FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, 3 December 1914, Page 62

FAMILY FUN

TRICKS, ILLUSIONS, AND INDOOR , AMUSEMENTS. .

(Special to the N.Z. Tablet by Mahatma.) A Pretty Amusement.—Take a common tumbler, partly fill it with water, and-place upon its surface some pieces of gum camphor. They will immediately begin to swim round the glass, and if the camphor is lighted they will look like balls of fire floating on the water. If you put a few drops of oil of any kind into the water the balls will cease moving at . once.

The Vanished Cards.—Take a number of cards and soak them in water. You should now be able to draw oft' the first two or three layers of paper of which the cards are made. Treat about twenty cards like this. Take all the faces and paste them back to back. You will then have ten cards, double-faced. Lay these ten prepared cards on a table in front of the spectators and ask them to mentally select any three. Gather up the cards and without being observed turn them over and again lay them down, when the three cards will appear to have vanished. .

A Wonderful Balance.—To balance a wine glass on the edge of an ordinary card appears very wonderful indeed, but by following these instructions the feat will be rendered quite simple. Take two cards. * Soak one in water until you are able to skim the thin flowered covering half-way off the back. Cut away the piece of solid card which you have stripped and paste the thin flap on to the back of the first card. This should now form a flap, which may be extended at right angles to the card, whose face is shown, - to the audience. In performing the trick the prepared card is first shown back and front, the flap being held tightly against the back of the first card. The wineglass is now taken, and after several attempts have been made to balance it on the card, the first finger draws the flap out at right angles and the glass is easily balanced.

Another Prepared Card Trick.—For a surprising card trick this one will tak§ a lot of beating. Obtain a rubber band of about three inches in length. Take two playing cards and make a hole in each near tho tqp. Thread the bands through the cards and secure them with a knot on the It will be possible now to place these cards, joined by the elastic, about three inches apart. These two cards are now placed together in any part of the pack. A card is chosen by the audience, and the performer places it in the pack, between the prepared cards, so that he pushes down the elastic which joing them. When the card is pressed home the young entertainer keeps a firm pressure on the pack in order to prevent the chosen card rising prematurely.- He nows commands the card to leave the pack; and if he releases the pressure gradually the chosen card-will rise little by little until it is almost wholly visible. He may then insert the card again in the same place, and by releasing his hold on the pack suddenly cause the card to jump into the air. The length of elastic used must be left to the judgment of the performer, , ' ■