view. You now announce your
intention of sending the penny back. Place the covered glass over the
penny and replace the cover over the glass on your right. "One, two,
three--go!" you exclaim and, lifting the cone off the glass on your
left, the penny under it appears to have disappeared, and on removing
the other glass, still covered by the cone, the borrowed penny will once
more be seen. This trick can be worked with one glass only and the penny
made to appear to drop through the table in your hand placed under the
latter ready to catch it (the penny, of course, being already palmed in
your hand); but the use of two glasses makes the trick more effective,
and it can be repeated many times without fear of detection. The paper
upon which the glasses stand can, of course, be examined; but the
glasses when removed from the paper must be covered with the cones, or
the paper cover on the mouth of each will be seen.

[A] This piece of apparatus neatly constructed can be obtained at a
trifling cost at any of Messrs. Hamley Bros.' Conjuring Depots, London.

A SIMPLE EXPERIMENT WITH FOUR SHILLINGS

Borrow four shillings; place one on the palm of each hand, and, holding
the palms upward, close your fingers over them. Then request a member of
the company to place the other two coins on the nails of your two middle
fingers; and announce your intention of throwing a coin from one hand to
the other, explaining it is rather a difficult feat to accomplish with
your hands closed. Make one or two movements with your hands, and then,
as if accidentally, drop the two shillings resting upon your nails upon
the table. Apologising for your clumsiness, request some one to replace
the coins on your nails, saying you will have another try. Now give your
hands a jerk upward; open them and catch the coins on your nails, one in
each hand, and tell the company you have accomplished your purpose and
sent one coin flying invisibly through the air from one hand to the
other. To verify your assertion open your hands and show three coins in
one hand and only one in the other.

EXPLANATION.

When you make the first attempt, and appear to fail, in the upward
movement of your hands you open them and allow the shilling resting upon
the nail of your left hand to slip into the palm, while you permit the
coin in the palm of your right hand to fall, with the one above it on
the nail, on the table. If this is done neatly the company will suppose
it is the