othersleights. I use it to transfer a concealed ball from one hand to the other. It consists infinger-palming with one hand and palming with the other. The palm of the receiving handis brought over the ball, finger-palmed in the other, or the fingers of the receiving hand arebrought over the ball in the palm of the opposite hand. To do this the hands must bebrought together on some excuse or other, and in Figs. 7, 8, and 9 we have first the right

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hand taking a visible ball from between the finger and thumb of the left hand and at thesame time transferring a hidden ball from the palm of the right hand to the finger-palm of

the left. In the next sketch the hands are seen together being taken across the body. In thelast the movement is completed, and the hidden ball is finger-palmed in the left hand, nowback,to the spectators, while the palm of the right is exposed. By repeating this movementone gets the effect of showing both hands back and front without pointedly referring tothem. The ostensible reason for doing this is to display the visible billiard ball.

“Apparent transfers” are also sleights which are very important. I will attempt to describethose used in the illusion of “multiplication.” I will name the sleights for reference later as“apparent transfer with palm,” “apparent transfer with finger-palm,” “apparent transferwith combination palm.”

By “apparent transfer” I mean the apparent taking or placing of a ball in one of the handswhile in reality it is retained by the other.

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Apparent transfer with Palm. The ball is held on the open palm of the right hand. The lefthand is about to pick it up—as shown in Figs. 10 and 11, but the fingers do not close over it,

although they appear to do so. In reality, as the hands are separated, the right is turnedwith its back to the audience to conceal the ball which is palmed while the fingers of the leftare made to curl over an imaginary ball.

Apparent transfer with Finger-Palm. The ball is held in the grip of the fingers and thehand containing it is turned towards the open palm of the other hand as though dropping

the ball into it. But the fingers do not relax; theyretain the ball while the fingers of the other handcurl over as though they had really received it.Just before making this transfer the ball can bethrown up and caught in the hollowed fingers, or dropped from a position between the fin-ger and thumb and thence apparently tossed into the other hand. (Figs. 12 and 13).

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Apparent transfer by Combination Palm. In this the action of putting the ball into the op-posite hand is simulated, whereas in the first transfer the ball was apparently taken by thereceiving hand and in the second it was dropped into the receiving hand.

The ball is held between finger and thumb of one hand and as the hand travels towards theother it is dropped into the finger-palm position, thence transferred to the palm proper,and the fingers of both hands take part in an imitation of giving and receiving the ball(Figs. 14 and 15). A looking-glass will do more for the student than any written description.Once he understands the sequence of any given move let him try it before a mirror, withoutthe secret palms, and then, when he is quite familiar with the appearance of the real move-ment let him add the necessary hidden manipulations. If he finds that the real and the imi-tation appear natural and look alike then he will have taught himself just how to use thesubterfuge. Further, he will realise just how much difference there is between knowingwhat to do and how to do it, just where the secrets sink into insignificance compared to thepower of acting.

I do not advise the use of the mirror except as a check on preliminary crudities, becauseone is apt, after long practice before a glass, to depend too much upon its aid.

Preparations. The balls and eggs are disposed about the person in the following way. Theholders are hung on to spring hooks sewn to the trousers in the position seen in the nextsketch (Fig. 16), and balls D, E, and C, WHITE, are put into them, D and E being nearest tothe left hand of the performer. The eggs G, H, I, J, are placed under the waistcoat on theleft-hand side.

Eggs I, K, are put one in the right waistcoat pocket, and one in the right-hand coat pocket.Balls A, RED, and B, WHITE (with the shell on it), are placed in a left-hand pocket of the

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tail coat, A, RED, being nearest the left hand. The remain-ing ball F, WHITE, is put under the waistcoat at, about thecentre.

To hold the eggs and balls under the waistcoat with safetythe waistcoat is prepared in the following way. It is firstbuttoned up and slit up the back seam. A tab with a largebutton and a buttonhole are placed behind the collar, aloop of elastic, and a button in the middle of the back, andat the back of the waist line, as seen in Fig. 16.

The loop of elastic accommodates itself to the trick bystretching as required, but if this is not thought sufficientlysafe the wire holders may be sewn inside the waistcoat.

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CHAPTER IV

BILLIARD BALL MAGIC (continued)

HAVING now prepared our paraphernalia and perfected the various sleights required, wecan proceed to the method of working. After showing the hands, let the left hand restlightly on the lower edge of the waistcoat and press the ball F, WHITE, down with thethumb and “finger-palm” it. Act as though you were about to take the ball from the beardwith the empty right hand, and pull up the right sleeve with the left hand. Then pull up theleft sleeve with the right hand and, as the hands cross, execute the “double transfer.” Toproduce the ball plunge the fingers into the beard or behind some other object and let theball roll or drop quickly to the finger tips. Immediately afterwards bring it into view veryslowly. When turning to the table to drop the ball on the plate bring the left hand, which isheld at the side, to the tail-coat pocket, secure the ball, RED), A, from there and “finger-palm” it.

The “double transfer” is executed once or twice, finally leaving the red ball palmed in theright hand and the white ball between the finger and thumb of the left hand. The righthand is placed in front of the white ball and “fingerpalms” it. The moment the fingers gripit the finger and thumb of the left hand leave the white ball and grasp the red ball which hasbeen brought by the palm of the right hand just underneath. The right hand is loweredaway again taking the white ball with it and this is transferred from the fingers to the palmby the “single transfer,” and the red ball is displayed. The “double transfer” is used, and thewhite ball is produced from behind the red ball.

The single transfer is executed very smartly. Standing with his right side towards the audi-ence the conjurer throws the ball a couple of feet high. It is caught by the “finger-palm,”and while the hand makes an upward motion as though throwing the ball a second time,the single transfer is executed very smartly and the fingers are spread wide apart. Whilethe ball is being produced from the right knee the conjurer, using the other hand, obtainsB, WroTE, from the tail pocket and fingerpalms it. Now an apparent transfer by combina-tion palm is made with F, WHITE, to the left hand, which discloses B, WHITE, at the sameinstant. Another “double transfer” is made to show only one ball, and then F, WHITE, isproduced from behind B, WHITE.

Now loosen the ball in the shell slightly with the fingers of one hand. Then hold both shelland ball by the first finger and thumb of the right hand in such a way that the second fingercan be brought down behind and underneath the ball. Lift the ball and roll it upwards sothat it finally rests and is held between the upper part of the first finger and the lower sideof the second finger. Figs. 17, 18, and 19 show three phases of the movement as seen by theaudience.

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Meanwhile the other hand has secured D, WHITE, and “finger-palmed” it, and as the per-former takes the newly produced ball from between the first and second fingers of his right

hand with the finger and thumb of his left he neatly puts the hidden ball into the shell with-out any effort further than receiving and holding it with the finger and thumb that holdsthe shell.

After knocking the solid balls together without disclosing the presence of the shell, whichis now on D, WHITE, the conjurer places B, WHITE, between the second and third fingersof the right hand.

The second finger is kept close to the first finger and eventually is slipped behind and un-der the ball in the shell and brings it into view as it did the last ball. The difficulty is greatlyincreased because the movement of the second finger is hampered by the ball restingabove it, which has to be held by the two fingers during the whole operation.

The conjurer now obtains E, WHITE, and gets it into the empty shell as he did D, by takingthe last produced ball away from the right hand for the purpose of rattling it against theother two.

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When he replaces the ball he puts it between the third and little fingers of his right hand,leaving the space between the first and second fingers to be filled in the same way as be-fore, but the difficulty is increased.

He has now once more secured a ball—C, WHITE—with the left hand, which carries it be-hind the shell under the pretext of taking the last produced ball away to drop it on theplate. C, WHITE, is the biggest ball, and it is pressed well into the shell, which half coversit. When the ball is dropped on the plate with the others it safely carries the shell with it.

Turning to the left the conjurer then reaches across to the plate and picks up the red ballwith his right hand. Under cover of this movement the left hand goes to the right-handbreast pocket and finger-palms the egg. The double transfer and change are effected in thesame way as with the red and white balls.

It is now put behind the hand by the apparent transfer with combination palm done veryquickly, and rolled back into view very slowly. Then follow, as already described:

Apparent transfer with palm.Apparent transfer with combination palm.The same.

The egg is now really put into the mouth and held there while another egg is taken from thepocket.

Then follow three more apparent transfers with combination palm.

In the last of these, and while the left hand appears to be dropping an egg down the sleeve,the right-hand fingers pull the right-hand sleeve over the egg in the palm, so that the eggactually rolls out of the sleeve on its reappearance in public.

Again the apparent transfer with combination palm is used. The palm concealing the egg isbrought right over the egg between the lips and under the cover thus given the egg in themouth is drawn back again into the mouth and the concealed egg is held for a moment bythe lips and then dropped into the hand which was lowered the moment the second eggwas in position.

Visibly and actually, but during the last movement the left hand has secured one of theeggs from under the vest and finger-palmed it. This egg is transferred to the right handwhen it places the visible egg in the left.

The two preceding movements are now repeated and the last egg to drop into the hand is,of course, the one which has been held in the mouth from the earlier movement. The par-ticular egg used for this must be selected to fit the mouth comfortably, and may be a littlesmaller than the others.

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Another ball trick and probably one of the most ancient forms of conjuring is “The Cup andBalls.” The principles used are very few and simple. One is to catch a ball (cork balls areused as a rule) between the finger and thumb and roll it quickly with the thumb to the baseof the two middle fingers and there retain it by a slight pressure of the fleshy parts of thefingers, at the same time pretending to place it in the other hand. Then you open the fin-gers of the other hand and apparently leave the ball underneath a cup which is standingmouth downwards on the table. Then you throw the ball a few inches in the air, catch itwith the right hand, apparently put it in the left, lift the cup with the right hand and appar-ently place the ball underneath the cup from the left hand. The right hand now picks up an-other cup.

Calling attention to the fact there is nothing underneath the cup, the performer replaces iton the table and in doing so leaves the ball, which is between the fingers, underneath thecup. This is managed by spreading the hand out and grasping the cup by the lower edgewith the finger and thumb, at the same time lowering the other part of the hand, making aslight relaxation of the fingers which hold the ball, and allowing it to drop on to the tableunderneath the cup at the same instant as the lower edges of the cup touch the table.

The performer commences with three cups and one ball. He puts the ball apparently undercup number one and raises cups numbers two and three and shows the ball which he ap-parently put under cup number one has transferred itself to number two. Then he replacesit under number two and transfers it in the same way to number three.

The next step is magically to produce two more balls. This can be done by withdrawing onedaintily from the top of a wand, and the other, say, from behind the right ear. These twoballs are secured from under the waistcoat where they have been securely hidden up tillnow. When you have produced them, you lay them on the cups and thus have one for eachcup. You now secretly obtain the fourth ball, which you retain in your hand. Picking up onecup with the same hand, you place the ball that was on the top of the cup underneath it, atthe same time releasing the hidden ball. Now you pretend to put the centre ball under thecentre cup, and cover the third with the third cup. Releasing the ball you should have putunder the centre cup, you now have two balls under each of the end cups and nothing in thecentre cup. But to the audience you appear to have three balls, one under each cup. Younow offer to transfer the ball under the centre cup to either of the end cups. Whichever ischosen you lift up, showing two balls, and turning the centre cup over it is seen to beempty. You now pick up one of the balls and pass it magically under the other end cup,which is proved by displaying the two. You are now left with three balls on the table andone in your right hand, concealed.

The next pass one might do is a very pretty one. It may here be mentioned that the cups aremade in the shape of truncated cones, with an upright band of metal round the base. Thetop of each cup is slightly concave and by this shape three balls can be concealed betweentwo cups.

To proceed, the performer lifts up the centre cup and, placing it on the table mouth down-wards, places a ball on top of it and covers it with one of the other cups, then places the

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third cup on top of that. He now lifts up all three, showing the ball beneath the cup, and let-ting the pile rest in his hand, mouths upward. He takes the bottom one off and quickly putsit on the table; then the second one on the top of the ball, so that there are now two ballsunderneath that cup; the third one he puts on the table. He now puts another ball on thecentre cup and the other two cups on the top; turns them over, shows two balls underneathand repeats the same movement with the third ball.

I generally finished here and proceeded with the multiplication pass. I borrowed a hand-kerchief and held it with three corners to form a sort of bag. I then picked up one of thecups and put the ball underneath it, apparently into the handkerchief, in reality retainingit in the hand; then picked up another cup, leaving the ball underneath that, picked up aball and apparently threw it into the handkerchief; then picked up another cup and placedthe ball that was underneath that into the handkerchief, and kept on thus pretending topick up the balls and place them in the handkerchief. Finally I picked up the three cups andshowing the three balls, took the handkerchief to a gentleman and asked him to’ count theballs, and of course he found the handkerchief empty. In my passage back to the table, I se-cured two larger balls from underneath my waistcoat, and lifting up two of the cups, re-placed them on the table in different positions, leaving the larger balls underneath them.Placing the two balls on the top of the cups, I secured the third ball and did the same withthe third cup.

You now have three cups with three balls on the top of them, and three larger balls insidethem. You want to impress upon the audience to watch the cups, and taking one of the ballsyou throw it into the air from a little distance into the cup. Now the left hand having donethis, you approach the cup with the right hand, while the left hand secures a small orangefrom the left-hand side of the waistcoat. The right hand takes the cup up, disclosing thelarger ball, and quickly transfers the cup to the left hand, coolly inserting the orange into it,when all eyes are on the ball that is just disclosed. The same thing is done with the othertwo cups, so that you now have three balls visible and three oranges invisible. These youpressed into the upper part of the cups so that by lifting the cups up gently, there is seen tobe nothing underneath them. You then pick up one of the visible balls and lifting the cupup again, put it down with a sharp tap, thus dislodging the orange, which falls upon the ta-ble now to be disclosed at will, but before doing so you repeat the same movements withthe other two cups, getting rid of the larger balls as you go along, finally lifting the cups upand displaying the oranges. This finishes the exhibition, and, to my mind, is the most sen-sational part of the whole trick.

To keep the balls in position under the waistcoat a band of elastic should be inserted be-neath the lower edge of the waistcoat and buttoned at the back, thus preventing the ballsfrom slipping down; they are easily rolled in and out of cover.

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CHAPTER V

FLOWER MAGIC

TRICKS with flowers are always effective and well received by any audience. Here is onethat Bautier used to do, and which is almost forgotten now.

On a table the audience see a small bouquet of flowers in a tumbler, or other holder, gener-ally made up in the form of an early Victorian nosegay, and on the same table is a foldedopera hat and a couple of sheets of tissue paper coloured a dark purple. On another table isa cage containing a small dove. The trick is called “The Dream of the Dove.”

The performer first picks up the opera hat and the two sheets of paper and shows them, ex-plaining how simple his apparatus is. He then calls attention to the bouquet, and from thatto the dove, which he takes out of the cage and carefully wraps in one of the sheets of paperby rolling it up first and turning the ends over. He then asks if there is a gentleman presentwho is used to rocking a cradle, as he wants someone to rock this dove to sleep. “It is donelike this,” says the performer, and putting the parcel into the hat, he commences to swing itup and down. “That’s how you rock a dove to sleep. If one of you gentlemen will hold it inthis way? Will you lend me your hat, sir? Allow me to put the dove inside it, so. Now, sir, ifyou will go on rocking we will have a little suitable music for this,” and the piano plays“Rock a-bye Baby on the tree-top.”

The performer goes back to the stage. Taking the bouquet in one hand and the sheet of pa-per in the other, he rolls it up the same way as he did the dove. Then he suddenly notices, orpretends to notice, the gentleman is not moving the hat rightly, and to illustrate his mean-ing, puts the parcel he has just made inside his own hat and again moves it round andround.

“Now, sir, will you unwrap the dove you are holding. I think you will find it is soundasleep.” The man assisting unrolls the paper parcel and discovers he is holding the bou-quet. “What do you say, sir? The dove isn’t there and you have the bouquet of flowers!”(Commences to unroll his own parcel.) “I see what it is, sir, the dove has been dreamingand dreamt it has taken a journey back to me, and here it is.” He replaces the dove in thecage.

A most effective trick and yet very simple. The preparations required are: a second bou-quet replica of the one shown, and wrapped in a similar piece of paper. This parcel is lyingon the table underneath the two visible sheets of paper. First, the performer picks up thehat and springs it open, he is then holding it in the left hand with the mouth facing theaudience; he picks up the sheets of paper and the parcel in the other hand and keeping

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them hanging down towards the floor, puts them over the mouth of the hat. Catching themwith the thumb of his hand holding the hat, he allows the parcel to slip into the hat. Mean-while he shows the bouquet to the audience, lifting it with the hand he has free. He thenputs the hat on the table mouth upwards, and taking one of the papers, he leaves the otherbeside the hat.

He now approaches the dove, takes it out of its cage, and rolls it up into a parcel that looksexactly like the one in the hat containing the bouquet. When he puts this parcel into the hatto illustrate his instructions to the gentleman, he puts it underneath the one already in thehat, and when he is supposed to fake it out, it is the other he takes, leaving the dove in thehat. When he again illustrates, he makes the same change of parcels, thus getting posses-sion of the dove again, ready to disclose it to a wondering audience.

Spring flowers are surely the most misused articles in the whole gamut of a conjurer’s ap-paratus. When in doubt, the conjurer seems to produce a hundred bedraggled spring flow-ers in the wrong place and under the wrong circumstances.

Buatier De Kolta, the inventor of these flowers, twisted a piece of paper into a cornucopiaand took spring flowers out of it until they filled an inverted skeleton sunshade to over-flowing.

Incidentally, Buatier made every flower himself, and he made them not of the watch-spring, as now, but of the then “steel wire” which took up much less room.

It seems to me that the flowers are seldom used lavishly enough. It requires at least twothousand to make a show, but you seldom see a performer produce so many. A lot of flow-ers means, of course, a big load, but I had a method which arranged for that. Before I de-scribe it I have another grouse to make.

I had used artificial flowers for years without realising that they looked most unlike flow-ers. In fact they looked more like the paper decorations which are strung together forChristmas time. I was producing a Chinese act when I noticed this, and thereupon I had allthe flowers dyed green so that they represented foliage only. Then I added one flower, rep-resenting a white or red rose, for every nine leaves of foliage, which gave a natural effect atonce—that of a green mass jewelled with flowers.

The flowers may be all one colour or of two colours, and should look as much like roses aspossible.

For this same Chinese act I used a large nickelplated vase, the rest of the apparatus consist-ing of a large box of bran and a big piece of silken cloth.

I dipped into the bran box with the vase, using it to transfer the bran to another receptacle.I did this twice, and the third time I filled it with a fake lining with a false top of brass,which I then covered with a lid. After waving the magic wand over it, I showed the silkcloth, shook it out, and gave it to two assistants to hold stretched out level with their

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waists. Then I took the vase in my right hand, and, with the limes directed on to it, took thelid off and immediately the flowers, which were packed, inside, began to spring over thebrim of the cup, which I kept gently shaking, and the more that came out, the more it be-came filled. The assistants gently shook the cloth up and down and kept the flowers danc-ing. I believe there were two thousand five hundred flowers packed into the vase, all edgeup, in various sized packets, each secured by a piece of green ribbon, which was simplytwisted round the flowers. The last packet or two was left quite loose and on top, so thatthey immediately spread out when the lid was taken off.

Here was my method of presenting Buatier’s “Flower Trick.”

I entered with my sleeves rolled up, though the cuff of the shirt, a stiff one, concealed a bigbundle of flowers, which I held between my arm and body, under the right armpit. Thisbundle, which was about the size of a round two pound box of chocolates, was formed inthe following way.

The flowers were done up in bundles of fifty or one hundred, and simply wrapped roundtwice with a piece of green silk ribbon. They were then stacked on a table on edge and sur-rounded by a band of black cloth, which was coloured green inside. This was fastened withsmall buckles and drawn tight round the flowers, thus keeping the bundles together. Atone point in this belt the cloth was stiffened with millboard and a piece of thread inserted,forming a short handle by which the whole bundle could be hung on the thumb of the righthand.

To do the trick, I then tucked the bundle under my arm, hooked my thumb into the handleof thread, then took hold of a piece of cartridge paper in my right hand and held a sunshadeopen to the left. I then entered from an upper entrance and walked boldly down to thefront, put the sunshade on the floor in front of me, and took hold of the other edge of thepaper with the left hand and twirled it two or three times between the fingers and thumbsof both hands.

I then grasped the paper at the top edge with the right hand and the bottom edge with theleft hand. Then lifting my right arm to a new position behind the cartridge paper, I graspedit by the bottom edge. I let go the top edge of the cartridge paper and with the right handfolded the bottom over the flowers and the same with the left hand comer with the lefthand. This was all done very coolly and deliberately with no appearance of haste. The righthand was now inserted in the top of the cone and two or three of the bundles of flowerspushed out of their position in the packet with the right hand. The cone was then gentlyshaken up and down until these flowers became loose and so it went on until with the lastof the flowers the cover was slid into the sunshade with them.

Another effective flower trick is one that I presented at the Egyptian Hall in the early dayswhen I used gilt furniture of Louis XV style for the stage setting.

Two of the chairs were placed some distance apart, back to back, and resting on the backsof them was a board such as is used in greenhouses, consisting of two long slats of wood

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joined together with small cross-pieces, and the whole painted green. On the board werefour or five receptacles in right to left, as follows:

(1) An earthenware saucer, such as is used for underneath flower-pots, and filledwith garden mould.(2) A second earthenware saucer also filled with mould, and a metal cone.(3) Two round Japanese trays.(4) A crystal goblet such as is used for celery and containing a rolled piece ofcartridge paper.(5) Another earthenware saucer, also filled with mould.(6) A cardboard flower-pot cover.

On the seat of one of the chairs there lay folded a sheet of newspaper and a couple of em-broidered cloths; also a piece of stick about eighteen inches long, and at one side there wasa long stick standing high enough to reach from the floor to the borders.

I commenced by emptying number two receptacle into a box which rested on another chairbehind the board. Having emptied it into the box of mould, I refilled it with the aid of atrowel.

I first took the long stick and pushed it through the earthenware saucer in number one po-sition, for, as you know, these saucers have a hole in them. I let the stick down to the floorand from there it reached to the borders, as I have said before. I then planted a bean in thesaucer of mould and surrounded it with the cardboard flowerpot cover.

Now, in saucer number two, I planted some wheat. Then I showed the metal cone in all di-rections empty, and placed it on saucer number two. I showed number three, the Japanesetrays, and into one emptied a little mould from the box, then put the two trays together,one inverted over the other. Then I showed a piece of newspaper on both sides and laid thisunder the saucer number five and emptied the mould from the saucer on to the newspaper,forming a good-sized heap.

I then put the discarded saucer into the box of mould and stuck the short stick in the heapof mould on the newspaper, planted some rose seeds, and covered the stick with one of theembroidered cloths forming a sort of tent over the mould. The other cloth I covered overthe Japanese trays.

The last thing done by way of preparation was to roll the sheet of cartridge paper, which Ihad previously taken out of the glass goblet, into a rough cone. This I dropped on some lilyseeds.

Now I first called attention to saucer number one by simply looking at it. By this time therewas climbing up the long stick a scarlet runner beanstalk, which twisted around like asnake, and continued to grow slowly throughout the trick. The red flowers on it looked veryeffective.

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I next lifted the cone from number two saucer and found it contained a small sheaf ofwheat bespangled with poppies.

The Japanese trays covered with the cloth were taken apart and each was seen to contain adwarf chrysanthemum in flower. The paper cone was unrolled and was found to contain abunch of lilies, which I presented to one of the ladies. Then, the cloth being taken off theheap of mould, there was seen a small rose bush with one red rose on it, which I cut off andpresented to another lady onlooker.

I dare say you have guessed how most of these tricks were done.

The bean, of course, was coiled inside the saucer under the covering made of zinc piecesand cloth which was coloured like mould, with a thin layer of mould glued on it. Attachedto the centre of the coiled beanstalk was a long thread which travelled up to the bordersand across two pulleys then down to an assistant in the wings. He pulled slowly, hand overhand, and got one continuous motion of growing upwards.

The cone I used was simply the well-known double one. The wheat was a novelty and itlooked much more natural than the usual coloured-feather flowers.

In one of the Japanese trays there was a flap, which could be released when the trays weretogether. This flap contained a small chrysanthemum, and filled the bottom tray. The toptray also contained a small plant, which sprang out into position when the trays wereapart. Of course, these plants were imitation ones, arranged on springs to fold into the lim-ited space available. It will be understood that the underneath part of the flap was paintedto represent the tray.

Now we come to the lilies. The chairs were both upholstered in rich tapestry on back andseat; and in the case of the left-hand chair, this was a somewhat hollow deception, for in itsseat was concealed an oval tube, with an opening at the side facing the performer.

As I took the covers and newspaper from this seat, I put down the sheet of cartridge paperwhich I had opened out to show. In picking it up again a little later, I inserted two fingersinto a loop of wire which projected from the tube and drew the bunch of lilies behind thepaper, which I rolled up and put back in the glass.

In the hollow back of the chair was another oval tube containing the rose bush, which wasarranged round a piece of brass rod and could be pulled up through the mould and throughthe newspaper which had a cut in it. A little sliding trap in the board completed the decep-tion. Of course I boldly put my hand underneath the tent to draw up this bush, which wason a sliding block and clicked into place at the top.

Yet another flower trick is the one I arranged for the Indian Juggler in my sketch called“The Mascot Moth.”

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The juggler brought forth a papier mach footbath and placed it on a Moorish stool. He thenfilled it to the brim with sand which he poured in, in full view, from buckets. He then cov-ered it with an old style tea tray, over which he put an Indian cloth.

On lifting this tray, after some mystic incantations, several small plants were seen to begrowing from the sand in the bowl. He actually cut one off and threw it to the audience toprove that it was real. He then covered the bowl of sand with the tray once more, with thecloth still hanging over it. A few seconds later this was lifted off to show the bowl com-pletely full of growing roses. There was a full-grown luxuriant bunch of plants, and oncemore he was able to cut off blooms and distribute them to the audience. This was managedas follows:

A little trap-door opened in the bottom of the bath and let all the sand run away into thehollow legs of the Moorish stool. The tray that was placed on first was backed by a loosepiece made of a wire-ring covered with paper exactly representing the sand. Sand, in fact,was glued all over it, and it exactly fitted the bowl. Pressed down between the two trayswere little plants on spring hinges, also glued to the paper. They were about three incheshigh and one, of course, was real. While he was cutting this off, an assistant strolled nearthe wings carrying with him the covered tray. Concealed by the wing for an instant, hequickly exchanged this tray for one similarly covered, which was handed to him by anotherassistant. When the conjurer placed it on the bowl, the audience did not know that to theback of the tray was clipped a second oval wash-basin which burst through a paper top.This represented the sand now, and when the tray was slid off and lifted upwards it re-leased springs fixed in the second bowl covered with luxuriant growth, chiefly sewn ongreen cloth.

By the way, I reduced the flowers given away to one at each performance, the rest being ar-tificial. I found this just as effective as cutting them all off and distributing them, which totell the truth was somewhat of an anti-climax. One cut off and thrown carelessly to theaudience is just as effective and more economical.

Finally there was my favourite flower illusion, of which you may guess the secret if you can.

When the curtain rose, all that was to be seen on the stage was a platform, octagonal inshape, about four feet in diameter, and looking like a huge Moorish stool. It stood abouteighteen inches from the floor. On it was a large brass flower-pot and behind it, leaningagainst the leg, was a gauzecovered hoop. This, by the way, could be distinctly seenthrough and underneath the platform. In front of the platform was a miniature pair ofsteps.

I commenced by stepping on to the platform, using these steps, and picking up the flower-pot to show the audience it was full of mould. I told them that it contained fairy seeds. Ipicked up the gauze-covered hoop and, opening it out, it appeared to be a bell-shaped af-fair, which I suspended on a cord which hung above the platform.

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I then got off the platform and the gauze cage was lowered down to it. The gauze was ofdouble thickness and so could not be seen through as long as all the light was outside it. Inow balled attention to a zinc tray, oblong in shape, about 18 inches by 2-1/2 feet. Havingshown all sides, I put it on a couple of trestle legs. I then displayed a miniature conserva-tory with sloping roof and made of celluloid, which looked like glass. The woodwork framewas very thin and it could be seen through in all directions.

After sprinkling some mould on the zinc tray and making some electrical connections withcords which ran from side to side of the stage to plugs which fitted on the zinc tray, I beganto talk about the beauties of electric culture and proposed to illustrate it.

To each panel of the conservatory was fitted a small spring blind, I began to draw thesedown, starting with those at the back and finishing with those in front. After some mani-festations with the electric current, I quickly opened these blinds again, all except the backones, and the conservatory was seen to be illuminated and filled with plants in full bloom.One of the flowers I plucked off, and threw it to the audience.

I now called attention to the gauze bell which was gradually becoming transparent owingto some lights which were in the top of it, and through the gauze was seen a huge rose treein the pot, and at the side of this was a beautiful princess in the act of plucking a rose. Be-hind crouched a huge beast, something between a bear and a gorilla, and to the surprise ofthe audience the beautiful girl suddenly threw her arms round the neck of the beast andkissed it, whereupon the beast was transformed into a prince who sank on one knee inhomage to the lady.

The gauze bell was lifted up and the performers stepped from the platform to bow to theapplause.

I daresay you have been able to guess the secrets of this illusion. In the first place twosheets of mirror glass are placed underneath the octagonal platform. They meet at the topend, that is, the end farthest from the audience, and open out gradually towards the endnearest the audience. They are in fact open wide enough at that end for the prince to climbup through the opening provided in the stage, having climbed up on the top of the plat-form. (You must remember there was nothing seen through the bell until the lights wereput on inside.) The prince now hands the lady up, having already got the rose-tree into po-sition. He now drops some cords to pull his beast’s dress off, which is pulled through thetrap a moment or two later by a man beneath, who now closes both traps, the one in theplatform and the one in the stage. The legs not being quite enough to conceal the openingbetween the glasses, a small pair of steps is requisitioned, these are put in front and con-ceal the extra space taken up. They are put carelessly sideways so they should not be sus-pect.

The zinc tray used for the conservatory was not quite so innocent as it appeared. It wasdeep enough to conceal a number of plants laid down in rows in opposite ways and at-tached to pieces of tube, which were in turn attached to rollers lying in the bottom of thespace by a simple arrangement of ratchet wheels. The rollers were made to take a quarter

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of a revolution, and spring catches kept them in an upright position. The whole of this wascovered with zinc, which was hinged at the back and was raised by a lever. The inside ofthis zinc was covered with blinds similar to those which had been seen pulled down behindthe conservatory. Over these dummy blinds were celluloid sheets which looked exactly likeglass. On the pretence of moving the levers for electricity, the performer first raised thiszinc sheet and the imitation mould slid down to the back of it. He then moved the ratchets,easing the flowers up carefully as he went, and when they were in position he simply had tospring the front blinds up to disclose the flowers.

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CHAPTER VI

OPENING ILLUSIONS

TO turn now to “opening” tricks. An opening trick is a very important part of an act. An oldshowman once told me that so long as the opening was right and the finish was right, thecentre didn’t matter so much. In other words, put your weakest portion in the centre.

Here is an opening trick which I have devised. It answers all purposes and can be done in afront cloth set. It is an improved method of doing the “Silver Ball” trick.

When the curtain rises an assistant is discovered standing centre. He is holding a tray withseveral objects upon it. These are, a top hat and a bowler hat, a candlestick with a lightedcandle in it, and a folded sheet of newspaper. On the assistant’s right is a small table, orrather a stand. The performer enters, walks direct to the tray and picks up the top hat. Hethen turns and makes his bow to the audience, and shows the hat in all directions, evenflicking the crown with his thumb nail to prove the hollowness and emptiness of the hat.Then suddenly he plunges his hand into it and produces a live rabbit, which he puts on thetray, turning it away from the newspaper. He advises it not to read the paper as the news-papers of to-day are not fit for young rabbits to read. He then proceeds by saying:

“I have here another hat,” at the same time picking up the bowler hat and putting down thetop hat in its place, and to the audience he says: “There is nothing in this hat, and never hasbeen, as I have always worn it myself. There is nothing in it, nothing at all.” He here placesit on his assistant’s head. He then picks up the top hat again, saying: “You noticed therewas nothing in this hat except a rabbit; as a matter of fact there is one little thing,” and herehe takes from the hat a silver ball, a solid ball of metal about 6 inches in diameter. To proveits solidity he drops it on a board of the stage. Picking the ball up again he places it upon thetray, and now holding the hat in his left hand, he goes to the right hand of the assistant andsays: “Now, this is the apparatus I am going to use for this trick. This candle.” —which hetakes off the tray and puts on the table. He then transfers the hat to his right hand and, tak-ing hold of the newspaper in the left hand, shakes it out of fold, saying: “This piece of news-paper, that bowler hat,” indicating the hat on the assistant’s head, “and this little rabbit.Now the hat I am going to hang on this candle,” and blowing the candle out, he actuallydoes hang it on the candle, saying: “It’s a funny place to hang a hat, hut it’s my own hat so Ican hang it where I like.”

Now he puts the newspaper on the tray and the rabbit on it; “The ball I am going to place inthe bowler hat, so.” He pushes it into the hat as far as it will go, about half of it is protrudingfrom the hat. He then replaces the hat containing the ball on the tray with the ball facingthe audience, and passing again to the other side of the assistant, takes the newspaper

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from the tray and opens it out fully and apparently wraps the rabbit in it, but he suddenlyscrews the paper into a ball and the rabbit seems to have vanished. He throws this ball onto the tray and takes the bowler hat with the silver ball in it, saying: “So much for the rab-bit! Now for the ball.” Holding the hat by the brim with both hands he swings it up anddown. In one of the upward movements the ball vanishes and becomes the rabbit. He nowthrows the hat on the tray, mouth downwards, and places the rabbit beside it. He againcrosses to the other side of the assistant, and lifting the hat from the candle, discovers thecandle is not there, but the silver ball has taken its place, and after dropping this ball on thefloor boards with a thud, takes the candle from his inside coat pocket and replaces it in thestick.

This is an exact description of the effect, but one or two things require an explanation.

In the first place, the board referred to on which the ball is dropped is a piece of wood about12 inches square and is" framed" up so that the heavy ball is prevented from rolling aboutthe stage, and besides, it makes more noise on a board of this description than it would onthe solid stage. The ball itself is made of aluminium, and therefore is not as heavy as itseems. There is a second ball hidden behind the folded newspaper which rests half uponthe tray and half against the body of the assistant; projecting from the back edge of the trayat this point are two light metal arms on which the second ball rests. When it is lifted offthese arms they are drawn in by two springs and lie concealed behind the edge of the tray.

The ball I am referring to is made of two hemispheres, one slightly larger than the other,riveted together at opposite points. The inner half is lined like the bowler hat. The rabbit isplaced between the two which are closed together by a simple catch, a spring knob workingin a hole. When the newspaper is first lifted from the tray, the heavy ball is upon it on thelower fold, the upper fold concealing the second ball. When the performer takes the news-paper, he holds the top hat so that the weight of it rests on the bottom edge. One quick up-ward movement of the newspaper propels the ball into the hat disclosing the second ball,which the assistant has lifted on to the tray at the same moment as the performer is rollingthe first ball into the hat. When he hangs this hat upon the candle the weight of the ballpushes the candle down into the hollow stick, the candle being formed of a metal tube care-fully fitted to slide up and down in the hollow stick. The candle is about six inches long, thediameter of the ball. The ball in the first place was under the bowler hat, which was firstdiscovered lying mouth downwards on the tray. The placing of the top hat over the ball isdone at the same time as the bowler hat is lifted from it. This is rather a difficult movementto describe, but a little experiment will soon show the idea.

At one moment the hats are mouth to mouth, when one displaces the other. The vanishingof the rabbit is explained by a dummy coat front, which the assistant wears, really forminga big pocket, the front of which is made like his coat and the front top edge attached to theback edge of the tray and the back of the pocket tied round his waist. The front of thepocket is stiffened by a sheet of metal or cardboard. Under the cover of the open sheet ofpaper held with the lower edge just touching the tray, the rabbit is dropped into the pocket.

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I had almost forgotten to explain how I first produced the rabbit. The animal is concealedin a pocket sewn inside the waistcoat, just below the opening of a dress suit waistcoat.

The top hat, after being shown empty, is held mouth upwards, just level with the bottomopening of the waistcoat, and for an instant is tilted towards the body, whilst the righthand of the performer swoops d6wn and extracts the rabbit by its ears from the pocket anddraws it upwards, at the same time bringing the hat forward a bit. Under these circum-stances the rabbit appears to come from the hat.

There are one or two other little things to men-tion. For instance, there is a depression madein the tray for the ball to rest in while it is cov-ered with the bowler hat. When this is taken offand the top hat takes its place it would not do tohave the ball rolling about. The bowler hatmust be made to fit the larger hemisphere ofthe hollow ball snugly, and underneath thehat-band must be puffed out with cotton wool,so that when the other hemisphere is revolvedand the rabbit discovered, the edges of the ballcannot be seen. Besides, this padding processprevents the shells slipping out when the hat isreplaced on the tray.

