THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
73 
And so the glove is torn, and the pieces 
thrown on the stage. Again the per- 
former wants to borrow. 
"Will some gentleman lend me a 
watch? Thank you, this will do." 
As he takes it, however, it strikes the 
hour, and informing his audience that a 
repeater, though useful to a politician, 
will not answer his purpose, he returns it. 
He tries two or three, but, strange to say, 
they are all repeaters. Failing in getting 
another kind, he places the last one of- 
fered, with the fragments of the glove, 
into a pistol which is furnished with a fun- 
nel-shaped tube, and aiming at a piece of 
black cloth, which his assistant holds, he 
fires, and at the same moment the watch 
and glove appear suspended on the cloth. 
When the performer borrows the glove, 
he takes it with the fore-finger and thumb 
of his right hand, makes it into as small a 
roll as possible, and then with tips of his 
fingers, places it in his palm. At the same 
moment he allows a second glove to ap- 
pear, which he has had concealed under 
his second, third and little fingers, which 
until now he has held closed. This glove 
he passes from his right to his left hand, 
and if the change is made rapidly, it will 
never be detected, but the audience will 
still suppose that they see the same glove 
that was borrowed. 
It is this second glove that is torn up 
after the borrowed one is concealed. To 
conceal this without being detected is no 
little art, and unless explained my readers 
may be at a loss how to do it. When the 
performer comes down into the house to 
borrow the glove, he carries his wand in 
his right hand, apparently for the sake of 
effect, but really as an excuse for keeping 
the hand closed, as the second glove is 
concealed in it. When about to take the 
glove from the lady, he tucks his imnd 
under his arm, and then after the change 
is made, he takes it in his right hand 
again, and, as if to get it out of his way, 
thrusts it into his breast pocket, and the 
borrowed glove with it. 
The watches which strike the hour, do 
not strike at all, but the striking is done 
by a repeating apparatus, which is worked 
by pressing a small button. This appar- 
atus, which is no larger than a watch, is 
concealed about the person. I have 
always worn it under the waistband of my 
trousers, the button turned in. When I. 
wanted it to strike, I distended my belly — 
don't be shocked — and as long as the 
pressure on the button was kept up, just, 
so long the striking would continue. 
Others wear it on the muscular part of the 
arm, and, by throwing out the muscle, 
press the button, but I think my method 
better than any other. 
When the performer returns to the stage- 
to get the pistol from his assistant, h& 
hands him the borrowed watch and glove.. 
These, the assistant fastens to the upper 
part of a piece of cloth, and then folds the- 
cloth so as to conceal them. The pistol 
which receives the substituted watch and 
glove, is a very simple affair, being an 
ordinary weapon to which is fitted a large 
brass or tin funnel ; inside this funnel is a 
tube which fits into the barrel of the pis- 
tol, and comes nearly to the mouth of the 
funnel. It is between this tube and the 
sides of the funnel that the articles are 
packed, and of course they are not affected, 
at all by the discharge of the pistol. 
To make the articles appear on the cloth,, 
the assistant merely drops the fold of the 
cloth at the moment the performer fires. 
The repeating apparatus, any ingenious- 
watchmaker can make, or it may be pur- 
chased where other magical apparatus . is 
sold. 
This trick is somewhat similar to an- 
other very pojmlar one known as 
Tlie Broken Plate— In this trick, the per- 
former begins by sending his assistant 
into the house to borrow two or three 
watches. These he receives on a china 
plate, and as he returns to the stage, he 
unfortunately trips, and, falling, smashes 
to atoms the plate and watches. 
The performer regrets this accident, not 
so much on account of the damage done 
to the watches, "For those," he says, "I 
can easily replace by others equally as 
good. But as for my plate, it is a loss 
which I fear, I can never make up, as it 
is one of a set of china which has been in 
my family for many centuries. There is 
a superstition too connected with it, that 
whenever apiece is broken, some calamity 
is about to befall the owner. In this in- 
