Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Taking up florin No. 2 from the table, and holding it in his left hand, he pretends by the tourniquet to take it in his right, and thence to pass it into the orange, meanwhile dropping it from his left hand on to the servante, or into the profonde. Showing his hands empty, he cuts open the orange, and exhibits the florin (No. 1) therein contained. Before giving the audience time to examine it for the mark, he hears, or pretends to hear, a murmur among them to the effect that that was not the orange chosen. “Pardon me,” he says, “some of you seem to think that I had a special reason for preferring this particular orange. I gave you absolute liberty to choose which you liked, and I understood you to say that you chose this one. However, in order to satisfy everyone, I will repeat the trick with the other orange.” Taking up the second orange, he thrusts the knife through it, in the slit already made, and gives the knife thus loaded to some one to hold. Then, standing at some distance from it, he takes up florin No. 1, and, getting rid of it by one or other of the “passes” previously described, he makes a motion as of throwing it towards the orange. He now requests the person holding the orange himself to cut it open; when the genuine florin, No. 3, is found therein, and duly identified. The finding of the second orange in the possession of the company may, if preferred, be omitted, and both oranges be brought forward openly in the first instance.