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Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring
·
Professor Hoffmann
229
If
you
professedly
use
a
borrowed
florin,
you
must
adroitly
change
it
for
your
own,
under
pretence
of
showing
how
to
spin
it,
or
the
like.
You
should
not
allow
your
audience
to
imagine
that
you
are
guided
by
the
sound
of
the
coin,
as,
if
once
they
have
the
clue,
they
will
easily
learn
to
distinguish
the
two
sounds.
They
are
not,
however,
likely
to
discover
the
secret
of
the
notch,
and
if
any
one
professes
to
have
found
out
the
trick,
you
may,
by
again
substituting
an
unprepared
florin,
safely
challenge
him
to
perform
it.
ODD
OR
EVEN,
OR
THE
MYSTERIOUS
ADDITION.--This
is
a
trick
of
almost
childish
simplicity,
depending
upon
an
elementary
arithmetical
principle.
We
have,
however,
known
it
to
occasion
great
perplexity,
even
to
more
than
ordinarily
acute
persons.
You
take
a
handful
of
coins
or
counters,
and
invite
another
person
to
do
the
same,
and
to
ascertain
privately
whether
the
number
he
has
taken
is
odd
or
even.
You
request
the
company
to
observe
that
you
have
not
asked
him
a
single
question,
but
that
you
are
able,
notwithstanding,
to
divine
and
counteract
his
most
secret
intentions,
and
that
you
will
in
proof
of
this,
yourself
take
a
number
of
coins,
and
add
them
to
those
he
has
taken,
when,
if
his
number
was
odd,
the
total
shall
be
even;
if
his
number
was
even,
the
total
shall
be
odd.
Requesting
him
to
drop
the
coins
he
holds
into
a
hat,
held
on
high
by
one
of
the
company,
you
drop
in
a
certain
number
on
your
own
account.
He
is
now
asked
whether
his
number
was
odd
or
even;
and,
the
coins
being
counted,
the
total
number
proves
to
be,
as
you
stated,
exactly
the
reverse.
The
experiment
is
tried
again
and
again,
with
different
numbers,
but
the
result
is
the
same.
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