One of the conjurer’s most frequent requirements is to be able, unperceived, to “pass off” borrowed articles, handkerchiefs, watches, rings, and the like, to be dealt with, according to the nature of the trick in hand, behind the scenes. With a stage arranged after Robert-Houdin’s fashion, this was a very easy matter. The stage was enclosed at each side as well as at the back, forming what in theatri-cal parlance is know as a “box” scene, and representing a drawing-room with white and gold furni-ture of the Louis XV. period. Fixed against the canvas wall on either side was an elegant little table of the “console” kind. In each of these tables was a trap, down which any article to be passed off might be dropped. The assistant, thrusting his arm into the interior of the table through an opening in the scene, took possession of the article, and disposed of it according to the needs of the case. But the Robert-Houdin arrangement is a thing of the past. The tendency of the present day is to work with as little stage furniture as possible, and it has been found necessary to devise other methods of passing off, to meet the altered conditions of modern conjuring. Here again Hartz comes to the fore with a couple of clever and little-known contrivances.
The first (Fig. 47) is a clear glass bottle, as used for claret, from one side of which has been cut out a piece oval in shape, and measuring about three inches by two. Within, the opening is fixed a sort of tin cup, forming a dry chamber within the body of the bottle, but not interfering, save to a very small extent, with its capacity for holding liquid. In the bottom of this cavity is placed a little cotton wool to prevent the rattling of anything placed inside.
The performer desires to pass off, say, a borrowed watch, of which he has secretly gained posses-sion after one or other of the methods familiar to conjurers. At the appropriate moment (feeling a lit-tle faint, or for other good and sufficient reason), he asks his assistant to bring him a glass of wine. A glass and the bottle are brought in on a tray, the opening in the latter, of course, turned away from the audience. The performer helps himself, and replaces the bottle, which is then carried away again, the audience little suspecting that in the act of pouring out the wine the performer deposited
in the cavity the borrowed article, a substitute having been previously left in sight, or in the keeping of one of the spectators.
The second contrivance, suitable for smaller articles such as coins or rings, takes the form of a matchbox, or match-holder, of the kind in which the matches are inserted upright. (See Fig. 48.) The performer, wishing to pass off, we will suppose, a borrowed ring, under some pretext calls for a light, say in order to seal up a packet professedly containing the borrowed article. The assistant
brings on, in one hand, a candle, and on the palm of the other the box of matches, examination of the latter, if permitted, would reveal the fact that it has a tubular opening, as indicated by the dotted lines in the diagram, right down the centre of the matches standing on end between this and the outer portion. In the act of taking a match, the performer drops the ring down the central space into the assistant’s hand. This done, the matchbox is placed upon the table, and remains there till the trick is concluded, the assistant meanwhile walking off with the borrowed article.
Another of Hartz’s earlier inventions was an ingeniously contrived pistol for passing off borrowed rings. It was, however, a little too suggestive of being made specially for conjuring purposes, and this was probably the reason that the inventor, in later performances, discarded it in favour of one or other of the more subtle expedients just referred to. For the sake of completeness, however, it may be worth while to describe it.
To an ordinary pocket-pistol is adapted a cylindrical brass tube, as a a in Fig. 49, about two inches in diameter, but shouldered off into a neck of smaller dimensions, b, at the end which fits over the pistol. So large a barrel naturally demands a special ramrod. The stem, c, of this is of wood, but the head, d, which is two inches deep, is of metal, cylindrical in form, and of such diameter as to pass easily down the barrel. Its lower edge is slightly turned in all round.
Resting on this turned edge is a loose bottom, e, normally pressed down-ward by a spiral spring, f, above it (kept in position by a central pin, g), but yielding easily to upward pressure. With this is used a brass cup, h, in general appearance exactly like the head of the ramrod, but of such a size as to fit somewhat tightly within it.
When it is desired to use the pistol, the barrel proper is loaded, in the ordinary way, with a light charge of powder, and the tube a a is placed in position. Into this the cup h is then privately inserted,
the performer taking due care that the pistol shall thenceforth be held muzzle uppermost. The bor-rowed rings are at the proper time dropped into the tube, naturally falling into h. The act of ramming down forces d over h, the loose bottom e receding to make way for the rings. When the ramrod is again withdrawn, and carried off by the assistant, the rings are carried off within it, and are at his disposal for the purpose of the trick.