Chapter 19
CHAPTER XIX OF JOE STRONG THE BOY WIZARD OR THE MYSTERIES OF MAGIC EXPOSED BY VANCE BARNUM THIS LIBRIVOX RECORDING IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN READ BY GERALD MOE THE CIRCUS And now for the explanation of the egg trick.
It is so simple that any of you may do it at home, with just an ordinary egg, a fruit jar, and some salt. Don't forget the salt. You have all heard the story told to children about putting salt on a bird's tail in order to tame it. Well, a fresh egg that one wishes to make float halfway submerged in a jar of water must be treated in the same way. It must be salted. Just as Joe said, a fresh egg will sink in water. But it will float
in strong brine or salt water, the reason being that salt water is denser and has a greater specific gravity than fresh water. But the trick lies in combining fresh and salt water so that the egg will sink only half way. Make a strong brine solution by dissolving common table salt in water. It may be necessary to experiment a little before getting the solution just the right strength. Fill a glass fruit jar, or any jar with a wide opening, half full of the brine.
Now, with a funnel, pour fresh water in on top of the salt water. Be careful not to let the two kinds of water mix. The salt water, being heavier, will be on the bottom of the jar, and the fresh, being lighter, on top. If you do it carefully enough, pouring in a little fresh water at a time, you will have, as Joe had, a jar with two layers of different kinds of water, one salt, the other fresh. The audience, of course, cannot see this, as they could if you
had two differently colored fluids, for the salt and fresh water are of the same color. When Joe put the egg in the water, he lowered it carefully, so as not to disturb the two water layers. The egg sank through the strata of fresh water, but when it came to the layer of dense salt water it would not sink in that, and came to a stop halfway down, just as Joe, who knew at what point this would occur, uttered the command to stop. And when Joe pretended to dissolve the spell,
he merely, with his wand, stirred together the fresh and salt water. This made a mixture of salt water, but it was not dense or heavy enough to support the egg, which of course sank to the bottom. And, as the waters were well mixed when Joe let the young man try the experiment, of course the latter could not make the egg float as the boy wizard had done. "'That was a good trick, Joe,' was the professor's compliment when Joe came off the stage.
"'In fact, I think the simpler the trick is, the better, but there are very few that can be worked with so little apparatus as your egg experiment. We'll keep that on our list.' Joe had told his employer about the news brought by Harry, to the effect that our hero was accused of robbery by his foster parent. "'What are you going to do about it, Joe?' asked the professor. "'I don't see that I can do anything. I didn't take a dollar of his money, or Mrs. Blackford's
either, nor that I touched the valuable papers. It's all a mistake, but I'm not going back there to tell him so. I sent word by Harry. If he won't believe him, he won't believe me.' me no perhaps not and as you say you can't go back there just to convince your foster father you don't think do you that he will make trouble for you i don't imagine so when joe said this he knew nothing of the warrant having been sworn out for his arrest harry had not told his chum of this detail Then I don't see that you need do anything, said Mr. Crabb.
I, myself, don't believe the accusation against you, and until you are put to some real trouble over it, you may as well ignore it. We'll just go on as usual. You are doing well, and our show is succeeding better than I hoped for. I am glad you came to me.
Joe was grateful for this trust, and resolved to do his best in his future work. He worked up several new and simple tricks, many of them such as dancing cards, the nodding skull, and others being adaptations from other stage illusions. You have, most of you, perhaps seen a magician suspend a card, apparently in mid-air, and cause it to go up or down as someone in the audience requests. Sometimes a metal ball on a rod is used. These tricks are worked by means of a black thread
which is attached to the card or ball and is pulled by a confederate behind the scenes. Indeed, the black silk thread has been called the magician's best friend. It is absolutely invisible on the lighted stage against the proper background, and the right kind is strong enough to lift considerable weight. A card chosen from the pack is made to rise or fall as follows.
