A HANDKERCHIEF TRICK.
There is nothing an audience so much enjoys as the distressed look of
the owner of property borrowed by the conjurer, which the latter seems
to maltreat and destroy.
After having borrowed several handkerchiefs, let your attendant
bring in and place on the table a tub. To prove that it contains water,
scoop up and pour back into it several times cupfuls of the fluid. Then
carelessly toss the handkerchiefs into the tub, and apparently dabble
them about in the water, to and ro, at the end of your wand. Then lift
up the mass, hopelessly dripping.
Variations.—The tub may be on the table. After throwing
the handkerchiefs into it, you pour a quantity of water upon them, and,
as before, lift them out thoroughly saturated. This mass is then to be
placed in a box, or otherwise disposed of. At the conclusion of the
trick, the handkerchiefs reappear, ironed smooth, folded, and scented.
Explanation.—The handkerchiefs which were borrowed are
thrown into an inner receptacle, within the tub, where they lie
waterproof. B the tub;
A the compartment, that side of the vessel being towards the
audience. A trap in the bottom at A corresponds with a trap in the
table, so that the assistant can carry away the borrowed handkerchiefs,
and prepare them, by moistening them with perfume and ironing them out,
for their restoration. There is already in the tub as many
handkerchiefs as the performer intended to borrow, and they are the
soaked ones which he exhibited.
There can be used in connection with this a box containing a drawer
at the bottom, and a wheel within, working against a flexible lath,
with its teeth like a large rattle. This is turned by a crank outside.
In the top of the box is a hopper. You put the torn or wet
handkerchiefs into the box through the hopper, and speak magniloquently
of the conjurer's washing and ironing machine, while working the crank.
Then pull out the drawer, and show the real handkerchiefs, scented,
dried, and folded.
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