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THE Practical Magician AND VENTRILOQUIST’S GUIDE.
THE Practical Magician AND VENTRILOQUIST’S GUIDE.
A PRACTICAL MANUAL OF FIRESIDE MAGIC AND CONJURING ILLUSIONS, CONTAINING ALSO COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACQUIRING & PRACTISING The Art of Ventriloquism. New York HURST & CO., Publishers, 75 Nassau Street . (Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1876, by Thomas D. Hurst , in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C.)...
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY.
My object in writing these hints on Conjuring is for the benefit of amateurs to promote lively and entertaining amusement for the home circle and social gatherings. My large experience enables me to explain and simplify many of the best tricks and illusions of the art. I present the key to many of the mystical mysteries which have puzzled and bewildered our childhood days as well as confounded us in our maturer years. The young student can in a very short time, if he be in the least of an ingeni
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FIRST TRICK.—To command a dime to pass into the centre of a ball of Berlin wool, so that it will not be discovered till the ball is unwound to the very last of its threads.
FIRST TRICK.—To command a dime to pass into the centre of a ball of Berlin wool, so that it will not be discovered till the ball is unwound to the very last of its threads.
REQUISITE PREPARATIONS, TO BE MADE PRIVATELY. You will require a glass bowl or quart basin, and you must have a flattened tube of tin about four inches long. It must be just large enough to let a dime slide easily through it by its own weight. Round the end on this tube wind a ball of Berlin wool of bright color, covering about two inches of the tube, and projecting about an inch beyond the end of it. Place this ball with the tube in it in your right-hand pocket of coat tail, (or in the left bre
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SECOND TRICK.—To change a bowl of ink into clear water, with gold fish in it.
SECOND TRICK.—To change a bowl of ink into clear water, with gold fish in it.
REQUISITE PREPARATION, TO BE MADE PRIVATELY BEFOREHAND. The same glass bowl as in previous trick. If your bowl has not a foot to it, it must be placed on something that will hold it high above your table. Some small fish, a white plate or saucer, a piece of black silk just fitting the inside of your bowl, a spoon of peculiar construction, so that in a hollow handle it will retain about a teaspoonful of ink, which will not run out as long as a hole near the top of the handle is kept covered or st
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THIRD TRICK.—The Dancing Egg.
THIRD TRICK.—The Dancing Egg.
REQUISITE PREPARATION TO BE MADE IN PRIVATE. An egg-shell that has been blown (my young friends will know that the way to blow an egg is to make a small hole at each end of the egg. Then, by blowing at one end, the yolk will be driven out, and the egg-shell be left empty.) Make a hole also on the side of the egg, in which insert a chip of wood, or a small pin, held by a fine black silk thread, about twelve or fourteen inches long, which must have a loop at the far end, which loop fasten to a but
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FOURTH TRICK.—The Walking Cent.
FOURTH TRICK.—The Walking Cent.
PRELIMINARY PREPARATION IN PRIVATE. Ask for a long dark hair from some lady’s tresses. Have a pin in shape of a hook, or a small loop affixed to the end of this hair, and fasten a little piece of beeswax (less than a pea) at the other end of the hair. Fasten the hair by the loop to a button on your vest, taking care to wear a dark-colored vest. The hair may be allowed to hang from your vest, with the beeswax visible. Have a glass of water or cup on the table. Commence the exhibition of the trick
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TRICK 5.—To make a quarter and a penny change places, while held in the hands of two spectators.
TRICK 5.—To make a quarter and a penny change places, while held in the hands of two spectators.
PREPARATION. Have a quarter of your own secreted in your right hand. Then borrow two handkerchiefs, and a quarter and a penny, from any one in the audience. Tell the lender to mark or accurately observe them, so that he will know them again. In placing them on the table, substitute your own quarter for the borrowed one, and conceal the borrowed one in your palm. MEMORANDUM. It is better to use things borrowed than coin of your own. Still, the conjuror should provide himself with articles requisi
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TRICK 6.—Another trick with the dime, handkerchief, and an orange or lemon.
TRICK 6.—Another trick with the dime, handkerchief, and an orange or lemon.
Have an orange or lemon ready, with a slit made in its side sufficiently large to admit the dime easily; and have in your pocket a good-sized silk handkerchief with a dime stitched into one of its corners. Borrow a marked dime. Take out your handkerchief, and while pretending to wrap this dime in the handkerchief, conceal it in your palm, and take care that the one previously sewn into the corner of the handkerchief can be felt easily through the handkerchief. Giving it to one of your friends, t
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TRICK 7.—How to double your pocket money.
