THE DESTROYED HANDKERCHIEF RESTORED.

Performance.—Announce your intention of executing the Phoenix feat with an article borrowed from among your patrons, and select from the handkerchiefs ; you call for one resembling your duplicate. This you have secreted up your left sleeve or in your vest, and on returning to the stage, you pass the borrowed handkerchief from the left to the right hand, as the right is drawing the duplicate from cover. You now have both in the right hand, and while affecting to examine the borrowed one for marks, you really crush it up small and show the other. This you throw on the edge of the hat, wherein the real one is dropped. Bid the owner keep an eye on his property, and get your scissors. Lift up the false handkerchief and cut the centre clean out, which piece you call up someone to hold tightly in his hand. Turn to get a plate, and invert the hat over the trap in your table, down which the handkerchief should be drawn in order to be washed, ironed, folded, and perfumed for discovery in the next feat. Or, carry the hat out of the room with you while you get a plate. On your return lay the real handkerchief flat between two pages of the newspaper, fold the paper, and return with both paper and plate to the company. Now set fire to the edges of the destroyed handkerchief, and let the fire burn itself out in the plate. Spread the paper out on the table, all but the last fold, which conceals the other handkerchief. Place the cut centre on the paper; empty the ashes from the plate upon the centre; fold up the paper and crush it as much as possible, so that the folds or creases may not betray anything. Lastly, pick the paper to pieces until the restored handkerchief is gradually developed; pull it out, and throw the paper all into the fire.

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