The magician stands in front of this, in his shirt
sleeves, and after a few words of introduction proceeds to show
the wonders of his magic cave.
Showing you plainly that both hands are empty, he points with one
finger to the box, where immediately appears a small white china
bowl. Holding his empty hand over this bowl, some oranges and
apples drop from his empty hand into the bowl. He removes the bowl
from the black box, or cave, and hands its contents round to the
audience. Receiving the bowl again, he tosses it into the cave,
but it never reaches the floor--it disappears in midair.
The illusions he shows you are too many to retail at length.
Objects appear and disappear. Heavy metal objects, such as forks,
spoons and jackknives, which have been shown to the audience and
which can have no strings attached to them, fly about in the box
at the will of the operator. One thing changes to another and back
again, and black art reigns supreme.
Now all this "magic" is very simple and requires no more skill to
prepare or execute than any clever boy or girl of fourteen may
possess. It is based on the performance of the famous Hermann, and
relies on a principle of optics for its success.
Pages:
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224