Later Day Tricks
A. Roterberg
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Coins, Hat, Plate and Glass
THE performer borrows two hats, silk ones if possible, and lays one of them, opening upwards, upon the table. Into this hat he places an empty tumbler and then covers the hat with an ordinary dinner plate, on top of which he places the other hat, also opening upwards. Into this hat is introduced a second empty tumbler into which are audibly dropped eight borrowed half dollars. The half dollars are now commanded to leave the tumbler in the upper hat and to appear in the lower one, which they instantly do, for when a spectator at the performer's request looks into the upper hat, he finds the tumbler contained in the latter empty, while after removing the upper hat and plate he discovers the coins in the previously empty tumbler according to the performer's statement.
Besides the tumblers and plate, the conjurer is provided with a smaller tumbler, which is concealed in the right trouser pocket or profonde and also with eight half dollars of his own, which are lying in a pile on the servante.
After the hats are borrowed the performer obtains possession of these last coins, palming them in the right hand. Seizing the first tumbler with the left hand and showing it empty, he transfers it to the right hand, the fingers of which he places on the inside of the glass, the thumb being left on the outside. In placing the glass into the hat, he lets the coins glide noiselessly to the bottom of the tumbler, for this purpose pressing the coins firmly against the sides of the latter and carefully pushing them down until the bottom of the glass is reached, at which place the coins are allowed to remain without their position being altered.
The lower hat is then covered by the plate and other hat, in which the remaining tumbler has been placed. The borrowed coins are then picked up with the right hand and apparently transferred to the left one by means of the pass, which leaves them palmed in the right hand. The closed left hand is introduced in the upper hat and seemingly counts the coins, one at a time, into the glass contained in the latter, but in reality the performer, with the right hand, drops them in the same tempo as be counts, into the small tumbler concealed in his right trouser pocket, of course turning his left side toward the audience while doing so. The deception is so perfect that no one suspects that the coins are not actually counted into the glass in the upper hat, from where they subsequently disappear and are found in the lower hat as already described.
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