Part 23

The conjurer should dispense with all grotesque attire, ordinary evening or morning dress being ample. He should also do without confederates in the audience and assistants on the stage or platform, but an assistant behind the scenes will sometimes be very necessary. Showing off merely mechanical or automatic tricks is to be avoided. Many of them are very wonderful, but the whole credit of them is due to their inventors. As a general rule, the _Magician's Wand_ and the _Magician's Table_ are all the materials needed for the practice of conjuring sufficient to amuse a friendly audience in a drawing-room for an hour or more. The _wand_ in itself is of no real use, but it serves as a means of directing the attention of the audience away from the hands of the performer, when it is judiciously placed upon or removed from the table, or when pointed at some particular object. It should be a tapering stick or ruler, from a foot to a foot and a half in length. The _table_ may or may not be specially prepared, but it should be a few inches higher than an ordinary table, in order that the operator may stand at it, and if necessary place his hand behind and below, without stooping or appearing to arrange anything under it; a drawer or cloth judiciously placed will sometimes be necessary. With these general remarks we will proceed with our programme, giving first a few

SIMPLE DECEPTIONS AND MINOR TRICKS.

EATABLE CANDLE-ENDS.

Punch with a metal tube a few pieces out of some apples; place in one end of each piece a strip of burnt almond, and make the whole look as much like candle-ends as possible. During the entertainment have them brought in, and, lighting them one by one, proceed to explain in the "patter" the relish there is in tallow, and then eat them off as quickly as possible. The almond strips imitating the wick of the candle should be slightly oiled, to make them burn readily. A quick lad will be able easily to extinguish the flame before it reaches his mouth without letting it appear that the flame is extinguished. The imitation candle-ends should _not_ be handed round for inspection; but when the performer is able to make a clever substitution it may be advisable to allow some _real_ candle-ends to be carefully examined.

The instructions as to _How to Swallow a Flame_ come in appropriately here. On putting the candle or other lighted object to the mouth, breathe strongly inwards; the flame will then enter the mouth without touching or scorching the lips, and as the lips close will become extinguished.

TO PULL A STRING THROUGH A BUTTON-HOLE.

Tie together the ends of a piece of string about two feet long; pass it thus tied through a button-hole of the performer's coat; hitch each end on to one or other of the thumbs, catch up with the little fingers the upper strings on the thumbs of the opposite hand; then stretching out the hands will have the effect of giving the string a very complicated appearance. If the hold of the right thumb and left little finger, or _vice versâ_, be then loosed, and the hands smartly separated, the string will come away from, and seem as though it had passed through, the substance of the coat.

THE CUT STRING RESTORED.

Take a piece of string about four feet long; hold the ends, points upwards, between the first and second finger and thumb of the left hand and the first finger and thumb of the right hand, letting the remainder of the string hang down in a loop; then bring the right hand close to the left, crossing at right angles that end of the cord held in the left hand, and continue to pull until half the length of the string has passed the left hand, at the same time slipping the third finger of the left hand between the two parts of the string. The first finger and thumb of the right hand should then seize the string at a point just below the little finger of the left hand, the third finger of that hand at the same time drawing back the string towards the palm of the hand. The part of the string now held horizontally between the two hands is only the continuation of the end held in the left hand, although it will appear to be the middle of the string. This piece of the string some one of the audience should be invited to cut, and thus apparently cut the string in half, although in fact he will only be cutting off two or three inches. Place all the ends of the string between the teeth, withdraw the short piece with the tongue, and show the remainder--apparently the string as it was at the commencement. Of course, the string must not be measured, or the trick will be detected. Some little practice will be needed before the necessary arrangement of the string can be neatly made.

THE MUSICAL SNAIL.

A common garden snail may be made to perform musical sounds by making it crawl along a pane of glass placed on rests like a sounding-board; the sounds emitted will be something like those of a harmonium.

TO EXTRACT A CORK FROM A BOTTLE WITHOUT TOUCHING THE CORK.

Fill a bottle full of water or other liquid, and cork it so tightly that the bottom of the cork is flush with the liquid. Wrap the bottle round at the bottom with a thick cloth, and knock it against some immovable object. The motion of the water acting as a solid body should force out the cork.

THE BOTTLE FOUNTAIN.

