Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

VII. BAUTIER’S GREAT INK-AND-WATER TRICK.--This trick, first introduced by Bautier, at the Egyptian Hall, London, has, to the best of my belief, never before been explained. It is a remarkably clever deception, and, when dexterously performed, defies detection. It consists in showing a decanter filled with ink and another with water, and while each decanter is held by one of the audience, making the contents of each change places, the ink going into the one containing water, while the pure liquid is found in the one in which the ink was seen. Take two water bottles or decanters, and in one place a tassel of black fleecy wool, just long enough to touch the bottom of the bottle. The tassel must be tied by a knot at the top, and a small piece of string just hanging over the mouth of the bottle, attached to the knot. Then fill the glass with water. The bottle thus prepared looks at a short distance like a bottle of ink, and you have only to tell your audience that it is so to make them believe it. This, I am afraid, is inculcating in the mind of the reader the principle of falsehood--at least Mrs. Grundy might say so; but a professor of magic is doing nothing but telling “crammers” from the commencement to the conclusion of his entertainment.