Later Day Tricks
A. Roterberg
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The New Egg and Handkerchief Trick
AFTER showing both hands empty, the performer picks up a silk handkerchief, and holding it by one hand only, shakes it, when suddenly the handkerchief is seen to change into a genuine unprepared egg, which is at once passed for inspection. The entire preparation necessary for the trick consists of the proper adjustment of a thread pull worn by the performer. As this same thread pull is much used by European conjurers instead of metal and spring pulls, a detailed description of the arrangement will, I hope, prove acceptable to my readers.
At one end of a thin, but strong, black thread, the performer makes a sliding loop, which he hooks over both buttons of the right cuff. The thread is then led from here up the right sleeve, over the back of the vest, then to and through the opening of the left suspender, and from there to the right trouser button, to which it is fastened. The length of the thread is so adjusted that the right arm can move freely, in fact there ought to be some slack in that portion of the thread between the right and left trouser buttons.
To perform the above named trick, the conjurer has placed a genuine egg on a very small wire servante of an elliptical shape, the servante being fastened to the back of a chair or cigar box. After exhibiting the handkerchief, he places it for a moment over the back of the chair or cigar box, to show that he has nothing else concealed in his hands, then seizing the handkerchief and picking up the egg at the same time. He next secretly detaches the loop from his right cuff buttons and places it over the center of the handkerchief under which the egg lies concealed. With the left hand he obtains possession of the slack portion of the thread and gives a quick, sharp pull, by which process the handkerchief is instantly drawn up the sleeve, the egg, which remains in the hand, thereby becoming exposed to view. With a little practice this instantaneous and pretty change will be found a very effective one.
The thread pull may be employed in the "Vanishing Glove Trick," "The Visible Disappearance of a Handkerchief out of a Decanter," and in numerous other tricks in which handkerchiefs are to be vanished npxx the sleeve.
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