CONVEYANCE OF MONEY, &c.
The conveyance of money is not much inferior to the tricks with Cups and Balls, but much easier to perform. The principal place to hold the coin is the palm of the hand; and the best piece to play with is a sixpence. But, by practice, all coins will be alike, unless they are very small, and then they must be kept between the fingers, almost at the fingers’ ends; whereas the ball is to be kept below, near the palm. The coin ought never to be too large, as that will considerably impede the clever conveyance of it.
Hold open your right hand and lay therein a sixpence, and on the top of it place the top of your left middle finger, which press hard upon it, at the same time using hard words. Then suddenly draw away your right hand from the left, seeming to have left the coin there, and shut your hand cleverly, as if it still were there. That this may appear to have been truly done, take a knife, and seem to knock against it, so as to make a great sound. This is a pretty trick, and, if well managed, both the eye and ear are deceived at the same time.
Another way to deceive the lookers-on is to do as before, with a sixpence, and, keeping a counter in thepalm of your left hand, secretly, seem to put the sixpence therein, which being retained still in the right hand, when the left hand is opened, the sixpence will seem to be turned into a counter.
He that hath once attained to the faculty of retaining one piece of money in his right hand may show a hundred pleasant deceits by that means, and may manage two or three as well as one. Thus, you may seem to put one piece into your left hand, and, retaining it still in your right, you may, together therewith, take up another like piece, and so, with words, seem to bring both pieces together. A great variety of tricks may be shown in juggling with money.
You take two sixpences evenly set together, and put the same, instead of one sixpence, into a stranger’s hand, and then, making as though you put one sixpence into your own hand, with words, you make it seem that you convey the sixpence in your own into the stranger’s hand; for, when you open your said left hand, there shall be nothing seen, and he, opening his hand, shall find two sixpences, which he thought was but one.
To keep a sixpence between your fingers serves especially for this and such like purposes: hold your hand, and cause one to lay a sixpence upon the palm thereof, then shake the same up almost to your finger’s end, and putting your thumb upon it, you may easily, with a little practice, convey the edge betwixt the middle and fore-finger whilst you proffer to put it into your other hand (provided always that the edge appears not through the fingers, on the back side); take up another sixpence, which you may cause another stander-by to lay down, and put them both together, either closely, instead of one into a stranger’s hand, or keep them stillin your own hand, and, after some words spoken, open your hands, and, there being nothing in one hand, and both pieces in the other, the beholders will wonder how they came together.
You may, with the middle or ring finger of the right hand, convey a sixpence into the palm, with the same hand, and, seeming to cast it away, keep it still, which, with confederacy, will seem strange: to wit, when you find it again, where another has placed the like piece. But these things cannot be done without practice; therefore. I will proceed to show how things may be brought to pass with less difficulty, and yet as strange as the rest, which, being unknown, are much commended; but, being known, are derided, and nothing at all regarded.
A juggler takes a sixpence and throws it into a pot, or lays it on the middle of a table, and, with enchanted words, causes the same to leap out of a pot, or run towards him or from him along the table, which seems miraculous till you know how it is done, which is thus: Take a long black hair of a woman’s head, fasten it to the rim of a sixpence, by means of a little hole driven through the same with a Spanish needle. In like sort you may use a knife or any small thing; but if you would have it go from you, you must have a confederate, by which means all juggling is graced and amended.
This feat is the stranger if it be done by night, a candle being placed between the spectators and the juggler, for by that means their eyes are hindered from discerning the deceit.
A juggler will sometimes borrow a sixpence and mark it before you, and seem to put the same in the middle of a white handkerchief, and wind it so as you may the better see and feel it; then he will take the handkerchiefand bid you feel whether the sixpence be there or no; and he will also require you to put the same under a candlestick, or some such like thing; then he will send for a basin of water, and, holding the same under the table, right against the candlestick, he will use certain words of enchantment, and, in short, you shall hear the sixpence fall into the basin. This done, let one take off the candlestick, and the juggler take the handkerchief by a tassel and shake it; but the money is gone, which seems as strange a feat as any whatsoever, but, being known, the miracle is turned to a jest; for it is nothing else but to sew a sixpence into a corner of the handkerchief, finely covered with a piece of linen a little bigger than your sixpence, which corner you must convey, instead of the sixpence given you, into the middle of your handkerchief, leaving the other in your hand or lap, which afterwards you seem to pull through the table, letting it fall into the basin.