TRICK 7.—How to double your pocket money.
The only preparation is to have four cents concealed in your left palm. Commence the trick by calling forward one of the spectators, and let him bring up his hat with him. Then borrow five cents, or have them ready to produce from your own pocket should there be any delay. Request your friend, while he places them one by one on a small plate or saucer, to count them audibly, so that the company may hear their number correctly. Inquire, “How many are there?” He will answer, “Five.” Take up the sa
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TRICK 8.—The injured handkerchief restored.
TRICK 8.—The injured handkerchief restored.
PREPARATION. Have a dime of your own wrapped in the centre of a piece of cambric about five or six inches in diameter, the ends falling down loose. Conceal these in the palm of your left hand. Borrow a marked dime from any of the spectators, and a white cambric handkerchief. Throw the handkerchief spread out over your left palm, (holding under the handkerchief your own dime wrapped in the small piece of cambric.) Openly place the borrowed dime on the centre of the spread-out handkerchief. Keepin
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TRICK 9.—To make a large die pass through the crown of a hat without injuring it.
TRICK 9.—To make a large die pass through the crown of a hat without injuring it.
I will now give my young friends a nice, easy trick, requiring very little dexterity, as the articles for its exhibition can be purchased at any depot for the sale of conjuring apparatus; therefore the most diffident amateur will be able to display this trick. PREPARATION. Have a die exactly like the common dice, only it may be about two inches square. Have two covers for it, one of them exactly resembling the appearance of a die, only hollow, except that one side of it is open, so that it can e
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TRICK 10.—To produce from a silk handkerchief bon-bons, candies, nuts, etc.
TRICK 10.—To produce from a silk handkerchief bon-bons, candies, nuts, etc.
Have packages of various candies, wrapped up in bags of the thinnest tissue paper, and place them on your table rather sheltered from observation. Have also a plate or two on your table. MEMORANDUM. It will be always desirable to have the table removed two or three yards at least from the spectators, and of a height that they cannot see the surface of it while sitting down in front of it. Commence the trick by borrowing a silk handkerchief, or any large handkerchief. After turning it about, thro
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TRICK 11.—A sudden and unexpected supply of feathers from under a silk handkerchief or cloth.
TRICK 11.—A sudden and unexpected supply of feathers from under a silk handkerchief or cloth.
PREPARATION. Have ready a good supply of plumes of feathers. They may be obtained from a fur or fancy store, or purchased there loose, and tied up so as to lie thin and flexible where you wish to place them. You may have at least four batches of them. The common hackle feather will do, stitched round a thin piece of whalebone. Feathers that are a little injured for sale as ornaments may be picked up at little cost. Take off your coat. You may then have one or more batches of feathers placed roun
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TRICK 12.—Heads or Tails?
TRICK 12.—Heads or Tails?
I shall now give directions for reproducing, before a juvenile audience, a trick that will carry us back to the primitive style of conjuring in old times. I cannot say that there is anything very scientific or elevated in it, but, if neatly and adroitly executed, it will tell very well with a youthful audience. PREPARATION. You must take care that your table be so placed that none of the spectators can see behind yourself or the table. You must provide yourself with some young pet of the juvenil
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TRICK 13.—To cook pancakes or a flat plum cake in a hat, over some candles.
TRICK 13.—To cook pancakes or a flat plum cake in a hat, over some candles.
REQUISITE PREPARATION. Have two gallipots or earthen jars, of a size to go easily into a hat, but of such dimensions that the one reversed will fit closely over the other. Tie worsted or a strip of linen round the smaller gallipot, so as to insure the larger one holding firmly round the smaller one. Have ready some thin, fluent dough, some sugar, and a few currants, enough for two or three pancakes or a small plum cake; also a spoon to stir the ingredients up. Have at hand two or three warm panc
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TRICK 14.—TO EAT A DISH OF PAPER SHAVINGS, AND DRAW THEM OUT OF YOUR MOUTH LIKE AN ATLANTIC CABLE.
TRICK 14.—TO EAT A DISH OF PAPER SHAVINGS, AND DRAW THEM OUT OF YOUR MOUTH LIKE AN ATLANTIC CABLE.
PREPARATION. Procure three or four yards of the thinnest tissue paper of various colors. Cut these up in strips of half an inch or three -quarters of an inch breadth, and join them. They will form a continuous strip of many feet in length. Roll this up carefully in a flat coil, as ribbons are rolled up. Let it make a coil about as large as the top of an egg-cup or an old-fashioned hunting-watch. Leave out of the innermost coil about an inch or more of that end of the paper, so that you can easil
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TRICK 15.—How to cut off a nose—of course without actual injury.
