inspection. Have upon the stage, or at your end of the room, a table,
with a drawer open at the back. In this drawer have a small cake in the
tin in which it was baked. Let it be made in a patty-pan if convenient.
Beside this cake have a small tin cup, which will fit rather tightly
into the mouth of a china jar you have also provided. On the top of the
table have an unlighted candle, the jar, which should be porcelain if
possible, a basket containing a few eggs, a pitcher of water, some
flour, and a box marked sugar. The hat, after having been examined, is
returned to you; and the cake, along with the cup which is to receive
the eggs and flour, are put into it. This is effected as follows: Take
the cake and cup in your left hand, keeping it down behind the table,
and your hat in the right hand; bring the cake and cup up to the edge,
and immediately cover it with the hat, which you begin brushing with
your right. Keep up a running discourse all the time, so that the
movement will seem natural, and not be suspected. In a moment or two
partly withdraw the left hand, and grasping the brim of the hat, turn it
upside down upon the table. If the tin is not in a good position to
catch the eggs and flour which you are to drop into it, palm a penny and
pretend to find it in the hat, chiding your audience for carelessly
overlooking it, remarking that although a useful thing to have, it is
not exactly a proper ingredient for cake. Of course, while pretending to
pick up the coin, you can arrange the tin cup on top of your cake in the
middle of the hat. Be sure that it stands firm.
Now proceed to break one or more eggs, and drop the contents into the
hat, taking especial care that they drop into the cup. Next throw in a
spoonful of sugar, and then pour a few drops of water and one or two
spoonfuls of flour into the jar, and stir well with a spoon. Pour the
contents of the jar into the cup, and then, under pretense of draining
the last drop into the hat, force the jar down over the cup, and work it
around until the cup is well pushed up into the mouth of the jar. It is
needless to add that you must pretend all the while that you are
scraping or shaking out the mixture. The jar can now be taken out and
carelessly placed behind the sugar-pail or any other object, to prevent
the edge of the tin cup from being seen.
The trick is now completed, the only necessary thing to do is to keep up
the acting until the cake is supposed to be finished.
First, stir it well by moving the spoon around quite actively in the
hat; then light the candle, and, informing your audience that the cake
is ready for baking, take the hat in one hand and hold it over the
candle for a minute or two, occasionally glancing in to see if it is
doing well.
In a short time announce that it is baked; and after blowing out the
candle, take the cake from the hat, turn it out upon a plate, and
placing a knife by its side, pass it to some one to cut, and politely
request your friends to try it, and judge upon the efficacy of your
camp-stove. If the hat was borrowed, return it with thanks to its owner,
and congratulate him upon having such a useful article always on hand.
NECESSITY OF A SOBER COUNTENANCE.
In most, in fact all, of these exhibitions, it is absolutely necessary
that one should keep a sober countenance while performing. No matter how
hard your audience laugh, do not allow the shadow of a smile to flit
across your face. If you do it will take away much of the effectiveness
and half the mystery, from whatever you are doing.
I once had a young friend, a quick bright boy, who was very successful
in palming, and in many of the other elements in sleight-of-hand tricks,
but he had a ridiculous and unconquerable habit of laughing whenever his
audience laughed, and, in fact, of sometimes anticipating the laugh, and
commencing before his friends saw anything worth laughing about.
He was of course not successful, and was never watched with as much
interest as his brother, who, although not as clever, was as sober as a
judge from the beginning to the end of the performance. No amount of
hilarity in the audience affected him in the least. If he found it was
impossible to make himself heard, he stood still and waited; but always
with the same quiet, calm countenance he would have worn had he been
walking up the aisle of a church. Learn to command your countenance, as
one of the most important requisites of a successful magician.
THE GREAT CHINESE ROPE FEAT.
Many years ago this trick was exhibited in a show-window on Broadway,
but as probably most of the people who then saw it have long since
forgotten how it was performed, I give the following account:
Two ropes, each about three yards in length, are given to the audience
to examine, which of course are pronounced perfect; then they are passed
through the sleeves of a coat, in such a way as to suspend it; the ends
are then given to two boys to hold. The performer then places his hand
inside the coat, and having requested those who are holding the ends of
the rope to pull, the coat falls to the floor, having in some mysterious
manner worked off the ropes.
