The Old Man’s Face
To make a face appear by simple means.
This is a very comical amusement and productive of much merriment. The only requisite for producing it is a person’s hand, a handkerchief and a little India ink. The engraving will show the simplicity of the arrangement, and demonstrates how easy it is to form an old man’s face.
The Turn Wonder
This amusing toy causes an illusion of vision, and is made and exhibited as follows: Cut out a small circular piece of card, to which fasten 4 strings. Draw on one side of it a Bacchus and on the other a bull. Then take one of the strings between the forefinger and thumb of each hand, close to the card, and twist or twirl it rapidly around, and according to which pair of strings you use, the figure will be seen in a different position. Various devices may be used—for instance, a bird on the one side and a cage on the other; a tightrope and a dancer; a body and a head; a candle and a flame; a picture and a frame.
The Cards By Weight
Take a parcel of cards—say forty—and privately insert among them two long cards; let the first be, for example, the fifteenth, and the other the twenty-sixth, from the top. Seem to shuffle the cards, and cut them at the first long card; poise those you have taken off in your hand, and say, “There must be fifteen cards here”; then cut them at the second long card, and say “There are but eleven here.“ and poising the remainder, exclaim, “And there are fourteen cards.“ On counting them, the spectators will find your calculations correct.
The Link Boys
Place two persons on their knees, opposite to each other; each is to kneel on one knee with the other leg in the air. Give to one of them a lighted candle, requesting him to light that of the other person. This is exceedingly difficult to do, both being poised in equilibrium on one knee, and liable to tumble at the slightest disarrangement of positions.