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^0.8. 
 
 THE ''MACNET^HAN 
 
 D BOOKS. 
 
 Frioe Twenty-five Oents. 
 
 NEW- YORK » 
 
 HURST & CO., PUBLISHERS. 
 
THE 
 
 Practical Magician 
 
 AND 
 
 VEMTRILOOUIST'S GUIDE. 
 
 A PRACTICAL MANUAL OF 
 
 FIRESIDE MAGIC AIID CONJURING ILLUSIONS. 
 
 CONTAINING ALSO 
 
 . COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACOniRING & PRACTISING 
 w\t \^ of leniriloqufem* 
 
 jS[Ew York i 
 HURST & CO., Publishers, 
 
 75 Nassau Steeet. 
 
 (X 
 
 (Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1876, by Thomas D. Hvbst, la ^\ 
 
 the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. CJ / 
 
 5 
 
 \ 
 
 ) 
 
BEST BOOK ON THS "BLACK ART." 
 
 PARLOR PASTIMES. 
 
 A NEW BOOK ON 
 
 MAGIC, COlSTJUMNa, LEGERDEMArKr, 
 AND PHESTIDIGITATION. 
 
 ^ BY THE CELEBRATED 
 
 PKOFESSOR RAYMOND 
 
 This ■work is certainly tho most exhaustive one on Magic that has ever 
 "been issued. It exposes all the secrets of the "Wizard's Art. "No trick or 
 illusion of importance is left unnoticed, and the explanations are made in 
 80 simple a manner that any one. of ordinary comprehension can readily 
 understand and perform them. The book thoroughly elucidates all tho 
 mysteries connected with 
 
 "White Magic, Galvanism, 
 
 Natural Magic, Magnetism, 
 
 Jugglery, Legerdemain, 
 
 Sleight-of-Hand, Necromancy, 
 
 Electricity, Fireworks, 
 
 Chemistry, Mechanics, 
 
 Cards, The Black Art, ^ 
 
 Coins, Prestidigitation. 
 
 It also contains a grand assortment of ^ 
 
 BIDBLES, CONUNDBUMS, CHABABES, ENIGMAS, BE- 
 
 BUSES, TBANSrOSITIONS, ANAGBAMS, BUZZLES, 
 
 BABABOXES, ACBOSTICS, ANB BBOBLEMS. 
 
 A study of this extremely interesting work would make any one thor- 
 ©ughly expert in the art of Amusing, whether in private or public. Tho 
 work may be consulted with profit either by the Amateur or Professional 
 Magician. 
 
 Price Twenty-Five Cents. 
 
 Sent to any address on receipt of price. Address 
 
 HURST & CO.. 75 Nassau Street, New Yobk. 
 
COIVT'EIVTS. 
 
 PAOS 
 
 Introduction S 
 
 Of palmistry and the passes 9 
 
 To command a dime to pass into the centre of a ball of wool, 
 so that it will not be discovered till the ball is unwound 
 
 to the very last of its threads • 13 
 
 To change a bowl of ink into clear water with gold fish in it. 14 
 
 The dancing egg 15 
 
 The walking cent 16 
 
 Tricks with and without collusion 19 
 
 To make a quarter and a penny change places while held in 
 
 the hands of two spectators 23 
 
 Trick with the dime, handkerchief, and an orange or lemon 23 
 
 How to double your pocket money. 24 
 
 The injured handkerchief restored 25 
 
 To make a large die pass through the crown of a hat with- 
 out injuring it. , 26 
 
 To produce from a silk handkerchief bonbons, candies, • 
 
 nuts, etc , 27 
 
 Practice 29 
 
 A sudden and unexpected supply of feathers from under a 
 
 silk handkerchief or cloth 31 
 
 Heads or Tails ? 33 
 
 To cook pancakes or plumcakes in a hat over some candles. . 34 
 To eat a disk of paper shavings and afterwards draw them 
 
 from your mouth like an Atlantic cable 36 
 
 How to cut off a person's nose without injuring him 37 
 
 Tricks by magnetism, chemistry, galvanism and electricity. 39 
 
 The watch obedient to the word of command 41 
 
CONTENTS. ill 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A chemical trick, to follow one where a young friend has as- 
 sisted 
 
 To draw three spools off two tapes without those spools 
 having to come off the ends of those tapes, and while 
 
 the four ends of the tapes are held by four persons 44 
 
 To restore a tape whole after it has been cut in the middle . . 46 
 
 On the continuity of tricks 49 
 
 The invisible hen, a very useful trick for supplying eggs for 
 
 breakfast or dinner ^^ 
 
 Tricks with a plain gold ring ^^ 
 
 Friendly suggestions 
 
 The conjuror's ' ' bonus genius " or familiar messenger 61 
 
 The shower of money "** 
 
 To furnish the ladies with a magic supply of tea or coffee, 
 
 at their selection, from one and the same jug 64 
 
 To furnish a treat to the gentlemen 66 
 
 fi7 
 Ventriloquism • • * • 
 
 Ventriloquism among the ancients 70 
 
 Modem professors of the art '• 71 
 
 The theory of ventriloquism 76 
 
 The means by which it is effected • 79 
 
 Practical illustrations °1 
 
 87 
 Polyphonic imitations °' 
 
 A mountain echo • °^ 
 
 Points to be remembered oo 
 
 Concluding remarks ^^ 
 
 To make the magic whistle 91 
 
THE PEACTICAL MAGICIAN 
 
 A::r7D 
 
 VENTRILOQUIST'S GUIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 INTEODUCTOKY. 
 
 MY object in writing these hints on Conjubinq is for the bene- 
 fit of amateurs to promote '^lively and entertaining amuse- 
 ment for the home circle and social gatherings. 
 
 My large experience enables me to explain and simplify many 
 of the best tricks and illusions of the art. I present the key to 
 many of the mystical mysteries which have puzzled and bewild- 
 ered our childhood days as well as confounded us in our matur- 
 er years. 
 
 The young student can in a very short time, if he be in the 
 least of an ingenious turn, amuse and astonish his friends, neigh- 
 bors and acquaintances. 
 
 Preference has been given to those tricks which suggest 
 others, the more complete and di£&cult performances and 
 illusions have been passed by as being out of place ; I 
 
6 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 shall not, therefore, in these elementary papers advert to those 
 experiments which require ample resources, or a prepared stage, 
 for exhibiting them — or which can only be displayed to advan- 
 tage by consummate skill and the most adroit manipulation — 
 but confine my remarks at present to thos^ branches of the art 
 to the performance of which a young amateur may aspire with 
 prospect of success. 
 
 A few hours' practice will enable the learner to execute the 
 simple tricks that I shall first treat of; and they will only re- 
 quire for their display such articles as are readily available in 
 every household. Most of them will be supplied by any com- 
 pany of a few friends, and if not in the parlor, can be brought 
 from no greater distance than the kitchen or housekeeper's 
 room ; such as handkerchiefs, coins, oranges, or eggs, a 
 glass bowl, etc. , etc. There may only remain a few inexpensivo 
 articles to be supplied from repositories for the sale of conjur- 
 ing apparatus, or they may be had direct from the publishers of 
 this work. 
 
 It may be well explicitly to avow that the time is quite gone 
 by when people will really believe that conjuring is to be done 
 by supernatural agencies. No faith is now reposed in the 
 I "black art of sorcery," or even in the art to which the less re- 
 pulsive name was given of ' ' white magic. " Many years have 
 elapsed since conjurors have seriously assumed to themselves 
 any credit as possessing supernatural powers, or as enabled by 
 spiritual agency to reveal that which is unknown to science and 
 philosophy, or mysteriously to work astonishing marvels. 
 
 A well-marked contrast exists between the old school o* con- 
 jurors and those of modern times. The former, who used bold- 
 ly to profess that they employed mysterious rites and preter- 
 natural agency, designedly put the spectator upon false inter- 
 pretations, while they studiously avoided giving any elucidation 
 of the phenomena, nor would ever admit that the wonders dis- 
 played were to be accounted for by the principles of science and 
 natural philosophy. 
 
 Modern conjurors advance no such pretensions. They tise as 
 scientifically as possible the natural properties of matter to aid 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 7 
 
 In their exliibition of -wonderful results. They are content to 
 
 let the exhibition of their art appear marvelous They some- 
 times mystify tho matter, and bo increase the puzzle, in order 
 to heighten tha interest and amusement of the spectators ; but 
 they throw aside any solemn asseveration of possessing hidden 
 powers, or of ability to fathom mysterious secrets. 
 
 It may be admitted that proficients and exhibitors still adopt 
 language that has become current veith conjurors, and in com- 
 mon parlance it may be asserted that the wonderful Mr. So-and- 
 So undertakes to pass some solid object through a wall or a ta- 
 ble ; to change black into white, and white into black ; to place 
 rings in ■ closely-fastened boxes, or draw money out of people's 
 cars ; and conjurors may with ridiculous humor distract the at- 
 tention of spectators, so that accurate observation is not fixed 
 upon the object that is to undergo before their eyes some sin- 
 gular transformation ; but no outrageous bombast or positive 
 falsehoods are commonly advanced. And the practical meaning 
 of any exaggerated pretension is clearly understood to mean no 
 more than that Mr. So-and-So undertakes to present before you 
 what, TO ALii APPEARANCE, is the conversion of black into white, 
 or vice versa ; and the audience are clearly aware that no more 
 is assumed to bo presented to them than a very striking illu- 
 sion, undistinguishable from a reality ; and how this is effected 
 will bo in many cases wholly untraceable, and therefore the 
 trick is inimitable. 
 
 "NVe may be permitted to feel some pleasure in the conviction 
 that the exhibition of our art in its more striking exploits is 
 really marvelous, and very attractive ; for we certainly havo 
 the power of placing some astonishing phenomena before our 
 audience ; and we may surely prize the estimation with which 
 the uninitiated are disposed to honor us, but we erect no vain- 
 glorious assumptions upon these data, as we are quite contented 
 with fair praise intelligently accorded to us. And so far from 
 closely concealing tho principles and arcana of our science, we 
 are ready plainly io avow that it all depends upon faculties that 
 all may attain by patient culture, and exhibit by careful prac- 
 tice. Undoubtedly there are less and greater degrees of exoel- 
 
8 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 lence to be obtained by proportionate intelligence and dexterity. 
 There are attainments in the art, at which, by natural qualifica- 
 tion and peculiar adaptation, special study, practice, and expe- 
 rience enable some few only to arrive. These qualifications 
 cannot be easily communicated to every one who might wish to 
 possess them ; and therefore the highest adepts will ever havo 
 an incommunicable distinction. But this is no more then is 
 the case in the medical, the legal, and any learned profession, 
 in all which the most eminent proficients reserve to themselves, 
 or unavoidably retain, an unquestioned superiority. At the 
 same time there is much in our art that may be communicated, 
 and the present papers will show to our friends that we are will- 
 ing to impart to others such portions of our art as they are ca- 
 pable of acquiring ; and we trust that what wo shall comrauni- 
 cate to them will furnish them much rational recreation among 
 themselves, and enable them to supply innocent and interesting 
 amusement to their friends and companions. 
 
THE PliACTICAL MAGICIAN. 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 * OP PALMTSTBT AND PASSES 
 
 THE tni6 nature and limit of the art of Conjuring has noTir 
 been defined — what it is that we assume to do, and 
 wherein we have discontinued the exaggerated preten- 
 sions of the conjurors of the old school ; and I have hinted in 
 what respects, and within what bounds, a young amateur may 
 gim at exhibiting some amusing experiments in our art. But 
 it remains for me to explain the grand pre-requisite for a novice 
 to cultivate before he should attempt to exhibit before others 
 even the simplest tricks of prestidigitation or legerdemain, to 
 which we at present confine our attention. 
 
 I have first to speak of Palmistey, not in the sense that the 
 fortune-teller uses the word, but as expressing the art of the 
 conjuror in secreting articles in the palm of one hand while he ^ 
 appears to transfer those articles to his other hand. It is abso- 
 lutely necessary that the young amateur should acquire the habit 
 of doing this so adroitly as to escape the observation of others 
 while doing it openly before their eyes. 
 
 The two principal passes are the following : 
 
 FIRST PASS ; or, method of apparently carrying an 
 object from the right hand to the left, -while actually re- 
 taining it in the right hand. 
 
 The reader will please to observe that the illustrative sketches 
 depict the hands of the performer as seen by himself. 
 
 PIBST POSITION or PASS 1. 
 
 The right hand, having the knucles and back of the fingers 
 turned toward the spectators, and holding openly a cent, or 
 some similar object, between the thumb and fore-finger, must 
 be moved toward the left hand. 
 
 TSJie left hand must be held out, with the back of the hand 
 toward the ground, aa exhibited in the illustration. (Fig. 1.) 
 
10 
 
 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 First Position of Pass 1. 
 SECOND POSITION OF PASS 1. 
 
 The left hand must appear to close over the object that ia 
 brought toward it, at the same instant that the right hand se- 
 cretes and withdraws that object. 
 
 The left hand that appeared .to receive it must continue 
 closed. The right hand, though it actually retains the object, 
 must be allowed to hang loosely over it, so that it appears to 
 have nothing in it, 
 
 FiQ. 2. 
 
 Second Position of Pass 1. 
 
 The performer then may blow upon the closed left hand, and 
 may say, "Fly," or "Begone," or any similar expression, and 
 then open his left hand, holding it forward. Of course there is 
 nothing in it, and the object seems to have flown from it, and 
 the spectators are much surprised. 
 
 SECOND PASS.— Method of apparently transferring 
 an object from the left hand to the right, while retaining 
 it in the left hand. 
 
 FIEST POSITION. 
 
 Let the left hand hold up the object in its open palm. The 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 11 
 
 riglit hand is brought toward the left hand, but only appears to 
 grasp ic. 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 First Position of Pass 2.\ 
 
 BECOND POSITION. 
 
 The left hand secretes the object in its palm, while the jBngers 
 are allowed to fall loosely down, appearing to retain nothing 
 under them. At the very same moment the right hand must be 
 closed, and remain in shape as if containing the object, with the 
 second joints of the fingers pointed toward the spectators, and 
 the back of the hand toward the ground. The performer then 
 holding his right hand forward, may blow on it and say ' ' Change 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 Second Position of Pass 2. 
 
 — fly," and opening that hand, the spectator deems the object 
 has passed away from it, though in fact it has remained all along 
 in the left hand. 
 
 The illusion in either of these passes is, that the spectator 
 seeing both hands move as if the object were passing from one 
 to the other, thinks it has done so ; whereas, in fact, the object 
 
12 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 always remains in the hand where it was first visible to the spec- 
 tators. The BACK of that hand where the object is first displayed 
 must afterwards be kept well toward the spectators. 
 
 Observe, the eye of the performer must rest always on the 
 hand or object at which he desires the spectators to look , and 
 whatever he wishes them not tc notice, he himself must refrain 
 fi-om looking at. 
 
 If it is not required that the very object that has been held rp 
 in these passes be seen again by the spectators, the performer 
 must quietly pocket it, or drop it on a handkerchief on his ta- 
 ble, or inside a hat, or otherwise getrid of it as soon as he con- 
 veniently can. 
 
 On the contrary, if that very object must be again produced 
 or transferred to a person standing at [some little distance, this 
 must be efi'ected by one of the following methods : 
 
 Either you must lake care beforehand to place adroitly in that 
 person's cap or pocket a double or similar object. 
 
 On, you must walk up to him, and putting your hand on his 
 hair, sleeve, or pocket, quickly place there the object yon have 
 all along retained, and which you must pretend by this ma- 
 noeuvre to find in bis possession. 
 
 Or, lastly, you will see in the first trick subjoined, a method 
 of substituting one object for another. 
 
 FIRST TRICK.— To command a dims to pass into the 
 centre of a ball of Berlin -wool, eo that it -will not be dis- 
 covered till the ball is un^wound to tho very last of ita 
 threads. 
 
 BEQTJISITE PBEPAEATTOXS, TO BE MADE PBIVATELY. 
 
 You will require a glass bowl or quart basin, and yon must 
 have a flattened tube of tin about four inches long. It must be 
 just large enough to let a. dime slide easily through it by its own 
 weight. Hound the end on this tube wind a ball of Berlin wool 
 of bright color, covering about two inches of the tube, and pro- 
 jecting about an inch beyond the end of it. Place this ball with 
 the tube in it in your right-hind pocket of coat tail, ''c^* in the 
 left breast-pocket, if that is Inrgo enough to hold it completely 
 covered. ) Lastly, place a dime concealed in the palm of your 
 left hand. 
 
 Commence the exhibition of the trick by requesting one of the 
 spectators to mark a dime (or cent) of his own, so that he will 
 be sure to know it again. Then ask him to lend you that coin. 
 
TnE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 13 
 
 Holding it np in your right hand, yoxi may say, ' Now. ladies 
 and gentlemen, this is the marked dime which I shall experi- 
 ment with. The gentleman has accurately marked it, so that 
 there can be no mistake about its identity when reproduced." 
 Then by Pass 1 pretend to transfer the marked coin to your left 
 hand, but in reality retain it in your right hand. Next, hand 
 T7ith your left hand your own dime (which had been secreted in 
 '*hat hand) to some person, and request him to hold it. Chooso 
 for this person some one three or four yards distant from your- 
 self, and also from the g^rson who originally marked the coin. 
 It is unnecessary to explain that you do so, lest the two should 
 compare notes. Of course, the person who is asked to hold it 
 •will believe that it is the very diihe that was borrowed. 
 
 Yon may proceed to say : "Now we want a ball of worsted." 
 So, placing your right hand in 3'our pocket, pretend to foci 
 about for something in your pocket, and while doing so you 
 must placf* the dime in the top of the tin tube, and shako it 
 down. Then carefully draw tho tube out of the ball of worsted, 
 and loavo the tuba in your por-ket, but draw tho ball out of your 
 pocket, pressing it together while doing so. 
 
 Then request some one to fjcl the ball in order to ascertain 
 that it has no opening towards its centre. 
 
 You mayhore make some humorous remark about your having 
 such a ball in your pocket. As for instance : 
 
 *' Ladies may think it odd that I have such a ball of Berlin 
 "Wool in my pocket. It was bought to please my cousin Mary 
 Ann, or my Aunt Tabitha. "Well, it will do very fairly for our 
 experiment. 
 
 Then request some one to hold tho glass basin containing tho 
 ■woollen ball. While yon retain in your hand the end of tho 
 woollen thread, address the gentleman who has consented to 
 hold the dime, asking him to hand it to you. Take it in your 
 tight hand, pretend by Pass 1 to transfer it to your left hand, 
 but in reality keep it concealed in your right hand. 
 
 Holding up your closed left hand, (which in fact has nothing 
 in it.) you may say : 
 
 - " Now, dime, pass along' this woollen thread into the very 
 centre of the woollen ball which is there held in the glass bowl 
 or basin." 
 
 Blow upon your left hand, and show that the dime is gone. 
 Yon must adroitly get rid of the dime, which has remained 
 secreted in your right hand, by placing it in your pocket or 
 sleeve while making somo humorous remark, or while asking 
 some lady or gentleman to draw tho woollen thread till it is all 
 unwound. It will bo done the quicker by letting the ball bo 
 confined loosely in the bowl with two fingers preventing its 
 leaping out. 
 
14 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 Draw attention to how completely the coin is wrapped tip till 
 you arrive at the very last circles, when it will drop into the 
 bowl. 
 
 fland the dime to the owner who marked it, and let him de- 
 clare whether he recognizes it as the very one he lent you. 
 His affirmative will surprise the spectators. 
 
 SECOND TRICK.— To change a bowl of ink into clear 
 water, witli gold fish in it. 
 
 BEQUISITB PEEPAEATION, TO BE MADE PRIVATELY BEFOEEHAKD. 
 
 The same glass bowl as in previous trick. If your bowl has 
 not a foot to it, it must be placed on something that will hold it 
 high above your table. Some small fish, a white plate or sau- 
 cer, a piece of black silk just fitting the inside of your bowl, a 
 spoon of peculiar construction, so that in a hollow handle it will 
 retain about a teaspoonful of ink, which will not run out as long 
 as a hole near the top of the handle is kept covered or stopped. 
 A large tumbler and two or three minnows will do for a simpler 
 exhibition, but will, of course, not be f^o pleasing to the eye. 
 
 Place the black silk so as to cover the part of the bowl that is 
 shaded; when damp it will adhere to the glass. Pour in clear 
 water to fill the space coyered by the black pilk, and place the 
 fish in the water. 
 
 FlQ. 3. 
 
 Commence the trick in public thus : Holding the spoon-han- 
 dle slanting up and uncovering the hole in the handle, the ink 
 which you have placed in the handle will run into the bowl of 
 the spoon, and the spoon being held carefully to the surface of 
 the water, concealing the black silk, will give the spectators the 
 impression that you fill the spoon from the glass bowl. 
 
 Pour the spoonful of ink on a white saucer, and show it round 
 to convince the spectators it is ink. "They will see it is undeni- 
 ably ink, and they will conclude, if the spoon were properly 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 15 
 
 *rtled out of the bowl, that the glass bowl contains nothing bnt 
 ink. 
 
 Borrowing a silk handkerchief, place it for a few seconds over 
 tlie bowl, and feigning to be inviting fish to come to the bowl, 
 exclaim "Change!" Then, placing your hand on the edge of 
 the bowl near yourself, draw off the handkerchief, and with it 
 take care to catch hold also of the black silk. The bowl when 
 uncovered will exhibit the fish swimming about in clear water. 
 While the spectators are surprised at the fish, return the hand- 
 kerchief, having first dropped out of it the black silk on your 
 side of the table. Decline giving any explanation, as people 
 will not thank you for dispelling the illusion. 
 
 THIRD TRICK,— The Dancing Egg. 
 
 EEQUISITE PEEPAKATION TO BE MADE IN PKIVATE. 
 
 An egg-shell that has been blown (my young friends will know 
 that the way to blow an egg is to make a small hole at each end 
 of the egg. Then, by blowing at one end, the yolk will be 
 driven out, and the egg-shell be left empty. ) 
 
 Make a hole also on the side of the egg, in which insert a 
 chip of wood, or a small pin, held by a fine black silk thread, 
 about twelve or fourteen inches long, which must have a loop at 
 the far end, which loop fasten to a button on the coat or waist- 
 coat ; and have on a dark vest, otherwise the dark thread be- 
 coming visible, will reveal the moving power. 
 
 Tig. 6. 
 
 Commence by borrowing two black hats. If there is an in- 
 strument in the room, ask some one to play a lively tnne, as 
 "eggs are fond of^lively music to dance to." Then, with the 
 brim of a hat in each hand, interpose the round of each hat 
 successively under the thread that holds the egg, moving them 
 from your breast toward the egg. The egg will appear to move 
 of itself over the hats, as you place them under it. 
 