The candle is a piece of tubing covered withwhite glazed paper and fitted with a little Cupat the top and in which is put a small slice ofcandle and wick. Little things, but very impor-tant.

Such little things can make or mar a perform-ance. It was a little thing, literally a little thing,that made my late partner, Mr. J. N. Maske-lyne, a conjurer. He was fascinated withDroz’s" Singing Bird." It was a tiny thing, butthe only thing at the Exhibition of 1851 for him,and it set his mind on mechanics as applied toillusionary effects. And it was another little thing that set him on the road as an actual ex-hibitor of conjuring—just the dropping of a curtain which covered a window at a matineeperformance of the Davenport Brothers. This little accident enabled Maskelyne to see ex-actly how the Davenport Brothers were working and from that one glimpse he was able toreconstruct the whole performance. But what a little thing; the dropping of a curtain!

That reminds me of seeing a performance quite marred by a little thing. Here again it was adropping curtain.

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A man was seated bound in a chair and a curtain was lowered over him as a sort of cabinet.It was lowered as far as the seat of the chair only, and held there by one of the performers.Another performer asked him for something and to get it he had to leave go of the curtain,which then reached the floor, while he darted across the stage and fetched the article. Thenhe pulled the curtain up again to its previous position, and in that moment or two the manhad escaped through a trap-door in the stage. That is how it should have appeared to theaudience, excepting, of course, at that moment, as both his hands were held by onlookers,this appeared impossible as he was securely bound in the chair. The dropping of the cur-tain was so natural, or should have been, that it wasn’t suspected as part of the trick. Andnow I will tell you how it was marred.

When the curtain was lowered in the first place,the iron frame by which it was weighted caughton a bolt or something of that sort and refused togo right to the floor. Seeing this, the performerwho had lowered it completed its journey bypressure of his foot, thus showing to the astuteaudience that it was necessary for the curtain toreach the floor. The astonishing thing is that thiswas done for months, twice daily, and no one inauthority apparently noticed it, but a good pro-ducer would have noticed it instantly.

Only the other day I saw a performance in whicha lady was asked to take a card, and then certainpreparations were gone through and the per-former was all ready to disclose the card in anunsuspected place.

“Now what was your card?” he questioned thelady. “I don’t know,” she replied," I didn’t look atit." Of course, she hadn’t been asked to. She hap-pened to have seen very few conjuring perform-ances and didn’t know what was expected of her.The conjurer should never have assumed thatshe would look at it.

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CHAPTER VII

MECHANICAL MAGIC

SOME years ago when I was in Philadelphia I visited my friend Kellar, then the leading

American magician, who was filling the biggest theatres with a two hours’ show of magic.He had just added a trick to his repertoire which consisted of a large ball which ran up anddown a board without any apparent motive power.

The effect was very striking, and although the board was suspicious-looking, owing to itsthickness and the way it was supported by a very plump demon at one end, Kellar com-plained that it had cost him a great deal of money and was a great nuisance to carry. Thetrick was accomplished by a series of magnets controlled by electricity, but I came to myown conclusions as to how it could be done by much simpler means.

When I had thought it out, I asked Kellar if he would give me permission to use the trick,provided I could show him it working within a week. Kellar said he was sure it was impos-sible. He was convinced of this by the number of experiments he had made. Anyway, he ac-

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cepted my challenge, and well within the week I showed it to him working merrily, inMartinkas’ back shop in New York City. Martinka’s, a well-known meeting place of conjur-ers, were also manufacturers of tricks and to them I had entrusted the making of the sim-ple apparatus I required.

My board was resting on the back of an ordinary chair and was freely handled and shownto be free of any connection with the chair. Then a large gilt ball was thrown to me by one ofthe assistants. I threw this on the plank and it naturally rolled down. I ordered it to stop,which it instantly did. Then it obeyed a series of orders, such as: “Go Up,” “Come Down,”“Go Slowly,” “Come Up Quickly,” “Come Through This Ring,” “Now Back Again,” “Now GoDown Very Slowly.” Finally it was stopped at the lower end of the board and I asked theaudience to watch while I explained:

“You will see it disappear,” I said. There wasan expectant pause during which an assistantcame on, picked the ball up and walked offwith it.

An excellent opening trick, and all done by alittle thing—a piece of thread, in fact.

I had the ball made in two hemispheres,threeply wood on a framework of steel bands.There were a lot of decorative lines incised onthe ball—latitude and longitude, you mightsay. One of these latitude lines came on theexact equator of the ball and was really wherethe two hemispheres were joined together,but it looked like one of the other lines whichwere all painted black. The two halves of theball were joined together by a core in the cen-tre, something like the wheel in a pulley block,made of hard wood, and closely fitted so thatthe thread could not jam. The thread was putround this and led up to the back of the stage,went over the back edge of the board down tothe floor, through a screw-eye and along to another screweye behind the back cloth. Nowan assistant held the two ends and when the ball was required to go down, he simply let itroll down by its own weight and he could stop it at any moment and pull it up again by pull-ing on one end of the cord. To facilitate the passage of the ball up and down, there was agroove cut in the board, and the board was covered with a greyish-black cloth arranged in apattern of lines so that the thread could not be detected by the keenest eye.

Kellar was very annoyed with me when he saw the simplicity of my dodge, but he at oncegave me permission to use the trick freely, and immediately discarded his own trick in fa-vour of my method.

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The first ball I had made was of solid wood, but it was too heavy, and about the seventhperformance I gave, in rolling down the plank, the thread broke, and the ball’s own impe-tus took it over the footlights where it landed in the conductor’s lap, to his great astonish-ment.

For a moment I did not know what to do. However, the conductor handed the ball back tome, and I said: “I didn’t mean you to go down there.” I then thought of the joke, describedabove, for its disappearance.

Another example of the importance of detail is in the popular “Milk Effect.” This is usuallydone with a tube which bears no relation at all to a glass of milk. In my version of the trick Ihad the tube transformed into a travelling case for a tumbler by the simple process of cov-ering the tube with imitation leather and adding a couple of lids, which fitted on either end.My tube is made to contain a bottomless fake glass of milk between the tube and inner lin-ing, and has room within the lining for a real tumbler. Having marked the end which I shalltake off first, I put this tube on a small table, together with a jug of milk, and I enter with anopera hat, holding it folded up, showing all sides of it. I spring it out and stand it on the ta-ble mouth upwards. Then I call attention to the travelling case, take the lid off and pull outthe real tumbler. Then with my wand passing through the tube, I push off the other lid intothe hat beneath and leave it there. I look through the tube from the small end, thus provingindirectly that the tube is empty. I now place the tube on the table, and taking up the tum-bler, fill it nearly to the brim from the jug.

I take a sip from the glass of milk to correspond with a stain that has been made already onthe fake, just round the brim. I now lower the tumbler of milk into the travelling case and

put the lid on. I now lift the case up slowly, discovering the fake glass of milk. This fakeglass of milk I proceed to put into the hat, explaining that my trick is to make the glass ofmilk come back to the case by itself. I then take the lid off the case, and lifting it up, push

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the glass of milk from the end and take it out at the top. I now undertake to pass the glass ofmilk from the case to the hat.

First, I explain that I want the other lid, which I find on looking around to be in the hat. Ithen turn the hat over and drop the lid on the table taking care that the fake glass of milk isheld securely with my fingers and is not seen. I now ask if they would like the glass passedvisibly or invisibly into the hat. Whatever their answer, I lower the glass of milk into thehat. If the answer is “Visibly,” I say: “Oh, that is easy, I do it like this”; if someone says “In-visibly” I do the same thing and say: “This ishow I do it visibly, anyone can do that.” Ithen apparently take the glass of milk out ofthe hat. I really take the fake and, takingcare to spread my fingers round the brimand handling it as if it were really full ofmilk, I now place this fake tumbler on thelid, which I have just rescued from the hat,and lower the case over it. I then wave thewand between the case and the hat, take theglass of milk out of the hat and pour themilk back into the jug, shut up the operahat, and finally take both lids off the caseand look through it again.

I do not put this forward as an improve-ment on any particular version of the trick,but my sole object is to make it appear moreor less natural.

The moves are such as to allow scope forgood patter and good patter is the flesh andblood of any trick. This is simply the skele-ton.

It may be mentioned here for the sake of theuninitiated that the ugly word “fake” is oneused by conjurers to denote any trick appa-ratus. Frequently the article is an imitationof an everyday one. In this case, the glass ofmilk is made of a piece of celluloid, the milkis paint inside the supposed tum-bler—which is left without any bottom, forthe purpose outlined above.

In my early days on the music halls, when I used to appear at the London Pavilion betweenAlbert Chevalier and Dan Leno, I had very little money for apparatus and had to contentmyself with a simple opening trick.

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There was a lighted candle on the table and I entered with three small sheets of tissue in myhand—red, white and blue. After showing these I screwed them up and lit them at thecandle-flame. I then showed both my hands to be otherwise empty, pulled my sleeves outof the way, squashed the burning papers between my two hands, and suddenly threw outthree pieces of silk ribbon about 12 feet long. These I pulled back into my hand, rubbedthem together a bit and they seemed to blend and become a large Union Jack, which Ispread out for display to the tune of “Rule Britannia.” This wasaccomplished by having a roll of ribbons joined together at theends, placed under the left armpit, and a Union Jack tucked upinto a ball shape and kept under the waistcoat on the left-handside.

First I showed the papers with an awful pun about sneezing pa-per and tissue paper and showing my hands empty. I did it oneat a time. Then I said: “There’s nothing up my sleeves,” andpulled first the right, then the left-hand sleeve up. Here myhand came under the armpit. I let the concealed ribbons dropinto it, and bending the fingers a little, retained it, concealed inthe hand. When I had squashed the flames out, I drew the rib-bons out. The inner end of the roll was, of course, left loose, andwhilst waving the ribbons about in a serpentine fashion, Iturned a little to my left and quickly pulled the Union Jackdown from under my waistcoat, just as quickly brought myhands together, and holding the flag in the right hand, pulledthe ribbons in over it, finally twisting them about so that the flag was made to conceal thegathered ribbons in my right hand.

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CHAPTER VIII

FAMOUS ILLUSIONS REVEALED

BY a curious chance a Hove policeman became thefirst spectator of one of my best illusions. It wascalled “The Mascot Moth,” and it happened in thisway:

My friend, Mr. Bate, had made the apparatus forthis illusion and wired me one night that it wascomplete and ready for trial. Going down to Brigh-ton after a show in London and arriving late, Ifound that he had been good enough to make atrap-door in the floor of his photographic studio,beneath which was his workshop. This made it pos-sible to try the illusion there and then. The lady Ihad brought with me, Miss Nancy Grogan, was will-ing, and we set to work.

Through one of the blinds in the glass roof being de-fective a policeman, who happened to live in ahouse close by, was attracted to this aperture byhearing some blood-curdling shouts coming fromthe studio. So piqued was he that he climbed over aroof to get a better view. Looking through a hole, hesaw a lady in a silk dress, which was painted to rep-resent a moth. She had gorgeous wings attached toher arms and was waving them about when I ap-proached her with a candlestick, making pantomime motions, meant to represent tempta-tion by the bright flame of the candle. She repeatedly folded her wings over her face when Istealthily walked up behind her and was just about to apply the flame to the wings when Igave one of the aforesaid blood-curdling shouts, and lo! the woman was gone in the twin-kling of an eye. Dress, wings and all had completely disappeared in a flash.

Now the policeman who was watching saw me begin to manipulate a black velvet screen.He jumped to the conclusion that it was a case of Black Magic. He made his way round toMr. Bate’s front door and politely asked for an explanation, requesting him to notice thathe was not in uniform and that this visit was entirely unofficial.

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Mr. Bate came back to me and asked me what he should say. I suggested it would be a goodidea to show him the trick and he could see the effect at close quarters. So he was invited in,and placed in a chair three feet from the Moth, which I again vanished as before. We thenexplained to him that it was a stage illusion. He was pretty bewildered by this time andstumbled out with apologies and promises to keep the matter to himself, which promise Ithink he has faithfully kept.

It so happens that I was inspired with the idea of this illusion by a dream. One night mywife saw me get up, light a candle at the bedside and sit watching the flame intently forsome time. I then blew the candle out and got back to bed. In the morning I told her that Ihad had a wonderful dream. I had dreamt I was chasing a moth about the stage, a mothwho was a human being with wings, and was trying to tempt it towards me with the candle

flame when it suddenly shrivelled up and disappeared.

At that moment I became imbued with a desire to emulate this wonderful dream and oneday I had the happy thought of bringing a tube up through the stage behind the person tobe vanished, who would be wearing a special dress. This dress was made in such a way thatit could be supported by the tube and looked the same whether she was in it or not, In thefirst place it all hung from the neck and the collar, or yoke, was formed by a steel springshape. Attached to this was a rubber-covered reel which, in turn, was attached to a plug ofwood snugly fitted into the tube. The reel had some strong cord wound on it, and lay in apocket at the back of the dress. In one of my various journeys to the lady I picked out thisreel and dropped it down the tube which was behind her, then I fitted the plug into thetube, she having folded her wings across her face and locked them together by a steel wirewhich ran through the top of each wing and hooked them together. Now the weight of thedress was entirely on the tube, the lady gave three taps with her toe and a small bracket-liftwould glide gently downwards. This was controlled by a windlass. While this was going on,one of the assistants had looped the cord from the reel over two pulley blocks, one in the

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floor and one in the ceiling above his head, so that he could get a strong, quick pull on it.

The lift having been fastened off, the man who had controlled it stood by the tube under-neath the stage. The man with the cord now pulled on the dress and pulled it right through

the tube. The moment it was through the man holding the tube let it drop into his hand.The aperture was covered with a small spring flap. All these things had to be scrutinizedcarefully, and my part of it was to get my left foot in front of the tube, which was facilitatedby two stops let into the boards, so that I could get it in the right position when I wanted towork the “vanish.”

The cord was pulled on my giving a shout. Immediately afterwards the tube was drawndown and the process covered by my right foot being brought up sharply with the left, theheel of the left foot going into the side of the right foot. In this position the tube was entirelycovered in its passage downwards.

It was a difficult thing to get right in rehearsal, and Mr. Maskelyne described it as “thetrickiest trick” he had ever seen. Anyway, I think it was the best I have ever done.

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4 3 2 1

8 7 6 5

9 10

It was a glad day when I persuaded Mrs. Nesbit, who wrote such charming fairy stories forthe Strand Magazine, to write us a play, which she entitled The Magician’s Heart. The vil-lain was a wicked magician who had to boil his heart to make it the least bit tender. He alsohad a foolish apprentice who, wandering about in the magician’s laboratory, got hold of aphiltre which produced dreams. By means of this he produced a beautiful dream womanwith whom he fell in love and thus he began to neglect his work. The magician caught himin the act and promptly vanished the dream woman into space.

Mrs. Nesbit thought it would be quite easy for me to do this as she had seen the “MascotMoth” vanished as she wanted the dream woman to vanish, but, of course, she did notknow how useful the moth’s wings were in effecting that disappearance. Suddenly I had abrain wave. I got the Dream Woman to turn her back on the British public. She had goldenhair hanging right down her back and she wore a white silk dress la Galatea. The goldenhair was a wig which was attached to a sort of skeleton head-piece made of steel wire andalso shoulder-pieces made to fold up-wards and all attached to a small plateor tongue of metal. The tube used wasa much bigger one than that for the“Mascot Moth.” It had a block of woodat the top of it into which the DreamWoman inserted the metal tongue andall was pulled down together as before.

In this case I wore a long cloak which Iput round the tube as the dress wasmaking its way down. Most peoplethought it vanished into my clothessomehow or somewhere, but theycouldn’t give a satisfactory explana-tion about the woman, so they werenot much nearer the truth.

Soon after this my friend, the late Jul-ian Wylie, suggested to me that Ishould put this “vanish” in my “Artist’sDream” sketch, and in this I did thesame thing in a dressing-gown.

“The Artist’s Dream” was a pretty littlesketch in which an artist was discov-ered working on a picture of his latewife. Over-tired, he covers the picturewith a small curtain and falls asleep ona couch, when the Spirit of Mercy en-ters, mysteriously produced at theback of the stage. She approaches the

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picture, uncovers it, and it is seen to be alive, in fact the woman comes down and embracesher husband, then she goes back and disappears in the same way.

The artist wakes up and rushing to the picture, tears it down from the easel and, turning,sees the Spirit of Mercy. He approaches her, but the moment he touches her she disap-pears in a flash and the artist falls dead on the stage—a very dramatic finish.

“The Picture Comes to Life” was the slogan I gave Mr. Maskelyne when I was showing hima model of “The Artist’s Dream.” Some two weeks before, I had shown him my very first il-lusion, which was called “Vice Versa.” This was made under trying circumstances. I wasvery poor indeed at the time, and had persuaded the manager of an hotel in Buxton to lendme the services of his carpenter to build this illusion. It consisted of a cabinet which hadfour posts, a platform, and a frame at the top. In other words, it was a skeleton cabinet.There were curtains attached to the upper frame, all of which could be drawn up with onestring. This was exhibited on a platform brilliantly lit and the audience could see rightthrough. The background consisted of a red velvet curtain and between the back posts ofthe cabinet was a similar velvet curtain which looked exactly like the backcloth because the

both were equally well lit.

The effect was that a man was put into the cabinet with a sealed ribbon attached to hiswaist. The ribbon was tied to his waist and sealed and the loose ends were drawn round the

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front posts of the cabinet and thence to persons in the stalls who held them. Then the cur-tains were drawn, hiding the man, who then changed places with a woman, who had beenstanding on a little triangular platform at the back of the cabinet. He cut the ribbons at hisback and tied them round her waist. When the curtains were drawn again the audiencesaw that the man had apparently changed into a woman. Then I came forward, hauled theribbons in and cut them right off the back of the lady, incidentally cutting the knot off andpalming it and throwing the ribbons out for the audience to examine the seal, which wasstill intact on the front knot.

This was a most successful illusion, and the principle was my own original device. I per-formed this illusion publicly at the Opera Theatre, Crystal Palace, and also at the Tro-cadero Music Hall (now the Trocadero Restaurant), where Mr. Maskelyne saw it. He saidthat he liked it but that the apparatus was too big for his stage and asked me to think of an-other illusion on the same principle, and in a few days I had the bright idea of “The Artist’sDream.”

I got a frame-maker to make the model and a few days after-wards showed it to Mr. Maskelyne in his office. The easel wasan ordinary-looking one, a square frame on legs divided intothree panels by wooden slats. The centre panel was filled by atriangular screen of red velvet which was fixed on a small tri-angular platform. The front part of the triangle of velvet repre-sented the back-cloth, while the other two sides kept the lady,who was to represent the picture, all snug.

The picture was really two pictures; one was a backgroundonly and the other was a painted representation of the lady. There was a practicable swingin between the two canvasses. At the beginning of the scene the picture was on a small ea-sel, and the artist carried it over to the larger easel. In doing so he exhibited the back of it.Attached to the frame was a light curtain. The artist, getting tired of painting, had drawnthis curtain over the picture and the lady behind had meanwhile pulled up the backgroundpicture which was held by a roller like a blind. As soon as the front was closed, she raisedthe front picture in the same way and came through to the front and sat upon a swing. Shethen lowered the background behind her and was all ready to be discovered. When theSpirit of Mercy closed the curtain again the whole process was reversed. When the artistagain took the picture down the mysterious woman had disappeared completely.

The advent of the Spirit of Mercy was managed by a series of gauze screens which weregradually drawn away from each side of an open doorway, giving an impression of thegradual materialisation of the Spirit.

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CHAPTER IX

MORE FAMOUS ILLUSIONS

THE next illusion whose secret I am going to reveal was called “Beau Brocade” and was soentitled by permission of the Baroness Orczy.

A box was brought on the stage. It was on legs so that it wasraised from the ground and in bringing it in all sides wereshown. It was wheeled round and the lid opened. The frontwas made to let down, so that every inch of the interiorcould be seen. A tray was taken out from the top and in thiswere six sheets of glass—one was slid in front of the box ingrooves made for the purpose, one was put at each end, oneat the back and another on the floor of the box; the remain-ing one was left in the tray, which was replaced and the boxshut up.

There was then exhibited a large cloth which was proved tobe whole by putting a strong light behind it. It was shown to be all in one piece. Then en-tered Beau Brocade, and I apparently hypnotised her. She fell into the arms of an assistantand he and another man laid her on the centre of the cloth, which had been spread on thefloor. They now took hold of the four corners of the cloth and thus lifted the lady andbrought her forward to the footlights, I now put my arms underneath her and the audiencewere allowed to see her face and, in fact, most of her body, before the cloth was finallywrapped round her, while she was in my arms. I carried her down to the audience in themidst of the stalls and asked a gentleman to make sure she was still there. In fact, I invitedhim to take hold of her. Just as he did so, she suddenly vanished, leaving nothing but thecloth, which I tossed back to the assistant on the stage. Then I shouted out, “Open the box,”and lo, the lady was disclosed within, tripped out and off amid great applause!

I am ashamed to say that once again I deceived the public. The lady found in the box wasnot the one that disappeared, but her twin sister. The box was a special one and the back ofit lifted up, carrying with it the sheet of glass. Then there were two flaps that opened out atthe back, leaving room for a triangular platform, which slid out for the lady to rest upon.

In the first place, she was in the box while it was being wheeled round and round, whilebringing it on. When the box had come to rest she quickly pushed the flaps out, also thesliding platform, and got on it in a kneeling position while the lid and front were opened.The moment they were replaced and the lid shut she got back into the box, letting the hin-der flap holding the glass go back into its right position.

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While the lady, Beau Brocade, was being hypnotised, the lights were put out for a momentand strong lights directed upon the lady alone. This was for effect, but the audience did not

notice a couple of cords attached to the corners of a cloth underneath the cloth that hadbeen laid down. By pulling on the cords from front to back, the two cloths were rolled upand rolled off underneath the back-cloth, leaving a replica of the original cloths laid down,so that when the lights went up, apparently nothing had been disturbed.

Lifting the lady from the floor in the cloth, the assistants took hold of the front corners firstand lifted them up before the others. This gave an opportunity for two assistants under-neath to push up a trap, which was a board on centre pivots. The lady rolled off the board

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into a sort of hammock beneath. At the same time the assistants took hold of the back cor-ners of the cloth which were attached to the front corners of the revolving trap. The clothnow contained a rubber figure replica of the lady, with a wax head, made in an exact coun-terpart of her own face, white wig and all complete. Beneath this figure was a ring of woodabout the size of a jam jar and with a cover very similar to those used for actual jars, made

of rubber and tied on in the same way.

All this was firmly attached to the figure and was tested for any leakage of air. On my push-ing the cover in with my fingers, the whole thing became deflated and was shrivelled up be-neath the cloth, in which condition it was tossed back to the assistant, who hung it over hisarms while attention was at once directed to the box.

To the layman it may seem that my assistants do more for these illusions than I do myself.He may also, I am afraid, be shocked by the simplicity of the methods employed. If so, Iwould ask him to remember that if the effects appear crude they are the outcome of muchthought and organisation, and although they appear simple now, their evolution has beenno simple task. I am merely acting the part of the magician.

I remember as a boy seeing Sir Henry Irving’s production of Faust, and being greatly im-pressed by his awesome Brocken scene and then, a few nights afterwards, being taken be-hind the scenes at the same theatre. I remember the awful shock of disillusion I got when Isaw the labyrinth of canvas scenery and ropes, and the men in shirt-sleeves working lights.

Still I hope that these exposures will shock the students of conjuring and goad them on todo something more wonderful themselves.

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For my next problem I again used twins. In this case I saw the twins first and then thoughtof the most original effect that I had ever done.

I had a narrow cabinet made just big enough to hold one of the twins, who was dressed as apageboy. He was fastened to a board by members of the audience. The board hadwrought-iron shoulder-pieces and straps for his hands and feet, so that he was helpless tomove. This was fixed to the back of the cabinet. Then I told a tale of a magician who made adummy of his client’s enemy and, for a certain amount of money, so bewitched the dollthat anything done to it would also happen to the enemy. Then I turned the doll upsidedown, and on the cabinet being opened the page was shown in a similar position. Thus gar-nished with a tale and helped by publicity gained by calling it “A Trick without a Title” andoffering £50 for the best title, it was a great success. Incidentally, the £50 was won with thetitle of “The New Page.”

Here is more disillusionment. While the assistant was steadying the cabinet, and as soonas the door was shut in front, he pushed on one side of the panel at the back and it turnedround to enable us to get the other boy inside the cabinet upside down. He was duly takenout and unstrapped by the person who had strapped him up. Of course, the back of thecabinet was first shown when wheeled in, and when it was got into position in the centre ofthe stage, the revolving board was quickly turned, thus bringing the page to the back.There was a second board similar to that to which he was strapped, which was examinedand fastened to the other page. This was done before the cabinet was brought in, and wasfixed to the back of the cabinet by four tongues of metal, which went beneath the frame ofthe back panel of the cabinet.

“The Magic Mirror” was the title I gave to another big illusion, featuring a large mirror inwhich ghostly forms appeared to materialise and then disappear.

In the first place, I will tell you what actually happened and then reveal the secret.

A large mirror was standing in the centre of the stage, an attendant beside it, with twoblack cloaks over his arm. I asked a gentleman from the audience to come and assist me

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with this experiment. By the way, one has to be prepared to meet all sorts of gentlemenwhen one invites a person upon the stage. Sometimes the person will turn out to be intoxi-cated, which is very awkward for a serious performance, but the showman must put upwith this. If he turned a man back he would be looked upon with suspicion.

Now having got the man up, I asked him to don one of the cloaks, explaining that the riteshe was about to witness required a cloak. I myself wore the other cloak. Now I took the manround the back of the mirror, and let him examine it. He expressed himself satisfied that itwas an ordinary mirror. Then the lights were lowered slightly, and I asked the man towatch the mirror intently. A small red glow appeared in it, which gradually got bigger andbigger, until the figure of Mephistopheles could be seen in all his red glory. This was a mostunearthly figure because it was semi-transparent. We could actually see our faces reflectedin the mirror through the figure. After solemnly beckoning the man towards him, hegradually dematerialised. Again the man was taken round the mirror and again stood infront of it.

I then said: “You have seen your awful past, now I will give you a glimpse of the future.”Then the figure of a girl in full bridal array gradually appeared. The man, prompted by my-self, stepped forward to touch the figure. “No,” I interrupted, “that is for the future,”whereupon the figure disappeared gradually.

The man was then invited to put on the hood which was attached to his cloak. I did thesame. These hoods were fitted with goggle-eyes, and once more he was led round the mir-ror. Once more we stood before it. This time I myself appeared in the mirror, shouting out:“Here am I, away and apart fromwhat you hold.” The figure theaudience thought was me threw offhis cloak and was found to beMephistopheles. The now thor-oughly bewildered man was thenled off the stage and the curtain de-scended with a glare of red lightsand general applause.

Now for the secret. The back of themirror was not as innocent as itlooked. It appeared to be boardedover in the usual way and sup-ported by slats. In reality, it was di-vided down the centre and openedlike two doors. The centre slat ofwood overlapped the edge of one ofthese doors, which, for easy refer-ence, we will call the outer door.They were prevented from openingtoo far by pieces of velvet tacked on

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the top edges of the doors and the back edge of the frame, containing the glass. Both doorswere lined inside with black velvet, so that the persons to be materialised could be seeneasily. He, or she, took a small stool in with them also covered with black, on which theystood during the demonstration.The procedure was this:

The person to be shown as the ghost passed in from the back of the stage and pulled theouter door open (this could only be done by pulling on a certain place). They then put thestool inside and got in themselves. Afterwards they pulled the inner door open, and tooktheir place in the centre. They were invisible through the glass until it was illuminated in-side. This was done by tubular lamps fixed inside the frame of the glass and directed on tothe back by shades. These lights were attached to a resistance so that they could be verygradually brought to brightness or faded away.

The greatest secret of all was that the glass was thinly coated with silver. A glass preparedlike this will last for years, providing it is not scratched. There was also a passage from theback of the stage, through a table, which was a replica of the one we had used earlier in theperformance. This table had looking-glass between its legs at right angles to the back cloth,so that it formed a tunnel towards the glass. Through this tunnel came the performers. Thesupposed goggles in the hoods attached to the cloaks were not all alike. In the pair put onby the member of the audience, the goggles were dummies, and he could not see throughthem, but a whisper that it was only for a moment reassured him, and he was led round theback. When Mephisto changed places with me, it was he who led the man out into the frontfor the dnouement.

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CHAPTER X

EGG MAGIC

EGGS, owing to their fragile structure, have always been fascinating objects for a conjurer.One of the most successful tricks I ever did, from the point of view of raising laughs, wasthe production of an apparently unlimited supply of eggs.

I called this “Boy, Girl and Eggs.” First, I invited a boy on to the stage and asked him to lookround the audience. “That’s the audience,” I remarked, “all those little round things,” andasked him to select a little girl. When he had pointed at one, which was a rude but verynatural thing to do, I asked him to go and fetch her. “Make her your best bow, give her yourarm and escort her down the aisle.” This was done amid much laughter and to the tune ofMendelssohn’s Wedding March.

Having got them both up on to the stage, I asked the little girl her name and also the littleboy. We will assume their names were Mary and John. “Well, my name is David,” I said,and formally introduced John to Mary. As they shook hands, I remarked: “Bless you, mychildren!” I then took a hat, a gentleman’s bowler hat, from the back of a chair where it hadbeen hanging. Standing between my two juvenile assistants, I said, “I want you to look atthis hat and see if there is anything in it. Can you see anything?” All they saw was an ordi-nary and empty hat. Now, I went on, “can you see those little white atoms floating about inthe air? I don’t suppose you can, they are quite invisible except to a magician. All a magi-cian has to do is to catch one of them, develop it, and it becomes an egg. ”Supposing I hadcaught an atom like this... (closing my hand)... I use this old hat as a developing chamber,all I have to do is to cover my hand for a moment with this hat and the atom becomes anegg, you see. I am going to produce several of these eggs, and as I produce them I want you,Mary, to take them one at a time and pass them on to John. I will stand here, and you standwhere you are Mary, and John will stand where he is now. Now we will try the movementwith this one egg. I give it to you, Mary, you pass it on to John quickly. He takes it and youcome back to me for another egg." The action is suited to the words as egg after egg ispassed from the girl to the boy. He gets confused and begins to drop them and so the funbecomes fast and furious until the supply of eggs is exhausted.

Actually only about twenty-five eggs were used and they were all in the hat, concealed by acover made by sewing a steel band inside the hat just underneath the leather band. Thissteel band was perforated with holes at frequent intervals. One half of it was hinged to theother half so that when the lid was closed the back-cloth, which was stitched on to the ring,stretched the cloth over the eggs beneath it. This cloth was, of course, dead black. Thehinges upon which the lid opened were at the front and back of the hat. There was a hole inthe cloth at one side, the side nearest to the rim of the hat into which I had inserted my

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thumb, thus holding it down tightly during the preliminary movements. You will notice Imade a great point of the development of the eggs by using the hat as a cover; there was nosuggestion that I produced the eggs from the hat.

I did this trick at the first Command Performance that was ever held in the Variety world.As there were no children present on that occasion at the Palace Theatre, I commandeeredthe services of my daughter Vida, and little Jasper Maskelyne, both children at the time.Unfortunately they rather marred the performance by fixing their eyes upon the RoyalBox, and paying no attention to my trick. They had seen my trick often enough and Royaltywere infinitely more interesting.

One fine Easter week in Vienna, there might have been seen perambulating the streets afour-wheeled cab with a huge egg on the roof, marked, “The Giant’s Breakfast, SoftenSalle, nightly.” This was an advertisement for an illusion I produced there for the firsttime. Hanging in the centre of the stage was a gilt frame about six feet by four, hangingquite central so that it was isolated from anything else. In the frame was a blank canvas,and beneath it on the stage itself was a sort of skeleton stand shaped like a giant egg-cup.The illusion commenced by the assistants taking out the canvas from the frame and it wasseen to have been put in back to front. The assistants rectified this by taking it out and put-ting it back the right way. I then waved a stick round the whole thing and the picture, whichwas of an ogre’s head, burst, and its place was taken by a large egg. The frame was un-hooked from this and the egg lowered into the egg-cup. I then tapped the egg with a stick,cracking the top to pieces, and a chicken emerged, which, upon lifting up its head, provedto be a woman.

Again my principle of “The Artist’s Dream” came in useful. The egg was made in twohalves, one to revolve up the other, the join being concealed by ornamental ribbons whichwere used apparently to suspend it. The interior of the frame was covered with red velvetto match the back-cloth and when the canvas was put in the second time (the canvas, ofcourse, was paper really) the chicken (who was seated in the back half of the egg) at onceunhooked the velvet cloth from the pins on which it was stretched and folded it up and putit at her feet. She then caught hold of a loop of webbing which pulled the front part of theegg round to its proper position, at the same time breaking the paper on which the picturewas painted.

While on the subject of eggs, it would hardly be complete without a reference to the classi-cal egg-bag trick which deals with the disappearance and appearance of an elusive egg. Themeans used are very simple; nevertheless, it has been made a star turn in the programmeof many performers.

It is a sure success where the performer can put it over with suitable address. The wholeapparatus consists of a small cloth bag about 6 inches by 4 inches and an egg.

The performer starts by showing the bag upside down and inside out. Having turned it in-side out once or twice, he even tramples it on the floor, and, in fact, conclusively proves itto be empty, as are also his hands. He dips his fingers into the bag and produces an egg.

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Having exhibited this he apparently puts it into his pocket, then again turning the bag in-side out two or three times, produces the egg. This time he drops it visibly into the bag andagain makes it disappear. Then he holds the bag in front of one of the spectators and in-vites him to grasp his wrists. Another spectator feels into the bottom of the bag and pro-nounces it to be empty. On one of his wrists being released the performer dips in and pullsout a small white handkerchief, and again dipping in produces a small yellow handker-chief. Again the bag is turned inside out, and once more he produces the egg, and finallyputs it into his pocket.

As may be imagined the bag is not so simple as it seems. One of its sides is made doublewith an opening along the bottom edge, or partly along the bottom edge if preferred. Whenthe egg is put in, it is slipped underneath this bottom edge of the double lining, and whenthe bag is turned upside down it is grasped when it falls to the bottom between the twopieces of cloth. When the spectator is invited to hold the performer’s wrists, the latter isreally holding the egg the whole time, but it is hidden by the false side of the bag and pro-tected by his fingers.

The finding of the two silk handkerchiefs is a novel twist suggested by W. F. Curtis. Thehandkerchiefs are, of course, supposed to represent the white and yolk of an egg and areobtained by stuffing them into what is known as a “Stodare” egg, which is an egg with anopening in the side of it. Both eggs are made of celluloid, although it could be done with areal egg, but with the risk of making a mess of it.

Stodare’s trick was to bring forward an egg resting on a silk handkerchief, in fact, tied to itby a piece of cotton. In the folds of the handkerchief he had a small silk handkerchief con-cealed, in the other hand a tumbler into which he let the egg drop in the act of covering thetumbler over with the silk handkerchief. He then took another handkerchief from hiswaistcoat and gradually worked it between his hands and it became an egg and, the hand-kerchief being taken off the tumbler disclosed the other silk handkerchief, the egg beingdrawn away by means of the cotton.

Colonel Stodare was a very clever conjurer who occupied the Egyptian Hall before Mr.Maskelyne, and introduced, among other illusions, one called the “Sphinx,” in which a de-capitated head resting apparently on an ordinary table spoke to the audience.

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CHAPTER XI

THE INDIAN ROPE TRICK

MY visit to Vienna, already mentioned, was productive of another illusion which Mr. Bateand I evolved during that time. This was my own version of “The Indian Rope Trick” andwas the first attempt ever made to put this mythical trick into practice. As a setting for it Iwrote a little sketch called The Magical Master.

The Magical Master was discovered introducing his butler into a secret room in the house.This room was used for magical experiments, and could only be approached by secret pan-els in the walls. The butler was frightened of the whole subject, so the Master proceeds toshow him what magic really is. For instance, he puts an orange on the neck of a decanter,covers it with a little silk handkerchief and the orange becomes an apple. Treated in thesame way again, it becomes an egg, this in turn becomes a ball of yellow wool, which ap-pears mysteriously embroidered on a tablecloth. The magician also exchanges ties with thebutler merely by snapping his fingers. Then he takes four or five circus hoops, made of tis-sue paper, smashes them one at a time over the butler’s head. Each time the butler isdressed in various parts of a costume. First a highly-coloured dress, then a cloak to matchof a variety called Dolman, then a feather boa, and lastly an enormous hat.

