Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

We may, however, here note a variation in practice. Some performers, instead of introducing the red ball under the bottle at the outset of the trick, as above described, make no attempt to bring it under the bottle until after the white ball is supposed to have been passed into the wine, when the performer, raising the bottle with the left hand, transfers it to the right, and brings the ball under it, retaining it there with the little finger until he thinks fit to allow it to drop, pretending to squeeze the bottom of the bottle as if to force it out. After having produced the red ball, the performer remarks, “Perhaps, ladies and gentlemen, you imagine that I have not really passed the ball through the bottle, and that the effect is, in reality, produced by the substitution of a different coloured ball. Let me assure you that so truly is the wine in the bottle, and nothing else, the cause of the change of colour, that you will find on examination that every particle of colour has left the wine, its whole virtue having been absorbed by the ball. Supposing for a moment that I could have exchanged the ball, you will hardly imagine that I could exchange the liquid in the bottle, which has been proved to be good old wine. Will the same gentleman who tried it before be good enough to taste it now?” Taking another glass, he fills it from the bottle, which is now found to contain nothing but water.