Read Ebook: Hanky Panky by Frikell Wiljalba Cremer W H William Henry Editor

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Ebook has 1264 lines and 88235 words, and 26 pages

"Sure, afther Mike being rich, would ye make him poor again?"

"But you know it is only a trick," I answered.

"A thrick? Divil a one! Sure, man, it is a rale piece of goold,"--thrusting his hand into his pocket to protect it from any sudden or unperceived effort on my part to extract it.

"You know it is but a joke," I repeated. "Return me the gold, and I will astonish you by transforming it into silver once more."

"Yes, you must give me back the gold."

"I would not part with it if Priest McDermott bid me."

Finding my efforts to procure the money a failure, I resorted to artifice by exciting his fears of my power to do good or evil. I assured him that unless he returned the piece of gold, he would be a miserable man all his life; for it was Satan's coin, who was always in search of his own, and would take him away with the gold.

"Och, shure, yer honour, the Holy Father will save Mike, and if ye want any more silver quarters to change into goold, come to Michael MacCarty. He is the man for you." And with these consoling words he walked rapidly away, leaving me minus my half-eagle, while the storekeeper laughed immoderately at the magician being outwitted by a son of the Emerald Isle.

All Louisville became cognizant of "the joke," as they called it, and hugely enjoyed it at my expense; but I could not see it.

THE NEW TRICK OF MELTING MONEY.

In our former works have been given revelations by means of which the disappearance of coins can be accomplished. The present act of prestidigitation is quite new, and never before discovered by magicians to their audiences.

He then places the coin in the centre of the handkerchief, and puts it over the mouth of the glass, where the volunteer holds it by its edge through the silk, so that the pendent corners hide the coin and glass.

The person is notified that Mr. Panky will count three, at the last of which numbers he is to let the piece fall into the glass, as the sound will betoken.

One, two, three, chink.

The coin is distinctly heard to fall, so that there can linger no doubt whatever of its presence in the glass.

Nevertheless, Mr. Panky, with his usual assurance, announces that--without his approaching--he has the power to attract the coin to him, and, in truth, he suddenly holds it up in plain sight. The person takes away the handkerchief, and is even more astounded than the most impressionable amongst the spectators, to see nothing but the water in the glass--of which the magician relieves him by swallowing it.

The coin wand can be used in connection with this trick, for which see a description following.

Take two pieces of fancy paper with one side in colours, patterns, or marbling, about seven inches square, put the coloured sides together, and cut them at the same time in the shape of Fig. 7.

The success of the trick depends on their being exactly alike in size. Place a sixpence in the centre of one of the pieces at the place marked A, then fold it carefully over at the crease on the side marked B, and also again at the side marked C. When you have done this, turn down the end marked D upon the centre A and again fold over on E. You have thus formed a small parcel the shape of Fig. 8, with a sixpence in the middle. You must then put a shilling in the centre of the other piece of paper, and fold it up exactly the same size and shape as the first piece. When you have done this, paste the two parcels together at the back of the ends marked F in Fig. 8, and the sides will be so even that both will appear as one. You can then open the side of the paper containing the smaller coin, and show it to your audience, at the same time informing them that you are going to open a mint on a small plan, and coin a shilling from a sixpence. Dexterously turn over the side containing the shilling, and upon opening the paper, to the general astonishment, instead of a sixpence they will behold a shilling.

THE UNCRUSHABLE FLOWER.

At the time of the amusing warfare between the perennial Charles Mathews and the Great Wizard of the North, the former, who was assisted by Mr. Cremer in many of his diversions, created much surprise by the exhibition of a flower, as fragile as a rose, which could not be lastingly injured.

He would pluck this flower from his button-hole, and, in sight of the audience, who wondered "What he Would Do with It?" would dash it to the stage, stand on it, shut it up in a book, and martyrise it in various other modes.

In spite of this, he had but to take it up and tenderly wave it in the air, and gently breathe a tender sigh on it, and kiss it for its mother, when it would resume its pristine fulness of bloom--not a pistil broken, not a petal injured.

