Barbour County index., 1905-02-22

him one of the two pieces of string he il
holding.
"And now you. if you please" says the
conjurer. Turning to the man on his
right who is holding the other two ends
OF string, the conjursr takes the two
pieces of string handed to him, ties them
once over the coat, and hands them
back again. By this last tie he has drawn
the coat into bundle tightly over the
muff, and the other articles tied to it.
Placing his hands under the coat, the
conjurer removes the muff and other
articles.
Nov We come to the coat" he says.
I'm order that there may be no mishap
to the coat, should like my two assist
ants here to pull on the strings when
l say: Co. and not before. Are you
ready? Col"
With this the conjurer twists the coat
once round the string, and it then drops
on the floor, although the strings are
still being held by the two members Of
the audience.
The secret of this very effective little
trick lies in the fact that the conjurer
has little piece-about an inch-of soft
copper wire in the hip pocket of his
trousers. While some one in the audi
ence was examining the strings he got
this little piece of wire out and concealed
it in his left hand. When he gave the
two ends of the strings to some one to
hold and to pull onto assure himself
that they were genuine-he pulled on
the other ends of the strings himself
with his right hand. and closed his left
hand, which contained the little piece
of wire, over the strings.
The wire, being thus bent, was rough
ly in the form of ring, but with the two
ends not quite closed. Running his
right hand down the strings. the con-
>jurer took with it this rough ring. The
right hand came to stop when about
half way down the strings, and, the hand
being clenched, the wire was closed
round the strings.
While some one had gone out of the
room for the muff, the conjurer had am
pie opportunities for slipping his fore
finger between the two strings on one
side of the ring and his thumb between
the two pieces on the other. By giving
the strings shake this movement would
be quite imperceptible.
The reader, who is following me with
strings and ring in hand, will see that
the trick is now to all intents and pur-
poses done, for when the conjurer hands
what are apparently the ends of the two
strings to the first assistant. he really
hands the two ends of one piece.
In the same way the two ends of the
other piece of string were handed to
the second assistant The second two
ends must not be given up till the
strings have been passed through the
mum. 1t the conjurer wishes. he may
pass them through before handing the
first two ends away.
1t will be seen that the strings are
separated, but are temporarily Joined to-
gether by the ring in the center which is
concealed by the muff
The conjurer should tie the first knot
over the muff himself If some very
officious member of the audience did so
he might possibly pull so hard as to undo
the ring. After the first knot has been
tied, no amount of pulling will have this
effect.
When the conjurer puts his hands un-
der the coat, he unbends the ring. but
prevents the two strings from pulling
outwards by putting his thumb and first
finger through the loops he will find
there. 1t is then an easy matter to un-
tie the remaining articles under the
cover of the coat; but when they are all