[Illustration]
Of course, the whole secret of this trick depends upon the arrangement
of the ropes, which are of themselves perfect. After they have been
examined, and are returned to the performer, he pretends to measure
them, and while so doing manages to bend each rope double; that is, he
brings the two ends of each together; while still holding them he
contrives to slip a small elastic band over the center of one, and
bringing the middle of the other alongside of it, he slips the band over
both, thus tying them together, as shown in the illustration.
[Illustration]
Now holding this juncture carelessly in his left hand, over which arm a
coil or two of the rope is thrown, he passes the ends marked _A_ through
one sleeve of the coat, and the end marked _B_ through the other, and
these are the ends he gives to the two persons to hold.
If he now slips off the rubber band, the coat will fall; but each person
will have both ends of the same rope in his hand, and the mystery would
be easily solved. To remedy this, however, the performer, under pretense
of making the trick still more difficult, takes an end from each of the
holders, and proceeds to tie a single loop, as seen in the illustration,
thus reversing the ends, which he then returns to them.
Of course, when the band is taken off, each person has but one end of
either rope in his hand.
TO PULL A STRING THROUGH A BUTTON-HOLE.
Tie together the ends of a piece of string about two feet long; pass it
thus tied through a button-hole of your coat. Hitch the two ends on your
thumbs, and catch up with each little finger the upper string on the
thumb of the opposite hand; then, stretching the hands apart, the string
will appear in a very complicated tangle. If the hold of the right thumb
and left little finger, or _vice versâ_, be then loosed, and the hands
quickly separated, the string will come away from, and appear as if it
had passed through, the outside edge of the button-hole.
TO UNITE A PARTED STRING.
Take a piece of string about four feet long; hold the ends, pointed
upward, between the first and second finger and thumb of the left hand,
and the first finger and thumb of the right hand, letting the remainder
of the string hang down in a loop. Now bring the right hand close to the
left, crossing at right angles that end of the cord held in the left
hand, and continue to pull until half the length of the string has
passed the left hand, at the same time slipping the third finger of the
left hand between the two parts of the string.
The first finger and thumb of the right hand should then seize the
string at a point just below the little finger of the left hand, the
third finger of that hand at the same time drawing back the string
toward the palm of the hand.
The part of the string now held horizontally between the two hands is
only the continuation of the end held in the left hand, though it will
appear to be the middle of the string.
This piece of the string some one of the audience should be invited to
cut, and thus apparently divide the string in halves, although in fact
he only cuts off two or three inches.
Place all the ends of the string between the teeth, withdraw the short
piece with the tongue, and show the remainder, apparently as the string
was at the commencement.
Of course, the string must not be measured, or the trick will be
detected.
―――――◀▶―――――
A MINERAL GARDEN.
Fill a clear glass jar—a fruit jar will answer the purpose—with sand, to
the depth of two or three inches; insert a few pieces of sulphate of
iron, sulphate of copper, and sulphate of aluminum, so that they will be
barely covered with the sand.
Now fill the jar to within about three inches of the top with a solution
of silicate of soda, commonly known as “water-glass,” which can be
procured at most large city drug stores. This should be diluted with
three times its bulk of water before it is poured in; and care should be
taken not to stir up the sand and disarrange the chemicals.
After standing about a week, the silicates of the various bases will
appear in a luxuriant and variously colored growth, resembling
vegetation.
Now the silicate solution may be displaced with clear water, which
should be poured in very carefully, so as not to break or disturb the
vegetation. This permanent miniature forest will be found to present a
very attractive appearance, and as no pruning or weeding are required,
the young gardener will probably feel that his trouble is well repaid.
Its development from day to day will be watched with interest by all the
members of the household, although it will be of especial value to the
invalid, to whom any new and interesting object to watch is a blessing
indeed.
Another pleasing and ingenious device I insert for the benefit of this
class of my readers, wishing, in the meantime, that it might be in my
power to make their in-door life so bright and full of interest, that
they would forget the more active sports of their sturdy brothers and
sisters, or at least cease to regret their enforced confinement. This
little affair I shall call
THE CRYSTAL VASE.
