Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

A further improvement consists in the use, in place of the salver, of a small round table, or guéridon, made on the same principle (without the hammer), and worked by pulling a string from behind the scenes. With a little dexterity, the articles may be introduced into the “ladle,” while in the act of placing the glass upon the table, or of moving the latter to the front of the stage, though it is more usual to do this behind the scenes, and then to bring the table forward, as described in the case of the salver. The trick may be varied by borrowing four half-crowns or florins, duly marked, which, being exchanged, and their substitutes placed in the half-crown casket (see page 202), are thence made to pass one by one into the glass. THE VANISHING DIE.--The effect of this trick, in its simplest shape, is merely to make a die, some three inches square, pass through the crown of a hat, and be found inside. The trick in this form is but a poor and transparent affair, but it is sometimes useful as affording a pretext for borrowing a hat which you design to make use of for some other purpose; and it furnishes the germ of two or three really effective illusions. The apparatus consists of three portions--a solid wooden die, generally painted black with white spots, a tin counterpart thereof,--fitting loosely over it, and exactly similar in appearance, but with one side open,--and an ornamental cover of thin pasteboard (sometimes this also is of tin), fitting in like manner over the hollow die. The trick is worked very much after the manner of the “cone,” recently described. The performer comes forward, having the solid die in the one hand, and the cover, with the tin counterpart within it, in the other. Placing these on the table, he borrows two hats, which he likewise places on the table, mouth upwards. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he commences, “I have here a block of wood” (he lets it fall on the floor, the sound sufficiently indicating its solidity, and again picks it up), “and a cover of simple pasteboard.”