Hanky Panky

TO DIVIDE A HORSESHOE INTO SEVEN PIECES BY TWO CUTS.

Make a horseshoe of a slice of pear or apple, potato, &c., and cut off the long arms at A B. Range all in a row, and cut them across into seven pieces.

TO MAKE AN ANTI-MACASSAR OF A SHEET OF PAPER.

Take a newspaper and fold one end transversely, so that the edge is parallel with one side, by which a square is obtained.

Fold this square to make a right-angled triangle; fold this to make another triangle, and so on until the last shape is an acute triangle.

The end A is just half as thick as the rest of the paper. Tear this off at the dotted line, by which the square of paper becomes a sixteen-sided figure, nearly circular.

To make the pattern, tear off the point of the folded mass, by which a central hole will be made in the whole piece. Then tear from the sides and the broad edge small pieces, varying in size, by which a certain pattern will be made. Once having found the proper points whence to remove the ground, such counterparts of lacework can be so rapidly and bewilderingly done that the spectators will be amazed upon your unfolding the paper completed. It is needless to say tearing of a common newspaper makes the trick apparently more difficult than the most elaborate cutting out of coloured tissues with scissors.

A brother philosopher of mine (says Hanky Panky) has written about sympathetic atoms of communication. Descartes, as he is named, maintained that any one could put himself in correspondence with another so as to read in his mind as in a book, by aid of connecting atoms. Ahem!

I will now (continues Mr. H. Panky) apply to a lady and a gentleman, to whom I give each a sealed letter, with the request for them to take the best of care of them, and not to open them until permission is given.

I have here a pack of ordinary playing cards, which may be freely examined, from which are excluded all below the value of seven, being what is known as a piquet or euchre pack.

I make eight piles here on the table of four cards each, and number them. The gentleman holding the letter will kindly point out which one he selects. Observe that the gentleman has taken the third pile. I beg to offer it to him while I pick up the other cards.

I now spread out a set of dominoes on the table, of which I form four rows of seven each, face down on the table. I part the four rows into two ranks, separated by the empty domino-box between them.

The gentleman will please choose one of the rows, and then one of the piles in it. I give him that pile and turn up the dominoes to show that no two are alike.

I present to the lady a pencil, and ask her to mark one of the three flowers painted on the board held out to her.

The lady has marked the lily.

The gentleman can now open the letter, when he may read as follows:—

“Sir—The four cards chosen by you are the king of spades, the eight of diamonds, the ace of hearts, and the knave of hearts.

The pile of seven dominoes contains the blank-two, three-two, double-four, four-five, deuce-ace, cinq-three, double-one, in all thirty-seven points.

On opening the lady’s letter, she may read:—

“Madam—You were destined to choose the lily.

And I shake the envelope out to produce a lovely lily, which was the flower the lady preferred.

Explanation.—The cards were eight sets of four, which were respectively the spade king, the eight of diamonds, ace of hearts, and knave of hearts. Consequently, wherever the choice fell it was sure to light on the cards which were named in the letter previously prepared.

The dominoes were placed in the box face up, as usual, but the bottom row was composed of the series which you wish to come out. On putting them on the table place the prepared lot on your left hand. If the right-hand lot should be chosen, quietly remove it, saying that you put it out of the way, and we will use the other (for it seems perfectly fair that the choice should as well exclude as include the lot). In the same way deal with the other rows so as to have the prepared set in any case.

The three names of flowers, or the flowers themselves, painted on a board, have the one to be selected somewhat prominent, and, with a little art, you can always induce a lady to mark the desired one. (See directions to “force a card,” in The Secret Out.)

Take a large pair of scissors or shears in your hands, which you hold out, palms upwards. Hang them by their rings on the little fingers. Close the hands with a slight inclination towards the scissors, so that the finger tips only are in the rings, and the blade is supported on the inner fleshy part of the palms.

As you turn your closed hands, the scissors will turn, and on bringing the knuckles upward the point will be forward, and you can open and shut them freely.

THE SIMULACRUM.