The Master then calls his attention to a rope loop which is hanging through a ring in theceiling of the stage. The magician explains the utter impossibility of the Indian rope trick,says that he cannot possibly throw the rope up in the way described in the usual tale, butthat he hopes to produce the more important parts of the climbing up and disappearing.

He then calls attention to a large suit-case which is resting on a stand. The butler helps himto unpack this, when, wrapped up in cloths, they find the dismembered portions of a man’sbody; a head, two arms, trunk, and legs. Having also found written instructions, he and thebutler decide to try the trick.

The first stage is to cover the portions of body, repacked in the trunk, with a piece of cloth.This rises up gradually and discloses an Indian. He brings with him another sealed letter.This is a spell to produce a fairy. There is a dining-room table in the room and a couple ofscreens are set round in this, covered up in front with curtains. The fairy is discovered, onthe curtains being taken down, gracefully reclining in a coral grotto. She is then given aseat and asked to watch the Indian rope trick.

The Indian duly climbs up the rope and when about ten feet up suddenly disappears like aflash of lightning, much to the astonishment of the fairy, who also disappears in a puff ofsmoke.

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Now to reveal the secrets. Of course, the orange was an apple covered by a carefully knittedorange-silk cover. This was pulled off under the little handkerchief. The apple had an eggin its interior. The apple in turn was pulled off the egg. The apple had a tubular insidewhere the core should have been. This was also taken off under cover of the handkerchief,being fitted with a little button which had a piece of thread attached to it, so the apple washanging underneath the handkerchief without the shape being seen. The next thing was tochange the egg into a ball of wool. This was done by filling a celluloid egg with a ball ofwool, having split the egg open and hinged the two halves together. The egg was also cov-ered with the handkerchief and the wool taken out under cover of it. The articles as dis-carded were got rid of by dropping them into a dish of fruit.

The tie trick was very effective. We each wore a dummy front, the butler carrying a bow tieput over a sailor’s knot tie which he wore attached to the dummy front. Through rings inhis trousers was a cord which led down to his trouser pocket. One quick pull and thedummy front was pulled down inside his waistcoat. I, wearing a bow tie, covered by adummy sailor’s knot tie, did the same thing at the same time. Consequently, we were ableto take our respective ties off after the trick and exchange them.

Now for the hoops. They were not of tissue paper, but of a somewhat stouter paper andwere made in the following way.

A steel hoop with a raised edge was laid upon the floor, a sheet of paper was laid over thatand gripped by another hoop, then the dress was laid in, leaving a hole in the centre. Thenanother sheet of paper was spread upon this and, finally, clipped down with a third hoop.The cape and the feather boa were prepared in the same way, whilst the hat was got fromthe back of a chair to the back of another hoop. These hoops were arranged in a stand sothat the audience could see the whole of them at one time. There were five of them alto-gether. The first one was smashed over his head as an illustration and had no effect.

The suitcase, from which the Indian appeared, looked like an ordinary suitcase in the dis-tance, except when I picked it up it had an iron rod underneath it projecting from the stoolon which I was placing it. This small piece of projecting rod had a counterweight attachedto it underneath the stage, so that I was able to pick the heavy case up carelessly with onehand. It really contained the man as well as the dummy in pieces.

The man was really packed very tightly in this case and it seemed impossible that a humanbeing could have been packed with the dummy in such a small space, but so it was.

The fairy had a much more comfortable place. She was concealed in an ordinary-lookingdining-room table. This was of ordinary thickness in front, but the top and bottom wereshaped like a wedge so that at the back of the table there was enough space for her to laydown in. The top of the table was formed by a flap, painted on the inside like a coral cave,and then there were what we called ground rows, really pieces of scenery laid along theground. There were two or three flaps like this in the table. The fairy had to do all the workof putting these into position, and the whole setting with blue lights looked most effective.While these blue lights were put on all the other lights were turned off, and during this

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black-out the rope which I had been displaying to the butler was pulled up out of the wayand a similar double rope took its place. This double rope was not at all genuine, part of itwas only a casing covered with rope, and folded in this hollow part was what is known as a“lazy tongs,” something like scissors which opened out on each side of the rope. Attachedto the points of these was red velvet to merge with the background. They were actuated bya sliding rod at the back of which was a large hook, and the Indian who climbed the ropewore a harness between his legs and round his waist with a large ring in front of it. Whenhe got up to the level of the hook he dropped the ring over the hook and dinging on to therope with hands and feet, he let his weight rest on the ring. When he threw out his armsand legs, the sliding rod, impelled by his weight, shot out the screens and thus concealedhim from view. These were also helped by a little steel spring which propelled the screensoutward.

I forgot to mention that the dummy pieces dropped again from the flys; apparently the In-dian became dismembered again. The fairy had sat down on a Moorish stool and she worea framework under her flowing dress. This she attached to the top of the stool and was thenfree to descend through the stage by a lift. The whole inner part of the stool was made todrop, carrying the dummy figure of the fairy with it in its descent, and releasing a springblind which covered the opening at the top. At the same moment a little gunpowder was setoff by an electric fuse wire, which gave a puff of smoke at the critical moment.

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CHAPTER XII

MAGICAL MYSTERIES

“THE Window of the Haunted House” was thriller amongst illusions. The late Julian Wyliecame to me one day with an idea for an illusion. His idea was based on gauze scenery. Hehad a front cloth of gauze, painted on the back to resemble the back cloth, in fact an exactreplica of it. He thought that if you put a looking-glass mid-way between these two, with allthe illuminations on the back side of the gauze, people would see through to the reflectionon the glass and take it for part of the back-cloth. If this had been so, an actor could walkacross the stage, go behind the glass, and disappear. But this did not work out to plan, be-cause of the edges of the glass which could not be concealed. We tried serrations and otherdodges to break the edges. Finally, I went home and thought about it and evolved the mys-tery of the haunted window.

I had a huge gauze cage which was brilliantly illuminated inside. This had a door at theside, so that one could walk in and out of the cage. In the middle of it was a stand made ofwood and on the top of that was perched a french window. A pair of steps led up to the frontand there was a similar pair at the back. A committee was asked to come up from the audi-ence. They were led up the steps through the wide open window and down the other sideand examined everything and found nothing suspicious. They noticed that there were littlecurtains over the window, which they were asked to draw. Having done this, they were alldismissed except two. These two were stationed in seats at the front corners of the struc-ture to watch events. The lights were dimmed down to twilight and, though everything wasleft perfectly visible, the dull light gave an eerie effect.

I told the audience a little tale about the window having been taken from a haunted house,which was in the process of demolition. For years, people had been seeing ghosts appear atthis very window, as a tragedy had occurred in the room. The tale was one of love, jealousy,and murder. Of course, I went on to say that we could not guarantee the appearance of theghost, but would do our best.

“Look,” said I suddenly, “there’s something appearing now,” and sure enough there was ablurred image on the window which gradually became plainer. It was seen to be a man ap-parently whitewashing the room, then he faded away. His place was taken by another mandressed as a sailor. Then a girl came running in, threw herself into the sailor’s arms andwas duly embraced in return. Then entered another man, who pulled the girl away fromthe sailor, and a fight commenced between the two men. A knife is flashed and the sailordrops dead.

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The next scene is a fire. The room is apparently on fire, the windows burst open and a fire-man, carrying the girl over his shoulder, with another fireman playing a hose in the back-ground, make the picture upon which the curtain descends.

As I said before, most of the illumination was inside the gauze structure. During the twi-light, a piece of mirror glass was pushed up through grooves in the wooden stand. Behindthis a lift brought up three characters—a house-painter, a sailor, and the girl. They got onthe platform which extended beyond the base of the window and hid in the corners whichhad been covered up till then by two doors. The house-painter was the last to arrive up andhe closed the doors together behind him, thus covering the back from any observer. Thecurtains over the window covered the front, therefore the performers were in a sort of boxand it was quite safe to take a person round the structure and even to let him look at theback of the window.

All this takes a long time to describe, but as a matter of fact the glass was pushed up at-tached to counterweights and the front represented the back of the gauze screen, whichlooked like the front of the back screen. The two pairs of steps were exactly alike, the frontlooked like the back in the reflection.

Having got so far, the first thing the painter does is to open the curtains in the window.These are not seen now because all the illumination is outside and the window itself wascovered with a semi-transparent substance used for artificial stained glass windows, amatted paper. There were tubular lights inside the window attached to a resistance, so thepainter had to open the curtains, take up his position with the paint brush and give a sig-nal, whereupon the lights were gradually turned on, disclosing a truly ghostly form of aman in a white smock apparently painting the wall of the room.

The two men were invited to walk round the structure several times during the perform-ance. Of course, they saw nothing except from the front and they saw what the rest of theaudience saw.

The painter, having been faded out, took off his smock in the corner, hung it up behind thedoor, and was ready to play the part of the villain.

The love scene was enacted by the other two, then came the murder, and, finally, they bothunhooked from the corners costumes of firemen and donned them ready for the finishingtableau.

The glass had to be moved very slowly so that the edge was not seen even in the twilightwhich prevailed. We found one unexpected danger. A man lighting a cigarette one day inthe stalls saw a reflection of the light like a brilliant speck in the mirror. This made the trickimpossible for music halls where people are constantly lighting pipes, etc. So eventuallywe had to alter it to a two-framed leg which shut up and opened out into two V shapes. Theback “V” was fitted with mirrors which slid up and down and answered the same purpose,only in this case it reflected the sides which looked like the back, and the steps had to bemade portable and taken away after the first examination.

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Of course, great stress was laid on the fact that the whole thing was surrounded by gauzewhich made the approach by a human being impossible without breaking it.

Now for a couple of small tricks, which are never to be despised. A little trick can be as ef-fective as a big one. As perfect an illusion can be obtained by a piece of paper being torn upinto strips and restored, as the illusion of a woman being sawn in halves.

The interlude I am going to describe now is called “Black and White.” One has a glass tubeabout eight inches long and two inches in diameter, a glass bowl with a lip to it (an old-fashioned finger bowl will do), four tumblers, a half-sheet of notepaper, and a lady’s hat-pin, all laying upon a tray, the tumblers in a row at the back, two of them being turned up-side down. The bowl is filled with water.

The performer begins by tearing the half-sheet of note-paper into two pieces. One of theseis laid upon one of the up-turned tumblers, whilst he soaks the other one in the water. Hav-ing done this he places that piece upon the other inverted tumbler, and then soaks the sec-ond piece. With the other hand he picks up the tube, and lays the paper on the end of it,pressing it down a little round the tube. He now turns the tube the other way up and sup-ports the paper by putting two fingers underneath it. He proceeds to fill the tube with wa-ter from the bowl and presses the other piece of paper on the top. Now, with the left hand,he takes hold of the tube in the centre and with the right hand draws the paper carefullyaway at the lower end of the tube. The water remains as if it were frozen. He replaces thispaper and takes off the top paper and does this once or twice, then with the hat-pin hepricks the uppermost paper and the lowermost one drops into the bowl, followed by all thewater in the tube. He then takes the paper impaled on the hat-pin, drops it into the waterand lays the tube down. Fishing out the pieces of paper, he screws them up into a ball anddrops them on the tray. He now half fills one of the tumblers and the water remains colour-less, but on filling the next to the same height the contents become black. He does the samewith the next two tumblers. Now he has white and black alternately and the bowl is empty.

He first pours the white water of the first tumbler back into the bowl and the contents ofthe next one turn all black. The next tumbler of white turns the black into white and thenext tumbler of black turns into white on pouring it into the bowl.

“That proves that white is black and black is white,” says the performer, but whether theaudience believe him or not is another thing.

The tube has to be specially prepared for this, having each end ground down a little. Thereare also two discs, ground down to fit the ends of the tube. One of these discs has a hole inits centre. In the first place these discs are laying on the top of the upturned tumblers, andthe hole in the disc is stopped up with soap.

The tumblers are prepared in the following way. The first one, standing the ordinary wayup, has about a tablespoonful of saturated solution of tannin, the next one, upturned, has afew drops of perchloride of iron, or steel drops, which adhere to the bottom of the tumbler.

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The third tumbler has a spoonful of oxalic acid; this, by the way, is a poison, and due pre-caution should be taken. The fourth upturned glass contains some more steel drops.

The next illusion I am going to describe is one of my favourites. On a small table at the sideof the stage was seen a goblet of celery-glass shape filled with a black liquid and beside itwas resting a tumbler and an ordinary glass custard-cup. On the opposite side of the stagewas seen a similar vase half full of water with a glass jug of water beside it and a small sheetof glass lying on top of it.

The conjurer invites a gentleman to come on the stage. Before doing this he proves to theaudience that the vase on their left actually contains black liquid. He does this by dippingthe custard glass into it and emptying the contents into the tumbler. He repeats this andthen pours the ink (he calls it ink) into the vase again. When the gentleman comes up heconducts him to the table on the right of the audience, informs him he wants him to exam-ine the things on the table, and, further, asks him to fill the vase with water from that in thejug. He is then asked to lay the sheet of glass over the mouth of the goblet and hold it therewhile the other hand holds the foot of the goblet.

The conjurer then quickly walks over to the other table, and while the gentleman is fillingthe goblet with water, the performer lifts the vase of ink from the other table. He now asksthe gentleman to face him and explains it is a matter now of getting the vases into line witheach other so that the electrons and protons can pass each other and so cause the liquids tochange places. Then comes the dramatic pause. Then it happens. The clear water in thegentleman’s vase instantaneously turns to ink, while the ink in the performer’s vase assuddenly becomes water.

In this trick the foot of the performer’s vase is hollow. It is made of turned wood or nickel-plated metal, The vase itself is double and a black bag exactly fits over the inner shell. It isattached through the hollow stem of the water glass to a spring roller in the foot, which isreleased by a catch, which the performer can press open with a button. The silk bag is in-stantaneously rolled on the spring roller. The ink is tannic acid with a few drops of perchlo-ride of iron. Inside the tumbler is cemented a small glass tube which contains oxalic acid,which clears the supposed ink when it is poured back into the vase from the tumbler.

Here follows the prescription for making the other change to black about twenty-eight sec-onds after they have been mixed together:

{A.) 10 grammes of iodic acid dissolved in one litre (1000 c.c.) of water. Label this(a).(B.) Procure a saturated solution of sulphurous acid. Label this (b).(C.) Take 25 c.c. of B., make up to 1000 c.c. with water. Label this {c).

1. In one glass put 50 c.c. of A and add 250 c.c. of water (or one part of A to 5 partsof water).2. In another glass put 5 c.c. of C and add 250 c.c. of water {or 1 part C to 5 parts ofwater).

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To each glass add ten drops of solution of starch containing salicylic acid.

Procure starch solution by boiling enough starch as will lie on a shilling in about one ounceof water. Add a little salicylic acid (about one-third the quantity of the starch used) and boilagain. Keep this in a stoppered bottle. After the above is completed, mix the contents ofglasses 1 and 2. In this formula the time elapsing before the change in colour varies fromtwenty-four to twenty-eight seconds. This can be altered by experiment.

“The Chocolate Soldier” illusion, or “The Man who Diminishes,” was suggested by the wayin which electric light baths were being used at that time for health purposes. What I setout to do was to show the effect of a red, white, and blue electric bath on a chocolate sol-dier.

The setting consisted of three ten-feet triangular wooden stands on wheels, the upper partof each being a pillar of light, one red, one blue, and one white. We used ordinary electricstrips in what we call a batten. These were painted white inside to get the maximum of re-flected light. Then there was a table about four feet high with quite a thin top.

The soldier marched in to the well-known tune of “The Chocolate Soldier,” performing thegoose step and made up like a toy soldier; white trousers, red coat and wooden busby. Ishouted out “Halt!” and he stiffened up and was lifted by two attendants on to the table. Af-ter some comic business he was got to stand up and set marking time.

The stands were then arranged round the table, the white lights being at the back. ThreeUnion Jacks were now introduced and hung by a ring screwed into the end of each staff onto a little rod or arm projecting from the top of each stand. Two of these flags were hung onthe arms of the white lights stand. Now the attendants armed themselves with sticks with aforked piece at the end, and with these they lifted the flags so that the end of the staff nearthe flag rested on the arms of the opposite stand to which they were hanging. Thus a trian-gular enclosure was formed with the apex at the back, and the broad side facing the audi-ence.

After pointing out how perfectly the whole thing was isolated from the scenery, a signalwas given and the flags were dropped by unhooking one end of each. They disclosed thesoldier reduced to the size of a small doll, still marking time merrily. The stands were thendrawn back, the flags unhooked and waved. Curtain.

Once owing to the exigencies of the War I had to ask a lady member of the company to takethe part of the soldier. After a rehearsal at which everything seemed to go quite smoothlywe tried it in public. When the lady was enclosed I noticed the table shaking and peepedinto the back to see what was happening. The lady was struggling with a black suit. “What’sthe matter?” said I. In an agonised whisper came the reply, “I can’t get my trousers on.”You see she had to don a black suit in one piece, coat and trousers combined, fastened be-hind at the neck, and she was, in her nervous haste, trying to insert her feet in the arms ofthe coat instead of the legs of the trousers. So I pointed out her mistake and had to fill in thetime by telling a tale to the audience. The lady, when she got the suit on, put a loose cap or

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hood on to conceal her face, and thus entirely dressed in black velvet to match the back-cloth, had simply to step out on to a triangular platform at the base of the row of white elec-tric lights, and in this position she was quite invisible to the audience.

A great deal of the success of this illusion may be put down to good music, coloured lightsand the Union Jacks. Still the effect was novel, and the whole thing was a success.

Mr. Neville Maskelyne helped a great deal in this by making a perfect miniature of the sol-dier, which laid flat in the table-top covered by a trap-door.

The last thing the lady did before she got into her “invisible” position was to lift this out ofthe trap and it automatically started marking time, an exact imitation of the larger soldier.The children were convinced that it was a chocolate soldier by our giving the model an ex-tra finger of chocolate, which could be broken off and thrown to the audience as a convinc-ing proof.

During the War I gave a finishing touch to this illusion by having a girl at the side dressedas Britannia. The moment the curtain came down she hopped in with her long skirts aboveher knees, climbed up some steps on to the table and took up the traditional pose whichbrought down the house and the final curtain.

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CHAPTER XIII

MORE MAGICAL MYSTERIES

“THE Obliging Kettle” was the the title I gave to one of my most popular tricks, and it wasmy custom to introduce it, with an air of great sincerity, with the following entirely imagi-nary “history”:

“This kettle,” I began, “has a story attached—as well as a handle and a spout. When in Ed-inburgh I was taken to a shebeen. A shebeen is a place where one buys drinks during pro-hibited hours, but I don’t suppose there is such a place in London, unless it is under someother title.

“The reason I went to the shebeen was not to get a drink; I went there to interview the oldgentleman, now passed away, who kept the place. He had the reputation of being a magi-cian. He showed me one or two of his tricks and I showed him one or two of mine, and as asouvenir of my visit the old man gave me this tin kettle. The trick he did with the kettle wasthis:

“Suppose a person came in to buy a glass of whisky. The old man would pour it out of thekettle as I am doing now. Is there any gentleman here who happens to know the taste ofwhisky? A gentleman over there looks rather like it. Is that good whisky, sir? Good! Now,supposing a policeman, or any other total abstainer came in and asked the proprietor whathe kept in that kettle, he would pour out a glass of cold, white, wet water, as I do now.

“Now is there a gentleman who knows the taste of water? Perhaps the gentleman who hadthe whisky would like the water after it?”

“I have improved this kettle. It will oblige with any recognised drink you like to name....ales, wines or spirits, liqueurs or cordials. Now don’t shout! Just whisper your orders tothe attendants; then no one will hear you, and you can have what you like.”

Thus I introduced my “Obliging Kettle.”

It originated more or less as a joke and a skit on the “Magic Kettle,” which was the titlegiven to the outbreak on the Music Halls of the “Liquid Air” experiments. This “Magic Ket-tle” was all the rage at the time, and my wife suggested that I should do a trick with a kettle.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to revive the old trick of “The Inexhaustible Bot-tle,” and with a kettle it could, of course, be done on a much bigger scale.

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Mr. Bate made me a kettle with five air-tight compartments with thin pipes connectingthem with the spout of the kettle, and five other thin pipes connected with the handle com-ing out at practically the positions which the fingers and thumb take up. They came out atthe side of the handle with the thumb in front on top of the handle. Each terminal of thepipe had a small piece of valve rubber put over it. These, under pressure of the fingers,made the pipes quite airtight. The one in the front had no valve rubber, just a counter-sunkhole level with the handle on which the thumb rested. It will be obvious that air let into anyof these compartments causes the liquids therein to run from the spout when the kettle istilted in the usual way. The contents of the kettle consisted of: (1) A good claret of Beaune;(2) pure water; (3) ale; (4) whisky; (5) most important of all—a mixture of gin and water,well sugared, about one-third gin and two-thirds water.

There was a large tray of glasses, the smallest and thickest goblet-shaped glasses I couldget, of the sort used by ice-cream men. The glass I have in mind is a very common glass, allthe cheaper to lose or to be broken, as the trick was expensive enough without that.

The glasses on the tray were prepared, at least a good many of them were. For instance,four of them contained Benedictine, about a small teaspoonful of it. The same with theother liqueurs, such as, Crme de Menthe, green and yellow Chartreuse, Kummell, etc., alsoone containing a little milk or whitening and water.

In picking the glasses up to pour out the requested liqueurs, they were all picked up in acertain manner, between the two middle fingers of the hand, with the fingers curled up-wards. If the glass was an empty one, before the liquid was poured in, the fingers were flat-tened out, thus showing every inch of the glass, but if it contained the liqueur, theperformer commenced pouring before he showed the bottom part of the glass.

The glasses were arranged on the tray following a thought-out plan, which the performerhad to remember. A copy of this plan was given to the assistant, who prepared the tray.

With the above preparations we (the audience and I) had quite a cocktail party. The portwine, for instance, was made by pouring out a third of claret and two-thirds of sugaredgin-water. Whisky and water could be supplied pure, also claret. After all, a lot of peopleshouting at once for drinks allowed plenty of discrimination to the performer. The glass ofmilk was left as a joke until the end. The port was as pure as some grocers’ port and the ginwas definitely weaker. The whole thing proved a great draw to the public.

I had one set-back, however. We had booked a Temperance Hall at Leicester, and I foundour contract prevented the introduction of any alcohol. It was strictly forbidden and it wasuseless my talking about small quantities and fairy distillers, so I had to resort to teetotaldrinks. I decided upon hot coffee, hot tea, hot cocoa, hot milk, and lemonade, la naturel.This was much easier, but it had a fault, a decided snag—for the lemonade came out boilinghot! But afterwards this mistake stood me in good stead, because in Vienna hot lemonadeis a recognised drink. Incidentally, the kettle dispensing these drinks came in very usefulat children’s matinees.

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“The Burmese Gong,” another striking effect, was a combination of illusions which werepresented in quick succession. The apparatus consisted of a large wooden trunk standingon a platform about eight inches high, and placed in the centre of the stage towards theback. On the prompt side stood a wooden cage just large enough to allow a person to standupright. This was standing on a platform about four feet square and one foot from thefloor. There were wooden posts at each corner of this platform, supporting a roof of thesame size, about two inches thick. A curtain dropped over the cage to conceal one of theperformers when required.

On the O.P. side an iron stand, about five feet high, was placed. On this was an ordinary-looking chair. The top of the stand was only just large enough to hold the chair and a per-son seated on it. To enable a lady to get up to the chair a small portable staircase was pro-vided.

In the centre of the stage, near the footlights, was seen a curious old gong, on a carvedstand.

At the first performance of “The Burmese Gong” the apparatus was quite undecorated; infact, it was purposely made as plainly as possible and the three performers were dressed asattendants.

Later on, when it was sent to the music halls, special Oriental dresses were provided, andthe scenery and apparatus were richly coloured. Three complete sets were made in thatway, as well as the plainer set which was used at St. George’s Hall.

The series of illusions produced with this apparatus was suggested to me in a somewhatcurious way. While performing at a Midland town I was approached by a wholesale furni-ture manufacturer who claimed to have made a box for the “Box Trick” on a new principle.He wished me to go and look at it. I did so, and found that although the box was ingeniousit was not suitable for the “Box Trick” and very inferior to the one I had in use. However,the interview led to the gentleman in question asking for terms for lessons and arrangingwith me to give him a course during the stay of the company. But when two lessons hadbeen given the gentleman was persuaded, or commanded, by his wife to give them up. Heexplained his difficulty to me and offered to pay for them all the same. I refused to take themoney, and then the would-be conjurer offered me the box as a present. I accepted this boxand very soon afterwards thought of a novel way of using it.

A lady was locked in the trunk while it was raised from the floor; a man was to stand on thelid; he was to have a piece of cloth thrown to him which he was to hold across his body for asecond. Then the cloth was to be dropped and, instead of the man, the girl was to be stand-ing on the box, and on the box being opened the man was to be discovered inside it.

Here was a transposition trick of the kind that had been done with a box with one personinside and the other outside, changing places under cover of a curtain cabinet. But this wasquicker, neater, and very much more effective than anything else that had preceded it.

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While the rehearsals for this box trick were proceeding, the show was in Glasgow, in theWaterloo Rooms. I went over to Edinburgh to see the Waverley Market Fair. There I met aMr. Howard who was doing an illusion as a side-show, and the cage above described wasused to “change” one person into another. Mr. Howard offered to sell me this apparatus,and it was then that the idea of the combination occurred to me. I closed with the offer andsent to London for a table and chair which I had in stock and with which “The VanishingLady” trick could be done on any stage. For the first performance in Edinburgh these wereused, but were afterwards replaced by the skeleton stand and steps.

The effects in “The Burmese Gong” were as follows: One man dressed as a Prince in a Bur-mese costume, one man dressed as a Slave, and a woman dressed as a Princess were dis-covered ‘standing in the centre of the stage. The apparatus was in the positions alreadydescribed.

I entered, struck the gong once. Then followed three minutes of very bewildering work.The lady was put into the trunk and the man dressed as a Prince stood on the top. The clothwas thrown up to him. He shook it out and held it at arm’s length with both hands. He hadbarely covered himself from view when I struck the gong. The cloth dropped and the ladywas in the place of the Prince. She was quickly handed down; the box was opened, and thePrince was seen there. He was not allowed to leave the box, but was locked in again. Thelady was handed up to the chair on the stand and covered with a piece of silk. The Slave wasput into the cage, the gong struck, and he was changed to the Prince, who had been left inthe box. Again I struck the gong and the box was opened by the Slave who was inside. I ranup the stage to adjust the silk covering the lady, when the Slave suddenly struck the gongon his own account and the lady vanished from the chair, leaving the silk shawl in myhands.

I angrily pushed the Slave back into the cage, and again struck the gong. The lid of the boxwas pushed up and the Prince stepped out of it. Once again the gong was struck and, onpulling the curtain which covered the cage the Princess was discovered within in place ofthe Slave. “Where is the other man?” I shouted. I dropped the curtain over the empty cage,struck the gong, immediately pulled up the curtain again, and the Slave was seen to be inthe cage, thus completing the trio.

Shortly after we altered this and opened by producing the three persons in the cage bystriking the gong three times in quick succession, to add still more to the mystery. The boxwas standing on a platform eight inches high, and there was an opening at the back of thebox. Then there was another platform on the top of the box about six inches high. Boththese platforms were provided with roller blinds like the background. When the Princesswas put into the box the platform was put on to the top and the Prince held the cloth infront of himself. After climbing on to the platform, he held the cloth up to his neck and thePrincess got out of the opening at the back of the box; the Prince lowered the cloth for amoment over the front of the platform, while the Princess pulled the roller blind down to acatch, then she climbed up between the Prince’s legs and stood up in front of him. She thenput her hands underneath his and took hold of the cloth, and on being told to show his faceshe lowered the cloth sufficiently to do so, then raised it again, while he climbed down

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quickly behind her and into the box and shut the panel behind him, while the lady wrappedthe cloth around her and there was nothing to show that it was not the Prince.

The cage, as described, had a fitting of mirror glass, two pieces to be exact, one runningfrom the back post to the cage, pointing at right angles to the back scenery, and the otherrunning from the back of the cage to the back post of the outer cabinet and this touched thescenery. Under cover of the looking-glass a person could pass from the side and openingthe glass at the back, now concealed by the curtain over the cage, could push it open andget inside. There was no curtain at the back of the cage. The stand on which “The VanishingLady” was done was a metal one with a glass platform let in underneath the upper plat-form. The steps were the same height as the upper platform. The Princess had first to climbdown to the glass and then twist herself into the box-like steps through a trap door in theside of them. The space between the glass platform and the upper platform was hidden bythe cloth that covered herself. When she was safely inside the steps, they were pushedcarelessly against the scenery, allowing her to get through another trap and make her wayto the cage.

The Slave was pottering about the stage. His first job was to lift the platform off the top ofthe box, and when the Prince was shut up again in the box the Slave pushed the steps to-wards the platform on which the lady was intended to vanish. I covered her after guidingher up the steps and seating her upon the chair which was provided with a wire shapewhich was lifted up from behind the back of the chair and made a perfect form. I then gotdown, took hold of the Slave, and pushed him into the cage. I then banged the gong andlifted the curtain of the cabinet and the Slave had become the Prince, who had made hisway to the cage via a trap door in the stage behind the box. Again I banged the gong, andthe lid of the box opened and the Slave arose. He sauntered down the stage and sat downby the gong, while I got on the platform steps and was arranging the lady’s covering andthe Slave took it upon himself to bang the gong, thus vanishing the lady. I now pushed thesteps to one side and rushed to the cabinet to find the Prince had also gone. I then put theSlave into the cabinet again, struck the gong, and the slave became the Princess. Oncemore I lowered the curtain, and after handing the Princess out, struck the gong again andbrought the Prince back. Another bang brought back the Slave. Thus the trio was com-pleted.

This illusion was hard work, and most difficult to describe, but it was a great success in theactual performance.

“The Curious Case” is another trick for which the apparatus was made by Mr. Bate. Thisapparatus consisted in a small platform on which was a polished mahogany box with largeglass panels, so that one could see right through it. Above this hung a wooden packing casemade of unpolished wood. The performer pointed out that the box was isolated from thefloor, and after he had tapped the wooden box, tapped the glass box and had got into theformer, it was lowered down into the latter. A loose lid was put on the wooden box and thehinged lid of the mahogany box was locked down on to it. The whole thing was swung intothe air with the performer still inside. An assistant exhibited a card inviting any of theaudience to come up on the stage and watch, and then another one, saying: “The more the

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merrier.” A number of the audience came up and stood around, and with a little promptingby the assistant, formed a semi-circle. Suddenly there was a pistol shot and the whole in-ner case disappeared, the outer case being clearly seen through. It was evident that theperformer had disappeared and the next moment one of the committee having made a re-mark, such as: “Marvellous!” to call attention to himself, proceeded to take off a falsemoustache and disclose himself as the performer, clad in a light dust coat.

No attention was called to the platform, which was a good deal thicker at the back than atthe front, in fact large enough to hold the performer when he got out at the back of the case,or rather the two cases, as one of the panels at the back of the larger box had no real exis-tence. Before getting out he undid three panels of wood, which were covered in front byspring blinds. These he laid on the floor of the case and got into the platform, when the boxwas swung forward. The guide ropes were attached to the outer case to prevent it swingingtoo far into the auditorium, but far enough to allow the tableaux curtains to drop behind it,thus covering the platform from view. The performer quickly got out of this, donned hisdisguise, and rushed round to the front ready to take his place with the committee on thestage. The rest was done by the guide ropes. The spring blind was connected together withthree catches on one rod, operated by pulling the guide ropes directly downwards, whichcaused the blinds to spring up and the panels in the inner box, coinciding with the glasspanels in the outer, showed the whole thing to be empty. Thus ended the trick of the con-jurer who conjured with himself.

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CHAPTER XIV

MAGICAL SKETCHES

MAGICAL sketches are an excellent means of making one or two illusions go a long way.They are also very important, or can be made to seem important by atmosphere and set-ting, thereby greatly enhancing the total effect of the illusion.

The plot of “St. Valentine’s Eve” was a simple one. An old bachelor is reading his love let-ters on St. Valentine’s Eve, love letters connected with an affair, of his early youth. He alsocomes across a book of spells and incantations, some of them for St. Valentine’s Eve. Hishousekeeper bursts into the room. She has just received an ugly Valentine and is verywrath about it. The old man takes very little notice of her and lets her carry on with her dia-tribe against people who send ugly Valentines to innocent housekeepers.

The old man finally invokes her assistance to try some of the experiments he has found inthe book. He takes a ball of tissue paper and sends his housekeeper out for a child’swooden hoop. He then makes the ball of tissue paper float in the air and passes the hoopright over it. This is done by a thread stretched across the stage, over which the paper iscrumpled, and running through the hoop off the stage. When the hoop is brought on, thethread is already through it and it is an easy matter to pass the hoop over the paper, andeven twirl it round the paper the other way by holding the thread with the hoop at the sametime.

Amongst the love letters he has been looking up are a couple of old newspapers announc-ing the girl’s marriage to a rival, and as the spell calls for some memento to be burnt, he de-cides these will be the best things to be sacrificed. He then proceeds to place a small stool infront of the table, which is an ordinary-looking table covered with a cloth. They utilise thecurtain chains to make a sort of line, which they hang above the stool and on this line theysuspend the two open newspapers and underneath them and in front of them they put anold flower-pot with the letters and Valentines. The newspapers are clipped upon the lineby means of pieces of sheet lead which are bent over them something like clothes pegs, sothat a pull on the newspaper will bring it down.

Unknown to the audience and concealed in the table top, is the old sweetheart, whoemerges through a trap-door in the table-top as soon as the newspapers are hung up. Shecarries a wooden stick with her, round which are rolled two things—one, a representationof a large sealed envelope made of linen, and secondly, a representation of the Valentineframe made out of silver paper and lace. The stick or batten is provided with a couple ofhooks which fit on the chain underneath the newspaper. As soon as she has hooked it upshe pulls a tape which releases the whole thing and it rolls down behind the paper at the

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same moment the bachelor lights the contents of the bowl, which flare up, being madechiefly of flash paper. At the same time they pull down the sheets of newspaper, thus dis-closing the envelope; this is attached to the batten on which it was rolled by a couple ofloops held in place by two small bolts. The sweetheart lifts her hands and suddenly pullsthe bolts. The envelope at once drops down, disclosing herself as a beautiful Valentine.This climax is enhanced by spot lights and followed by the curtain.

On the first night of “The Enchanted Hive,” a skit on melodrama, which I produced inManchester, one might have seen a bee-hive walking. I had produced this scena and hadnot given myself sufficient rehearsal. When I crouched down in the hive to hide from thedetective who was hunting me, and who had then just entered, I overbalanced myself andpositively went head over heels into the orchestra. The detective pretended not to see meand gagged frantically with Sambo, another member of the cast.

During this impromptu I had walked up to my stool again with the hive still clinginground, and I managed to get into position again. The stool in question was about eighteeninches high and was set in the centre of the stage, a low fence at the sides and back beingplaced at equal distance. The stool was a three-legged one with the legs formed from roughlogs, apparently. These legs had slots in them through which pieces of mirror glass workedup and down. They reflected the sides of the fence, which looked like the back. Of course,the lighting had to be done very carefully. The advantage of having a fence was, when theglasses were up, that characters could still pass behind the stool as long as they kept be-hind the fence.

The situation was this: The detective was known to be quite close and, on the advice of anold witch, the hero had been persuaded to hide in the bee-hive. A string was attached to thebranches of a tree above by previous instructions of the witch, and the negro was told to at-tach the string to the hive at the critical moment. Sambo was to give away the hiding-placeto the detective, the witch promising to see that everything would be all right.

The moment the detective enters, Sambo tells him confidentially where the wanted man isand explains that the old witch mesmerised him and that he is still asleep. The detectivethen makes a plan, takes his dust-coat off and hangs it on a branch of a tree at the side, andfrom the pockets he produces a skirt and shawl, also a poke-bonnet, a black mask and, fi-nally, a pistol. “Now,” he says, “I am ready for him.” The old witch in the background beck-ons to Sambo to attach the cord to the hive, when she instantly pulls it up just as thedetective approaches it, and, to his astonishment, the hero has vanished and his place istaken by the sweetheart, who is dressed as an enormous bee, while the detective throws offhis disguise and appears as Dick, the hero.

All this was rendered possible by two pieces of mirror and careful manipulation of the coatat the side. This was lifted up to get at the pockets, first the skirt and then the shawl beingtaken out. Finally as she dived down into a pocket for the pistol the detective was hiddenfor a moment and his place taken by Dick, who had got down from the stool behind themirrors and made his way underneath the stage and up to the side.

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In 1931, Pearsons published a little book called The Best Tricks and How to Do Them. Inthis book I described a ghost trick in which I actually employed a member of the audienceas a confederate, which was opposed to all the ethics of conjuring. As the whole affair was ajoke on the Magic Circle, this was perhaps pardonable. Anyway, no one seemed to notice itat the time, and it was only when I thought of doing it in public I realised my own sin.

