Part 3

Another Cross Puzzle, 299

The Fountain Puzzle, 299

The Star Puzzle, 300

The Counter Puzzle, 300

Japan Square Puzzle, 300

Cabinet Maker's Puzzle, 300

String and Balls Puzzle, 301

Double Headed Puzzle, 301

Arithmetical Puzzle, 301

Grammatical Puzzle, 301

The Tree Puzzle, 301

Puzzling Epitaph, 302

A Curious Letter, 302

A Puzzling Inscription, 302

The Magic of Art.

To Trace an Oval, 303

An Endless Source of Amusement, 303

The Magic of the Oval, 303

Variations of the Oval, 304

What may be done with a Square, 305

How to make a Circle, 306

Importance of the Circle in Drawing, 307

Variation of the Square and Circle, 307

Importance of the Triangle, 308

How to Construct a Triangle, 309

The Triangle Works Wonders in Perspective, 310

Exaggerated Drawing, 311

The Parallelogram and Triangle in Combination, 312

Two Parallelograms in Combination, 312

Magic of the Parallelogram, 313

The Secret of Comic Drawing, 313

Caricature Sketching, 314

Simple Elements of the Profile, 315

Comic Profiles, 316

"Punch," and "Mother Hubbard," 316

Comical Beards, 316

The Human Figure, 317

Proportions of the Human Figure, 318

Standard Height of the Body, 318

Comical Drawing of the Human Figure, 319

The Centre of Gravity, 320

A Central Line through Everything, 320

The Curved Line Pervades all Nature, 321

The Droll Landscape, 323

Attitude Formed upon the Curved Line, 324

How to Draw upon Glass, for Magic Lantern Slides, 325

The Magic of Secret Writing.

The Art of Secret Writing very Ancient, 326

Various Modes of Communicating Secret Intelligence, 327

Chemistry an Agent in Secret Writing, 327

Ingenious Mode of Secret Writing, 328

The Chiffre Indéchiffrable, 328

A Lock for Mr. Hobbs to Pick, 330

The Circular Cypher, 331

Another Method, 332

The Musical Cypher, 333

The Magic of Strength.

Mechanical Inventions of the Ancients few in Number, 334

Ancient and Modern Feats of Strength, 334

Feats of Eckeberg particularly described, 335

One Man Drawing against Two Horses, 335

Breaking the Rope, 336

The Anvil Feat, 336

Breaking Stones, 337

The Chair Feat, 337

The Knee Feat, 338

The Cannon Feat, 338

Twisting Iron Bars, 339

General Explanation on all the Above Feats, 339

Real Feats of Strength Performed by Thomas Topham, 340

Remarkable Power of Lifting Heavy Persons when the Lungs are Inflated, 341

Pyramids of Men, 342

Miscellaneous Curious Tricks and Fancies.

An Artificial Memory, 343

The Magician's Mirror, 344

The Perspective Mirror, 345

The Magical Gyroscope, 346

Artificial Landscape, 348

Easy and Curious Method of Foretelling Rainy or Fine Weather, 349

The Magical Measure, 350

The Boundless Prospect, 350

The Magical Watch Lamp, 352

The Hour of the Day or Night told by a Suspended Shilling, 351

The Enchanted Palace, 352

To Know which of Two Different Waters is the Lightest, without any Scales, 353

To Know if a Suspicious Piece of Money is Good or Bad, 353

The Pyramid of Alum, 354

The Dancing Automaton, 354

To Melt a Piece of Money in a Walnut Shell without Injuring the Shell, 355

The Invisible Springs, 355

The Flight of the Ring, 356

Musical Figures resulting from Sound, 357

To Make a Card Jump out of the Pack, 357

The Tell-Tale Cards, 357

The Double Dozen, 358

The Housebreakers, 359

The Magic Book, 360

The Tape Trick, 360

More than Full, 361

Floating Needles, 361

The Knotted Thread, 361

The Bacchus Experiment, 362

Curious Method of Measuring the Height of a Tree, 362

The Transposable Pieces, 362

THE YOUNG CONJUROR.

INCLUDING SLEIGHT OF HAND, WITH OBJECTS OR CARDS, WITH AND WITHOUT APPARATUS.

