Magic and Merrymaking:

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

Magic and Merrymaking:

My Gloves Vanish. The Season's Greetings, everybody! Your Editor has asked me .to come along and: entertain you for a column or so, with "some very simple tricks that need little apparatus and cost next to nothing. Those were his exact words. Well, if you’ll allow me to remove’ my gloves—Good heavens! they’ve vanished , into thin air. So simple. They were a thin white cotton pair. To the 'middle of the front portion nearest to the wrist was fastened a piece of thin elastic. This was. .caught to. a safety pin well above the elbow on the inside of the arm. I took off one glove carefully and held it while I removed the other. A wave of the bands and both gloves had sprung up well Inside my coat-sleeves and were lost to sight; An amusing trick- that always baffles. Sugar Bag Magic. I have now a plain square piece of paper in my hand and am about to make a cone bag out of it—you know the type that the grocer uses for his sugar. The bag is made and 1 am pressing out all the

dents. Aow uere is a coloured handkerchief which I am anxious to get rid of because it’s scented and if my wife should get hold of it my conjuring days would be ■over! I place the handkerchief in the bag, screw up the top, shake it, then open and fortunately for me the handkerchief has gone. To prove my words I unravel the paper. As a matter of fact the paper wasn't as Innocent .as it looked. It really consisted of two pieces of paper gummed together at their edges and well pressed to as one sheet. One piece of paper had a slit cut from side to side as shown in the diagram (A —B) and a pocket was the result. When pressing out the dents of the . cone bag I was really opening the pocket. . The Dleappearlng Card.

There is a glass jug of water on the table, ladies and gentlemen, and here is an ordinary playing card, which I cover with a silk handkerchief and place over the

Professor Nikaldi.)

(By

water. Will one ot the audience now kindly hold the card beneath the handkerchief instead of myself and and when I say "Go,” drop it into the water?-' The card has fallen, the handkerchief wisked away and the card has vanished! Under the cover, of the handkerchief 1 substituted a piece of celluloid the same size as the card which I pocketed. Of course. I was 100 quick and you were too engrossed by the water and handkerchief to notice. Transparent celluloid is quite Invisible in waler. . A “Reel” Mystery. From fig, 1 below you will see 1 have now three empty cotton reels threaded on two pieces of string. I knot the string A to C, B to D—then I asked two members of the audience to hold on to each side of the reels. I place my hand over the centre reel (fig. 2) and with a big pull the reels come unthreaded, though the string remains tied. j

The secret lies in the early preparation of the string. The two strings do not pass through the entire length of the reels. As shown in fig.. 3 each piece of string is folded and one is made to form a loop which passes through the other.

The. centre reel is passed right over this loop and the other two reels are then Added before the string is tied. A quick jerk of the centre cotton reel will release it instantly from the string.