Fasten one end of a needleful of silk, of the colour of a handkerchief,
to the middle of the handkerchief, and to its hanging end tie a brass
ring. Always keep the ring on your own side, so that no one can see it
while you shake and rumple the handkerchief. Offer to send a ring
through a cup and saucer and the table they are on.
Take the borrowed ring in your left hand, and keep it there; pretend to
pass it to the right hand, and ask one of the party to step forward and
hold the (mock) ring in the handkerchief. Now that the cup and saucer
are empty, place the cup in the saucer at the centre of the table, and
ask the person to hold the ring in the handkerchief over the cup. The
party will hear the ring fall into the cup, yet at your command it
passes into a hat, which you hold under the table. In so doing, you put
the real ring into the hat. Cry out some cabalistic words, and
negligently take the handkerchief. The party may inspect the cup and
saucer, but there the sorcery does not lie. The hat has but to be held
upside down for the ring to fall out on the table.
[Illustration: Fig. 35.]
_Variation._—By using a stocking instead of the handkerchief, and
letting the mock ring in the toe be tied up by a string a little farther
up around the foot, the feat may be likewise executed.
_Variation._—Borrow a silk handkerchief from a gentleman, and a plain
gold ring from a lady. Request some one to hold two of the corners of
the handkerchief, and another to hold the other two, keeping them at
full stretch. You next exhibit the ring to the company, and announce to
them that you will make it pass through the handkerchief. You have
substituted for the ring one made by bending a piece of wire into a
circle of the same size, with one or both of the ends finely pointed.
Placing your hand under the handkerchief with this duplicate, you press
it against the centre of the handkerchief, and desire a third person to
take hold of the ring through the handkerchief, and to close his finger
and thumb through the middle of the ring, which proves that the ring has
not been placed within a fold, as may have been hinted when you
performed a similar trick. The holders of the corners of the
handkerchief let go, while the holder of the ring retains his hold.
Another person now grasps the handkerchief as tight as he pleases, three
or four inches down, so tightly that the ring cannot possibly pass, and
you request him to permit you to take the ring in your fingers. Cover
your hands with a hat to prevent the company from seeing your
operations, and pull the mock ring open, draw it through the
handkerchief, and, putting the handkerchief through the real ring, which
you have ready in your hand, you remove the hat and the piece of brass
together. Rub out the hole marks with the false ring in a purse or
stocking. The trick becomes still more easy, since it readily can be
passed through the meshes without a trace of its passage.