FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 18, 2 May 1907, Page 38

FAMILY FUN

What is the superlative of temper ? — Tempest. What nation does a criminal dread ? — Condemnation, What is the waist of time ?— The middle of an hourglass. What animals are generally brought to a funeral ?— Black kids. What great transformation can the letter V perform ?-— Changing a lad into a lady.When is a house like a butterfly ?— When it has wings. . - - If you multiply a vowel by a vowel, what implement will you make ? — A xc. Which sea would make a fairly comfortable bedroom? —Adriatic (a dry attic.) _ Why shouldn't a boy throw dust in his teacher's - eyes t ? — Because it may occasion harm to the. pupil. Whatt are the most unsociable things in the world ? - — Milestones), for you never see two of them. 1 together. A few deft manoeuvres with a handful of coins, a hat, and a tumbler will give a great deal of ~ amusement at an evening " party. Here is, for instance, a trick that can be done with the aid of the abovementioned articles. The hat and tumbler are placed upon a tajble, the hat neatly poised upon the mouth of the tumlbler,- and the performer then announces, with the customary bravado, that he will throw the coppers into the bat in such a way that one, and only one, will ' pass" into the glass beneath. How is this managed ? The contrivance is simple enough. An extra coin is- concealed in one hand before - the ' triok is 1 begun by pressing it beeween the first joint of the third and fourth fingers and the hand. This done, the performer then puts the hat upon the. glass with the hand in which the penny is cpncealeji,.J while -engaged in this he takes the opportunity to -slip the- hidden coin down so that it is held firmly in position between the glass and the hat. The fall of the other coins in the hat unsettles the hidden one and the effect is produced. Great care must be taken in performing this trick to adjust the coin between the hat and the glass so- that more than half of it is inside the glass ; if this is not done the com will fall outside instead of inside the glass. Another point " to be observed is -that ' one of the coppers must be somehow got rid of, so as to have the proper mynber ,in the glass* and the hat at the end..