FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, 2 October 1913, Page 62

FAMILY FUN

(Special to the N.Z. Tablet by, Mahatma.)

TRICKS AND ILLUSIONS.

To Balance a Wins Glass on a Card.— performer steps forward with-' a playing card and 'a tumbler. He ■ holds the card upright and places the tumbler on its upper edge, where he balances it for some time. The card is a prepared one. A flap of thin cardboard of another playing card will be found most suitable gummed to the back of the card which the conjuror intends to use. This flap must fold flat against the back of the card. When opened out it will be at right angles to the card. Any article, such as . a tumbler or even larger vessel may now be balanced upon it.

Biting a Button off a Person’s Coat.—-The conjuror walks over to a gentleman in the company and calls attention to the manner in which his buttons are sewn on his coat. ‘You will pardon me,’ says the performer, bending down and biting a button off, showing the bunch of threads and then dropping the button from the mouth. This new trick will create roars of laughter. To perform ,it you must provide yourself with a set of black buttons of the kind usually worn, also a few pieces of different cloths each having a number of black threads like a small brush, sewn in the centre. Select a coat with a similar cloth to a piece you have in your possession, walk over to your victim, place the piece of cloth over one of his coat buttons, and as you stoop to bite put your own button in your mouth. 1 Show the threads broken, holding your fingers over the edges of the cloth, drop the button from your mouth and show it to the company. To restore the button on his coat, palm 'the piece of cloth and the button.

The Ring and Stick.—This trick is one of the most mysterious tricks ever invented. The effect is as follows: A handkerchief and a walking stick are shown by the performer. He borrows a ring from a gentleman in the' audience. He then invites two members of the company upon the platform. One holds the stick firmly with one hand at each end. The conjuror places the ring underneath the handkerchief and asks the second gentleman to hold it over the stick. At the performer's command he is* to let the handkerchief with the ring fall over the stick. Immediately this is done, the performer pulls the handkerchief away when the ring is found to be spinning upon the stick. The secret, like the secret of most good tricks, is very simple. _ The performer provides himself in the first place with a brass ring about the size of r a wedding ring— may use a real wedding ring if he chooses. This ring he attaches by means of a piece of " cotton about six inches long to the centre of the handkerchief. When placing the' borrowed ring under the handkerchief he catches hold of the ring thus attached and asks the assistant to feel it through the cambric. The borrowed ring is carried away in the performer's hand. He then takes the stick and whilst talking to the gentlemen on the stage he contrives to pass the borrowed ring over one end.. This will be found quite easy of accomplishment, after a few practices. The conjuror asks the assistant to hold the stick and still keeps his hand over the ring which he has now worked to the middle of the stick. - The second assistant is now asked to hold the handkerchief 'containing the ring over the stick, and when it is well over the performer removes his hand from over the ring. When the assistant drops the handkerchief it invariably remains on the stick. The performer has now only to give it a sharp pull and the; borrowed ring will be set spinning upon the stick, thus terminating a really first-clsas trick. '-'";, . ' .. -.'■. . -:.--.