The trick consisted of disappearing a ghost under strict conditions. There were eightscreens used, each of them having four folds. Two of these were arranged round the ghost,which had glided slowly in to weird music. Having made this magic square round theghost, which might have been an automaton, but moved as though it were alive (which, infact, it was), a circle with two entrances to it was formed around the square with the re-maining screens. A number of the audience were invited to stand at each entrance.

I then went into the ghost, carrying a small despatch case, and later invited the committeeto come and join hands around the inner square as quickly as possible. They entered atboth entrances at once, but neither of them noticed that there was a man inside already,because those who entered at the right entrance thought he had come from the left, andvice versa.

He was a well-known member of the audience, in fact my own secretary, Mr. G. Facer, whohad slipped out from his place at the dinner-table just before the event and donned a gauzysmoke-coloured dress which transformed him into the ghost. There was no shape about it,but plenty of floating tails of fabric. Now the problem was to do this without a confederateand still make the public believe I had shut up the ghost in the despatch-case, which reallyonly enclosed his costume. I got over it in this way.

I had three assistants, one was the ghost, another was his twin brother, and the third wasanother man. The two assistants brought in and arranged the screens, the committee be-ing on the stage the whole time watching, and they had already examined the carpet uponwhich the ghost stood. When I took my position within the inner screens, the ghost hadslipped out and stood there on guard inviting the committee to join hands. It was impossi-ble for them to tell from which side he had come and his twin brother by this time had leftthe stage. Presently he, too, walked out, coolly giving a finishing touch to the outer screens,and then walked off, while the other man did the same thing the other side. Thus I deceivedthe public again.

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CHAPTER XV

MASTERPIECES OF MAGIC

WE will begin this chapter with an effective little opening trick. On a table is seen a lightedcandle in a candlestick, and also a queer-looking pistol and a table knife. The performerblows out the candle and says:

“I have here an ordinary candle which I am going to cut into pieces, discarding the wickend. You see there are four pieces,” and suiting the action to the word he puts the wick endon one side and arranges the other pieces in a row. “Now I want there to be no mistakeabout this matter, therefore we will remember these pieces—call this Number 1, Number2, Number 3, and Number 4. Now I want one of you gentlemen to choose one of the num-bers.” Supposing the gentleman says Number 3. “This is the one you mean, sir?” Taking upthe one previously designated by that number, he places it in the candlestick. “We will putthis here all by itself so you can all watch it; meanwhile I want a rich man to lend me a ten-shilling note. Is there anyone here who will trust me with that amount? Thank you, sir, youare very confiding. I want you to keep one eye on this note and the other on the candle.Have you any objection to my increasing the note? I don’t mean to make it any more valu-able, but simply to fold it into creases ! Sounds almost like a pun, doesn’t it?

“Now I want to call your attention to this peculiar-looking pistol into which I will load thisnote. I want you to watch me carefully. Now this pistol does not go off with a bang, butwhat it does do is to emit a powerful invisible ray, and the effect of this ray is to dissolvesolid objects one into the other.

“Now will you watch the candle. I take aim carefully and fire! You might say I have clicked.I am sorry you cannot see what the invisible ray did, but I can show you the result. I takethis piece of candle, and you notice there is a dark substance sticking out here. We pull itout, unfold it, and discover to our great surprise it is your note, sir. Will you kindly identifyit?”

There are two pieces of necessary apparatus for this experiment—a pistol with a barrellong enough to hold an ordinary piece of candle, or rather a piece of tube covered with cel-luloid to imitate a piece of candle. There is a small shoulder at the end of this tube whichrests on the lip of the muzzle to prevent it going too fat, and it can be easily taken out byclipping the fingers around it, when the performer carelessly lets the barrel rest in hishands whilst talking. The other essential is a prepared candlestick, which is made of apiece of tube with an ornamental foot and cup to look like an ordinary candlestick. Thistube is fitted inside with a plunger, which is brought to a stop by a groove in the ornamen-tal cup, which presses on a small split piece or tongue and so holds the plunger tightly

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enough to hold it in position. It is released by pressing on to the cup, which slowly movesdown, thus releasing the groove from the tongue, which in turn causes the plunger andcandle to sink noiselessly to the bottom. The performer pretends, of course, to pick up thepiece of candle from the top, though he never really touches it, but it sinks out of sightwhen he substitutes for it the other piece he has in his fingers.

For one of my most ambitious experiments, which I called “Biff!” I used the same idea of aninvisible ray as part of the patter.

Once, in course of conversation with a Scottish amateur conjurer, I mentioned that I waswilling to pay money for any fresh idea in conjuring. I would find a means of doing the trickif I could get a suggestion of what to do. The very next night he came to me with the sugges-tion that I vanished a motor-cycle while the engine was going, and vanished the rider aswell. After five minutes’ thought over the problem, I gave him a cheque for £10 and beganto think of a means to produce the effect. Some months afterwards he sent me a photo-graph of himself proudly showing the cheque in a frame. He kept it there for a couple ofyears or so. At last his Scotch instinct overcame him and he cashed it. I had certainly neverthought of vanishing a motor-cycle with cyclist, but this was the way I finally solved theproblem:

A large packing-case was seen in the centre of the stage, standing on legs about 18 incheshigh. The case was made of white deal and had a board run-up into a doorway in the side ofthe case. As soon as the cyclist had ridden inside, the door was shut and the case pulled upinto the air by four ropes attached to the corners. Then I directed my imaginary ray upon it.The case could be seen shaking by the action of the engine, which was still going at full peltand making all its usual noise—in fact there was no doubt at all that the cycle was inside thecase. Suddenly the engine stopped, and at the same instant the box literally fell to pieces,hundreds of its parts fell to the ground, leaving a mere skeleton framework, without a traceof either rider or cycle.

This remarkable effect was obtained by having a separate compartment at the back of thebox into which the cyclist rode. This compartment could be released and slid back and be-hind the main structure of the case along iron bars, like a drawer coming out of a chest, bythe weight of the cycle and cyclist. The side of the compartment nearest the audience wascovered with black velvet to match the background, so one had a frame-cloth as in theArtist’s Dream. There were wires which lead to flaps keeping in hundreds of pieces of bat-tens, forming sides, top, and bottom of the case, which could all be released by one pull.The cyclist pulled this at the same instant as he stopped his engine. Another example of asimple illusion with a great effect.

In 1897 I had one of the first machines for exhibiting animated photographs. The filmswere very scarce and very short; they portrayed incidents rather than stories. To supportthe machine for a tour it was necessary to provide other attractions, so I devised a spectacleof Black Magic, which Bautier first introduced. He had only done two effects with it, theproduction of a hand, and the production of a woman. My effects included the building of asmall box from which a gnome appeared—this gnome went through various tricks and

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transformations, such as producing a basket of flowers from which emerged a cherubim,which flew and floated about the stage. This was a great success on tour and I eventuallybrought it to the Egyptian Hall. It was called “Die Zauberwunder,” but we altered this titleto the “Gnome’s Grot,” the scene of which was a cave in the mountains in which a hermitdwelt. To this hermit came a knight, accompanied by his comic servant, and wishing toknow certain things about his lady love. The hermit undertakes to satisfy him and com-mences by building a small box upon a little platform. This box suddenly breaks asunderand a red gnome appears. A huge nugget of gold is produced in the gnome’s hands andfrom it emerges the head of a sphinx which recites a prophecy. Then the gnome gets on theplatform and is covered with a cloth by the hermit. The knight is invited to pull the clothoff, and there stands the ghost of his lady love. Before he has time to embrace her, the her-mit coolly covers her over again and at once she becomes a gnome. The knight pleads forone more vision of her, whereupon the magician causes a sort of rainbow to appear inwhich is the future bride.

All these effects were produced by very simple means. In the first place, the cave accountsfor the darkness in a natural sort of way.

The first thing that was done was a dancing table. This was accomplished by a man alldressed in black velvet, who lifts the table up and moves it about in space. To get the gnomeinto the box a screen was employed with a hole in it the size of the back of the box, the backpanel of which lifted up to allow the gnome to enter. The screen was slid across the stage bythe man in black. When it was in position the gnome entered behind another screen. Whenhe was at the back of the first screen he crawled through the hole in the back of the box. Thescreens were drawn off again by the black man. The box was then free for the magician towalk round reciting his incantation. The nugget was produced from behind another blackscreen. This time the magician made a cover with a cloth. It was placed over the out-stretched hands of the kneeling gnome, the man in black placing the nugget into thegnome’s hands under the cover of the cloth. When the nugget was put on the table anotherscreen with a hole in it was pulled in to the place behind the nugget. The sphinx then in-serted her head into the nugget, which was open at the back. Subsequently she walkedabout the stage, and, being all dressed in black except for her head, gave the appearance ofa head floating about the stage.

The transformation of the gnome into the knight’s lady fair was produced by anotherscreen carried up to the back of the platform with the girl walking behind it. Directly themagician spread the cloth out she stepped on to the platform behind the cloth, comingfrom behind the screen, which was again drawn off, then brought back with the gnome be-hind it. When the magician again spread the cloth in front of the lady they change places,so that when the cloth is pulled off the supposed lady, the gnome is discovered. Meanwhile,two screens have been put at the back of the stage, meeting in the centre. Behind these isarranged a transparent gauze rainbow. The magician waves his outspread cloth in front ofthis, the screens are drawn off quickly and the transparent rainbow is disclosed. This is il-luminated by lights behind it, which gradually become brighter and brighter, until the vi-sion of the lady is clearly, seen.

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Here is another interlude which I called “The A.B.C, Fly.” For this there was a gilt frame ona turned wooden stand with a single stem. in the frame was the picture of a huge fly. Thiswas taken out and reversed and on the other side were the letters of the alphabet in properorder and plainly set forth. Three newspapers, all alike, were distributed among the audi-ence. One person was asked to choose a page, the other a column and the third a word.When this word was found, it was quite obvious it was freely chosen.

I now introduced the educated fly, or the A.B.C. Fly as I called it, “because it was caught inan A.B.C. teashop.” I had a little box in my hand which I now rested against the canvas. Thelid was seen to rise and a large fly crawled out of the box, up and over the canvas, and I said:“That’s the only educated fly in the world.... I have another one in this little box. To prove itis educated, it will now spell out the word you have chosen if you will let me know what itis.”

Whatever it was the fly crawled from letter to letter and spelt it out. If the fly had beenclosely examined there would be found attached to the centre of the underneath part of itsbody a slightly projecting metal disc, and the canvas, had it been examined, would havebeen seen to consist of two canvases on a frame. These were left open at the base, allowingfor a rod to push up a metal frame. This rod carried an electrified magnet. The frameworked up and down from the top to the bottom of the canvas showing the letters, and theright to left movement was managed by a cord, or rather two cords, which pulled the mag-net along a rail above fitted with small wheels, so that it glided easily along. These cordscarried the current to the magnet, and the whole thing was duplicated underneath thestage. There the attendants had only to push the underneath magnet about to get the samemovements duplicated above. While this was going on the performer could twist the frameabout to all parts of the house, while the fly was spelling out the words. There was a brightlight thrown on the objects and all seemed above-board, whereas, in fact precisely the re-verse was the case.

I should add there was a slot in the front of the box which held the fly between the metaldisc and its body. When this became attracted through the canvas to the metal disc, the ris-ing of the fly lifted the light loose lid so that the fly appeared to crawl out of the box.

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CHAPTER XVI

MENTAL MAGIC

IN this chapter I am going to impart one of my most cherished secrets which has defied de-tection for a number of years. Even the Maskelynes could not find it out, although they hadthe opportunity of watching the trick night after night.

I should be sorry to deny that there is nothing in telepathy without the use of tricks andcertainly my sister, who acted as my assistant, often understood what I wanted done with-out my resource to the code. Still, I always told the public frankly that there was nothingbut natural means employed.

Here is the speech I used to make at the beginning of the performance:

“Ladies and Gentlemen: I now have the pleasure of presenting to you some experiments inwhat I call ‘Mental Magnetism.’ Some people prefer to call it ‘Mental Telepathy.’ It repre-sents a remarkable faculty of one mind communicating with another without the usualmeans being employed.

“What I do is this: I ask several members of the audience to suggest to me in a whisper, orwrite down and hand to me, something for my sister to do. Neither she nor I speak a wordduring the whole performance. That is why I am now saying all I have got to say before wecommence.

“My sister does not describe objects, but she will do anything on earth that a lady can do ona stage. The reason why she does not describe objects in the usual way is because we bothwant to be silent, and again it is different to the usual procedure and I maintain it’s muchmore difficult. Supposing a person had a telegram to send describing a silver cigarette casecontaining twenty-three cigarettes, the description might run as follows:

“’Silver cigarette case, twenty-three.’ It would be a perfect description for anyone expect-ing such a message. Supposing it were the description of an action that was required thatmight run something like this: ”Take a cigarette case from a certain pocket, take out oneparticular cigarette, put it behind the right ear of the owner and replace the cigarette-case,not in the pocket it was taken from but in another pocket.’ Just imagine what a telegramthat would be! It wants a lot of words to describe such an action to my sister.

“I want to say most sincerely that neither my sister’s health nor mine is affected by theseexperiments, and that the means used are perfectly natural and have nothing supernaturalabout them.

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“I will now introduce my sister to you.”

I escorted her to a chair and when she had seated herself I proceeded solemnly to look intoher eyes and wave my hands at her in the accepted way of hypnotic passes. She closed hereyes, and I said: “To all intents and purposes my sister is asleep, but to make everythingmore certain, in case she wakes up suddenly, I am going to blindfold her with this bandage,which I will ask a member of the audience to examine.” I handed it to a spectator and askedhim to put it over his eyes and see if he could see through it, and he declared he could not. Ithen put it over my sister’s eyes and buttoned it at the back of her head. But this bandagewas not as innocent as it appeared. It was made up of three or four layers of crpe de chine,which were laid one on top of another and sewn together down the centre, lengthwise. Ingoing back to my sister I took hold of the front piece and shook the other folds down on tothe lower half so that my sister had actually only one layer over her eyes, which allowed herto see all that was necessary.

I then asked the audience to give me some things my sister could do, just to whisper themto me, so that she could not possibly hear. I then pointed at her with outstretched arm, stillmaking hypnotic passes, such as waving my hand up and down, but always the samemovements were repeated throughout.

For anyone who proposes to reproduce this trick, the first thing to learn is the following ta-ble of articles and actions.

ARTICLES AND ACTIONS

1. Picture: Owl flying out of umbrella.UMBRELLA or PARASOL. Take, open, hold above owner’s head, shut and replace.

2. Picture: NOAH, programme or newspaper, coming out of the ark.PROGRAMME or NEWSPAPER. Tear into two pieces. The action to tear or pull.

3. PERSON. ME. Action, to touch any part of lady indicated.

4. Picture: An arrow shot through a ring.RING. Take off one finger, place on another, Fingers indicated counting 1 to 10 from per-son’s left hand little finger.

5. Picture: IVY, with flowers growing through it.FLOWERS. Take, smell them, pin on person indicated. No sign of the giver of flowers (1)the person on your right, (2) the person on your left, (3) yourself.

6. Picture: A bee flying out of a card case.POCKETS and CARDCASE. The action to take things out of certain pockets counting frommy right hand.

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Top pocket No. 1—to No. 10.

10. Inside pocket under handkerchief pocket if it exists.4. Inside breast pocket.

7. Picture: A watch on a tea table.WATCH. Take out, listen to ticking, replace.

8. Picture: A lovely pin in a shoe.PIN. Lady’s hat pin, withdraw and hand to her. Gentleman’s tie pin, touch.

9. KEYS. Bunch of keys, shake by largest or smallest. If single key go through action of un-locking door or box.

10. Picture: A lass with pretty hat.HAT. Place on your own head or other object indicated.

11. Picture: A lily embroidered on a handkerchief.HANDKERCHIEF. Tie number of knots indicated.

12. Picture: A fur or boa round neck of a lion.FUR or BOA. Roll into ball and throw up in air.

13. Picture: A lamb with muff round its legs.MUFF. Pass nearest walking stick through it.

14. Picture: A lyre with walking stick twisted in strings.WALKING-STICK. Use as violin bow.

15. Picture: A loaf, with opera glasses inside.OPERA GLASSES. Take, adjust them, put first large ends to your eyes, then small.

16. Picture: Treading on pair of eyeglasses in a lobby.EYEGLASSES. Place on your own nose.

17. Picture: A lad making a handbag.HANDBAG. Empty contents in person’s lap, if found empty pick up things and put insidebag.

18. Picture: Stabbing a pen or pencil among leeches.PEN or PENCIL Pretend to write if paper put on it.

19. Picture: Purse dropped into lake.PURSE. Take coin out, hand to performer.

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20. Picture: String formed into noose.STRING. Tie person’s hands together.

21. Picture: Nail in place of buttons.BUTTONS. Take hold of or pull certain button by performer touching with his left handthe part of clothing immediately after signing you (21). Action to unfasten.

22. Picture: A nun’s veil or shawl.VEIL or SHAWL. Drape over my own head and shoulders.

23. Picture: A gnome smoking a cigar.CIGAR CASE. Take, open, take cigar, hand to owner, shut case.

24. Picture: Matches made in Norway.MATCHES, PIPE, etc. Fill pipe from pouch and light match (if all articles present)—or dowith either as indicated.

25. Picture: A Knife cutting your gloves.GLOVES. Put under, in, or on object or nearest vacant chair.

26. Picture: Playing Nap on floor.FLOOR. Pick up anything from floor or place anything there.

27. Picture: Net full of tickets.TICKETS. Take and give to programme seller.

28. Picture: Money hidden in a niche in wall.MONEY. Of any kind. Hide in part of hall indicated.

29. Picture: Necklace on neck.NECKLACE or PENDANT. Touch object. Action to touch.

30. Picture: A stage covered in moss.STAGE. Action is walking or doing anything on stage.

31. Picture: A mole running up sleeve.BRACELETS or SLEEVE. Action of putting up sleeve.

32. Picture: Man in moon powdering his face.POWDER PUFF or SCENt BOTTLE. Go through action of powdering face; if scent bottle,go through action of removing cork and smelling.

33. Picture: A mummy made of sweets.SWEETS. Open bag or box, take one out and eat it.

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34. Picture: Yourself the Lady Mayoress.MYSELF. Touch any part of my body indicated.

35. Picture: A lovely mauve fan.FAN. Take, open, fan myself, fan owner, shut up and tap back of chair. Action to tap.

36. Picture: An old map rolled up in a tie.TIE. Gent’s tie, pull ends out of waistcoat. Lady’s tie—twist.

37. Picture: A mat with brooches or sleeve links stuck in it.BROOCH or SLEEVE-LINKS. Take, drop in person’s lap.

38. Picture: Match being cut with a knife.KNIFE or Scissors. Cut anything. Action to cut.

39. Picture: Monkey with charms or chain on neck.CHARM or CHAIN. Put over left hand, stroke with right.

40. Picture: A rose in gentleman’s coat.COATS or CLOAKS. Act of folding—put on back of chair.

41. Picture: Reel of cotton with needle or pin stuck in it.NEEDLE or PIN. Pin folds of dress together.

42. Picture: Fruit soaked with rain.FRUIT. Take, wrap up. Action to wrap.

43. Picture: A lot of stamps stuck together with rum.STAMPS. Action to take out and put back.

44. Picture: A rower with pocket-book in mouth.POCKET BOOK, Count the leaves. Action of counting.

45. Picture: A letter stuck in a roof.LETTER. Take out of envelope, put envelope in fold of letter. Act of transposing.

46. Picture: Lot of girls in orchestra in robes.ORCHESTRA. Take violin up, conduct with bow. Action of doing two things at once.

47. Picture: A rat “squeaking,” or playing with whistle.WHISTLE. Take and blow as many times as indicated. Action, to point.

48. Picture: A rush-bottomed chair.CHAIR (persons). Action to pull person up from chair. Sit on it myself. Action to sit.

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49. Picture: Rubbing on a rock.Action to rub or clean.

50. WALLS of ROOM. (Where performance is.) Take article to wall of room indicated hangup or put on suitable projection, such as shelf, etc.Action to hang up:

1 Right hand.2 Left hand.3 Facing you.No sign. Stage behind you.

51. Picture: File.BILLIARDS. Action of playing with cue, etc.

52. Picture: Fan.TENNIS. Action of serving with racquet or striking.

53. Picture: Foam.SWIMMING. Action of swimming.

54. Picture: Fire. Fighting fire.BOXING. Action of pugilistic pose, etc.

Now, supposing someone asked to have his glasses taken from his nose and cleaned withhis handkerchief, I should sign to my sister I wanted her to take 16 and 11 and 49. Shewould then clean the glasses, that being understood between us. Supposing, on the otherhand, he simply wanted us to put his glasses on his nose, I should simply give her 16. Sup-posing again he wanted her to take his case from his pocket, take out the cleaning cloththerein and then clean the glasses, I should simply give her pocket, say, Number 3, thereshe would find the case, open it, and know what to do.

Supposing another person wanted her to waltz. I should give her Number 3 repeated,which means herself, and 36, the action to twist. Supposing another gentleman wanted herto take his watch from his pocket and transfer it to the pocket opposite, take a sovereignpurse from the pocket opposite and put it where the watch had been. I should give her 6and the two pockets in question, and the number to transpose, which is 45. Now supposinga gentleman wanted the lady to put her hand on her head, the performer would give Num-ber 3 repeated twice, and Number 8 on body diagram, and also Number 1 of body diagram.

Now comes the question, how am I to sign to my sister these numbers without being de-tected? I divided my sister’s body in imagination into five zones or circles, as shown by thediagram. One circle is above her head from the chin upwards; the next circle is from chin towaist, and the last one from waist to feet; two more from shoulders outwards—these arenumbered 1, 2, 3 from head to foot, and 4 and 5 shoulder-piece, and pointing in the direc-tion of these, or either of these zones, gives her the number instantly. Thus, if I point with

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outstretched hand anywhere above her head it means 1. I have only to lower the hand a lit-tle to come beneath the chin and it means 2, and lowering the hand still more it means 3, sothat lowering the hand a short distance means 1, 2, 3.

The other five numbers are accounted for by numbering the zones again with the highernumbers, viz. 6, 7, 8, 9, o; these were indicated by dropping the fingers of the right handand pointing to the particular zone required. Thus, for 16 I merely pointed to Number 1zone and then dropped my fingers which meant 6, while both together meant 16.

The whole thing was therefore very simple. You first memorise the list of articles, whichyou can add to to any extent you wish, then you have to associate with those a list of ac-tions. Each article should suggest its own action. Sometimes a definite one followed by ageneral one, such as the action to pull out a gentleman’s tie by the ends or to twist a lady’stie. If the subject finds neither of these articles present, she takes the word “twist” as a gen-eral term, but supposing a gentleman asked to have his tie pulled out and twisted, shewould naturally pull it out first. I would then again sign her to twist, so in effect the signwould be 36, 36. Supposing she was wanted to kiss a person. I should give her 3 for a per-son, 3, 3, for herself, 3 meaning mouth in body diagram, and 3 meaning her own mouth;this would be indicated by pointing below the knees, and withdrawing the hand five timeswith outstretched fingers.

As I have explained, the list I have given may be added to to any extent, but I have foundthe above list quite enough for all practical purposes.

In learning the words it may be advantageous to know that each word contains in itself aclue to the name; a, e, i, o, u, and w were only used as fillings, the sound of “ch” or “sh,” thesound of “k” or “ck ”, and the sound of “ss” meant different things. For instance, assumethat the word is “Owl.” The most important letter in this is “L.” You think of “1" and onestroke that leads you to think ”L," and you immediately think “Owl.” Then you have tothink what the “Owl” was doing, there you get the article, and following that, the action.The second word is “Noah,” in this the important letter is “N,” representing two by its twostrokes. Again, it is easy to think of what “Noah” was doing, and you immediately think ofthe further action. The next word is “Me,” represented by three strokes in the letter “M.”“R” is kept to represent the sound of four, therefore, “Arrow” reminds one of 4, discardingthe “a” and “o” and “w,” 5 is represented by “V” or “F,” therefore we pick on the word “Ivy,”the I and “Y” being neutral. “B” or “P” represent 6, therefore in this sentence you have tomake a picture of a “Bee.” “T” or “D” represents 7, again the simple word “Tea” will answerour purpose. Then you come to “Shoe,” the “sh” sound is 8. The simple word “Key” repre-sents by its hard sound 9, whereas the sound of “ss” represents 10, you have it in the word“Lass.”

Now we come to double figures. You want two strokes for 11, therefore you pick on theword “Lily,” and make a picture of that. Then you want one stroke and two strokes for 12.What can be better than “Lion.” 13 is represented by “Lamb,” the stroke of the “L” and thethree of the “M” just remind you. In 14 you want one stroke and an" R," you have" Lyre."

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Then in “Loaf” you get one stroke and the sound of “F” which is 5, therefore 15. Now wecome to 16, which is “Lobby,” one stroke and “B,” the “L.B.” which is 16. “D” or “T”. repre-sents 7, therefore we use the “D” in this case and the one stroke “L”—"Lad," which gives us17. Then “Leech” that will do for 18. Then in 19, the “Lake” again the stroke for one and the“K” represents 9, so we have 19. In 20, we come to another series of words, all commencingwith “N,” representing 2. So we have Noose, Nail, Nun, Gnome, Norway, Knife, Nap, Net,Niche, Neck. You will notice that two of these examples start with “G” and “K,” but theseletters in these words are silent, therefore, neutral.

I think I have said enough to show the system on which the memory aid is based. Each fig-ure is a picture and each picture has an action following.

In practice, I used to carry a small note-book to keep my left hand occupied. I also found itvery useful to make a note of a request, this I did with one word describing the leading arti-cle and the action, not using the code figures in case they should be overlooked by the spec-tators.

No doubt you have been wondering how my sister found a person. In a small intimatetheatre my sister and I went amongst the audience. I waved her to the entrance of one ofthe aisles then gave her two signs, say, 4 and 6, the four meant the number of rows and thesix meant the person in the row, and just as she was entering the aisle I gave a final sign, ei-ther one or two, which meant right and left respectively.

In a larger theatre I invited twelve to eighteen members of the audience, both ladies andgentlemen, to come on the stage, and seated them in a semi-circle, my sister being downstage in the centre to keep her out of hearing of the requests. There was usually dead si-lence while these requests were being taken, but I remember on one occasion when the si-lence was broken. A gentleman with a long beard was seated in the centre of the semicircleand he beckoned me towards him and as I bent to receive his order, a voice in the gallerywent “Baa-aa” in perfect imitation of the bleating of a goat. There was, of course a shout oflaughter which continued for about half a minute. The gentleman went on with his requestwithout taking the slightest notice of the disturbance. I found out afterwards he was stonedeaf.

In the case of finding a person in these seats, my sister would simply take a number fromme, counting from where she stood at the moment, and as I said before my sister very oftenseemed to know intuitively what was wanted.

I remember one occasion at an annual dinner of the Savage Club at which his late MajestyKing George was present (he was then Prince of Wales). Sitting next to him was Lord Char-les Beresford, and the Prince requested that my sister should kiss Lord Charles. My sisterwalked up to him, put her hands on his shoulders and suddenly blew him a kiss.

Romance is never far from the stage. Here is one connected with this telepathy trick. I oneday received a letter from a young man who told me he had been out of a job so long that hehad had serious thoughts of suicide. In his wanderings he passed St. George’s Hall and was

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attracted therein. That evening I was doing the Mental Magnetism, and he, amongst oth-ers, had offered suggestions. His idea was to have a ring taken from one of his fingers, andplaced on a similar finger belonging to a lady seated some distance away. This my sister didand in going out after the show was over, this lady and gentleman found themselves to-gether. She made some remark about the performance and asked him if the signet ring be-longed to So-and-so, an old friend of her father’s. It turned out to be the same person. Thisled to further conversation and an appointment for another meeting, which led on and onand on and finally ended ih a happy marriage.

“Translucidation” is another experiment that caused some sensation. I was very fortunatein having my sister to help me with this also. She was an ideal assistant, exhibiting all thecoolness in action that was necessary.

For this experiment my sister was seated on a chair close to the footlights, with the semi-circle of spectators up stage and behind her. I came forward with a black bag, half a dozenenvelopes, and six blank visiting cards. I distributed these to six members of the audience,with the request that they should write some quotation, or a few words of any sort as se-cretly as possible, and when they had written them, to put the card in the envelope and sealit down carefully, marking the envelope in any way they pleased. When this was done Iasked a gentleman to take the black bag, thoroughly examine it, and then collect the enve-lopes in it. When he had done this, I took the bag from him with the tips of my fingers andat arm’s length, and laid it on my sister’s lap. She put one of her hands inside it, and I said afew words of explanation to the audience, explaining again that I used no means but natu-ral ones.

My sister would simply take an envelope out and put it on her forehead and then read thecontents. This was duly carried out with the six envelopes. Each one, after it had been read,was handed over the footlights immediately, and passed on to the person who claimed it. Itseemed impossible and inexplicable, so much so, that one day Sir Oliver Lodge came to theperformance armed with a specially-sealed envelope, which he challenged my sister toread. She read it with the rest and he was so surprised that he got up from his seat in thestalls and made a short speech to the audience. He said he could not understand by whatmeans this marvel had been accomplished, as he knew nothing in science that could ac-count for it, and finally, hinted that I was using some higher powers. Mr. Nevil Maskelyneand I saw him after the performance and tried to assure him it was trickery, but he franklysaid that he did not believe it. I promised one day to disclose the secret and here it is.

Had the audience been able to see beneath my sister’s skirt they would have seen a smalltrapdoor in the stage open and another lady’s hand emerge, take hold of a piece ofspeaking-tube which was attached to my sister’s dress, and join it up with another piecewhich had also come through the trap, thus connecting a speaking-tube from a cabinet be-neath the stage to my sister’s ear. When the hand had done this business it went exploringstill further until it rested under a slit in my sister’s lap. This slit was concealed in her dress,the edges being covered with suitable embroidery. My sister simply pushed the envelopeswhich she had gathered together within the bag; she pushed them into the hand of thelady, who immediately handed them down to a man who took them into the cabinet in

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which was the speaking-tube. There was also in this cabinet a box just the size of the enve-lope containing a powerful electric light, and placing the envelope in grooves in front of thebox he was able to read the contents quite easily. The moment he had read the first one, hehanded it back to the lady and spoke into the speaking-tube, telling my sister what waswritten on it. Meanwhile, the lady had passed the envelope to my sister via the slit, and she,pretending to take it from the bag, held it to her forehead and was duly able to “read” it. Inthe rare event of one of the cards being doubled over, we boldly opened the envelope and,after reading the contents, replaced it and reproduced any signs or marks upon it. And thatis exactly how the trick was done.

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CHAPTER XVII

THREE UNPRODUCED ILLUSIONS

“THE Advent of Peter Pan ”is an altogether original illusion consisting not only of a newmethod of presentation, but employing also an entirely new principle.

The effect is this: A transparent conservatory is shown, illuminated inside, and as slenderas possible in make, leaving no apparent place for concealment. The interior is covered upby a series of blinds which conceal the whole conservatory. When these blinds are drawnand the spell, or other incantation, pronounced, the blinds fly up and the conservatory isseen to be full of roses and from these there gradually emerges a living Peter Pan.

A simple effect produced by simple means. But to emphasise the fact that magical illusionsare not always as simple as they seem I give in an Appendix the full plans and workingnotes which are essential for the production of this illusion.

In these it is explained how the girl who takes the part of Peter Pan is concealed behind theconservatory all the time.

I got the idea for this illusion by watching a railway porter who suddenly appeared out ofthe darkness outside a railway carriage window. His features were plainly seen by the oc-cupants of the carriage, but behind him all was nebulous.

Standing out behind the conservatory I have a shelf with sufficient room left for a man toput his head and shoulders between the shelf and actual back, thus indirectly proving tothe audience that they can see right through the conservatory.

The figure on the shelf is covered with a cloth of nebulous colour, blurred and indefinite.This makes a perfect illusion to the keenest eye. It has never yet been performed except inrehearsal.

The procedure of exhibition is as follows:

Two assistants both go behind the conservatory and polish it up with a white cloth, andproceed to polish it all over as well. Then they draw the blinds, the end ones first, thenthose for the front and roof, and finally, those at the back. When they are supposed to bedrawing the back blinds, which are non-existent, they are really releasing the lady on theshelf, and letting the whole thing slide into the conservatory. The moment she is in, thelady releases a huge quantity of spring flowers representing roses and their foliage. This isdone by the simple expedient of a flap made heavy and sewn to the cloth down the centre,

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which is lifted up and over by means of a stick at the rear edge. The flowers, impelled by thesprings, then fill the casket. Of course, the lights have to be carefully arranged to get theright effect.

“Transformation,” originally intended for revue, was a fanciful introduction to a song. Thescene represented winter in a forest—the trees were all stark and bare. Enter Harlequindancing. He does a short dance, then strikes a tree trunk, which is centre, and by thisstroke of his magic wand, transforms it into a bower of roses. At the same time the wholescene becomes summerlike, and a girl is seen amongst the roses picking them. She ishanded out by Harlequin and bursts into song.

The back-cloth here is made of gauze, painted lightly to resemble tree trunks, frost andsnow. On brilliant lights being put on behind this gauze scene, and taken off the front, peo-ple see through the gauze a scene of summer beauty. Converging from the tree trunk in thecentre are a couple of mirrors which reflect the sides of the scene which matches the back.Concealed behind these mirrors is a woman. The tree trunk with the woman behind areboth standing on a revolving platform, which is raised just sufficiently for it to revolve eas-ily, the slight rise in the ground being covered by a canvas. Of course, the revolving plat-form is screwed to the stage first, and is actuated by two lines which to go the side of thestage and pull it round the necessary half-revolution, thus bringing the woman and theroses, which are behind the mirrors, to the front. The lights are changed at the same mo-ment and the whole scene becomes one of summer beauty. The front edges of the mirrorsare concealed by the tree trunk and the back edging is partly painted so as to make it mergeinto the scene.

The lighting is very subdued, and blue in colour. At the same instant that the tree revolves,the upper part of the trunk falls down behind the mirrors, or what is now the back of themirrors.

Another untried illusion somewhat akin to the principle of Peter Pan, I call “The Cage ofLuck.” In this there is a wooden cage suspended in the centre of the stage. It is about 3 feet10 inches square, and is folded up when it is first seen, with the exception of the roof or top.The sides and back are cut to represent a swastika. Two assistants enter and proceed toopen the cage out. The side carrying the door is opened first, then the other side, and thefloor pushed down from behind. Then a spring blind is pulled down at the back, and the as-sistants doing this allowthemselves to be freely seen. Having lowered the back blind, theythen lower the side blinds, and finally, the one in the front.

The performer then explains that Cupid will occupy this cage of luck and will fire arrowsamongst the audience which will bring good luck to those who are touched by them.

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He then opens the front blind and the two sideblinds and the cage is seen to contain a girlin a kneeling posture. A pair of steps are put into position to enable her to descend to thestage, and she at once begins shooting her arrows of good fortune.

Behind the cage is a triangular compartment, the apex of the triangle being in the centre ofthe cage.

This is made of tubes screwed together, and boarded in one side and bottom. The otherside is covered by a curtain running free on one of the tubes, in fact, both sides are coveredwith curtains, only one is not movable. The back of the cage is divided into two equal parts,one of which opens inwards. The first thing the girl does when she wishes to enter the cageis to open a loose curtain, then let the blind of the cage go up. After that she has to pushopen the gate and enter the cage; then replace the blind and shut the gate. Of course, bothcage and hiding-place have to be securely fastened together to take the weight of the girl.

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CHAPTER XVIII

CREATING AN ILLUSION

IN creating an illusion, the first essential is, of course, an idea and preferably an idea of anew effect, rather than the means of obtaining it, although the latter may sometimes leadto the same thing. It is certainly better to start with the idea for an effect. An idea is a veryelusive thing, just a fleeting fancy which cannot be pinned down, but which may prove theclue to a great success in illusion.

I should strongly advise anyone commencing conjuring to write down all their ideas in abook. They would be surprised what an inspiration they will prove to be in later years.

Having selected an idea, the idea of an effect, the next thing is to select a means of doing it.The first thing a practical conjurer does when he gets hold of what sounds to be a good ef-fect is to run through all possible means of obtaining that effect.

I have just thought of an idea; it is something like this:

There is to be a platform or table on which is resting an ordinary wireless set. It is switchedon and immediately there is heard a lively fox-trot played by, say, a banjo quartet. After lis-tening for a while, the performer then talks about television, and says he has succeeded ingetting good results after experiments; has actually obtained some stereoscopic figures.He then by some means has to produce four figures playing the same fox-trot the audiencehas been listening to.

