Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

There is, of course, a ball left under each of the cups, and a fourth palmed in your right hand. This latter will not again be wanted, and you should therefore, while attention is drawn to the hat, drop it upon the servante, or into one of your pochettes. PASS XI. TO TRANSFORM THE SMALL BALLS TO LARGER ONES.--While the attention of the spectators is still occupied by the unexpected dénouement of the last Pass, you should prepare for this one by secretly taking with your right hand from the servante, and palming (by either the second or third method, the first being only available for the small balls) one of the larger balls. You then address the spectators to the following effect:--“Ladies and gentlemen, you see that I have little difficulty in increasing the number of the balls to an unlimited extent. I will now repeat the experiment in another form, and show you that it is equally easy to make them increase in size. You will observe that, notwithstanding the number of balls which I have just produced from the cups, there are still plenty more to come.” Here you raise C, and show that there is a ball still under it. You replace it on the table at a few inches’ distance, and as you do so, secretly introduce under it the larger ball which you have just palmed. Taking up the small ball in your right hand, you say, “To make the experiment still more surprising, I will pass the ball upwards through the table into the cup.” So saying, you place the right hand under the table, dropping as you do so the little ball which you hold on the servante, and taking in its place another of the larger balls.