16 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 You mnst not allow people to handle the egg on the thread af- 
 terwards, for when they see the simplicity of the process they 
 "will undervalue the ti'ick, whereas it appears Toarvellous as long 
 as they do not understand how the extraordinary movements 
 are produced. And in these illusions, as Hudibras expresses it, 
 
 Doubtless, the pleasure is as great 
 In being cheated as to cheat. 
 
 rOURTH TRICK.— The "Walking Cent. 
 
 PBELIMINABT PBEPAEATION IN PKIYATE. 
 
 Ask for a long dark hair from some lady's tresses. Have a 
 pin in shape of a hook, or a small loop afi&xed to the end of this 
 hair, and fasten a little piece of beeswax (less than a pea) at the 
 other end of the hair. Fasten the hair by the loop to a button 
 on your vest, taking care to wear a dark-colored vest.^ The 
 hair may be allowed to hang from your vest, with the bees- 
 v/ax visible. Have a glass of water or cnp on the table. 
 
 Commence the exhibition of the trick by borrowing a cent. 
 "While pretending to examine the cent to see if it is a good one, 
 press the waxed end of the hair firmly to the under side cf the 
 cent, and place it about a foot from the edge of a table. Then 
 bid the cent to move toward you, to the right or to the left, end 
 "by gently moving your body in whatever direction yon name, 
 the hair will draw the cent in the same direction. You may 
 say, while j^our left hand is near the table, "Now, cent, move 
 up my arm. ' Advancing your r.rm gently, the cent will appear 
 to move up to your elbow. It is your arm that moves, but it 
 "will appear to the spectators as if the cent moved ; or you may 
 help it up the outside of the sleeve by interposing j'our right 
 hand under the hair, so as to draw up the cent, while appearing 
 to beckon it. 
 
 "Now, cent, as you have performed so well, you shall have a 
 bath." Placing the tumbler near the edge of the table, draw 
 the cent into it. After exhibiting it in the water, say, "Oh, 
 cent, you must not stay so long in the water." Then jerk it out 
 upon the table. Detach the waxed end of the hair by your 
 nail, after which return the cent to the person "uho loaned it 
 to you. 
 
 "When performing this trick, in order to keep the spectators at 
 a little distance, you must inform them that " the cent is VQry 
 susceptible to magnetic influences, and request ladies not to ap- 
 proach too near it, as the loadstones of their eyes are the causo 
 of the magnetic attraction." 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 17 
 
 My young friends must remember that it is absolutely neces- 
 sary to keep up in spectators their belief in the mysterious, and 
 therefore must decline on the spot to give explanations before or 
 after the performance of this trick, however they may be dis- 
 posed to reveal the secret privately to any friend. A singular 
 instance is recorded of a person who was grievously disappointed 
 when by importunity he had received an explanation of this very 
 trick, which had appeared at first to him a most marvellous phe- 
 nomenon ; and he was quite annoyed when the gilt was stripped 
 off his ginger-bread. It is said that a gentleman walked into a 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 coffee-room at Manchester, England, and was exhibiting to a 
 friend the above trick. A traveler at a table near them had his 
 attention drawn by their laughing discourse, while one of them, 
 exhibited the trick to the other. The cold barrier of English 
 reserve was broken down, and he addressed one of the strangers, 
 requesting to be informed how the trick was done. For his part 
 he irangined it must be connected with some perfectly new, phil- 
 osophical law of attraction involved in the experiment. " Will 
 yo'i be kind enough to tell me ? I shall be happy to offer a fee 
 to learn it. I was about to proceed by the next train, but I will 
 gladly defer my journey to understand this, which appears so 
 unaccountable," 
 
18 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 The gentleman declined for a considerable time ; bnt at 
 length, being overcome by the importunity, in order to get rid 
 of the matter, assented. The time of the departure of the train 
 had arrived and passed by, and the aspirant offered two guineas 
 to learn the trick. The gentleman acceded to his request on 
 condition that he should faithfully promise not to reveal it to 
 others, or to make public the mystery. "Agreed," says tho 
 traveler. The mail train was gone — the money paid — tho trick 
 exhibited and explained to him. "Oh!" cried the traveler, 
 "how easy and plain it is. What a simpleton I have been to 
 lose my journey and spend my money only to learn how you — ." 
 " Stop !" cried the gentleman, "remember you have promised 
 not to divulge the secret." "Yes, but how foolish to care for 
 an experiment which only depends on — ." "Stop, sir, etop. 
 Are you going to tell all the room ?"' and thus a good half-hour's 
 amusement was caused by the traveler fretting over his simpli- 
 city, and having relinquished an important journey for that 
 which, though marvellous while a secret, became so simple and 
 uninteresting to him after an explanation. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TBICJKS WITH AND "WITHOUT COLLTJSIOH. 
 
 IN resuming my hints to amateurs, I shall now oflfer some re- 
 marks upon two subjects. 
 FiEST, — I will notice the class of tricks th at are performed by 
 the collusion of a confederate. Old books on conjuring record 
 several of this dei^cription, and some conjurors still practise 
 them. But I do not advise the inexperienced frequently to ex- 
 hibit tricks of this sort, for the co-operation of assistants used 
 in them is liable to be traced by spectators, or to be divulged by 
 the person who has been employed to aid in the exhibition of 
 them. They may, indeed, be very well as a make-shift until 
 dexterity of hand is acquired ; but they will always rank as an 
 inferior branch of the science of conjuring, and if the collusion 
 is discovered, it will throw discredit even upon those tricks 
 which the same performer may exhibit without such collusive 
 arrangement. An instance of the annoying failure of such de- 
 pendence upon confederates is recorded in "Houdin's Memoirs." 
 It is there related that Torrini, at the com.mencement of his ca- 
 reer, was insidiously induced by an envious rival (Pinetti) to 
 undertake a public exhibition of his art before a very grand as- 
 sembly. Torrini was at the time diffident of his own attain- 
 ments, but he was persuaded to make the attempt by the assur- 
 ance of Pinetti that he would take care that seveiral confeder- 
 ates should be present, and should help in carrying out sundry 
 illusions which he would have to display. One of these was, 
 that the conjuror, after borrowing a ring, was to restore it magi- 
 
20 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 cally into the possession of its owner. The ring was borrowed, 
 and some mysterious gesticulations practised ; but instead of the 
 contemplated result being produced, the false confederate pro- 
 claimed aloud that he had lent a very valuable jewelled ring, and 
 had only received back a common copper ring. The audience 
 was of course disappointed at such words so derogatory to the 
 conjuror This unpleasant feeling was deepened by the malic- 
 ious meddling of another false confederate. Torrini had to 
 present some cards to the King of Naples, who was honoring the 
 assembly by witnessing the exhibition, and a card was selected 
 by his Majesty. Instead, however, of being pleased with what 
 he saw on the card, the king manifested intense disapprobation. 
 The confederate had written on the card words of disrespect and 
 insult, and Torrini had to retire amid the loud censures of the 
 enraged spectators. There may, be no danger of so disastrous 
 results to a young amateur ; but dissatisfaction of a milder kind 
 will probably ensue whenever it is discovered that any trick has 
 depended upon the secret co-operation of an assistant among 
 the spectators. 
 
 The SECOND topic which I propose at present to discuss is the 
 employment of mechanism — such mechanical constructions as 
 boxes with false sides, cabinets with secret drawers, or double 
 compartments, etc. 
 
 It makes a great difference whether such arrangements are 
 used as subordinate aids, or as constituting the essence and sub- 
 stance of the illusion. In the former respect it is quite legiti- 
 mate to take advantage of any well-arranged mechanical aid su- 
 bordinate! y. In fact, nearly all tricks must be performed with 
 some modified aid of artistic contrivance, or with mechanical 
 implements adroitly used. The conjuror, therefore, unavoid- 
 ably requires, and may advantageously employ, mechanical ar- 
 rangements to give greater effect to his illusions. I only wish 
 to dissuade the learner from relying solely upon mere mechani- 
 cal puzzles, or artistic contrivances, for furnishing an interesting 
 exhibition of the conjuror's art. 
 
 The fewer the contrivances which he employs of this sort, and 
 the more entirely the performance rests upon sleight-of-hand 
 the more lively will be the surprise of the spectators. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 21 
 
 I myself prefer doing without the aid of any confederal;* , <.«nd 
 without mechanical aids ; but I must remember that I am writ- 
 ing for amateurs and novices in the art, and that, in proportion 
 as they are unpractised in palmistry, and in what the French 
 term prestidigitation, (preste digite, signifying *' ready fingers,") 
 it will be desirable for them, at first, to have the assistance 
 which mechanism will supply towards the exhibition of their 
 tricks. 
 
 Let them, however, keep such aids as subordinate and as se- 
 cret as possible. For instance, in the preparation for exhibiting 
 the first trick described on page 12, the small tin tube (which is 
 requisite for the performance of that trick) must not be seen by 
 the audience, either before or after the trick is exhibited, but 
 must be kept secreted in the pocket. Again, in Trick No. 4, 
 the preparation of the hair and beeswax must be made pri- 
 vately beforehand ; and these implements must vanish out of 
 sight when the trick is over. And the reader must observe that 
 in both the first and fourth tricks the mechanical aid employed 
 is the minor and subordinate part of the tricks, and that a suc- 
 cessful exhibition of either of them depends really on the dex- 
 terity of the passes, and of manipulations by the performer. 
 
 It may be admitted, then, that, with regard to the first topic 
 of our present papft", the young conjuror need not be restrained 
 from employing the subordinate aid of an assistant, so far as 
 this may carry him over difficulties which he cannot otherwise 
 surmount in the present stage of his imperfect skill. 
 
 And in regard to the second topic, the employment of me- 
 chanical contrivances, (though it may be well to begin with 
 those departments of the art which are easier, because aided by 
 mechanical apparatus,) it will be desirable for the amateur to 
 strive to get free from dependence upon such aids. Mechanical 
 arrangements cannot be wholly discarded at any time, and the 
 conjuror will always require a few implements ; but the more 
 he advances in dexterity of hand, quickness of eye, control of 
 his hand and eye, instantaneous adaptation of his words and 
 movements to contingencies as they arise, the more able will he 
 become to elude the observation of the most watchful specta- 
 
22 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 tors, and to mislead their imagination, so that they shall fancy 
 that they see him do things which he only appears to do, and 
 shall blindly fail to observe actions and movements carried out 
 before their very eyes. 
 
 And here let me say, that I have, by long experience, com© to 
 the conviction, that the simpler and more common the objects 
 are on which, and with which, a trick is performed, and the less 
 anything beyond dexterity of hand is openly used, the greater 
 will be the astonishment and the amusement of the spectators. 
 There are, it is true, some very striking and complicated illu- 
 sions which it is impossible to present without resorting to art- 
 istic contrivances of mechanical or scientific arrangement. On 
 these illusions, as being beyond the power of a young amateur* 
 I need not dwell. Nor need the preceding remarks be consid- 
 ered as any disparagement of the combinations and extrinsic aid 
 which are indispensable for developing such startling illusions. 
 The scope of my present remarks is simply to this effect, that 
 to depend mainly upon the co-operation of a confederate, or 
 upon mechanical contrivances, for what can be far better carried 
 out by mere sleight-of-hand, will not pass for a satisfactory ex- 
 hibition of conjuring now-a-days; and the amateur will find 
 that, as he advances in skill and dexterity, he will swim moro 
 freely the less he trusts to such unsubstantial bladders to uphold 
 him. * 
 
 Having thus discussed my two topics I shall now add explana- 
 tions of a few more tricks, which the learner may practise with 
 the hope of making progress in the art of conjuring. The only 
 way to make such progress and gain high attainments in the art, 
 is to practise diligently over and over again the passes I havo 
 described in my former paper, and to learn to do a few tricks 
 neatly, and without hesitation or stumbling. I subjoin, there" 
 fore, some simple but effective tricks, in which they will do well 
 to perfect themselves. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 23 
 
 TRICK 5.— To make a quarter and a penny change 
 places, while held in the hands of two spectators, 
 
 PEEPAKATION, 
 
 Have a quarter of yonr own secreted in your right hand. 
 Then borrow two handkerchiefs, and a quarter and a penny, 
 from any one in the audience. Tell the lender to mark or accu- 
 rately observe them, so that he will know them again. In plac- 
 ing them on the table, substitute your own quarter for the bor- 
 rowed one, and conceal the borrowed one in your palm. 
 
 MEMOBANDTJM. 
 
 It is better to nse things borrowed than coin of yonr own. 
 Still, the conjuror should provide himself with articles requisite 
 to display any trick, or otherwise much delay may occasionally 
 arise while borrowing them. 
 
 Commence the trick by pointing out where the quarter and 
 the penny are lying on the table. Take up the penny and show 
 it openly to all. Then take up one of the handkerchiefs, and 
 while pretending to wrap up the penny in it, substitute in its 
 place the borrowed quarter which you had concealed in your 
 palm, and ask one of your friends to feel that it is enfolded in 
 the handkerchief, and bid him hold the handkerchief enclosing 
 it above his head. Ask him if he has got the penny there safely. 
 He will reply that he has. 
 
 Then take up your own quarter which was laid upon the ta- 
 ble ; pretend to wrap it up in the second handkerchief, but 
 adroitly substitute the penny, (which you concealed in your 
 palm while wrapping up the first handkerchief.) Ask some 
 friend to hold it up above his head, indulging in some facetious 
 remark. Slip your own quarter into your pocket. Clap your 
 hands or wave your wand, saying, "Change." Tell your friends 
 to unfold their handkerchiefs. They will be astonished to find 
 that the quarter and penny have changed places. 
 
 THICK 6. — ^Another trick with the dime, handkerchief 
 and an orange or lemon 
 
 PEEPABATION. 
 
 Hare an orange or lemon ready, with a slit made in its sidt^ 
 sufficiently large to admit the dime easily ; and have in your 
 pocket a good-sized silk handkerchief with a dime stitched inio 
 one of its corners. 
 
24 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 Borrow a marked dime. Take out yonr handkerchief, and 
 while pretending to wrap this dime in the handkerchief, conceal 
 it in your palm, and take care that the one previously sewn into 
 the corner of the handkerchief can be felt easily through the 
 handkerchief. Giving it to one of your friends, tell him to feel 
 that it has the dime in it, and to hold it up over his head firmly. 
 While giving these directions to your friend, the dime that is in 
 your palm must be transferred to your pocket, and introduced 
 into the slit of the orange. Then bring the orange out of your 
 pocket, and place it on a table ; you will keep the slit on the sida 
 away from the audience. 
 
 Then make a few mesmeric passes over the hand of the per- 
 son that holds the handkerchief, saying, "I will now destroy 
 the sense of feeling in your hands. Tell me, can you feel tho 
 dime?*' He will say, "Yes." You can reply, " Oh, you must 
 be wrong, sir. See! I will shake out the handkerchief." Tak- 
 ing hold of one corner of it, shake it out, saying, " Observe, 
 nothing will fall to the ground. You see that you were mis- 
 taken about feeling it in the handkerchief." 
 
 The fact is, the dime being stitched in the corner' tould not 
 fall out, and you must take care not to let that comer of tho 
 handkerchief hit against the ground. Put the handkerchief in 
 your pocket, and say, " But I must return the borrowed dime." 
 Exclaim: "Fly, dime, into the orange on the table." Cut up 
 orange, and show the dime concealed in it, and then restore it 
 to its owner, asking him to tell the audience if he finds it to bo 
 his own marked dime. 
 
 TRICK 7. — Ho"w to double your pocket money. 
 
 The only preparation is to have four cents concealed in your 
 left palm. 
 
 Commence the trick by calling forward one of the spectators, ' 
 and let him bring up his hat with him. 
 
 Then borrow five cents, or have them ready to produce from 
 your own pocket should there be any delay. 
 
 Bequest your friend, while he places them one by one on a 
 small plate or saucer, to count them audibly, so that tbe com- 
 pany may hear their number correctly. Inquire, ' ' How many 
 are there?" He will. answer, "Five." Take up the saucer and 
 pour them into your left hand, (where the other four are already 
 concealed.) Then say, "Stay, I will place these in your hat, 
 and you must raise ifc al30ve your head, for all to see that noth- 
 ing is added subsequently to them." You will have placed 
 these nine cents in his hat unsuspected by him. 
 
 Borrow five cents more. Make Pass 1, as described on page 
 9, appearing to throw these five into your left hand, but really 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 25 
 
 retaining them in your right hand, which is to fall by yonr side 
 as if empty. 
 
 Afterwards get rid of four of the five cents into your pocket, 
 retaining only one in your right palm. 
 
 Hold up j^our closed left hand, and say, while blowing on it : 
 *'Pass, cents, from my left hand into the hat. Now, sir, be 
 kind enough to see if they have come into your possession. 
 Please to count them aloud while placing them in the saucer." 
 He will be surprised, as well as the spectators, to find that the 
 cents in his hat have become nine. 
 
 You may then put on a rather ofifended look, and say : " Ah, 
 sir ! ah ! I did not think you would do so I You have taken, 
 one out, I fear." Approaching your right hand to his sleeve, 
 shake the sleeve, and let the one cent, which you have in your 
 own hand, drop audibly into the saucer. It will raise a laugh 
 against the holder of the hat. You can say: "Excuse me, I 
 only made it appear that you had taken one. However, you see 
 that the original money is now doubled." 
 
 TRICK 8. — ^The injured handkerchief restored. 
 
 PBEPABATION. 
 
 Have a dime of yonr own wrapped in the centre of a piece of 
 cambric about five or six inches in diameter, the ends falling 
 down loose. Conceal these in the palm of your left hand. 
 
 Borrow a marked dime from any of the spectators, and a 
 white cambric handkerchief. Throw the handkerchief spread 
 out over your left palm, (holding under the handkerchief your 
 own dime wrapped in the small piece of cambric ) 
 
 Openly place the borrowed dime on the centre of the spread- 
 out handkerchief Keeping hold of that dime, jerk the ends of 
 the handkerchief over, so as to fall loose down from the lower 
 side of your left hand. Draw out from between your thumb 
 and fingers ^that is from the upper side of your left hand) about 
 two inches of the smaller piece of cambric, containing your own 
 dime. The spectators will naturally conceive the two pieces of 
 cambric you hold in that hand to be merely the cambric hand- 
 kerchief. 
 
 I Call any of the spectators forward, and request him to mark 
 oflf with his knife the portion of the piece of calico which holds 
 your own dime, and whisper to him to cut it completely off, and 
 to let the dime drop on the table. The spectators will believe 
 that he has cut a hole in the handkerchief itself, and that the 
 dime falling out is the one you recently borrowed, whereas it is 
 in fact the other piece of calico that has been cut, and the bor- 
 rowed coin remains still wrapped up in the handkerchief. 
 
26 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 Pretend to blame the person who cnt the two inches off, say- 
 ing : "Dear me, sir, what have yon done ? Yon have quite de- 
 stroyed this nice handkerchief. Well, I hope, madam, you will 
 pardon the mistake, if I manage by magic to restore to you your 
 handkerchief in perfect order, and I request you to allow me to 
 try to do so. Carefully holding in the candle the edges of the 
 cambric, (both of the part cut off and of the portion from which 
 it was cut,) and letting the real handkerchief hang down from 
 the same hand, pretend with a conjuring wand to weld together 
 the edges of the cambric when they get hot, as a blacksmith 
 welds metals together. You can prevent the flame from reach- 
 ing the real handkerchief by tightly pressing your fingers. 
 Then exclaim : " Oh, where is the dime ?" and while picking it 
 Tip from the table, get quietly rid of the pieces of cambric with 
 their burnt edges into a hat or some corner unseen by the audi- 
 ence. 
 
 Holding up the dime which you had just lifted from the table 
 say : "But to complete my trick I must replace this dime in the 
 centre of the restored handkerchief, whence it was cut out." 
 
 Make the Pass 1, appearing to pass it into the centre of the 
 liajudkerchief, but retaining it in your hand, and afterwards se- 
 cretly pocket it. The handkerchief has already the borrowed 
 dime in it. Say to the handkerchief: "Change — restore !" and 
 "unfolding it, show the borrowed coin in it. Shake out the hand- 
 kerchief and show it is all sound and right, and restore it with 
 thanks, as well as the borrowed dime, to the owners. 
 
 TRICE 9. — To make a large die pass through the cro"wn 
 of a hat -without injuring it. 
 
 I will now give my young friends a nice, easy trick, requiring 
 very little dexterity, as the articles for its exhibition can be pur- 
 chased at any depot for the sale of conjuring apparatus ; there- 
 fore the most diffident amateur will be able to display this trick, 
 
 PEEPAKATION. 
 
 Have a die exactly like the common dice, only it may be about 
 two inches square. Have two covers for it, one of them exactly 
 resembling the appearance of a die, only hollow, except that 
 one side of it is open, so that it can easily be placed over, or be 
 taken off, the solid die. 
 
 The other cover may be of decorated material, and it is in- 
 tended to be placed over the first die-cover. Let this last cover 
 be made of some pliant material, so that by compressing gently 
 two of its sides with your fingers, while lifting it up, you can 
 lift up the first die-cover, which will be within it. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 27 
 
 Commence the trick by borrowing two hats ; place one with 
 its riais upwards on the table, ami show that you place in that 
 hat the die with its first cover on it. But say, " I forgot to ap- 
 peal to the coaipany whether they will like to see the trick done 
 visibly or invisibly. " They will most likely say, " Visibly ; " but 
 it is of no consequence which answer they make, for the process 
 of the trick is the same in either case. 
 
 Take out from the lower hat the first cover, which is painted 
 exactly like a die, and having placed the second hat (with its 
 rims downwards) on the other hat, display the first cover, and 
 openly place it on the crown of the upper hat. All the specta- 
 tors will believe it to be the solid die itself. Then take your 
 penknife ; you may just thrust it into the crown of the hat, and 
 pretend to cut all round the die-cover there lying; say — "I 
 shall now bid it naove into the lower hat, but it will not do so 
 while uncovered, so I must place this ornamental cover over it.'* 
 Do so ; show that you have nothing in your hands or sleeves ; 
 then wave your wand or your hand, and say, ''Change, pass, 
 die, into the lower hat." Give it a little time. Then, compres- 
 sing the outward cover gently, lift off also with it the painted 
 die-cover, which it has inside it. Lift up the lower hat, and 
 show the company the solid die lying in it. ' Show all that the 
 upper hat has received no injury. 
 
 The illusion to the audience will be that the solid die has pas- 
 sed through the crown of the upper hat without at all injuring 
 it. Keturn the hats to the owners, and show them to be unin- 
 ured. 
 
 TRICK 10.— To produce from a silk handkerchief bon-' 
 bons, candles, nuts, etc. 
 
 PEEPAKATION. 
 
 Have packages of various candies, wrapped up in bags of the 
 thinnest tissue paper, and place them on your table rather shel- 
 tered from observation. Have also a plate or two on your 
 table. I 
 
 MEMOBANDUM. 
 
 It will be always desirable to have the table removed two or^ 
 three yards at least from the spectators, and of a height that 
 they cannot see the surface of it while sitting down in front of 
 it. 
 