Ladies and Gentlemen: One of the superstitions of the Middle Ages made it credible that if a person hating another bought of a regular magician an enchanted doll, resembling that object of enmity, any treatment of the representative, say, the insertion of pins into its wax, the twisting of its limbs, and so on, would be felt by the living being.

This was acting upon a person through his likeness.

On this principle I—Signor Hanchio Panchio, at your service—have succeeded in opening locks without going near them with the key.

I have a facsimile of my front door lock in my own study, and on hearing a knock I merely turn a key in the duplicate lock, when the door flies open so mysteriously that the visitor believes the agent an electric medium of mine.

I am going to perform this most curious experiment before the present company, by aid of the massive padlock which I take out of its box.

There never was a more simple padlock. I shall lock it here under your eyes, and yet engage to open it without turning the key.

It is now locked, and any gentleman may test its security. I can even hang it on my wand by the ring to prove it, and in that way my friend by my side can hold it for a moment whilst I make a drawing of it on a sheet of innocent white paper.

Once more let me show that the fastening holds firm. All are satisfied.

I will now apply the key to the hole in the drawing, and turn it once—twice—and cry:—

The padlock is open!

For your kindness in assisting me, sir, you may retain the drawing. You have watched me so closely that I see you have imbibed the art, and henceforth all the doors of society are open to you.

We borrow from The Magician’s Own Book the illustration of a magic padlock. In the present case, the instrument contains a powerful spring which forces the key-bolt back out of the socket of the pin, and is set in action by pressure on one of the nail heads adorning the plate. This is done when the second testing of the lock is made. You keep up the chatter as long as the time required for the spring to work.

PRIMITIVE WOLF TRAP.

A double circular stockade, or palisade, is erected too high for a wolf to leap over, with one entrance, closed by a gate.

This is open, and the animal, hearing a tied-up sheep bleating in the centre, passes in and goes the round, seeking the entrance to the prey, when he pushes the gate to, and is imprisoned till morning.

THE CELEBRATED HONEY-BEE TRICK.

Get possession of the queen bee, and confine her by a hair or fine silken thread by a running noose fast around her corslet.

The bees, attentive to her movements, will surround her, and go to and fro, as if in obedience to the will of the captor of the mother bee.

A swarm can be made to pass from one hive to another at pleasure.

TO PROTECT A HOUSE FROM RATS AND MICE.

The Japanese, from time immemorial, have manufactured china cats, with open eyes, so faithfully copied from nature that one of these toys, with a rush-light inside, will protect a whole house during the night.

The image might contain a clockwork by which an intermittent sound would still farther alarm the rats.

TO SHOW THE FUTURE IN A PAIL OF WATER.

Bid the person desirous of seeing his or her future partner’s face look into a pail of water.

The reflection will certainly be of their own features, but as marriage makes each the other’s, you can safely maintain your credit as a soothsayer. “That face will be your husband’s when you marry.”

THE INTELLIGENT PARROT.

Have a parrot, or other bird, carved and painted, with simple springs to make the head turn and the mouth to open, mounted on a hollow shelf against the wall.

Through its body, one leg, the hollow shelf, and thence through the wall, into an adjoining apartment, where your confederate can overhear, run a tube with a mouthpiece, to which the lips or a bellows can be applied.

On pretty Polly being addressed, she will whistle, sing, scream at command, and answer to sensible questions.

CLOVES.

Cloves are the unopened flowers of a small evergreen tree that resembles, in appearance, the laurel or the bay. Each clove consists of two parts, a round head, which is the four petals or leaves of the flowers rolled up, enclosing a number of small stalks or filaments. The other part of the clove is terminated with four points, and is, in fact, the flower-cup, and the unripe seed-vessel. All these parts may be distinctly shown if a few leaves are soaked for a short time in hot water, when the leaves of the flowers soften, and readily unroll.

DANDELION RING CHAINS.

Pull some dandelions with long stems and cut off the flowers. As the stems are hollow, the upper or smaller end can be bent round to enter the other, so making a link, of a number of which a chain can be formed.

IMMORTELLES.

When fresh, scrape the flower leaves with a blunt knife to make each petal curl.

