IN-DOORS DECORATION
By Ellis Stanyon
The Handkerchief Cabinet.—This very useful piece of apparatus should be in the repertoire of every amateur magician, as it is available for producing, changing, or vanishing a handkerchief. Its secret lies in the fact that it contains two drawers, bottom to bottom, the lower one being hidden by a sliding panel. When standing on the table the top drawer only is visible, and the cabinet looks the picture of innocence, but if turned over and stood on its opposite end, the sliding panel falls, exposing the hidden drawer, and hiding that which for the time being is at the bottom. (Fig. 12.) The cabinet is about two inches square by four inches high.
Fig. 12.
Fig. 12.
If required for production, you proceed as follows: Having placed a silk handkerchief in the concealed drawer, introduce the cabinet, take out the empty drawer, and give it for examination. Replace the drawer, secretly turn over the cabinet, and place it on your table. You now go through any form of incantation you please, open the drawer, and take out the handkerchief.
If you desire to vanish the handkerchief, you will have it placed in the drawer by one of the spectators, and while going to the table turn over the box. When the drawer is opened the handkerchief will have disappeared.
Should you wish to change one handkerchief for another, you will, beforehand, conceal, say, a red handkerchief in the cabinet; then, taking a white one, have it deposited in the upper drawer, turn over the cabinet as before, pull out the now uppermost drawer, and produce the red handkerchief.
From the foregoing description it will be obvious that the cabinet is capable of being used in conjunction with many tricks.