This sparkling ornament will almost make itself, so little trouble is
required.
You have only to half fill a tall glass tumbler with water, and put in
half a teacupful of table salt, then let it stand.
As the water dries out, put in a little more, adding salt also in due
proportion; and keep this up for five or six months.
By degrees an incrustation of crystals will fill the tumbler, and spread
gradually down the outside; extending and thickening till the whole
vessel is covered with an irregular glittering mass, which might well be
the work of the ice-sprites in the kingdom of Jack Frost.
As the crystals approach the bottom of the tumbler, the latter should be
set in a saucer; when the tiny stalactites have enveloped this also, the
vase is complete.
Should it be desired to enhance still further the decorative effect of
this by the use of color, a blue tint can be communicated by adding a
little indigo blueing to the salt and water. Should other colors be
desired, almost all of those employed in coloring alum crystals (see
page 25) may be used with equal success in this case. By adding
different colors at different times, a variegated effect may be
produced.
The gradual growth of the crystals, and enlargement of the mass, is a
very interesting spectacle.
―――――◀▶―――――
THREE CHRISTMAS OR BIRTHDAY GIFTS.
When speaking of Christmas presents in an earlier portion of this book,
I unintentionally omitted three quite interesting and easily made
puzzles, which are always pleasing sources of amusement to the young
folks, and sure to while away many half-hours on stormy days. Such
presents are always valuable additions to the nursery closet, and in an
indirect way are as gratifying to mamma and nurse as to the little
recipient himself. The first of these is called the
OCTAGON PUZZLE.
This puzzle consists of twelve irregular pieces of stiff pasteboard or
wood, which are to be arranged in the form of an octagon.
Although these pieces can be cut from pasteboard, they are more lasting,
stronger, and better every way if made of wood. White holly, such as is
employed for brackets, is a nice material to use.
[Illustration]
With a jig-saw cut four pieces in shape like that represented in Fig. 1,
four like Fig. 2, and four more like Fig. 3; rub the edges down with
sand-paper, and, if you like, paint each set a different color. When the
paint is dry, varnish them.
Pack them in a small pasteboard box, which you can neatly cover with
paper—any fancy color will do—and you will find your little brother or
sister will be as well pleased with them as with many toys which have
come direct from the store.
Another puzzle of the same character as this is
THE CROSS PUZZLE.
In this, as in the Octagon, the pieces composing the cross may be made
of pasteboard, but are better and stronger if made of the white holly or
other thin “bracket wood.”
[Illustration]
Cut three pieces—with the jig-saw, of course—in shape like Fig. 1, one
piece like Fig. 2, and one like Fig. 3.
These pieces may be of any size, but relatively each one must correspond
with the sizes and shapes indicated in the diagram.
Paint as fancy may dictate, after smoothing the edges off with
sand-paper. Pack in a box treated like that used for the “Octagon
Puzzle.”
The last of these interesting puzzles is known as the
SQUARE PUZZLE.
Of the pasteboard or white holly cut out eight squares of whatever size
desired; divide four of them into halves by cutting them from corner to
corner, so there are in all twelve pieces.
[Illustration]
The puzzle is to form a square of these twelve pieces. The illustration
shows how this is done.
When these puzzles are given to the little folks, no “key” should
accompany them, but the children should try to put them together without
help. If, however, you find they begin to lose interest, show them the
first step, and encourage them to try to finish it by themselves.
There are great differences in children in this respect; some
persevering and unwilling to be helped at all, while others become
discouraged at the smallest obstacles and refuse to try. The latter
should be encouraged by a little help, care being taken, however, that
they do a considerable portion of the work themselves.
No doubt this “indolence,” as it is sometimes erroneously called, is
generally due to a weak physical condition, rather than to inferior
mental powers. A child of this temperament, instead of being ridiculed
by his more vigorous companions, should be encouraged and stimulated to
action; and such games or puzzles as those contained in this book are
just the things to accomplish this end.
―――――◀▶―――――
A SIMPLE FOUNTAIN.
