MISCELLANEOUS TRICKS AND EXPERIMENTS.
This pudding must be made of tin, consisting of twelve or thirteen little hoops, round, and in little ringlets, so that they may seem to fall one through another. It must have little holes made at the biggest end, that it may not hurt your mouth: hold this pudding, for so it is called, privately in your left hand, with the hole end uppermost, and with your right hand take a ball out of your pocket, and say, “If there is any old woman that is out of conceit with herself, because her neighbours deem her not so young as she would be thought, let her come to me, for this ball is a present remedy;” then seem to put the ball into your left hand, but let it slip into your lap, and clap the pudding into your mouth, which willbe thought to be the ball that you showed them; then decline your head, and open your mouth, and the pudding will slip down at its full length, which, with your right hand, you may strike into your mouth again; doing this three or four times: then you may discharge it into your hand, and clap it into your pocket without any suspicion, by making three or four wry faces after it, as though it had stuck in your throat; and if you practise smiting easily on your throat, with your fist on each side, the pudding will seem to chink as if it was laying there; then say, “Thus they eat puddings in High Germany; they fling them down their throats before their teeth can take possession of them.”
Take a bit of burnt cork, as big as a pea, and give it the shape of a spider; make its legs with threads of hemp; put a grain of lead into the cork to give it some weight; then hang this artificial spider by a bit of gray sewing silk (that is not twisted), between two bodies, the one electrified, and the other not; or between two bodies endowed with different electricities: it will go and come between these two bodies, and the movement of the legs will be seen as plainly as if it were a living spider.
You must have two rings made of silver or brass, or what you please, of one size, colour, and likeness, saving that one must have a notch through it, and the other must be whole, without a notch; show the whole ring, but conceal that which hath the notch, and say, “Now I’ll put this ring through my cheek,” and privately slip the notch over one side of your mouth; then take a small stick, which you must have in readiness, and slip the whole ring upon it, holding your hand over it about the middle of the stick; then bid somebody hold fast the stick at both ends, and say, “See this ring in my cheek,—it turns round;” then, while you perceive them fasten their eyes upon that ring, on a sudden, whip it out, and smite upon the stick therewith; instantly concealing and whirling the other ring you hold your handover, round about the stick. It will be thought that you have brought that ring upon the stick which was upon your cheek.
To do this, you must have a piece of the same ready in your hand, the sample of that you intend to cut; then, amongst other tricks, clap your hand upon the place you intend to cut. Now drawing the false piece through, cause it to be cut off, and, griping your hand, show the hole from whence the piece came away which is in your hand. This is done by pretending to feel in your pocket for a needle and thread to sew it up again. But, drawing your hand out of your pocket, say “I have no needle, but I have a charm that will do as well;” so, muttering some words, bid them blow upon it, and, pulling your hand from the place, show it entire.
Three eggs are brought out; two of them are put on a table, and the third in a hat; a little cane is borrowed from one of the company, and it is shown about, to convince the spectators there is no preparation. It is then placed across the hat; the hat falls to the ground, and the egg sticks to it as if glued; the orchestra then plays a piece of music, and the egg, as if it was sensible of the harmony, twists about the cane from one end to the other, and continues its motions till the music stops.
Explanation.—The egg is fastened to a thread by a pin, which is put in lengthways; and the hole, which has been made to introduce this pin, is stopped with white wax. The other end of the thread is fastened to the breast of the person who performs this trick, with a pin bent like a hook; the cane, passing under the thread, near to the egg, serves for it to rest on. When the music begins, the performer pushes the cane from left to right, or from right to left; it then appears as if the egg ran along the cane, which it does not, being fastened to its thread; its centre of gravity remains always at the same distance from the hook that holdsit; it is the cane which, sliding along, presents its different points to the surface of the egg.
N. B. To produce the illusion, and persuade the company that it is the egg which carries itself to the different points of the cane, the performer turns a little on his heel; by this means the egg receives a motion, which surprises the spectators, it remaining always at the same distance from the point to which it was fastened.
Take little hollow figures of glass about an inch and a half high, representing little children, or grown-up persons. These may be had of the glass-blowers; and, as they contain a body of air, are lighter than water. Immerse them in water contained in a glass of the followingshape:—
This glass is about a foot or fifteen inches high, and covered with a bladder, which is tied fast over the top; a small quantity of air is to be left between the bladder and surface of the water; so, when you command them to walk down, press your hand hard upon the top, and they will immediately go down. Thus you may make them dance in the middle of the glass, at your pleasure; and, when you would have them go up to the top, take your hand away, when they will go up.
