English: Identifier: modernmagicpract00hoff_0

Title: Modern magic. : A practical treatise on the art of conjuring. Year: 1885 (1880s) Authors: Hoffmann, Professor, 1839-1919 Hawkins, Arthur, ca. 1940 Subjects: Magic tricks Publisher: London New York : G. Routledge and Sons Contributing Library: Boston Public Library Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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Text Appearing Before Image: end of the string. Pardon me, you reply, my dear sir;that method of performing the trick has long since been exploded. II Fig I will at once show you that I do not make use of any suchshabby expedient. Of course, if a piece was, as you suggest,cut off the end, the string would be that much shorter afterthe operation. Will some one be kind enough to measure it?While this is being done, you secretly double in a loop the littlepiece which was cut off on the former occasion, and which hasstill remained in your right hand When the string is returnedto you, you double it in half, and allow it to hang down betweenthe first finger and thumb of the right hand, drawing up imme-diately above it the little loop you have just formed. (See Fig.156.) You now ask some one again to cut the string, which heapparently does, in reality merely dividing the little loop. You gothrough any magical gesticulations you please, and ultimately againconceal the cut ends between the lingers, and produce the string

Text Appearing After Image: MODERN MAGIC. once more restored. On being measured, it is found to have lostnothing of its length. The trick in this second form being performed by wholly differentmeans, the repetition will puzzle even tnose who knew, or believedthey knew, the modus operandi in the first case. My Grandmothers Necklace.—The trick which bears thistitle is also a very old one, but is little known in the improved formwe are about to describe. Jn its older shape it is performed withthree perforated wooden balls or beads, threaded on a couple of tapes,whose ends are held securely by two of the spectators. The problemis to detach the beads without breaking the tapes, and this is effectedas follows:—The tapes, which should be from four to six feet inlength, are beforehand doubled in the middle, and slightly joined atthe bend of each with fine cotton or silk of the same colour. Thetapes are thus really middle to middle, though to a casual observerthey appear to be merely laid side by side. The performer

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