FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, 25 October 1906, Page 38

FAMILY FUN

1 To melt lead in a piece of paper.— Wrap up a very smooth ball of lead in a piece of paper, taking care that there be no wrinkles in it, and that it be everywhere in contact with the ball ; if it be held in this state over the flame of a taper, the lead will be melted without the paper being burnt. The lead, indeed, when once fused, will not" fail in a short' time to pierce the paper and run through.

To so fill a glass with water that it cannot "be ' removed without spilling the whole.— This is a meretrick, but may afford some amusement. You offer x o bet any person that you will so fill a glass with water that he shall not move it off the table without spilling the whole contents. You then fill the glass, and laying a piece of paper or thin card over Vhe top, you dexterously turn the glass upside down on the table, and then drawing away the paper, you leave the water in the glass, with its foot upwards." It will therefore be impossible to remove the glass from the table without spilling every drop.

To get a ring out of a handkerchief.— Bend a piece of wire into the form of ' a ring, havingv previously sharpened both ends. You have a real ring made of the same piece of wire, and concealing the false ring in the palm of your hand, offer the real one to be inspected. When it is returned, borrow a handkerchief, and while taking it from the lender slip the real one into your left hand, and take the false one at its point of junction. Throw the handkerchief over the ring, and give it to some one to 'hold between his finger and thumb. Let the handkerchief fall over it, and give a piece of string to a second spectator directing him to tie it round the handkerchief about two inches below the ring, so as to enclose it in a bag, and tell him to -do so as tightly as he can . While he is doing this, take up your conjuring wand a rod of some hard wood, about eighteen inches lone' and when the knot is tied, step forward, passing the rod into your left hand, taking care to slip over it the real ring which has lain concealed there. Slin your left hand to the centre of the rod, and direct each of the two persons to hold one end of it in his right hand. Then tell the -one who has the rine ami handkerchief to lay them on your left hand which you immediately cover, with your right. Then tell them to spread another handkerchief ' over your" /hands, and to say after you any nonsense that you like to invent. While they are so doing, unbend the false ring and draw it through the handkerchiefs by one of its points, carefully rubbing between the thumb and finger the place where it came through. Hang the empty handkerchief over the ring -frhich is on the rod, and taks-ajvay.-yQur. jKb.ich.-you .exhibit - empty, * -as VO J« na^NsiWfe-ihe^falaaijriDg insideMfl»~cuft' 3&*feke* r ,%*d»*!r jhw^er^f.itiand-jtfWwa ft»*d »pef&tffi of tKe*Tiandkerchief and hung upon the rod