Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The performer now hands round the glass for examination, and subsequently draws attention to the box of bran. While doing this he has little difficulty in getting the rings out of the cup and paper into his right hand. He then, holding the glass in his left hand, dips it into the box, and fills it with bran, which he forthwith pours slowly back again to prove its genuineness. Meanwhile, his right hand is engaged in fishing up the bran shape among the bran, placing it mouth upwards in the box, and dropping the rings into it. When he again dips the glass into the box, he slips it mouth downwards over the shape, immediately turning it into the natural position, and bringing it up, to all appearance, full of bran. As the rings were in the shape, they are, of course, now in the glass. He brushes the loose bran off the top, and then covers the glass with a borrowed handkerchief, taking particular notice on which side hangs the loop of thread. The person holding the pistol is now requested to take good aim, and fire at the glass. He does so, and the performer, lifting the handkerchief with the shape within it, lets the latter drop on the servante, and advancing with the glass, requests the owners to identify their rings. The trick may either end here, upon the supposition that the bran has been blown away altogether by the explosion, or the bran may be shown to have passed to some other place. There are numerous methods of effecting this latter transposition. For instance, the pea vase (see page 351), first shown empty, may be used, or the bran may be made to fall out of a second borrowed handkerchief, by means of the bag shown at page 248, or may be found in the apparatus next described.