 Commence the trick by borrowing a silk handkerchief, or any ' 
 large handkerchief. After turning it about, throw it out on the 
 taV)le, so as to fall over one of these packages. 
 
 Having carefully observed where the bag lies, place your left 
 
28 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 hand so as to take np the bag while catching hold of the middle 
 of the handkerchief. 
 
 Taking the handkerchief np by nearly the centre, the edges 
 of it will fall around and conceal the bag ; make some pretended 
 wavings of your wand or right hand over the handkerchief, and 
 say, "Now, handkerchief, you must supply my friends with 
 some bon-bons." Squeeze with your right hand the lower part 
 of the bag which is under the handkerchief; the bag will burst, 
 and you can shake out into a plate its contents. 
 
 Asking some one to distribute them among your young 
 friends, you can throw the handkerchief (as it were carelessly) 
 over another bag, from which you can in the same way produce 
 a liberal supply of some other sweetmeats, or macaroon bis- 
 cuits, etc., etc., all of which will be duly appreciated by the ju- 
 veniles, and they will applaud ftS long as you clfoos© to continue 
 this 6WEEX trick, " 
 
 I 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV.V 
 
 PBAOTIOE. 
 
 IN conjnring, as in all other arts and scieneed, perseverance is 
 requisite in order to become expert and snccessfal. There 
 is no royal road, or possibility of acquiring the end, without ex- 
 ercising the means to that end. Let my young friends, then, 
 carefully practise over and over again the passes and the tricks 
 ■which I have already explained to them. It is the only way to 
 attain dexterity and confidence, without which they will never 
 be able to make any creditable exhibition of the art of conjur- 
 ing. After they have attained considerable skill and sleight-of- 
 hand in displaying a few tricks, they will easily extend the range 
 of their performances, and gradually rise to greater ability. I 
 may, therefore, parody an old injunction for obtaining success, 
 and say : There are three rules for its attainment : The first is 
 "Practice." The second is * Practice." The third is *' Prac- 
 tice." In a word, constant and careful practice is requisite, if 
 any wish to be successful as amateur conjurors. They should 
 never attempt to exhibit before their friends any tricks that they 
 have not so frequently practised that no bungling or hitch is 
 likely to occur in their performance of it. 
 
 Let no one be staggered -by the simplicity of the processes 
 recommended in these tricks. The result will in fact be all the 
 more astonishing, the simpler the operations employed. 
 
 The great point is the address of the performer, and that will 
 carry through successfully the means employed. However sim- 
 ple and insignificant those means may appear to the learner 
 when they have been explained to him, if there is good ftddress 
 
30 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 and accurate manipulation, the astonishment at the result will 
 be infinitely greater than any one would imagine possible to be 
 produced by such simple means. 
 
 There is one help that I can suggest towards the better man- 
 agement of the hands in concealing or removing objects ; it is 
 the use of a conjuror's rod or short magic wand. This is, now- 
 a-days, commonly a stick of about fifteen inches long, resem- 
 bling a common rule, or a partially-ornamented one. You may 
 often have observed this simple emblem of the conjuror's power, 
 and deemed it a mere idle or useless affectation. The conjuror 
 waves it mystically or majestically as he may be disposed. Of 
 course you are right in your judgment that it can do no good 
 magically ; but it does not follow that it is useless. The fact is, 
 that it is really of considerable service to him. If he wants to 
 hold a coin or any object concealed in his hand, without others 
 observing the fact of his hand being closed, the wand in that 
 hand is a blind for its concealment. He may require to pick up 
 or lay down some object, and he can do so while openly fetching 
 or laying down his wand. If he wants to gain time, for any il- 
 lusion or process of change, he can obtain it while engaging the 
 attention of the spectators by some fantastic movements of his 
 "wand. By the use of the wand, therefore, you will be able to 
 prevent the observation of your audience too pointedly follow- 
 ing the movements which you wish to carry on secretly. You 
 may also, at the same time, dispel their attention by humorous 
 remarks, preventing it from being concentrated on watching 
 your movements. 
 
 As a general rule, you must not apprise your audience of what 
 you are actually doing, but must often interpose some other 
 thought or object to occupy their mind. For instance : Do you 
 desire that a person should not examine too closely any object 
 •which you place in his hand, tell him to hold it well above his 
 head. That takes it out of the range of his eyes. It would 
 never do to tell him not to look at it. He would then immedi- 
 ately suspect that you are afraid of something being observed. 
 
 Have you perchance forgotten to bring on your table any ar- 
 ticle requisite for displaying any trick, a feint must be made 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 31 
 
 that you mnst have more candles, or must remove some other 
 object, thus gaining the opportunity to fetch what you require 
 without naming it. 
 
 Do not even announce too fully or vauntingly beforehand 
 what is to be the result or development of any trick ; rather 
 proceed with it, and let the audience come unexpectedly upon a 
 result which they had not contemplated. Their surprise will be 
 greater, and their amusement more lively, at such unexpected 
 result. 
 
 It is for this reason that it will be well to avoid the repetition 
 of the same trick in the same evening, though requested to per- 
 form it over again. The minds of the spectators have already 
 traced once the whole performance of it — the beginning, the 
 middle, the end. The zest of it, therefore, is gono off; their 
 minds are languid and disinterested about its second repetition ; 
 and the conjnror's art proportionately sinks in their estimation. 
 
 Having offered these general remarks, I will now invite the 
 attention of my young friends to another batch of interesting 
 tricks, which, with a little effort, they may succeed in exhibit- 
 
 TRICK 11. — A sudden and unexpected supply of feath- 
 ers from under a silk handkerchief or cloth. 
 
 PREPARATION. 
 
 Have ready a good supply of plumes of feathers. They may 
 be obtained from a fnr or fancy store, or purchased there loose, 
 and tied up so as to lie thin and flexible wnere you wish to place 
 thera. You may have at least four batches of them. The com- 
 mon haokle feather will do, stitched round a thin piece of whale- 
 bone, leathers that are a little injured for sale as ornaments 
 mav be picked up at little cost. 
 
 Take off your co;^. You may then have one or more batches 
 of feathers placed round each arm ; the lower point of the stem 
 on which the feathers are fixed being near your wrist, and the 
 top of each batch of feathers confined near your elbow by a 
 slight worsted string, so that they do not stick out the coat 
 slepve too much, or slip down toj?efher if two batches are con- 
 ce'l^d in the some sleeve. Yo-i can nave one or more batcher, 
 pV»t' I just within each side of your waistcoat, with the lowei* 
 
32 
 
 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 point of tlie stem within easy reach of yonr hand — about four 
 , inches below your chin. Then put your coat on. 
 ! Commence the trick by borrowing a large silk handkerchief or 
 cloth of the same size. Show it to be empty by holding out the 
 two top corners in front of your breast, and shake the handker- 
 chief while it falls loosely down over your vest. Then moving 
 the handkerchief toward your left, catch hold (with your right 
 thumb and finger) of tho end of the stem of the plume, No. 1, 
 and draw it from under the left side of your vest. It will re- 
 main concealed behind the handkerchief while you move your 
 
 riG. 8.' 
 
 Position 1. . 
 
 Position 2, 
 
 two hands to the right, which will draw out the plume from un- 
 der your vest, then over the centre of your chest. Then toss 
 the handkerchief about, enveloping the first batch of feathers ; 
 say, " Handkerchief, you must supply me with some feathers." 
 1 In a minute or so, take off the handkerchief, and display the 
 plume to the spectators. 
 
 I Show the spectators again that the handkerchief is quite 
 [ empty. Move your arms toward your right till your left hand 
 comes just over the edge of the right side of your vest. With 
 your left thumb and fore-finger catch hold of the stem of the 
 feathers there concealed, and by moving your arms back to- 
 wards the left, you can draw out without its being observed the 
 plume that had been concealed under the right side of your 
 vest. Toss about and display as before this second batch of 
 feathers, and then place them aside. 
 
 Then show to the company again that your handkerchief has 
 nothing in it, and lay the handkerchief over both your hands. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 33 
 
 While waving it mysteriously about, exclaim that the handker- 
 chief must furnish you with some more feathers. Draw out of 
 the left sleeve one of the plumes, shake the feathers out while 
 taking off the handkerchief from this, which will be plume the 
 third. 
 
 Then, throwing your handkerchief over the hand, and clap- 
 ping your hands together, (with the left over the right hand,) 
 manage to catch hold of another point of a plume, and pull it 
 out from your right sleeve while waving about your two hands 
 with the handkerchief over them. You have now produced four 
 plumes. 
 
 The exhibition may be continued to an increased number of 
 plumes, if you have more concealed in your sleeves, or else- 
 where ; but four will probably be sufficient to manage at the 
 commencement of your career as an amateur conjuror. 
 
 TRICK 12.— Heads or Tails? 
 
 I shall now give directions for reproducing, before a jnvenile 
 audience, a trick that will carry us back to the primitive style of 
 conjuring in old times. I cannot say that there is anything 
 very scientific or elevated in it, but, if neatly and adroitly exe- 
 cuted, it will tell very well with a youthful audience, 
 
 PBEPABATION. 
 
 Ton must take care that your table be so placed that none of 
 the spectators can see behind yourself or the table. You must 
 provide yourself with some young pet of the juveniles, such as 
 a puppy, a kitten, or any other small pet. The performer must 
 either have some little bag hanging under his coat-tails, or some 
 provision for concealing the little animal behind him, or in a 
 drawer before him ; so that there will be no chance of any of 
 the audience seeing it before the proper time. He must have 
 ready also a penny, or any coin. 
 
 ' To begin the exhibition of the trick. Standing with all the 
 nonchalance you can assume, and placing one or both your arms 
 behind your back, you may say, "For a variety, I will challenge 
 one of my young friends to come and try which of us will suc- 
 ceed best in a few tosses of this penny." 
 
 Induce some young person to come to the front of your ta- 
 ble, and tell him to bring forward his hat. Ask him to toss first 
 with the cent and put the hat over it, while you will guess 
 " beads" or "tails." Say it shall be seen who is most suceess- 
 
34 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 ful in five guesses. After he has tossed np twice, you can take 
 the penny, and say, " Now, I will vary the method of tossing. 
 Yon shall name now which you choose, ' heads' or ' tails.' " 
 
 Toss up the penny, and while attention is occupied with this, 
 and he is looking to see which is uppermost, heads or tails, you 
 withdraw your left hand from behind you, holding the little an- 
 imal you have concealed, and slipping it into the hat, and turn- 
 ing the hat down over it, exclaim, "Stay, I mean to pass the 
 penny through the hat upon the table, and the whole affair shall 
 be settled by the result of the pre-sent toss. You shall see the 
 heads or tails on the table." 
 
 By Pass 1 , pretend to place the penny on the hat, but retain 
 it in your right hand. Say, "Fly, pass, and quickly.'' Lift the 
 hat, and show both head and tail on the little animal or pet 
 there concealed. 
 
 If you should have had a Guinea pig, you must make the 
 guesses go on till your adversary guesses "tails," and then it 
 wall make a good laugh to say, "He has won, and he had bet- 
 ter now take it up by the tail.'^ 
 
 THICK 13 —To cook pancakes or a flat plum cake 
 in a hat, over some candles. 
 
 EEQUISITE PEEPAEATION. 
 
 Have two gallipots or earthen jars, of a size to go easily into 
 a hat, but of such dimensions that the one reversed will ' fit 
 closely over the other. Tie worsted or a strip of linen round 
 the smaller gallipot, so as to insure the larger ome holding firmly 
 round the smaller one. Have ready some thin, fluent dough, 
 some sugar, and a few currants, enough for two or three pan- 
 cakes or a smaU plum cake ; also a spoon to stir the ingredients 
 up. 
 
 Have at hand two or three warm pancakes that have just been 
 prepared by the cook for you, with the same ingredients as men- 
 tioned above. Let them be firm and free from grease. Have 
 also at hand two small plates, with knives and forks. 
 
 Commence the exhibition by borrowing two hats, to give you 
 a choice with which to perform. You can remark that as you 
 should be sorry to injure your friend's hat, you will secure it 
 from being soiled by placing some paper in it as a lining. Hold 
 up the paper to show it is only paper, and then openly place it 
 in the hat, and lay the hat down on its side on the table near 
 you, having the brim towards you. 
 
 Save the''>ready-prepared pancakes lying near yon, and whilst 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 85 
 
 taking off the attention of the spectators by pretending to ar- 
 range the articles on your table, slip the prepared pa cakes or 
 plum-cake into the hat. 
 
 Unobserved, also place the smaller gallipDt in the hat, and 
 while doing so, if reqinsite, add some remr.rk, such as: "Please 
 to shut, or op'^n, that oor." or any wordc ihal will draw off the 
 attention of the sp ctators from what you .^ro uoin^ You must 
 next, \/ith s me parude, mix the flu ml long' with the sugar 
 and ;urrants, in V.e lar^^er gallipot. It musi be fluent enough to 
 pour out I'wly, -^tpare tl^ into the h:i:, but really into the 
 smaller gallipot, whicli has been already -xnocalcd inside the. 
 hat. Sho^/ /ou aave emptied the larjor ;r!,'li_>ot, aU but a little; 
 then, placing 't ^v ir he sn ,ller gaKlp't a- in, empty the very 
 last o*" it, md press the larjer ^allipo^ firmly u wn over the 
 smaller o»->. Then, itliit, Hff th smalloi r^allipot dlso, with 
 its contents, whil yon ip^icar mly to talic br.cl: the larger galli- 
 pot. Remove the g'-llipots, ;.s sup;->osed t be empt.^ , out of 
 sight. "Now, l.id.er. and ;entlemon, . must request your pa- 
 tience a few minutes for ^he process of cooking." Put two or 
 three candles near one ..nothor, and m^ ve the hat a*- a safe dis- 
 tance above them for ' W( or thr > minutes, making in the mean- 
 time any laUjjhabL remark; that may occur to you,^uch as = 
 *' My young friends vv'ill find this ^ capital way of supplying 
 themselves with a delical ; dish when hoy 'lavj lost their pud- 
 dings from being in the black books of their teacher or parents," 
 
 i¥ia, 9, 
 
 or any similar humorous remark ; but take care not to bum the 
 hat whilst the (supposed) cooking is going on. After a ishort 
 
36 
 
 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 interval, place the-hat on the table, and ■with some little cere- 
 mony take out the real pancakes or plum-cake. Let it be cut 
 up and.handed round to the juveniles who may be present. 
 
 EEMAKKS. 
 
 A more finished or surer arrangement for holding the dough, 
 etc., can be made with a tin apparatus, which can be prepared 
 by any tinman, upon the same principle as the gallipots, taking 
 care not to have it made larger than the inside of a youth's 
 bat. 
 
 An amateur can render a common table more suitable for con- 
 
 FlG. 25. 
 
 cealing any little object he wishes to have secreted, by placing 
 three or four tumblers under each end of a plank, about the 
 length to extend across the table, and throwing any common 
 cloth over the board and table, or a kitchen table, covered with 
 a cloth, having a drawer pulled out about six inches, will furnish 
 a very good conjuror's table. It is well to have the table rather 
 broad, so as to keep the spectators at a sufficient distance. 
 
 TRICK 14.— TO EAT A DISH OF PAPER SHAVINGS, 
 AND DEAW THEM OUT OF YOUE MOUTH LIKE AN 
 ATLANTIC CABLE. 
 
 PREPAEATION. 
 
 Procure three or four yards of the thinnest tissue paper of va- 
 rious colors. Cut these up in strips of half an inch or three- 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 37 
 
 quarters of an inch breadth, and join them. They will form a 
 continuous strip of many feet in length. Roll this up carefully 
 in a flat coil, as ribbons are rolled np. Let it make a coil about 
 as large as the top of an egr-cup or an old-fas ioned hunting- 
 watch. Leave out of ihe innermost coil about an inch or more 
 of that end of the paper, so that you can easily commence un- 
 winding it from the centre of the coil. 
 
 Procure a large dish or basketful of paper-shavings, which can 
 be obtainer*. at little cost from any bookbinder's or stationer's. 
 Shaken oiu. it will appear to be a large quar.tity. As you wish it 
 to appear that'you have eaten a good portion of them, you can 
 squeeze 'he remainder close together, and then there will appear 
 to be few left, and that your appetite has reason to be r \tisfied. 
 
 Commence the trick by proclaiming you have a voracious ap- 
 petite, so that you can make a meal off paper-shavings. Bend 
 d»wn over the plate, and take up handful after handful, pretend 
 to munch them in your mouth, and make a face as if swallowing 
 them, and as you take up another handful, put out those previ- 
 ously in your mr nth, and put them aside. Having gone on with 
 this as long as the spectators seem amused by it, at last, with 
 your 1 ft hand, lip the prepare ' ball of tissue aper into your 
 mouth, managinr to place towards your teeth the end you wish 
 to catch hold of with your right hand, for pulling the strip out 
 from your mouth. Y 3U will take care also not to open your 
 teeth too widely, lest the whole coil or ball should come out all 
 at once. 
 
 Having got hold of the end, draw it slowly and gently forward. 
 It will unroll to a length of twenty yards or more in a continu- 
 ous strip, much t the amusement of the spectators. 
 
 When it has come to the end, you may remark : "I suppose 
 we have come to a fault, as there is a ' solution of continuity 
 here, pist as the strongest cables break off,' so we must wait to 
 pick Tip the end again, and go on next year, when the Great 
 Eastern again goes out with its next Atlantic Cable. " 
 
 TRICK 15.— HoTW to cut off a nose — of course "mthout 
 
 actual injury. 
 
 PEEPARATION. 
 
 Have ready a piece of calico of light color, or a white apron, 
 a sponge saturated with a little liquid of the color of blood — 
 port-wine, or the juice of beet-root, will do ; also two knives, 
 resembling each other, the one of them whole, the other with a 
 large notch in its blade, so that when placed over the nose it will 
 
38 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 appear to have cut through the bridge of the nose. A cutler 
 c.uld supply Guch knives, or they may be purchased at the de- 
 pots for conjuring apparatus. 
 
 Having' placed out these articles on your table with serious- 
 ness and imposing formality, show to the audience the knife that 
 is whole, and call upon them to observe that it is sufficiently 
 strong and sharp. The other knife must J)e placed somewhere 
 near you, but where it is sheltered from the observation of the 
 spectators. 
 
 Ask some young friend to step forward, assuring him that you 
 will not hurt him. Mako him sit down on a chais- facing the au- 
 dience. After having measured the real knife across his nose, 
 say : "But I may as well protect your clothes from being soiled, 
 BO I will put an apron round your neck. " Go to the table to take 
 up the apron, and, in doing so, _'lacG down the real knife where 
 it cannot be seen, anC. with your lef ' !' .and take up the conjuror's 
 knife, holding it by the blade, lest any one should observe the 
 notch in it. Conceal at the same time also, in your left hand, 
 the piece of sponge. 
 
 Advancing to the chair, tuck, with your right hand, the apron 
 round the youth's neck. Then pr ss the nonjuror's knife firmly 
 over the nose and leave J ^ there, -^s if you had cut into the bridge 
 of the nose. At the same time gently ^qxieeze the sponge, and 
 a little of the liquid will make an alarming appearance on the 
 face and on the apron ; go on for a short time, covering the face 
 and apron with ('apparent) blood. Y»'hen the audience have seen 
 it long enough, seize up the apron, wipe the face of the j^outh 
 quite clean, throw away the conjuror's knife, and exhibit your 
 young friend to the audience all right, and dismiss him with 
 some facetious remark oa his courage in undergoing the alarm- 
 ing operation. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TEICKS BY MAGNETISM, OHEMISTET, GALVAKISM, OB ELECH 
 
 TBICITY. 
 
 THERE is a class of tricks about which I must say a few 
 words, viz., those that require to be exhibited by the help 
 of magnetism, chemistry, galvanism, or electricity. I need not 
 dwell long on them, for I do not consider them such as the 
 young people, for whom these notes are written, can be recom- 
 mended to devote their attention to, for the following reasons : 
 iu the first place, they are, with a few exceptions, attended with 
 considerable expense. Secondly, the tricks connected with the 
 powerful agencies of galvanism and electricity are dangerous to 
 the unskilful operator ; and, even in experienced hands, the 
 most effective of them are uncertain things to manage ; there- 
 fore their effect cannot be depended on. 
 
 Some very interesting tricks have, doubtless, at times been 
 exhibited by the help of galvanism and electricity. We have 
 read of a conjuror by such help confounding a powei-ful Arab, by 
 first letting him lift with ease a box, and afterwards rendering it 
 impossible for him to raise it, when an ^electric current had, to 
 his dismay, paralyzed all his strength. It is evident that an ex- 
 periment of this kind could not be safely attempted by any but 
 a very experienced person. We read also of conjurors who have 
 surprised their audience by receiving them in a dimly-lit thea- 
 tre, and then firing off a pistol, (to startle the audience and cover 
 the real mode of operation,) they have by electricity lighted up 
 
 J 
 
40 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 one hnndred lamps at once. This has proved very successful on 
 some occasions ; but on others, notwithstanding the most care- 
 ful preparation and the greatest precaution, it has been found 
 that the apparatus would not act, and the impatient spectators 
 have visited the disappointing failure with their indignant mur- 
 murs. Other conjurors have Ibecome so attached to electric ex- 
 periments, that they have proposed to regulate all the clocks ot 
 a large district by electricity, or have amused themselves by 
 turning electric or galvanic currents to the door-handles of their 
 houses, so that unsuspecting strangers, on touching them, were 
 startled with electric shocks. There is also a trick for rendering- 
 one portion of a portrait electric by a metal plate concealed un- 
 der it, and the spectators being invited to touch some part of the 
 picture, have, on touching the spots that were charged with 
 electricity, received a shock or powerful blow, as if the portrait 
 resented their touching it. ^ 
 
 Having briefly given the character of this class of tricks, and 
 stated that they not only require expensive apparatus, but are 
 attended with danger to the inexperienced, there still remains 
 another serious objection, viz., that, like the experiments per- 
 formed by automaton figures or complicated machinery, they are 
 liable to fail, through any trifling disarrangement, just at the mo- 
 ment when the performer is hoping that his audience will be de- 
 lighted with his surprising exhibition. 
 
 For these reasons I shall not stay to describe the more elabo- 
 rate of these tricks, as, however interesting they may be to the 
 scientific, they would not, in a youthful amateur's hands, be sure 
 to produce the amusement which it is my primary object to sup- 
 ply- 
 
 The simpler experiments of magnetism and chemistry may 
 
 well be regarded as recreations of science, interesting curiosi- 
 ties, suitable enough to be exhibited by a professor of chemistry 
 for amusement and instruction ; but even these can hardly be 
 considered as belonging to " conjuring proper." Young people 
 do not care, at festive parties, to watch red liquids turning into 
 green, blue, and yellow ; or the mixture of different chemical 
 ingredients producing strange conversions into varied substances; 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 41 
 
 nor will experiments that are interesting as chemical cnriosities 
 produce the same excitement and pleasing surprise that the 
 wonders of sleight-of-hand do. In a word, such experiments in 
 a private circle of young friends fail to constitute the most amu- 
 sing kind of parlor magic, while upon a public stage they are too 
 minute for any large audience to trace and comprehend. 
 