Force a glass tube, one end of which is a trifle larger than the other end, through the stopper of a bottle, with the small end of the tube upwards. The bottle should be about two-thirds full of water, and the tube should reach nearly, but not quite, to the bottom. Blow with considerable force down the tube, and on quickly removing the mouth the water will spurt out, forming a fountain of spray so long as any water remains in the bottle.

TO PLACE WINE UNDER A HAT, AND TO DRINK IT WITHOUT TOUCHING THE HAT.

Cover a glass of wine over with a hat placed on an ordinary table, and say that you will drink the wine without touching the hat. As a preliminary, impress upon the company the necessity of every one abstaining from touching the hat; then get under the table, and pretend from there to drink the wine by sucking it through the table. After getting up, request some person (who will not be likely to refuse) to remove the hat, in order to ascertain whether the wine has disappeared. Immediately upon this being done, take up the glass and swallow its contents, claiming to have drunk the wine without lifting the hat. Of course this deception should not be practised more than once before the same audience.

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CARD TRICKS AND COMBINATIONS.

For Parlour Magic a pack of cards will be found the source of endless amusement and variety. For the sleight-of-hand card tricks considerable practice is needed before they can be performed neatly and cleverly, so as to prevent the detection of the trick. To _palm a card_, to _make the pass_, to _force a card_, to _make a false shuffle_, to _sight a card_, are necessary accomplishments for the conjurer to learn and practise. As a general rule, it will be found more convenient to exhibit card tricks with a piquet pack of cards, or with an ordinary pack from which have been thrown out the twos, threes, fours, fives, and sixes; the pack so reduced can more readily be palmed; indeed, for a lad whose hand has not attained its full size, the reduction of the pack from fifty-two cards is absolutely necessary.

TO PALM A CARD.

This consists in bringing a card from the general pack into the hollow of the hand and keeping it there unperceived. The card it is desired to palm should first be brought to the top of the pack; hold the pack, with the faces of the cards downwards, in the left hand, covering the pack with the right hand. Push the card to be palmed until it projects beyond the edge of the pack; with the third finger of the left hand press the card upwards into the right hand, which should be half closed over it. Slightly bend the card, and it will lie snugly curved up against the inside of the hand. The better to prevent detection, then take the pack of cards between the finger and thumb of the right hand and offer it to be shuffled. If the palmed card is not known by the performer this will give him an opportunity of seeing it. The mere motion of taking the pack into the hand will give sufficient opportunity to return the palmed card into the pack. The possessor of a large hand with long fingers may in this way, if necessary, palm a whole pack of cards, and so enable him to increase very considerably his repertoire of card tricks.

TO MAKE THE PASS.

No one should attempt conjuring tricks with cards until he has thoroughly mastered this sleight; it requires a good deal of practice to perform it neatly and without risk of detection. Its object is to reverse the respective positions of the top and bottom halves of the pack. There are various methods of producing this result, some requiring the use of both hands and some of one hand only. Upon the instructions here given the plan may be varied after experience has been gained, but M. Robert Houdin states that at least an hour a day for a fortnight should be devoted to practising the "pass" before the conjurer appears before an audience. At any rate, it is useless to attempt card-conjuring until the "pass" has been mastered. The following description of how to make the pass is derived from Hoffmann's translation of Houdin's account of the trick:--The cards are to be held in the left hand, with the faces downwards, and between the two cards at which the pass is to be made the tip of the little finger is to be inserted; then cover the whole pack with the right hand, and at the same time take between the middle finger and thumb of that hand the opposite ends of the cards forming the lower portion of the pack; with the little and middle fingers of the left hand draw away and make the upper packet pass under the lower packet of cards. The whole trick will, after practice, be done easily, lightly, noiselessly, and in less than a second. The different motions here separately described will have to be done simultaneously, and with such rapidity that no motion of the cards should be apparent.

TO FORCE A CARD.