This sounds a good idea, how can it be done. I think carefully of all the means I know andnone of them seems to apply, or satisfy me. I try to think of something original. Here againI fail. I am almost giving up the idea, when I suddenly remember one of my old illusionscalled “Beauty and the Beast,” which I have already described in this book. Here, surely, isthe very thing.

There is a good-sized platform, shaped like a Moorish stool. On this is the wireless set,which is made to revolve, and behind the stool is resting the gauze cage in its collapsedcondition. The audience plainly see this through the legs of the stool, in fact the stoolseems quite isolated from the ground. The cage is then attached to a rope dependent fromthe flies, and thus hung above the set over which it is lowered. The performer then illumi-nates it inside, explains this is his picture collector and asks them to watch. He then turnsoff the light, which makes the gauze quite opaque, and turns on the music again and gradu-ally turns on the lights again. Now through the gauze are seen four men with banjos play-ing the identical tune. To simulate the effect of a photograph, the men are dressed in greys,

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and blacks, and whites, so that they appear to have stepped out of a photograph. Theremight possibly be folding seats on the set, one behind on which a man could straddle, oneeach side, and one in front near the floor of the platform.

To prove it is really a stereoscopic effect, the men get up and walk away, still playing.

Quite an effective illusion, I think, but one has carefully to consider what can be done withit. Even a magician has to consider overhead expenses. For this illusion you have the ex-pense of four expert banjoists to provide for, and at least a couple of men to set the appara-tus and work it from underneath. Then there is storage, for such an illusion requiresalmost a room in which to store it. Then again there are travelling costs. These expensescome into all illusions and it behoves the beginner to consider very carefully how far histakings are likely to meet these expenses.

An illusion show requires capital like any other business, and it is far wiser for a performerto select material of a simpler nature for his illusion. He must always remember the publicare apt to take little notice of the expense involved and are very often equally pleased with asmaller effect which costs the performer practically nothing to produce.

In this case there need not be the expense of a wireless set at all. All the dummy set needcontain is a loud-speaker concealed in its interior and wired to a microphone to, say, adressing-room beneath the stage, in which the men sit to play the first time.

Incidentally, a very good plan in building most illusions is to make an inch to the footmodel, and then to make it full size of old packing cases, or what-not, to get a true idea ofthe actual size you propose to adopt. This is the best way to arrive at the most suitable sizes.

I have often been asked which type of man makes the most successful pupil from a magicalpoint of view. My experience points to an actor, because a trained actor takes up his cuesproperly.

I remember Sir Barry Jackson once asking me to produce an Oriental act at very short no-tice for one of his plays. I first rehearsed the whole thing, then called in the actor who wasto take the part of the Magician. He responded splendidly to the cues I had arranged, andwithin an hour and a half he had mastered the whole act, which lasted fifteen minutes andwas full of complicated tricks.

Another question I am often asked is if I have had any romance in my life. The most ro-mantic incident I can remember was my first meeting with my late dear wife. I was exhibit-ing some American midgets at the time, named, aptly enough, General and Mrs. Mite. At acertain point in the performance I descended from the stage and walked round the hall,answering enquiries from spectators. Looking into a mirror on the wall one day, I firstcaught sight of my wife. It was a case of love at first sight, or would you call it second sight?Anyway, we got acquainted and thereafter my life was wrapped up in hers.

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Perhaps the most curious feature of our meeting, though, was that it was by the sheerestchance that I was in the hall that day. The midget company had been laid off for a fewweeks and had only opened again that day. The pianist and I had been summoned fromLondon by telegram, and our funds were nearly exhausted. However, we scraped togethersufficient money for the journey and a cab to the station, which was necessary for our bag-gage. When we got to the booking office we found we were exactly a two-shilling pieceshort of the fare. I must have given it to the cabman for a penny. The only thing I couldthink of was a small silver watch I had, which I rushed out and pawned just in time. If I hadnot had the silver watch on me I should never have been at that matinee at “The Hall by theSea” in Margate, I should never have met my wife, and the whole course of my life wouldhave been altered.

Again I have been asked what is the most disturbing experience that ever happened to me.It was undoubtedly the occasion when I was commanded to make money in front of a mad-man.

On a moonlight night in a country lane I was walking to the station, having just concludeda show at a big asylum, when there suddenly darted from the hedge a hatless man with awild expression.

“You are the man who makes money,” said he, but I assured him I made very little.

“Can’t I believe my own eyes?” he replied. “I have just seen you doing it. I want you to makesome for me now.”

He had a nasty glint in his eyes, so I thought it best to obey, having realised it was a lunatic Iwas dealing with. So I took off my hat, and with a capital of twenty half-crowns, I managedto make a good display, until, to my great relief, I saw a man’s head over the hedge behindmy aggressor. This turned out to be one of the two keepers who quickly secured the patientand took him back to the asylum.

Calculated misdirection is a most important thing in conjuring, and the first inference of itwhich I remember was published in my book Magic Made Easy many years ago.

It was a bottle and glass trick, very popular at the time, known as “The Passe-passe Bottleand Glass Trick.” The bottle was a dummy one made of tin, and in the hollow base of it wasconcealed a glass tumbler. By way of proving to the audience that this was an ordinaryglass bottle, I had a hole made in the side of the bottle, through which I held the glass tum-bler in position. I then held a plate on the tips of the fingers of the other hand, calling atten-tion to the solidity of the plate, knocked the tumbler, which, of course, formed the bottomof the bottle, two or three times against the plate, thus obtaining an unmistakable ring ofglass against china. You will notice I did not refer to the bottle at all, but the inference is ob-vious.

Some years ago there was a trick introduced by someone, I never knew whom, in which apaper cone was made and a handkerchief spread over the top of it, and apparently pushed

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down into the interior by the wand—though really it was pushed into the interior of thehollow wand by a rod held in readiness beneath the handkerchief in the paper. But some-how this did not look very convincing when I did the trick. Then I did it with a candle-case,in which I first placed a lighted candle. After having produced the handkerchief from theflame, I gave one lady the case to hold, and the handkerchief to another, asking her to holdit by the corners between her two hands. I then rolled a piece of cartridge paper round thewand, thus forming a long tube, which was held securely by a rubber band. Withdrawingthe wand, but retaining the inner rod in the tube, I then approached the lady holding thehandkerchief, and this is where the misdirection came in. I promised her I would not eventouch the handkerchief with my hands, and asked her to place it on the top of my wand,which I held in such a position that she could hardly do otherwise. Then taking it on thewand, I pushed it into the tube in the other hand, but from the bottom, not the top. Havingpushed it right into the tube, I, of course, secured the core rod and laid the wand on the ta-ble, and opening the paper tube, showed the handkerchief was gone, only to be discoveredlater in the candle-case, the candle being produced from the performer’s pocket.

Elsewhere in this book Mr. Oswald Williams has a very ingenious way of showing twoslates to be apparently devoid of preparation, but clever as it is, I rather feel the methodlays too much stress on the slates, and might arouse suspicion. An alternative method ofdealing with two slates is to mark one of the corners of each slate with a figure, thus, 1, 2, 3,4. These slates have a flap and in the inner side of the flap is marked the corresponding fig-ure shown on the inner side of the top slate, while the inner side of the bottom slate ismarked with the figure previously written on the flap. On one side of the flap is a writtenmessage. For instance, “The spirits declare the answer to be,” and on the inner side of thebottom slate, say, 1, 2, 3, 4, the answer to a sum, so that the slates are brought forward andshown as clean slates. They are then marked with figures in the corners, placed together,the one with the flap on top, which now drops down to the bottom. When they are takenapart it shows the" spirit message" on both slates, and the wonder of the message is em-phasised, rather than people’s minds being concentrated on the slates.

Incidentally, the most comical piece of misdirection I ever did was boldly to show ahat—into which I had just loaded a cannon-ball of no inconsiderable weight—to a gentle-man in the audience, asking if he had ever seen such a funny lining. He replied, quite truly,that he had not, when, to the astonishment of everyone, I produced the cannon-ball.

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CHAPTER XIX

SOME AWKWARD MOMENTS

THERE are moments that can prove very awkward for a conjurer. I remember one at a po-lice station where I had gone to emulate in friendly rivalry, my friend Houdini. I had of-fered to let the police inspector handcuff me with his own cuffs and lock me in a cell for afew moments, when I would try to escape. The police superintendent took the offer andhad already fixed one cuff on my hand, when he asked if he could fasten me to somethingelse. I couldn’t very well refuse, but I was rather taken aback when he beckoned a veryhefty policeman towards him and said: “The ‘something’ I want to fasten you to is this po-liceman’s wrist.” Again I had to acquiesce to save my face.

I was duly handcuffed to the policeman, pushed into a cell with him and the door was shut.It was an awkward moment and I had to think quickly.

Said I to the policeman: “Have you got the time on you?” “Yes,” he replied, and began tofumble at his tunic with his free hand. This was my only opportunity and in a moment Ihad released my hand from the cuff. The policeman heard a click. I had just clicked shutthe empty cuff. That took less than a minute. “You can call them in now,” I said. In theycame and were duly astonished. But the most surprised was the policeman I had been fas-tened to.

I remember another awkward moment when I involuntarily appeared as a dancer. I had atrick with a crystal clock dial which had a hand that told the time without any works. Atfeast the audience did not see them. There was a bell on the top of this clock dial made ofglass, with a metal hammer. Both the dial and the bell were worked by threads from oneside of the stage. I had forgotten I could not walk round the dial on that side without dan-ger and when I did so I caught my feet in the threads. At once the bell began to chime vio-lently, the hand twisted round like a roulette-wheel and I appeared to be dancing madly. Iwas really trying to shake the threads from my feet. I did not succeed and at last had toblame the spirits and talk about bad entities.

Another unpleasant moment was when I got an unexpected bath. I was trying to improvethe kettle trick, which I have already described. My idea was to produce a fountain of col-oured water from it, constantly changing as the audience desired. To do this, I had sometanks fixed up in the flies, each containing a different coloured water. Pipes lead fromthese to one single pipe which was secretly attached to a pipe coming underneath my trou-ser leg, up over my shoulder, and down to my cuff, from whence I could pull it out and se-cretly attach it to the kettle. In the centre of the stage was a series of trays, fitted on a rod inthe centre of a sort of a bath. When the top cup overflowed it poured down to the second,

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thus the water went from cup to cup, a very semblance of a fountain. The coloured waterwas controlled by taps on the various pipes leading from above. This was all working mer-rily, when I felt a sudden dampness about my shoulder. The tube had split and soon thewater was pouring down inside and outside my clothes. A very awkward moment, indeedso unpleasant that I decided not to risk repeating it, and discarded that particular illusion.

The tinkle of a wedding ring on the floor figured in another very awkward moment, be-cause the floor happened to be the cracked deck of a pier and I was responsible for the wed-ding ring. I had handed to the old lady who had lent me the ring an envelope, which I askedher to open and assured her she would find the ring inside. I waited and heard that tinkle,and the old lady asserting that the ring was not there. We looked round but could not findit. I am glad to say we found it after the show, but it entirely spoilt my performance.

A colleague once told me of an awkward moment that came to him. He was giving a per-formance in a music hall which was next to a theatre. The stage doors of both were at theend of a long narrow passage. At the sides were entrances to the auditorium of the theatreand the music hall. My friend’s assistant was put in a piece of apparatus and immediatelyescaped through the stage. Then he had to make his way through the stage door, enter theauditorium by one of the doors in the passage. At a certain moment he was to fire a pistoland say, “I am here.” On this particular evening he entered the theatre by mistake. Whenhe got in he fired his pistol, saying, “I am here” as usual, before he realised he was in thetheatre disturbing Little Willie’s Death Scene, while the illusionist in the music hall nextdoor was frantically shouting, “Where are you?”

In my early boyhood, when I commenced conjuring I had a trick in which I fired a pistol.Arriving at a Sunday-school treat one day to do a show, I found I had no gunpowder for myold-fashioned pistol and sent a boy to an oil-shop for some. He brought me some roughblasting-powder, having been told at the oil-shop that it was all they had. I supposed asimilar quantity would do as well, so loaded my pistol accordingly. In the course of thetrick I put a watch into a paper bag and requested the superintendent of the Sunday-schoolto hold it, which he did at first at arm’s length. Then somehow he got the bag in front of hisface. I followed the bag with my pistol and let it off. The poor man dropped the bag, watchand all, and put both hands up to his face, shouting, “I’m shot!” So he was, for his face wascovered with little black specks. The vicar immediately stopped the show, and never againdid I use a pistol for tricks. Another awkward moment!

In a contraption called “The Ghost Tube,” which is made for producing articles, is a per-fectly innocent-looking tube which one can look through and see nothing suspicious. Toprevent anything getting in or out of it, pieces of paper are clipped on the ends with rings.Nevertheless there is a secret compartment which holds a considerable quantity of textilestuff.

One day I was doing this trick and was just putting the second sheet of paper on when I no-ticed the secret part was empty. The assistant had forgotten to load it. For a moment Ididn’t know what to do. Then I called for the assistant to bring the things that I was goingto produce from the tube, and calmly proceeded to place them inside it. By making them

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disappear and afterwards making them come back and producing them, I was thus en-abled to get on with the trick. That was another awkward moment.

On another occasion in the early days of my career as a wizard, I was giving a series of en-tertainments for school children. Owing to depression in the receipts, there was a scarcityof plums in the pudding that I produced in the trick, until it became eventually plum duffwithout the plums! In fact, the children would not eat it, became unruly, and used my pud-ding as missiles in a free fight. Most of it stuck on the walls of the hall as it was a very adhe-sive pudding. It was another very awkward moment for me when the hall-keeper marchedup the aisle and gave me a formal notice to quit.

This same pudding trick was done with a saucepan which had an outer covering. I used toborrow a handkerchief, throw it into a borrowed top hat, then put my saucepan into thehat for a moment. When the saucepan was withdrawn, there was left behind in the hat a tinlining and a handkerchief belonging to myself. This handkerchief I took out and lit at acandle and then dropped it blazing into the hat, to the great amusement of the onlookers.By putting the saucepan into the hat again, I extinguished the flame and carried away thelining. But one night this lining was left off, and believe it, or believe it not, I actually wentthrough the trick without noticing the saucepan was minus its outer cover. Consequently,the handkerchief I took out of the hat was really the borrowed one and this I lit at the can-dle and dropped it blazing into the hat. It was only when the hat itself began flaring up thatI noticed my mistake. I hurriedly left the stage with them still alight and brought back a hatof my own and another handkerchief, which I handed to the confiding persons who hadlent them to me, with a whispered request to say nothing and to come round and see me af-ter the show.

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CHAPTER XX

MAGIC OF MY CONTEMPORARIES

A NEW METHOD FOR THE SPIRIT SLATES

By Oswald Williams

THERE are many methods of performing the Spirit Slates, but the effect, in most cases, isroughly the same.

Two school slates are shown and placed face to face. They are then either tied together orwrapped up and placed in a conspicuous position, or given to somebody to hold. The spir-its are then called upon to give the answer to some question of interest, or the answer to asum, or what not. Mysterious passes are made over the slates, and upon separating themthe answer is found to be written in chalk upon the inner side of one of them.

So much for the effect, which is good. In the methods used, however, there is generallysome weak point. The slates will not bear examination, or they have to be wrapped up orlaid on the table for no apparent reason, and in several cases removed from the view of theaudience.

I therefore set myself the task of materialising a message between two slates upon the fol-lowing conditions:

The slates must be unprepared and given for examination.They must not be wrapped up.They must not be laid down.They must not be removed from sight.Only two slates must be used.

The following is the method which I decided upon:

You will require two well-made school slates of the same size, and what is known as a flap.This flap is a piece of thin, stiff cardboard. It is painted on both sides to match the actualslate, and is of such size that it will fit easily within the frame of either side of either slateand lie flush on the slate.

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When in such position it should pass for the slate itself, and should, therefore, remain un-noticed.

On one side of this flap is written the message, or whatever it is wished to “materialise.”This should be written with flat oil paint, as if done with chalk it is likely that it will comeoff on to the clothing, or the slates, during the moves which take place.

The flap is placed, writing side downwards, into the top side of one of the slates, which wewill call (A).

Upon slate (A) is placed the second slate, which we will call (B).

Put a piece of chalk and a large elastic band into a right-hand pocket, and all is ready.

The magician advances holding the slates, in the position described, in his left hand. Theslates should be parallel with the floor.

He takes slate (B) from the top and hands it for examination. On receiving it back he placesit back on to slate (A) which is in his left hand, takes the chalk from his pocket with his righthand, and asks the gentleman who examined the slate for his initials. These initials (say“D.D.”) are written boldly on the slate (B).

The chalk is returned to the pocket and the slates turned over.

This will bring slate (A) to the top, and allow the flap to drop from slate (A) into slate (B).

(Note that the writing side of the flap is now outwards on slate B.)

Slate (A) is at once taken from tho top and given for examination, the flap remaining inslate (B) with the writing exposed. In order that the writing may not be seen by the audi-ence, slate (B) is turned towards the body as slate (A) is slid off it. The flap is held in placeby the thumb, and the slate held close against the body.

On receiving slate (A) back, it is placed on top of slate (B) by reversing the previous move,i.e. slate (A) is slid behind slate (B) from the top. At the same time both slates are tippedforward, bringing them parallel with the floor again with slate (A) on top.

The second examiner is now asked for his initials (say “O.W.”). The chalk is taken frompocket, the initials written on slate (A) and the chalk returned to pocket.

“Now,” says the magician, “these two slates have been examined. They have been found tobe entirely above suspicion. In order that you may be certain that only these two slates areused in the experiment, they have been marked ”O.W." on this one, and “D.D.” on this."(As he says “O.W.” the magician points to these initials, and as he says “D.D.” he turns theslates over and points to “D.D.”)

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This brings slate (B) to the top and allows the flap to drop, writing side down, into slate (A).(The position is now exactly as at the start of the experiment.)

“And,” continues the magician, “the insides are blank.” So saying, the magician takes slate(B) off and shows inner sides of both slates.

He then replaces slate (B), takes elastic band from pocket, and passes it around both slates.

In doing this he gives the slates one more turn over, bringing {A) to the top, (B) to the bot-tom, and allowing the flap to fall, writing side up, into slate (B).

The slates are now placed in a conspicuous and isolated position, say on the top of a largetumbler or glass vase. The trick is done. It only remains to make some very mysteriouspasses, remove the elastic band, take off slate (A), and reveal the message on slate (B) toyour long-suffering audience.

(Mr, Oswald Williams is an Englishman. He was born in London in 188O. He is the son ofa Church of England clergyman, and the grandson of the late Mr. Walter Lacy, theone-time famous actor.

His original profession was that of an architect.

He sends me the following reminiscences of his “magical” career, as well as the excellenttrick he has described above.—DAVID DEVANT.)

How I Became a Conjurer

By Oswald Williams

A HALF-A-CROWN box of conjuring tricks was the cause of all the trouble.

My dear old dad bought it to amuse the children with. My brother and sister treated it withcontempt, but I was fascinated, and my father had no rest until he had handed it over tome.

I mastered every one of those tricks and took a positive delight in mystifying people, withthe result that for thirty years I may be said to have lived a life of deception.

One day I saw a shilling book of magic in a shop window, and I passed that shop every dayon my way to school. I broke the tenth commandment every day until I had saved up thenecessary “bob.” My disappointment was bitter when I found that the book dealt mainlywith heavy and costly apparatus, things quite beyond my means. One thing, however, itdid tell me and that was how to palm a penny.

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Having obtained my penny I started out to palm it. I palmed it at home and at school. Ipalmed it at meal times and in the street. I believe that I palmed it in my sleep. I most cer-tainly palmed it in church.

And, believe me, palming is the key-note to magic. Just as the first five-finger exercise is tothe pianist, so is palming to the conjurer. Even though he may never use it in his perform-ance.

My one trouble was money, for the very simple reason that I never had any, and it becameobvious to my young mind that, if I was to become a great wizard, I should have to have the“necessary” with which to purchase my illusions. This is how I got it:

With such material as an old soap-box, a mustard tin, and some string, I constructed anautomatic match machine, into which kind relatives might be induced to drop onehalfpenny, receiving in return a box of matches. Matches were then three halfpence perdozen, so that my profit was large. The kinder-hearted relatives sometimes returned thebox of matches after having seen the machine work. So my profit became still larger and Iwas able to start building illusions.

When I was twelve years old, I was taken to see an entertainment at the dear old EgyptianHall. How I loved it, and thereafter, whenever a shilling could be begged or borrowed I wasto be found in the front middle seat of the little circle. I would wait for an hour or more tosecure this seat. It was there that I witnessed the performance of the world’s most famousconjurers. And I would go home and copy their tricks with my home-made apparatus.

They pulled the old Hall down long ago, but I can never pass the site without thinking ofthe happy times that I spent there.

I added to my repertoire an exhibition of hand shadows and an entertainment known as“Chapeaugraphy.” The latter consists of making a number of different hats with a ring ofblack felt.

This ring of felt was not to be obtained however, but my father, being a clergyman, pos-sessed a hat, the brim of which was the very thing that I wanted. I was told that if I waitedin patience until he bought a new hat, I could have his old one and cut the brim from it. Iwaited, and after many weary months the new one was bought. I set to work with the scis-sors and was half-way through my task when it dawned upon me that that old hat waslooking very new. IT WAS.

I gave my first show when I was thirteen years old. The performance consisted of trickswith flags, cards, billiard balls, coins, etc., and concluded with an exhibition of hand shad-ows. It lasted nearly one hour. I can say with pardonable pride that it was not bad. I re-ceived no fee and was engaged to give another performance the next month upon the sameterms.

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When I was sixteen I was apprenticed to a firm of builders, with the idea of my eventuallybecoming an architect. I went right through the workshops and became a proficient me-chanic (a fact I shall ever be grateful for). At twenty I was draughtsman to the firm. But allthe while I was longing to be a conjurer in earnest, and when I was twenty-one I threw upmy position and took the plunge.

There were three of us in the venture. A singer, a man who did sketches at the piano, andmyself doing all I knew. We pooled all our savings to form a capital (it came to twentypounds) and hied us to a South Coast town. We hired a small hall, put out the bills andopened the doors. Our first night’s takings were fourteen shillings and—well, in a week wehad made our capital look very sad, so we left and went to another town by the sea, where Iheard the corporation were in need of a troupe of entertainers.

We arrived with exactly a sovereign between the three of us. Six and eightpence, or a law-yer’s fee each. That is as low as I have ever gone, for our luck turned. Our entertainmentwas a success, and we stayed for the whole summer, at the end of which I returned to Lon-don and joined the ranks of drawing-room entertainers.

I had five years of private entertaining during which time I can claim to have entertainedevery class of audience in the land. From the lowest to the highest.

I have given my performance in a West End drawing-room with Royalty present in the af-ternoon, and a few hours afterwards to the destitute in an East End slum. The next day to amothers’ meeting, followed by the children’s ward in one of our big hospitals with all thepoor little mites in their beds. I would go round and pull pennies out of their hair. Howthey loved it all.

The next night I was producing gold watches from a top hat for the children of the rich.Such is life.

Once I was engaged to entertain the members at a girl’s friendly society at their annualXmas party. When the show was over, I packed up my traps and was about to depart whenan old lady with white ringlet curls approached me and thanked me for my entertainment.I thanked her for the compliment and wished her good night. As I was going out of the doorshe slipped something into my hand. I was too confused to say anything, but when outsideI looked to see what it was. It was a two-shilling piece—my first and only “tip.” Bless herkind heart. I had a cab home on the strength of it.

It was usual in those days when I had finished my performance to be offered some refresh-ment, and wonderfully varied those refreshments were, anything from an orange to achampagne supper. I have dined at a table at which I was the only person not bearing a ti-tle, and I have been invited to take a cup of tea in the kitchen. A kind-hearted parson onceasked me if I was thirsty, and having been talking for nearly two hours I told him that I wasindeed so. He gave me an orange. A gay old stockbroker at whose house I was performingkept breaking in upon my entertainment at intervals of ten minutes and suggesting that it

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was time we “split a small bottle.” As my show was to last for an hour and a half, it was agood thing for all concerned that I had the strength to say him “nay.”

The fees paid for private entertainments vary greatly, anything from half a guinea totwenty, thirty or even fifty pounds. School treats and other church entertainments arenaturally not well paid for, and in many cases they can ill-afford the small fees they do pay,while for entertaining after-dinner parties, etc., very high fees are often paid, and in manycases only a short performance is required.

I used to receive quite a large fee for giving a ten minutes’ entertainment at a well-knownLondon restaurant on Sunday evenings. Nobody took the slightest notice of my perform-ance. In fact, I never could understand why I was engaged at all. Still the money was there.

I was doing well with my private “shows” when I was asked by the booking manager of aLondon syndicate to appear at a “benefit performance” which he was organising at one ofhis theatres. Being anxious to test my strength on the halls I consented. My show was quitea small one, but it was well received and as a result I was offered a week’s engagement atanother of his theatres in three months time. The salary was very small, but it was thechance I had been waiting for and I took it.

I got busy. I had three months in which to invent and build that show. I invested all my sav-ings in it, and I worked like a demon. Day and night I was at it. And it was here that my me-chanical training came to my aid. I made all that first big show with my own hands.Cabinets, tables, woodwork, ironwork, all the lot.

I had my own scenery, about a ton of apparatus, and three assistants. We rehearsed forover a month, and had all ready in good time, when my health broke down. On the day ofthe production I was so ill that I was on the point of giving in. However, my doctor patchedme up, and I was able to appear. I was in a ghastly state of nerves, but the show was a suc-cess. That was my start.

Some time later, at Aldershot, I was giving my performance before a front-cloth, behindwhich the stage was pretty badly on fire. The audience never knew anything at all about it,for the fire was got under, but as I conjured away for dear life, I was wondering all the timehow long it would take me to escape supposing the flames did get the upper hand.

Once at the Hackney Empire I had an unexpected bath. The fire sprinklers were acciden-tally let loose and threw a deluge of cold water on the show. A nasty trick, and it was in thewinter too!

One of my best-known tricks, “The Chair of Death,” also once had a nasty ending. In this il-lusion a lady is apparently electrocuted in full view of the audience. On this occasion some-thing went wrong with the electrical appliances used and the seeming electrocution nearlycame to a painful reality. The lady received a bad shock. She was not, fortunately, seriouslyhurt, but the call was rather too close to be agreeable.

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I was performing at the London Hippodrome some time later and was having lunch oneday when my manager came in to tell me that the King of Spain was coming to see me thatsame afternoon. Now in those days I was closing my performance with a big flag trick, andit at once occurred to me that it would be a good idea to include a large Spanish flag in thiseffect. The question was where to get the flag. I telephoned to all the leading flag makers intown, but there was not one to be had. So I decided to make one in the short time at my dis-posal. I rushed out and bought the necessary silk. Meanwhile my manager had secured theservices of two sewing women and sewing machines in a small draper’s shop in Soho. Welaid the silk on the shop floor and cut it up, and then those women sewed as they had neversewn before, and in less than twenty minutes we had a flag five yards long finished.

His Majesty applauded vigorously when the “finale” came, and stood up in the box andbowed graciously to me.

I used a trick jug in one of my tricks. It was a beautifully-made affair and contained somevery intricate mechanism. One night that jug was missing. We searched everywhere, butno jug could be found. Suddenly the theatre dresser came into sight, and my jug was full ofbeer. She had taken it to the local “pub” to get somebody a drink. I drank the beer for spite.

I am often asked how I invent my illusions. There is no golden rule and I generally workbackwards.

I first decide upon the article I am going to conjure with, secondly, what I am going to dowith it, and, lastly, how I am going to do it. The more unusual the article and the morecrazy the idea the better.

Let me take for an example my famous “Merry Widow Hat” illusion. In the first place I wasstruck by the likeness between one of these huge hats that ladies wear, and the top of a tent.There was the subject—a tent. Next. What should I do with it? Turn it into a" Merry WidowHat," and produce a lady underneath it. This was the result—I built a bell tent upon araised platform, fired a pistol at it, when the sides of the tent fell away, revealing a lady withthe top of the tent (which had transformed itself into a beautiful hat) upon her head. Thisillusion caused a great sensation, and the idea was stolen and copied by many of those wholived upon other people’s brains.

Illusions cost anything from a few pounds to a few hundreds. There is no knowing before-hand, as you frequently have to make and remake it three or four times before it is perfect.It is, indeed, seldom that you get it perfect the first time. It is often the smallest tricks thatcost the most, the work in them is usually so delicate, while much bolder methods can beused in the larger effects.

My bell trick was made five times before I was satisfied with it, and cost me well over a hun-dred pounds. The entire trick lasts under a minute. On the other hand, my “Three CardTrick” cost under twenty pounds, and lasts five minutes.

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I am also asked how it is that a first-class illusionist can defy the intelligence of at least twothousand people at every performance. There must be at least one person sharp enough toguess how each trick is worked, say the enquirers.

There are, undoubtedly, in many audiences people who are far more intelligent than theconjurer, but in our particular art, artistes of rank have made a life-long study of how to de-ceive, which is the great foundation on which illusion is built.

I have devoted my whole life to foraging out little-known principles which others have nottaken the trouble to observe. Consequently in this particular business I am able to hood-wink them for a moment. I will give a sample of what I mean.

Get half a dozen people to place as many pennies on the table. Ask them to take up any onepenny they please and, in turn, write their initials on it, so that it may be identified again,then get them to place all the pennies in a hat. You then shut your eyes, place your hand inthe hat and bring out the marked penny.

This apparent miracle is only the direct result of a natural law. While all the six people arehandling the penny and scribbling their initials on it, the coin very naturally becomeswarm. All the others thrown into the hat at the same time are of an even and lower tem-perature. Consequently you have only to feel for the warm one to pick out the right penny.

Some years ago the Daily Mirror organised a fund to provide Xmas puddings for poor chil-dren. I was asked if I could produce some magical puddings for this good cause. I acceptedthe invitation and promised to make one hundred puddings in the editor’s top hat.

I ordered the puddings from one of the stores to be delivered to me on the morning of theordeal. In the meanwhile I practised the trick without them. All went well till the fatefulday arrived and the puddings were delivered. Then the trouble started. Have you ever feltthe weight of a hundred puddings? It took two strong men to lift them, and the table weplaced them on collapsed beneath their weight. We got them to the Daily Mirror offices ontwo cabs and managed to smuggle them in a few at a time unobserved.

The performance took place in the editor’s room. It was a very cold affair. All the big-wigswere present looking bored stiff. I borrowed the “topper” and started to beat up eggs andflour in it. I was so nervous that I let one egg really go into the hat. It made a beautiful messof it. I have not heard what that editor said when he found it out. The puddings were dulyproduced and the audience were kind enough to say that it was “wonderful.” I was never soglad in my life as when that show was over.

I give a series of burlesques of famous men as they would appear had they been wizards.Prominent amongst these is a burlesque of Mr. Lloyd George as the Chancellor of the Ex-chequer. I was giving this entertainment at the Palace one evening, when I noticed a gen-tleman in the stalls laughing immoderately at my efforts. At the finish of my turn I askedthe stage manager who this gentleman was. The answer was Lloyd George. He came an-other night and brought Winston Churchill (who I was also impersonating) with him.

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The Card and Tack Trick

By Horace Goldin

The Effect—A card is selected from the pack, replaced in the pack, which is shuffled.

A cork board is shown, one inch thick, 12 inches to 15 inches in diameter. It is held withboth hands. The deck of cards is held in the right hand. The board is thrown in the air witha rotary motion about six feet in height, the pack of cards is then thrown to the centre of theboard before it descends. The board is then caught in both hands, and the card selected isfound tacked to the cork board. The remainder of the cards fall to the floor.

The Swindle and How:—You have two tacks stuck in the back of the cork board. One tackyou give to the audience. Hold the second tack in the right hand (it could be palmed). Thechosen card is brought to the top of the pack. As you go to get the cork board, stick the tackthrough the top card, turn the pack over face upwards. Let someone hold the board. Shuf-fle the pack up carefully. The top card, which is now on the bottom, remains in the sameposition. Then you ask the holder of the tack to select where the pack should be divided.Place the tack on that card and by placing the other half of the deck on top (don’t press bothhalves closely) allow the tack to slide down into the left hand and thence away, or it couldeasily remain in the left hand. Hold pack between second and third finger. The first fingerreally covers the tack, which is now on top of the pack through the card.

Hold the cork board between thumb and first finger of right hand, now throw the boardinto the air with a rotary motion, quickly throw into the air the deck of cards, aim for thecentre of the board, catch board in both hands, shewing the selected card tacked on to theboard.

(Americans use the word “tack” to describe what we call a drawing-pin.—D.D.)

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Some Magical Reminiscences

By Horace Goldin, the Royal Illusionist

IN sixty years every man expects to have his share of laughter and tears, but a magician, bythe very nature of his calling, and by the skill he develops, lays himself more open to thetricks of Fate than most men.

Very early in my career, at the age of thirteen, I discovered this truth, and although the in-cident is amusing to look back upon, at the time I did not realise its humour.

I used to do a trick of placing cherry stones in my eyes, mouth and nose, and making themall appear in one place. One day, one of the cherry stones did a vanishing trick all on itsown, and for thirteen years I had to carry that cherry stone in my ear until it condescendedto reappear.

One of the feats of which I am proudest of all earned me exactly two dollars. It came aboutin this way.

I was in New York at the time and was arrested by a speed cop for driving too fast. I wastaken to the station where I was told I could have bail until the next day for one hundreddollars. All I had in my pockets was ninety-eight dollars, which I offered together with avaluable diamond ring. The official explained that he could only accept bail from anotherperson. The only person with me was my coloured chauffeur, and I asked him to pay it. Hestared at me aghast.

“For Heaven’s sake, boss, I ain’t got no money.”

By means of a little sleight of hand I placed my ninety-eight dollars in Rastus’s pocket, andthe coloured man nearly fainted when he found the money there. The police official sol-emnly counted it and then reported that it would not do, as it was two dollars short.

I myself counted the money, palmed a two-dollar bill from the wad and slipped it into Ras-tus’s pocket. This “extra” two-dollar note satisfied the police.

Next day in Court my attorney said to the speed cop: “I suppose you did a clever bit of driv-ing to overtake Mr. Goldin?” “Oh, yes,” was the proud answer; “I was doing twenty-threemiles an hour.”

“That being so,” snapped my attorney, “Mr. Goldin must have been going at a much lessspeed, otherwise he would not have been overtaken.”

The case collapsed and I was given costs against the prosecution. Best of all, the policehanded me back one hundred dollars bail money, and so I cleared two dollars.

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There is a well-known story of a magician who, performing in Japan, had to ask a memberof the audience to step on the stage and act as interpreter.

Every trick was greeted with roars of laughter, and the magician later found that his inter-preter was telling the audience whenever he saw things which the audience were not sup-posed to see.

This story reminds me of an experience I once had in Tokio. I, too, asked for a helper whocould speak English and a Japanese lady stepped forward.

There was an audience of three thousand, and to my horror the lady, after handing me abouquet, turned to the audience and made a long impassioned speech.

I stood there helpless. She was holding up my show and for all I knew she might have beenmaking a political speech, and I foresaw trouble. That she was popular was evident fromthe thunder of applause which came at the end of her speech. I wondered why they wereapplauding and she turned to me, bowed, and said: “For you, Mr. Goldin.” “For me?” “Yes.I have told the audience that you were my master, and that you taught me magic, and that Iam proud to hail you as a great illusionist.” Even then I did not understand, but the lady,Madame Tankoocha. the daughter of Tenichi, was the most famous illusionist in Japan.Many years previously I had met her and her father in New York City. She was then twelveyears of age, and at the request of her father I gave her lessons in conjuring. I had thoughther study of magic—merely a hobby, but she had proved herself the magician of the cen-tury, and although I had forgotten her, she remembered me, and took this unconventionalmethod of showing her gratitude.

As I have often entertained kings and queens, and have had the honour of giving as manyas four Royal Command Performances in eight days, I have attained the title of “The RoyalIllusionist.” I have had conferred upon me the Medal of Art by their late Majesties KingGeorge the Fifth, King Edward the Seventh, and also by the Queen of Saxony, and the Kingof Siam.

I remember that on one occasion I performed a trick with a watch and a card before a partywhich included the late Queen Alexandra. Queen Alexandra was one of the most charmingpersonages it has ever been my honour to entertain, and she was keenly interested in thistrick.

Some years later I performed this same trick at the Duke of Marlborough’s house, and theQueen was again present. She expressed a desire to come on the stage, and she watched meclosely. When the card with which I did the trick proved to be the five of spades, Her Maj-esty said: “Oh, Mr. Goldin, three years ago at Sandringham it was the three of hearts.”

Another humorous incident connected with Royalty occured in Siam.

The King of Siam sent for me and said he wanted to see a show at the Palace. There was notheatre, so he set one thousand men to work in the courtyard with orders that they were to

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complete the theatre within seven days. I had to act as architect. On the night of the per-formance the King came to greet me as man to man, and revealed that in 1906, when hehad visited London with his father, he and I used to meet at the Hotel Cecil as friends.