TRICK 15.—How to cut off a nose—of course without actual injury.
Have ready a piece of calico of light color, or a white apron, a sponge saturated with a little liquid of the color of blood—port-wine, or the juice of beet-root, will do; also two knives, resembling each other, the one of them whole, the other with a large notch in its blade, so that when placed over the nose it will appear to have cut through the bridge of the nose. A cutler could supply such knives, or they may be purchased at the depots for conjuring apparatus. Having placed out these articl
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TRICK 16.—The watch obedient to the word of command.
TRICK 16.—The watch obedient to the word of command.
The magnet is a well-known agent in producing several toys for the entertainment of the young, and though its attraction is wonderful, there is no danger likely to arise from employing it, in the same way as might arise from unskilful dabbling with electricity, galvanism, or chemical powers, and a strange and singular effect may be produced by placing a magnet of some little strength near a watch. Supposing the young conjuror to have provided himself with a powerful but not very large magnet, le
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TRICK 17.
TRICK 17.
An experiment with a very mild dash of electricity in it, which will at any rate be a popular trick with most people that try it. It will do for a small entertainment, or at any joyous party of young people. It does not, however, require a large number to be present, but, contrary to the usual scientific tricks, its development comes off better with one companion than with a dozen. PREPARATION. You must induce your cousin Jemima, or some other young lady who is just of age to have cut her eye-te
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TRICK 18.—A chemical trick to follow one where a young friend has assisted.
TRICK 18.—A chemical trick to follow one where a young friend has assisted.
You must have a wine-glass, a saucer, and a teaspoon, and the chemical bottles No. 1 (silicate of potash) and No. 2 (aluminate of potash,) which can be obtained from any druggist. At the close of some trick in which any young friend has assisted, you can say: “Well, my young friend, you have assisted me so courteously and well that I must, in order to express my thanks, ask you to take a glass of wine. Do you like wine? Ah, I see by your smile you do.” Pour out of bottle No. 1 half a glass, and,
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TRICK 19.—To draw three spools off two tapes without those spools having to come off the ends of the tapes, and while the four ends of the tapes are held by four persons.
TRICK 19.—To draw three spools off two tapes without those spools having to come off the ends of the tapes, and while the four ends of the tapes are held by four persons.
You must have two narrow tapes of about four feet long, bent as in Fig. 11. Red tape I prefer. You must next insert about half an inch of A through the loop of B, and bring it back down on the other part of A. A spool such as cotton is wound on, or an ornamented ball with a hole drilled through it, just large enough to hold the tapes lightly, will be required (Fig. 13.) The spool or ball must be put on the tapes at the extreme ends of the tape B, and drawn to the left, till it just covers the no
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TRICK 20.—To restore a tape whole after it has been cut in the middle.
TRICK 20.—To restore a tape whole after it has been cut in the middle.
PREPARATION. Have five or six yards of tape about three-quarters of an inch broad. Take half the length in each hand. You will be able to show the audience that you are about to cut it in the middle, by holding it in two loops of equal length. Call their attention pointedly to the equal division of the full length. The tape will thus appear to the performer in the position represented in Fig. 17. Observe the tape A crosses at z the tape B on the side next to the performer, whereas the tape D is
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TRICK 21.—The invisible hen: a very useful trick for supplying eggs for breakfast or dinner.
TRICK 21.—The invisible hen: a very useful trick for supplying eggs for breakfast or dinner.
PREPARATION. In order to save the invisible hen trouble and delay, it will be advisable to have eight or ten egg-shells, (as described in Trick 3;) or some light imitation eggs, painted white, may be bought at any depot of conjuring apparatus. A linen or camlet bag may also be procured from the same depot, though I think a bag made at home, according to the following directions, to be preferable. It must be about the size of a small pillow, two feet three inches across, and one foot nine inches
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A SERIES OF TRICKS, 22, 23, 24.—The chief agent being a plain gold ring.
A SERIES OF TRICKS, 22, 23, 24.—The chief agent being a plain gold ring.
PREPARATION. You must be provided with a small thin wire pointed at both ends, which, being bent round, will resemble an ordinary plain gold ring. You must also have on your table an orange or a lemon, a box or bowl, a tumbler, and a dessert-knife. And you must have four or five needlefuls of thick cotton, which have been previously steeped for about an hour in a wine-glass of water, with a teaspoonful of salt in it; and have been afterwards completely dried, so as to burn easily....