Load your gun with the usual charge of powder, but, instead of shot, put in half a charge of quicksilver: prime and shoot. If your piece bears ever so far from the bird, the swallow will find itself stunned to such a degree, as to fall to the ground in a fit. As it will regain its senses in a few minutes, you may make use of the time, by saying that you are going to bring it to life again. This will greatly astonish the company. The ladies will, no doubt, interest themselves in favour of the bird, and intercede for its liberty;—sympathizing with their feelings for the little prisoner may be the means of some of them sympathizing with yours.
Take a cock from roost at night, or off its walk by day, and bring him into a room full of company; keep both your hands close to his wings; hold them tight: put him on a table, and point his beak down as straight as possible; and then let any one draw a line with a piece of chalk, directly from his beak, and all the noise you can possibly make, with drums, trumpets, or even crowing of other cocks, will not disturb him from the seeming lethargy, which that position you have laid him in, with the chalked line, has effected. Strange as this seems, yet the certainty of it is past a doubt, as many gentlemen who have, ere this, sported some hundreds on the turf, are ready to assert its truth.
You must have a lock made for this purpose, according to the figure; one side of its bow must be immoveable,as that marked A; the other side is noted B, and must be pinned to the body of the lock, as appears at E.
It must be so pinned that it may play to and fro with ease; this side of the bow must have a leg as at B, and then turn it into the lock; this leg must have two notches filed on the inner side, which must be so managed that one may lock or hold the two sides of the bow as close together as possible, and the other notch to hold the said part of the bow a proportionable distance asunder: so that, being locked upon the cheek, it may neither pinch too hard, nor yet hold it so slight that it may be drawn off. Let there be a key fixed to it to unlock it, as you see at D; and, lastly, let the bow havedivers notches filed in it, so that the place of the partition, when the lock is shut home, will the least of all be suspected in the use of the lock. You must now get one to hold a sixpence, edgeways, between his teeth; then take another sixpence, and with your left hand proffer to set it edgeways between a second man’s teeth, pretending that your intent is to turn both into which of their mouths they shall desire, by virtue of your words; which he shall no sooner consent to do, but you, by holding the lock privately in your right hand, with your fore-finger a little down, after certain words, and the lock having hung on a while, may seem to pull the key out of his nose.
Take a hollow bodkin, so that the blade may slip therein as soon as the point is held upwards. Seem to thrust it into your forehead, and, with a little sponge in your hand, bring out blood or wine, making the spectators think that the blood or wine (whereof you may say you have drank very much) runs out of your forehead; then, after showing some appearance of pain, pull away your hand suddenly, holding the point downwards, and it will fall out, and seem never to have been thrust into the haft; but, immediately afterwards, throw that bodkin into your lap or pocket, and pull out another plain one like it, which will completely deceive the spectators.
This trick is to be performed in much the same manner as the former, and, as in the first case, without hurt; if the reader will take the pains to practise this trick, he will be in no more danger of performing one than the other.
To render the deception as complete as possible, proceed as follows:—Make a bodkin, or nail, the blade thereof being cut in the middle, so that one part may not be close to the other, by almost three quarters of aninch, each part being kept asunder by a small crooked piece of iron, of the fashion described in the next trick; then thrust your tongue between the aforesaid place, to wit, into the space left in the bodkin-blade, thrusting the said part behind your teeth, and biting it. It will seem to stick so fast in, and through your tongue, that one can hardly pull it out. You must have another bodkin or nail, just like the false one, to show the company.
You must provide yourself with two knives, a true one and a false one, and let them be so like each other, that no person can tell one from the other. When you go to show this feat to the company, put the true knife into your pocket; then take out the false one, and clap it on your wrist undiscovered. If, with a sponge, you make the knife bloody, it will seem so much the more strange. This is the form of theknife:—
Fix a little bell to the end of a cat’s tail, and let her go; she, feeling the tightness of the string, and hearing the bell jingle, will run up and down as if she were mad, flying against the doors and windows; then, if she can, she will get into some hole to hide herself; but, when she wags her tail ever so little, out she comes, and will be as mad as before, and will never rest till it be off. Walnut shells, fastened with a little warm wax or pitch to the cat’s feet, will make sport all over thehouse; and at night, on the stairs, will make the superstitious think that it is a ghost going up and down.
This is effected by the following simple stratagem:—Take a frog that is alive, and put it at the further end of the calf’s head, under the tongue, which you must let fall all over it, taking care not to put the frog there till the calf’s head is going to be served up. The heat of the tongue will make the frog croak; which sound, coming from the hollow part of the head, will be like the bellowing of a calf, as if it were alive.