For a green hue, dip the flower, but not the stalk, or the former will fall off, in a brass or copper vessel full of vinegar and salt, for half a day, or not so long in oil of tartar; wash in water, and dry them, keeping the stem up. For a straw-yellow tint, keep them two days in oil of tartar. For yellow, or another shade of green, in quick lime, slightly liquefied with water. For grey, in vinegar, milk with a little black dye. For jet, put the stems through holes in a plate of metal fitting a vessel by which the flowers can be exposed to the fumes of sulphur. They will be blanched at first, but will then redden, and finally become black. To varnish: Melt down some Flanders glue, strain it, and brush it on thoroughly. Put them away to dry where no dust will fall on them. Perfume at pleasure.

THE POLITICAL TEETOTUM.

(No personal allusion intended to H. Panky, Esq., M.P.) Cut the edge of a teetotum into six faces, and put on them the letters D, R, C M, &c., standing for Despotism, Republic, Constitutional Monarchy, and any other form of government which may visit a country. The game is to pretend to tell the future rule by the first face which comes up three times.

Paste or paint upon four cubes of wood, metal, stone, or bone, the vowels and consonants. Attach a value to them, and play with them in the same manner as if they were dice. The whimsical words which the upturned letters will often produce occasion laughter, and the compulsion to name them will help slow juveniles on with their alphabet.

THE HEXAGON.

The six-sided figure is to be cut through the lines, and re-made.

A parallelogram, Fig. 68, may be cut into two pieces, by which two other figures can be formed.

MOCK LACES.

Take a piece of linen or “long-cloth” and stamp, or paint gum on all the parts of a pattern which is to remain intact, and soak it in a potash-bath at 22° Centigrade. In a short time the process of felting, analogous with that of skeletonizing leaves, will act exclusively on the ungummed places, and eat away about a twentieth. Only the experienced eye can tell it from embroidery. Shirt-fronts are thus worked.

TO CUT OUT A CROSS.

To cut out of a single piece of paper, and with one cut of the scissors, a perfect cross, and all the other forms here shown, take a six-inch length of a piece of foolscap two inches wide, and fold the upper corner down, as shown in A, Fig. 72; then fold the upper corner over the first, in B. Next fold the paper in half lengthwise, as in C. The last fold is made lengthwise also, in the middle of the paper, to form D. Cut this through with the scissors lengthways, for the forms shown in Figs. 69, 70, 71.

THE MAGICIAN’S SPELL.

CHERRY-STONE BASKETS.

Secure a cherry-stone in a vice, and having traced a line around it the longest way, and another at right angles, file out the space, both sides of the latter, down to the surrounding mark. There will then be left a miniature basket with handle complete.

(Diablotins.)

Exploding crackers are used for awaking a sleeper by the detonation when any one attempts to enter the room without permission. They are fastened across the crack of the door, as if to seal it.

These explosive papers are made by taking strips of half an inch to an inch wide, and of a convenient length. By means of a little gum-water or paste a small quantity of coarsely pounded glass is attached to one end, on one side of each strip about one-fourth of an inch. A little fulminating powder is spread over the glass and the moistened end of the paper, and it is dried in the air: two of these strips are then laid with their covered surfaces nearly in contact, and so that their uncovered ends may project different ways. A narrow strip of paper or parchment is then wrapped round the coated ends and fastened to one of them, but not binding them so tightly as to prevent their being drawn, by taking hold of the projecting ends, one over the other. The friction occasions their detonation.

The quantity of fulminating powder must be proportioned to the effect intended.

MOCK TURTLE.

Take a piece of paper stained or painted like tortoiseshell, and cut out a piece of the shape of a turtle’s upper shell; make claws and head, and paste them on. Bend up the middle and put on a bottom, which you also push up in the centre, where with a drop of shoemaker’s wax you secure a large live fly. The efforts of the latter to escape will cause him to carry the paper shape about the table. Except for the fright—and the absence of mental emotions in such low animals debars much fear of that—the creature need suffer no hurt.

MYSTIC CHANGES IN COSTUME.

