Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

THE “BONUS GENIUS,” OR VANISHING DOLL.--While upon the subject of old-fashioned tricks, we may briefly notice that known under the name of the Bonus Genius, which has puzzled many generations of our forefathers, and, though now rarely exhibited by professional performers, is still a great favourite with juvenile audiences. The Bonus Genius is a little wooden figure of a man, four to six inches in height, and more or less grotesque in colour and design. A little cloak, made small above and full below, like the skirt of a doll’s dress, and with no opening save where the head of the figure passes through, completes the apparatus. There are, however, two points about the doll and his cloak which are unknown to the spectators. First, the head of the doll is moveable, a wooden peg forming the neck, and fitting, somewhat tightly, into a corresponding hole in the body; secondly, there is stitched on the inside of the cloak, just below the opening for the neck, a little pocket, of the description known among tailors as a “patch” pocket, and of such a size as to contain the head easily. The performer, holding up the figure, and introducing it to the company as his flying messenger, warranted to outstrip the electric telegraph, covers it with the cloak, so that nothing but the head is seen.