Place on the spout of the fountain an inverted cone of wire net-work; throw into it a light hollow copper ball, two inches and a half in diameter, which let fall to the narrow part of the cone to reach the spout: it will rise, and remain suspended in the air till brought down by the wind, and repeatedly re-ascend.
Take a piece of any aromatic resin, or of amber, and set fire to it on an earthen plate. It will emit a smoke of an agreeable smell: hold your watch-seal over the fumigation; it will become black: then melt some sealing-wax, in the usual way, spread it on paper, and apply to it the seal, prepared as above; and, when you take it off, the engraving will be seen very plainly.
In order to prevent the impression from being taken, flatten the sealing-wax with the blade of a knife: this is easily done, by means of making a thick iron plate red hot, and bringing it close to the impression without touching it; the wax then gets soft, but, before it melts, you must flatten it with a knife, or any other cold instrument. Although thus flattened, the exact impression will remain conspicuous.
Have ready a penny-worth of quicksilver in a quill, sealed at both ends with good hard wax; then cause an egg to be boiled, and take off a small bit of the shell of the narrow end, and thrust in your quill of quicksilver, and lay the egg on the ground; you will have sport enough; for it will keep tumbling about as long as there is any heat in it.
This is a noble trick, if it be performed by a skilful hand. To show it to advantage, you must cause a board, a cloth, and a platter to be purposely made, and in each of them to be made holes, for a man’s neck.
The board must be made of two planks, the longer and broader the better; there must be left, within half a yard of the end of each plank, half a hole, so as, both the planks being thrust together, there may remain two holes, like to the holes in a pair of stocks. There must be made likewise a hole in the cloth; a platter, also, must be set directly over or upon one of them, having a hole in the middle thereof, of the like size, and also a piece cut off the same as big as the neck, through which the head may be conveyed into the middle of the platter; and then, sitting or kneeling under the board, let the head only remain upon the board, in the frame. Then, to make the sight more dreadful, put a saucer, containing saffron, common salt, and spirits of wine, burning, before the head of the boy, who must gasp two or three times. The head will presently appear quite dead, if the boy set his countenance accordingly; and, if a little blood be sprinkled on his face, the sight will be the stranger and more horrible still.
This is practised with a boy instructed for the purpose, who, being familiar with the company, may be known as well by his face as by his apparel. At the other end of the table, where the like hole is made, another boy, of the same size, must be placed, having on his usual apparel; he must lean or lie upon the board, and put his head underneath it, through the said hole; so that the body shall seem to lie on one end of the board, and his head shall lie in a platter on the other end. There are other rules to be observed; as, to put about his neck a little dough, kneaded with bullock’s blood, which, being cold, will look like dead flesh, and, being pricked with a sharp quill, filled with blood, will seem to bleed.—You must be particular to have the table-cloth so long and so wide as that it may almost reach the ground. Also, let this be your last trick, taking care not to suffer the company to stay too long in the place after it is performed.
To do this, you must have a small piece of sponge, with liquor put in it privately; then, unseen, place this beyond your right ear; but let not the sponge be too big,or too full of liquor, lest you be discovered. Now, taking a knife, stick it, with the handle upwards, in a table or stool (but observe to place your company before you); then bid them look, saying, “There you see is nothing of wet, either on this handle or the table;” so stretch your empty hand towards your ear, darting the point, saying, “Now, somebody cross my arm,” and, speaking some powerful words, as “Jubio bisco,” then you have a fair opportunity to take the sponge into your hand from behind your ear; stretching forth your hand, squeeze it gently, and afterwards a little harder, which will make it run the faster, to the amazement of the company, at the same time saying, “Thus could I do till I had drowned you all.” Then sprinkle a little in their faces, which will cause them to shut their eyes, whilst you convey away the sponge.
You must have a piece of well-dried match-cord. Having lighted it by the candle, take a beer-glass, and hold the match to the edge of the glass; now have your finger ready wetted, and, when the glass is very hot, clap your finger to the hot place, and it will suddenly crack about a quarter of an inch downward; then keep the coal of the match at the like distance from the end of the crack; and, as it follows, so move your hand, and cut it screw-fashion, otherwise it will not hold together till you have it through to the bottom. When you have done it, and it is cold, take it by the foot, and turn it downwards: it will stretch so that you may put your finger between each cutting; then, when you turn it up again, you may drink a glass of beer from it, and not spill a drop.
THE END.
PRINTED BY G. H. DAVIDSON,IRELAND YARD, DOCTORS’ COMMONS.