Take a bottle holding eight or ten ounces, and insert a tube in the
cork. A fine glass tube or even a pipe-stem will answer.
The tube should reach nearly but not quite to the bottom of the bottle,
and should fit air-tight in the cork.
Fill the bottle about three-fourths full of water, and blow with
considerable force down the tube. Upon removing the mouth, the water
will spurt out, forming a miniature fountain; which will continue to
play as long as any water remains in the bottle.
―――――◀▶―――――
THE FAN FROM NAGASAKI.
A few months ago, a friend who had been for several years a resident of
Japan, came home to America for a visit, and brought with her a bright
little son and daughter, neither of whom had ever set foot on our
American shores before. The children were delighted with their American
cousins; and evidently could not find words strong enough to sound the
praises of the new games and sports which they were constantly learning.
Their lives had been spent with Chinese or Japanese nurses; and although
kind-hearted and devoted as my friend assured me these people were, the
little exiles must have had a sorry time of it in their foreign
play-room, when compared with our own boys and girls. The respect and
almost reverence with which they regarded Jack, the most daring
scapegrace in our family, would have been very amusing had it not been
pathetic. What Jack did was always marvelous in their eyes, and into
many an unsuspected trap they were beguiled by his mischievous pranks.
They were what most of you boys and girls would call very green, when
they first reached us, but under Jack’s tuition, I fear that next
winter—in fact, at the very time you are reading this—perhaps they will
be trying the same tricks upon their innocent Japanese nurse that Jack
tried upon them.
It will not be strange if that long-suffering personage does not in his
secret heart have less respect for this illustrious nation than he has
been wont to have before.
But if so ignorant in most things, these children were very ingenious
and uncommonly happy in making things of paper.
One rainy morning, about a week after they came to us, I had occasion to
go into the nursery for something, and was quite surprised to find the
children busily engaged in folding paper. Edith had brought down some
rice-paper from her trunk, and with the help of her brother, was
fashioning all sorts of odd things from it; while the younger members of
my own family were looking on with intense interest.
I left the room, after watching them for a few minutes, but an hour
later, upon entering it again, found them still employed in the same
amusement.
It seems that their nurse had been in the habit of teaching them many
Japanese arts to keep them still while under his charge. Their nurse was
a man, strange to say, as very few female servants are employed in
either China or Japan, and now they in their turn were teaching these to
us. I confess the graceful, pretty things they were making had quite a
fascination for me, and I even left off what I had been doing, and
became a pupil with the youngsters. I took up the article which they
were just beginning to learn, and, following my little teacher’s
directions, I made what I have styled “The Fan from Nagasaki,” because
my little instructress was born and lived in that city, and learned her
art from a native Jap, and not because the fan itself, if it can
strictly be called a fan, came from that region.
The children called it by a delightfully odd Japanese name, which you
would find it hard to pronounce even if I should invent a way of
spelling it.
Edith used Japanese or rice paper for those she made; but we found a
stout quality of brown wrapping-paper, not too stiff, answers nearly as
well.
If brown paper is used, a rectangular piece about two feet long, by one
and a half feet wide, is a good-shaped piece to use.
Mark off each of the edges which measure eighteen inches into six equal
parts, each division being of course three inches long (see Fig. 1). Now
double the paper on the line at _x_, and you have a shape like Fig. 2.
Fold the uppermost half under at the line _a a_, and again outward at
the line _b b_; then fold the under half in precisely the same manner,
and your paper is like Fig. 3.
[Illustration]
Upon examining the edge _a a a_, two openings between the folds will be
seen; whereas at the edge _b b b_, three openings will be found. The
hand has next to be placed in the middle of these three openings, and
the paper spread out toward the right and toward the left; that middle
fold lying flat or unfolded for the time being. Another figure is now
made like Fig. 4. Now commencing at one end of this long strip, crinkle
it the whole length as you would a lamplighter top, making the folds
even, about a quarter or half an inch wide. Be careful not to make these
folds wider than this, as the fan does not work as well when they are
wide. Yon have now a figure like that seen in Fig. 5; and if your folds
have been carefully and firmly creased, your paper is prepared to make
all sorts of strange shapes. I think Edith told me her nurse could make
sixty-five different forms from a similarly folded bit, and most of
these she was able to reproduce; but as it is some time since the
children left us to visit other friends, and I have not given the
subject a second thought till now, I find I have forgotten how many of
the more intricate ones were formed. Perhaps with the directions for
these my readers will catch the _knack_, as we Yankees call it, and can
improvise some forms unlike any of these, for themselves. Whatever you
succeed in making, you may be quite certain that the Nagasakian nurse,
away off on the other side of the earth, is ahead of you, and has made
the same form before; for his sixty-five must include about everything
one could possibly fashion from its folds.