We are all familiar with the excellent surprises in quick dressing shown by Woodin, Love, and the latest polyphonist, Mr. Maccabe. An American entertainer has carried this address in dress to its climax. He comes upon the stage attired in a black dress coat, black trousers, having in his hand a high opera crush hat, and sings a collection of songs, at the end of each one of which he, without leaving the stage, and while standing in full view of the audience, makes several changes in his costume, as follows:—Upon the coat, which is closely buttoned, in place of the black buttons there suddenly appear and disappear double rows of gilt buttons. Closing his crush hat and affixing it to a rear button on his coat, he produces from a pocket a small cap, with wig attached, which he places upon his head; quickly turning his trousers up above the knee, to give them the appearance of knee breeches, we find his lower limbs encased in neatly fitting white gaiters, and, producing a telescopic cane, we are presented with an excellent portraiture of an old man in the full costume of years gone by. By a sudden movement from the neck the entire costume is changed to full female attire. He then sings “Tassels on her Boots,” and at the conclusion of the first verse, as he slightly raises the skirt of his dress in front, we see that the gaiters have disappeared, and that his feet are encased in neatly fitting ladies’ boots with tassels thereon. Succeeding this he makes several entire changes of costume, all being, however, of female attire, differing materially in style and colour. He wears a jaunty little hat upon his head, which is changed in colour and style to suit the various costumes, without removing it: also, different wigs are seen upon his head after the latest fashion of ladies’ hair dressing.

THE ANIMATED CRYSTAL.

Alum put into a tumbler of water, as it dissolves will assume the shape of a pyramid. When the solution has nearly terminated, you will find the mass covered with geometrical figures, cut out, as it were, in relief upon the mass. This experiment having succeeded, take up a crystal quartz which has six sides, and cut accurately from each face to a perfectly convex surface, and place it on a piece of plate or common window glass, a china or glazed plate, or any smooth surface, perfectly clean, as grease or a particle of dust would impede its motion. Wet the surface, and give the plane a slight inclination, when, if properly managed, a rotatory motion will commence, which may be kept up for any length of time by giving alternate inclinations to the plane surface, according to the movements of the crystal; to heighten the pleasing effect of which, a variety of paper figures, harlequins, waltzers, &c., may be attached. The first trial of the experiment had better be made by giving a slight rotatory motion to the crystal.

THE SPINELESS GIANTESS.

In The Merry Circle a full explanation was given of the mode of manufacturing a giant or giantess. A slight yet telling modification has occurred to us.

Let the skirts of a dress be fastened with its waistband around a boy’s chest just under his armpits., He forms the body of the Colossus. Half open an umbrella and secure it in that position. Tie a shawl to the ferule so that it will fall over the umbrella and conceal the boy. On the top fasten a muff or bale of cloth, which serves as a head on which a coal-scuttle bonnet may be fitted, with a thick veil to hide the absence of countenance. If the umbrella has a hinge in it, as parasols are often made, the animating principle of this “ten footer” may execute a bow with the upper part of the contrivance which a courtier could never surpass.

TO COLOUR AGATES.

Brown.—Soak the stone in a solution of silver in spirits of nitre, dry in the sun, then put in a damp place, and on again exposing it to solar light, the colour will appear. Repeat to deepen shade.

Light Brown.—A solution of gold.

Gray.—Add to the silver solution a quarter of its weight of lard and red tartar.

Deep Violet.—Add to the silver solution some plumose alum.

White.—The action of bismuth bleaches it so that it looks white; it will appear pale brown in the shades.

To draw Figures on the Stone.—Rough it, write with a quill, and the silver solution will dry it quickly.

CARD CASTLE.

With a pack of cards make houses in this manner. Place two on their narrow ends, fixing the tops level.

On each side of the opening stand a card longwise.

And place two other cards at the end of the last pair, to form a square surrounding the triangle.

Each side of the central cards lay two more, flat upon the outward pair, like a roof.

On this platform rear cards like the first pair, and continue till the whole pack is used; with care many of the under cards at the side can be removed to continue the structure.