 Lest, however, my young readers should think that I have any 
 desire to shut them out from any field of reasonable pleasure, I 
 will now carefully select one or two examples of tricks connected 
 with the sciences of magnetism and chemistry, and which may 
 even in the hands of amateurs, produce a safe and pleasing ex_ 
 hibition. 
 
 In the following trick they will find an amusing instance of the 
 combination of science with rational recreation. 
 
 THICK 16. — The -watch obedient to the "word of com- 
 
 maud. 
 
 The magnet is a well-known agent in producing several toys 
 for the entertainment of the young, and though its attraction is 
 wonderful, there is no danger likely to arise from employing it, 
 in the same way as might arise from unskilful dabbling with 
 electricity, galvanism, or chemical powers, and a strange and 
 singular effect may be produced by placing a magnet of some 
 little strength near a watch. 
 
 Supposing the young conjuror to have provided himself with 
 a powerful but not very large magnet, let him conceal it in the 
 palm, or under a thin glove in his left hand, or near the edge of 
 the cuff of his sleeve. Let him then borrow a lady's watch, 
 (without chain,) and the thinner the watch-case is, and if it has 
 a glass, the better. Let him then call forward a youth, and pla- 
 cing the watch in his own right hand, and near to the ear of the 
 other, ask him if he hears it going : he will answer "Yes." 
 
 Let him next bid the watch to stop ; and on taking it in his 
 left hand, where the magnet is concealed, it will stop, if held 
 steadily ; and on inquiring of his young friend whether he can 
 hear it, he will reply "No." 
 
 Observe : .you must keep systematically to using your right 
 hand when you wish to make the watch go on, and to your left 
 when you wish it to stop. Appealing to others among the com- 
 pany, the performer may then tell the watch to go on, and hold- 
 ing it iu his right hand, and giving it a slight sboke, apply it to 
 
42 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 one of their ears ; it will be heard "tic, tic ;" then holding it in 
 his left hand and telling it to stop, they will also find that it does 
 stop. You can pretend to doiibt whether they aiw all deaf of 
 one ear, but lastly may declare that this is caused by the obedi- 
 ent disposition of the watch, which so orderly obeys your com- 
 mand. Kemind your audience that savages upon first seeing a 
 watch believe it to be a living animal with power to think and 
 act of itself "At any rate," you may conclude, "the present 
 watch seems to hear, to understand, and to obey my orders." 
 ! It v/ill be an amusing addition to the above trick to say that 
 you will now order the watch to fly away and conceal itself. 
 
 You must for this purpose have provided yourself with an 
 electro-plated locket resembling a lady's watch, and have two 
 loaves ready in some convenient comer. 
 
 "When the watch has finished its "manual and platoon" exer- 
 cise on the platform, you may say, " I will now place this watch 
 visibly to all upon the table." Turn round to go to your table, 
 and in walking to it, substitute the locket for the watch, and 
 place the locket on some spot visible to all. It will not be dis- 
 tinguishable from the watch by the spectators at six or eight 
 yards' distance from them. Conceal the watch itself in the palm 
 of your hand. You can now exclaim, "I require two loaves," 
 and walking towards them, slip the watch into the one you have 
 prepared with a slit in its side. Advancing to the audience, ask 
 in which loaf they will prefer that you shall bid the watch fly. 
 If they name the one in which you have concealed it, proceed to 
 break open the loaf and find the watch. But suppose they name 
 the wrong one : you then, remembering that the left hand of th« 
 spectators is your right hand, proceed with the true loaf, which- 
 ever they have named, or manage to cross the position of the 
 loaves as yon place them on the table. 
 
 Then taking up the locket with your right hand, make Pass 1, 
 as if transferring it to your left hand, but really retaining it in 
 your right bond (as described in my first paper.) Blow upon 
 your closed left hand, and say, "Watch, fly into that loaf." Clap 
 your hands. It is gone. 
 
 Advancing to the loaf, get rid of the locket from your right 
 hand ; take up the loaf, break it open on the other side from that 
 in which the locket was introduced, bring out the watch, and ap- 
 peal to the lady to declare whether it is the same which she lent 
 to you. 
 
 TRICK 17. 
 
 An experiment with a very mild dash of electricity in it, which 
 ^11 at any rate be a popular trick with most people that try it. 
 It will do for a small entertainment, or at any joyous party of 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 43 
 
 young people. It does not, however, require a large number to 
 be present, but, contrary to the usual scientific tricks, its devel- 
 opment comes off better with one companion than with a dozen 
 
 PEEPAKATION. 
 
 You must induce your cousin Jemima, or some other young 
 lady who is just of age to have cut her eye-teeth, to consent to 
 help you by accompanying you to a room with closed shutters 
 and no candles. A moderate-sized looking-glass must be on the 
 table, the smaller the better, for reasons below assigned. Have 
 ready at hand some ounces of hard candy. 
 
 You commence the trick by placing yourselves, hand-in-hand, 
 before the looking glass. If it is rather small, your heads will 
 be the closer — in order to see the reflection of both at once. 
 Then, with mouths as open as may be, try which of you can 
 crash his or her share of sugar-candy with the teeth the quick- 
 est. In the glass will appear the reflection of sparks of electri- 
 city, as the experiment proceeds. If your companion is ner- 
 Tous, you can of course support her with one arm — ladies are 
 sometimes susceptible, whether from animal magnetism or what 
 not. The electric sparks coming between the lips may also be 
 attractive, and you maybe tempted to try whether the electricity 
 Evaporates the sweetness; but of course you must not be tempted 
 to forget the philosophical nature of the experiment ; and, if you 
 behave with propriety, the lady will doubtless, on her return to 
 the company, tell them, in a staid manner, that the experiment 
 was all right ; and perhaps when you see her, even a day or two 
 afterwards, you will observe there is an arch dimple on her cheek 
 and an electric sparkle lighting up her eye — and I should not 
 wonder if you should feel a desire to try the experiment over 
 again. 
 
 TRICK 18. — ^A chemical trick to follow one "where a 
 young friend has assisted. 
 
 PEEPAKATION. ' 
 
 You must have & wine-glass, a saucei", and a teaspoon, and 
 the chemical bottles No. 1 (silicate of potash) and No. 2 (alumi- 
 nate of potash,) which can be obtained from any druggist. 
 
 At the close of some trick in which any young friend has as- 
 flisted, you can say: "Well, my young friend, you have assisted 
 xne so coarteously and well that I must, in order to express my 
 
44 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 thanks, ask yon to take a glass of wine. Do you like wine? 
 
 Ah, I see by your smile you do." 
 
 Pour out of bottle No. I half a glass, and, going towards him, 
 stop short and say : ' ' Ah, but I am afraid your mamma would 
 bo di--pleased with me if I gave you wine so strong without any 
 water, and I should be sorry to tempt you to drink what she 
 would disapprove. Stay, I will mix a little water with it. " 
 
 Mix some of No. 2 bottle, so as to fill the wine-glass, and say : 
 "Oh, never mind losing the pure wine ; I dare say you will like 
 it very well as it is, " and make a few chatty remarks, to give the 
 liquids time to mingle their effects in the glass ; and after a 
 minute or two say: *'Ah! I'll tell you what I am sure your 
 mamma would like still better — if I could give you some calves- 
 foot jelly. Now, I really believe, if I were to stir it with this 
 teaspoon, and try my mapic wand over it, I can turn it to jelly. 
 Let us try." Occupy a little time while it is becoming like jelly, 
 and go on with a little more talk till you see that it has become 
 solid. Then say: "Well, after all, I will not deprive you of 
 your wine ; so here it is. Please drink it. " Putting it to his 
 lips, he will find it has become so solid that he cannot drink it, 
 but it can be turned out quite solid into the saucer, and a gen- 
 eral laugh will greet him on the disrppointment of his wine. 
 
 Having submitted a few remarks upon the class of tricks that 
 are to be performed by help of the sciences, magnetism, chem- 
 istry, etc., and having stated my reasons for my not more fully 
 discussing them, I will now proceed to give an explanation of 
 one or two more that are better suited for the practice of ama- 
 teurs. 
 
 TRICK 19. — To draw three spools off two tapes without 
 those spools having to come off the ends of the tapes, 
 and -while the lour ends of the tapes are held by four 
 persons. 
 
 1>EEPABATI0N. 
 
 You must have two narrow tapes of about four feet long, ben* 
 as iu Fig. 11.. Red tape I prefer. 
 
 You must next insert about half an inch of A through the loop 
 of B, and bring it back down on the other part of A. 
 
 A spool such ns cotton is wound on, or an ornamented ball 
 with a hole drilled through it, just large enough to hold the tapes 
 lightly, will be required (Fig. 13.) 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 45 
 
 Pig. 13. 
 
 Pig. 14. 
 
 The Bpool or ball mnst be pnt on the tapes at the extreme ends 
 of the tape B, and drawn to the left, till it just covers the noose 
 at K. as in Fig. 14. 
 
 N. B. — All the above should be prepared before the spectators 
 are invited to witness the trick. 
 
 Commence the exhibition by calling upon the spectators to 
 observe that you hold a reel, or ball, through which two tapes 
 are passed. 
 
 You may then produce two more spools, or wooden balls, and 
 place one of them over the ends at A, and the other over the 
 ends at B. 
 
 The following will then be the appearance of the balls or spools 
 and the tapes passed through them (Fig. 15) : 
 
46 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 Ton may move abont the spools 2 and S, to show how the tape 
 Jnins through them, but yon must not move ppocl 1, 
 
 You may then say that the puzzle is to get the spools o^ the 
 tapes while the four ends are held firmly in the hands cf four 
 persons. Appoint four persons to hold them, end you mcy then 
 «ay : "To make doubly sure, I will tie one of the ends j.t A to 
 one of the ends at B with (the first half of) a knot. " It does 
 not Fignify which ends yon take to do this, fo that yon take ono 
 A and one B. *' I vill now pull these two ends fo tight thr,t it 
 v.'ll draw the three spools together, and also tighten til along one 
 eideofthem." 
 
 Then, while four persons hold firmly the extreme ends cf the 
 
 Fig. 16. 
 
 tapes, yon mnst take shorter hold of the two A's with yonr left 
 hand, (where it is marked by a dotted Ime, Fig. 16,) and also take 
 hold of the other tapes where a dotted line is marked on them 
 towards B. Then drawing your arms wider apart, so as to pull 
 the tapes steadily, the spools or balls will fall to the ground with- 
 out passing over the ends of the tapes, 
 
 TRICK 20. — To restore a tape "wrhole after it has been 
 cut in the middla. 
 
 PREPARATION, 
 
 Have five or six yards of tape about three-quarters of an inch 
 broad. 
 
 Take half the length in each hand. You will be able to phow 
 the audience that you are about to cut it in the middle, by hold- 
 ing it in two loops of equal length. Call their attention point- 
 edly to the eqnal division of the full length. 
 
 The tape will thus appear to the performer in the position 
 represented in Fig. 17. 
 
 Observe the tape A crosses p.t z the tape B on the Fide next to 
 the performer, whereas the tape J) id to cross the tape y on the 
 BidQ farthest ^oi^ ^iu, 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 47 
 
 Fig, IS represents the hands fis they appear to the performer 
 himself, holding the tape with the thumb tuul foreljnger rb the 
 crossings of the tape at y and z, while Ihe outward sides of each 
 loop are to be held by the three other fingers of each hand. 
 
 Fig. 17. 
 
 Fig. 18. 
 Left Hand, Eight H^nd. 
 
 To proceed \rith the trick : Holding yonr hands in this posi- 
 tion, (Fig. 13,) you must request one of the spectators to cut 
 through the tape at x, but just as he is about to do so, you must 
 quickly lower your hands two or three inches, and then raise 
 them again. This movement will conceal the following opera- 
 tion. You drop the part (B) of the tape held, in your right 
 hand, and at the same moment pick up with that hand the other 
 tape marked C. 
 
 This will bring the portion of tape from C to D, so that it now 
 bpcomes the transverse tape, substituted in place of the tape 
 marked x, and your j'oung friend will then cut it — instead of the 
 original tape marked x — without being aware that he is so 
 doing. 
 
 "When the tape has been cut through, you can put your hands 
 near together, allowing the two ends of the little piece of the 
 
48 
 
 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 Fig. 
 
 tape — C D — to be seen, but concealing from the epeetatora 
 that you have hold of two pieces, one a very long one, and the 
 other only about five inches long. You can then say:^ "Now I 
 have to join these two ends, and to restore the tape 
 whole as at first." You then turn the little piece C 
 D round the piece y, which is in your left hand, and 
 you tie a knot with the ends of that little piece. 
 You naust not tie this knot very tight, and after you 
 have tied it, you drop the other end of the tape alto- 
 gether out of your right hand. ■ 
 The appearance which the tapes will then have is 
 represented in Fig. 19. That is, you will seem to 
 hold the equally divided pieces of the long tape 
 joined in a knot at y, whereas in fact it is only the 
 small end piece C D, tied round the middle of the 
 long tape, which you hold between the thumb and 
 forefinger of the left hand. Exhibit the knot to the 
 company, and say : "I admit that this knot hardly 
 looks like a perfect restoration ; I must employ my 
 best art to get rid of its unsightly appearance." | 
 Ask some one to hold, at about three yards' dis- 
 tance, the end marked with small d, retaining hold of 
 the centre — at y — in your left hand, which quite cov- 
 ers the knot. Tell your friend to wind the tape round 
 his hand, and, while pretending to show him how to 
 do this, by winding the part which you hold round 
 your left hand, slide away towards your right the loose knot un- 
 der your right hand. Then, holding out the end of the tape A 
 towards another friend, to hold at about three yards' distance to 
 the right, slip from off the long tape the little movable knot tin- 
 der your right hand, just before he takes hold of this end of the 
 tape. Conceal in your right hand the little end-piece of tape, 
 until you can get rid of it into your pocket, or into any unob- 
 served spot. Blow upon your left hand, which is supposed still 
 to cover the knot, saying : " Knot, begone ! — Kestore!" Take 
 up your left hand, and show the tape to be free from any knot, 
 or join irom one end of it to the other. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON THE CONTINXJITT OP TBIOKS. 
 
 IT may be useful uow to invite attention to the theory of pro 
 serving a continuity in the development of tricks, where 
 circumstances admit of this being done. Sundry displays of 
 l3gerdemain admit of being adroitly linked together ; and I shall 
 endeavor to explain why such an harmonious continuity is pref- 
 crablo to an unconnected series of isolated tricks ; for when onc& 
 a novice gets a clear perception of this principle, he will b» 
 able, according to his own special taste, to produce a pleasing 
 variety of combinations in his experiments. He will thus rise 
 above being a mere copyist of the methods used by others, and 
 so will give a zest and freshness to his performances. 
 
 Now, there are many short and secondary dashes of legerde- 
 main, which a spirited performer will be able to introduce in ad- 
 dition to the tricks which he is exhibiting. There are also sev- 
 eral ornamental or fanciful little tricks which would not rivet tho 
 attention of an audience if exhibited by themselves. These, 
 though unqualified to shine as the main object of observation, 
 may nevertheless be worked into the evening's entertainment as 
 amusing by-play, and may thus prevent the interest of the spec- 
 tators from flagging. They may come in as accessories — as 
 stimulating side-dishes — causing the entertainment to bear a 
 continuous character, instead of merely consisting of sundry 
 isolated experiments. 
 
 Let me bo allowed to substantiate what I have advanced by 
 refereaco to somo of the tricks which I have already described. 
 
50 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 The reader will have seen that, in some of the triclcs explained 
 in previons papers, there is simply some one definite object to 
 be carried out. For instance, in the two tricks which concluded 
 the last paper, the performer simply undertakes to throw the 
 spools off the tape, or to restore a tape which has been cut. Ho 
 Bets about this, accomplishes it, and the trick is over. This is 
 all very well as far as it goes. If the trick is really a good one, 
 it is like a host furnishing his guest* with a solid joint to satisfy 
 their appetite ; and it may do so. But still it comes short of a 
 lively entertainment. It is confessedly dull for an audience to f 
 come to pauses or gaps between isolated tricks. Their attention 
 is unoccupied while the performer, having finished off one trick, 
 is making mute preparations to introduce some other trick 
 ■wholly unconnected with what has gone before. Such a method 
 "will not keep awake the lively interest that the skilful combina- 
 tion of the conjuror's art will sustain. I maintain that varied 
 by-play and supplementary sets-off will greatly heighten the in- 
 terest of the performance. i 
 
 It will also serve to disarm the suspicious and incredulous, 
 preparing them to believe what they might otherwise stand on 
 their guard against. Bare tricks brought forward as isolated ex- 
 periments give time for the mind to take its estimate of their 
 possibility; and, of course, in attempting to exhibit wonders, 
 the improbability of them is apt to stare people strongly in the 
 face. They are perfectly convinced that a dime cannot fly into 
 an orange at the other end of the room, that ink cannot become 
 -water, nor a hat be safely used as a frying pan ; but if you inter- 
 pose appearances and movements that are consistent with such 
 processes going on, they are gradually prepared to recognize as 
 a legitimate result what you have previously indicated as the 
 contemplated end of those processes. 
 
 The amplification or fuller development which I speak of can 
 be effected at any of the following stages : 
 
 1. In the introductory matter leading on to the main trick or 
 
 transformation : 
 
 2. In the subsequent stages of its development ; or, 
 
 8. In the winding-up smwtly or variedly the conclusion of 
 trick. ' 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 61 
 
 I do not say that every trick is to be amplified or loaded with 
 extraneous matter in all these different stages, (that would be to 
 run into the contrary extreme of over-cumbrous amplification ;) 
 but I will endeavor to point out the effect of such development 
 in the above three stages of a trick, and if I can show that am- 
 plification in each several one may be an improvement, I may 
 be considered to have made good my proposition that any trick 
 may be improved and rendered more interesting by one or other 
 of those amplifications. 
 
 Let us see if we cannot lay down a bill of fare for our guests . 
 which, going beyond a solid joint, (good as that may be in its 
 way,) will furnish them with some relishing accessory in tho 
 first course of a trick, some stimulant side-dishes with Us second 
 course, or may please with some bon-bons before the entertain- 
 ment is quite concluded. 
 
 1. rNTrvODucTorcY. 
 
 Now, first as to introductory matter. Suppose a conjuror is 
 able to perform Trick 3 — the "Dancing Egg" — it will waken up 
 his audience if, instead of proceeding at once with the trick, ho 
 can by sleight-of-hand find out an egg in the whiskers or neck- 
 tie of soma unwatchful spectator, and afterwards substitute 
 for it the egg prepared with a hair and wax. 
 
 The chief aim of introductory matter should be to enlist the 
 thoughts and expectations of your audience under your com- 
 mand, so as to preclude their watching what you are driving at. 
 Show all you can safely show openly ; enlarge upon the things 
 being submitted to their own eyes and touch ; engage their eyes 
 and ears with certain appearances leading their thoughts to 
 adopt your suggestions, so that, when you approach the devel- 
 opment intended, they have had no leason to suspect your mo- 
 tives; thus having their confidence, you can jump at once to 
 their credulity, though there may, in fact, exist some gap, or il- 
 logical process, which they omit to notice. 
 
 2. DURrN'G THE SUCCESSIVE STAGES OF A TRICK. 
 
 I often vary and render more interesting the development oi 
 a trick by some little by-play. 
 
S2 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 For instance, in the trick which I often use as my first trick I 
 make a candle an amusing helper, by snatching it from the can- 
 dle-stick, and asking some one to hold it wrapt up in paper. 
 
 And this unexpected service of the candle is wrought into tho 
 body of the trick which I have in hand. 
 
 I change also a crystal ball into an orange by skilful manipu- 
 lation. 
 
 By such brief diversion of the attention of the spectators, 
 their eyes are withdrawn from watching too narrowly some ma- 
 noeuvre that is requisite to carry out the more important trick 
 which you have in hand. 
 
 Or you may actually make an act, which is a mere accessory, 
 cover some important portion of the trick ; as in tho tape trick 
 <No. 20, ) While pretending to show tour assistant how to 
 HOLD the tape in his hand, ygu slip the knot away unperceived 
 under youb own hand. 
 
 3. IN CONCLUDING A TRICK:. 
 
 It greatly adds to tho efficiency of a trick to let it finish off 
 ]rith a sparkle, or some playful addition which gilds its exit. 
 
 For instance, in the trick of doubling the pocket-money, (7th 
 Zrick,) the little by play of finding, or rather pretending to 
 fftid, some coins secreted in tho sleeve cf tho young friend who 
 \;as helped you, is sure to bring out a good-humored laugh at 
 iLe termination of the trick. Again, in Trick IG, the additional 
 fact of finding the watch in the loaf makes a lively termination 
 of ite performance of the obedient watch. In tho 1 8th Trick, 
 thfa glass of wine becoming solid might be used r.s a good finish 
 to any trick where some friend has assisted in its exhibition. 
 
 liou may often raise a good-humored laugh by appearing to 
 swallow any object which you have used in a trick — as an or- 
 ange, ball, egg, or dime — and afterwards bringing it out from 
 your sleeve ; or, by tho use of Pass 1, to drive a coin up one 
 sleeve, round the back of your neck, and down the other sleeve, 
 into your right hand. 
 
 I not only consider such amplifications of a trick lively and 
 iateresting, bat I maiirtain this to be the best way of employing 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 53 
 
 many secondary and short tricks wherever they can be broaght 
 in appropriately as offshoots of longer and more important 
 ones. 
 
 f 
 TRIC3Z 21.— The invisible hen : a very useful trick for 
 Bupplying eggs for breakfast or dinner. 
 
 PBEPAEATION. 
 
 In order to save the invisible hen trouble and delay, ''it will ba 
 advisable to have eight or ten egg-shells, (as described in Trick 
 8 ;) or some light imitation eggs, painted white, may be bought 
 
 Fig. 20. 
 
 Po3itiou 1. 
 
 Position 2. 
 
 at any depot of conjuring apparatus. A linen or camlet bag 
 may dso be procured from the same depot, though I think a bag 
 
54 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 made at home, according to the following directions, to be pref- 
 erable. 
 
 It must be about the size of a small pillow, two feet three 
 inches across, and one foot nine inches deep. It has one of its 
 sides ot double cloth, (x, ) the other single, (z, ) in the same way 
 as leather writing-cases have a pocket on one side, and a single 
 cover on the other. The double side is stitched together all 
 Tound, with the exception of an opening at A, which must be 
 about five inches long, or large enough to admit easily a hand to 
 put in or take out the eggs. This double side of the bag must 
 always be kept towards the performer, whereas the single side 
 must be always kept towards the spectators ; and the only open- 
 ing between these two sides is between C and D. On the inte- 
 rior of the side of the double cloth bag, a strip or kind of frill 
 of the same cloth must be sewn, with an elastic binding round 
 the pockets or cups for eggs. The elastic binding will keep them 
 in these pockets, unless they are pressed by the thumb or fin- 
 ger, so as to release them and let them fall into the centre of the 
 double bag. The strip has the appearance of a string of in-^ 
 verted egg-cups, thus : 
 
 Fig. 21. 
 