This means that when offering a pack to one of the audience for him to draw from it any card he chooses he is made to draw that card which the performer wants. The trick, although of some difficulty to perform successfully, is really more dependent upon mental address than upon manipulation. The card to be forced should be placed either at the top or the bottom of the pack, and by a cut brought into the middle of the pack, and should be held by the little finger, as explained in making the pass, immediately above that finger. Proceed with the pack closed to some one of the audience, requesting that a card may be taken, at the same time spreading the whole pack out fan-wise, and very slightly pushing forward the card to be taken. In all probability the card offered will be taken, owing to its being slightly more prominent than the rest; but if it seems that any other card is about to be selected close the pack up, appear to cut it again, and make the offer a second time. Be very careful not to spread out the cards until the invitation to take one has been given--so long as the pack is closed a card cannot readily be removed--but immediately upon giving the invitation spread the whole pack out, slightly advancing the desired card as instructed. If by inadvertence the wrong card is allowed to be taken, the mistake may be remedied by forcing the desired one upon some other person. The card to be forced should not be held, while all the other cards should be tightly secured in one or other of the performer's hands. The readiness with which the forced card may be removed will imperceptibly act as an inducement to its removal. If, on the other hand, the wrong card should be taken--and from the nature of the trick it is unadvisable to force the right card upon a second person--let the card taken be again placed in the pack; palm it in accordance with the instructions given as to palming a card, and manage then, unperceived, to get a sight of it, when it may answer all the purposes that the card it was desired to force would have answered.

TO SIGHT A CARD.

As stated above, it is sometimes necessary to sight a given card, and this has to be done in the presence of, but yet altogether unknown to, the spectators. The following plan will generally be found to succeed:--Slip the little finger, as in making the pass, under the card that it is desired to look at, bend the top half of the pack upwards and the bottom half downwards, so that in a modified degree they make two packs, bent in a concave form, thus:--[Illustration]. The cards may then readily and openly be cut at the desired point, and a careless wave of the hand holding the pack will enable the performer to get the necessary sight of the desired card. Houdin's instruction on this point is apparently simpler, but we think more difficult to attain by an inexperienced performer. After instructing as to the position of the little finger, he says that the pack should be opened at that point with extreme rapidity, and the card ascertained by a swift glance. This method undoubtedly is better, if it can be safely performed without detection; but the rapidity of motion and the swiftness of the glance will be difficulties not easily overcome by an amateur magician.

THE FALSE SHUFFLE.

This is a movement intended to neutralise suspicions that may be held by spectators to the effect that the cards are retained in a pre-arranged order. There are several kinds of false shuffles, but the performer must use his discretion as to which he adopts. Generally speaking, however, it is only one, or at most a few cards that it is desired not to lose sight of, and then the neatest so-called _false shuffle_ will be that which permits the pack, as a whole, to be genuinely shuffled, while the card or cards to be kept in view are retained in one position in the pack, secured either at the top or bottom of the pack, or the place where they may be found may be designated by means of the little finger, as in making the pass.

Clumsy performers who find a difficulty in mastering the above preliminaries of card-conjuring sometimes make use of what is called the _Long Card_.

THE LONG CARD.

This is a card either a trifle longer or wider, or both longer and wider, than the remainder of the pack; the difference being such that, although readily distinguishable by the touch of the performer, it is not perceptible to the eye of the spectator. To make the long card, have the whole pack, excepting one card, slightly shaved down at a book-binder's; this can be done in a second by placing the cards in a book-binder's cutting machine. The use of the long card should, however, be as much as possible avoided: it encourages the use of mechanical appliances, when a little diligence will overcome all difficulties by sleight-of-hand. Remember, as the penny showman announces at country fairs, that "The true Hart of Conjuring is to make the And of the performer deceive the Heye of the spectator."

TO GUESS A CARD THOUGHT OF.

