Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Bringing forward the plate of eggs, the performer requests the company to choose whichever they please. While they are making their selection, he carefully turns back his sleeves, showing indirectly that his hands are empty. Taking the chosen egg with the tips of his fingers, and showing it on all sides, to prove that there is no preparation about it, he says, “Now, ladies and gentlemen, you have seen me place the ring which this lady has kindly lent me in ‘so-and-so’” (according to the place where it is supposed to be). “You have selected, of your own free choice, this particular egg among half-a-dozen others. I am about to command the ring to leave the place where it now is, and to pass into the very centre of this egg. If you think the egg is prepared in any way, it is open to you even now to choose another. You are all satisfied that the egg has not been tampered with? Well, then, just observe still that I have nothing in my hands. I have merely to say, ‘One, two, three! Pass!’ The ring is now in the egg.” At the word, “Pass,” the performer taps one end of the egg with his wand, just hard enough to crack it slightly. “Dear me,” he says; “I did not intend to hit quite so hard; but it is of no consequence.” Stepping to the table, he places the egg, with the cracked end downwards, in the prepared egg-cup, using just sufficient pressure to force the egg well down upon the ring, the projecting portion of which is thereby forced into the egg. The egg being already cracked, a very slight pressure is sufficient. Bringing forward the egg in the cup, the hook already mentioned, and a table-napkin, he taps the top of the egg smartly with his wand, so as to crack it, and, offering the hook to the owner of the ring, requests her to see whether her property is not in the egg. The ring is immediately fished out, and being wiped upon the napkin, is recognized as that which was borrowed. The apparatus in which it was originally placed is, on being examined, found empty.