THE FLYING COTTON REEL.

Wind off a ball of cotton cord upon a tin tube six inches long, and of the diameter of a half-crown or florin, or rather a trifle wider.

Borrow a coin which you have had marked, and change it by means of the magic salver.

Pass the marked coin off the stage to your confederate, who puts it down the tube into the ball of cotton, and leaves it there in the centre; on withdrawing the tube the hole can be completely covered up by pressing the cord around it.

Thus prepared, the ball is brought to you in a glass cup, having a hole in the rim through which you pass one end of the cotton. Fasten this to a winding-off wheel , and as your assistant winds off the cord, you pretend to throw the coin into the ball. Immediately, the marked piece falls into the bottom of the vessel, in which it is taken to the owner.

Lay a sixpence between two shillings on a table-cloth, and cover them with a tumbler, and offer to remove the middle one without touching the others or the glass. To do so scratch the cloth with the finger-nail, and the lesser coin will move out towards you, the others being held by the tumbler.

THE INVISIBLE TRANSIT.

Mr. Panky borrows a half-crown, which he politely requests some one in the party to mark, and having had a fruit examined, such as a shaddock, melon, marrow, &c., he puts it in a box.

Then holding a large cup or vase full of seed or corn, as he proves by taking a pinch out of it, and casting the grain amongst the audience, he sets it on a table.

At a word, the coin vanishes to enter the fruit. Next, the fruit is commanded to cross and bury itself in the vase filled with seed, without displacing its contents, which is assuredly remarkable. Indeed, on plunging the hand into the vessel, the fruit is produced, and in its centre is found the marked coin. The seed has disappeared.

It is a case with a double drawer, into the inner of which an object is placed and both shut up; only the outer or false drawer is pulled out, and the disappearance is performed.

As for the fruit, the coin is placed in it beforehand, or introduced by means of the coin knife.

THE DIE AND DOVE TRICK.

You hold up a borrowed hat and say that you will visibly pass that die into the hat. Upon the crown you leave the cover and the solid cube you put inside the hat--or you say--"Now you see this die, and now you do not see it!" and pass it down on the secret shelf behind your table. Or, again, you exchange it for a hollow die holding a live bird, and opening with a sliding side.

You place this die on a plate, and, in covering it, and turning it over, open the slide, so as to have the now open face down on the plate.

You have a small cage containing another bird, on which you set a handkerchief, in the centre of which is sewn a square plate of metal of the size of a cage, at top. Your table trap takes in the cage, and you hold the handkerchief by the square plate at the proper distance from the table, so that the way the folds fall from its edge will resemble their draping the cage.

Now, say--"I shall make that die pass into the hat and this bird take its place!"

You shake the handkerchief and show that the cage has departed--a most effective illusion.

You pick up the mock die in the case, and, of course, the liberated bird flies away.

You lift the hat and push the solid die so as to make it fall.

Then you put into the hat a set of cups, Chinese lanterns, dolls, or other objects made for that purpose, to fit inside each other, and so take up little space--and express your astonishment that the owner should fill his hat with anything but brains.

THE COIN WAND.

Let your ebony wand be hollowed out at one end and bored clear through for a movable rod to work in it. In the space at the end have a half-crown cut into three pieces, thus--

with a simple mechanism worked by a spiral spring at the end of the rod, by which these three pieces, overlapping one another when drawn into the wand, unfold upon the same plane like a perfect coin when the spring is liberated.

You can by its means appear to draw a coin by the mere tap of your wand from any place whatever--the wall, a table, a person's ear, nose, or pocket--and as often as desirable, since you pretend to remove the half-crown each time that it is shown, and actually show a real one in your hands.

THE GARLAND OF ROSES.

You have borrowed three or four coins from the company, changed them for the ones used in your juggling, and passed them to your assistant.

Then you have as many cards drawn out of a prepared pack

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