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Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring
·
Professor Hoffmann
22
The
first
rule
to
be
borne
in
mind
by
the
aspirant
is
this:
“Never
tell
your
audience
beforehand
what
you
are
going
to
do.”
If
you
do
so,
you
at
once
give
their
vigilance
the
direction
which
it
is
most
necessary
to
avoid,
and
increase
tenfold
the
chances
of
detection.
We
will
give
an
illustration.
There
is
a
very
good
trick
(which
will
be
described
at
length
hereafter)
in
which
the
performer,
after
borrowing
a
handkerchief,
gives
it
to
some
one
to
hold.
When
it
is
returned,
it
proves
to
be
torn
into
small
pieces.
It
is
again
handed
to
the
holder,
who
is
instructed,
in
order
to
restore
it,
to
rub
it
in
a
particular
manner;
but
when
again
unfolded,
it
is
found
in
a
long
strip.
These
effects
are
produced
by
successive
adroit
substitutions,
and
the
whole
magic
of
the
trick
consists
in
the
concealment
of
the
particular
moment
at
which
each
substitution
is
effected.
Now,
if
you
were
to
announce
to
the
audience
beforehand
that
you
were
about
to
cause
the
handkerchief
to
appear
in
several
pieces,
or
in
a
long
strip,
they
would
at
once
conjecture
that
the
trick
depended
on
an
exchange,
and
their
whole
vigilance
being
directed
to
discover
the
moment
of
that
exchange,
you
would
find
it
all
but
impossible
to
perform
the
trick
without
detection.
If,
on
the
other
hand,
you
merely
roll
up
the
handkerchief,
and
ask
some
one
to
hold
it,
the
audience,
not
knowing
what
you
are
about
to
do,
have
no
reason
to
suspect
that
you
have
handed
him
a
substitute;
and
when
the
transformation
is
exhibited,
the
opportunity
of
detection
will
have
already
passed
away.
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