This is done by confederacy: he that lays it down, says, “What is it?” and that is a sign it is a head; or he says, “What is it now?” and that is a sign it is a woman: cross and pile in silver is done the same way. By confederacy, divers strange things are done: thus, you may throw a piece of money into a pond, and bid a boy go to such a secret place where you have hid it, and he will bring it, and make them believe it is the same that you threw into the pond, and no other.
So let a confederate take a shilling and put it under a candlestick on a table a good distance from you; then you must say, “Gentlemen, you see this shilling;” then take your hand and knock it under the table, and convey it into your pocket; then say, “The shilling is gone; but look under such a candlestick and you will find it.”
To do this, you must employ a tinman to make holes, with room enough for a die to go in and out, and let him clap a good halfpenny upon them all, and so make them fast, that nobody can tell them from true ones.Then get a cap to cover your halfpence, also a cap and a die for the company to fling, to amuse them; when you are thus provided, the manner of performing is thus:—Desire any body in the company to lend you seven halfpence, telling them that they will soon be returned; then say, “Gentlemen, this is made just fit for your money;” then clapping your cap on, desire somebody in the company to fling that die, and, in so doing, take off the cap, and convey your false money into it, so that the company may not see you put it in; then with your cap cover the die, while with your right hand you take up the true money, and put it into the left under the table, saying, “Vado, begone; I command the die to be gone, and the money to come in the place;” so take up the cap, and the die is gone, and the money is come. Having covered the money again with the cap, taking the true money with your right hand, and knocking under the table, also making a jingling, as though the money was coming through the table, fling them on the table, and say, “There is the money,” and, with your right hand, take off the cap, saying, “And there is the die;” so convey the false money into your lap, and there is the cap likewise.
You must get a box turned with two lids (one must be a false one), and there put the counter, so that it may rattle; and you must have a small peg or button to your box, to hinder the counter from jingling, and at the bottom of the box you must have half a notch made, just fit for a sixpence to come out. So, to perform this feat, you must desire any body to lend you a sixpence, and to mark it with whatever mark he may please; then let him put it into the box himself; afterwards put the cover on, and, by shaking the box, the sixpence will come into your hand, when you may dispose of it as you please.
Blow on a sixpence, and immediately clap it into one of the spectator’s hands, telling him to hold it fast; then ask him if he is sure he has it. He, to be certain, will open his hand and look. Then say to him, “Nay, butif you let my breath go off, I cannot do it.” Then take it out of his hand again, blow on it, and, staring him in the face, clap a piece of horn in his hand, and retain the sixpence, shutting his hand yourself. Bid him hold his hand down, and slip the sixpence into one of his cuffs; then say, “I command the money you hold in your hand to vanish; Vade, now see.” When they have looked, they will think it is changed by virtue of your stone. Then take the horn again, and say, “Vade;” and then say, “You have your money again.” He then will begin to marvel, and say, “I have not.” Then say to him again, “You have; and I am sure you have got it: is it not in your hand? If it be not there, turn down one of your sleeves, for it is in one, I am sure;” where he, finding it, will not a little wonder.
Desire some person in company to lend you a gold ring, recommending him at the same time to make a mark on it, that he may know it again. Have a gold ring of your own, which you are to fasten by a small piece of catgut string to a watch-barrel, which must be sewn to the left sleeve of your coat. Take in your right hand the ring that will be given you: then, taking with dexterity, near the entrance of your sleeve, the other ring fastened to the watch-barrel, draw it to the fingers’ ends of your left hand, taking care nobody perceives it. During this operation, hide between the fingers of your right hand the ring that has been lent to you, and fasten it dexterously on a little hook, sewed on purpose on your waistcoat, near your hips, and hid by your coat.
You will, after that, show your ring, which you hold in your left hand; then ask the company on which finger of the other hand they wish it to pass. During this interval, and as soon as the answer has been given, put the before-mentioned finger on the little hook, in order to slip on it the ring; at that moment let go the other ring, by opening your fingers. The spring which is in the watch-barrel, not being confined longer, will contract and make the ring slip under thesleeve without any body perceiving it, not even those who hold your arms: as, their only attention being to prevent your hands from communicating, they will let you make the necessary motions. These must be very quick, and always accompanied by stamping of the foot.
After this operation, show the assembly that the ring is come on the other hand; make them remark that it is the same that had been lent to you, or that the mark is right. Much dexterity must be made use of to succeed in this entertaining trick, that the deception may not be suspected.
