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Tricks Requiring Special Apparatus: Into

You have a cardboard measure, which is of precisely the same capacity as the cavity in the bell, and just wide enough to hold a farthing. Into this you privately put a farthing, and then fill up the measure with shot, heaping it a little, to compensate for the farthing. You make up a tale about a man going out shooting, and ringing the bell of the gunmaker's shop. (You then ring your wooden bell.) How the man bought a measure full of shot for a far thing, (you pour the shot into the bell and back again two or three times,) but was so long haggling over three shots, that the gunmaker took away the shot, (here you again pour the shot into the bell, and by pressing on the handle, allow them all to run into the hollow,) and kept the farthing for his trouble. The man went out of the shop, but soon came in again, and rang furiously. (Here you again ring the bell, which is now apparently empty, and invert the measure on the table. The farthing not being held by the finger and thumb will now fall on the tablecloth.) Then finish the story with an account of the manner in which the man got back his farthing. When you have finished, invert the bell over the empty measure, and on pressing the handle, the shots will refill it. Do not touch it until you have done another trick or two, and then, when you put the bell aside, ring it again, and remark that the purchaser was a silly fellow after all, for here are his shots in his measure. 32. THE BURNED HANDKERCHIEF RESTORED.

Get a tinman to make a double canister, such as is shown in the cut, with an opening at each end. This must so slide within a tin tube, that either end can be concealed within it alternately, as seen in the engraving, where the end A is shown, and B is concealed. In this position it looks like an ordinary canister. The interior is divided into two parts. Into B put a piece of cambric made to look like a handkerchief.

Borrow a cambric handkerchief, and say, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, I shall burn this handkerchief to ashes, place them in this canister" (so saying, you put it into A), "and when I have uttered a spell, it will be restored perfectly whole. Will the owner say what mark it has?" While the audience are looking towards the owner, you turn the canister over, and push up the canister until the shoulder of B is on a level with the top of the tube. When the mark has been declared, you open B, take out the cambric, and pretend to verify the mark. You then put it into a candle flame, and when it has burnt entirely to ashes, put the ashes into B, shut it up, and rapidly reverse it as you turn round to your audience, so that A is uppermost again. Then, utter any nonsense you like, open A and take out the handkerchief uninjured. It rather adds to the trick if you drop a little eau de cologne into A before commencing. 33. THE FIRE-EATER.

If the young conjuror is desirous of appearing in the character of a fire-cater, it is very easily managed. He must prepare a piece of thick string, by soaking it in a solution of nitre, and then drying it. He cuts off a piece about an inch in length, lights one end, and wraps it up in a piece of tow which he holds in his left hand. The trifling smoke will be concealed by a huge bundle of loose tow also carried in the left hand. He takes a handful of tow in his right hand, puts it into his mouth, cnews it up, and appears to swallow it. He then takes another handful, and with it the piece in which is the string. As he puts this into his mouth, he takes out the piece which he has already chewed. By taking breath through the nostrils, and breathing it out through the mouth, smoke begins to issue forth, and the whole interior of the mouth is soon lighted up with a glow. When the mouth is shut, and the tow pressed together, the tire goes out, except the piece of prepared string. More tow is then taken into the mouth, and treated in the same manner. In this short account of conjuring, I have purposely avoided such tricks as require expensive apparatus. Such apparatus is either entirely beyond a boy's reach, or at all events he ought not to be encouraged in the notion of spending much money on objects of no real use. A boy of any ingenuity will make the greater part of the apparatus himself, or at least he can do the painting and polishing of his machinery. I have mentioned no machinery that need cost more than two or three shillings at the outside, and not that, if a boy is acquainted with the use of tools.