At this all my apprehensions vanished. I have always found Royalty a good audience.When I was about to give my first Royal Command Performance, I had had no sleep for anight or two and indeed had contemplated writing a letter stating that I was indisposed, sogreat was my nervousness. My friends warned me of what I must and must not do and say,yet I found that everything was easy and natural, and that I could use ordinary patter andactions in my performance.

One of the funniest adventures I ever had was staged at Southend. At the time I was per-forming a trick which involved the disappearance of a real tiger. In practising with the tigerI bumped its head, and I began to think that if the tiger cared to turn obstinate or bad tem-pered my trick would be spoilt. I obtained a dummy tiger and practised and experimenteduntil the trick was perfect. Then I went to my hotel.

In the early hours I was awakened by a policeman with the news that my tiger was loose inthe theatre. Without stopping to dress properly, I rushed to the theatre and found that po-licemen and firemen were on the roof and were firing at my tiger through a skylight. Itseemed that the night watchmen, in going his rounds, thought that he saw my tigercrouching on the stage, which, after rehearsal, I had placed behind the cage, and thereforehad given the alarm.

The town was almost panic stricken and it was a long time before I could persuade the po-lice and fire brigade that my tiger was safely caged and that they were firing at a dummy.Evidently the night watchman was unaware that I used a dummy tiger to practise with, infact he was deceived without witnessing an illusion. In other words, it was an illusion with-out a mystery for the watchman.

(Mr. Goldin is justly proud of four tie-pins presented to him by four monarchs: H.M.King Edward VII. H.M. King of Siam. H.M. King George V. H.M. Queen of Saxony.

The following are a few of the Societies to which Mr. Goldin belongs:

President of the Magicians’ Club, London.Pacific Lodge, New York, 32nd degree Life Member.V.A.F.A.P.T.M.Water Rats.Artisten-Loge, Berlin.S.A.M., New York, Chartered Member.Savage Club, London.Hon Member Magical Society, Vienna.Hon. Member Magical Society, Budapest.Music Hall and Variety Artistes Society, Paris.Music Hall and Variety Artistes

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Society, Brussels.And many others.—DAVID DEVANT.)

Invisible Dye

By Douglas Dexter

WHEN Mr. David Devant first performed the effect of dyeing three white silks by pushingthem through a paper tube, he created one of the most entrancing effects in magic. Alwaysfascinated by this effect I devised the following method of producing it, which, I venture tothink, is the more logical way, but is essentially a stage method.

Standing behind a bare table, black with red, blue and orange ornamentations, the per-former shows an empty flask, but asserts that it contains an invisible dye which will dyematerials any colour desired. He then shows an imitation cut-glass bowl, turning it upsidedown and holding it mouth to audience. Replacing it on the table, he pours into it some ofthe “dye.” Picking up a white silk about 2 feet square, he offers to give a demonstrationwith it. He also shows half a dozen discs of various colours, pink, green, red, yellow andpurple. Dipping the pink disc into the bowl for a moment and stirring it round, he makes itplain that the audience can see the disc through the bowl. Then dipping the silk in andmoving it up and down with the same movements that are used for dyeing, he takes it rightout and shows that one half of it is now tinted pink. Taking the blue disc, he stirs that roundin the bowl, withdraws it, and picking up the silk, dips the undyed portion in the bowl, andafter stirring it round and lifting it up and down a few times, takes it right out and displaysit. Part of the remaining white portion is now dyed blue. He then asks the audience tochoose one of the remaining colours, yellow, green, red or purple; whichever they name,the corresponding disc is stirred round in the bowl, the silk dipped in, and when with-drawn is seen to be still further dyed with the chosen colour. This may be repeated once ortwice more, until all the white of the original silk is stained with the various colours. Fi-nally, the silk is cleansed by being pushed through a “bleaching” tube, “ready,” as the per-former says, “for the next performance.” The “bleaching” tube is our old friend the papertube, and the silk is restored to its pristine whiteness by means of the usual dye tube.

An attractive presentation I sometimes favoured was to use six white silks, each one beingdyed any colour chosen by the audience, so that at the finish there were six silk squares ofvarious colours. These were then available for the sympathetic silks or any other effect em-ploying large coloured silks.

The accompanying sketches should make the method clear.

The table already mentioned consisted of a box lid, that is, the actual top was hinged to thebox part, which latter could be screwed on to the legs with thumb screws for conveniencein packing (see Fig. 1). One of the circular floral designs on the top of the table camouflaged

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a trap hinged to open downwards on a spring hinge (see Fig. 2). Underneath the lid, andpivoted to it by means of six wire arms, like the spokes of a wheel, were six cylindricalmetal cups. Opposite them, the opposite segment of the wheel as it were, was a semi-circular metal band, to which were fastened six cords, and these were led out through sixholes in the back edge of the table top (see Fig. 3). To prevent them twisting or ge{tingjammed, small metal tubes were fixed inside the edge as guides for the cords to runthrough. Another cord a little distance away opened the trap. A knot at the end of the cordwas slipped through a cleat protruding from the back edge of the table. This held the trapopen until the knot was released, when the trap would automatically close. Each string hada little piece of coloured silk fastened to its end, to correspond with the silk in the cupwhich would be brought under the trap when that particular cord was pulled. Thus any oneof the six cups could be brought under the trap as required. All six cups were loaded withsuch coloured silks as were required, the “indicators” at the ends of the cords being care-fully matched.

The glass bowl was an imitation cut-glass bowl with the bottom cut out, leaving a circularhole slightly larger than the opening of the trap. I also obtained from the glass-cutter a discof thickish and rather cloudy glass large enough to cover the hole. Any small wine decanteror glass flask will do to hold the “invisible dye.”

The object of the glass disc was that, in showing the bowl to the audience, the disc, palmed,was held against the hole, so that when the bowl was momentarily turned mouth to theaudience, it appeared to be quite unprepared. In replacing it on the table, however, it wasstood over the trap and the disc palmed away. When “pouring” some of the dye into thebowl from the flask, the trap string was quietly pulled, thus opening the trap under the holein the bowl. Then, assuming pink to be the first colour required, the string with the pinktab on was pulled, this bringing the pink, or partly pink, silk in its cup immediately underthe bowl. This action, done with the left hand, was quite covered by the right hand dippingthe pink disc in the bowl and stirring it round. Laying down the disc, the right hand thentakes up the white silk and lowers it into the bowl. During the movements of stirring itround and round, the fingers begin to draw out the silk in the cup, and, as soon as it is out,to tuck the white silk into the now empty cup. When it is all in, the coloured silk is devel-oped, opened out, and finally lifted high out of the bowl. The beauty of the effect is that theaudience actually see the white through the fluted sides of the bowl, apparently graduallyassume the pink shade. This was repeated with the remaining silks, as required. Finally,when lifting out the last silk the trap spring was released, so closing the trap. The bowlcould then be picked up and shown empty as before.

The table was 34 inches high, the top 22 by 40 inches, and the depth of the “box” 4-1/2inches. The cups were 3-1/4 inches deep by 1-1/2 inches in diameter. These measurementscan, of course, be altered to suit individual requirements.

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A New “Thought-Wave” Experiment

By H. Park Shackleton, O.B.E. (Mil.), M.B., Ch.B., M.I.M.C., etc.

[Founder and First Past-President of the Yorkshire Magical Club.Vice-President of the Sheffield Circle of Magicians.

Gold Medallist 1932 Competition Magical Circle and Affiliated SocietiesMember of the Magic Circle and I.B.M. {British Ring).]

TAKE any twenty cards, fan the top four and ask a spectator on your extreme right (A) tothink of one. Put these at the bottom and repeat with the next four to a spectator half-right(B). Put at the bottom and ask spectator in centre (C) to think of one of the next four. Spec-tator half-left (D), and (E), on the extreme left, see the last two lots. This brings the cardsinto their original order.

Now take the top two cards (position unchanged) in the right hand, and put one card ontop of these, one underneath, one on top, one underneath, throughout the pack. Repeatthis exactly.

Fan the top five cards, and you will find that they are arranged A, B, C, D, E. The next fiveare E, D, C, B, A. The following five A, B, C, D, E. And the last five E, D, C, B, A..

Actual Performance:

The performer is blindfolded, but I need not tell you that he can see down his nose in theusual manner. Any twenty cards are handed to him, face down, from any part of a shuffledpack. (I emphasise the fact that nobody knows a single card.) Turning to your extremeright.... “Would some gentleman over here put a hand up. I do this to avoid confusion as Ionly want one member of the assembled multitude to help me.”.... (Here the audience in-variably tell you that this has been done.) “Could you wait until I have finished this trick,sir? Oh! you’re going to help me.” Show him the top four cards. “Would you just think ofone of those cards? And do you mind if I call you Mr. A?” (The case is now almost forgotten,and there is no stigma attached to it.)

Turn facing half-right, and have next four cards ready to fan, (The first lot have gone to thebottom as described above.) “Would some lady indicate that she will think of a card?Thank you, have you thought of one of those? May I call you Miss B.? I do hope your nameis not Beatrice.... I’m not trying to be familiar, but as I cannot see I just want to know whereyou all are.

“Mr. C. got a hand up?....

“Ladies love to play the d... Will you, Miss D.?

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“I am usually the mystery, but I now want Mr. E. over here.”

Now do the alternate shuffle described at the beginning, during which: “It is very difficultto shuffle cards whilst blindfolded, but I will do my best. Remember, five cards have beenmentally selected, and nobody, except the five helpers, can possibly know what they are.

“To prove that I have done nothing but shuffle the cards, I will ask my assistants to verifythat their cards are still here. Please say ‘Yes’ when you see your card.” Show the cards infans of five. The diagram shows the position of each assistant’s card in the four fans. Placethe fans, face down, of course, on a table, and remember where the cards are. This is reallyvery easy, as the spectators are well spread out, and it is simple to hear which one is speak-ing.

It is amazing how often all the cards arrive in the last hand, in which case you have per-formed a miracle. You merely explain that when you shuffled them, you were selecting thementally chosen cards and arranging them in their correct order. Glance down the noseand name the cards. If some of the cards are in the fans on the table, name any left in thelast hand, then stab the others with a knife, glancing at, and naming the card as you bring ittowards the spectator who thought of it. Possibly you haven’t tried it, but you will be stag-gered how far forward you can see down the nose when “blindfolded.”

One tip. Whenever you are doing a blindfold trick, always keep your eyes shut when you donot want to glance at anything. As you really cannot see, it improves your acting, and con-vinces the audience that the blindfold is genuine.

I discovered that the “alternate shuffle” arranged the cards as above, quite accidentally,some years ago, and I can assure you that if you try it once, you will add a very entertainingfive minutes to your repertoire for “smokers,” cabarets, etc.

A Surprising Finish to a Cigarette Production Act

By Len Burnell, L.M.S.

Requirements. Cigarette producer for production at finger-tips. Any pattern desired, or ifpreferred this can be dispensed with and a sleight of hand used.

A bowler hat (or opera hat).

A cigarette bomb. These are sold as table fireworks and throw a shower of cigarettes whenthe fuse is lighted. Procurable at most tobacconists.

Preparation. The “bomb” is suspended behind the table by means of the double wire loop,and the headless nail. (This method is too well known to require description.)

Method. The hat (preferably borrowed) is proved empty and placed face down on the ta-ble, whilst one or two passes are being made with the first cigarette produced. These fin-

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ished, the production proper commences and the hat is turned over (mouth up) to receivethe cigarettes as produced. This gives the necessary load by means of the finger in the loopin the orthodox manner. Production of the cigarettes is proceeded with, using, of courseonly one, and dropping it into the hat. When this is finished, at the discretion of the per-former, he extracts a cigarette from the hat (the only one, by the way) and proceeds to lightit. Apparently realising just before extinguishing the match, that he has been guilty of verybad manners in not offering the audience “smokes,” he places the lighted match into thehat, touches the fuse, and a shower of cigarettes is sent into the air to be caught by the audi-ence. A finale which is magically surprising and always appreciated.

Note. As soon as the match goes into the hat slightly tilt the mouth of same towards theaudience. This directs the cigarettes over them and not on to the stage.

The Spirit Message

By G. W. Eade

AN ordinary blackboard on a white easel stands in the middle of stage. The operator showsboth sides of board to the audience, raps it to show its genuineness. He then replaces it onthe easel and retires to one side, facing towards the board, but some distance from it. Thelights are now dimmed so that board and operator are just visible. Operator then calls forthe spirits to give their message written on the board. No other light is visible, save that onthe message which stands out boldly. At a word of command it vanishes. The lights go upshowing the operator in same place, and board devoid of any writing.

The message is written on the blackboard with a solution of quinine sulphate in gum ara-bic, and this, when dry, is practically invisible, even to close scrutiny. The message willonly appear in a subdued light when the rays from a special lamp fall on it. The lamp is op-erated by an assistant. Any lamp giving ultra-violet rays will do (e.g. a Phillips SunlightLamp), but it is important that all white light is excluded. This is done by passing lightthrough a special filter which only permits the ultra-violet rays to pass. These rays are in-visible even in the dark, but they will cause the message to appear in a mystifying way, andwhen the lamp is shut off, the message will vanish. The basic idea in this illusion will lenditself to many other applications in the realm of magic.

(The above is a splendid effort by a pure amateur who is busily engaged in a shop all dayand devotes his spare time to magic.—D.D.)

£1000 Challenge Effect

By Fred Hocking, M.I.M.C.

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QUITE a showy experiment and very simple to work. This exciting title is so used because Ioffer the sum of £1000 to anyone in the world who can find out how it is done under threeconditions:

(1) You must discover the secret.(2) If you do find out you must not divulge the method.(3) If you do win, you must tell me where I can get the £1000 to pay you.

Time occupied. Ten minutes.

Effect. A white silk, 27 inches square, is shown both sides and placed in a glass tumbler. Askein of black wool is exhibited and also placed in the tumbler. A nickel silver tube isproved to be empty, after which the ends are covered with tissue paper. Ten numberedcards (playing size) are displayed, each bearing the title of a well-known song; the audi-ence is invited to select one.

Silk and wool then vanish from tumbler and are found in nickel tube, but the wool hasmysteriously worked itself into two bars of music which correctly interpret the song cho-sen.

Requisites. Two white silks, each 27 inches square, one embroidered with two bars of asong. (Staff notation.) Skein of wool. Glass tumbler with movable mica lining and card-board cover. Ghost tube. Ten cards bearing numbers one to ten in large figures, also title ofthe same song typed or printed on each. Electric torch. Well-top table. Another table (orchair).

Presentation. Well-top table on performer’s left, on which stands glass tumbler with micalining, also cardboard cover. Table (or chair) on right which accommodate ghost tube,with music silk loaded, tissue paper for ends. Plain white silk, skein of wool, electric torch,and magic wand.

Performer shows silk both sides and places it in the tumbler. Exhibits wool which is alsoinserted in glass; the whole is stood near well, on table. Ghost tube then taken with loadedside towards performer, held on wand which proves it to be empty, and the ends stoppedwith tissue paper. This is placed on table (or chair) on right.

Cards are shown to the audience, and the performer states that each bears the title of awell-known song, and apparently reading each calls out ten different titles. Member ofaudience is invited to call out a number between one and ten. Selected card is then handedto him (or her) with a request to announce the title thereon.

Preparations completed, the performer proceeds thus:

Place cardboard cover over tumbler, and after mystic passes remove cover by placingthumb outside, and the first and second fingers inside, allowing the fingers to grip the micalining, and draw the contents from the glass concealed by the cover. In placing the cover on

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table, the lining is allowed to drop into well. Advance to table (or chair) on right and holdghost tube in front of lighted torch which proves the former to bo empty.

You then announce that the contents of the glass have gone by magic to the nearest pub-lishing office, and you are awaiting their speedy return. Again hold the tube in front of thetorch as before, and after a moment, if the ray be directed to the loaded part, it would ap-pear that something had just arrived. Burst the paper from the rear end of the tube andbring forth the missing silk which displays the first two bars of the song selected.

My earliest attempt to associate myself with magic was a visit to “Blands” when eight yearsold, to enquire the price of “The Chinese Rings.” The gentleman in charge asked me howmuch money I had. I replied: “One shilling.” (It was an eighth birthday present.) He thentold me to go and bring my father.

I gained my early practical knowledge from Professor Hoffmann’s books, and witnessedevery magical show possible and was a frequent visitor at the Egyptian Hall and later St.George’s Hall.

Joined the Magic Circle in 1913, raised to the associate degree in 1915, and called to the In-ner Circle in 1916. Was elected Hon. Secretary to the Occult Committee in 1914, and haveheld that office ever since.

A “Tee Bee” Effect

(Raffles)

By Tom Burnett, L.M.S.

Props. required. One dollar bill tube, one Roterberg card box, two pay envelopes—onewith a slit cut across face to pass note through, the other containing a piece of paper foldedas near to the note you borrow. On the paper you have written the following:

“Dear Friend, I am afraid you are not much use as a detective, I robbed the bank with per-fect ease. Please try some other kind of occupation. Yours ever, Raffles.”

This note is sealed in envelope and placed in the bottom portion of Roterberg box and cov-ered by the hinged flap, the other envelope with slit lies in the top portion of hinged flap, lidopen.

Two false noses, two fancy paper hats, two toy pistols, table and chairs.

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Setting. Card box on left of table fixed as explained. Inner bill tube with screw cap andloose bottom on right side, the tight-fitting inner lining stands inside the outer tube in cen-tre of table with lid just at side. Chairs at either side. Hats, noses, pistols, etc., on chair be-hind.

Working. Borrow a ten shilling or a pound note and have number taken down to verifylater. Now fold up note small enough to go through slit in envelope. Now state that forsafety you will place it inside a small pay envelope. Take envelope from Roterberg box andplace note inside, but push through slit. Hold note behind with fingers of left hand and sealup envelope. (Here is where you get note away.) Ask for a boy to assist, and while he iscoming along, take envelope in right hand and prop it up against the outer tube in centre oftable and let note drop inside. It will be, of course, in the tight inner lining which rests in-side the outer tube.

When the boy comes up, ask him to sit on the chair at the left and request him to imaginethe said chair to be representing the Bank of England, and he a detective guarding thesame. Tell him to imagine the envelope contains the wealth of the nation and, to make itmore secure, you will place it inside one of the vaults. Pick up card box, place envelope in-side, and close lid. Open again and state that he may care to initial envelope. He does so,but of course it is the duplicate, the one that contains the written note.

Now give box to boy and ask him to put the envelope inside and close the door of the vaultand not let you get at it any time.

Now ask for the assistance of another boy; he is asked to take the other chair and to imag-ine it to be the home of that well-known cracksman, Mr. Raffles. Explain that he also is adetective and that the tube on your table is a safe belonging to Raffles, which he is to takecharge of and see that Mr. Raffles does not place anything inside. Pick up and show, screw-ing off cap and letting boy look inside. (Loose bottom will hold in position.) Screw capback, and as you do so, pull away the bottom and let it drop into palm of hand. (This can begot away any time.) State you will make it even more secure by placing it inside anothertube. This you proceed to do. Take the tube you are holding in right hand and place it in-side the tube in centre of table and pick both up with left hand. Slide out and you will findthe inner lining which contains the note comes out with it and fits perfectly. Let boy put itback and put on the lid or cap.

When all this is done, turn to the boys and say: “Oh, by the way, it might be a good idea ifyou were to be disguised. Now let us see what we can do in that line.” Proceed to put onfalse noses and hats and give them the pistols. {This gets roars of laughter.) Explain youare going to play the part of Mr. Raffles. Now from here on it is just byplay on your part,pretending to try and get the note. Boy has been instructed to shoot any time you go nearbox. At the finish tell the boy that while he was off his guard for a second, you got in by theback door. Ask him to open the vault, take out the envelope and open it himself. When hetakes out the note, ask him to read out what is written on it. Then turn to the other boy andask him to open the safe he holds and he finds the missing ten-shilling note. Have numberverified and give back to owner. Take off boys’ disguise and thank them for assisting.

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Misdirection

By Arthur Sherwood, M.I.M.C.

THE author of this book having suggested that an article by me on the subject of Misdirec-tion would interest and possibly assist beginners or more advanced students of conjuring,I gladly comply because it entails the honour of association with the greatest Master of myday and bestows the privilege of adding a mite to the cause of Magic.

Misdirection may be described as a ruse to keep secret those conditions of a magical featwhich, if suspected by an audience, would tend to dispel mystery by providing the true so-lution. It is like house-painting in this respect, that it is the amount of work put into prepa-ration of the under-surface which counts where finish mirrors the success. Therefore itpays to spend odd moments with a putty-knife in one hand and a piece of glass-paper inthe other, hunting down the blemish in technique.

The best misdirection is not a spasmodic effort on the stage to gloss over some difficultpiece of manipulation. Rather, it should be a sort of invisible medium created out of logi-cally conceived and perfectly constructed plots, in which a performer can act his part with-out the senses of the audience being able to discern the play of falseness.

Such an atmosphere is produced by various means. Harmony is one. Harmony existing be-tween each of the properties in use creates a background of suggestion from which a natu-ral theme emerges. This theme the performer skilfully develops by means of harmoniouspatter into an atmosphere of anticipation and certainty in which the false appears true andlaboured design is mistaken for spontaneous idea and action.

Now, two examples of practice, the first showing the purely psychological effect of misdi-rection allied with showmanship, the second revealing its repercussive effect in the pres-ence of strategy with visible and tangible evidences.

(1) The act has started, the performer picks up two objects, one innocent, and one faked, hegives an impression that both are to be examined, but, whilst exhibiting some function ofthe first, he stages a hint that someone wants to handle it. This provides a perfectly naturalopportunity for him to put down the second object, as though intending to return to it afterthe recent suggestion has been complied with. But, by deftly displaying the special featurein article Number 3, intentionally led up to in patter, he fades out interest in Number 2 sothat when the time comes for it to be used the existence of a fake is not suspected.

(2) The performer wishing at a later stage in a show to use a faked envelope with a doubleside concealing a card, completes his fakes and then inserts in the envelope in the normalway three postage stamps having edging attached to two of them only. This he puts on thetable covered by a handkerchief near a genuine envelope containing three similar stampswith three pieces of edging attached. As the programme proceeds it becomes necessary to

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mark an object. The performer, therefore, hands the genuine envelope to some voluntaryassistant, asking him to remove the stamps. The pre-arranged piece of edging is torn off bythe performer, moistened and stuck on the object for use as a means of written identifica-tion. He then ostentatiously replaces the block of stamps and edging into the envelopewhich at a suitably chosen moment changes place with the hidden fake by the simple act oftransferring the handkerchief screen from one hand to the other. Eventually the momentarrives when the card is to be sealed up in an envelope. The performer picks up the fake en-velope and after removing the eloquent testimony of three stamps with two bits of edginghe inserts the card and seals it up. The climax comes when the envelope is cut open and adifferent card appears from within. I hope readers have noticed how attention is misdi-rected from the real intentions underlying the use of both envelope and stamps as well asfrom the possibility of substitutions, by assigning to each, obviously normal primary andpursuant functions. I leave you to trace the mental processes of the amateur Sherlock Hol-mes, who, if misdirection has been carried to subtlety in the third degree, remarks nextday: “I know the envelope wasn’t faked, because I asked the chap who took out the stamps,and besides, I happened to find it on the table after the show.”

It is necessary here to issue warning and instruction. Remember that misdirection is notan end in itself, but only the means to an end. Do not exaggerate, but employ it as a ladyuses delicate scent to enhance her charms by the potency of its elusiveness. Furthermore,never attempt to show off the strength of your misdirection or you may share Samson’sfate. Everyone knows that pillars keep up temple roofs, so leave them as well as envelopesand stamp-edging to stick to their jobs and speak for themselves.

This is a good recipe to try:

Take equal parts of idea and material. Measure out the value of the secret to be preserved,adding enough justification to melt into a homogeneous paste, then mix in mortar of prac-tice with pestle of imagination and a little commonsense, before putting in pan. Let sim-mer for hours and try out. After removing scum of failure, snags, etc., pour mixturethrough strainer and throw away sediment of despondency. Now add spirit of resolve,transfer quickly to retort of experience on fire of white hot enthusiasm and distil to a re-fined essence. Keep covered up or open according to taste, but on no account cast beforeswine, and beware of noxious fumes which cause swollen head, swank, jealousy, wife-boredom and other ailments.

The student should now enter the sphere of Relativity and examine misdirection in per-spective by comparing the following clear-cut effect as seen by the Evening News critic,who witnessed it, with the elaborate means of its production.

“We watched Mr. Arthur Sherwood pass a marked half-crown from a chocolate box into anenvelope placed several feet away and back again. I suppose it is an old trick and simple,but it was done with such pleasant patter and finished skill that the distinguished amateurmagician sitting beside me said he had watched for the trick of it in vain.”

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In addition to three secret items of Preparation and the use of seven principles of manipu-lative magic, viz. Covering, Disposal, Retaining, Loading, Duplication, Substitution, andSecuring, four other principles of Physical Magic, viz. Secret Cavity Concealed Access,Concealed Connection, and Invisible Suspension came into play.

Two personal reminiscences may not be out of place here. Firstly, I recall the thrill of pleas-ure when, after presenting the above effect on an important occasion, I discovered that myunknown assistant had been no less a person than the charming wife of the great DavidDevant. The other memory was when David said to me: “I don’t like that coin trick as muchas your handkerchief one.” I was disappointed, but gratefully pocketed this gift from thestore of his unerring taste.

Storm clouds of controversy are dimming the sky of Magic to-day, but on the horizon Iseem to see a new generation meeting the challenge of exposure by resort to greater stan-dards of perfection and more agile brains. After all, it is not so many centuries ago sinceAncient Men of Magic, forseeing an enlightened public rise with the tide of civilisationabove the murk of Superstition, feared that their Art, deprived of such a serviceable cloak,was doomed to perish naked and exposed. The pathway to perfection is a toilsome one attimes, but the journey may be lightened by romance as each true student seeks to trans-mute Humbug into Art, whilst all around him lie the priceless jewels of the past with everyfacet ready to reflect the personality of some new brilliant star.

The Career of Arthur Sherwood

1874. Born July 30th.1880. Thrilled by first conjurer seen.1886. Joined school conjuring club of three members.1888. First public show.1895. Style influenced and invention stimulated by seeing James Stuart.1902-4. Discovered rudiments of handkerchief act and coin with box effect.1921-35. Joined Magic Circle—-became semiprofessional. Further inventions. Royal Com-mand (Windsor).1930-35. Elected Honorary Member of Magicians Club, London. Royal Command (Princeof Wales). Medal of Merit.

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Chapter XXI

Magic of my Contemporaries (Continued)

A.B.C. Time-Table Watch And Card Trick

By Herbert J. Collings

Effect: A watch is handed to a member of the audience and he is asked to set it at any timehe likes (it is not going but the hands can be moved.) Having done this, the watch is placedon an inverted wine-glass.

A card is selected and, instead of being returned to the pack, is inserted in the leaves of anA.B.C. railway time-table. Performer then apparently reads the thoughts of assistant andtells the name of the card. On opening the A.B.C., card is found to be correct.

The chooser of the card is then asked to count down the names of the places and stop at theone corresponding to the pips on the card. Say, the fifth, which is Hastings.

On now looking at the watch the hands have gone round to the time of the last train toHastings.

I come forward with an A.B.C. time-table (in which is concealed a playing card). In my lefthand (under cover of the time-table) I have a duplicate watch set at the time wanted. In myright hand I hold up a watch.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we hear a lot nowadays about the B.B.C., but I am now going toshow you something extraordinary with an A.B.C. and a train of thought.” Hand the watchto a gentleman in the audience and say: “Would you kindly set this watch to any time youlike, in fact, you can have the time of your life. Thank you, sir.”

Taking the watch in the right hand make a half-turn to the platform, bring the right handunder the time-table, at the same time removing left hand and hold up the duplicatewatch. Lay the time-table and the other watch down on the table.

Pick up, or borrow, a large wine-glass, calling it a Scotch liqueur glass, and place the pre-pared watch in it.

You now ask a lady to select a card (force the card in the usual way): “Thank you, madam,”instead of replacing it in the pack in the usual way, “and I am going to ask you to slide itinto this A.B.C.” (Hold the A.B.C. in both hands as this is being done, in the event of her

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putting the card in the same page as your duplicate, nothing can be seen.) “About the cen-tre, please, so as to avoid the boarding-houses with the one-way traffic system for the vege-tables, you know, never returning after once passing by.

“Please think of the card.” (Hold the A.B.C. to your forehead.) “I shall now try and readyour thoughts, not all your thoughts, it wouldn’t be fair to anyone to read all your thoughts.Your card was, I believe, the eight of clubs, correct? Yes.”

I now open the A.B.C. and show the card (the duplicate one already put there) to be cor-rect. (In the event of the two cards being in the same page, quickly pick up the two as one.)

“Would you kindly count down to the eighth place..Nelson, a one-eyed place I shouldthink!”

Bring forward the glass and asked the gentleman who set the watch to tell the audiencewhat time it now shows. “11.30. The time of the last train to Nelson. Would you kindlycheck this, madam. Thank you!”

Notes: If there is an “e” against the last train signifying Saturday only and you are perform-ing on another day of the week, see the watch is set correctly and draw special attention tothe fact.

Once it happened the audience set the watch to exactly the same time as the duplicate. Inoticed this and did not change the watch, but asked the assistant to keep it in front of him.

Needless to say, I got a lot of extra kudos from this.

A Pack of Cards Arranged

by Graham Adams

THE problem is to arrange a pack of cards which on the first deal of four hands deliversthirteen trumps to the fourth or dealer’s hand.

Each of the other hands is shown to be of mixed suits.

The cards are collected, shuffled, and again dealt, this deal gives one complete suit in eachhand.

The dealer’s hand has thirteen cards arranged in order, Ace to King, the other hands arenot so arranged.

The first hand is used as a “spelling bee” when the cards come to order, Ace to King.

Hands Numbers 2 and 3 are used for a dealing routine experiment, coming to order, Ace toKing.

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Finally, the cards are shuffled together when they become arranged in the “Si Stebbins”system.

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1 Jack of Hearts 27 Ace of Diamonds

2 Five of Clubs 28 Ace of Spades

3 King of Diamonds 29 Nine of Diamonds

4 Queen of Spades 30 Four of Hearts

5 Three of Diamonds 31 Eight of Clubs

6 Jack of Clubs 32 Three of Spades

7 Ten of Spades 33 Six of Clubs

8 Three of Spades 34 Seven of Diamonds

9 Three of Clubs 35 Seven of Hearts

10 Queen of Diamonds 36 Five of Spades

11 Three of Hearts 37 Nine of Hearts

12 Eight of Spades 38 Queen of Clubs

13 King of Hearts 39 Two of Diamonds

14 Seven of Clubs 40 Seven of Spades

15 Five of Diamonds 41 Jack of Diamonds

16 Six of Spades 42 Two of Hearts

17 Four of Diamonds 43 Ace of Clubs

18 Six of Hearts 44 Nine of Spades

19 Nine of Clubs 45 King of Clubs

20 Four of Spades 46 Six of Diamonds

21 Two of Clubs 47 Ace of Hearts

22 Ten of Diamonds 48 Jack of Spades

23 Eight of Hearts 49 Five of Hearts

24 Two of Spades 50 Four of Clubs

25 Ten of Hearts 51 Eight of Diamonds

26 Ten of Clubs 52 King of Spades

THE DEALS

With the Pack arranged in order, make a false shuffle and false cut.

The performer may then make a number of preliminary experiments, such as, telling thenumber of cards by weight, cutting a desired number from the pack, and finding any cardcalled for from the pockets.

The performer then deals four hands of thirteen cards as in whist or bridge, the fourthhand gives thirteen Spades, the other hands are shown to consist of indifferent cards.

The Spade hand is again shown, with the remark that the cards are all of one suit, but thecards are not in any set order, they are counted from the hand to the table, but in countingdeal from the top and bottom alternately, the cards then come out Ace to King.

This may be shown to the audience now or after the next deal.

Hand Number 1 is shown first, laid face upwards on the table, Number 2 is laid face up-wards on this, then Number 3 on Number 2, and lastly, the Spade hand on Number 3.

The cards are false shuffled and false cut, then dealt. In this deal every fourth card is dealtfrom the bottom of the pack.

When performing this deal explain to the audience you are teaching them “how it is done.”Show the fourth hand to consist of Spades from Ace to King. Then, for the benefit of thosewho have learnt the lesson, pick up the first hand and show it to be all Hearts, Number 2 allClubs, and Number 3 all Diamonds.

The Spade hand is Ace to King, none of the others are so arranged. Take the Heart heap,show it, then use it as a spelling bee. ACE spelling Ace. (I presume the readers of this articleknow the idea, for those who wish to know of this and the other sleights, I give a list ofbooks at the end.)

The Heart heap is spelled from the Ace, which is laid on the table face upwards, the two onthe Ace right through to the King.

Then pick up the Spade heap, saying: “Now two heaps are in order. Here are the Spades.”Quickly run through these, reversing the order from King at the face, to the Ace at the face.

Show the Heart heap, but do not reverse it. Cut the three of Hearts to the front, and pick upthe Spade heap, cutting the seven to the front.

Place the Spades face upwards on the Hearts and with the twenty-six cards make the “MilkBuild Shuffle,” milking or taking one from the top and bottom together thirteen times.

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As you do this, say: “We have no further use for these, they have arranged themselves, sowe’ll lay them aside and look at the other heaps.” Hand Number 2 consists of Clubs. HandNumber 3 consists of Diamonds.

Show hand Number 2, then pick up hand Number 3, place it on hand Number 2, runthrough it, shewing all the Diamonds, turn the cards face down, and deal one heap of thir-teen cards counting aloud. Saying: “We will deal the black cards on the left of table.”

In dealing, deal top and bottom cards alternately.

Show the face of the remaining cards, saying: “We’ll deal the red cards on the right of thetable.”

Count aloud again, this time, however, deal from the bottom of the cards then the top al-ternately.

Pick up the right-hand heap, saying: “And here we have the King of Diamonds. ”Turning itface up on the table, then turn up the next card, which is the King of Clubs. “That’s funny, itshould be a Queen.” Lay the card on the right of the other, turning up the next, a red card,lay it on the King of Diamonds, turn up the next, a black one, laying it on the King of Clubs.Run through the cards in this way, sorting them out again into two heaps, one of red cards,and the other of black.

Place the red cards face up on the black, turn them all face down, saying: “We’ll try again.”This time deal thirteen cards in each heap. For the first heap, deal as follows:

Top, bottom, bottom, top, bottom, bottom, top, top, top, bottom, bottom, bottom, top.

For the second heap deal:

Bottom, top, top, bottom, top, top, bottom, bottom, bottom, top, top, top, top.

Say: “Thirteen cards in each heap.”

“On my left the black.” Pick up this heap showing the bottom card of the heap. “This heapwe will mark with a black card.” Replace the heap face down on the table, picking up thetop card of the heap and placing it face upwards immediately behind the heap.

Do exactly the same with the red cards.

Say: “Whatever I do with one heap of cards, the same thing happens to the other. If Ichange a card or cards from one heap to the other, then a card will transpose itself withoutyou seeing it go. Watch!”

Show the turned-up red card in the right hand and the black in the left.

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Cross the hand placing the red card face up behind the black heap and vice versa.

Then With the right and left hands simultaneously take a card from each heap, showingthe cards, placing them face up on the two indicating cards.

Do this again, placing the cards as before. Do it once more.

Say: “We’ll change about again and see what happens.”

Change the face-up heaps over and slowly take the next three cards, then change overagain, taking the next two cards.

Change as before, taking a single card. Change as before, taking two cards. Change as be-fore, showing the last card.

The Clubs are now together, likewise the Diamonds. Show this, saying: “But they aren’t inorder.”

Take the Clubs and deal them face down as follows:

Bottom, top, top, bottom, top, top, bottom, bottom, bottom, top, top, top, top.

Diamonds as follows:

Top, bottom, bottom, top, bottom, bottom, top top, top, bottom, bottom, bottom, top.

Say: “I wonder what has happened now they are reversed.”

With both hands working together, take the cards one at a time from each heap, sayingaloud: “Ace, two, three, etc., to the King.”

Take the Club heap with the King to the face, place it face upwards on the Hearts andSpades which were shuffled together previously.

Again make the “Milk Build Shuffle.”

This time “Milk, Build,” alternately.

That is, with the cards in the right hand for the overhand shuffle, take two cards in the lefthand together, one from the top and bottom. That action is the “Milk.” Then take one fromthe top, this being the “Build.” Do this “Milk, Build” thirteen times.

Reverse the Diamond heap, Ace to the front, King at the back. Cut the ten to the front.

Place the Diamonds face up on the other cards, and shuffle again.

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This time shuffle, “milk, build, build, milk, build, build.”

Do this thirteen times and the pack is then set up in the Si Stebbins order.