This trick can only be successfully performed by introducing it apparently in a casual manner between tricks of an altogether different nature. Spread out the cards in such a manner that when they are held with their faces towards the audience one card only is entirely exposed to view. Shuffle them about freely, with the faces of the cards turned continually towards the audience, and request a person in the company to take a mental note of one of the cards. The probability is that the majority of those present would fix upon just that card that has been throughout completely exposed to view. Suppose, for example, it is the jack of hearts. When one of the audience has expressed himself as having mentally selected a card, shuffle the pack, carefully keeping in view the jack of hearts by using the false shuffle already described. Flourish the cards well about, and finally pick out the jack of hearts, apparently as a card taken at random. Refrain from looking at its face in the presence at any rate of the audience, and place it back uppermost on the table. Again select a card to be noted by the audience, and proceed as before, until three or four cards have been placed upon the table. Then request the company present who have selected cards to name them, and as they do so pick up the respective cards named from the table. In nine cases out of ten, with an audience with whom this trick is not familiar, all will proceed smoothly; and a performer may generally rest satisfied that if the trick should be known to two or three in an ordinary drawing-room audience, they will keep silence, to ensure a due share of credit to the performer and amusement to the rest of the spectators. In the event, however, of a card other than the one desired having been selected, at once, but politely, insinuate that the memory of the spectator may perhaps be deficient, take up the wrong card, and, while continuing with some appropriate talk or "patter," shuffle the cards as if at random, keeping the wrong card conspicuously in view of the audience until sight is obtained of the correct card; palm it at once, or keep it in view until it can be brought out apparently at random, and changed for the wrong card in such a way that the change shall not be seen. Then, still insisting upon the defective memory of the spectator, say that for his satisfaction the necessary change has been made. If this part of the trick be cleverly done, it is generally as effective as when all goes smoothly, it being evidently easier to select by chance a proper card than to change the spots or designation of one card into the spots or designation of another; besides which, it often is the cause of raising a laugh in the performer's favour, which will be of material assistance in the event of any subsequent trick not going off altogether satisfactorily.

This trick is usually done with a portion of a pack picked up at random, necessitating the spectator fixing on a card seen rather than on any card in an ordinary pack.

TO SHOW THE FIVE CARDS FIVE DIFFERENT PERSONS HAVE SELECTED.

This is a clever variety of the above trick, or rather, the above is a variety of this. On the top of the pack the performer should put any card the designation of which he knows--suppose, again, the jack of hearts; make the _pass_, bring that card to the middle of the pack, and _force_ it upon some person to whom the pack is offered from which to draw a card. Take the card back, without, of course, looking at it, and again repeat the process until the same card has been _forced_ upon five or more different persons. The persons asked to draw the cards in this trick should be placed at some distance from each other, and each should be requested not to make known to any one the card drawn. This is necessary to prevent the audience from suspecting that a particular card is being _forced_, but the reason given may be attributed to sharp hearing on the part of the performer, or some other equally plausible tale may be invented. Shuffle the whole pack, without, however, losing sight of the _forced_ card, and deliberately select four cards in addition to the _forced_ card, or sufficient cards to agree with the number of persons upon whom the card has been _forced_. Place the cards selected face downwards on a table, and when all are placed pick them up, hold them fan-wise towards the audience, and ask each person alternately whether the card he selected is not held out. Of course all will answer "Yes." To prevent conversation on the subject of this trick, proceed at once to some other, prefacing it with some such observation as, "By a careful attention to the movements of my hands, the audience will probably detect the secret of the clever little trick I am about to exhibit." Then show off some very familiar trick in as roundabout a way as possible, until the jack of hearts is probably forgotten.

TO TELL THE CARD THOUGHT OF OUT OF THIRTY-FIVE EXPOSED CARDS.

Deal out thirty-five cards, faces uppermost, in seven packs of five cards in each pack; and when all are placed, desire some person to select and mentally note any one of the cards dealt out, and to state in which pack it is situated. We will suppose the card selected is stated to be in the third pack of seven cards. Pick the cards up in order, row by row, and proceed to deal them out again in the same order as that in which they were picked up, but placing them this time in five packs of seven cards in each pack, placing one card alternately on each pack, and then again ask in which pack the selected card is to be found. The card selected should be the third card in the pack designated--that is to say, in the second dealing the card should be in the pack at the number corresponding with the number of the pack in which it was placed after the first deal. To confuse the spectators, the packs, after the first dealing, may be picked up out of the proper order, so long as the performer bears in mind in what order the pack containing the selected card is picked up. This trick can hardly claim to rank as a conjuring trick; it is nothing but a combination of cards, but it may fairly be shown in an amateur entertainment of parlour magic. As one merit of such combinations is their variety, we proceed with others of a similar nature, again enforcing the hint that no trick or combination should be shown twice in succession. If the above should be called for a second time, show instead one of the following.

TO TELL THE CARD THOUGHT OF WHEN THE NUMBER OF CARDS IS NOT FIXED, BUT WHEN IT IS SOME NUMBER DIVISIBLE BY THREE.