That there has been "Jugglery" in all ages of the world, the pages of history abundantly prove. The ancient religions of the heathen were mixed up with an extensive system of legerdemain, and were, more or less, tissues of trickery. Sleight of hand, tricks of the tongue by which the word was kept to the ear, but broken to the hope, and various miraculous deceptions, were the means by which the priests of Egypt, Greece, and Rome used to subjugate mankind. Happy ought we to be, in living in an age when humbug of every kind is sure to meet exposure by the daylight beams of truth.

The Eastern nations, from the earliest times, possessed, besides these religious jugglers, others who made a livelihood by going from place to place, and performing various tricks and feats by which the judgement was bewildered and the reason bamboozled; and even now the performers of the East infinitely exceed those of the West. In the Norman times the juggler was termed jongleur, or joculator, and united in one the minstrel, astrologer, and merry-andrew. In the fourteenth century, he seems to have become more entirely a performer of tricks and feats, and bore the name of Tregetour. The tregetours were adepts at every kind of sleight of hand, and by the assistance of machinery of various kinds, deceived the eyes of the spectators, and produced such illusions as were usually supposed to be the effect of enchantment, for which reason they were frequently ranked with sorcerers, magicians, and witches. Chaucer, who no doubt had frequently an opportunity of seeing the tricks exhibited by the tregetours of his time, says, "There I sawe playenge jogelours, magyciens, trageteours, phetonysses, charmeresses, old witches, and sorceresses;" and the old poet goes on to say to them, "Sometimes they will bring on the similitude of a grim lion, or make flowers spring up as in a meadow; sometimes they cause a vine to flourish, bearing white and red grapes, or show a castle built with stone, and when they please, they cause the whole to disappear:" and in another part of his work, he says:

"There saw I Coll Tregetour, Upon a table of sycamour, Play an uncouthe thynge to tell; I sawe hym cary a wyndemell, Under a walnot shale."--_House of Fame_, book iii.

The learned monarch, James I, was perfectly convinced that these and other inferior feats exhibited by the tregetours of his day, could only be performed by the agency of the "old gentleman," whom it is not polite to name. The profession had already fallen very low, and at the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the performers were ranked by the moral writers of that time, not only with ruffians, blasphemers, thieves, and vagabonds, but also with Jews, Turks, heretics, pagans, and sorcerers; and in more modern times, by way of derision, the juggler was called a mocus-pocus, or hocus-pocus, a term applicable to a pick-pocket, or a common cheat.

The following pages are not intended to make the young reader either a cheat or a trickster; there is nothing, perhaps, so utterly contemptible in every-day life, as trickery and deception, and we would caution our young master not to obtain by these amusements a love of deception, which is only allowable in such feats of amusement, and which is in no way culpable, when every one knows he is deceived. But we would advise him strongly to cultivate in his own mind the virtues of sincerity, straightforwardness, candor, openness, and truth; to shun subterfuge and deception as he would a venomous reptile; and to hate a lie as he would hate that same old gentleman whom we were too polite to name, and who is the father of it.

With this sage advice, we shall present a collection of amusing conjuring tricks.

SLEIGHT OF HAND.

It is my intention, in the following pages, to lay more stress upon those tricks which require no apparatus, than upon those for which special apparatus, or the assistance of a confederate, is required. No one is nearly so well pleased by a trick whose essence evidently lies in the machinery, while every one feels pleasure at seeing a sleight of hand trick neatly executed. For my own part, I despise all the numerous boxes, bottles, variegated covers, and other gimcracks which are generally seen on a conjuror's table; and I have never been so pleased with any performer as with one who did not even require a table, but pressed into his service articles borrowed from his audience, as he stood before them, or walked among them. The spectators should never be able to say, "Ah! the trick lies in the box; he dares not show it to us!"

The following tricks have almost all been successfully performed by myself, and have caused me some reputation in the magic art. Some are my own invention:

1. THE FLYING DIME.

This trick must be frequently practiced before it is produced in public.

