The blocks which give its title to this trick are inch-square wooden
cubes, three in number, as illustrated in Fig. 32. Each is coloured black
on two of its opposite sides; these in use being made top and bottom.
The four remaining sides are in the case of one block red, of another
white, and of a third blue. The only other item of apparatus known to the
spectators is a square cardboard tube, as depicted in Fig. 33. This is
about five inches long, and of such dimensions laterally as to let either
block slide by its own weight easily through it, but no more. All four
items may be freely submitted to inspection, for in this case appearances
are not deceitful. Both the blocks and the tube are no more and no less
than they seem to be.
In exhibiting the trick, the tube is placed upright on the table, and the
three blocks are dropped into it one after another, the company being
requested to note particularly the order in which they are inserted,
which we will suppose to be in the first instance blue, then white, and
lastly red, as shown without the tube in Fig. 32. It is clear that,
once inserted, they cannot by any natural means alter their relative
positions, but, strange to say, when they are again uncovered, the red
block just inserted at the top is found to have passed to the bottom,
the other two moving up accordingly.
This surprising effect is produced by the secret introduction into the
tube of a fourth block of which the spectators know nothing. This, which
we will call the “trick” block, is, like the rest, coloured black at the
top and bottom; but of the remaining four sides two, contiguous to each
other, are red, and the other two blue.
[Illustration: FIG. 32 FIG. 33 FIG. 34]
When the tube is handed back to the performer after inspection, before
placing it on the table he secretly introduces the trick block into its
lower end, privately noting against which sides of the tube the two _red_
faces will lie, and taking care in placing the tube upon the table that
the angle formed by these two sides shall be to the front. The other
three blocks are then, in accordance with the patter, dropped in from
above, in the order shown in Fig. 32, resting, unknown to the spectators,
on top of the trick block. When the performer lifts off the tube, which
he does grasping it diagonally between thumb and finger at about an inch
from the top, he does so with gentle pressure, thereby holding back the
uppermost block within the tube, and exposing the two others with the
trick block at the bottom, as indicated by Fig. 34.
I gave a description of this trick in the _Magician_ of February, 1914.
The patter for its exhibition was based on a popular nursery legend, and
as this mode of presentation won general approval from the juveniles I
cannot do better than repeat it practically as there given. The needful
working instructions will be found interspersed with the patter.
“What I am going to show you now is not a trick, or, if you can call it a
trick, it is one that works itself, for you will see for yourselves that
I have really nothing to do with it. It is just an illustration of the
force of bad example.
“No doubt you have all heard of a young gentleman called Fidgety Phil.
There is a little poem about him. It says:
‘Fidgety Phil
Couldn’t keep still,
Made his mother and father ill.’
“There are a lot more verses but I am sorry to say I don’t know them.
However, these few lines are enough to show you what sort of a boy
Fidgety Phil was. He was the kind of boy that wherever he is, he wants
to be somewhere else. When he was standing up he wanted to sit down,
and when he was sitting down he wriggled about on his chair till he was
allowed to stand up again.
“These little blocks are all that are left of a box of bricks which are
said to have belonged to Fidgety Phil and they show what even a box of
bricks may come to if a bad example is constantly set before them. These
three little bricks have got to be just as fidgety as Phil was himself.
Anyhow, that is the only way in which I can account for their queer
behaviour.
“Please have a good look at them, and see if you can discover anything
peculiar about them. I can’t, myself.” (The blocks are handed for
examination.) “They seem to me to be just ordinary bits of coloured wood,
and this square tube is believed to have been a chimney pot belonging to
the same set. I want you to notice particularly that the bricks are just
the right size to fit closely in the chimney. They go in quite easily;
but when they are once inside they can’t turn round, or turn over, or
change places. But the curious thing is that though they can’t they _do_,
as you will see presently.
“I place the chimney-pot here on the table, where you can see all round
it, and I drop the three bricks into it one by one. Notice particularly
the order in which I put them in. First, the blue. You heard it go down.
Next, the white, and now, the red. Don’t forget. Blue at the bottom,
white in the middle, and red at the top.
“Now, without my saying or doing anything, they will at once begin
to shift about. They can’t keep still for more than a few seconds.
When I lift off the chimney pot, you will find that they have changed
places.” (It is lifted accordingly, performer holding back the uppermost
block within it by gentle pressure on opposite angles of the tube, and
exhibiting only the three lower blocks now as in Fig. 34.)
“There, as I told you, like Fidgety Phil, they couldn’t keep still. The
white brick has climbed to the top, the red one has gone down to the
bottom, and the blue one is now in the middle.
“We will try again. I will put the bricks in in just the same order, to
make it easier for you to remember them.”
Performer has meanwhile allowed the red block, left in the upper part
of the tube, to sink to the bottom, checked by the third finger, and
replaces tube upright on table.
“As before, I drop in first the blue, then the white, then the red.”
(This last being the trick block, care must be taken to keep its _red_
sides well to the front.)
“Again I lift off the chimney pot, and again you see, the bricks have
changed places. White has come to the top, and red has gone to the bottom
again.”
The trick block, which this time remained at the top, is now allowed to
slide down to the bottom. The tube is again placed on the table, but so
turned that the _blue_ sides of the block within it are brought to the
front.
“I can’t tell you why the bricks behave in this way, but you can see for
yourselves that _I_ have nothing to do with it. We will try it once more,
and for a change I will put the red block in first, then the white and
then the blue. That order will be easy to remember. Red, white and blue
reckoning from the bottom upwards. Again I remove the cover. The same
thing has happened again, but with a little difference. White has come to
the top again, but blue has this time gone to the bottom.”
While attention is drawn to the new order of the blocks, the performer
allows the ordinary blue one, now left in the tube, to slide out into his
hand, and in picking up the others secretly substitutes this for the
trick block, which is now at the bottom of the tube.
“Once more, ladies and gentlemen, here is the chimney pot, and here
are the three bricks, for inspection by any one who cares to look at
them. Perhaps some of you may be able to account for their remarkable
behaviour. It’s a puzzle to me; but I never was good at guessing. My own
idea is that they are haunted by the ghost of Fidgety Phil. If not, I
give it up.”