Magic, Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography. Albert A. Hopkins
1). This trap is of the same size as the one that must exist in the floor upon which one operates. As for the chair, that is generally an old affair, without any cross rod in front (Fig. 2). It is provided with a movable seat that lowers in order to allow the lady to pass between the two front legs. It is provided, besides, with a frame of wire which is invisible on account of the feeble diameter of the latter, and which, attached to the back, is turned backward on the side opposite the spectator. As soon as the lady who is to be made to disappear is seated (Fig. 3), she causes the frame to tilt and cover her head and shoulders. This operation is hidden by the veil that the prestidigitateur spreads out at this moment in front of the lady.
FIG. 3.
FIG. 4.
FIG. 3.
FIG. 4.
At this instant the operator actuates a spring, which opens the trap in the floor. The lady passes between the legs of the chair (Fig. 4), and then through the two traps, the one in the paper and the one in the floor. As soon as she reaches the floor beneath the stage she closes the trap in the newspaper with gummed paper, and shuts the one in the floor, and it might be thought that she was still on the stage, although she has disappeared. In fact, the veil, on account of the wire frame, seems always to outline the contours of the vanished subject.
After the operator has said “one, two, three,” he lifts the veil and causes the wire frame to fall back.
Since this trick was first introduced it has been more or less perfected or modified in its form, but the preceding description states the methods generally employed in performing the trick. In some cases if the newspaper is carefully examined, it will be found to be made of India rubber and to contain a large rent at about the center. In the next chapter will be described an interesting illusion called “She,” in which the lady disappears while being supposed to be cremated. This ingenious trick depends for a portion of the effect upon mirrors, so it is placed with the other illusions requiring the aid of mirrors.
“THE MYSTERIOUS TRUNK.”
A trick known by the name of the Indian Trunk, the Mysterious Trunk, the Packer’s Surprise, etc., formerly had much success in theaters of prestidigitation. This trick, which may be presented in several ways, is executed by different means, one of which we shall describe.
The following is in what the experiment consists: The prestidigitateur has a trunk brought to him, which he allows the spectators to examine. When every one is certain that it contains no mechanism, a person comes upon the stage and enters the trunk. It is found that he fills it entirely, and the cover is shut down. A spectator locks the trunk and guards the padlock.
The trunk is afterward wound in all directions with rope, the intersections of the latter are sealed, and the whole is introduced into a bag provided with leather straps, and which may in its turn be sealed at each of its buckles. When the operation is finished, the spectators who have aided in the packing remain on the spot to see that nothing makes its exit from the trunk, which has been placed upon two wooden horses. The prestidigitateur then fires a pistol over the trunk, which, when divested of its covering, ropes, and unbroken seals, is found to be entirely empty.
The whole credit of the trick is due to the cabinet maker who constructed the trunk. The latter, in the first place, is exactly like an ordinary trunk, and the closest examination reveals nothing out of the way about it. Yet one of the ends, instead of being nailed, is secured by a pivot to the two long sides, so that it can swing. The swinging motion is arrested by a spring plate bolt. When the person in the interior presses upon a point corresponding to this bolt, the pivot turns freely and the end of the trunk swings.
The following is the way that the operation is performed in order that the spectators may not perceive the opening of the trunk. The operator’s assistant takes his place in the trunk, which is closed and locked and the padlock sealed. Some obliging spectators then aid in tying the trunk, around which the rope is passed twice lengthwise, beginning at the side opposite the opening part. The rope is then passed over this part and runs in the axis of the pivots. Then the trunk, for the convenience of tying, is tilted upon the end where the rope passes. It is then that the assistant inclosed in the interior presses the bolt. The end of the trunk then has a tendency to open, and as the prestidigitateur has taken care to tilt the trunk at a carefully marked point of the stage floor, the movable end meets in the latter with an exactly similar trap that opens at the same time, and it is through these two traps that the invisible vanishing takes place. As soon as the assistant has passed through the trap, he pushes up the latter, and consequently the movable end of the trunk, which closes upon its spring plate bolt.
THE MYSTERIOUS TRUNK.
The time that it takes the man to pass through the trap is insignificant, and while the ropes are being crossed the operation might be performed several times. Afterward, there is nothing to be done but to proceed with the experiment as we have said, care being taken, however, not to abuse the complaisance of the spectators, and not to allow them to try the weight of the trunk.
When the vanished person descends beneath the stage, he is supported by some other individual if the theater is not well appointed, and by a trap with a counterpoise if the construction of the stage admits of it. This trap permits of expediting things in certain cases of the reappearance of the confederate, but is useless in the process described above.
Such is one of the artifices employed. Whatever be the process, the presentation of it is often complicated by causing the person who has vanished to reappear in a second trunk that has previously been ascertained to be empty and that has been sealed and enveloped under the eyes of the spectators. It will be easily comprehended that the operation here is reversed, and that the confederate beneath the stage awaits the proper moment to be lifted into the interior of the second trunk, whose movable end is opened outwardly by the prestidigitateur at the desired moment.
Boxes with glass sides also have been constructed. The management is the same, but, as the person inclosed is visible up to the last moment, care must be taken to so pass the ropes as not to interfere with the trap of the trunk, which then consists of one of the sides, and which operates at the moment when the trunk, bound with ropes, sealed and laid upon this side, is about to be wrapped up. This presentation has still more effect upon the spectators than the preceding, and seems to present greater difficulties.
“THE INDIAN BASKET TRICK.”
Among the most remarkable experiments performed by prestidigitateurs should be cited that of the Indian basket, which, as its name indicates, is of Asiatic origin. Travelers in Hindostan have often told us that the Indians practice this wonderful trick upon the public places. The Indian magician makes use of an oblong osier basket provided with a cover. He takes a child and incloses it in this basket, and around the latter buckles a belt. Grasping a sword, he thrusts it into the basket here and there, and pulls out the blade all dripping with blood.
The spectacle is shocking, and the feelings of the spectators become wrought up to a high pitch. The magician then opens the basket, which, to the surprise of all, is empty.
At a few yards distance cries are heard proceeding from the child who had been inclosed in the basket, and