 -ux iior'una vjftji i c|, ^ ^ ^ ^j y ' 
 
 The position of it in the bag is indicated in Fig. 21 by the 
 dots running across the bag ; but the strip itself is never seen 
 by the spectators, for it is placed on the inner side of the double^ 
 bag, v/hich is always towards the performer. 
 
 Having carefully prepared the above apparatus, commence the' 
 exhibition of the trick by holding up the bag by the comers j 
 and D, as represented in Fig. 21. Shake the bag well while so] 
 holding it, showing it to be (apparently) empty. 
 
 After having thus exhibited the bag, thrust both your hands' 
 down inside it to the corners A and B. Holding those comers, j 
 pull the bag inside out, and again show it to be empty, in this 
 reversed position, represented in Fig. 21. 
 
 As the spectators have now seen it thoroughly, inside and out-"* 
 Bide, you may put the question to them, "whether they admit 
 it to be empty, as they ought to know." 
 
 While holding the bag by the samo corners A and B, you 
 must now gather the bag a little closer together, and holding it 
 well up — see Fig. 21 — press with your thumb one of the eggs out 
 of its elastic cup. This can be easily done without any one ob- 
 iserving the moyement. This egg, with a little gentle shaking, 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 65 
 
 will fall into the large bag made by tlie double fjide ; but it 'can- 
 not fall to the ground, however much you shake it, for there is 
 7^o opening but at A, and that is upwards towards your right 
 hand, so you may shake the bag boldly. 
 
 You next lower the bag a little, and spread it on your chest, 
 letting it rest there while you move your hands from A and B 
 to take hold of the corners C and I) ; and you must give an 
 
 FlQ. 22. 
 
 Position 3. 
 
 Position 4. 
 
 opening for what had hitherto been the higher part of the bag, 
 to drop through between the opening that there is between 
 and D, This will keep the double side of the bag Cx) still to- 
 wards yourself, and the bag will now be returned to its original 
 position (Fig. 21.) With your left hand retaming hold of the 
 corner D, and lowerinn; the bag towards your right hand, shako 
 well th ) loosaned ogi-/ uowu towards tlio corner A. Search with 
 your right iiaud al)i)at that corTier, and the opening of the double 
 bag, and yon will be able to l)riug out the egg tlaat had been 
 loosened while the bag yfsm in position ;3. 
 
56 TUE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 Take ont that egg ; shake the bag well, as if it were efnitf 
 empty : and then, thrusting both your hands into Iho interior 
 corners at A and B, turn the bag inside out ; bring it to position 
 2, ready to re-commence bringing out the other eggs one by one, 
 as long as the spectators are interested, While you hold Ibo bag 
 in position 2, you can safely let any young person feel to the 
 bottom of the bag, as he will not be likely to suspect the eggs 
 are towards the top of the bag on the side near to yourself. 
 
 The same bag may be used also much to the amusement of 
 children, by your loading it with walnuts, chesnuts, small ap- 
 ples, or pears, or any bon-bon of about the size of an egg ; and 
 then allowing the children, one by one, to feel in your lucky bag 
 for what you take care they shall find in their successive 
 searches. 
 
 A SERIES or TRICKS, 22, 23, 24.—T]ie chief agent 
 being a plain gold ring. 
 
 PBEPAEATION. 
 
 You must be provided with a 'small thin wire pointed at both 
 ends, which, being bent round, will resemble an ordinary plain 
 gold ring. 
 
 You must also have on your table an orange or a lemon, a box 
 or bowl, a tumbler, and a dessert-knife. 
 
 And you must have four or five needlefuls of thick cotton, 
 which have been previously steeped for about an hour in a wine- 
 glass of water, with a teaspoonful of salt ia it ; and have been 
 afterwards completely dried, so as to burn easily. 
 
 TRICK 22. 
 
 Having the fietitioug ring in the palm cf your hand, com- 
 mence by requesting any lady present to oblige you by lending 
 you a plain gold ring, and borrow also from some gentleman a 
 colored silk handkerchief. Appear to place the borrowed ring in 
 that handkerchief, but in reality place in it the ronnded ficti- 
 tious ring. Doubling the centre of the handkerchief round it, 
 request some gentleman to hold it, so as 1 o be sure he has got 
 the ring in the handkerchief — while you fetch a slight cord to 
 fasten it. "While going to your table to fetch this cord, you slip- 
 the real ring into a slit in the orange which you had prepared, 
 and which closes readily over it. You then tie the cord round 
 the handkerchief, about two inches from the ring, and. calling 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGTCIAN. 6Y 
 
 the spectator^? to notice how it is secured, take hold of that part 
 of the handkerchief which incloses the fictitious ring in your 
 own hand, and tell the gentleman to place one by one the four 
 corners of the handkerchief over your hand. Directly he has 
 begun to do this, j'our fingers must proceed to unbend and open 
 the fictitious ring, and to press it by its pointed end through the 
 silk, and conceal it in your own palm. You tell your assistant 
 to blow upon the handkerchief and open it — the ring is gone, 
 and you return the handkerchief to the owner. Fetch the or- 
 ange from your table, and ask some one to cut it open, and he 
 will find the lady's ring in the centre of the orange. 
 
 TRICK 23. 
 
 Yon are now to proceed immediately to the next development 
 of the mysterious powers of the plain ring, which ladies so much 
 admire. You may commence by remarking that *' .yon have lit- 
 tle doubt that this symbol of love and obedience will at your 
 command pass through the table, solid as it is. Let us try," 
 
 Place the tumbler on the table — produce your own silk hand- 
 kerchief, to the centre of which a plain ring is already fastened 
 by a doubled silk thread of about 4 inches length. 
 
 Use Pass 1 with the real ring, as if passing it into the hand- 
 kerchief ; conceal that ring, and substitute for it the fictitious 
 ring. 
 , Then addressing the spectators, say : 
 
 "Now, ladies and gentlemen, I will drop this ring into th© 
 glass, so as you shr.ll hear it fall." Do so. Let the handker- 
 chief rest over the glass for a minnto or two. "Now I must 
 place this bowl under the table to receive the ring." In so plac- 
 ing the bowl, y u must silently place the real ring in it. Then 
 say aloud, " Chanoe, ring; pass from the glass through the ta- 
 ble into the bowl below." Lift up the handkerchief, and while 
 inviting one or two to come and examine the glass and the bowl, 
 smooth your forehead with the handkerchief as if heated, and 
 pass it into your pocket. Your young friends will be astonished 
 to find the ring not in the glass, where they heard it tinkle, but 
 in the bowl underneath the table. 
 
 TRICK 24. 
 
 *'lTow, ring, yon have amused ns so well, that you shall, like 
 Mahomet, be sustained in the air without visible support." 
 Flao« over a common walking-stick some of your prepared 
 
68 THE PRACTICAI. MAGICIAN. 
 
 cotton threads, having twisted two or three of them together, 
 and united them in a loop, which you draw through the ring, and 
 then slip the ring through the end of the loop. The ring v/ill 
 then hang suspended about a foot below the stick. The stick 
 itself may be steadily fixed, resting on the back of two chairs at 
 an elevation, so as to be easily seen by the company. 
 
 When the ring has been thus suspended, set fire to the cotton 
 about two inches above the ring ; the flame will run upwards to- 
 wards the stick ; blow it out when about two inches from the 
 stick, and the ring will remain pendulous in the air for some lit- 
 tle time after the cotton has been burnt. 
 
 The suspension is said to be caused by a filament, or fine thread 
 of glass — which has be'en formed by the ashes of the cotton uni- 
 ting with the heated salt, with which the cotton had been pre- 
 pared. 
 
 Now this trick would be too simple an experiment to be exhib- 
 ited by itself; but coming as a finish to two other tricks, which 
 have been performed with the same ring, the spectators 
 
 Will give it honor due. 
 
 I trust that I have satisfactorily established the assertion that 
 a combination of congenial tricks will often tell more effectively 
 than the same tricks would if exhibited without such combi- 
 nation. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 59 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 rBEENDLY SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 AS fh© traatenr will aspire to come before his parlor audience 
 some d'^j or other, it may be some little service and help 
 to him to giTo J lew suggestions as to the best way of conducting 
 such an exhibition, and to specify the kind of tricks to which he 
 ■will do well to limit himself. It will be desirable to open with 
 an off-hand ey'ression of his wish to place before them a few 
 amusing tricks to wile away an hour ; and let him assume a 
 lively air, for his own liveliness will sustain that of the specta- 
 tors. 
 
 There are some conjurors who, though they can perform good 
 tricks, exhibit them in such a heavy, uninteresting way that they 
 create no enthusiasm. An over-anxious look, coupled with a 
 creeping, fearful movement, and a dull, monotonous voice, will 
 suggest distrust and dissatisfaction, even where the sudience has 
 come together prepossessed with the expectation of mirth and 
 glee. Let none assume, then, to wave the conjuror's wand till 
 he has himself some confidence in his powers, knows what he 
 purposes to do, and means to carry it out. I would say that a 
 moderate degree of assumption, a gay vivacity, ready to break 
 out into a smile, a cheerful spirit, and a joyous voice, will go a 
 great way to bespeak favor, which the performer can quickly re- 
 pay by dashing off his tricks with enthusiasm. The language 
 used by the conjurer should be studiously guarded. Let there 
 bo no vain-glorious assertions, no self-praise, but respectful def- 
 erence to the judgment of the spectators ; rather inclining to 
 give them the credit of understanding more than they do, than 
 twitting them with understanding less. Be neither overbearing 
 with conceited '* chaff" upon any of the company ; nor, on the 
 
60 
 
 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 other hand, renture upon extreme and disconcerting" compli- 
 ments to any person present. Kather, as a courteons niabttr of 
 the ceremonies, conduct the experiments with a simple effort to 
 please and to amuse all. "With the exhibition of an amnteur, 
 the performance of some lively airs upon the piano by any friend 
 will form an agreeable accompaniment, especially if the spirited 
 and humorous melodies are introduced, which the public tasto 
 recognizes as the tunes of the day. You will do well to have 
 your table neatly and carefully arranged. Let it not He too near , 
 to the spectators, nor within reach of too minute inspection. 
 It should be of sufficient height to show the main objects placed , 
 on it ; but the surface of it may be just high enough to be shel- 1 
 tered from the spectators clearly viewing every article upon it. | 
 The ornaments should be few, yet, at the same lime, be service- 
 able to shade a few articles which it mny be policy to conceal. I 
 
 1. The centre table may be a moderate-sized kitchen table,, 
 with a drawer to stand open ; so that the performer can take any 
 article out of the drawer with one hand, w^hile engaging the eyes 
 of the spectators with his other hand. A colored cloth should 
 be over the tables, on the side towards the spectators. ! 
 
 2. Two small tables, at th© Eides cf ths C€Ptre table, may also 
 be useful, as in Fig. 22. 
 
 IG. 22.. 
 
 8. With tables arranged somewhat in this manner, the ama- 
 teur will be able to take up articles, from either the surface or 
 back of the tables, without attracting notice to his doing so. 
 He must practise taking up things with one hand, while his other 
 hand and his eyes are ostensibly occupied with f ome other ob- 
 ject ; for if the spectators see him looking behind his table, their 
 eyes will immediately follow in the same direction* 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 6l 
 
 The amateur "will do well to select the simpler tricks for his 
 first attempts, and never pretend to exhibit even those without 
 having frequently and diligently practised them. He must make 
 \\p his resolution to train his hands to the passes, and to the 
 several manoeuvres in the tricks, as diligently as young ladies 
 train their fingers to the keys of the piano. 
 
 And let them not be discouraged if they feel awkward and 
 nervous at first. Some of the best conjurors have candidly con- 
 fessed their early failings and misgivings. With practice and 
 perseverance this will, in most cases, wear off. I would augur 
 that, if they feel an interest in the art, and a desire to excel in 
 it, they will most probably secure a measure of success that will 
 amply repay thoir efforts. 
 
 TRICK 25. — The Conjuror's "Bonus Genius," or Familiar 
 
 Messenger. 
 
 This is an old trick that has delighted thousands, and may 
 amuse thousands more, if adroitly performed. There are only 
 the simplest mechanical arrangements connected with it ; its 
 snccessful exhibition depends upon the dexterity and vivacity ol 
 the performer, 
 
 PREPAEATION. 
 
 Yon mtiRt have a strong wooden doll, about eight or ten inches 
 high ; the head must fix on or off by a peg at the bottom of the 
 throat, being placed in a hole made at the top of the bust. Be- 
 sides a close-fitting dress to its body, a large, loose, fantastic 
 cloak must be placed round the whole figure, but must be so ar- 
 ranged .is to allow the head to be pushed down through the part 
 of the cloak that covers the bust, and an elastic pocket must be 
 neatly made inside the cloak to receive and retain the head. 
 
 Having the above apparatus ready, you may commence by 
 saying : 
 
 "Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to introduce my learned 
 friend and assistant — indefatigable in traveling to the most dis- 
 tant parts on any message I may wish to send him. He used to 
 be recognized by early conjurors as their Bonus Genius — their 
 good familiar spirit. But, whatever his special title, he is gifted 
 with the art of rendering himself visible or invisible, as he feels 
 disposed, while he travels to distant countries. 
 
 " Allow me to call your attention to the solid frame and un- 
 flinching nerves, at any-j-ate to the well-seasoned constitution of 
 my friend. [Rap him loudly, rap, lap, lap, on the table.] Pho 
 raps he received during his education doubtless accustomed him 
 to bear tauoh witiiout ^iachiog. Though his travels have ranged 
 
62 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 from China to Peru, from the Eqnator to the Poles, yon per- 
 ceive he still sounds like a hardy Pole himself. (Kap, rap, 
 rap.) 
 
 *' I perceive, however, by the glaring of his eye, that, after 
 my too rough handling, he is desirous of starting on his travels. 
 I suppose Nve must provide him with the needful for his ex- 
 penses. Large sums are given now-a-days to special corre- 
 epondents in foreign countries ; who will kindly give him suffi- 
 cient ? He will want a golden or silver key to open some curi- 
 osities he may wish to inspect in foreign cities. (Pause.) Oh. 
 well, ns there is a delay about it, I must myself supply him. I 
 think I have a few disposable coins in my nocket : he shall have 
 them." 
 
 Suiting the action to the word, while your left hand holds the 
 Tipper part of the cloak near the neck, so as to cover what you 
 are doing, you withdraw the wooden body with your right hand, 
 while you move your right hand down to your^pocket for the 
 coins. You then leave the body of the doll in your pocket, and 
 taking out the coins, present them to the head and cloak of the 
 figure, which is held in your left hand, saying: "There, my 
 good friend, you can now, if you wish, proceed on your tour to 
 Algiers, or Dahomey, or Timbuctoo, or wherever the universal 
 Yankee travelers fancy at the present to resort. 
 
 "Ah, I see he is pleased and in good spirits again. He 
 wishes apparently to bid you good-bye. You will excuse his 
 looking also round about him, to judge whether the Aveather is 
 fair to set out ; after which I will lay my hand on his head to ex- 
 press my good wishes for his journey. I dare say he will not 
 stay much longer after that than a schoolboy does after his mas- 
 ter has bid him good-bye." 
 
 Place with formal ceremony your hand on his head, press it 
 down through the opening below it, receive it in your left hand 
 underneath the cloak, and bestow it safely in the pocket. 
 
 Affect astonishment at finding the gown alone left in your 
 hands, and fold it up with a lamentation at his departure. You 
 may say : " It is clear that he has chosen to go to a hot climate, 
 as ho has left his cloak behind him." 
 
 Discourse for a few minutes about sending a telegram to over- 
 talie him at London or San Francisco— talk about the sea-pas- 
 sage, railways, tunnels, and what not. 
 
 "Ah, but I need none of these if I wish him back. I can 
 summon him again by a few mystic wavings of my wand and by 
 secret art. Hey, my friend, I need thy presence ; quick, re- 
 turn, I pray you. I wish to see vou again in your familiar 
 garb- 
 By tho prickinjf of my tbambt, 
 fiometbios ghostly hither eoraes.' 
 
THE PRACT1CA.L MAGICIAN. 63 
 
 Swell out the cloak with your left hand, and at the same time 
 thrust up the head from the pocket. It will appear as if the 
 whole figure stood before them. 
 
 Then say : " I fear, dear friend, I have trespassed by abridging 
 your tour. You can hardly have traversed Algeria, crossed the 
 mountains of the moon, or found the birthplace of the if ile ; and 
 no one returns now-a-days without some such marvel to relate. 
 I will let you depart again. As some people say to troublesome 
 visitors : ' You may depart now ; please to call again to-mor- 
 row.'" 
 
 Repeat the manoeuvre, as before, of secreting the head. Then 
 exclaim : " Alas! he is gone in earnest, like the sojourner of a 
 day (with mock pathos.) "When w;e have lost him, we feel our 
 loneliness." 
 
 Fold up sorrowfully the cloak of the departed, and so conclude 
 the trick. 
 
 TRICK 26.— The Shower of Money. 
 
 A dozen silver coins, or pennies, will be equally useful in ex- 
 hibiting this trick ; but some fictitious coin, in color resembling 
 gold, will perhaps more etfectively delight those who are charmed 
 by the yellow glitter of the precious metal. The performer must 
 have provided himself with so many of these in his left hand as 
 he purposes to produce at the end of the trick, and two of the 
 same coin also must be concealed in his right palm. He must 
 further borrow a hat from one of the company. 
 
 The imagination of the spectators having been excited by the 
 expectation of beholding a shower of money, the adept in sleight- 
 of-hand, keeping one of the two coins in his right hand con- 
 cealed, must advance the other coin to the end of his forefinger 
 and thumb, while he pretends to pick a coin out of the candle, 
 or of the rim of u hat, or from a lady's fan or shoulder, or may 
 pretend to clutch a coin floating in the air. As he brings away 
 his prize, ho may rattle it against the other coin concealed in his 
 right hand. Then, making Pass 1, he may pretend to pass it 
 into the hat, being careful precisely at the same moment to drop, 
 audibly, a coin from his left hand into the hat which he holds in 
 that hand. Let him tell the audience to keep count how many 
 he collects: it will rather distract their attention. 
 
 lis can continue this pleasant appearance of acquiring wealth 
 for ton minutes, or as long as he can deviso various methods of 
 appearing to clutch it, till the number with which ho stored hia 
 left hand is exhausted. 
 
 Ho may thea request 89m« one te oocmt •nt, audibly, tato a 
 
64 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 plate the coins collected in the hat, which will coincide with the 
 number he has appeared to collect so magically from varioua 
 sources. "When adroitly done, this trick is very pleasing and ef- 
 fective. 
 
 TRICK 27. — To Furnish Ladies "With a Magic Supply of 
 Tea or Cofiee, at their selection, From One and the 
 Same Jug. 
 
 PEEPABATION. 
 
 Have a metal jug to hold not less than three pints. It must 
 be constructed with two compartments in the lower part of it, 
 aolding about a pint and a quarter each, and these must each 
 have a pipe connected with the spout of the jug and another 
 pipe connecting with its handle, and in the handle a small hole 
 about the size of a letter — o — in Ibis print. These lower com- 
 partments must be filled with good tea and cofifee before the jug 
 is produced. 
 
 The upper chamber or compartment, like the upper portion of 
 a patent cofifee-pot, must have no communication with the lower 
 divisions, and must be well closed also at the top with a tin cov- 
 er, closely fitting. Have half a dozen small tea-cups and half a 
 dozen small coffee-cups ready on a tray. 
 
 Begin the trick by placing openly in the upper compartment 
 coffee-berries and tea, mixing them together. Take up, as a 
 sudden thought, an old blacking bottle, and pretend to pour 
 from it into the jug, to furnish highly-colored liquid to improvo 
 the coffee; and a little gunpowder, nbout a teaspoonfnl, may bo 
 fired off over the mixture to make the tea strong. Wave your 
 wand over the jug. 
 
 Then you may address iho ladies : inform them that the ingre- 
 dients are well mixed, and invito them to name which they will 
 prefer, "tea or coffee," as you can produce either at tneir com- 
 mand from the same jug. 
 
 Get some friend to hand the cups, while you follow him, and, 
 by unstopping the holes in the handle for admitting air upon the 
 coffee or tea, the one of them that each lady names will flow out 
 from the spout of this magic jug. 
 
 TRICK 28.— A Pleasing Exhibition for both the Per- 
 former and tho Audience^ to vie"w -when they feel a 
 little Exhausted. 
 
 PKEPAHATION. 
 
 Have two pint bottks and one quart bottle ; the pint bottles 
 
THB PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 65 
 
 to be filled, one with a liquid resembling port, the other with 
 one resembling sherry i the large bottle to be at first empty. 
 Three opaque metal stands — the centre one to si;and nnder the 
 quart bottle, to have a large cavity to hold a quart, and the up- 
 per part of this stand to be full of large holes, like a cullender, 
 for the liquor to run from the opening at H into that cavity. 
 
 riG. 24. 
 
 You must also have three metal covers, of proper size to cover 
 the above three bottles — these covers to have handles at top, so 
 as to be easily lifted. The large centre cover is simply a cover ; 
 but the two side ones, which are to cover the pint bottles, must 
 be made with metal cavities large enough to hold, one a pint of 
 port, the other a pint of sherry, at top, with a descending pipe 
 to fall into the mouths of the pint bottles. 
 
 There must be a small hole at top of each of the small covers, 
 ct B and C, which hole, being covered with tinfoil, will, as long 
 
 riQ. 25. 
 
 as it 13 closed, prevent the wine from running out at D. But 
 whsn the tinfoil is sorapsd off, and the hole admits the air, the 
 wine will then ba able to run into the pint bottles. 
 
 Th3 above apparatus being all ready, commence by saying : 
 " I will now pour this pint of port and this pint of sherry into 
 the large bottle, mixing them inseparably together." Having 
 
66 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 flone so, remove the stopper at bottom of tlie large bottle as yoti 
 place it on its stand, and immediately place the large cover over 
 it. The mixed liquid will gradually run out into the concealed 
 cavity in the stand. 
 
 You must now talk a little magic nonsense, to draw off the at- 
 tention, while you place the special covers over each of the 
 small bottles, so that the descending pipes in the covers fit in 
 the necks of the bottles. Bemove the tinfoil with which you 
 had covered the holes at A and B. 
 
 With a few magic waves of your wand, and words of art, Bay : 
 *' I shall now cause the mixed liquids in the centre bottle to ap- 
 pear severally in their own original bottles." Let the covers re-, 
 main a few seconds. Clap your hands, saying: "Change, be-r 
 gone !" Lift the centre cover : the large bottle will be seen to 
 be empt3\ Lift successively the covers from the small bottles : 
 they will be seen to have each their proper wine — one port, the 
 other sherry. 
 
