Later Day Tricks
A. Roterberg
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The Vanishing Handkerchief
A VERY simple but neat manner of causing a small silk handkerchief to disappear is the following one. The performer rolls or rather folds the handkerchief into as small a compass as possible and secretly slips over it a small rubber band, which he had concealed in his hand. Fastened to the rubber band is a loop of hair or fine catgut, the loop being about two inches in diameter. The performer next secretly inserts the thumb or first finger of the right hand into the loop and under pretense of rubbing the handkerchief with the left hand, pushes it, under cover of this movement, over the back of the right hand where it hangs unperceived by the spectators. The bands can then be shown quite empty, the handkerchief having apparently disappeared in a mysterious way. Of course the back of the hand is not shown.
If the artist possesses sufficient skill, he can cause the handkerchief to swing unseen from the back of the hand over to the inside of the latter and can thus casually how both sides of either hand empty, thus proving still more conclusively that the handkerchief is not in any way concealed about his hands.
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