Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The two corners of the side next to you will thus be brought one into each hand, and adhering to one of them (the one which you first folded down), will be the substitute sixpence, which will thus appear to have vanished. Hand the handkerchief for examination, that it may be seen that the coin has really disappeared, and meanwhile get rid of the substitute into your pocket or elsewhere. Turn up your sleeves, and show that your hands are empty. Then take up the knife (taking care to keep the side on which the sixpence is away from the spectators), and cut open the orange. Cut about half way down with the point, and then finish the cut by drawing the whole length of the blade through the opening thus made. This will detach the sixpence, which will fall between the two halves of the orange, as though it had all along been contained therein. Wipe it with the handkerchief to remove the juice of the orange from it, and at the same time rub off any wax which may still adhere to it, and hand it for identification. The coin may, if preferred, be found in an egg instead of the orange, the audience being invited to choose which shall be used. This trick is sometimes performed by the aid of a knife made for this special purpose, with a small spring lever, after the manner of a flute key, soldered against one side of the blade. The coin is held in position by the short arm of the lever, which answers the same purpose as the wax in the form of the trick above described. The disadvantage of using this, which is known as the “fruit knife,” is, that you cannot hand the knife for examination, and this, to our mind, spoils the trick.