More Conjuring Part 3

In the meantime you have secured the penny in your pocket and concealed it in your left hand. Open your right hand, showing it is empty, and then show the penny in the other hand. Lower your right hand, the penny in your sleeve will drop into it, and you can pocket it un.o.bserved. Then ask for the loan of a cap and walking-stick. Request some one to hold the stick, while you hold the cap in your left hand. Pick up the penny with your right hand and pretend to place it on the floor. In doing so subst.i.tute the coin attached to the elastic, and, stretching the latter, hold the coin on the floor while you cover it with the cap, and ask the person who has the stick to place its end on the coin through the cap and keep it there until you tell him to move it. Then say, "I command this coin to leave the cap and pa.s.s into Mr. So-and-So's pocket. Move the stick, please, and then lift up the cap." On the removal of the stick the coin will fly under your trouser leg, and, of course, when the cap is lifted it is no longer on the floor. On the person whose name you mentioned putting his hand in his pocket he will find the coin you placed there, which you return to the person from whom you borrowed the penny.

A SUBTLE IMPROMPTU EFFECT WITH A COIN

EFFECT.--A coin dropped down the sleeve is slowly rubbed out through the cloth at the elbow.

REQUISITES.--Two coins exactly alike.

PRESENTATION.--First secretly place one of the coins between the b.u.t.tons at the end of your left coat sleeve. Then stand with your right side towards spectators with the left arm extended, but slightly bent at the elbow. After having the coin examined, proceed to drop it down the sleeve of the extended arm, when it will fall to the elbow, and ask a spectator to feel that it is really there. Proceed by placing thumb of right hand on the side of sleeve toward spectators, and the fingers at the back, and rub the hand up and down the sleeve from the elbow to the cuff, and at the same time secretly gain possession of the coin between the b.u.t.tons and bring it down behind the sleeve towards the elbow. Now with a slow pinching movement bring the coin down between the thumb and fingers and apparently out through the cloth of the sleeve, meanwhile moving the left arm up and down slightly. The coin left in the sleeve can be secretly got away by dropping the arm and allowing it to fall into the hand and then pocketed.

AN ORIGINAL COIN SWINDLE

Palm a halfpenny in your right hand and ask a friend (be sure he _is_ your friend) to lend you a s.h.i.+lling. Pick up a gla.s.s, invert it, and place the borrowed s.h.i.+lling on its bottom. Then ask your friend whether the coin is on the top or bottom of the tumbler. He will naturally look surprised at such a question; and you then say,--"Ah, I see you know the trick." Slide the s.h.i.+lling off the gla.s.s into your right hand, and as your friend holds out his hand to receive it back, drop the concealed halfpenny into it. The chances are ten to one that he will place the coin in his pocket without glancing at it. Unless you really desire to swindle your friend out of elevenpence halfpenny you will, of course, explain to him how he has been "had."

A CROSS

Place seven coins on the table, five in a row and one above and one underneath the centre coin. Then challenge any one to form a cross with these coins by moving two only, all the arms of the cross to have the same number of coins. After many attempts and failures show how easy it is to accomplish by taking the two coins at the ends of the row and placing them upon the coin in the centre.

SIMPLE TRICKS WITH HANDKERCHIEFS, RINGS, CANDLES, ETC.

A KNOT THAT CANNOT BE DRAWN TIGHT

Tie a single over-hand knot in a handkerchief, and holding it in your left hand, give one end to some one, telling him to pull at a given signal. As he is about to do so, slip your left thumb underneath and, letting go the end hanging over your left hand, allow the handkerchief to run between your thumb and forefinger, when it will come out without any knot (Fig. 4).

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Fig. 4.

TO TIE AN INSTANTANEOUS KNOT IN A HANDKERCHIEF

Hold the handkerchief in both hands; give it a twist; blow on it, and a knot instantly appears in its centre.

Hold the handkerchief as shown in Fig. 5.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Fig. 5.

Then while in the act of blowing on it bring the hands together quickly, throw the end _a_, held in the right hand, between the two middle fingers of the left hand and over _b_; at the same time grasp _b_ between the two middle fingers of the right hand (Fig. 6); pull _a_ under _b_ with the left hand and _b_ under _a_ with your right, and the knot is made. With practice you will be able to do this imperceptibly.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Fig. 6.

HALF A BURNT MESSAGE FOUND RESTORED IN A CANDLE

Procure two candles and from one cut one-third off, in which piece drill a hole lengthwise and remove the wick. Put this piece in your pocket and place the other candle in a candlestick. Give a small piece of paper to a member of the company and request him to write a short sentence on it.

