Later Day Tricks
A. Roterberg
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Wine, Handkerchief and Bottle
THE performer introduces a corked transparent glass decanter or bottle filled with wine, then placing it on an ordinary chair and covering it with a borrowed handkerchief. He next forms a paper cone, into which he places a small silk handkerchief. Tearing off the tip of the cone, red wine is seen pouring out of the latter, being allowed to run into a glass held underneath. The cone is then opened and shown empty, the handkerchief having mysteriously disappeared. Going to the chair the conjurer removes the handkerchief covering the decanter, out of which the wine has vanished, the missing handkerchief, which completely fills the inside of the bottle, having taken its place.
The decanter used for the trick is prepared similarly to the one used in all "Wine and Water Separations." In its bottom and neck are drilled small holes; the hole in the neck is stopped up by it pellet of wax, and while holding his finger over the hole in the bottom of the bottle, the performer fills the latter with wine and closes it with a prepared cork. This cork is a hollow metal one, open at the bottom and covered with a thin layer of cork. In the hollow space of this dummy cork is concealed a silk handkerchief, to the center of which a thin but strong black thread is fastened, which is led through the bottle and issues from the hole in the bottom of the latter, where a thick knot is made to prevent the end of the thread from slipping back into the bottle. In the performer's sleeve lies concealed a rubber balloon filled with wine as sufficiently explained in the last trick.
When the magician places the decanter on the cane seat chair he secretly removes the wax from the neck of the bottle, whereby air enters the latter, and exercising a pressure on the fluid, causes the latter to run out of the hole in the bottom of the decanter, from where it runs through the open meshes of the caning of the chair into a very shallow metal receptacle hooked from underneath into the cane seat. This most excellent method of causing, fluid to disappear out of a decanter will also be found of great service in the "Separation of Wine and Water."
In picking up the decanter still covered by the handkerchief, the performer seizes and pulls the knot protruding from the bottom of the latter, causing the handkerchief to be drawn out of the cork into the bottle, in which it instantly expands.
The placing of the handkerchief into the cone is simply a matter of palming, the handkerchief being rolled into a ball between the hands when it is apparently placed in the left hand but really kept palmed in the right. The balloon filled with wine is previously introduced into the cone from the sleeve or servante as described in the preceding trick.
Another entirely different method of producing wine in a paper cone depends Upon the use of a rubber bag (small fountain syringe) worn by the performer under the left arm, the rubber tube attached to the bag leading over the back of the performer's vest and down the right sleeve, near the opening of which a small stop cock is situated. Holding the cone in the right hand, the conjurer secretly opens the stop cock and proceeds to tear off the tip of the cone, at the same time pressing with the upper part of the left arm against the rubber bag, whereby ,the fluid contained in the latter is forced along the rubber tube and unperceived enters the paper cone, issuing from the open tip of the latter.
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