Chapter VIII (2)

The wand may also be effectively introduced in the trick of the Shower of Money, which next follows. After having caught in the ordinary manner such number of coins as he thinks fit, the performer perceives, or pretends to perceive, that the audience suspect that the coins are in some manner concealed in his right hand. To show that this is not the case, he offers to catch a few coins on the top of his wand instead of in his hand, and finishes the trick by producing two or three on the wand accordingly. Wherever you can, as in this instance, produce the same result by two wholly different methods the effect on the audience is most bewildering. Their conjectures as to the explanation of the first method being inadmissible as to the second, and _vice versâ_, the more they puzzle over the matter, the further are they likely to be from a correct solution.

THE SHOWER OF MONEY.--The magical phenomenon known under this name surpasses the philosopher’s stone, in the pursuit of which so many of the wise men of old expended their lives and fortunes. The alchemist’s secret aimed only at producing the raw material, but the magician’s quick eye and ready hand gather from space money ready coined. Unfortunately, the experiment is subject to the same drawback as the more ancient process--viz., that each twenty shillings produced cost precisely twenty shillings, leaving hardly sufficient profit to make this form of money-making remunerative as a commercial undertaking.

The effect of the trick is as follows:--The performer borrows a hat, which he holds in his left hand. Turning up his sleeves, he announces that he requires a certain number, say ten, of florins or half-crowns. The spectators put their hands in their pockets with the idea of contributing to the supposed loan; but the professor, anticipating their intention, says, “No, thank you; I won’t trouble you this time. There seems to be a good deal of money about tonight; I think I will help myself. See, here is a half-crown hanging to the gaselier. Here is another climbing up the wall. Here is another just settling on this lady’s hair. Excuse me, sir, but you have a half-crown in your whiskers. Permit me, madam; you have just placed your foot on another,” and so on. At each supposed new discovery the performer takes with his right hand, from some place where there clearly was nothing an instant before, a half-crown, which he drops into the hat held in his left hand, finally turning over the hat, and pouring the coins from it, to show that there has been “no deception.”

The explanation is very simple, the trick being merely a practical application of the art of “palming,” though its effect depends on the manner and address of the operator even more than on his skill in sleight-of-hand. The performer provides himself beforehand with ten half-crowns. Of these he palms two in his right hand, and the remainder in his left. When he takes the hat, he holds it in the left hand, with the fingers inside and the thumb outside, in which position it is comparatively easy to drop the coins one by one from the hand into the hat. When he pretends to see the first half-crown floating in the air, he lets one of the coins in his right hand drop to his finger-tips, and, making a clutch at the air, produces it as if just caught. This first coin he really does drop into the hat, taking care that all shall see clearly that he does so. He then goes through a similar process with the second; but when the time comes to drop it into the hat, he merely pretends to do so, palming the coin quickly in the right hand, and at the same moment letting fall into the hat one of the coins concealed in his left hand. The audience, hearing the sound, naturally believe it to be occasioned by the fall of the coin they have just seen. The process is repeated until the coins in the left hand are exhausted. Once more the performer appears to clutch a coin from space, and showing for the last time that which has all along been in his right hand, tosses it into the air, and catches it visibly in the hat. Pouring out the coins on a tray, or into the lap of one of the company, he requests that they may be counted, when they are found to correspond with the number which he has apparently collected from the surrounding atmosphere.

Some performers, by way of bringing the trick to a smart conclusion, after they have dropped in all the coins, remark, “The hat begins to get heavy,” or make some similar observation, at the same time dipping the right hand into the hat, as if to gauge the quantity obtained; and, giving the money a shake, bring up the hand with four or five of the coins clipped breadthwise against the lowest joints of the second and third fingers. Then pretend to catch in quick succession that number of coins, each time sliding one of the coins with the thumb to the finger-tips, and tossing it into the hat.

It is by no means uncommon to see a performer, after having apparently dropped two or three coins into the hat in the ordinary way, pretend to pass in one or more through the side or crown. This produces a momentary effect, but it is an effect purchased at the cost of enabling an acute spectator to infer, with logical certainty, that the coin seen in the right hand was not the same that was, the moment afterwards, heard to chink within the hat; and this furnishes a distinct clue to the secret of the trick.

It is obvious that, in the above form of the trick (which so far should be classed among “tricks without apparatus”), the performer cannot show the inside of his hands; and it is not uncommon to find an acute observer (particularly where the performer is guilty of the indiscretion we have just noted) so far hit upon the true explanation, as to express audibly a conjecture that the money which the performer catches is really the same coin over and over again. There is, however, a mechanical appliance known as the “money-slide,” which is designed to meet this difficulty, and to enable the performer still to catch the coin, though he has but a moment before shown that his hand is empty.