The magician gets possession of the card selected by someone in the audience, either by keeping his finger in the place in the pack into which it is thrust, or by forcing a certain card on the person in the audience. The performer knows what card he is going to force, and later can readily pick it out of the pack as he shuffles it. To force a card, the operator rapidly spreads out a pack of cards face down in front of a person, and quickly thrusts one card
out farther than the others, literally forcing it into the hand. It is a predetermined card, but not one in a hundred realizes that. At any rate, having the card, the performer goes back to the stage, and adroitly contrives to fasten the card to the unseen black silk thread, with a tiny bit of beeswax. Then, with the card apparently suspended in mid-air, but in reality hung by an unseen thread which runs through screw eyes on the stage floor,
the card is made to go up or down or stop midway, just as the audience calls for, by the pulling of the thread by the assistant behind the scenes. When the trick is over, the performer slyly takes the card off the pellet of wax, no trace of which shows, and passes the card around for examination. Of course, it isn't ordinary card. The trick was all in the string. Joe made a variation of that trick by using a round-bottomed little
papier-mâché figure bought in a toy store. There was no trick about the figure. It was one of those which cannot be made to lie down, but continually bob up, because of a weight of lead in the rounded bottom. Joe laid a glass shelf across the backs of two chairs, and after passing the little round bottomed figure about for inspection, returned with it to the stage, placing it on the glass shelf. This little figure, by bowing to the right or to the left, will now answer questions without
assistance from me, Joe announced. A bow to the left will mean no, and a nod to the right will mean yes. Or you may have it the other way around, if you like. Which shall it be? The choice being thus left to the audience, it seems impossible that there can be any pre-arrangement. Right bow for no, someone called. Very well, agreed Joe, smiling. It's all the same to me. A bow to the right will stand for no, and the nod to the opposite direction will mean yes. All this while
the little figure rested on the glass shelf. Not a bit of mechanism was to be observed, and Joe walked down from the stage and stood in the audience after placing the figure on the glass. now we will ask questions announced the young performer is the lady on my right married no nodded the figure is she willing to be he went on amid laughter while the young lady blushed yes nodded the figure amid still heartier laughter joe asked many other questions easily answered by no or yes he did not take the trouble to find out if the answers were correct the questions followed one another quickly and the audience was interested in noting the movements of the figure with no one on the stage with joe far away from it and with nothing but a plain glass shelf on which the figure rested
When Joe had caused enough fun and mystification with this trick, he walked back to the stage, picked up the figure, and tossed it to a little boy in a front seat. "'Take it home with you, youngster,' he said. "'See if you can make it behave as I did.' Several interested ones around the boy examined the figure.
There was no deception about it, and the giving of it away proved this. In fact, Joe found that a good climax to the trick. And now, how was it done? Beforehand, two black threads were passed from behind the scenes, up through the rounds of the chairs, over the backs,
and up on the glass shelf where they met in the middle, each thread ending in a little pellet of wax. When Joe apparently carelessly placed the figure on the glass shelf, he fastened one of the waxed ends of thread to either side of the half-rounded bottom he then went entirely away from the stage and all that remained was for the assistant behind the scenes to pull one thread to make the figure bow to the right and another to cause it to nod to the left. Of course the assistant heard all that was said,
and could govern himself according to the choice of the audience. It was an effective trick, and beautifully simple. You might even try it yourself, but be sure the black threads do not show. It is for this reason that most magicians have dark draperies for a stage background. Where do we go next? asked Joe of the Professor the night after he had first introduced his magic figure-trick, which had gone so well with the audience. Hillsburg is the next town, and we ought to make quite some money there, Joe.
You deserve more money, proceeded Mr. Crabb, and I am going to give it to you. You are certainly a valuable addition to my show, and in time you will be able to carry on a whole performance yourself. You still have something to learn in palming, in making substitutions, and in manipulating cards, but that takes practice and time. I have great hopes for you, but alas for the hopes of doing a good business in Hillsburg. When they reached that town,
they found that a circus was playing there on the same date as Professor Rosello's show. No use trying to compete with a circus, observed the professor, as he heard the news at the small hotel where they put up. We'll just wait over a couple of days, Joe, and perhaps we can think up some new tricks in the meantime.
A rest will do us no harm. I'll just cancel today's engagement here, and put the show on two nights later. By that time we can get a crowd.' "'Then you haven't anything for me to do?' "'No, Joe.
I guess, then, I'll go out and see them get ready for the circus. I may take in the show, too.' "'Please yourself, Joe,' said the professor, as his young helper went out. I didn't think he could resist the attraction of the sawdust rings of a circus, he murmured to himself with a smile.
