Water Wizardry: A collection of tricks in which water is the chief agent

the conjurer is apparently reversing one of Nature's laws h

the conjurer is not behaving in a reasonable manner; he should cause the little pieces to join together into one strip and the audience must be led to believe that that strip is the orig

ing a playing card placed into a jug of water to disappear; the water is supposed to dissolve the card. I imagine, however, that no intelligent audi

red that the card has apparently been dissolved in water, and that therefore to bring the trick to the "logical conclusion" which is the attribute

e to disappear from the water we may fairly be allowed to reproduce the card in any way we please. To regard the trick in that way is to destroy the plot of it and to substitute another plot. In the one case the conjurer is suggesting to his audience that the card remains in the water in a

g, nearly full of water, is then held up for inspection, and, lastly, a large dark silk handkerchief-or muffler-is casually shown. If one of those very trying persons who are always anxious to discover a conjurer's secrets appears anxious to examine the handkerchief th

le. The conjurer picks it up, removes the top card and asks the person who took it to say if it

nd his thumb and lingers pointing upwards. (The position of the hand is important

he jug of water, while with his left hand he drapes the handkerchief round the outside of the jug, practically hiding it. Someone in the audience is asked to take the card from the conjurer (holding it, of course, with the handkerchief over it) and to drop i

pped in a sheet of newspaper and given into the possession of a member of the audience. The audience are led to believe that the name of the card is to be written magically on the slates, but when

nding on the conjurer's table; placed just behind it is the large silk handkerchief folded in four, and behind the handkerchief is a p

, thus showing-without directly calling attention to the fact-that the pack is an ordi

g.

hen you have made up your mind will you please put the card on the top of the pack. . . . Have you done that? You'll know the card again when

and then, turning the pack over, drops it face upwards on the table so that it falls on the top of the piece of cell

s." (He puts the jug on the table and picks up the handkerchief.) "A large silk handkerchief. Three hundred silkworms had to work overtime for a fortnight to make the silk for this handkerchief; it isn't one of those tiny little handkerchiefs." (T

er the edge of the pack for about half an inch-the right little finger preventing it from going too far-and the left thumb then pushes the top card forward in the same way. Thus the piece of celluloid is now directly over the top card, and the two can be lifted off the pack together and exhibited as one card. The conjurer shows the card t

f with his right hand and throws it o

s so much easier than covering the handkerchief with the card.

to position, so that the centre is over the card. While his right hand is under the handkerchief the conjurer takes the card from the left hand and slips it for a moment into the left sleeve, taking care to push it down, so that when his hand is afterwards removed the card is hidden. The conjurer then brings his right

elieves to be the card to release "the card" at the word "Go!" the conjurer merely has to take the handkerchief away and hold

r continues

impression of the card stamped upon the jug. If you want the trick done quickly you have to send a special message to the good fairy who arranges these t

he palm of the hand should be facing the audience and the fingers slightly b

e." He dips a little sponge into the jug of water and sponges over the slate whi

irectly he has done this the conjurer takes hold of the slates with the left hand, holding them by their sides; his fingers keep the card behind the slates. He should turn to his right when taking the slates in the left hand. The next step is to slide out the under slate by taking it with the righ

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the two slates, which are then wrapped in a sheet of paper and given to a member of the audience. The conjur

this water. There's no telling what may happen now; you may find little bits of th

card in between the two slates, and the conjurer finish

n mind that what he is apparently doing is to lift the slates with the right hand and take them by the sides with the left hand. If those movements are practised until the conjurer can make them without having to stop to think about them he can then go on to practise making the same move

e absolutely certain of forcing the card which he wishes to use in a trick. Therefore, since the beginner is out to make the trick as simple and sure as possible he should use a "forcing pack," which consists of one card repeated, say, forty times; a few other indifferent cards are placed on the top and below the forty. The co

rst method, and the card is got rid of by being pushed down the

slate is laid inside it. The cardboard is painted on both sides, and, therefore, when the ordinary slate is p

falling away. He lightly sponges both sides of the slate (in reality one side of the flap and one side of the slate); he then cleans the ordinary slate in the same way and places it on the top of the flap. He cannot give the slates to a member of the audience to hold

ently cleans all four sides of the two slates and leaves them slightly damp he ought really to dampen the underside of the flap and the side of the slate concealed by the flap before he begins the trick; otherwise, someone with a very alert mind may point out at the conclusion of the trick th