FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, 26 July 1906, Page 38

FAMILY FUN

Two talked o\cr me — gossips they were, One went through me, yet I didn't stir. One went away with me, over the ,^lain, Yet, it is a fact, behind I did remain. Gate, Gait. Nothing can be more simple than this trick. The performer sits on a chair with the left side to the auidience. On his right knee he places a shilling, rubs it, and when he takes away his hand the coin has vanished. As a matter of fact, it has gone no further than into a fold made in the side of the performer's trousers alongside the right knee. Taking up a sheet of paper or a splinter of wood, you remark quietly that the strongest man present would be exhausted before he had carried all this wood or paper out of the room. Looks of disbelief will pass around, and your assertion will, no doubt, be challenged. To the person decla-ing himself able to disprove you, give an extremely small piece of the wood or paper desiring him to take (hat outside first ; on his return give him another, and so on. By the time he realises that he will only ha,\e to po two or three little million times on the journey, he will acknowledge the full proportions of the joke. Here is an improvement on the candle-eating illusion given in our last issue (p. 38). Instead of ah apple, take an inch or so of banana, smooth the outside of it nicely so as to make it look as much as possible like a piece of candle, stick into ithe middle of the top of it a wax vesta that has been lighted and extinguished. (Note : stick the vesta in at the vnburnt end, and the burnt end will make it look just like a piece of wick and complete the resemblance to a candle). Having completed these preparations, proceed as indicated last week • bring the supposed ' candle ' out among your audience' light the ' wick ', leave it lighting for a moment, just to show that there is 'no deception.' Then blow out the ' candle,' and eat it with all the relish you can command. When done by artificial light, this simple illusion is a great success.