In Fig. 6, the lower edge of Fig. 5 is held between the thumb and
forefinger of the left hand, while the top is spread out like a fan. For
Fig. 7, take Fig. 6, insert the fingers at _a_, and pass them round to
_b_, raising the paper outward. Fig. 8 is a continuation of 6 and 7, as
the upper layer of the overhanging edge in Fig. 7 is raised by passing
the finger under it at _c_, and bringing it out at _d_.
Fig. 9 is a reverse of Fig. 8. Catch the paper by the part now
uppermost, pinch that part well together, and loosen the part which was
confined in Fig. 8.
[Illustration]
It must be remembered that every time the fan is changed, the paper must
be pinched into its original form, Fig. 5. It will now be necessary to
make that change. After creasing the folds firmly in place (Fig. 5),
lift up the upper part _a_, bring the lower plaits _b_ well together,
and hold them for the handle. With the disengaged hand, arrange the
upper part in the form of a sunshade. Another form may be got by raising
the upper layer of the sunshade cover, a species of cup or goblet. By
drawing out _b_ until it is at right angles with the upright, the goblet
form is nearer correct.
Now reverse the paper, and spread out the lower part so that it may
represent the body of a wine-glass; that which in Fig. 10 was the top of
the sunshade, is now the foot of the glass, as seen in Fig. 11.
[Illustration]
The Chinese lantern (Fig. 12) is as easily made. Open out all the paper,
and twist it around; catch it now by the central part, and by
compressing the central folds well together, these wheels are produced
(Fig. 13).
The hat, or cup and saucer (Fig. 14), is readily made by opening the
paper out again, and catching it at the two ends.
We now come to a new form of subjects, so the original form (Fig. 5),
must once more be reverted to. If the paper is caught at both ends, it
can easily be folded so as to form Fig. 15, and a table-mat may be made
by drawing it out like Fig. 16.
[Illustration]
A “nappie” dish, oval in form, and resembling Fig. 17, may be made from
Fig. 16, by simply raising up the sides _a_ and _b_. By pressing the
paper inward, Fig. 18 is obtained. Fig. 19 is made by drawing the paper
out again, and letting it loose at the end. Thus you see, by pulling out
some parts and drawing in others, a quantity of things could be made
other than these I have shown. It would be quite interesting if every
boy and girl who reads this, would try on some rainy day to see how near
to the sixty-five he or she could come. If two or three friends in the
same neighborhood should unite their forces, and count all which are
unlike, without reference to the maker, they might not fall so far short
of the illustrious Japanese—I wish I could remember his name—after all.
―――――◀▶―――――
THE MINIATURE YACHT AND HOW TO RIG HER.
Boat making and sailing are most fascinating pursuits, and we do not
know but the old saying, “When a man has taken to boat-sailing, he is a
sailor to the end of his days,” is to a certain degree applicable to the
boy who intelligently fits out his tiny craft, and sends her on little
voyages across the neighboring pond.
If the sailing is to be done on water of any depth, there is one caution
we should like to give at the very outset: _Learn to swim before you
sail her_. No mere pleasure is worth risking one’s life for, and
accidents will happen even to the most careful boys.
After this, you may play on or near the water with as much safety as on
the land.
Aside from the pleasure, one learns an extremely useful lesson in making
a miniature model yacht, and in sailing her. A certain familiarity with
the rigging, and the looks of the thing, will thus be obtained, and if
your fingers have patiently set up shrouds and stays, and rove the mimic
halyards, they will be less at sea with the ropes and stays of a real
vessel.