Place three pieces of bread, or other eatable, at a little distance from each other on a table, and cover each with a hat; you then take up the first hat, and removing the bread, put it into your mouth, and let your company see that you swallow it; then raise the second hat, and eat the bread which was under that, and do the same with the third. Having eaten the three pieces, give any person in company liberty to choose under which hat he would wish those three pieces of bread to be; when he has made choice of one of the hats, put it on your head, and ask him if he does not think that they are under it.

TO BRING A PERSON DOWN UPON A FEATHER.

This is a practical pun:—You desire any one to stand on a chair or table, and you tell him that, notwithstanding his weight, you will bring him down upon a feather. You then leave the room, and procuring a feather from a feather-bed, you give it to him, and tell him you have performed your promise,—that you engaged to bring him down upon a feather, which you have done; for there is the feather, and, if he looks, he’ll find down upon it.

THE APPARENT IMPOSSIBILITY.

You profess yourself able to show any one what he never saw, what you never saw, and what nobody else ever saw, and which, after you two have seen, nobody else ever shall see.

After requesting the company to guess this riddle, and they have professed themselves unable to do so, produce a nut, and having cracked it, take out the kernel, and ask them if they have ever seen that before; they will of course answer, No; you reply, neither have I, and I think you will confess that nobody else has ever seen it, and now no one shall ever see it again; saying which, you put the kernel into your mouth and eat it.

AN OMELET COOKED IN A HAT, OVER THE FLAME OF A CANDLE.

You ask the company if they would like an omelet cooked; then you break four eggs in a hat, place the hat for a short time over the flame of a candle, and shortly after produce an omelet, completely cooked, and quite hot.

Some persons would be credulous enough to believe that by the help of certain ingredients you had been enabled to cook the omelet without fire; but the secret of the trick is, that the omelet had been previously cooked and placed in the hat, but could not be seen, because the operator, when breaking the eggs, placed it too high for the spectators to observe the contents. The eggs were empty ones, the contents having been previously extracted, by being sucked through a small aperture, but to prevent the company from suspecting this, the operator manages, as if by accident, to let a full one fall on the table, which breaking, induces a belief that the others are also full.

THE IMPOSSIBLE OMELET.

You produce some butter, eggs, and other ingredients for making an omelet, together with a frying-pan, in a room where there is a fire, and state, that the cleverest cook will not be able to make an omelet with them. The wager is won by having previously caused the eggs to be boiled very hard.

GO IF YOU CAN.

You tell a person that you will clasp his hands together in such a manner, that he shall not be able to leave the room without unclasping them, although you will not confine his feet, or bend his body, or in any way oppose his exit.

The trick is performed by clasping the party’s hands round the pillar of a large circular table or other bulky article of furniture, too large for him to drag through the doorway.

THE FIGURE PUZZLE.

You assert that you can prove the half of nine to be either four or six; and the half of twelve to be seven. To make this manifest you have only to draw a nine or a twelve in numerals, and fold the paper across the middle, as in the margin.

THE VISIBLE INVISIBLE.

You tell the company that you will place a candle in such a manner that every person in the room, except one, shall see it; yet you will not blindfold him, nor in any way restrain his person, or offer the least impediment to his examining or going to any part of the room he pleases. This trick is accomplished by placing the candle on the party’s head; but it cannot be performed if a looking-glass is in the room, as that will enable him to turn the laugh against you.

THE DOUBLE MEANING.

Place a glass of any liquid upon the table, put a hat over it, and say: “I will engage to drink the liquid under that hat, and yet I’ll not touch the hat.” You then get under the table, and after giving three knocks, you make a noise with your mouth as if you were swallowing the liquid. Then getting from under the table, you say: “Now, gentlemen, be pleased to look.” Some one, eager to see if you have drunk the liquid, will raise up the hat, when you instantly take the glass, and drink the contents, saying: “Gentlemen, I have fulfilled my promise. You are all witnesses that I did not touch the hat.”

QUITE TIRED OUT.

You undertake to make a person so tired, by attempting to carry a small stick out of the room, as to be unable to accomplish it, although you will add nothing to his burthen, nor lay any restraint upon his personal liberty. To perform this manoeuvre, you take up the stick, and cutting off a very small sliver, you direct him to carry it out of the room, and return for more; concluding by telling him, that you mean him to perform as many similar journeys as you can cut pieces off the stick. As this may be made to amount to many thousands, he will of course gladly give up the undertaking.

SOMETHING OUT OF THE COMMON.

Having picked a stick or stone off a common, you tell a person that you are about to show him something which will surprise him,—something, in fact, quite out of the common. Having thus excited his curiosity, you produce the stick or stone, or whatever else you may have picked up, which of course he will examine very intently, and at length observe, that he sees nothing extraordinary in it. “That may be,” you reply, “and yet, I assure you, that it is really something out of the common.” This will, no doubt, set him upon a fresh examination, which will naturally end in his asking for an explanation. This you give, by telling him that “though not uncommon, it is out of the common, for it is out of —— Common;” and no doubt, the company present will indulge in a hearty laugh at the querist’s expense.

TO RUB ONE SIXPENCE INTO TWO.

Previously wet a sixpence slightly, and stick it to the under edge of a table, (without a cover,) at the place where you are sitting. You then borrow a sixpence from one of the company, and tucking up your sleeves very high, and opening your fingers, to show that you have not another concealed, rub it quickly backwards and forwards on the table, with your right hand, holding your left under the edge of the table to catch it. After two or three feigned unsuccessful attempts to accomplish your object, you loosen the concealed sixpence with the tips of the fingers of the left hand, at the same time that you are sweeping the borrowed sixpence into it; and rubbing them a little while together in your hands, you throw them both on the table.

MAGIC CIRCLE.

You tell a person you will place him in the centre of a room, and draw a circle of chalk round him, which shall not exceed three feet in diameter, yet out of which he shall not be able to leap, though his legs shall be perfectly free. When the party has exhausted his ingenuity in trying to discover by what means you can prevent his accomplishing so seemingly easy a task, you ask him if he will try, and on his assenting, you bring him into the middle of the room, and having requested him to button his coat tightly, you draw with a piece of chalk, a circle round his waist, outside his coat, and tell him to jump out of it!

It will greatly improve this trick if the person be blindfolded, as he will not be aware of the mode of performing it till the bandage is removed, provided his attention be diverted while you are drawing the line round him.