Tear the paper in two, and giving him half, retain the other half yourself, which you fold up. Have a similar piece of paper, folded, concealed in your right hand, and as you turn to get the candle (which should be lighted), subst.i.tute one for the other. Burn the plain piece of paper in the candle, and obtaining the piece of candle from your pocket put your hands behind your back, and, having rolled up the half message, work it into the hole in the piece of candle. In order to gain the time to do this stoop over the lighted candle and make several unsuccessful attempts to blow it out. When the paper is in the piece of candle give one good hard blow and extinguish the light. With the piece of candle concealed in your left hand, take the candle out of the candlestick, lay it on the table, and with a knife cut off the burnt end, which throw away and divide the remainder into three equal parts.

Then ask the person who wrote the message to select one piece. When he does so pick up the selected piece with your right hand and pretend to transfer it to your left, but retain it in the right and show the piece concealed in your left, which you present to the person who wrote the sentence and request him to pull out the piece of paper, which he will find to be the corresponding half of the piece in his possession.

TWO GOOD RING TRICKS

Take a common ring, about the size of a wedding-ring, and suspend it to the centre of your handkerchief by a piece of cotton four inches long.

You can hold the handkerchief up by the corners with the ring hanging in front of you, and the latter will not be noticed. Then let the handkerchief fall over your left hand and the ring in your palm. Request the loan of a wedding-ring, and, having obtained one, put it under the handkerchief, drop it in your palm, and pick up the other ring, which push up in the centre of the handkerchief, requesting some one to hold it there. Next take a drinking-gla.s.s in your right hand and request the person to drop the ring in it and the handkerchief over it. Shake the gla.s.s, and the ring will be heard to rattle inside. Then stand the gla.s.s in the palm of your left hand with its bottom over the borrowed ring, which is concealed there. With your right hand pinch the centre of the handkerchief and lift it up quickly, of course, carrying the suspended ring with it, being very careful not to let the ring strike the gla.s.s.

The gla.s.s is seen to be empty; lift it up and show the ring underneath.

Say, "You see, the ring has pa.s.sed through the bottom of the tumbler."

A similar and a better trick can be performed with a short cane--say about eighteen inches long--instead of a gla.s.s. Commence as in the previous trick, and after you have asked some one to hold the suspended ring through the handkerchief, show the cane, and, holding your left hand back upward, push it through the latter and the borrowed ring, and grasp the cane with, of course, the ring on it, in the centre. With your right hand take the ring and handkerchief from the person who holds them, and request him to take hold of each end of the cane. Now lower the handkerchief until it hides your left hand, when you must move the latter away, leaving the ring on the cane concealed by the handkerchief.

Then let the suspended ring fall out of the handkerchief, and if it strikes the cane so much the better. Whip the handkerchief away, and the ring on the cane will be seen. How that ring could have got on the cane while the ends of the latter were being held will puzzle everybody.

Pocket the handkerchief with the suspended ring at once, and don't allow it to be examined.

SIMPLE ARITHMETICAL PROBLEMS

TO ASCERTAIN A NUMBER THOUGHT OF

Every schoolboy knows the old puzzle: Think of a number; double it; add 10, divide by 2, subtract number thought of; and 5 left. Here is a great improvement upon that problem, which I have seen puzzle some excellent accountants.

Think of a number; multiply by 3; if the result is odd, add 1 and divide by 2; multiply by 3; if result be odd, add 1, and again divide by 2. By how many 9's is the result divisible?

On receipt of that information you at once give the number thought of.

One of the most puzzling features of the trick is that no 9's are obtainable in the result should either 1, 2, or 3 be thought of, as the following will show:--

Number thought of 1 2 3 multiply by 3 3 3 --- --- 3 9 Add 1 1 --- --- --- Divide by 2 4 6 10 2 3 5 Multiply by 3 3 3 --- --- 9 15 Add 1 1 --- --- --- Divide by 2 6 10 16 3 5 8

As will be seen, none of these results is divisible by 9, yet the number thought of is correctly given in each instance.

SOLUTION.--When the number thought of is multiplied by 3, you ask the question, "Is the result odd or even?" If the answer is "odd," make a mental note of _one_; then proceed. "Add one and divide by two. Is the result odd or even?" If the answer is again "odd," make a mental note of _two_; and proceed. "Add one and divide by two. How many nines are obtainable in the result? I do not want to know what the surplus is."

The above figures ill.u.s.trate that when 1 is the number thought of there is only an addition of 1. When 2 is the figure, no addition is required to the first result; but the second result being 9, 1 is added and _two_ noted, which, of course, is the figure thought of. When 3 is thought of two additions are necessary, one to the 9 and one to the 15, making a total of _three_ to be remembered, which represents the original number.

When 4 or any succeeding number is thought of the final result is always divisible by 9, and in your mental calculation each 9 must represent 4, to which you add the figures you have previously noted.

EXAMPLES.

Number thought of 4 3 = 12 2 = 6 3 = 18 2 = 9.

Here we have one 9, which represents 4, the number thought of.

Number thought of 7 3 = 21 + 1 = 22 2 = 11 3 = 33 + 1 = 34 2 = 17. From which is obtainable only one 9, which represents 4, to which you add 1 for the first addition of 1, and 2 for the second addition, making a total of 7, the number thought of.