Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

This capital trick requires the aid of a special table. The top is thin, and without fringe or ornament of any kind, allowing no apparent space for the concealment of even the smallest article. The centre pillar, however, is a hollow tube, and it is into this that the handkerchief is made to vanish. The first step in the trick is to exchange the handkerchief for a substitute. (See page 240.) This substitute is spread over the top of the table. The real handkerchief the performer carries with him when he leaves the stage under the pretence of fetching the candle, and utilizes his momentary absence in placing it inside the candle, which is hollow, and of the description mentioned at page 251. When the gentleman advances to set fire to the handkerchief, the pulling of a string by the assistant causes a clip to rise up in the centre of the table, and nip the middle of the handkerchief, which is instantly drawn down within the tube through a small trap at its upper extremity. THE SPHINX.--Few tricks have of late years caused so great a sensation as this now well-known illusion, which was first introduced to the London public by the late Colonel Stodare, in 1865. We cannot better preface the explanation of the trick than by quoting a portion of the Times notice on the subject, of October 19, 1865:--