The money-slide is a flat tin tube, about eight inches in length, an inch and a quarter in width, and of just such depth as to allow a half-crown or florin (whichever coin may be used) to slip through it freely, edgeways. It is open at the top, but is closed at the lower end by a lever, acting like the lever of a shot-pouch. (_See_ Fig. 96, which shows the external appearance of the tube, and Fig. 97, which represents, on a somewhat larger scale, a section of its essential portion.) The normal position of the lever (which works on a pivot, _a_) is as shown in Fig. 97, being maintained in that position by a small spring. Under such circumstances, the passage of the tube is barred by the pin _d_ (which works through a small hole in the face of the tube); but if _ac_, the longer arm of the lever, be pressed down, the pin _d_ is withdrawn, but the extreme lower end of the tube is for the moment barred by the bent end of _ac_. The pressure being withdrawn, the lever returns to its former condition. When required for use, four or five half-crowns are dropped into the tube from the upper end, and the tube is fastened, by a hook affixed to it for that purpose, inside the waistcoat of the performer, so that its lower end hangs just above the waistband, the lever side of the tube being next the body. If the tube be lightly pressed through the waistcoat, the longer arm of the lever is thereby pressed down. The pin _d_ is lifted, and the row of half-crowns slide down to the bottom of the tube, where, however, they are arrested by the bent end of _ac_. As soon as the pressure is removed, the lever returns to its position. The mouth of the tube is left open, and the first of the half-crowns drops out, and would be followed by the others, but the pin, _d_, which at the same moment returns to its position across the tube, stops their further progress. Thus each time the lever is pressed and again released, one half-crown, and one only, drops out at the mouth of the tube.

The use of this appliance in the trick we have just described will be obvious. The performer, having turned up his sleeves to prove that they have no part in the matter, shows that his right hand is absolutely empty. Continuing his observations, his hand rests for a moment with a careless gesture against his waistcoat, the ball of the wrist being above and the fingers below the waistband. A momentary pressure causes a half-crown to fall into his hand. This he palms, and in due course proceeds to catch, as already described.

As the capacity of the slide is limited, and the same gestures frequently repeated would be likely to excite suspicion, it is best to begin the trick in the ordinary manner, and after having produced three or four coins in this way, to overhear, or pretend to overhear, a suggestion that the coin is all the while in your hand. Ostentatiously throwing the coin with which you have so far worked, into the hat, you draw special attention (not in words, but by gesture) to your empty hand (the left hand is never suspected), and then have recourse to the slide. You throw the coin thus obtained into the hat, and again show your hand empty. You produce another coin from the slide, and make this serve you for the next two or three catches, and so on, as circumstances may dictate.

The money magically caught as above may be used for the trick of the Multiplication of Money, described at page 176, the two forming a natural and effective sequence.

THE VANISHING PLATE, OR SALVER.--This is a most useful and ingenious piece of apparatus. In appearance it is an ordinary japanned tin tray, of about ten inches in diameter; but it has the faculty of causing money placed upon it to disappear in a most surprising manner. A number of coins, collected from the company, are placed upon the salver. The performer, standing but a few feet from the spectators, openly takes them off one by one, but each, as his fingers grasp it, vanishes utterly. His sleeves (which in conjuring come in for a vast amount of undeserved suspicion) may be rigorously examined; but even though, as a concession to popular prejudice, he should bare his arm to the shoulder, the result would still be the same.

A closer inspection of the salver (which the performer takes good care not to permit) would reveal the fact, that though apparently consisting, like any other, of only one thickness of metal, it is in reality made double, allowing sufficient space between its upper and under surface for the concealment of any number of coins laid singly. The centre portion of the upper surface, though apparently of a piece with the rest, is in reality moveable, though pressed upwards and kept in its place by the action of four small springs. When the performer apparently picks up a coin (which he takes care shall be on this centre portion), he presses smartly upon it, at the same moment drawing it sharply towards the outer rim. The moveable portion of the salver yielding to the pressure, the effect is as shown in the figure (Fig. 98), and the coin is shot under the outer rim, between the upper and under surface of the salver, the moveable portion rising again to its place as soon as the momentary pressure is removed. The tray is japanned in such manner that the circular lines of the pattern correspond with the outline of the moveable portion, and will bear any amount of mere ocular inspection, so long as it is not permitted to be handled.

The vanishing salver may be introduced with good effect in many tricks, as, for instance, that of the Multiplication of Money, above referred to, the coins to be magically added being placed upon the salver, whence they are taken off one by one, and commanded to pass into the hands of the person who holds the money. It may also be advantageously used in conjunction with the glass described at page 201, each coin, as it vanishes from the salver, being heard to drop into the glass.

