Page:Magic (Ellis Stanyon).djvu/93

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Tricks with Handkerchiefs
91

The following is the secret of this ingenious trick:

Take a lemon and prepare it by cutting a plug-shaped piece out of one end. Now dig out all the pulp. Stuff an old handkerchief or piece of square linen into the lemon, after which replace the plug and secure it with pins. Palm the lemon in your right hand, holding the lapel of your coat the better to conceal the fruit as you come down among the audience. Under the waist-band of your vest, on the left side, you have secreted a bundle of about a dozen pieces of white muslin — say, three inches square — and on the right side a strip of about three inches wide and a yard long. On your table have a double piece of newspaper, about a foot square, pasted together on three sides, so that it forms a sort of bag, but appears like a single thickness. Also have on the table two plates, a magic pistol, a perfume bottle filled with alcohol, a candle and a candlestick. After producing the lemon from the gentleman's whiskers, take the lady's handkerchief in the left hand. As you turn toward the stage to throw the lemon tuck the handkerchief under your vest in the middle and pull out the pieces and long strip from under the vest. Give the pieces to the gentleman who is to assist you, but retain