 TRICK 29.— To Furnisli a Treat to tho Gentlemen. 
 
 For this th 3 magic bottle must be procured. One with three 
 or four compartments is amply sufiScient. In these place gin, 
 sherry, and port wine, respectively. The bottle will have three 
 or four holes, on which you place your fingers as if stopping the 
 holes of a flute. You may have a bucket of water and a com- 
 mon bottle, resembling the magic one in size and appearance, 
 near your table. Have ready also a tray of wine-glasses of thick 
 glass, and holding only a very Fmall quantity. 
 
 Exhibit the common bottle to the ai^dience, and then place it 
 on your table, and direct attention to some of the other articles 
 on your table. '*Now T mi:st begin my experiment. I will 
 vrasli and drain my bottle, that you may £cc tho cxpeiimert from 
 the beginning to the end.'' Place it in the bucket, rnd while 
 shaking it about, and letting the water run out, exchange it for 
 the magic bottle lying by the bucket. Wipe that carefully with 
 a napkin, as if drying it, and calling two or three of the af.di- 
 ence forward at a time, inquire which they prefer. Have the 
 stops according to alphabetical order to prevent yonr mistaking 
 — gin, port, sherry. Continue supplying the email glnsEcs as* 
 called for, till your bottle gets nearly emptj-, and then pour them 
 out indiscriminately. There will havo been cv.fficient to eatiefy 
 the -most eager. 
 
 But if you wish to continue the trick, yen may havo a second 
 magic bottle prepared in the same way, and you will easily, while 
 propounding some magic charm and gesticulating, make some 
 pretence that will enable you to exchange the empty for the sec- 
 ond bottle, and so proceed. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAQICIAH. 67 
 
 TENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, 
 
 WHAT IS VENTRILOQUISM ? 
 
 Before we take the reader into the precise and minute instruc- 
 tions which he will have to study and practice ere he can become 
 the possessor of the coveted art, it will be necessary to inform him 
 what Ventriloquism* is, and in what it consists. In doing so, we 
 shall endeavor to be as plain and clear as possible. Ventrilo- 
 quism may be divided into two sections, or general heads, the 
 first of which may be appropriately designated as Polyphonism, 
 and consists of the simple imitation of the voices of human 
 creatures, of animals, of musical instruments, and sounds and 
 noises of every description in which no illusion is intended, but 
 where, on the contrary, the imitation is avowedly executed by the 
 mimic, amongst which we may classify sawing, planing, door- 
 creaking, sounds of musical instruments, and other similar imi- 
 tations. 
 
 Secondly, we have ventriloquism proper, which consists in the 
 imitation of such voices,, sounds, and noises, not as originating in 
 him, but in some other appropriate source at a given or varying 
 distance, in any or even in several directions, cither singly or to- 
 gether — a process exciting both wonder and amusement, and 
 which may be accomplished by thousands who have hitherto 
 viewed the ventriloquist as invested with a power wholly denied 
 by nature to themselves. It is needless to observe, that when the 
 imitations are effected without a movement of mouth, features, 
 or body, the astonishment of the audience is considerably en- 
 hanced. 
 
 The terms polyphony, mimicry, or imitation, are employed 
 to designate results obtained in reference to the first division of 
 the subject, where no illusion is intended ; while the term ven- 
 tr'loquism distinguishes those under the second division, where 
 an illusion is palpably produced. The first is much more com- 
 mon than the latter ; indeed, there is scarcely a public school 
 which does not possess at least one boy capapble of imitating the 
 mewing of a cat, the barking of a dog, or the squeaking voice of 
 
 * Literally signifying belly'speaking, from *<nterf the belly, and loquor, I 
 ■peak. 
 
68 TBE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 an old woman. On the other hand, from a want of the know- 
 ledge of how to proceed, it is very seldom that even a blundering 
 attempt at ventriloquism is heard, except from a public plat- 
 form. 
 
 There have been many statements put forward defining ven- 
 triloquism, but we are decidedly of opinion that the theory of two 
 cf the most celebrated of foreign ventriloquists, Baron de Men- 
 gen and M. St. Giile, who were sufficiently unselfish to avow the 
 secret of their art, is not only the most correct, but it is at once 
 the most reasonable and the most natural. 
 
 From Baron de Mengen's account of himself, and the observa- 
 tions made by M. de la Chapelle, in his frequent examinations of 
 St. Gille, whom we shall afterwards refer to, it seems that the 
 factitious ventriloquist voice does not (as the etymology of the 
 word imports) proceed from the belly, but is formed in the in- 
 ner parts of the mouth and throat. 
 
 The urt docs not depend on a particular structure or organiza- 
 tion of these parts, but may be acquired by almost any one ar- 
 dently desirous of attaining it, and determined to persevere in 
 repeated trials. 
 
 The judgments we form concerning the situation and distance 
 of bodies, by means of the senses mutually assisting and correct- 
 ing each other, seem to be entirely founded on experience ; and 
 we pass from the sign to the thing signified by it immediately, or 
 at least without any intermediate steps perceptible to our- 
 selves. 
 
 Hence it follows that if a man, though in the same room with 
 another, can by any peculiar modifications of the organs of 
 speech, produce a sound which, in faintness, tone, body, and 
 every other sensible quality, perfectly resembles a sound delivered 
 from the roof of an opposite house, the ear will naturally, with- 
 out examination, refer it to that situation and distance ; the 
 sound which he hears being only a sign, which from infancy ho 
 has become accustomed, by experience, to associate with the idea 
 of a person speakin:; from a house-top, A deception of this kind 
 is practised with success on the organ and other musical in- 
 struments. 
 
 Rolandus, in his " Aglossostomographia," mentions, that if the 
 mediastinum, which is naturally a single membrane, be divided 
 into two parts, the speech will seem to come out of the breast, so 
 that the bystanders v.ill fancy the person possessed. 
 
 IMr. Gough, in the "Manchester Memoirs," vol. v. part ii. p. 
 C23 London, 1802, investigates the method whereb}' men judge by 
 the car of the position of sonorous bodies relative to their own 
 persons. 
 
 This author observes, in general that a sudden change in direc- 
 tion of sound, our knowledge of which, he conceives, does not 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAIT. 69 
 
 depend on the impulse in the car, hut on other facts, Trill he per- 
 ceived when the original communication is interrupted, provided 
 there be a sensible echo. This circumstance will be acknowl- 
 edged by any person who has had occasion to walk along a valley, 
 intercepted with buildings, at the time that a peal of bells is ring- 
 ing in it. The sound of the bells, instead of arriving constantly at 
 the cars of the person so situated, is frequently reflected in a short 
 time fron two or three difierent places. These deceptions are, in 
 many cases, so much diversified by the successive interpositions 
 of fresh objects, that the steeple appears, in the hearer's judgment, 
 to perform the part of an expert ventriloquist on a theatre — the 
 extent of which is adapted to its own powers, and not to those of 
 the human voice. 
 
 The similarity of effect which connects this phenomenon with 
 ventriloquism, convinced the author, whenever he heard it, that 
 what we know to be the cause in one instance, is also the cause in 
 the other, viz., that the echo reaches the ear, while the original 
 sound is intercepted by accident in the case of the bells hut by 
 art, in the case of the ventriloquist. 
 
 It is the business of the ventriloquist to amuse his admirers 
 with tricks resembling the foregoing delusion; and it will be read- 
 ily granted that he has a subtle sense, highly corrected by exper- 
 ience to manage, on which account the judgment must be cheated 
 as well as the ear. 
 
 This can only be accomplished by n^aking the pulses, constitu- 
 ting his words striike the heads of his hearers, not in the right 
 lines that join their persons and his. He must therefore, know 
 how to disguise the true direction of his voice; because the arti- 
 fice will give him an opportunity to substitute almost any echo he 
 choses in the place of it. But the superior part of the human body 
 has been already proved to form an extensive scat of sound, from 
 every point of which the pulses arc repelled as if they diverge from 
 a common centre. This is the reason why people, who speak 
 in the usual way, cannot conceal the direction of their voices, 
 which in reality Jly off towards all points at the xamc imtant. The 
 ventriloquist, therefore, by some means or other, -accquires the 
 difficult habit of contracting the field of sound within the compass cf 
 his lips, which enables him to confine the real path of his voice to 
 narrow limits. For he who is master of his art has nothing to 
 do but to place his mouth obliquely to the company, and to 
 dart his words out of his mouth — if the expression may be used 
 — whence they will then strike the cars of the audience as that 
 from an unexpected quarter. Nature seems to fix no bounds to 
 this kind of deception, only care must be taken not to let the 
 path of the direct pulses pass too near the head of the person who 
 is played upon, but the divergency of the pulses make him per- 
 ceive the voice itself. Our readers will, therefore, not be sur- 
 
 I 
 
70 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 prised that the French Academy adopted this view of the subject, ' 
 and laid down that the art consists in an accurate imi.ation of any 
 given t>oimd as it reach', s Ihe car. In conformity witli a theory so 
 incontrovertible, j^hysiologists have suggested a variety of 
 movements of the vocal organs to explain still further the ori- 
 ginating cause; and som.c have gone so far as to contend for a 
 peculiarity of structure in these organs as an essential require- 
 ment ; but they have wisely omitted to specify what. Noth- 
 ing, however, can be more accurate than the description of 
 ' ' the essence " of ventriloquy in the * ' English Cyclopa3dia " — name- 
 ly, that it ^^ consists in creating illusions as to the distance and direc- 
 tion whence a sound hns travelled.'''' llow tliose sounds are pro- 
 duced, we shall show in another chapter, 
 
 VENTRILOQUISM A^klONGST THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 Charles Lamb gave utterance to the thought that it was 
 " pleasant to contemplate the head of the Ganges," but tho 
 student of ventriloquism finds it difficult to obtain a viev/ of 
 the source of his art. In the dim and misty ages of antiquity, 
 he may trace under various guises the practice of it. iMany of 
 the old superstitions were fostered by its means ; from the cra- 
 dle of mankind to the birthplace of idolatry, we incidentg^Iy 
 learn of the belief in a familiar spirit — a second voice, which 
 afterwards took the form of divination. 
 
 The various kinds of divination amongst the nations of an- 
 tiquity v.iiich ■were stated by the priesthood to be by a spirit, a» 
 familiar spirit, or a spirit of divination, are nov/ supposed to havo 
 been cllected by means of ventriloquism. Divination by a fam- 
 iliar spirit can bo tracked through a long period of time. By 
 reference to Leviticus >:x. 27 it will be seen that the Mosaic law 
 forbade the Hebrews to consult those having familiar spirits, and 
 to put to death tlie possessor. The Mosaic law was given about 
 fifteen hundred years before Christ. Divining by a familiar 
 spirit was, however, ro familiar to the Jews, that the prophet 
 Isaiah drav;s a powerful illustration from the kind of voice heard 
 in such divination, sec Isaiah xxix. 4. 
 
 There can be little doubt but the Jews became acquainted with 
 this voice during their compulsory captivity in Egypt. In many 
 of the mysteries Avliich accompanied the worship of Osiris, the 
 unearthly voice speaking from hidden depths of unknown heights 
 was common. Some philosophers have imagined that a series of 
 tubes and acoustical appliances were used "to accomplish these 
 mysterious sounds. The statute of Memnon will instantly sug- 
 gest itself as a familiar instance. ». The gigantic stone-head was 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 71 
 
 heard to speak Tvlien the first rays of the worshipped sun glanced 
 on its impassive features. The magic words were undoubtedly- 
 pronounced by the attendant priest, for we lind a similar trick 
 prevalent throughout the whole history of ventriloquism, and 
 even now the public professors of the art know how much de- 
 pends on fixing the attention of their audience on the object or 
 place from whence the sound is supposed to proceed. The Jews 
 carried the art with them into Palestine, for we trace the agency 
 throughout their history. 
 
 The Greeks practised a mode of divination termed gastromancy, 
 where the diviner replied without moving his lips, so that the 
 consulter believed he heard the actual voice of a spirit speaking 
 from its residence within the priest's belly. 
 
 In the Acts of the Apostles (xvi. 10), mention is made of a 
 young woman with a familiar spirit meeting the Apostles in the 
 city of Philippi, in Macedonia, St. Chrysostom and other early 
 Fathers of the Christian Church mention divination by a familiar 
 spirit as practised in their day. The practice of similar divina- 
 tion is still common in the East ; it lingers on the banks of the 
 Nile, and is even practised among the Esquimaux. This divina- 
 tion by a familiar spirit has been practised upwards of three 
 thousand years. 
 
 MODERN PROFESSORS OF THE ART. 
 
 The earliest notice of ventriloquial illusion, as carried out in 
 modern times, has reference to Louis Brabant, valet-de-chnmbre of 
 Francis I. , who is said to have fallen in love with a beautiful and 
 rich heiress, but was rejected by the parents as a low, unsuitable 
 match. However, the father dying, he visits the widow ; and on 
 his first appearance in the house she hears herself accosted in a 
 voice resembling that of her dead husband, and which seemed to 
 proceed from above. ' ' Give my daughter in marriage to Louis 
 Brabant, who is a man of great fortune and excellent character. 
 I now endure the inexpressible torments of purgatory, for having 
 refused her to him ; obey this admonition and I shall soon be 
 delivered ; you will provide a worthy husband for your daugh- 
 ter, and procure everlasting repose to the soul of your poor hus- 
 band." 
 
 The dread summons, which had no appearance of proceeding 
 from Louis, whose countenance exhibited no change, and whose 
 lips were close and motionless, was instantly compHed with ; but 
 the deceiver, in order to mend his finances for the accomplish- 
 ment of the marriage contract, applies to one Cornu, an old and 
 rich banker at Lyons, who had accumulated immense wealth by 
 
72 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN, 
 
 usury, and extortion, and was haunted by remorse of conscience. 
 After some conversation on demons and spectres, the pains of pup 
 gatory, &c. , during an interval of silence, a voice is heard, like 
 that of the banker's deceased father, complaining of his dreadful 
 situation in purgatory, and calling upon him to rescue him from 
 thence, by putting into the liands of Louis Brabant, then with 
 him, a large sum for the redemption of Christians in slavery with 
 the Turks ; threatening him at the same time with eternal damna- 
 tion if he did not thus expiate his own sins. Upon a second in- 
 terview, in which his ears were saluted with the complaints and 
 groans of his father, and of all his deceased relations, imploring 
 him, for the love of God, and in the name of every saint in the 
 calendar, to have mercy on his own aoul and others, Cornu 
 obeyed the heavenly voice, and gave Louis 10,000 crowns, with 
 which he returned to Paris, and married his mistress. 
 
 The works of M. L'Abbe La Chapelle, issued 1773, and be- 
 fore alluded to, contain descriptions of the ventriloquial achieve- 
 ments of Baron Mengen at Vienna ; and those of M. St. Gille, 
 near Paris, are equally interesting and astonishing. The former 
 ingeniously constructed a doll w'ith moveable lips, which ho 
 could readily control by a movement of the fingers under the 
 dress ; and with this automaton he was accustomed to hold hu- 
 morous and satirical dialogues. He ascribed proficiency in his 
 art to the frequent gratification of a propensity for counterfeiting 
 the cries of the lower animals, and the voices of persons with 
 whom he was brought in contact. So expert, indeed, had prac- 
 tice rendered him in this way, that the sounds uttered by him did 
 not seem to issue from his own mouth. La Chapelle, liavin^ 
 heard many surprising circumstances related concerning one M. 
 St. Gille, a grocer at St. Germainen-Laye, near Paris, whose powers 
 as a ventriloquist had given occasion to many singular and divert- 
 ing scenes, formed the resolution of seeing him. Being seated 
 with him on the opposite side of a fire, in a parlor on the ground 
 floor, and very attentively observing him, the Abbe, after half an 
 hour's conversation with M. St. Gille, heard himself called, on a 
 sudden, by hia name and title, in a voice that seemed to come from 
 the roof of a house at a distance ; and whilst he was pointing to 
 the house from which the voice had appeared to Lim to proceed, 
 he was yet more surprised at hearing the words, "it was not 
 from that quarter," apparently in the same kind of voice as be- 
 fore, but which now seemed to issue from under the earth at one 
 of the corners of the room. In short, this factitious voice played, 
 as it were, everywhere about him, and seemed to proceed from 
 any quarter or distance from which the operator chose to trans- 
 mit it to him. To the Abbe, though conscious that the voice pro- 
 ceeded from the mouth of M. St. Gille, he appeared absolutely 
 mute while he was exercising his talent •, nor could any change 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 73 
 
 in his countenance be discovered. But he observed that M. 
 St. Gille presented only the profile of his face to him while he 
 was speaking* as a ventriloquist. 
 
 On another occasion, M. ISt. Gille sought for Bhelter from a 
 storm in a neighboring convent ; and finding the community in 
 mourning, and inquiring the cause, he was told that one of their 
 body, much esteemed by them, had lately died. Some of their re- 
 ligious attended him to the church, and showing him the tomb of 
 their deceased brother, spoke very feelingly of the scanty hon- 
 ors that had been bestowed on his memory, when suddenly, a 
 voice was heard, apparently proceeding from the roof of the 
 choir, lamenting the situation of the defunct in purgatory, and 
 reproachingthc brotherhood with their want of zeal on his ac- 
 count. The whole community being afterwards convened in the 
 church, the A"oice from the roof renewed its lamentations and re- 
 proaches, and the whole convent fell on their faces, and vowed a 
 solemn reparation. Accordingly, they first chanted a De profun^ 
 dis in full choir ; during the intervals of which the ghost occa- 
 sionally expressed the conrfort he received from their pious 
 exercises and ejaculations in his behalf. The prior, when this 
 religious service was concluded, entered into a serious conversa- 
 tion withM. St. Gille, and inveighed against the incredulity of 
 our modern sceptics and pretended philosophers on the article of 
 ghosts and apparitions ; and St. Gille found it difficult to convince 
 the fathers that the whole was a deception. 
 
 M. St. Gille, in 1771, submitted his attainments in this direction 
 to several experiments before MiM. Leroy and Fouchy, Commis- 
 sioners of tlie Koyal Academy of Sciences, and other jiersons of 
 cxhaltcd rank, in order to demonstrate that his mimicry was so 
 perfect as to reach the point of complete illusion. For this purpose 
 a report was circulated that a spirit's voice had been heard at 
 times in thccnvions of St. Germain, and that the commission was 
 appointed to verify the fact. The company, with the exception 
 of one lady, were apprised of the real nature of the case, the in- 
 tention being to test the strength of the illusion upon her. The 
 arrangement was that they should dine together m the country, in 
 the open air ; and while they were at table, the lady was ad- 
 dressed in a supernatural voice, now coming from the top cf 
 adjoining trees, then descending until it approached her, next re- 
 ceding and plunging into the ground, where i/; ceased. For up- 
 wards of two hours was this startling m«;nifestation continued 
 Avith such adroitness that she was convinced the voice belonged 
 to a person from another world, and subsequent explanation 
 failed to convince her to the contrary. 
 
 31. Alexandre, the famous ventriloquist, had an extraordinary 
 facility in counterfeiting all the expressions of countenance and 
 bodily conditions common to humanity. When in London, 
 his mimetic powers, which he was fend of exercising both in pub- 
 
74 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 lie and private, made his company in high request among the up- 
 per circles. Tlie Lord Mayor of the City, in particular, received 
 the ventriloquist with great distinction, and invited him several 
 times to dine at the Mansion House. But it unluckily happened 
 that on every occasion when M. Alexandre dined there, he could 
 not stay to spend the evening, having contracted engagementa 
 elsewhere. The Lord Mayor expressed much regret at this, and 
 the ventriloquist himself was annoyed on the same account, being 
 willing to do his best to entertain the guests whom the Lord May- 
 or had asked each time to meet him. 
 
 At last, on meeting M. Alexandre one day, the Lord Mayor en- 
 gaged him to dine at the Mansion House on a remote day. " I fix 
 it purposely," said his lordship, *' at so distant a period, because 
 I wish to make sure this time of your remaining with us through 
 the evening." Through fear of seeming purposely to slight his 
 lordship, M. Alexandre did not dare to tell the Mayor that on 
 that very morning he had accepted an invitation from a noble- 
 ble man of high rank to spend at his house the evening of the 
 identical day so unfortunately pitched on by the civic dignitar}'-. 
 All the ventriloquist said in reply was, ' ' I promise, my lord to 
 remain at the Mansion House, till you, yourself think it time for 
 me to take my leave." "Ah, well," said the Lord Mayor, and 
 he went off perfectly satisfied. 
 
 At the appointed day Alexandre sat himself down at the mag- 
 istrate's board. Never had the ventriloquist comported himself 
 "with so much spirit and gaiety. He insisted on devoting bumpers 
 to each and every lady present. 
 
 The toasts went round, the old port flowed like water, and the 
 artiste in particular seemed in danger of loosing his reason under 
 its potent influence. When others stopped, he stopped not, but 
 continued filling and emptying incessantly. By and-by, his eye» 
 began to stare, his visage became purple, his tongue grew con- 
 fused, his whole body seemed to steam of wine, and finally he 
 sank from his chair in a state of maudlin, helpless insensibil- 
 ity. 
 
 Regretting the condition of his guest, the Lord Mayor got him 
 quietly lifted, and conveyed to his own carriage, giving orders for 
 him to be taken home to his lodgings. As £oon as M. Alexandre' 
 was deposited there, he became a very diflsrent being. It was 
 now ten o'clock, and but half an hour was leA't to him to prepare 
 for his appointed visit to the Duke of 's M7-ee. The ventrilo- 
 quist disrobed himself, taking first from his b\"east a quantity of 
 sponge which he had placed beneath his waistc oat, and into the 
 pores of which he had, with a quick and dextei ous hand, poure d 
 the greater portion of the wine which he had apparently swal- 
 lowed. 
 > Having washed from his person all toketj of ^'^ 6ifift;);*ted ia- 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 76 
 
 toxication, and dressed himself anew, !M. Alexandre then betook 
 himself to the mansion of the nobleman to whom he had engaged 
 himself. 
 
 On the following day the fashionable newspapers gave a de- 
 tailed account of tlie grand party at his Grace the Duke of 's, 
 
 and eulogized to the skies the entertaining x^crformances of M. 
 Alexandre, who, they said, had surpassed himself on this occas- 
 sion. Some days afterwards, the Lord IMayor encountered M. 
 Alexandre. * Ah, how are you?" said his lordship. *' Very 
 well, my lord," was the reply. " Our newspapers are pretty 
 pieces of veracity," said his lordship. ** Have j^ou seen the 
 Courier of the Other day? Why, it makes you out to have exhibit- 
 ed in great style last Thursday night at his Grace of 's!" *'It 
 
 has but told the truth," said the mimic. *' What? impossible!" 
 cried the Mayor. " You do not remember, then, the state into 
 which you unfortunately got at tlie IMansion House?" And 
 thereupon the worthy magistrate detailed to the ventriloquist the 
 circumstances of his inotxication, and tlie care that had been 
 taken with him, with other points of the case. M. Alexandre 
 heard his lordship to an end, and then confessed the stratagem 
 which he had played olf, and the cause of it. 
 