Should you desire it to be set up for the Ernest Hammond order, arrange as follows:

Hearts. Ace to front. King at the back.

Cut the seven to the front.

Spades. King to the front. Ace at the back. Cut the three to the front.

Clubs. Ace to the front. King at the back. Cut the ten to the front.

“Milk, build,” thirteen times.

Diamonds. King to the front. Ace at the back. “Milk, build, build,” thirteen times.

Here is a list of books dealing with shuffles, bottom deals, prepared, or pre-arrangedpacks:

Erdnase: Expert at the Card Table.Merlin: And a Pack of Cards.Nikola: Nikola Card System.Proskauer: How’d ja do that?Farelli: Farelli’s Card Magic.

The Caledonian Mystery

By W. Donald Forsyth

THE performer announces that he had intended to show his audience a demonstration ofsleight of hand, but unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be anything suitable on his tablefor this purpose.

On the table is a plate, on which is a bowler hat, (crown downwards).

The performer picks up the hat (1) and holds it so that the interior can be seen by audienceto contain nothing in the way of rabbits, floating ladies, etc.

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“Of course, this is quite unsuitable for the purpose,” remarks the performer, “my hands arenot large enough!”

The hat is now turned crown towards the audience, and the conjurer apparently sees aspeck of something white upon it. The “something” happens to be an egg (2). Hat is re-placed on plate.

3. Sundry sleights are now indulged in, such as, displaying egg in right hand, taking it inthe left, and “squeezing” it away, recovering from left elbow. Egg is apparently then swal-lowed, and recovered from under vest.

4. Conjurer explains that sleight of hand is merely a matter of practice, the “first sevenyears” being the most difficult.

5. Egg is now rubbed between the palms, performer closes right hand over egg, left hand,palm outwards, is lowered to left side, the right hand, being still closed, is knocked againstright knee and then opened, palm outwards. (Both hands are now in the same position.)The left hand momentarily goes behind left knee and reproduces the egg.

6. Performer explains that before one can do that sort of thing one must first practise howto handle the egg. (Performer has table on his left.) The egg is then placed by the left handinto the hat, hand is withdrawn slowly to show—without calling direct attention to it—thatthe hand is empty. The right hand, which is also casually shown to be empty, reaches intothe hat and takes out the egg, and places it back into the left hand. The above movementsare repeated twice, with this exception, that when this is done for the third time, the egg isleft in the hat, and not withdrawn by right hand.

7. Performer picks up hat with right hand, remarking to audience: “You have watched thategg very closely, I take it for granted that you can account for these as well.” Four eggs arethen taken from hat, one at a time, and put upon plate.

8. Performer shows interior of hat (casually): hat is held in right hand, then taken in left,whilst right hand picks up plate and eggs.

9. Performer replaces hat on table, crown upwards, and extends plate of" hen fruit “to-wards audience, at the same time remarking ”these eggs are well and truly laid—upon theplate."

10. The hat is now lifted from table and the plate of eggs replaced on table. Hat is passed toright hand (11) and the eggs are put back in the hat, performer counting as the eggs are re-placed. “You have seen four eggs placed in the hat,” says the performer, but, he continues:“In this sort of business ‘seeing is not always believing,’ because I can only see one egg, andhere it is.” (12) Large egg produced from hat, hat shown empty.

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Furniture, Properties, Accessories

A black art table, 12 x 12-inch top, containing a well, 6-1/2 x 4 x 4 inches. The table was spe-cially made for this trick. (Please see note re table top.)

A coloured porridge plate. (A coloured plate is chosen as a contrast to eggs.) A porridgeplate is used as the depression in it is greater than in an ordinary plate. (The “depression”should be in the plate, not in the performer.)

A “Delveen” hat, described in the December, 1919, issue of the Magazine of Magic (Gold-ston), Vol. 7, No. 1, page 10.

Four eggs. Three of the eggs can be real, or “property.” (The eggs used by the writer arepivorine.) The fourth egg is of the Stodare variety (Modern Magic, Hoffmann, page 260)with an addition of my own, the addition is a V-shaped clip. An egg so equipped can be (ap-parently) finger-, thumb-, or back-palmed, with impunity. (Please see Fig. 1 and note re“Egg.”)

Large (cardboard) egg, 5-1/2 x 3-3/4 inches. Attached to large egg on the long side, is a 2-inch loop of very thin wire (see Fig. 2).

Preparation and Arrangement

Preparation. (1) Large egg in well, loop protruding, loose cover spread over egg.

(2) Plate upon table.

Three eggs are placed in secret portion of hat. The “Vandy” egg, clip outwards, is under thebrim of the hat, the rolled edge of the brim holds the egg quite securely.

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Hat is placed upon plate—longways—with the secret portion nearest the performer, whostands facing audience, with table on his left.

Stage Manner. “’Devant’-like and bland, to play at a game they do not understand.”

Manner of Presentation. Slow and deliberate.

The performer is standing with the table on his left, facing audience.

Working Instructions

1. Performer picks up hat with left hand, on doing so the clip of the concealed egg is grippedbetween second and third fingers, and the interior of hat is exhibited.

In turning the crown of hat towards audience, the right hand grasps the opposite side ofbrim, the left hand at the same time getting the egg into the finger palm position, the indexfinger pointing towards the crown of the hat.

2. Remove the “speck of something” by extending fingers against hat, and display egg.Shake egg close to ear, and remark, “Good egg!” Replace hat on table.

3. Sundry sleights I leave to the performer himself—not too many, please, the audienceknow we’re clever, that’s why they have paid good money to come in (or let’s hope so).

4. Conjurer then explains that sleight of hand is merely a matter of practice, the first sevenyears being the most difficult.

5. Proceed with the final sleight of passing egg through knees.

6. Proceed with demonstration as to how to handle the egg.

7. Pick up hat with the right hand by part of brim nearest to audience, remarking: “Youhave watched that egg very closely, I take it for granted you can account for these as well.”The four eggs are then taken from the hat, one at a time, by the left hand, and put uponplate.

8. Performer shows interior of hat (casually). Hat is passed to left hand as performermakes a half left turn towards table; he picks up the plate of eggs with the right hand,whilst the hat is placed upon table, crown upwards, with left, retain hold on hat.

9. In this position the large egg is “loaded,” as follows, whilst the plate of “hen fruit” is be-ing displayed the left hand, (thumb on top of brim, fingers underneath (has not been idle.By the time the patter has been delivered re “well and truly laid,” the middle finger shouldhave got into the loop of wire (to which, of course, the large egg is clinging) in readiness to

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levitate the egg into the hat. As the plate is replaced on table, the hat is lifted, with an up-ward and backward movement; owing to position of fingers the egg goes easily into thehat.

10. The hat is now clear of table, in making a half right turn, the hat is passed into righthand, and if the hat has been properly manipulated the large egg should be resting on thefalse half-crown of hat.

11. Eggs are put back in the hat, performer counting as they are replaced. The eggs are, ofcourse, packed into the secret space between the true crown and the false half, both handsnow hold the hat.

12. As the end of the patter is reached, the performer tilts the hat and produces large egg,with right hand, making a half left turn, the interior of the hat is displayed, the performerlooks at egg, then at hat, raises the egg to right ear, shakes it, and remarks, “Good egg!”

Origin of the Idea

With regard to how I got the idea—I find this query rather difficult to answer. It is the re-sult of having read a large number of books and magazines relating to magic, and possess-ing a retentive memory as regards matters magical, and also by having a large number ofbooks at my disposal.

Eggs have for a very long time been used in magical performances; performers have doneall sorts of things with them, such as manipulation transposition, production, multiplica-tion, diminishing, expansion, etc. I quote a few examples of what I have seen and read:

“The Egg Bag” is a very fine effect, and has been done by “Everyman.”

“The Mislaid Eggs,” by Selbit, is a very good transposition.

“Taking Eggs to Market,” by W. Simpson.

“Hen Fruit from Nowhere,” by Devant, is the largest egg production I know.

“Eggs at Finger Tips ”—nearly as popular as “Egg Bag.”

Egg items from More Novel Notions (R. Keene) gives valuable information, as does alsoModern, More and Later Magic (Hoffman).

An egg costing only one shilling has been the means of at least one person “going off thestraight path;” my egg cost only ninepence, so I haven’t gone so far wrong.

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Having a fair knowledge of what had been done previously with eggs, I set about arrangingsomething different from what I had ever seen or read. The result was the effect now sub-mitted, which is production, manipulation, multiplication, and expansion merged to-gether to produce an apparently new effect.

Egg Notes

The “Stodare” egg I use was purchased from Paul Vandy, the magical juggler, many yearsago, hence my name for it.

The “clip” idea, as applied to magical accessories, is old; I first came across the idea in TheYoung Conjurer (Goldston), Vol. 2, page 22, in connection with a handkerchief appliance.

In applying the clip to a Stodare egg, you possess a handy appliance of general utility.

Readers who possess an Aerial Egg, as described by Harry Leat in his book Magic of theDepots, 1924, page 37, have just the very egg for the effect described.

The method of wiring the large egg is, in my opinion, better than the ordinary loop as bet-ter control is obtained.

Notes re Table

The drawings are not to scale; the plan (1) shows arrangement of large egg; dotted line rep-resents hinged velvet cover.

Sketch 2 shows the “all ready” arrangement; the diameter of plate used is eight inches, thetop of table being 12 x 12 inches, there is no need for the plate to be exactly central with ta-ble support.

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A black art table is not necessary, my reason for using one was that I had had previous ex-periences of people behind stage at concerts, etc., wanting to see and know more than Iwas prepared to divulge.

Were I ever again to present the same effect on a theatre stage, I would use a skeleton toptable, minus drapery; the large egg would be constructed on the lines of the cannon ball,described in a book of which you have probably heard, viz. Our Magic.

The Diminishing Card Trick

By Edward Victor

IT is with pleasure that I comply with Mr. Devant’s request to describe the “DiminishingCard Trick.”

I first saw this effect performed when quite a small boy by Charles Bertram at (if I remem-ber rightly) the Hastings Pier Pavilion, and well remember my wonderment at the peculiarnoise that occurred (like the passing of one’s finger-nail over the teeth of a comb, and pre-sumably made with his mouth) each time the cards were “squeezed” and shown smaller.

I have performed the “Diminishing Cards” now for a good number of years in public, andwas the first to originate the idea of removing a card from the pack each time it is “dimin-ished” and displaying the various smaller-sized cards side by side on a stand.

Various ways have been published in magical literature for performing this trick, andother effective methods are on the market to-day.

I have, personally, remained more or less faithful to Bertram’s sequence as described inThe Modern Conjurer (Lang Neil), but only make use of two smaller sets.

One is a half and the other an eighth the size of an ordinary playing-card.

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HAT

1. Plan of hat2. Section of hat

Not to scale, and the shape isnot all it should be. (Sketch 3.)

The half-sized set (consisting of seven or eight cards pivoted together at one end) containsone loose card, half-size and also a quarter-sized card which slides into a thin strip of paperor linen attached to the back of the front card of the set in such a way that it can be easilypulled out.

The eighth-sized set contains a loose card, eighth-size, and also a sixteenth-sized card at-tached behind the front card as already described.

The eighth-sized set fits into a little pocket at the back of the half-sized set. (Fig. 1.)

The other requirements are:

(1) A card stand, measuring about 12 x 4 inches, preferably painted a dark colour.(2) A match-box.(3) Some loose confetti.(4) A penny-piece.

The card stand is on your table, near the front, and immediately behind it are about twelveto fifteen loose playing-cards with the sets under them, all laying face upwards.

On the match-box, which lays next to the cards, is a single card, face up, and on which isplaced a little loose confetti.

The penny is placed in the right trouser pocket. As the working of this trick and the “patter”should blend together, the “moves” and the “lines” that accompany them are given belowin sequence.

“Moves” and “patter.” Pick up the loose cards with the sets behind them, and turning yourright side to the audience, fan the cards out in the left hand with the right thumb and fin-gers; the cards of course are held face outwards.

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Make as large a fan as possible by pushing up the centre cards of the packet.

Patter. “Few people are aware that playing cards are elastic, and can be ‘squeezed’ or ‘d-iminished’ quite easily at will. Here I have a hand of full-sized cards. Every time I squeezethem they will become smaller and smaller....”

Close up the fan with the right hand, still keeping your right side turned towards the audi-ence. Now place the left thumb about one-third of the way up from the bottom end of thecards (Fig. 2) and re-open the fan with the right hand, the left thumb acting as a pivot.

If the packet is held and opened out thus, the cards will appear to be smaller.

Patter. “Already you see the cards are not quite so large; perhaps you would like them a lit-tle smaller....”

Again close up the fan with the right hand and, in the act of once more “squeezing,” palmthe full-sized loose cards in the right hand; this hand immediately fans out the half-sizeset.

You now turn and face the audience, and lower the right hand behind the card stand, leav-ing all the palmed cards on the table except one, which is brought up in the hand. (You ap-pear to have picked up one card from the table.)

This same (right) hand, still holding the card picked up, now removes the loose half-sizedcard from the open fan in the left hand, and both cards are laid side by side on the cardstand, faces up, and in full view of the audience.

Patter. “You observe the pack is now about half the size of an ordinary playing-card. I willsqueeze them a little more....”

Close up the half-sized packet with the right hand, this time with the faces of the cards to-wards the palm, and push it half-way down in the left hand. Fan out the cards again withthe right hand.

Patter. “The more you squeeze them the smaller they get—just like the British taxpayer’sincome!....”

Remove the quarter-sized card from behind the front card with the right hand and lay it onthe card stand beside the other two cards.

Patter. “The pack is now, as you see, one quarter its original size....”

Closing the fan once more, palm off the half-set in the right hand, leaving the eighth-sizedset from the little packet in the left hand, and fan them out.

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Patter. “These are very young cards! In fact, they are so tiny that a penny piece will coverthem....”

Take a penny from the right trouser pocket, leaving the half-set there, and compare its sizewith that of the small cards. Replace the coin in your pocket and take out the quarter-sizedloose card from the fan, laying it on the card stand with the others.

Patter. “Did I overhear someone remark: ‘Make them smaller still?’.... Very well, we willtry another squeeze!”

Close up the fan and slide it half-way down the left hand. Re-open it and pull out the smallsixteenth-sized card, laying it on the stand with the others.

Patter. “These are the smallest cards they make, IN THIS SIZE!”

Closing up the small cards, take the packet in the right hand lengthwise in the curled-upfingers.

Patter. “Now, for the last time, watch my hands....”

Apparently take the packet in the left hand (standing with your left side towards the audi-ence), but actually back-palm the packet in the right hand. As the left hand proceeds to“squeeze” the small cards it supposedly holds, the right hand goes behind the card stand,and the back-palmed packet is dropped on the table. The right hand immediately picks upthe card which is resting on the match-box, and bringing it in a level position below the lefthand, the cards, supposed to be in that hand, are apparently dropped on to the card.

Raising it to the level of the mouth and giving a little blow the pieces of confetti fly into theair.

Patter. “And these, ladies and gentlemen, are the smallest cards I can possibly show you.”

The Indestructible Handkerchief

By Allen Benbow

Presentation. The performer shakes out a nicely ironed and folded white handkerchiefand lays it on his uplifted knee. With thumb and forefinger of his right hand he picks up thehandkerchief by its centre and transfers it to his left hand, leaving it with its centre pro-truding from his fist.

With a pair of scissors he cuts off the protruding fabric and allows the piece to fall on to atable. The handkerchief is now opened out and a large jagged hole is seen.

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The handkerchief is again picked up and held in the same manner in the left fist. The pieceof fabric which has been cut off is lifted on the points of the scissors and tucked into the fist.The handkerchief is then opened out and found to be whole once more.

Patter. “It is nice to have a nice handkerchief. I am most careful with my hankies; but if Ishould have the misfortune to cut a hole like this in one of them it would not worry me inthe slightest. I should just replace the piece—making sure to put it back in the right way sothat it fits exactly—and the hanky would be whole again.”

Explanation. The secret of this illusion lies in the use of a jagged patch of black materialadherent to one side of the handkerchief so that, when the handkerchief is held against theperformer, part of his evening suit appears to be visible through the supposed hole which,in reality, is only the black patch. Conversely, the patch cannot be seen through the hand-kerchief when the latter is reversed and again held next to the performer.

Those who are familiar with the use of the thumb-tip, will appreciate that the fragment ap-parently cut from the handkerchief is taken from a piece of cambric secreted in a tip on theleft thumb, and that it is eventually returned to the tip and concealed therein.

Torn Strip of Paper

By Ralph Delvin

Requirements. A small metal drum or winder, similar to a fishing line reel, 1-inch in di-ameter, with 3/8-inch revolving centre. A garter of 1-inch elastic. Attach garter to winder.

About nine feet of 1-inch hat coil paper.About eight inches of fine thread, and a black pin.

Preparation. Wind paper on drum, and tie thread on end of paper, and pin on end ofthread. Slip garter over right hand several inches up the arm next to the flesh, so that reel isin line with wrist (inside) just above where the cuff joins the shirt, allow thread and pin todrop down sleeve, then bring over shirt cuff and sleeve of jacket and make fast pin in jacketsleeve about three inches up.

Presentation. Exhibit about nine feet strip of paper, and invite any member of the audi-ence on performer’s right (this is important) to tear the strip into pieces, and roll them intoa ball. Whilst this is being done show both hands are empty, even allow them to be exam-ined, then walk over to the person with the pieces, and ask him to place them fairly in theright hand; whilst this is being done, casually rest the fingers of the left hand on the pin andwithdraw it. As soon as the torn pieces are in the right hand, immediately turn it so that theback faces the audience, and walk to the other side of the room, at the same time pull thethread sharply, which will bring the end of the paper on the reel into the right hand holding

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the pieces. Pretend to fumble for a loose end with the first finger and thumb of the left handbetween the finger and thumb of the right closed fist, but actually get possession of the endof the strip with the thread and pin attached, tear off an inch or so, and drop on floor, to-gether with thread and pin—the audience imagines this is one of the torn pieces—dig oncemore into the right fist, this time pull out several inches, and ask someone to hold it tightly.Immediately this is done walk away as quickly as possible, keeping the right hand back toaudience—the strip rapidly unwinds from reel, but cannot be seen entering the hand, asthe wrist gives the necessary cover. Gather up strip and throw away with pieces.

From the time the pieces are placed in the right hand, the trick should be over in two orthree seconds.

The “Miracle” Torn and Restored Paper

An original version by Ellis Stanyon

Explanation. The complete act requires five pieces of tissue paper each 10 inches square.The sheets usually sold cut into this size without waste; otherwise the size is immaterialand paper of any colour may be used.

In readiness for the trick the five papers are disposed as follows:

Three are screwed up into a ball, each separately. One of the screwed up papers is laid onthe table (to your left), hidden from view under one of the rear corners of another flatsheet. The remaining two balled papers are “finger-palmed” in the left hand (one under theother across the fingers) where their presence is masked by the remaining sheet, held atthe finger tips—and all is ready.

Right hand now tears off (downwards) two-thirds of the visible sheet, placing the torn-offportion in front of the other in the left hand; the right hand then tears the front portion(downwards) in half, again placing torn-off piece in front of others in left hand. The bot-tom ends of the several pieces are now turned upwards to the right, and again torn in likemanner, the torn-off pieces being again placed in front of the others in the left hand.

The whole of the pieces are now screwed up into a ball and pushed into top of left fist; whenthe pieces are completely out of sight, the thumb of right hand dislodges the lower“palmed” ball (whole piece) which falls to the floor (apparently by accident); at the sametime the remaining two balls (presumably one only) are taken by the fingers of the righthand (whole piece in front) and shown together as one. Without taking the slightest noticeof the fallen ball, which all will readily believe to be the torn pieces (a beautiful bit of misdi-rection), the performer returns the two bails (now readily believed to be one only) to hisleft hand, “finger-palming” one (the torn pieces), while he opens out the other and shows itto be whole.

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He then screws up the restored paper, with ball of torn pieces inside it, and throws thepacket aside or thrusts it into left side pocket, remarking at the same time, “Well, thatwould have been a good trick if I hadn’t dropped the ball of torn pieces. But a real magicianshould be able to restore paper actually torn.” He thereupon picks up the fallen ball,breathes upon it, then opens it out and shows it to be completely restored, and forthwithhands it for examination. Taking back the same piece of paper, he very openly rolls it into aball and places it between first and second fingers of right hand, asking all present to keeptheir eyes upon it, while he repeats the trick and shows “how the old-time conjurers did ac-tually change one piece for another.”

Left hand now picks up the remaining sheet from table, at the same time “palming” looseball of paper; the same tearing process is enacted and the pieces screwed up as before. Andnow for THE MASTER MOVE. In the act of presumably placing this ball of torn pieces be-tween third and little fingers of right hand, the whole piece is put into that position, whilethe torn pieces are retained in the left hand—easily done under cover of the right hand.

The left hand then takes the piece from between the first and second fingers of the righthand (demonstrating the change); this is opened out, found to be whole and is forthwithscrewed up, TOGETHER WITH THE TORN PIECES, and the whole put into thepocket—the action calls for no comment, since all believe the torn pieces still in the righthand. Performer remarks: “As regards the torn pieces, well, some conjurers dispose ofthem one way, some another, but I just breathe on them—and that does the trick.” He thenopens out the paper, showing it to be completely restored.

There is a clever variation in working the first part of trick for which I am indebted to myfriend E. Brian MacCarthy. Instead of commencing the trick with two separate balls of pa-per in the left hand, the one ball is rolled up inside another paper—a sort of ball within aball. In this case, the trick proceeds exactly as described above, up to the point where thepaper is opened out and shown to be whole. In opening out the paper, the enclosed ball is,of course, dropped automatically.

The sympathetic remarks made by the spectators, as they see what they believe to be theball of torn pieces fall to the floor, are highly gratifying to the performer (in this case) andgive him considerable assurance.

Handkerchief,Tumbler and Flowers

By Will Blyth, M.I.M.C.

Effect. Performershakes out a handkerchief and proves it to be quite unprepared. He pro-duces from it a transparent tumbler which is shown to be quite ordinary. Into this isdropped a few magic seeds and at the word of command, without any cover, the seeds sud-denly transform themselves into a mass of gorgeous flowers, overflowing the tumbler.

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Preparation. This may be easily followed from Fig. 1. About fifty De Kolta spring flowersare formed into a bouquet by fixing strings at the base and to these a length of strong blackthread is attached. This thread passes through a tiny hole drilled in the bottom of a glasstumbler. A knot is arranged on the thread a few inches from the bouquet so that after pro-duction an extra pull on the tumbler in an outwards direction causes the thread to break byreason of the knot being held taut at the bottom of the tumbler.

Thus freed, the production may be placed upon the table for decorative purposes.

Working. The blossoms are folded together and fixed in a safety-pin paper-clip holder.The safety-pin is fastened inside the vest between two buttons, one being left unfastened toensure easy egress of the folded bouquet. The opposite free end of the thread is securelyfixed to the right hand trousers button. The tumbler is concealed inside the breast pocketof the coat or is allowed to protrude from the right hand vest pocket, its presence beingcovered by the coat.

The handkerchief is shown both sides, shaken out and thrown over the right arm. Undercover of the handkerchief the left hand takes the tumbler from its concealed position andproduces same as if taken from the handkerchief. Care must be taken here not to draw thebouquet prematurely from the vest. If preferred, however, the handkerchief may be dis-pensed with and in that case performer enters holding the tumbler in his right hand.

The tumbler is then demonstrated empty, tapped with the wand, and a few magic seedsdropped therein (sic). At the word of command the performer thrusts the tumbler out-wards, thus disengaging the folded bouquet, which is brought within and about the tum-bler as shown in Fig. 2.

The appearance of the brightly coloured flowers is instantaneous and effective. Opportu-nity is taken to give an extra strain on the thread, thus causing it to break at the knot. It is,of course, possible to produce the bouquet and break the thread in one movement, but themain point is to ensure the instantaneous appearance of the flowers. The breaking of thethread is a secondary matter.

The tumbler of flowers is then placed upon the table, forming a pleasing table decoration.

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“The Allotment”

By Vincent Dalban

“THE Allotment” is the rather fanciful title of an effect that forms a very suitable openingfor a spectacular act. The whole thing takes only a few moments and is in the nature of asurprise. It was first produced by me at the King’s Theatre, Gainsborough, on June 13th,1921.

The Effect. On a tray held by an assistant rests a light skeleton wooden framework. Panelsare dropped into grooves at the sides and top, forming a cubical shaped structure. Uponthis being lifted, four pots of flowers are revealed standing on the tray.

The Apparatus. The tray consists of a thin board 14 inches from side to side and 12 inchesfrom back to front. Hinged to this board is a flap 10 inches by 10 inches. This flap normallylies flat on and in the centre of the tray, but the front edge can be raised, so that the flapstands at an angle of 90 degrees, near the back edge of the tray. With the flap lying flat onthe tray, the pots are permanently attached to the flap.

The underside of the flap is completely covered by a piece of material similar to and madeto resemble the front part of the assistant’s coat or uniform.

The wooden framework, which measures 12 by 12 by 12 inches is made of inch by inch ma-terial. It is not permanently attached to the tray, but there are four short dowels at the bot-tom and these fit into four holes in the tray, made to receive them. These keep theframework steady and in place and at the same time allow it to be lifted off the tray whenrequired at the end of the effect.

Stretched over and completely covering in the back of the framework is a sheet of thin rub-ber 12 inches by 12 inches. This rubber is permanently fixed round the four edges at theback of the framework.

The panels slide into grooves made in the framework. They are of three-ply wood and beara floral decoration.

The flower pots are collapsible and consist of two round wooden discs—one the size of thetop of the pot and the other the size of the bottom of the pot. These two discs are joined to-gether by a spiral spring, something similar in design to those used in the upholstery ofchairs, but not so strong.

The sides of the pots are made of thin canvas material, painted the necessary colour. Thepots are normally held extended by means of the spring, but can be crushed flat by pres-sure.

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The plants, which are made of feather flowers, are attached to the wooden disc at the top ofthe pot by means of a spring hinge, so that normally they stand upright, as a plant should,but, when desired they can be folded over at right angles to the pot.

With the plant folded over and the pot pressed flat, they occupy comparatively little space.The upper surface of the disc at the top of the pot is painted to represent earth moss.

The Preparation. The wooden framework with the sheet rubber to the rear is placed on thetray over the flap and pots and the dowels engaged in the holes. The plants are folded overand the pots pressed flat.

The flap, to which the pots are attached, is then folded back against the rubber at the backof the framework and secured in place by a catch. The pots and flowers in a collapsed con-dition are now concealed between the flap at the front and the sheet rubber at the back.

This brings the underside of the flap, with the fake of the assistant’s uniform attached to it,into view. With the apparatus held in front of him by the assistant, this piece of materialwill appear to be part of his uniform and will give an apparently uninterrupted view rightthrough the framework.

A piece of green string attached at one end to the front edge of the flap passes through ahole in the middle of the top rear crosspiece of the framework and the other end is twistedround the left hand of the assistant.

At the outset the panels are resting inside and leaning against the back of the frameworkimmediately in front of the fake. This is a natural position and prevents the audience fromseeing the fake for too long.

The Working. The assistant, holding the tray, on which is the framework, stands on theright side of the performer. The latter takes one of the panels—it is the back one—and aftershowing it, drops it into position by sliding it down immediately in front of the fake mate-rial, where it is held in position by a small catch. The other panels are lifted out just beforethis one goes into position, thus allowing the audience only a brief view of the fake.

The two sides are dropped into position, then the front and finally the top. As the top panelis being placed in position, the performer apparently steadies the apparatus by placing hishand at the left front lower corner, really he takes the weight of the tray at that side.

At once the assistant releases his hold with his left hand and holds the string taut. The per-former releases the catch and the flap (and the back panel) drops, but it does not fall with acrash, for immediately the catch is released the string takes the strain and the assistantlowers the flap gently down until it lies flat on the tray. At the same time the pots extendand the plants stand erect. Immediately afterwards the assistant lets go of the string andregains hold of the tray.

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The performer lifts the framework from the tray, revealing the flowers, the string comesfree through the holes and drops amongst the plants, where it remains unseen.

Although here described exactly as worked, using an assistant, this effect can be adaptedfor presentation single-handed. In this case the tray could rest on a table or stand and theperformer standing at the rear would occupy the position of the assistant during the brieftime the fake was visible to the audience. The fake, of course, would be made to resemblethe front of the performer’s clothes or costume, instead of that of the assistant, as in theforegoing description.

Shopping by Wireless

By Ralph Chart (Raoul)

Effect. Performer displays six sepa-rate lengths of different colouredsilks, each piece is 9 inches wide and1 yard long.

He explains that he has evolved amethod by means of which one’sshopping can now be done by wire-less rays.

The lengths of silks are placed into abag, which the audience are asked toimagine represents the shop.

An empty glass tumbler is shown,covered with a handkerchief, andplaced on a small pedestal. The glassrepresents the customer.

The audience are now asked to selectfrom a number of cards displayed ona board what length of silk andwhichever colour they desire to pur-chase.

Assuming three-quarters of a yard ofthe blue silk is suggested, the magi-cian directs a wireless ray from thebag to the glass.

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On uncovering the glass, three-quarters of a yard of the blue silk is seen to have appeared.

Removing the silks from the bag, all are complete excepting the blue, of which only a quar-ter of a yard remains.

Requirements. The requirements for this pretty effect areas follows:

Six lengths of different coloured silks measuring 9 x 36inches. (Say, black, gold, green, red, white, and blue.)

One length measuring 9 x 36 inches of the black, gold,green, red, and white.

One length of blue measuring 9 x 9 inches. One length ofblue measuring 9 x 27 inches. A pocket lamp and a hand-kerchief. One bottomless tumbler.

One changing bag. (See footnote.) Twenty cards (de-scribed later). One board for displaying cards.

A pedestal from which a silk is invisibly loaded into thetumbler.

The top of the pedestal (Fig. A) is a little larger that thebottom of the tumbler, which, having been shown empty,is placed on the pedestal held in the left hand. The glass iscovered with a handkerchief, and in the act of placing thepedestal on to the table, the top of the pedestal is pusheddown at the same moment as the base touches the table,thereby loading the three-quarters of a yard of silk intothe bottomless glass.

The board requires our next consideration.This measures 27 x 18 inches.

The board is dead black.

Beneath each of the four cards on the topledge and the six cards on the bottom ledgeis a duplicate painted black on the outerside and the same number and colour on theinner side that it is desired to force (Fig. B).

The cards measure 3-1/2 x 4-1/2 inches.Twenty are required altogether.

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Four have written or printed on them 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1.

Four have written or printed on them 3/4, 3/4, 3/4, 3/4, and are blacked on the inner side.

Six have written or printed black, gold, green, red, white, blue.

Six have written or printed blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, and are blacked on the innerside.

The cards are displayed on the board as illustrated, with the blackened cards beneaththem, black sides outwards.

Working. Show the six lengths of silk and place in the changing bag.

Show empty tumbler, place it on the pedestal and cover it with the handkerchief and standit on the table.

Pick up the cards (top ones only) A, B, C, D, shuffle them and replace them face downwardson board.

Repeat with cards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, replacing them face downwards too.

Switch on pocket lamp, directing ray from “shop” to “customer.”

Uncover glass tumbler, showing the three-quarters of a yard of blue silk.

Remove the silks from bag, showing that only a quarter of a yard of the blue silk remains.

(Note.—Mr. Chart seems to be under the impression that everyone knows what a “chang-ing bag” is. This is, I hope, far from being the case. Anyway, for the benefit of those who donot know, I had better explain that a changing bag has a partition down the centre of its in-terior. By holding this cloth partition the contents can be shown one side or the other. Inthis case the bundle of silks containing the small piece of chosen colour is put in one side ofthe partition; the bag is then turned inside out to show that it is empty, and the genuinesilks are put in the other side. When they are taken out, it is of course the substitute bundlewhich is displayed.—DAVID DEVANT.)

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8 King 3 and 10 2 7 9 5

EIGHT KINGS THREATENED TO SAVE NINETY FIVE

Queen 4 Ace 6 knave.

LADIES FOR ONE SICK KNAVE

Blindfold Card Reading

By George Johnson

THE performer having been blindfolded, cards are taken (by an assistant from the audi-ence), shuffled, distributed to various spectators and the conjurer names the cards.

The simplicity of the method of working this effect need not deter the performer from pre-senting it to a small gathering. Indeed, the presentation requires some showmanship; thetrick creates a better sensation with a comparatively small audience. It should be pre-sented impressively.

The performer asks for the assistance of a spectator who is willing to do that which is re-quired. Having obtained a (let us hope) non-clumsy person, the conjurer asks that he per-sonally may be blindfolded. He takes a pack of cards from his pocket and, in a somewhatfumbling manner, due apparently to the blindfold, executes a few cuts and shuffles.“Now,” he exclaims, suddenly turning to his temporary assistant, “please take a bunch ofcards, mix them, and as quickly as you can distribute them to other spectators.” This beingdone the performer successfully names the chosen cards. The “picturing” of the cards,doubts and difficulties expressed, errors in one pip and so forth, are matters where theshowmanship comes in.

All that is required is a stacked pack. The cards may be in any arrangement that the per-former is used to. The Stebbins system, the “Eight, King, Three, Ten, etc.,” or any of theother systems of stacking wherein a glance at the bottom card of the pack conveys the nec-essary information as to the position of the cards. This is all the secret. When the assistantgrasps a small handful of cards, the performer cuts the pack at the break, glances down un-der his “blindfold,” notes the visible card, tosses the pack on the table and proceeds toname the distributed cards. The fact that the assistant shuffles the cards, of course, de-stroys the arrangement, but when the conjurer calls out the various denominations thespectators, holding one card each, are engaged in waiting for their card to benamed—stacked packs, sometimes called “cold decks,” should be to them a thing un-known!

It should be mentioned that the performer calls attention to the fact that he places himselfunreservedly in his assistant’s hands, and that unless he does just as requested the experi-ment may not succeed.

The writer once presented this at a smoking concert. After the show another amateur con-jurer came up and remarked: “I liked that card reading trick, but how in the name of won-der did you force so many cards—I have trouble enough with one!”

It has occurred to me that I perhaps omitted to mention the fact that the conjurer does notknow exactly how many cards have been taken by his temporary assistant. I used to guess

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this, and when I thought I was nearing the end of the bunch I remarked, with the usualhand-waving and striving of the thought reader: “That leaves, I think, three cards; wouldyou please hold them up; is that right?” Usually someone called out the number of cardsleft and all was well. In any case the performer is pretty safe if he does not exceed thenumber of cards held by spectators. It would be a disaster if the conjurer went on with hiseight, King, ten-ing—or whatever system he uses—when the cards out were exhausted! Inever had this contretemps.

For the benefit of lay readers it may be explained that the above code arrangement men-tioned is as follows:

With this memory aid each of the thirteen cards are represented. The word “chased” isused to represent the order of suites—C is Clubs—H is Hearts—S is Spades and D is Dia-monds. Therefore you keep them in the same order.

The Vanity Bag Illusion

By Cecil Lyle

Effect. A large vanity bag hangs in the centre of stage on two wide ribbons. It is opened byallowing the front of bag and handle to fall down. The inside of the bag has a large pocketwhich contains a mirror, with handle and a big powder puff. These are displayed and thematerial of the bag is turned inside out and then replaced, together with the mirror andpuff, in the pocket. The bag is then closed and twisted round, then immediately opened,when a lady is disclosed, sitting inside the bag, holding up the mirror and powdering herface with the powder puff.

A very charming picture which always makes a hit with the ladies.

Working. The bag is made on the principle of the old changing bag, with a movable parti-tion of cloth. Firstly, a square steel frame is constructed with a small wooden seat in thelower half, on which the lady can sit. The handles of the bag are flat wooden semi-circlesabout four inches wide and the “catch” to shut the bag is made of a large billiard ball. Thereis a semi-circular flat metal band which shuts either against the back or front of thewooden handle at will, so that when the lady originally takes up her position in the bag, onthe seat, the partition is closed over her, the fiat metal band is locked with a small catch tothe back handle and the front of the bag is then closed. There is a steel cable inside the rib-bon which is fastened to a batten from the flies. The bag revolves on this to show all roundand the lady’s form cannot be discerned if there is plenty of fullness in the material. Thereare two mirrors and two puffs. When the bag is opened the second time the catch holdingthe partition is released and this falls with the front, disclosing the lady.

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The Great Presto Painting Mystery

By Wm. G. Stickland

IN describing the working of this exceptionally novel effect, the writer is parting with ajealously-guarded secret. In including this effect in this book, however, the writer feelsthat he is offering at least one “gem”. ‘Tis said there is nothing new in Magic and althoughthis effect is claimed to be one of the most novel magical inventions of recent years it is, af-ter all, nothing more than a combination of the inexhaustible box combined with an elabo-rate adaptation of the dyeing silks trick.