THE “CHANGING” PLATE.--The student has already been made acquainted with various methods of exchanging a marked coin, etc., for a substitute. There are still one or two appliances for this purpose remaining to be described, all taking the form of metal plates or trays, but greatly varying in their construction.

The first, which we only mention for the sake of completeness, as it is now superseded by later and better inventions, consists of a small circular tin tray, with a round hole or well in the centre, of about an inch and a half in diameter and a quarter of an inch in depth. The lines of the pattern are so arranged as to make this cavity as little noticeable as possible. The well is moveable, forming, in fact, a portion of a sliding piece below the tray, in which sliding piece _two_ such wells are excavated, the one or the other in turn corresponding to the opening in the tray, according as the sliding piece is pushed backwards or forwards. When the tray is required for use, the substitute coin is placed beforehand in one of the two wells, which is then pushed out of sight, and the other brought below the opening. The borrowed coin is received on the plate, and allowed to drop into the empty well. As soon as this is done, the operator, with his forefinger, which is naturally beneath the plate, draws back the slide, and brings the other coin in sight, while the genuine one drops into his hand. The construction of the plate, though simple enough in itself, is a little difficult to explain; but as we only allude to it in order to counsel the student to avoid it, any obscurity in our description is of little importance.

The instrument now used for the same purpose is known as the French changing-plate, and may be described as a combination of the vanishing salver (page 209) and the multiplying money-plate (page 177). It is round, and has beneath it a flat tube similar to that of the multiplying plate; and it is in this tube that the substitute coins are placed. The upper surface of the plate is similar in appearance to that of the vanishing plate; but in this case the centre portion is divided across the middle, and one half only is moveable, sinking downwards to the depth of a quarter of an inch all along the dividing line, whenever pressure is applied to a particular portion of the under surface of the plate. The coins to be changed are received by the operator on this moveable portion, and immediately handed to some person to hold, the performer sloping the plate, and (apparently) pouring the coins into the hands or hat held out to receive them. In reality, in the act of sloping the plate, he depresses the moveable portion of the surface, and, as a natural consequence, the coins, instead of sliding, as they appear to do, right off the plate, slip between the upper and under surface, while the substitutes fall from the tube below into the hands of the person who is to take charge of them. The whole movement is so rapid, and the fall of the substituted coins coincides so exactly with the disappearance of the genuine ones, that the eye is completely deceived. The tray, having apparently served its purpose, is carried off by the magician or his servant, with ample opportunity to make any necessary disposition of the genuine coins.

A still later improvement is that which is known as

THE TRAY OF PROTEUS.--The tray to which the inventors (Messrs. Hiam & Lane) have given the above high-sounding title, is the latest, and not the least ingenious, of the series of magical trays.

The tray in question will not only change, but add, subtract, or vanish coins, under the very eyes of the spectators. In form it is an oblong octagon, measuring eight inches by six, and standing about three-quarters of an inch high. (_See_ Fig. 99.) It is divided across the centre, and one half of the centre portion is moveable in the same manner as in the case of the tray last described, save that in this instance the depth between the upper and under surface of the tray being greater, this moveable portion is depressible to a proportionately greater depth. The opposite or fixed side of the tray is divided horizontally (_see_ Fig. 100, representing a longitudinal section) into two levels or platforms, _a_ and _b_, the lower, _b_, having a raised edge. Where the tray is to be used for the purpose of “changing,” the coins to be substituted are placed in a row on the upper platform, _a_. The genuine coins are placed by the performer, holding the tray as indicated in Fig. 99, on the moveable flap, _c_. Slightly lowering the opposite end of the tray, he presses the button _d_, thus sloping the flap _c_, and the coins naturally slide into _b_. Still keeping the flap open, he now tilts up the opposite end of the tray. The genuine coins cannot return, by reason of the raised edge of _b_; but the substitute coins in their turn slide out upon _c_, which is then allowed to return to its original position. The necessary movement, though comparatively tedious in description, is in skilful hands so rapid in execution that, where coins of the same kind are substituted--_e.g._, half-crowns for half-crowns--the most acute spectator cannot detect that any change has taken place. A most startling effect is produced by substituting coins of a different kind, as pence for half-crowns, the coins appearing to be transformed by a mere shake into a different metal. The change involving a double process--viz., the disappearance of certain coins and the appearance of others--it is obvious that the tray will be equally available for either process singly. Thus coins placed upon the tray may be made to instantly vanish, or, by reversing the process, coins may be made to appear where there was nothing a moment previously. In like manner, a given number of coins may be increased to a larger, or decreased (in this case really _changed_) to a smaller number.

This tray has not, like that last described, any additional flat tube beneath the tray, but one end of _a_ and _b_ is closed by a little slide, hidden beneath the edge of the tray, to allow of the money therein being extracted when necessary.