Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

When the student has thoroughly mastered the various operations above described, he will have little to learn save the combination of the various Passes, a matter of memory only. There are, however, one or two subordinate sleights with which he should make himself acquainted before proceeding publicly to exhibit his dexterity. TO PRODUCE A BALL FROM THE WAND.--The wand is supposed to be the reservoir whence the magician produces his store of balls, and into which they vanish when no longer needed. The mode of production is as follows:--The performer, holding the wand in his left hand, and drawing attention to it by some remark as to its mysterious power of production and absorption, secretly takes with his right hand, from the servante or elsewhere, a ball, which he immediately palms (preferably by the first method). Daintily holding the wand by either end with the left hand, in such manner as to show that the hand is otherwise empty, he slides the thumb and fingers of the right hand (the back of which is naturally towards the audience) lightly to the opposite end, at the same moment rolling the ball with the thumb to the ends of the fingers, as already described. (See Fig. 126.) The ball thus comes in sight just as the hand leaves the wand, the effect to the eyes of the spectators being that the ball is, by some mysterious process, squeezed out of the wand. TO RETURN A BALL INTO THE WAND.--This is the converse of the process last described. Taking the wand in the left hand, as before, and the ball between the thumb and second joint of the forefinger of the opposite hand, the performer lays the end of the wand across the tips of the fingers, and draws the hand gently downwards along it, at the same time palming the ball by the first method.