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TRICK 22.
TRICK 22.
Having the fictitious ring in the palm of your hand, commence by requesting any lady present to oblige you by lending you a plain gold ring, and borrow also from some gentleman a colored silk handkerchief. Appear to place the borrowed ring in that handkerchief, but in reality place in it the rounded fictitious ring. Doubling the centre of the handkerchief round it, request some gentleman to hold it, so as to be sure he has got the ring in the handkerchief—while you fetch a slight cord to fasten
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TRICK 23.
TRICK 23.
You are now to proceed immediately to the next development of the mysterious powers of the plain ring, which ladies so much admire. You may commence by remarking that “you have little doubt that this symbol of love and obedience will at your command pass through the table, solid as it is. Let us try.” Place the tumbler on the table—produce your own silk handkerchief, to the centre of which a plain ring is already fastened by a doubled silk thread of about 4 inches length. Use Pass 1 with the rea
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TRICK 24.
TRICK 24.
“Now, ring, you have amused us so well, that you shall, like Mahomet, be sustained in the air without visible support.” Place over a common walking-stick some of your prepared cotton threads, having twisted two or three of them together, and united them in a loop, which you draw through the ring, and then slip the ring through the end of the loop. The ring will then hang suspended about a foot below the stick. The stick itself may be steadily fixed, resting on the back of two chairs at an elevat
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TRICK 25.—The Conjuror’s “Bonus Genius,” or Familiar Messenger.
TRICK 25.—The Conjuror’s “Bonus Genius,” or Familiar Messenger.
This is an old trick that has delighted thousands, and may amuse thousands more, if adroitly performed. There are only the simplest mechanical arrangements connected with it; its successful exhibition depends upon the dexterity and vivacity of the performer. PREPARATION. You must have a strong wooden doll, about eight or ten inches high; the head must fix on or off by a peg at the bottom of the throat, being placed in a hole made at the top of the bust. Besides a close-fitting dress to its body,
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TRICK 26.—The Shower of Money.
TRICK 26.—The Shower of Money.
A dozen silver coins, or pennies, will be equally useful in exhibiting this trick; but some fictitious coin, in color resembling gold, will perhaps more effectively delight those who are charmed by the yellow glitter of the precious metal. The performer must have provided himself with so many of these in his left hand as he purposes to produce at the end of the trick, and two of the same coin also must be concealed in his right palm. He must further borrow a hat from one of the company. The imag
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TRICK 27.—To Furnish Ladies With a Magic Supply of Tea or Coffee, at their selection, From One and the Same Jug.
TRICK 27.—To Furnish Ladies With a Magic Supply of Tea or Coffee, at their selection, From One and the Same Jug.
PREPARATION. Have a metal jug to hold not less than three pints. It must be constructed with two compartments in the lower part of it, holding about a pint and a quarter each, and these must each have a pipe connected with the spout of the jug and another pipe connecting with its handle, and in the handle a small hole about the size of a letter—o—in this print. These lower compartments must be filled with good tea and coffee before the jug is produced. The upper chamber or compartment, like the
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TRICK 28.—A Pleasing Exhibition for both the Performer and the Audience to view when they feel a little Exhausted.
TRICK 28.—A Pleasing Exhibition for both the Performer and the Audience to view when they feel a little Exhausted.
Have two pint bottles and one quart bottle; the pint bottles to be filled, one with a liquid resembling port, the other with one resembling sherry; the large bottle to be at first empty. Three opaque metal stands—the centre one to stand under the quart bottle, to have a large cavity to hold a quart, and the upper part of this stand to be full of large holes, like a cullender, for the liquor to run from the opening at H into that cavity. You must also have three metal covers, of proper size to co
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TRICK 29.—To Furnish a Treat to the Gentlemen.
TRICK 29.—To Furnish a Treat to the Gentlemen.
For this the magic bottle must be procured. One with three or four compartments is amply sufficient. In these place gin, sherry, and port wine, respectively. The bottle will have three or four holes, on which you place your fingers as if stopping the holes of a flute. You may have a bucket of water and a common bottle, resembling the magic one in size and appearance, near your table. Have ready also a tray of wine-glasses of thick glass, and holding only a very small quantity. Exhibit the common
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WHAT IS VENTRILOQUISM?
WHAT IS VENTRILOQUISM?
