Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

VI. THE CHINESE PICTURES.--This is a very curious and surprising trick. You prepare a number of plain white sheets of paper, intermixed with which are several sheets on which are drawn various Chinese pictures. In showing these sheets to the audience, you take care not to draw out any of the pictures, but only the blank sheets. You then take a jug, having an even top, filled with water, placing the sheets on the top. You then state that the water in the jug has the peculiar quality of drawing, but having been brought from China, can only draw Chinese sketches. You then dexterously reverse the jug, the sheets preventing the water from flowing out. After a few moments you draw out the sketches, and scattering them among the audience, you cause them to think that they have been drawn on the blank sheets. This is a very old trick of the Chinese, who first performed it. You can easily learn to tell which are blank sheets and which are the pictures by a simple mark placed on the top or in the corner of the latter.