 " I had promised," said Alexandre, ** to be with his Grace at 
 half-past ten. I had also promised not to leave you till you your- 
 self considered it fit time. I kept my word in both cases — you 
 know the way." The civic functionary laughed heartily, and on 
 the following evening Alexandre made up for his trick by making 
 the Mansion House ring with laughter till daylight. 
 
 Many anecdotes are told respecting M. Alexandre's power of 
 assuming the faces of other people. At Abbotsford, during a 
 visit there, he actually sat to a sculptor five times in the char- 
 acter of a noted clergyman, with whose real features the sculp- 
 tor was well acquainted. When the sittings "^vere closed and 
 the bust modelled, the mimic cast olf his wig and assumed dress, 
 and appeared with his own natural countenance, to the terror 
 almost of the sculptor, and to the great amusement of Sir 
 "Walter and others who had been in the secret. 
 
 Of this most celebrated ventriloquist it is related that on 
 one occasion he was passing along the Strand, when a friend de- 
 sired a specimen of his abilities. At this instant a load of hay 
 Avas passing alona; near Temple Bar, when Alexandre called atten- 
 tion to the suffocatin<2: cries of a man in the centre of the hay. 
 A crowd gathered round and stopped the astonished carter, and 
 demandecl why he was carrying a fellow-creature in his hay. 
 Tlie complaints and cries of tlie smothered man now became 
 painful, and there was every reason to believe that he was dying. 
 The crowd, regardless of the stoppage to the traffic, instantly 
 proceeded to unload the hay into the street, The smothered 
 
76 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN, 
 
 Toice urged them to make haste, but the feelings of the people 
 maybe Imagined when tlie cart was empty and nobody was found, 
 while Alexandre and his friend walked off laugliing at the unex- 
 pected results of their trick. 
 
 It would be obviously invidious to compare the merits of liv- 
 ing professors. Mr. Maccabe, Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Thurtoa and 
 Mr. Macmillan have long been favorites with the public. 
 
 THE THEORY OF VElsTTRILOQUISM. 
 
 Many physiologists aver that ventriloquism is obtained by 
 speaking during the inspiration of air. It is quite possible to ar- 
 ticulateuuder these circumstances, and the plan may with advan- 
 tage be occasionally adopted ; but our own practical experience 
 and close observation of many public performers, and of not 
 a few private friends who have attained distinctness and no 
 small amount of facility in the art, convince us that the general 
 current of utterance is, as in ordinary speech, during expiration 
 of the breath. Some imagine that the means of procuring the 
 required imitation arc comprised in a thorough management of 
 the echoes of sound. Unfortunately, however, for this theory, 
 an echo only repeats what has been already brought into exist- 
 ence. Several eminent ventriloquists, including the late Mr. 
 Matthews, have displayed the vocal illusion while walking in 
 the streets. Baron Mengen describes as follows his mode of 
 speaking, when he desired the illusion to take the direction 
 of a voice emanating from the doll : " I press my tongue against 
 the iccth, and then circumscribe a cnvity beticcfn inij left check and 
 teeth, in whi-ch tht voice is produced by the air held in reserve in the 
 phirynx. The sounds thus receive a hollow and muffled tone, 
 Avhich causes them to appear to come from a distance." The 
 Baron furthermore mentions that it is essential to have the breath 
 well under control, and not to respire more than can be avoided. 
 M. St. Gillc was seen to look somewhat exhausted when the vo- 
 cal illusion grew less perfect. We ourselves, and all ventrilo- 
 quists with whom we have conferred, have acknowledged that 
 they liave experienced fatigue in the chest, and have attributed 
 it to the slow expiration of the breath. M. St. Gille, with the 
 majority of ventriloquists, was often compelled to cough during 
 the progress of his exercitation. 
 
 To attain an exact and positive knowledge of the modifications 
 of voice specified as ventriloquism, it is important to be familiar 
 with the distinctions of the sounds uttered by the mouth ; and to 
 ascertain how the organs act in producing those vocal modifica- 
 tioas, it is necessary to loiow ho>Y the breath is vocalizfcd in all 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGTCIAN. 77 
 
 distinctions of pitch, loudness, and quality, hy the ordinarv ac- 
 tions of the vocal organs. In ordinary language, we speak of 
 noise, of common sound, and of musical sound — terms employed 
 by Dr. Thomas Young in illustrating the mechanical agencies of 
 articulation : — " A quill striking against a piece of wood causes a 
 noise, but striking successively against the teeth of a wheel, or of 
 a comb, a continued sound, and, if the teeth of the wheel are at 
 equal distances, and the velocity of the rotation is constant, a 
 musical sound. The general terms — pitch, loudness, quality, and 
 duration, embrace all the distinctions with which the musician 
 lias to deal, and which he uses in his art." 
 
 The distinguishing feature of musical sound is its uniform 
 pitch throughout its duration, and acoustically musical sound is 
 composed of an equal number of impulses or noises produced in 
 equal tones. 
 
 The general terms — pitch, loudness, quality, and duration, also 
 embrace all the distinctions heard in ordinary sounds. These 
 sounds differ from the musical in the pitch constantly varying 
 throughout their duration, as the human voice in speaking, and 
 the voice of quadrupeds. Acoustically such sounds are composed 
 of an unequal number of impulses or noises produced in equal 
 tones. And from this circumstance pitch, in the strictly musical 
 sense, is not a property of ordinary sound. 
 
 The general terms — loudness and quality, embrace all the dis- 
 tinctions heard in a noise, as in the collision of two unelastic 
 sticks. Pitch and duration can scarcely be considered as belong- 
 ing to common noise. Thus we have — (1) noise whose audible 
 distinctions arc comprehended under the general terms loudness 
 and quality ; (2) common sound, whose audible distinctions are 
 comprehended under the general terms — loudness, quality, 
 duration, and every varying pitch ; (3) musical sound, whose 
 audible distinctions are comprehended under the general terms — 
 loudness, quality, duration, and uniform pitch. 
 
 Phonation, or the production of voice, is a result of actions 
 taking j^lace under two distinct classes of laws — namely, the or- 
 dinary mechanical laws of acoustics, and the physiological laws 
 of muscular movement. The adjustment of the vocal mechanism 
 to be brought into operation by the current of air, is made by 
 actions under the latter laws ; and phonation is the result of the 
 reaction of the mechanism on the current of air, by mechanical 
 movements under the former laws Now, the pitch of the voice 
 essentially depends on the tension of the vocal ligaments ; the 
 loudness or the extent of the excursion of these ligaments in their 
 vibration ; the duration on the continuance of the vocalizing 
 causes ; the quality on the organization of the larynx, and also 
 on the form and size of the vocal tube. The form and size of 
 this tube can be altered in various ways — for instance, by dilating 
 
78 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. , 
 
 or contracting the pharynx ; by dilating or contracting the 
 mouth ; by contracting the communication between the pharynx 
 and mouth, so as to constitute them distinct chambers, or by dila- 
 ting the opening so as to throw them into one, which is chietly 
 attained by movements of the soft palate ; and by altering the 
 form of the mouth's cavity, which is cftected by varying the position 
 of the tongue. Each of these modifications of the vocal tube con- 
 veys a peculiarity of quality to the voice, — all, however, being 
 local or laryngeal sounds. Moreover, sounds can be produced in. 
 the vocal tube, apart from the larynx. These, strictly speaking, 
 are not vocal sounds, though some of them may be of a definite and 
 uniform pitch, while others are mere noises — as rustling, whisper- 
 ing, gurgling, whistling, snoring, and the like. Now, as every- 
 thing audible comes under the classes of noise, sound, or musical 
 sound, and as each variety originates in the vocal apparatus of man, 
 it is obvious that an ordinary vocal apparatus is all that is required foi' 
 the achievement of the feats of ventriloquism. 
 
 A person having an ear acutely perceptive to the nice distinc- 
 tions of sounds, may, by a little practice, imitate many sounds 
 with accuracy. Those persons, however, who are highly endow- 
 ed with the mental requisites, which consist of an intense desire 
 to mimic, coupled with the ability to originate mimetic ideas, are 
 able to imitate sounds at first hearing. 
 
 "We next proceed to treat of those illusions, where the voice so 
 perfectly counterfeits the reality intended, that it appears not to 
 issue from the mimic, but from an appropriate source, in what- 
 ever direction, and at whatever distance the source may be. Wo 
 do not hear the distance which a sound has travelled from its 
 source, but we judge the distance from our former experience, by 
 comparing the loudness which we hear with the known distance 
 and known loudness of similar sounds heard on former occasions. 
 Common experience will pr >ve that we of tener err in estimating 
 the distance of uncommon tcian of familiar sounds. In apology 
 for such an error, the ordinary language is, " It seemed too loud 
 to come so far," or " It seemed too near to be so faint a sound," 
 as the case may be, — both of which are apologies for an erroneous 
 judgment, and not for faulty hearing. Near sounds are louder 
 than distant ones. Now, by preserving the same pitch, quality, and 
 duration, but with an accurately graduated reduction of loudness, a series 
 forming a /?ers/?<rc/tW of sounds may be created, which, falling in 
 succession on the ear, Avill suggest to the mind a constantly in- 
 creasing distance of the sound's source. The estimate, then, 
 "which is formed of the distance wiiich a sound has travelled be- 
 fore reaching the car is a judgment of the mind formed by com- 
 paring a present perception (by hearing) with the remembrance of 
 a former loudness in coanection with its known distance. With 
 regard to direction, it is observed, *'The direction whence a sound 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 79 
 
 comes seems to be judged of by tne right of left ear receiving the 
 strcnjcr impression, Avliicli, however, can only take place when 
 the sound's source i^ in a plane, or nearly so, with a line passing 
 through both cars. It is familiarly known that a person in a 
 house cannot by the noise of an approaching carriage judge with 
 certainty whether it is coming from the right or left. He accu- 
 rately judges it to be approaching, passing, or receding, as tho 
 case may be, by the gradations of loudness, but is unable to de- 
 cide v.'ith certainty whether its approach or recession is from up 
 or down the street. Enough has been stated to show that we do 
 not heai\ but that we judge the direction a sound has travsUed from its 
 source on reaching the car. ''^ The ventriloquist indicates, either di- 
 rectly or indirectly, the direction from which he wishes his 
 audience to believe the sound is coming. Thus he directly indi- 
 cates it by words, such as — " Are )^ou up there?" " He is up the 
 chimney," " He is in the cellar," "Are you down there?" &c., 
 fts illustrated in the various examples. He indirectly indicates it 
 by some suggestive circumstance, as an action or gesture, which 
 • is so skilfully unobtrusive and natural as to effect its object with- 
 out being discovered. Thus, when the ventriloquist looks or 
 listens in any direction, or even simply turns towards any point, 
 as if ho expected sound to come thence, the attention of on auatenca 
 isby that means inatantly directed also to the same place. Thus, before a 
 sound is produced, the audience expect it to come in the suggested 
 direction ; and the ventriloquist has merely, by his adjustment of 
 vocal loudness, to indicate the necessar)^ distance, when a misjudg- 
 ment of the aiidicn-^e icill complte the illusion tvhich he has begun.''^ 
 
 The effect Avhicli is produced on sound by its travelling from a 
 distance, is observed to be : — 
 
 (1) That its loudness is reduced in proportion to its dis- 
 tance. 
 
 (2) That its pitch remains unaltered. 
 
 (3) That its qualiirj or tone is somewhat altered, 
 (i) That its duration remains unaltered. 
 
 (5) That the human speech is somewhat obscured^ chiefly in the 
 fo ninani sounds. 
 
 It must be remembered that the ventriloquist makes the sound, 
 no' as it is heard at its source, but as it is heard after travelling from a 
 dist I nee. 
 
 THE 3IEANS BY WHICH IT IS EFFECTED. 
 
 Before entering upon the first and easy lessons, it will bo as well 
 to consider the means by which the effect is produced. The Stu- 
 dent is supposed to have made himself thoroughly acquainted 
 
80 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 with the previous chapter, as to the effect to be produced, not on 
 himself, but on the spectators and audience. And we may assure him, 
 that if he has a fair range of voice, a dilligent observance of the 
 rules which we are about to lay down, coupled with attention to 
 the nature of sound as it falls upon the ear, will lead him to such 
 triumphs as, in all probability, he never imagined he could have 
 attained — an assurance which we are emboldened to offer from 
 our own pursuit and practical realization of the art. 
 
 The student must bear in mind that the means are simply natural 
 ones, used in accordance with natural laws. We have given him 
 the acoustical theory of the effect on the auric nerve, and the 
 means are the organs of respiration and sound, with the adjoining 
 muscles. They are the diaphragm, the lungs, the tracliea, the 
 larynx, the pharynx, and the mouth. The diaphragm is a very 
 large convex muscle, situated below the lungs, and having full 
 power over respiration. The lungs are the organs of respiration, 
 and are seated at each side of the chest ; they consist of air-tubes 
 minutely ramified in a loose tissue, and terminating in very small 
 sacs, termed air-cells. The trachea is a tube, the continuation of 
 the larynx, commonly called the windpipe : through this the air 
 passes to and from the lungs. It is formed of cartilaginous rings, 
 by means of which it may be elongated or shortened. The larynx 
 is that portion of the air-tube immediately above the trachea : its 
 position is indicated by a large projection in the throat. In the 
 interior of this part of the throat are situated the vocal chords. 
 They are four bands of elastic substance somewhat similar to 
 India-rubber. The cavity, or opening between these vocal 
 chords is called the glottis : it possesses the power of expanding 
 or contracting under the influence of the muscles of the larynx. 
 The pharynx is a cavity above the larynx, communicating with 
 the nasal passages : it is partially visible when the mouth is 
 opened and the tongue lowered. Near this part of the root of the 
 tongue is situated the epiglottis, which acts as a lid or cover in 
 closing over the air-tube during the act of swallowing. The mouth 
 forms a cavity to reflect and strengthen the resonance of the vi- 
 brations produced in the air-tube ; it also possesses numberless 
 minute powers of contraction and modification. 
 
 We now proceed to give the instructions to which we have re- 
 ferred — instructions guaranteed by a proficiency which Ave are 
 ever ready to submit to the ordeal of a critical examination, ci- 
 ther in private or in public. 
 
 If the student will pay strict attention to the parts printed in 
 italics, and will practice the voices here specified, he will find that 
 they are the key to all imitative sounds and voices ; and, according to 
 the range of his voice and the capabilities of his mimetic power, 
 he wiirbe enabled to imitate the voices of little children, of old 
 people, and, in fact, almost every sound which he hears. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 81 
 
 Too much attention cannot be bestowed on the ttudy of sound as 
 it falls on the ear, and an endeavor to imitate it as it is heard — 
 for the " secret " of the art ts, that ait perspective is to the eye so is 
 ventriloquism to the car. When we look at a painting of a land- 
 scape, some of the objects appear at a distance ; but we know 
 that it is only the skill of the artist which has made it appear as 
 the e3^e has seen it in reality. . In exactly the same manner a ven- 
 triloquist ads upon and deceives the ear, by producing sounds as 
 they are heard from any known distances. 
 
 PKACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 No. I. 
 
 THE VOICE EST. THE CLOSET 
 
 This is the voice in which Mr. Frederic Maccabe, the celebra- 
 ted mimic and ventriloquist, excels, and the clever manner in 
 which he can adapt it oft-hand, as it were, will be best illustrated 
 by the fact mentioned to us by the gentleman in question, whom 
 we call Mr. B. in Mr. Maccabe's presence. Mr. B., who was an 
 invalid, suffering from some nervous disorder, originating by over- 
 work and a'nxiety, was travelling in Ireland in search of health, 
 and when on his way from Dublin to Cork, he lay exhausted in a 
 corner of a railway-carriage, muffled up in cloaks and wrap- 
 pers in a paroxysm of pain. At Mallow, two gentlemen entered 
 the carriage, one of whom was in exuberant spirits, and commenc- 
 ed telling some amusing anecdotes. At length the porter came 
 to collect the tickets. Tliey were all handed in but one, when the 
 following colloquy ensued : — 
 
 I'orter. — A gentleman hasn't given me his ticket. 
 
 Gentleman. — Bill, in the next compartment, has the ticket, (tap- 
 ping at the partition). Haven't you, Bill ? 
 
 The imaginary Bill, who appeared to be suffering from a se- 
 vere cold, replied that he had, and the porter would not take 
 it. The official went off to find the ticket, but Bill, in the 
 mean time had vanished. Back came the porter and indig- 
 nantly demanded the ticket. He was interrupted by a shrill 
 voice in the opposite compartment, crying, — "Porter! porter! 
 Avhy don't you come and take the ticket ! There's some one 
 insulting me ! " AAvay went the chivalric porter, to come back 
 puzzled and chafed to receive the ticket, which was handed to 
 him. HiS hand had not reached the coveted piece of paaieboard, 
 ere liie yell of a terrier under the wheels caused the porter to 
 draw baek, amid bursts of laughter, during which the ticket 
 
82 THB PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 was thrown out, and the train moved on. And Mr. Frederic 
 Maccabe stood confessed, but not penitent. 
 
 Voice Ko 1. — To acquire this voice, which we so name for dis- 
 tinction's sake, speak any word or sentence in your own natural 
 tones; then open tlie moutli and /a; M^yrtu-* fast, as though you 
 were trying to hinder any one from opening them farther or sliut- 
 ting them ; draw the tongue back in a ball ; speak the same 
 words, and the sound, instead of being formed in the mouth will 
 be formed in the pharynx. Great "attention must be paid to 
 holding the jaws rigid. The sound will then be found to imi- 
 tate a voice heard from the other side of a door when it is 
 closed, or under a floor, or through a wall. To ventriloquize 
 witli this voice, let the operator stand with his back to the au- 
 dience against a door. Give a gentle tap at the door, and call 
 aloud in a natural voice, inquiring *' Who is there ? " This will 
 Lave the effect of drawing the attention of the audience to a 
 person supposed to be outside. Then fix the jaw as de- 
 scribed, and utter in voice No. 1, any words 5'Ou please, such as 
 *' I want to come in." Ask questions in the natural voice and 
 answer in the other. When you have done this, open the door 
 a little, and hold a conversation with the imaginary person. As 
 the door is now open, it is obvious that the voice must be altered, 
 for a voice will not sound to the car when a door is open the 
 same as when closed. Therefore the voice must be made to op- 
 pear face to face, or close to the ventriloquist. To do this the 
 voice must not be altered from the original hote or pitch, but be 
 made in another part of the mouth. This is done by closing th(. 
 lips tight and drawing one corner of the mouth downwards, o\ 
 towards the ear. Then let the lips open at that corner only, thi» 
 other part to remain closed. Kext breathe, as it were, the v.'ord^ 
 out of the orifice formed. Do not speak distinctly, but expel tho 
 breath in short pulls at each word, and as loud as possible. By 
 BO diOmgyoMwiWctMise the illusion in the mind of the listeners, 
 that they hear the same voice which they heard when the door 
 was closed, but which is now heard more distinctly and nearer 
 on account of the door being open. This voice must ahvays be 
 used when the ventriloquist wishes it to appear that the sound 
 comes from some one close at hand, but through an obstacle. 
 The description of voice and dialogue may be varied as in the fol- 
 lowing examples — 
 
 Ex. 1. The Suffocated Victdj. — This was a favoite illus- 
 tration of Mr. Love, the polyphonist. A large box or close cup- 
 board is used indiscriminately, as it maj' be handy. The student 
 will rap or kick the box apparently by accident. The voice will 
 then utter a hoarse and subdued groan, apparently from tjie box 
 or closet. 
 
THB PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 83 
 
 Student {pointing to the box with an air of astonishment) : "What 
 is Uiat ? 
 
 Voice : 1 won't do so any more. I am nearly dead. 
 
 Student : AYlio are you ? How came you there ? 
 
 Voice : I only wanted to see what was going on. Let me 
 out, do. 
 
 Student : But I don't know who you are. 
 
 Voice : Oh yes, you do. 
 
 Student : Who arc you ? ^ 
 
 Voice : Your old schoolfellow, Tom, . You know me. / 
 
 Student : Yv''hy, he's in Canada. 
 
 Voice (sharply) : No he aint, he's here ; but be quick. 
 
 Student (o/jmiwy theUd)\ Perhaps he's come by the under- 
 ground railroad ? Hallo ! 
 
 Voice (not so muffied as described in direction) : Now then, give US 
 a hand. 
 
 Student {closing the lid or door sharply) : No, I wont. 
 
 Voice {as before) : Have pity (2'owt, or Jack, or Mr, , as the 
 
 ease may be), or I shall be choked. 
 
 Student : I don't believe you are what you say. 
 
 Voice : Whj'' don't you let me out and see before I am dead ? 
 
 Student {opening and shutting the lid or door and varying the 
 voice accordingly) : Dead ! not you. When did you leave Can- 
 ada ? 
 
 Voice : Last week. Oh ? I am choking. 
 
 Student : Shall I let him out ? {opening the door). There's no 
 one here. 
 
 2. The Milkman at the Door. — This affords a capital op- 
 portunity of introducing a beggar, watercress or milkman, and 
 may be varied accordingly, tve will take Sky blue, the milkman; 
 ana we would impress on the student, that, although we give 
 these simple dialogues, they are merely intended as illustrations for the 
 modest tyro, not to be implicitly followed when greater confidence 
 and proficiency are attained. 
 
 Voice : Milk below ! 
 
 Student : Is it not provoking that a milkman always comes 
 when he is not wanted, and is absent when we are waiting for 
 the cream ? 
 
 Voice : {ichistUng a bar of -^' Slioo Fly "). 
 
 Student : Oh, j^es, always the broken-hearted milkman as if 
 he was not as happy as a king. 
 
 Voice {nearer) : IVIilk below ! Why, Sally, where's the can ? 1 
 
 Student : Sally will be long in answering, I think. 
 
 Voice : Sally's gadding with the police. Milk below ! 
 
 Student {slightly opening the doo7\) : Wo don't want any millc, my 
 good man, ^ 
 
 Voice ; No skim milk for the eat, or cr«am for t«a ? 
 
84 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 Another Voice ; Watercresses I 
 
 Student ; Really, this is too bad. Go away. 
 
 Voice : You owe me ten cents for last week's milk ; I was to 
 ■wait. 
 
 Student : This is intolerable. I'll send for the police. 
 
 Voice [ironicalli/] ; Send for Sally and p'licc, I'D. foller. 
 
 Student ; Impudent rascal ; 
 
 Voice ; Keep your compliments at home, Master Idlebones. 
 
 Student [opining the door] ; I'll report you to your master. 
 
 Voice [louder^ as the door is opened] ; Will you, young Whipper- 
 snapper, pay us the dime, and let us go? 
 
