Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Some little fun may be created by placing the upper knobs of the pillars pincer-fashion, one on each side of a person’s nose, the cord being thus apparently made to run right through the nose. An air of greater probability may be given to this curious effect by first piercing the nose with the magic bradawl. This is in appearance an ordinary bradawl, but the blade is so arranged as to recede into the handle on the slightest pressure, again reappearing (being, in fact, forced forward by a spiral spring in the handle) as soon as the pressure is removed. A duplicate bradawl of ordinary make is first handed round for examination, and the trick bradawl being adroitly substituted, the performer proceeds therewith to bore a hole through the nose of any juvenile volunteer who will submit to the operation. Holding a piece of cork on one side of the nose, he apparently thrusts the awl through the nose, the sinking of the blade into the handle exactly simulating the effect of a genuine perforation. (Some performers make use of a sponge moistened with some liquid resembling blood, which by a little pressure is made to trickle down from the imaginary wound; but this is a piece of realism which we think is better omitted.) The nose being thus apparently pierced, the imagination of the spectators is in a measure prepared to accept the phenomenon of the restored cord running through it as already described.