Before we take the reader into the precise and minute instructions which he will have to study and practice ere he can become the possessor of the coveted art, it will be necessary to inform him what Ventriloquism 1 is, and in what it consists. In doing so, we shall endeavor to be as plain and clear as possible. Ventriloquism may be divided into two sections, or general heads, the first of which may be appropriately designated as Polyphonism, and consists of the simple imitation of the voices of
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VENTRILOQUISM AMONGST THE ANCIENTS.
VENTRILOQUISM AMONGST THE ANCIENTS.
Charles Lamb gave utterance to the thought that it was “pleasant to contemplate the head of the Ganges,” but the student of ventriloquism finds it difficult to obtain a view of the source of his art. In the dim and misty ages of antiquity, he may trace under various guises the practice of it. Many of the old superstitions were fostered by its means; from the cradle of mankind to the birthplace of idolatry, we incidentally learn of the belief in a familiar spirit—a second voice, which afterwards
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MODERN PROFESSORS OF THE ART.
MODERN PROFESSORS OF THE ART.
The earliest notice of ventriloquial illusion, as carried out in modern times, has reference to Louis Brabant, valet-de-chambre of Francis I., who is said to have fallen in love with a beautiful and rich heiress, but was rejected by the parents as a low, unsuitable match. However, the father dying, he visits the widow; and on his first appearance in the house she hears herself accosted in a voice resembling that of her dead husband, and which seemed to proceed from above. “Give my daughter in ma
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THE THEORY OF VENTRILOQUISM.
THE THEORY OF VENTRILOQUISM.
Many physiologists aver that ventriloquism is obtained by speaking during the inspiration of air. It is quite possible to articulate under these circumstances, and the plan may with advantage be occasionally adopted; but our own practical experience and close observation of many public performers, and of not a few private friends who have attained distinctness and no small amount of facility in the art, convince us that the general current of utterance is, as in ordinary speech, during expiratio
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THE MEANS BY WHICH IT IS EFFECTED.
THE MEANS BY WHICH IT IS EFFECTED.
Before entering upon the first and easy lessons, it will be as well to consider the means by which the effect is produced. The Student is supposed to have made himself thoroughly acquainted with the previous chapter, as to the effect to be produced, not on himself , but on the spectators and audience . And we may assure him, that if he has a fair range of voice, a diligent observance of the rules which we are about to lay down, coupled with attention to the nature of sound as it falls upon the e
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POLYPHONIC IMITATIONS.
POLYPHONIC IMITATIONS.
The Tormenting Bee. —It is related that Mr. Love, when young, took great delight in imitating the buzzing of insects and the cries of animals; indeed, it is difficult to decide whether he or Mr. Thurton most excelled in this particular species of mimetic illusion. In all imitations of insect noises, the bee should be heard to hum gently at first, so as in a private party not likely to attract attention till the right pitch is obtained, and be it remembered that the sound, without being particula
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A MOUNTAIN ECHO.
A MOUNTAIN ECHO.
Some persons imagine ventriloquism to be an echo; but, as we have said, an echo only repeats what has been said before—it could not answer a question. An echo is reflected sound, and the reflecting body must be at such a distance that the interval between the perception of the original and reflected sounds may be sufficient to prevent them from being blended together. No reflecting surface will produce a distant echo, unless its distance from the spot where the sound proceeds is at least 56½ fee
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POINTS TO BE REMEMBERED.
POINTS TO BE REMEMBERED.
In giving the succeeding instructions, it must be borne in mind that the power and acuteness of hearing is possessed in a greater or less degree by different individuals, and depends upon the sensibility of the auric nerves. It will not be out of place nor uninteresting to show the effect of sound and the manner in which it is heard by the organs of the ear. It is said that the human ear is capable of appreciating as many as twenty-four thousand vibrations in a second, and that the whole range o
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CONCLUDING REMARKS.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
When the student is acquainted with the voices before described, he may imitate many others by contraction and expansion of the glottis, and by modification of the cavity of the pharynx and mouth . The best way to practice is in a room by himself, to talk loud, and, while so doing, to make all sorts of contortions with the muscles of the mouth and jaws—first fixing the jaws in the manner already described, then drawing the lips inward, next putting them forward, at the same time putting the tong
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THE MAGIC WHISTLE.
THE MAGIC WHISTLE.
It will be pleasant when the wind is howling without, among the snow-laden limbs of the trees, to be reminded of the gay summer by the counterfeit notes of the woodland songsters; or, wandering among the woods and fields in spring or summer time, how glorious to challenge the feathered musicians to a contest of skill with you in their own sweet language. We propose to instruct the reader in the manufacture of a little instrument by which the notes of birds, voices of animals, and various peculia
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