Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The uses to which the changing cover may be put are very numerous. The following is an instance of a rather original application of it, which produces a capital effect. We will suppose that the performer has executed a trick in which he has availed himself of the assistance of some juvenile member of the audience, and that an apple has been one of the “properties” of the trick. The trick being concluded, the professor asks his temporary assistant whether he would like to have the apple, and is of course eagerly answered in the affirmative. “Very well,” says the professor, “you shall have it; but you must first earn it by a little display of dexterity. I will put it under this cover.” He suits the action to the word. “Now I am going to say, One, two, three! At the word ‘Three’ I shall raise the cover, and you must try to snatch the apple before I replace it. If you can catch the apple in this manner three times in succession, it is yours; but on one further condition, that you eat it at once here upon the stage.” The conditions are readily accepted. “One, two, three!” cries the professor, raising the cover and disclosing the apple, which is instantly snatched up. A second time the process is gone through, with a like result. “You mean to win, I can see,” remarks the performer. “Now, once more, and the apple will be yours; but I warn you I shall be rather quicker this time. One! two!! three!!!” The eager boy springs forward, and clutches--not the apple, but a Spanish onion, which had been placed in the second compartment of the cover. “You have won, sir,” says the professor, pretending not to notice the change; “but don’t forget the second part of your bargain. You are to eat it at once, before leaving the stage.” We will leave to the imagination of the reader the discomfiture of the victim, and the amusement of the spectators; also the subsequent magical processes by which the transformed apple may be restored to its original and more fragrant condition.