Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Rubbing his palms together, as if to mould the divided ball into shape, he shows the two balls, professedly the divided portions of the first. Taking one in each hand, he continues, “I undertook to make the divided portions exactly equal, but I have not succeeded so well as usual. It seems to me that this one is rather the larger, what say you, ladies and gentlemen?” He places the two balls on the table, side by side, as if for comparison, and carelessly dropping the right hand to his side, palms between the second and third fingers (see page 273), the small ball. “Yes, this one is certainly the larger, but I can easily rectify the mistake by pinching a little piece off.” Taking the ball in the left hand, he pretends to pinch off a portion from it with the right, at the same time letting the little ball fall to the finger-tips of the latter. He replaces the large ball on the table, rolling the little ball between the fingers, as though to give it roundness. “No, that one is still the biggest, I haven’t taken quite enough yet. I must take a little more; or, better still, I will add this little piece to the smaller one.”