Effect. An elaborately-painted model garage or paint shop, fitted with a door at each end,is observed on the magician’s centre table. One door being opened, a small black model caris removed, and at the same time the audience is given the opportunity of seeing that thegarage is quite empty. The garage is now removed from the table and, by means of “run-ning boards” attached to each end of same, it is placed on the backs of two chairs ( la plateof glass in the Spirit Hand effect), the front facing the audience. Both doors are nowopened; and in order to further prove the absence of deception the magician pushes hiswand through the garage, and the car is allowed to run through same either way. Two col-ours are now “selected” by the audience and on the car being again run through on its ownpower it is seen to emerge painted in the selected colours. This is certainly a quick-fire ef-fect, as the car is seen to run straight through the garage, being out of sight only for a frac-tion of a second.

Requirements. Two model clockwork motor cars (about 10 inches long), one paintedblack, the other in any bright colours. The clockwork unit is removed from the colouredcar, as it is not required and it tends to check the speed of the car. A tin hook is fixed to theback of the coloured car.

The garage is constructed of three-ply wood, edges being reinforced to add to stability andto take door hinges, with floor of 3/4-inch matchboard. Its dimensions are: length 15inches, height 10 inches (excluding roof), width 7 inches.

It will be observed that the garage has a diagonal partition which is cut and hinged 5-1/2inches from the bottom, forming a flap which can be raised to a position where it is held inplace till pushed back by reason of the tightness of its fitting to the sides of the garage. Thisportion of the partition is, of course, glued in position. Guide pieces are attached to thepartition, and these keep the car in position and ensure its keeping a straight course as itruns down the partition.

The coloured car is secured on the partition, by means of a catch attached to a stout brasswire rod which engages with the hook on back of the car. The catch is operated by a leverriveted to the end of the rod, and which is out of sight under the eaves of the roof in the topright-hand corner of the back of the garage. The hook on the car, being made of tin, can

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easily be adjusted to its correct position so that it is securely held by catch and does not failto disengage from same when lever is operated. The running board is made in three sec-tions, in such a manner that it folds underneath the garage when same is not in use. Thesections are made of timber of similar substance to the bottom of the box, or, to make alighter job, of three-ply with edges of this wood. Of the three sections, A is 13 inches long, B14 inches, C 8 inches, and the latter is fitted with a hinged piece to act as a stop to preventthe car from meeting with disaster. A block of 1-inch square wood is glued to the bottomend of the garage, and a similar block to one end of the section B (C is hinged to the otherend), and small brass hinges attached to the bottom of these blocks join B to the garage. Ais hinged to the other end of the garage. All hinges are attached to the bottom of the run-ning boards. A can now be folded under the garage, and by reason of the blocks, B, with Cfolded under same, can be folded under A.

The exterior of the garage is decorated, the interior being painted a dull black. The interiorcan, of course, be viewed through the door, and from a few feet has the appearance of en-tire emptiness, the diagonal serving the same purpose as that in the well-known inex-haustible box.

To prepare. The flap is in its normal position. With lever C at its bottom position the col-oured car is being pushed to the top of the partition, being guided by guide-pieces, and thelever is now pushed up, catching and securing the car in position. The garage rests on ta-ble, one end towards audience, with the black car inside.

Patter and Presentation. “I have recently been appointed the director of an enterprisingfirm known as the Presto Painting Co., Ltd. The object of this firm is to paint cars quicker,better and cheaper than hitherto. Motorists can now have their cars painted for themwhilst they wait for the sum of five shillings, and ladies with minds of a changeable naturecan have a different coloured car daily at reduced terms. We are looking for people withmoney to burn—I mean invest—and my object here this evening is to give you a practicaldemonstration of Presto Painting. For this purpose I will make use of this model car.”(Door is opened and black car removed.) “I believe it is a Morris, although I am not quitesure whether it is an ‘ Ox’ or a ‘ Cow’; it is so black it might even be a ‘ minor.’” (During thispatter, door has been left open so that, without directly having their attention called to thefact, the garage is seen by the audience to be" empty.") “Here we have a model of our up-to-date Presto Painting Works at Hey; in other words, the Hey Presto Painting WorkS.’’(Garage is now placed on chair-backs and arm or wand pushed through ostensibly to provethe innocence of the garage and to open far door, but at the same time the flap is raised).

“It will be seen that the paint shop has two doors, one by which the car enters, the other bywhich the car leaves, so.” (The flap being “up,” the car can be run through the garage onceor twice from end to end, and finally the the opposite way, this gives an opportunity topush the flap back into position.) “It will be agreed that it has been proved beyond doubtthat the paint shop is quite empty and unprepared, and everything is now in readiness forthe demonstration. All that remains to be done before commencing is to decide what col-our the car shall be painted. Presto Painting can be carried out in any colours, and as it isthe fashion nowadays to paint cars in two colours I should like two colours suggested.” (It

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is left to the individual performer to make use of his own pet methods of forcing the col-ours, there being so many well-known methods of doing so.) “Red and yellow? Thank you,madam—a very excellent combination! All one has to do now is to run the car through thepaint shop at not less than thirty miles per hour—this is very important as otherwise thedriver might get painted himself, and he would feel very ‘blue’ if he had to go through lifewith a coat of red paint. I want you to keep one eye on the car as it enters here, one eye onsame as it leaves here, and any other eyes you may have to spare you might keep on thewindows—you might see through them even if you can’t see through the trick. Now then,one, two, three, go!” (Car, having been wound up, is held by right hand at end of runningboard A, and on the word “Go!” it is released; at the same time the release catch lever ispushed down by left hand—performer is standing behind garage, so this action is entirelyscreened. Black car is stopped by partition and red car runs out, having reverted to thehorizontal, under cover of the open door. A little practice is required to accurately timethese two movements, but no difficulty will be found in this direction.)

The Optical Pass

By Chris Van Bern, M.I.M.C.

I HAVE mystified many card men with the sleight I am now about to describe, and am nowdivulging the method for the first time.

Try it with the cards in your hand, as you follow the instructions. You will even deceiveyourself, if you try it a few times in front of a mirror. You will not see the move made al-though you will know you have done it. Have the cards shuffled. One selected. Cards arenow held, squared, in left hand. First and second fingers on top edge away from the body.Thumb on lower edge. Third and fourth finger behind pack. Drop half of the pack off intothe right hand. Have chosen card replaced on top of this half. Now drop a few cards off topof left portion on to the chosen card. This will bring your third finger touching the chosencard, masked by the cards that are dropping. As the left hand is drawn away to drop morecards on, the chosen card is drawn up and off, gripped between the third and fourth finger,and is at once placed at the back. You continue to drop the cards from left hand until fin-ished. If the chosen card is wanted on the top the same procedure is followed, but insteadof putting the lifted chosen card at the back it is placed on the front of the right-hand pile.The movement is repeated, throwing a few cards at a time alternately back and front untilall are finished, and picking the chosen card up each time and putting on the front. Anyonewho is looking for the pass is thrown entirely off the scent, as the moves cannot be fol-lowed.

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A New Spirit Message Effect

By Oswald Rae

I WORKED this little stunt out some time ago, the main idea being to get away from theusual slates, etc., for a change. The effect briefly is as follows:

A large envelope is shown—it has the main portion of the front cut out, thus forming a“window.” The envelope may be examined if desired. A piece of white paper is shown bothsides and inserted into the envelope. Through the window, the spectators can see the pa-per slowly going down inside the envelope. The envelope is then sealed, and a spectatormarks the white paper for identification. This is done through the window. On performeropening the envelope, the paper is withdrawn, and the spectators plainly see this beingdone through the window.

The envelope is obviously empty, and the paper is shown. On its reverse side is written amessage from the spirits. The paper is then handed to the spectator as a souvenir.

The envelope is ordinary except for the piece cut out. The paper at the start is not quite soinnocent. To prepare this, first take a second envelope and cut away the front. This leavesthe back with the join showing all the way down. With paste stick a piece of white paper onto the back of this. The result is a piece of paper white on one side, whilst the other matchesthe inside back of the window envelope.

Another piece of similar white paper is now taken and a tiny quantity of paste or mucilageis carefully run along one end. This is stuck to the bottom of the other piece on the side thatmatches the envelope. It must only be stuck along the extreme bottom edge and the resultis that this piece is neatly kept in position, and if held together at the top end, it may behandled quite freely. The whole can thus be shown back and front, and appears simply asheet of white paper.

After manufacturing it, it will generally be found necessary to trim it up all the way round,so there are no tell-tale edges of paper showing. On the inside of the loose piece of paperthe message, a forced word from a dictionary, name of a forced chosen card, or whatever isdesired, is written.

When presenting, the envelope is first shown, and the fact that it is perfectly empty madeobvious. The fake piece of paper is now shown with several ordinary sheets of similar pa-per under it. These pieces are fanned out, and a spectator is asked to select one. He does so,and the performer says he will use it, takes it, and returns to his table. En route he topchanges the selected piece for the chosen one. This movement is just as easy with sheets ofpaper as with cards.

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The fake piece is held at the top or loose end, shown back and front and inserted into thewindow envelope. It is inserted with the loose or message piece in front, and the stuck endis inserted first, the fingers thus preventing the loose end from moving. As soon as it is inthe envelope it is pushed well home—the envelope is sealed, and in that state may behanded to the spectator to mark the piece of paper he chose (?) through the window.

On receiving it back, the performer lodges it in some prominent place, with the windowfacing the audience. Incidentally, he picks it up again at the finish so that it is upside down,but as the flap is upstage, that is not visible to the audience.

If possible, it is as well to get the spectator to mark his paper sideways, and then even themark will not give away the fact that the envelope is turned. After due business, the enve-lope is cut open with shears. This cuts through the envelope and faked piece of paper aswell, so that the narrow portion that is stuck is cut right off.

This comes inside the top, or rather bottom, of the envelope and is thus safely hidden. It isnow possible to remove the marked piece of paper with its message on the reverse side,and leave the remainder of the faked portion in the envelope. As the only visible portion ofthis exactly matches the real back of the envelope, to all intents and purposes the envelopeis empty and the spectacle of the marked paper being withdrawn, and revealing only theback of the envelope (?), is so convincing that no one ever dreams of wanting to see the en-velope.

All interest is naturally on the paper and its message.

I have found that this little stunt causes considerable comment, and always leaves themtalking.

Perhaps a more simple way to prepare the fake paper and envelope back would be, insteadof pasting one end of message sheet, simply to fold a single sheet so as to cover both sidesof the fake envelope back, but which is free to be removed when bottom end of envelope iscut away.

While the effect is practical for use in a small size, a better effect may be obtained by using amuch larger envelope, say 6 x 8 inches or thereabouts.

This novel idea presents wonderful possibilities, and any ingenious performer will appre-ciate its use in many ways.

Merely a suggestion: Have a number of plain cards on which you have various questionssuch as:

“When will my wish come true? Whom will I marry? Will I get my old job back again?” etc.Force a card on a married gentleman with this question: “When will the next great war take

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place?” Have the message on the paper read: “To-night, if you remain out as late as you didlast night.”

A Coin and Card Divination

By Edward Bagshaw

THE performer asks for the loan of four coins of a like value, say, four half-crowns or pen-nies. He receives the coins, on being forthcoming, upon his outstretched left hand, and,keeping them in view, returns to his table, on which they are laid out in a row. An assistantmember of the audience selects one of the coins, and in order to isolate this for the time be-ing he is asked to drop it into an ordinary tumbler, which reposes upon a chair.

A pack of cards is introduced, shown, shuffled. Now the assistant is requested to place itupon the table and cut it into two nearly equal portions—then to pick up either half, andsubject it to a thorough shuffle. The performer now picks up the remaining half of the pack,and shuffles this also. The assistant is asked to decide which half shall be used for the trick,and whichever he chooses is taken by the performer, who discards the other half. The cho-sen half is spread out, face down, upon the table.

The assistant now removes the chosen coin from the tumbler. He is requested to look atthe “tail” side of the coin, and the performer states that he will endeavour to get a mentalimpression which will enable him to perform a curious feat with the cards, So saying, andapparently controlled by the helper, he slowly pushes out four cards from those lying onthe table. These cards remain face down whilst the performer gathers up the remainingcards and puts them aside. Now the spectator is asked to reveal the date upon the coin he isholding. Immediately, the performer picks up the four cards and lays them out face up in arow—-or, preferably, displays them on a stand—and it is seen that they form the date justcalled out (thus an Ace, Nine, Three, and Five would represent 1935).

This little effect has the advantage that it can be quickly arranged for presentation, andfurther, the articles used are not specially prepared in any manner.

The coin used for the trick is the performer’s own, and thus he is already acquainted withthe date to be revealed. On commencing, this coin (say a half-crown) is finger-palmed inhis right hand. He asks for the loan of four half-crowns, which he receives on the palm ofhis open left hand. The following moves, which are very easy, account for the exchange ofone of these coins for the concealed coin, during which operation it will be observed thatthe coins never leave the spectators’ sight.

The four coins are transferred to the right hand, being placed just over the finger-palmedone, and are displayed in this hand—it being impossible for the onlookers to tell that five

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coins are actually present. This stack of coins is now picked up by the left hand, turned overso that the previously palmed coin is on top, and gripped by the right hand.

The performer returns to table, keeping coins visible, and as he reaches it the lowermostcoin is allowed to drop and is finger-palmed. The four coins between fingers and thumbare now laid out in a row upon the table, heads up, the changed coin being placed third inthe row as seen by the audience. It is now a simple matter to get the assisting spectator toselect the desired coin, and if preferred, this may be done by allowing him to throw a smallfaked die. Another way is to ask him to choose between two coins at the left of the table andthe two at the right—if his choice embraces the desired coin the other two are picked upand placed aside, and should he choose the other two they are removed in the same way.He now indicates one of the remaining coins and the procedure is the same, so that theknown coin is always left on the table. This is now dropped into a tumbler,by the assistant.

The performer has meanwhile disposed of the finger-palmed coin by pocketing. He nowintroduces the pack of cards. The pack is an ordinary one, the only peculiarity being that itis of the “one-way” description—that is, the design on the back is such that if a card is re-versed it becomes easily detectable to the performer. Previous to the effect the pack hasbeen cut in two, and at the centre of each half four cards corresponding to the known datehave been reversed end for end.

In use, the pack is given a false shuffle, placed on the table, and the assistant then cuts it intwo, He chooses one half and shuffles it, whilst the performer shuffles the other half. Asboth halves of the pack are arranged in the same way in respect of the reversed cards, theassistant is at liberty to choose whichever half he would like the trick worked with, and thishalf is spread out upon the table.

The performer is easily able to locate the reversed cards forming the required date, and itonly remains for him to bring the trick to a successful conclusion in the manner previouslyoutlined.

The Multiple Laundry Mystery

By Kershaw Thomas

THIS little effect was thought out for two reasons. Firstly, in order to make an additionalitem for a children’s party given by the proprietor of a laundry and, secondly, gently to pullthe leg of the aforesaid laundry proprietor over the matter of a few missing and ruinedhandkerchiefs.

It is as a children’s effect that I pass it on to my brother magicians in the hope that they willhave as much success with it as I myself have had.

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Effect. The magician first asks for the assistance of a little girl, preferably one who is do-mesticated and who would like to know what goes on behind the walls of the local laundry.

Having selected a suitable girl from the dozens who will no doubt rush forward, he pro-ceeds to make her at home by pinning on an apron and sitting her on a chair slightly to theleft of his table (facing audience).

The performer explains that in order to demonstrate the workings of a laundry he musthave something to laundeer, or launder, or whatever the word might be! He borrows awhite handkerchief.

The handkerchief is then folded so that it eventually becomes about two to two and a halfinches square. Demonstrating the method which mother herself would use, the magiciansprinkles some water on the handkerchief, places it on his table, and picks up aformidable-looking flat-iron, with which he proceeds to iron the handkerchief.

As the magician rightly points out, anybody knows how to do that, but does everybodyknow how it is done at a laundry? He goes on to show various little pieces of modern laun-dry machinery, such as the machine for tearing off shirt buttons, the table-cover tearer,and the sock loser! Finally he shows the “handkerchief hole maker.” Simply an ordinarybodkin, but quite capable of doing its work. To prove his statements, performer pushes thebodkin through the handkerchief. Remarking that a handkerchief would only come backfrom the laundry in such a condition once, he proceeds to demonstrate the “hole enlarger,”which is used on the handkerchief on its second visit—in other words, a pair of scissors,but quite a good enough weapon for enlarging the hole from a small tear to one about aninch in diameter!

Performer then states that a very unfortunate thing happened to him when he last sent oneof his handkerchiefs. The laundry closed down, but, worse still, before closing down theycut his handkerchief into small pieces. He proceeds to demonstrate this, again with theborrowed handkerchief.

Performer then seriously states that he’s afraid he cannot tell the audience very muchabout the modem laundry, at the same time handing the pieces of handkerchief back to themember of the audience.

It then occurs to him to carry on his story. He says that he doesn’t know what brought it tohis mind, but he sent the tattered handkerchief to what is known as a Multiple Laundry, or,in other words, one large laundry, generally in London, and a large number of provinciallaundries. He shows a model of a laundry on his table. The laundry is labelledLONDON—HEADQUARTERS, in front, in the best sign-writing style performer can do.The pieces of handkerchief are wrapped up in a piece of paper tied up with cotton and dan-gled in mid-air on a length of cotton. Unfortunately they dangle too near a lighted candleand the whole lot goes up with a flash, but mysteriously leaves an envelope addressed tothe performer, dangling at the end of the cotton!

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Performer opens envelope and reads a message to the effect that the handkerchief is at theLeeds Branch!

The London Branch is opened and is found to contain a smaller laundry labelledBIRMINGHAM. This in turn contains the MANCHESTER Branch. Opening this theHULL Branch is found, and in this is the LEEDS Branch. The Leeds Branch is taken acrossto the girl assistant, who opens it and finds inside the borrowed handkerchief, which isthen returned to its owner none the worse for its adventures.

Method. Little description will be necessary, the apparatus being mainly old props in newguise. The “Multiple Laundry,” for instance, will be easily recognised as the nest of boxes,but how many, even conjurers, will recognise the flatiron as an adaptation of the old “cardtable pedestal” which used to be so handy for changing a card.

Actually the iron has a sort of shallow lid which fits across its flat surface, the underside ispolished tin, just the same as the actual iron, the upper side is covered with black velvet tomatch the tabletop.

In the cavity between the iron and the shell fake is the duplicate handkerchief.

When handkerchief is borrowed it is placed on table with one corner of it hanging into ablack art well in which is the smallest “laundry,” with its top open. Performer slides ironabout on tabletop finally, apparently sliding it over the handkerchief. What he actuallydoes, however, is to knock the handkerchief into the well, and consequently into the open“laundry,” at the same time lifting up the iron and bringing into view the duplicate hand-kerchief. The shell from the iron effectually covers the well until it is required again.

The duplicate is then picked up and with it the performer goes through the “business” ofshowing the various “cod” apparatus for tearing clothes, etc., used by the “modern” laun-dry.

Finally, he wraps the tattered handkerchief up in a piece of flash paper—actually pushingthe handkerchief into a second well. The flash paper has the message in its envelope stuckbetween two thicknesses, and is threaded, not with cotton, as the performer states, butwith fine black wire. Consequently, upon setting fire to the flash paper the wire does notburn, as would cotton, and the letter is left dangling in place of the flash paper parcel.

The message is read and the nest of “laundries” produced. They are slowly taken from eachother until performer comes to the Hull Branch. This he stands on his table and slides it tothe centre, in this way sliding the shell covering off the black art well containing the Leedslaundry. The Hull laundry, of course, has no bottom and the performer simply puts hishand in from the top and pulls the Leeds laundry right out of the well. The borrowed hand-kerchief is, of course, then taken out of the Leeds laundry and handed back to its owner.

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The Tests of the Court Magician

Being an interesting fifteen-minute act for the entertainment of children.By Francis White

(Member of the Inner Magic Circle and Fellowof the Institute of Magicians)

INTRODUCING the story, the performer tells of a mighty King who was desirous of secur-ing a Court Magician to become attached to the Palace Staff. From numerous applicantsfor the post the King selected one or two for the final tests and the successful magician wasdiscovered in the following manner.

Inviting the candidate to dine, the King placed before him a jug of milk and a piece of tissuepaper, requesting that the milk should be caused to vanish, to reappear in the headgear ofan attendant.

The conjurer, eager to do the King’s bidding, took the hat from the startled attendant andpoured the whole of the milk into it. To relieve the worried watchers who believed the hatdamaged, the performer takes the milk from the hat, which is now inside a tumbler. This isplaced upon the hand and the tissue paper wrapped around, thereby concealing it fromview. On the word “Go,” the paper is crushed in the hand and the tumbler of milk has van-ished and is produced again from the attendant’s hat.

You will recognise this effect as an improvement upon the “Milk Eau” sensation which hasbeen seen in many guises. A special fake is made in the following manner:

Take a small piece of thin celluloid or cellophane cut to the shape shown in Fig. 1, and paintwithin a half inch of the top with white paint. Having allowed this to dry, gum the sides to-gether and a passable representation of a tumbler of milk will result.

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This is nested inside a glass tumbler, and after showing the hat empty they are loaded in.The milk is then poured into the hat and it passes through the fake into the tumbler. Pro-duce the lake and place a piece of tissue paper over the top and vanish by crushing betweenthe hands. You will find the perfect illusion of a visible vanish of milk. It is a simple matterto reproduce the real tumbler of milk from the hat. This completes the first of the two testsfor the magician.

The second and last test introduces a fair lady who is locked in a castle and the magician iscompelled, at the King’s bidding, to rescue her from her prison.

A model castle is shown and the roof placed upon the top after a white silk to represent thelady is put safely inside. A second silk is shown to represent the hero of the story, and whentaken into the performer’s hand becomes changed instantly to a magic wand, the emblemof his art. Upon undoing the roof of the castle the white silk is withdrawn and the secondsilk is found to be tied to it with a true lover’s knot, depicting the rescue.

A description of the castle must first hold our attention. It is based on the jap box principlefor the envanishment of silks and consists of an oblong box with a flap at one end whichcan be dropped or raised by a mere touch of the finger. See Fig. 2. Into this flap are placedtwo duplicate silks tied together, and the flap is shut. The roof is unprepared and juststands upon the top of the box. The base is attached to the main part and has a small hole atthe flap end to allow the finger to raise or shut the flap without effort.

The whole thing is decorated to represent a castle, and when introduced is shown emptyand is placed on the table, allowing the flap to drop. The white silk is placed therein andwhen the finale is due the duplicates are produced and the single silk locked into the flap toallow the box to be again shown empty.

Changing the hero silk into a magic wand is based upon the silk to sausage trick. A springwand is constructed with a hook on the inside of the top which allows the silk to be at-

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tached to the collapsed wand. Upon the wand being released the silk vanishes inside thewand, which extends to its full size.

The general story can be enlarged to bring in other suitable effects, but the outline is givenfrom the writer’s own original offering of the story.

The Sunshade Trick

By L. Davenport

ONE dark night in 1916 a man might have been seen in a room at the back of a shop in Ox-ford Street making a contraption of tubes for his first show at St. George’s Hall—a very im-portant event to him. The thing he was making was like a towel-horse and was meant todisplay a long parcel containing a sunshade. Suddenly he stopped at his work andscratched his head thoughtfully; the tubes had given him an idea. But first I had better tellyou what the Sunshade Trick is.

It is a very old trick done with a sunshade and some silk handkerchiefs. The sunshade iswrapped up in a sheet of brown paper, or rolled up in a Japanese mat, then the silk hand-kerchiefs are put into another receptacle, such as a tea caddy or bag. A magic pass is made,the sunshade is pulled out from its cover and pendant from each rib, with the now skeletonsunshade which has lost its own cover. This is found to have taken the place of the hand-kerchiefs in the caddy, or other receptacle.

For many years this had been done in one way. There was first concealed in the paper inwhich the sunshade was to be rolled (the paper being made double for this purpose) a sec-ond sunshade, which was the skeleton, together with the handkerchiefs. This had its weakpoints. For instance, the handle had to be pushed right into the cover, and then the handleof the other sunshade pulled out, and again, one could only open the paper at the finish,being careful not to show the hidden sunshade. But on this night the young man who wasworking in the back shop at Oxford Street had the idea of putting a tube as the central sup-port of the principal sunshade. Then he made the second sunshade with a very thin centralsupport and he halved the handkerchiefs by cutting them across from corner to corner di-agonally, so that the whole thing could slide into the central tube and it was made to jaminto the top, and thus, by holding the outer sunshade firmly and pulling on the handle ofthe inner one, it could be pulled out from the centre, whereas if the handle was pushedback again and no pressure was exerted on the outer sunshade, the latter could be pulledout with it and displayed as an ordinary sunshade. Best of all, the paper in which they hadbeen wrapped could be torn in halves or small pieces, conclusively proving by conjurer’slogic that only one sunshade was used, and thus improving the trick enormously.

(It is a great privilege that Mr. Davenport has accorded me in thus disclosing, for the firsttime, the principle of this improvement. Mr. Davenport has invented many tricks, and

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with the help of his sons and daughter, runs a Magic Shop in Oxford Street, which heopened when he was eighteen.

His latest deal has been to buy the remaining apparatus of Maskelyne’s Mysteries, withpermission to use the name.—DAVID DEVANT.)

Early Days of Magic

By the late Charles Moritt

MYSTERY Entertainments first drew my attention in 1877, when a great sensation wascaused in England by the Davenport Brothers. The papers gave a description of theiramusing performance and the subject so fascinated me that I at once began to study it. Thefirst result was that I made a light wooden sance cabinet, inside which I placed a person,closed the door, and then showed the cabinet empty. This was of course simple. I had aslide at the back, the person inside pushed it out and stepped out and stood on it; then,when the doors were reopened, the person was inside once more. Soon afterwards I read inThe Era of someone from India wishing to buy mysteries. I at once wrote to him that I hada cabinet for sale. He came to see me at my home in Leeds and promptly bought my cabinetfor ten pounds.

I then set to work to get together a programme of Mysteries with a view to giving my firstshow. This debut was duly made in 1878, and I may say I had the courage, or audacity, tomake my first a full two hours’ entertainment at the Public Hall, Selby, Yorks, with noother person on the bill. I advertised extensively and my programme consisted, first, ofcatching half-crowns in the air and throwing into a tall hat; then going amongst the audi-ence and taking them from people’s noses of the audience, and finally producing a rabbitfrom a hat. My second item was a series of card tricks, concluding with the rising cardsfrom a bottle, which made a good impression. I then gave cartoon sketches on large paperson the usual cartoonist’s frame. The sketches were three feet square and brought much ap-plause—the audience little knowing it was all done by trickery.

Here is the explanation of it. I first sketched the figures on the papers during the daytimeby using glycerine, and when they were in front of the audience it was impossible for thedrawings to be seen. I sketched all the popular personages of that time, including QueenVictoria, King Edward (who was at that time Prince of Wales), Lord Beaconsfield, Glad-stone, Dr. Kenealy (the man who defended the Tichborne claimant), and I found nothingbrought so much applause as these cartoons.

The next item was to get two members of the audience to come upon the stage and tie myhands behind my back with a piece of tape about eighteen inches long. I first had them totie my left wrist, then I placed my hands behind my back, keeping my hands a foot apart.They then tied the other wrist, but meanwhile I kept the tape taut so that the man could

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only tie a slip knot. I then got one of the audience to seal the knot. This being done I wentinto the cabinet and the door was closed. On the door being opened a few seconds later Iwas seen with my coat off—yet when two men examined the knots they found them still in-tact and sealed. I then went back into cabinet and did the usual experiments, drinking wa-ter, lighting a candle, etc.

My concluding item was “Thought Reading,” by the late Irving Bishop, who was creating asensation by finding a hidden pin amongst the audience. I had never seen Irving Bishop,but as “pin finding” seemed popular I concluded my programme by asking two membersof the audience to blindfold and take me into the dressing-room and stay with me until athird member of the audience had hidden a pin in the hall. Then the two men brought mefrom the dressing-room to the person on the stage who had hidden the pin. I took this per-son’s hand, held it to my forehead, worked him up to excitement, and he became so nerv-ous that he simply worked my hands to where the pin was hidden, and the audience werespellbound as to how it was done.

This concluded my first two hours’ entertainment, and the local Selby paper was goodenough to say it was the best mystery entertainment ever given in Selby.

My first performance in London was in 1886, at the Princes Hall, Piccadilly, with the lateChas. Duval’s Entertainment, when I was the first to introduce to an audience my silenttransmission of thought. I stayed at the Princes six months, then went for six months onEnglish Music Halls. I went to America in 1887 and joined Herrman the Great, came backto England in 1888 and opened at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. For three years I stayedthere. It was there I invented the Mahatma Mystery entitled “Oh!” I produced for Mr.David Devant at St. George’s Hall, Regent Street, “The Vanishing Donkey,” “The Pillar BoxMystery,” “Chubbs Safe Mystery,” “Black and White,” and “Ragtime Magic.” I inventedand produced “Flyto” and the “Convict’s Escape,” which were shown at The Empire,Leicester Square, and London Pavilion.

The Mystery of Asrah

By Servais Le Roy

(Asrah was the name that Servais Le Roy gave to a most successful illusion, in which alady was hypnotised and laid upon a table. She was then covered with a silken cloth andfloated upwards into the air, without any apparent means of support. The performertook hold of the corner of the silk cover, suddenly snatched it away—and lo! the womanhad gone! I wrote and asked Le Roy for a few particulars of this illusion. Here is his re-ply.—D.D.)

“AT one time I thought Asrah the greatest mystery of the nineties, and somehow it still ap-pears to remain a mystery, more especially to the many who have tried to solve it by actual

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practice. Certainly I have seen many strange versions, yet not a single one hundred percent performance.

“And right here your old friend must also include himself, for I must honestly admit that Iwas constantly finding new improvements possible. One of these improvements I built forDe Bier, but never used it myself. Another improvement was a vastly better ‘Pass the hoopover the lady’ effect. This I only tried out myself once to a storm of subdued applause, thengave the thing up entirely rather than see a good thing murdered by others.

“And here we are at the crux of the matter. Like the Father of this great country, ‘I cannottell a lie’ (Le Roy is now living in America—D.D.) even if tempted by the great army of rack-eteers, kidnappers, honest political strategists, and grafters, No—’I cannot tell a lie!’

“The truth will be disastrous to that dear old maid, Miss Asrah. However, if you insist onher being married to your book, my friend, I will try and tell you something of her past life.

“She was born in the early nineties on the stage of the Circle Theatre, Columbus Circle,New York, early one morning in the presence of one assistant and Leon Bosco, who werelooking on to see if they could see something, somewhere, somehow, whilst sitting in front.

“A few minutes later she had been broken up as a distant possibility.

“Some three years later Miss Asrah reappeared at the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg,South Africa, and made her appearance before an enthusiastic public and a somewhatdoubtful performer.

“This great night had also seen the presentation of two other effects and the father of trip-lets in illusions was still doubtful when he arrived in England and tried it out at the Alham-bra, London. It turned out to be O.K. Of the other two, one only remained, and is stillRip-van-winkling in Camberwell, London, S.E. It is known to us as ‘The Chefs’—its gooseis cooked. ‘Alas, such a finish, Jacob, such a finish.’ And then what?—why am I still search-ing, still finding, still wondering if my finish will be as puzzling as my past?”

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Appendix I

Notes re Construction of Conservatory,“Peter Pan”

THE conservatory and stand are made chiefly of wood. The dimensions of the timbersshould be varied from those mentioned, if, in practice, it is found convenient to do so, theobject being to have as portable a construction as possible, and one in which the strength isnot sacrificed to slenderness.

Stand. The more rigid this supporting stand is, the better. The legs may, however, be madeto fold, or be taken apart from the top framework, if, by means of iron stays, the stand isquite rigid when erected.

Screwed sockets may be sunk into the framework of top of stand into which studs screwtightly, fitted to top ends of table legs. Thin steel rods passing through the legs near theirlower ends, and held in place by fly nuts, will help to keep the legs rigid.

Alternatively, the legs could be hinged to fold flat against the underside of table, the legsbeing strained apart by iron rods when stand is erected.

Strong angle plates are fixed to front side of front legs of stand to secure them to stage (bystage screws) so that the stand cannot be tilted over by the weight of load on shelf at rearwhen same is outside the conservatory. The table legs to be about 2-1/2 inches square,slightly tapered for neatness.

Top framing of stand 3 x 2, arranged to permit protruding portion of bearers (which carryshelf when outside conservatory) to fold in flush with back of framework.

Table-top of 3-ply wood in three panels (between ends of stand and bearers) so arrangedas not to interfere with shelf being pushed into conservatory, i.e. groove left clear for flangeon shelf.

Bearers. These have to be so placed that when the shelf is loaded the shelf will not sag. Thebearers are each in two portions (a) the fixed portions inside conservatory—which also actas stiffening pieces for the framework of top of stand and (b) the portions which protrudeto carry shelf when same is outside. The latter portions may either be pivoted to the rearframework of stand so as to fold flush after shelf has been pushed into conservatory, or, ifbetter in practice, secured to the rear framework by very long strap hinges with the sameobject, i.e. to fold against rear framework.

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The bearers are fitted at intervals of about six inches along upper edge with rollers, and theprotruding bearers are arranged with a slight tilt so that there is a tendency for the loadedshelf to run into conservatory of its own accord when permitted to do so. Bearers aboutsame dimensions as framework of stand top (3 x 2).

Small steel rails are screwed to one side of each bearer (the inner face in each case) to forma groove for flanges which are screwed, to suit, on under side of movable shelf. These act asguides, enabling the shelf to be held in place while resting on the rollers on bearers. Therollers are so placed that the shelf always rests on two of them—on each bearer.

Shelf. To be of stiff plywood (5-ply) or other suitable stiff timber shaped at rear side to saveangle views as much as possible when fully drawn back, as in plan. The small steel flangesare screwed to underside to register with groove formed by edge of bearer and steel railscrewed to same. The shelf rests on the rollers (on the bearers) and the flanges are merelyprovided to prevent shelf moving sideways and to enable it to run back and forth as re-quired. A sheet of thin iron will assist in preventing this thin shelf from sagging withweight of load.

Stops. Metal “stops” are provided on the fixed bearers inside conservatory to limit the for-ward run of shelf, and also at the outer end of protruding bearer to prevent shelf runningoff bearers, when drawn out of conservatory.

A catch, or stop, is also necessary to keep shelf from running forward when loaded, untilthe desired moment. This stop may be released by “load” assistant.

Note. A point that is not at present clear is the form the framework of top of stand will take.The bearers with their rollers must be flush with top of framework to allow shelf to run for-ward and straight into conservatory. If they are flush with top of framework, the latter willhave to be recessed (see Figure 2) to permit the protruding portions of bearers to fold inflush with the rear line of conservatory.

If, on the other hand, there is no objection to the folded bearers projecting (as Figure 3),the framework need not be recessed as in Figure 2.

Conservatory. To be as slender in appearance as possible and made up in separate panelsfor bolting together (for portability). The gabled—or pointed—end panels in one piece.Screwed studs project from framing of the end panels and pass through holes in framing oftop, front and rear panels when assembled and secured together with fly nuts.

The rear panel of conservatory made up of three panels; two single-pane portions (one ateach end of rear side) and a six-pane portion hung on pivot fittings to enable same to swingoutward porn the top (see Figure 4) to admit load. Note.—The shelf must be pushed suffi-ciently far into conservatory to enable pivoted “sash” to swing back into place after “load”assistant is inside, i.e. the stops on inner bearers must be placed to suit this. A catch orturnbuckle will be required to prevent pivoted sash swinging open before required move-ment.

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Electric Light. The interior of conservatory is lighted with lamps in lampholders fixed to aremovable batten at the apex of conservatory. The cable passes out through a hole inframework of one end panel, which is also fitted with a plug for stage lead.

Glass. To save weight, the glass of the conservatory is replaced by the non-inflammabletransparent material used for windscreens of cars. The triangular panels of two end frame-works are filled in with dark blue similar material to be semi-transparent.

Roller Blinds. Neat close-rolling spring blinds are provided to top, front, and two end pan-els (to the square part of latter, hence the dark blue filling of triangular portion), As thelong panels are 7 feet long, these surfaces have to be covered with two or three blinds in thelength (meeting above sash bars) so as completely to hide the interior when the blinds aredrawn. (See Figure 5.)

A means of releasing all the blinds so that they fly up simultaneously may be devised.

Note re Bearers. The simplest method of arranging these would appear to be to have therear framework of stand continuous in its length to give strength (i.e. not recessed).

The inner bearers flush with the top of framework help to stiffen the framework.

The protruding bearers strongly strap-hinged (specially made) to the outside of the frame-work (see Figure 1), a stop being provided at X to prevent bearer opening at a greater anglethan a tight angle as shown.

This arrangement does not permit the bearers to fold absolutely flush with rearframework, but the total projection of the bearers when folded will not be more than 6inches.

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