Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

CHAPTER XVII. STAGE TRICKS. The present Chapter will be devoted to such tricks as by reason of the cumbrousness or costliness of the apparatus required for them, are, as a rule, exhibited only upon the public stage. The stage performer may, if he pleases, avail himself of the aid of mechanical tables, electrical appliances, etc., which enable him to execute a class of tricks which are beyond the scope of an ordinary drawing-room performance, though the wealthy amateur will find no difficulty in converting his own drawing-room into a quasi-stage, and qualifying it for the presentation of the most elaborate illusions. The leading items of apparatus in stage magic are mechanical tables. These are of various kinds, many being specially designed to assist in the performance of some one particular trick. Putting aside these, which will be separately noticed, stage tables may be broadly divided into three classes--trap tables, piston tables, and electrical tables. In practice, these classes are somewhat intermingled, for it is rather the rule than the exception for a stage table to be fitted with both traps and pistons, while either or both of these may be found in conjunction with electrical appliances. Trap tables are such as are provided with one or more “traps,” their object being, at the will of the operator, to cause the disappearance of a given article into the interior of the table, or sometimes to produce or apparently change an article. The traps most generally used may be described as follows:--