Take a groat, or a smaller piece of money, and grind it very thin on one side; then take two counters, and grind them, the one on one side, and the other on the other side; glue the smooth side of the groat to the smooth side of the counter, joining them as close together as possible, especially at the edges, which may be so filed that they shall seem to be but one piece; to wit, one side a counter and the other side a groat. Then take a little green wax, for that is softest, and therefore best, and lay it on the smooth side of the counter, as it does not much discolour the groat; and so will that counter, with the groat, cleave together as though they were glued, and, being filed even with the groat and the other counter, it will seem so perfectly like an entire counter, that, though a stranger handle it, he cannot betray it; then, having a little touched your fore-finger, and the thumb of your right hand, with soft wax, take therewith this counterfeit counter, and lay it openly upon the palm of your left hand, wringing the same hard, so as you may leave the glued counter with the groat apparently in the palm of your left hand, and the smooth side of the waxed counter will stick fast upon your thumb, by reason of the wax wherewith it is smeared: and so you may hide it at your pleasure (always be sure to lay the waxed side downward, and the glued side upward); then close your hand, and, in or after closing thereof, turn the piece, and so, instead of a counter, which they suppose to be in your hand, you shall seem to have a groat, to theastonishment of the beholders, if it be well handled. The juggler must not leave any of his tricks wanting for hard and break-jaw words.
Put a little red wax, not too much, upon the nail of your longest finger; then let a stranger put a two-penny piece into the palm of your hand, and shut your fist suddenly, and convey the two-penny piece upon the wax, which, with use, you may so accomplish, as no man shall perceive it; then, and in the meantime, use words of course, and suddenly open your hand; hold the tips of your fingers rather lower than the palm of your hand, and the beholders will wonder where it is gone; then shut your hand suddenly again, and lay a wager whether it be there or no, and you may either leave it there or take it away at pleasure. This, if it be well handled, hath more admiration than any other feat of the hand.—Note: This may be best done by putting the wax upon the two-penny piece, but then you must put it into your hand yourself.
Stick a little wax upon your thumb, and take a bystander by the fingers, showing him the sixpence, and telling him you will put the same into his hand; then wring it down hard with your waxed thumb, and, using many words, look him in the face, and, as soon as you perceive him look in your face, or on your hand, suddenly take away your thumb, and close his hand, and it will seem to him that the sixpence remains. If you wring a sixpence upon one’s forehead, it will seem to stick when it is taken away, especially if it be wet; then cause him to hold his hand still, and, with speed, put out into another man’s hand, or into your own, two sixpences instead of one, and use words of course, whereby you shall make the spectators believe, when they open their hands, that, by enchantment, you have brought both together.
It is necessary to mingle some merry pranks among your grave miracles, as, in this case of money, to take a shilling in each hand, and, holding your arms abroad, to lay a wager that you will bring them both into one hand without bringing them any nearer together; the wager being laid, hold your arms abroad, like a rod, and, turning about with your body, lay the shilling out of one of your hands, upon the table, and, turning to the other hand, so you shall win your wager.
Take a sheet of paper, and fold or double the same, so as one side be a little longer than the other; then put a counter between the two sides of the leaves of the paper, up to the middle of the top of the fold; hold the same so as it be not perceived, and lay a sixpence on the outside thereof, right against the counter, and fold it down to the end of the longer side. When you have unfolded it again, the sixpence will be where the counter was, so that some will suppose you have transformed the money into a counter; and with this many tricks may be done.
Take two papers, three inches square each, divided into two folds, of three equal parts on either side, so as each folded paper remains one inch square; then glue the back side of the two together, as they are folded, and not as they are opened, and so shall both papers seem to be but one, and, which side soever you open, it shall appear to be the same, if you have handsomely done the bottom, as you may well do with your middle finger, so that, if you have a sixpence in one hand, and a counter in the other, you show but one, and you may, by turning the paper, seem to change it; this is best performed by putting it under a candlestick or a hat, and, with words, seem to do the feat, which is by no means an inferior one.
A watch is borrowed from one of the company, and, being put into a mortar, another person is shortly after requested to beat it to pieces with a pestle. It is then shown to the company, entirely bruised; in a few minutes the watch is restored entire to its owner, who acknowledges it to be his property. It is easy to devise that, to effect this, the mortar must be placed near a concerted trap, and that it must be covered with a napkin, to afford an opportunity to the confederate to substitute another watch, unperceived by the company. In order to succeed in the illusion of this trick, you must take care to provide yourself with a second watch, somewhat resembling the first in the size, case, &c. which will not be very difficult, as you may either be furnished with a watch by a person with whom the matter is preconcerted, or by addressing yourself to some one whose watch you have before observed, and procured yourself one like it. After having placed all the pieces in the mortar, you must cover them a second time with a napkin, and whilst you amuse the company with some trick or story, you afford time to your confederate to take the bruised pieces away, and replace the first watch in the mortar.