 Student offers to pay, while the voice gets weaker in the dis- 
 tance with '* Milk below ! " until it becomes inaudible, 
 
 A conversation may be held in a similar strain with the cellarman : 
 and, as a rule, the lower notes of the voice will be best for voices 
 in the basement, and formed as low in the chest as possible. 
 
 Student : Thomas, arc you coming? 
 
 Voice below [^rifffly] \ I should think I was. 
 
 Student ; We are waiting for tJie beer. 
 
 Voice [partly/ nside] : The longer you wait, the greater our honor. 
 Mary, have another drop. 
 
 Student ; Why, the scamp is drinking the beer ! Thomas ! 
 Who's there with you ? 
 
 Voice ; Myself. [Aside] Make haste with the pot, Mary; he's 
 in such a hurry. 
 
 Student ; You drinking rascal, how dare you ! 
 
 Voice ; Coming, sir. The barrel's nearly cinnty. 
 
 Student ; I should think so, tippling as you are at it. 
 
 Voice ; Kow don't be saucy. 
 
 Student ; The fellow is getting intoxicated. Thomas ! 
 
 VoicB ; Wait till I come. I have waited forj-ou many times. 
 
 Student : I suppose it is of no use hurrying you? 
 
 Voice ; No, it isn't, my young tippler. I'm coming ! comivg ! ! 
 coming ! ! ! 
 
 From this illustration the student may proceed to try the second 
 voice. 
 
 Ko. II. 
 
 Voice No. 2. — This is the more easy to be acquired. It is the 
 voice by w^hich all ventriloquists make a supposed person speak 
 from a long distance, or from, or through tlie ceiling. In the 
 first place, with your back to the audience, direct their attention to 
 \hQQ,Q-\X\Vi^\>Jpointirigioitorl}jlo^'king intently nt it. Call loudly, 
 and ask some question, as though j^ou believed some person to 
 be concealed there. Make your own voice very distinct, and as 
 near the lips as possible, inasmuch as that will help the illusion. 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 85 
 
 Then in exactly the same ton^ and pitch answer ; hut, in order that the 
 same voice may seem to proceed from the point indicated, the icords must 
 hi formed at the back port of the roof of the month. To do this the lower 
 jaw must be drawn back and held there, the month open, \vhicli 
 wiU came the po/nte to be devnied a-i d orawti 'i.tunr to tl.ejihaiyi.x^ 
 and the sound will be reflected in that cavity, and appear \o come 
 from ihc roof. Too much attention cannot be paid to the man- 
 ner in which the breath is used in this voice. When speakin<; to 
 the supposed person, expel the words with a deep, quick breath. 
 When answering in the imitative manner, the breath must be 
 held hitck and explUd ^ery duwhj^ and the voice icUL come iv. a 
 subdued and muffled manner^ little above a whisper, but so as to be 
 well distinguished. To cause the supposed voice to come nearer 
 by degrees, call loudly, and saj', "I want you down here," cr 
 words to that cfTcct. At the some time make a motion downwar is xcith 
 your hand. Hold some conversation with the voice and cause it 
 to say, '• I am coming," or, " Here I am," each time indienti, g the 
 disctnt xvilh the Jtdiid (sceexawplcsj. When the voice is supposed to 
 approach nearer, the sound must alter, to denote the progress of 
 the movement. Therefore let the voice at every suppcsed step, 
 roll, as it were, by degrees, from the pharynx more into ike cavi-y of the 
 inou'h, and at each supposed step, controcUng the optniny of the mouth, 
 until Ih.e lips are drawn up as if you were v^histling. By so doing 
 the cavity cf the mouth Avill be very much enlarged. This will 
 CdMsci\\Q\o\c(i\o'bQohsciir<d,rnd sof'ppcnr to comc nearer by de- 
 grees. At the same time, care must be taken not to articulate tl:c 
 consonant sounds plainly, as that would cause the disarrangement 
 of the lips and cavit}'' of the mouth ; and in all imitation loiccs the 
 consonan;s must scarcely be articulated at all, capce'ially if the rent- 
 riloquistjocis the auditncc. For example ; suppose the imilntivc 
 voice i3 made to say, "Mind what j-ou arc doing, you bad boy," 
 it must be spoken as if it were written " 'ind 'ot 3'ou're doing, 
 you 'ad v\-hoy."'' This kind of articulation may be practised 
 oy forming the words in the pharynx, and then sending them 
 out of the mouth by sudden expulsions of the brcatli clean 
 from the lungs at every word. Tliis is most useful in A'cntrii- 
 oquism, and to illustrate it we will take the man en the roof as an 
 illustration. This is an example almost invariably successful, 
 and is constantly used by skilled professors of the art As avc 
 have before repeatedly intimated, the eyes and attention of the 
 audience must be directed to the supposed spot from whence the 
 illusive voice is supposed to proceed. 
 Student; Are j'ou up there, Jem? 
 
 * It io vrrr rarely that n, ventriloquist shows a full face to his n\\- 
 diencr: it is only d ^nc wJieu he is at a great distance from Ibcm, and 13 
 pronouncing the labial sounds, la the manner given, for any movement 
 of the jaws would help to destroy tlie illusion. 
 
86 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 Voice ; Hallo ! who's that? 
 
 Student ; It's I ! Are you nearly finished? 
 
 Voice ; Only three more slates to put on, master. 
 
 Student ; I ^vant j-'ou here, Jem. 
 
 Voice ; I am coming directly. 
 
 Student : Which Vv'ay, Jem? 
 
 Voice : Over the roof and down the trap, ^oice is supposed 
 to be moving as the student turns and points with his finger.^ 
 
 Student; Which way? 
 
 Voice (nearer) ; Through the trap and down the stairs. 
 
 Student ; How long shall you be? 
 
 Voice : Only a few minutes. I am coming as fast as I can. 
 
 The voice now approaches the door, and is taken up by the 
 same tone, but produced as in the first voice. As another illus- 
 tration, we will introduce the reader to 
 
 The Invisible Sweep. — This is a striking example of the 
 second voice. Let the student pretend to look up the chimney, 
 and rehearse the following or some similar colloquy : — 
 
 Student : Are you up there?. 
 
 Voice: Yes. Chimley want sweep? 
 
 Student : Really, it is extraordinary. What are you 
 doing? 
 
 Voice : Looking for birds'-nests. 
 
 Studen't : Birds'-ncsts ! There arc none there. 
 
 Voice : Dick says there be. 
 
 Student : Come down ! 
 
 Voice : I shan't. 
 
 Student : {stirrwg the fire) ; I'll make you show yourself. 
 
 Voice : I say, don't ; it's so hot. 
 
 Student ; Come down, then. 
 
 Voice ; Don't be so stupid. Let I alone. 
 
 Student ; Will you come down? 
 
 Voice : Yes, I w'ill. 
 
 Student : What's your name? 
 
 Voice {much nearer) : Sam Lilly vite. I siy, what do you want 
 mc for among company? 
 
 Student : To show yourself. 
 I Voice {nearer) \ AVhat for? 
 
 Student : To let these ladies and gentlemen see that there are 
 many strange things between heaven and earth, but not Sam 
 Lillyvite, the sweep. 
 
 Another good illustration is to hold a conservation with a 
 friend who lives on the first floor, and with whom you can con- 
 verse on any subject — ^^\\\Q, reUrcd and myatcrwui studint — but the 
 moment the student can master the elementary sounds, lie will 
 not need our assistance in providing him with dialogues, which, 
 however simple they may be to reed, have an extraordinary effect 
 w/i£tt proper ip ^oken:'. - 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 87 
 
 POLYPHONIC IMITATIONS. 
 
 The ToiiM:ENTrsrQ Bee. — It is related that Mr. Love, when 
 young, took great delight in imitating the buzzing of insects and 
 the cries of animals ; indeed, it is difficult to decide whether ho 
 or Mr. Thurton most excelled in this particular species of mimetic 
 illusion. In all imitations of insect noises, the. bee should be 
 lieard to hum gently at first, so as in a private party not likely to 
 attract attention till the right pitch is obtained, and be it remem- 
 bered that the sound, without being particularly loud, can be 
 made to penetrate every corner of a large room. The illusion is 
 greatly increased by pretending to catch the olTending and intru- 
 sive insect. The humble bee, "the wasp, and the bluebottle fly arc 
 best to imitate, and alford an agreeable relief to the other exerci- 
 ses of ventriloquial power. To imitate the tormenting bee, the 
 student must use cojisiderable pressure on his chest, as if he was 
 about to groan suddenly, but instead of which, the sound must be 
 confined and prolonged in the throat ; the greater the pressure, 
 the higher will be the faint note produced, and which will per- 
 fectly resemble the buzzing of the bee or wasp. 
 
 Now, to imitate the buzzing of a bluebottle fl}'', it will be neces- 
 sary for the sound to be made with the lips instead of the throat ; 
 this is done by closing the lips very tight, except at one corner, 
 where a small aperture is left, fill that cheek full of wind, but not 
 the other, then slowly blow or force the wind contained in the 
 cheek out of the aperture : if this is done properly, it will cause a 
 sound exactly like the buzzing of a bluebottle fly. These two in- 
 stances will show how necessary it is for the ventriloquist to 
 study minutely the different effects of sound upon his hearers in 
 all his exploits. And to make the above properly effective, he 
 should turn his face to a wall ; with a handkerchief strike at the 
 pretended bee or fly, at the same time pretend to follow his victim 
 first this Avay and then that, and finally to" dab " his pocket- 
 handl^erchief on the Avail as though he had killed it ; the sounds 
 should be at times suddenly louder and then softer, vv-hich will 
 make it appear as it is heard in different parts of the room. 
 
 TiiH Specthe Carpenter. — The noise caused by planing and 
 sawing wood can also be imitated without much difficulty, and it 
 causes a great deal of amusement. The student must, however, 
 bear in mind that every action mnst be imitated as well as the 
 r^oisc, for the eye assists to delude the car. "We have even seen 
 ventriloquists carry this eye-deception so far as to have a few 
 shavings to scatter as they proceed, and a piece of wood to fall 
 when the sawing is ended. To imitate planing, the student must 
 stand at a table a little distance from the audience, and appear to 
 take held ef a plane and push it forward : the sotmd as of a 
 
88 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 plane is made as though you were dwelling on the last part of the 
 word hush — dwell upon the sh a little, as tsk, and then clip it 
 short by causing the tongue to close with the palate, then over 
 again. Letters will not convey the peculiar sound of sawing — it 
 must be studied from nature. 
 
 A MOUNTAIN ECHO. 
 
 Some persons imagine ventriloquism to be an echo ; but, as wo 
 have said, an echo only repeats what has been said before — it 
 could not answer a question. 
 
 An echo is reflected sound, and the reflecting body must be at 
 such a distance that the interval between the perception of the 
 original and reflected sounds may be sufficient to prevent them 
 from being blended together. No reflecting surface will produce 
 a distant echo, unless its distance from the spot where the sound 
 proceeds is at least 5G^ feet, because the shortest interval sufficient 
 to render sounds distinctly appreciable by the car is about one- 
 tenth of a second ; therefore, if sounds follow at a shorter inter- 
 val, they will form a resonance instead of an echo ; and the tima 
 a sound would talcc to go and return from a reflecting surface, 56^ 
 feet distance, would be one-tenth of a second. 
 
 It would, therefore, bo impossible for a ventriloquist to produce 
 an echo in a room of ordinary size, as llie walls, being so near, 
 would cause the sounds to be blended, and woiild only produce 
 one impression on the car ; and yet the skilled ventriloquist can 
 with ease imitate, in a room, a mountain echo. AVc will give the 
 instructions, as it is very amusing. 
 
 Turn your back to the listeners ; whistle loud several short, 
 quick notes, just as if you were whistling for a aoori^hen, as 
 quick as possible, after the last note, and as softly andsubdued as 
 possible to be heard, whistle about a third the number of notes, 
 hut it must ho im he sain) note or pitch ; this will cause the last 
 whistle to appear just like an echo at a great distance. This im- 
 itation, if well done, never fails to take the listeners by surprise, 
 and causes astonishment. The same thing can be done by shout- 
 ing. Call aloud any sentence, such as — "Holloa, you there !" 
 Let 3'our voice be formed close to the lips ; then quickly, and 
 mind in the same pitch or note, speak the same words very subdued 
 and formed at the back of the mouth. This is not diflScult, and 
 is very eU'ectivc. 
 
 POINTS TO BE REMEMBERED. 
 Xji giving the succe«diQ£ instructiQos, it must bo bomc in mind 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 49 
 
 that the power and acuteness of hearing is possessed in • . ^eater 
 or less degree by difierent individuals, and depends upon the sen- 
 sibility of the auric nerves. It -will not be out of place nor unin- 
 teresting to show the effect of sound and tlic manner in which it 
 is Iicard by the organs of the car. It is said that tlie human car is 
 capable of appreciating as many as twenty-four thousand vibra- 
 tions in a second, and that the whole range of human hearing, 
 from the lowest note of the organ to the highest known cry of in- 
 sects, as of the cricket, includes nine octaves. 
 
 Sound first strikes the drum or tympanum, a thin membrane 
 which closes the aperture of the ear ; when this drum vibrates by 
 the sonorous undulations of the external air ; the vibrations are 
 communicated by minute bones, muscles, and fluid in the cavity 
 of the car, and are then conveyed to the brain ; and to show how 
 absolutely necessary it is that all the organs of the would-be ven- 
 triloquist should be entire and without fault to succeed well, we 
 willshovv' hov/ the ventriloquist makes that nice distinction of the 
 gradation of sound, and by which he is enabled to judge whether 
 he is causing his voice to oppcar at the proper distance from his 
 audience or not. 
 
 Let any one flrmly close both ears by stopping them, then speak 
 afewv.ords' now, as the cars arc stopped, the sound cannot 
 enter immediately to the drum of the car, but it takes cognizance 
 of the sound by p. passage called the eustachian tube, Avhich ex- 
 tends from the back jiart of the mouth to the cavity immediately 
 behind the drum of the ear. 
 
 The sound vibrations made in the mouth arc transmitted along 
 this tube to the interior part of the organs of hearing. Now it is 
 by a nice judgment of sound by this tube that the profes- 
 sional ventriloquist judges the majority of his voices, especially 
 those greatly obscured or muflled. Not only must the auric nerves 
 of the v,'ould-be ventriloquist be perfect, but he will become more 
 proticicntas he isable to study and understand the human voice. 
 There is the Ian. uage of emotion, or natural language. When 
 we say natural, we mean the language by Avhich the feelings mani- 
 fest themselves without previous teaching, and which is recogniz- 
 ed and felt Avithout teaching. Some of them are the scream of 
 terror, the shout of joy, the laugh of satisfaction, laugh of sarcasm, 
 lidiculc, &c., which are made l)y man, and understood by fellow- 
 men, whatever may be the speech or country of the other. 
 
 There are also distinct qualities of voice, peculiar to each per- 
 son, both in tone and quality, and the best practice is to try and 
 imitate three or four people's voices, and let them be of a different 
 tone and pitch. 
 
 The ordinary compass of the voice is about twelve notes, and a 
 very good practice to the attainment of the art is to call aloud in 
 a certain note, and then in the octave to that note ; do this several times 
 
90 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 
 
 a day, changing the note, also speak a semence all in the same 
 nolo or pitch, properly called intonation, loud at first, and then by 
 degrees lower ; this kind of practice 'A'ill enable the car to judge 
 of the modulation required to make a voice appear to recede or 
 come near by degrees. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 When the student is acquainted with the voices before describ- 
 ed, he may imitate many others by contraction and expansion of tho 
 glottis^ and by modification of the cavity of the pharynx avd inoulh. The 
 best way to practice is in a room by himself, to talk loud, and, 
 while so doing, to make all sorts of contortions with the mtisvUs of the 
 mouth and jatcs— first fixing thejausin the manner already described, 
 then draxving the Iqjs {') ivard, next imtting than forward, at the same time 
 putting the tongue in different shapes and positior<s in the mouth ; also by 
 speaking in the natural voice, and answering in the falsetto pitchy 
 which is the imitating voice for women and children. 
 
 AYc arc confident that enough has been said to enable any one 
 with a good range of voice to attain proficiency in the art ; the 
 student alv/ays remembering (and it cannot be too often repeated) 
 that ^0 render a voice jjcrspecrive, the most cssciiiial thing is to attend to 
 the study of sound as it falls upon the car ; then imitate that sound by 
 the different contractions and expansions of the muscles of the throat, 
 mou'h, face and jaws. During these various contractions and ex- 
 pansions, drav/ in a long breath and talk, first, rapidly, then slow- 
 ly, but always with a sicw expiration of breath. Do this a dozen 
 times consecutively for several days, at the same time taking \)2iV- 
 ticvUsiV euro to elevate end depress the roof cf the mouth, especially the 
 back part, as this movement will cause the voice to appear near, 
 or at a distance. Ample directions have been given how all this is 
 done, but let it be understood that it is most essential. The stu- 
 dent may then practice before a friend, and he will be astonished 
 to find that he can deceive any listener, as to the point from which 
 the sound comes ; and will be gratified that he has become the 
 source of great amusement to himself as well as in the circle in 
 which he moves. 
 
 Thus we have acquired a working power in the art which, we 
 trust, we have now explained to the satisfa'ction of the reader. 
 The progress of the student will, of course, be facilitated by an 
 inherent propensity of mimicry, which often approaches some of 
 the minor attainments of ventriloquism. In every company seme 
 person may be found v»'ho, without any professional instruction, 
 can give admirable imitations, of the voice, gait, and peculiarities 
 of a f rient or acquaintance ; thus proving that Nature, to some 
 extent, supplies the basis upon which, if we may use the phrase, 
 
THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. 91 
 
 the complete Buperstructure of rocal illusion may be raised. The 
 possession of this quality would amount, comparatively, to little, 
 •Nvitliout iuslruction and perseverance. Here, as in other respects, 
 practice makes perfect ; and, more than that, a dilligent applica- 
 tion of our rules will invest the originally defective amateur willi 
 an attainment which the ignorant will attribute to the jDOssessioii 
 of a supernatural gift. 
 
 All we need say in conclusion is, that the rules propounded will 
 not only clear away imaginary difficulties from the path of the 
 student, but entitle him, like ourselves, to an acquirement more 
 or less near perfection, according to a natural gift of mimicry, and 
 to the zeal with which he may study and practice the art. 
 
 THE MAGIC WHISTLE. 
 
 It will be pleasant when the wind is howling without, among 
 the snow-laden limbs of tlic trees, to be reminded of the gay sum- 
 mer by the counterfeit njtcs of the w^oodland songsters ; or, wan- 
 dering among the woods and fields in spring or summer time, 
 how glorious to challenge the feathered musicians to a contest of 
 skill with you in their own sweet language. We propose to in- 
 struct the reader in the manufacture of a little instrument by 
 which the notes of birds, voices of animals, and various peculiar 
 sounds may be imitated. 
 
 First, look at the annexed diagram, and then procure a leek and 
 cut off from the green leaf thereof a piece about the size of the 
 diagram ; then lay it on a smooth table, and Avith the thumb-nail 
 dolicately scrape away a small semi-circular patch of the green - 
 pulpy substance of the leaf [as represented in the diagram], being 
 careful to leave the fine membrane of outer skin of the leaf un- 
 injured — and there is the instrument complete. It may require 
 several experimens to make the first one, but once liaving discov- 
 ered the right way, they are very easily manufactured. The 
 reader may not be aware of the fact that the leaf of the leek has a 
 fine transparent outei" skin, which is quite tough, but by breaking 
 and carefully examining one or two leaves, he will soon find out 
 what we allude to. 
 
 The way of using this insti*ument is to place it in the roof of tlio 
 mouth with the side on which is the membrane downwards ; then 
 place it gently in its place with the tongue, and blow between the 
 tongue and the upper teeth. After the first two or three attempts, 
 j'-ou will be able to produce a slight sound like a mild grunt ; then 
 as you practice it you will find you can prolong and vary the 
 sound somewhat, so that in the course of a couple of days you caa 
 
92 THE PRACTICAI. MAGICIAN. 
 
 imitate the barking of a dog and the neighing of a horse. "With 
 
 two or three weeks' practice, you will be able to imitate some of 
 the song birds ; but to produce exact counterfeits of the best sing- 
 ing birds will probably require months of study ; the result, l^ow- 
 cver, Avill reward you for all your pains, for certainly to be able 
 to carry a mocking bird, canary, thrush, cat-bird and sucking-pig 
 in your vest pocket, is no small accomplishment. 
 
 When not using the instrument, it should be kept in a glass of 
 water to prevent its drying. 
 
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 po keiB ; Ii>r ii will i>e full of new, valuable receipts and 8Ug;;estio)i8. 
 
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 I'aper aioue. Address 
 
 HUEST & COMPANY, Publishh:bs, 
 
 7S and 77 Nassau Street, JT, T. 
 
 How any one can make a Ileal Working Clock at a 
 
 <'.ust tilty ceuts. 
 How to Coitstruet and Operate an Electric Telegraph, 
 
 t lausmittin^ aud leceiving ineSKHtfes, 
 II"W t'> m.ike a Microscope tiiat will immensely 
 
 magiiifv, at a ccst of ti ^e centH. 
 IIdw to iiiiild ami bet to Work a real Steam Kngine. 
 Uow ti> Alxke tlie Apparatus fur f holography, and 
 
 how fo t ike )'i<iur>-8 ol every style eabilj, suc- 
 
 ccssl'uUy and prudtatjly. 
 
The Book of Knowledge 
 
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 Sure Guide to Rapid Wealth. 
 
 Fortunes are made every day by the manufacturing av.d 
 Belling of some of the articles here given. Directions are giv£n 
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 Singing Made Easy. 
 
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 The choicest, newest and best collection of Liddles, Conun- 
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 Address all orders to 
 
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OR, 
 
 - THE DREAMERS' SURE GUIDE. 
 
 CORTAINING PLAIN, CORRECT AND CERTAIN RULES FOR FORETELLING WHAT 
 IS GOING TO HAPPEN. 
 
 BY THE CELEBRATED GABRIEL. 
 
 The Astroloerer of tlie 19tli Century. 
 
 A. Oomplete Oracle of I>esti!iy» 
 
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 yiiat y:-r p:rt::i ia life rill le. 
 
 ^Tiit y:a vill la kccc::^^! ia. 
 
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 Viat y:ur a^sest vife is dciac- 
 
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 TTiit jszT d55t:=7 is. 
 
 TThcticr jzzr iztcaded la tno to ycu. 
 
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 Aether Jz^ TrfU d:o aa old nail 
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 Whether yoi vill te successftil ia you? 
 
 lore afairs. 
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 Whether ycu vill b6 disappointed la ao- 
 
 Hey natters. 
 
 • The book is, in fact, a perfect Oracle of Fate, and may be consulted with 
 certainty upon all matters th»t relate to your present or future prospects. 
 
 Price 25 Cents. / 
 
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