Borrow two colored silk handkerchiefs from the company, and have _three_ dimes in your hand, but only show _two_, keeping the other one firmly fixed against the first joint of the second and third fingers. You must also have a fine needle and thread stuck inside the cuff of your coat. Then take one of the handkerchiefs, and put in _both_ dimes, but pretend that only _one_ is in the handkerchief; then put the handkerchief into a hat, leaving one corner hanging out. Now hold up the _third_ dime (which the spectators imagine is the _second_), and ask one of the company to lay the second handkerchief over it. You then ask him to hold the dime tight between his finger and thumb, while you twist up the handkerchief. While doing so, with both hands concealed under the handkerchief, you pass a few stitches under the dime, and replace the needle. This being done, spread one corner of the handkerchief over the hand of the person who is still holding the dime, and, taking hold of another corner, tell him to drop the dime when you have counted three. At the word "three," he lets go the dime, and you whisk the handkerchief into the air, when the dime appears to have vanished, but is really held in the handkerchief. You then tell the astonished individual to draw the other handkerchief out of the hat by the corner that is hanging out. The two dimes are heard to fall into the hat, and every one is persuaded that you have conjured one of the dimes out of a person's hand, and sent it into the hat.

2. ANOTHER METHOD.

Perhaps the spectators may ask to see it again, or demand to mark the dime. In this case, vary it as follows. Ask some one (always choose the most incredulous of the party) to mark a dime of his own, and give it you. Take the same handkerchief, and give him the dime to hold that is already enclosed in it, as in the last trick, dropping the marked dime into the palm of your hand. Twist it up as before, and then leave it entirely in his hands. Direct him to place it on a table, and cover it with a basin or saucer. Ask him to give you a cup or tumbler, and hold it under the table, beneath the place where the saucer is. Then tell him to knock three times on the saucer, and at the third knock let the marked dime fall into the tumbler. Hand him the tumbler, and while he is examining the dime to see if it is the same one that he marked, take up the saucer, and shake out the handkerchief that is lying under it, as in the last trick. You must then return the handkerchief, and while you pretend to be searching for the marks, draw out the thread that held the dime, and drop the coin into the palm of your hand, taking care to rub between your finger and thumb the spot where the threads had been, in order to eradicate the marks. This variation seldom fails to confuse the company.

You must remember to keep talking the whole time, and always try to make a joke, or otherwise to distract the attention of the audience, while you are executing the necessary changes.

3. THE BEADS AND STRINGS.

Ask some lady to lend you the beads off her bracelet, or have by you five or six beads, which you may hand round for examination. Then get some one to cut two pieces of thin string of equal length, and twist them about your fingers, appearing to lay them side by side, but in reality placing them as in the figure, and then, by twisting them together with apparent carelessness, the manner in which they are arranged will not be seen, particularly if you keep the point of junction hidden either by a finger, or by throwing the shade of your hand upon it.

When the beads are returned, thread them all, taking care to pass the center bead over the point of juncture. You then bring the ends of the string 1 and 2 together, and tie them so, doing the same with 3 and 4. Now give the tied ends to two persons, directing them to hold them tight. You need not fear that the beads will come off, even if they pull hard. Then grasp the beads with both hands, directing the holders to slacken the strings. You then, under cover of the left hand, which is placed above the beads, slip the center bead to one side, and draw out the two loops which have been hidden in it. The beads will then easily come off into your right hand. Tell the holders to pull hard, which they will do, and the same moment remove your hands, showing the empty strings, and all the beads in your right hand. Then hand round the beads and strings as before. Remember to rub out the marks in the strings caused by the loops, before you remove your hands.

4. TO GET A RING OUT OF A HANDKERCHIEF.

Bend a piece of gold wire into the form of a ring, having previously sharpened both ends. You have a real ring made of the same piece of wire, and concealing the false ring in the palm of your hand, offer the real one to be inspected. When it is returned, borrow a handkerchief, and while taking it from the lender, slip the real ring into your left hand, and take the false one at its point of junction. Throw the handkerchief over the ring, and give it to some one to hold between his finger and thumb. Let the handkerchief fall over it, and give a piece of string to a second spectator, directing him to tie it round the handkerchief, about two inches below the ring, so as to enclose it in a bag, and tell him to do so as tightly as he can. While he is doing this, take up your conjuring wand, a rod of some hard wood, about eighteen inches long, and when the knot is tied, step forward, passing the rod into your left hand, taking care to slip over it the real ring, which has lain concealed there. Slip your left hand to the center of the rod, and direct each of the two persons to hold one end of it in his right hand. Then tell the one who has the ring and handkerchief, to lay them on your left hand, which you immediately cover with your right. Then tell them to spread another handkerchief over your hands, and to say after you any nonsense that you like to invent.

