[Illustration]
To excite a laugh, you may pretend to be angered by the stupidity of
your assistant, whom, at the end of your recrimination, you thrust out
of doors. Suddenly a frightful sound is heard, a clatter of broken
glass, and you exclaim in horror, “He has gone clear through the
window!” (He shows his face at a door or window at the other side of the
room, and laughs.) This illusion of a broken window is made in two ways;
one by an enlarged watchman’s rattle, the ratchet-wheel of which is
turned rapidly by hand; and by your letting a stout bag, partly filled
with old metal and glass, suspended by a rope, fall a few feet, and be
abruptly checked in its descent.