While they are so doing, unbend the false ring, and draw it through the handkerchiefs by one of its points, carefully rubbing between the thumb and finger the place where it came through. Hang the empty handkerchief over the ring which is on the rod, and take away your hands, which you exhibit empty, as you have stuck the false ring inside your cuff. Take away the upper handkerchief, and let a third person come to examine, when he will find the ring gone out of the handkerchief, and hung upon the rod.

5. TO TIE A KNOT IN A HANDKERCHIEF WHICH CANNOT BE DRAWN TIGHT.

Cast an ordinary knot on a handkerchief, and give the end out of your right hand to some spectator, and tell him to pull hard and sharp when you count three. Just as he pulls, slip your left thumb under the handkerchief, as drawn in the cut, and it will be pulled out quite straight, without any knot at all. You must let go the end that hangs over the left hand, and grasp the handkerchief between the thumb and fore finger.

6. THE THREE CUPS.

This is an admirable delusion, but requires very careful management, and should be practiced repeatedly before it is exhibited publicly. You get three tin cups, of the shape shown in the cut. They should have two or three ridges running round them at the mouth, in order to give a better hold. Four balls should now be made of cork, and carefully blackened. One of the balls is held concealed between the roots of the third and fourth fingers, while the other three are handed round for examination, together with the cups. When they are returned, the young conjuror begins by placing each ball under a cup, or, if he chooses, asking one of the spectators to do so for him. While this is being done, he slips the fourth ball to the tips of the second and third fingers. He then lifts up cup No. 1, replaces it on the table a few inches from its first position, and at the same time slips the fourth ball under it. He takes up ball No. 1, and pretends to throw it away, but in reality he slips it into the place which the fourth ball had occupied. He does the same with the three cups, and then commences a sham search after the lost ball, in which he accidentally (!) knocks over one of the cups, and, to his pretended astonishment, finds a ball under it. He then knocks over both the other cups, and finds in them the two missing balls.

He again places the balls under the cups, taking care to slip the fourth ball under cup No. 3. He then takes up cup No. 1, and pretends to throw the ball into No. 3, but hides it as before. As there are already two balls in No. 3, the spectators imagine that he really has thrown the ball into it. He replaces cup No. 3 over both balls, and slips among them ball No. 1. He then takes up cup No. 2, and goes through the same process, and on knocking over cup No. 3, all three balls are found together under it, and while the spectators are being astonished, ball No 2 can be quickly got rid of.

A rather startling termination to this trick can be managed by taking up one of the cups, with its mouth upwards holding the finger and thumb close to its mouth. Then by throwing another cup into it, letting go the first and catching the second, you appear to have thrown the second cup through the first.

7. TO TIE A HANDKERCHIEF ROUND YOUR LEG, AND GET IT OFF WITHOUT UNTYING THE KNOT.

Hold the handkerchief by both ends, lay the center of the handkerchief on your knee, and pass the two ends below, appearing to cross them, but in reality hitching them within each other, as represented in the engraving, which shows the manner in which this is managed. Draw this loop tight, and bring back the ends to the same side on which they were originally, and tie them above. If the loop is properly made, it will stand a good pull. Then, after showing the spectators how firmly it is tied, put your hand under the knot, and by giving it a sharp pull, it will come off.

The engraving represents the manner in which the loop is made, but it must be made considerably smaller than it is shown, or it will be seen. In fact, it ought not to be a loop at all, as it should be almost concealed under the fold of the handkerchief. Do not show this in public until you can tie it with rapidity and precision.

8. THE MAGIC BOND.

Take a piece of string, and tie the two ends together with a weaver's knot, as that holds the best, and arrange it over the fingers, as represented in the engraving. Having done so, let the long loop hang loose, lift both loops off the thumb, draw them forward until the string is quite tight, and then put them behind the hand, by passing them between the second and third fingers. Then pull the part of the string that lies across the roots of the fingers, and the whole affair will come off.

9. THE OLD MAN AND HIS CHAIR.