What Shall We Do Now? by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (unputdownable books .TXT) 📕

Another trick. The players who are to be mesmerized—among them being the one or two who do not know the game—stand in a row, each holding a dinner-plate in the left hand. The mesmerizer, who also has a dinner-plate, faces them, and impresses on them very seriously the importance, if they really want to be mesmerized, of doing exactly what he does and not moving their eyes from him in any direction. He then holds the plate flat, rubs the first finger of his right hand on the bottom of it, and makes an invisible cross on his forehead, on each cheek, and on the tip of his nose. That is all. The trick lies in the fact that the plates of the players who do not know the game have been held in the flame of a candle until they are well blacked. This means that when the mesmerism is over they each have black marks on their faces, and know nothing about it until they are led to a looking-glass.

In all thought-reading games it is best that only the two performers should know the secret. Of these two, one goes out of the room and the other stays in, after having first arranged on the particular trick which will be used. Perhaps the company will then be asked to settle on a trade. Let us say that they decide on a chemist. The other player is then called in, and his companion puts questions to him in this way:—"You have to name the trade which we have thought of. Is it a grocer?" "No." "Is it a draper?" "No." "Is it a goldsmith?" "No." "Is it a fruiterer?" "No." "Is it a lawyer?" "No." "Is it a chemist?" "Yes." This will look rather mysterious to some of the company; but the thing is really simple enough. The questioner merely arranged with his companion that the trade thought of should follow a profession.

Perhaps on the next occasion the company will be asked to think of an article in the room. Let us say that they fix on the clock. The questions will then run something like this:—"You have to name the article in this room which has been thought of. Is it the piano?" "No." "Is it the curtain-rod?" "No." "Is it the carpet?" "No." "Is it the fireplace?" "No." "Is it the sideboard?" "No." "Is it the armchair?" "No." "Is it the clock?" "Yes." This again is bewildering; but again the trick is very simple, the questioner having arranged that the article shall follow something that has four legs.

A third way is for an article to be touched and for the thought-reader to be asked to name it. "Is it this?" "Is it this?" "Is it this?" is asked of one thing after another, the answer always being "No." "Is it that?" "Yes." The secret is that the article touched is always signified by "Is it that?" But in this case, and in that of the others already described, the effect of mystification can be increased by arranging beforehand that the article in question shall not follow the key phrase immediately, but, say, two questions later.

A fourth way is for the questioner to begin each question in due order with a letter of the French word for the article touched. Thus, if it were the bell, he might say, "Come now, was it the table?" "Look, was it the armchair?" "Or the piano?" "Come now, was it this book?" "How about this hearth-rug?" "Endeavor to be quick, please. Was it the clock?" By this time "Cloche" has been spelled, so that the next question is, "Was it the bell?" "Yes."

In another form of "Thought-reading" the two players who know the secret remain in the room long enough for the trick to be made sure. One stands in a corner and the other calls loudly, "Ebenezer, do you hear?" (Ebenezer is the usual name, but a more attractive one would do.) Ebenezer says nothing, but listens attentively to hear who among the company speaks first. The other player repeats the question and still there is no answer. Soon after that some one will perhaps make a remark, and then Ebenezer, having got what he was waiting for, says, "Yes, I hear." "Then leave the room," says the other player, and Ebenezer goes out. The other player then makes a great show of choosing some one to touch, but ends by touching the person who spoke first after the game began. This done, Ebenezer is called in to say who was touched, and every one is puzzled by his knowledge.

With these thought-reading tricks may be put one or two arithmetical puzzles. Here is a way to find out the number that a person has thought of. Tell him to think of any number, odd or even. (Let us suppose that he thinks of 7.) Then tell him to double it (14), add 6 to it (20), halve it (10), and multiply it by 4 (40). Then ask him how many that makes. He will say 40. You divide this in your mind by 2 (20), subtract 6 (14), divide by 2 again (7), and astonish him by saying that the number of which he thought was 7.

In this case you insist on the number chosen being an even number. Let us suppose it is 8. Tell him to multiply by 3 (24), halve it (12), multiply by 3 again (36), and then to tell you how many times 9 will go into the result. He will say 4. Double this in your mind and tell him that he thought of 8.

Another trick. Tell the person to think of a number, to double it, add 6 to it, halve it and take away the number first thought of. When this has been done you tell him that 3 remains. If these directions are followed 3 must always remain. Let us take 7 and 1 as examples. Thus 7 doubled is 14; add 6 and it is 20; halved, it is 10; and if the number first thought of—7—is subtracted, 3 remains. Again, 1 doubled is 2; 6 added makes 8; 8 halved is 4, and 1 from 4 leaves 3.

A more bewildering puzzle is this. Tell as many persons as like to, to think of some number less than 1,000, in which the last figure is smaller than the first. Thus 998 might be thought of, but not 999, and not 347. The amount being chosen and written down, you tell each person to reverse the digits; so that the units come under the hundreds, the tens under the tens, and the hundreds under the units. Then tell them to subtract, to reverse again, and add; remarking to each one that you know what the answer will be. It will always be 1089. Let us suppose that three players choose numbers, one being 998, one 500, and one 321. Each sets them on paper, reverses the figures, and subtracts. Thus:—

The figures are then reversed and added. Thus:—

Guessing competitions, which are of American invention, can be an interesting change from ordinary games. In some the company are all asked to contribute, as in "Book Teas," where a punning symbolic title of a book is worn by each guest, and a prize is given to the person who guesses most, and to the person whose title is considered the best. Thus, a person wearing a card having the letter R represented Middlemarch, and a person with catkins in his buttonhole, Hazell's Annual. But simpler devices are just as interesting.

In other guessing competitions the preparations are the affair of the household which gives the party. It is with these that we are concerned here. Giving prizes certainly adds to the interest of them.

Several articles of number are placed on a table, say a box of matches, a bag of beans, a reel of cotton or ball of string, a large stone, a stick, a photograph, and various coins with the date side turned down. Each of the company is provided with a card on which these articles are written, and the object is to guess as nearly as possible something about each; for instance, how many matches there are in the box, how many beans in the bag, the length of the string, the weight of the stone, the length of the stick, the age of the person in the photograph, and the date of each coin. The right answers are, of course, ascertained beforehand and written on a card in the hostess's possession.

The real name of this game may be something else, but "Observation" explains it. A small table is covered with a variety of articles, to the extent of some twenty or thirty. It is then covered with a cloth and placed in the middle of the room. The players stand round it and the cloth is removed for a minute (or longer). During that time the aim of each player is to note and remember as many of the things as possible. The cloth is then put on again and the players have five minutes in which to write the fullest list they can of the objects seen.

A more puzzling competition is to place a row of large bottles on the table, all numbered, at the bottom of each of which is a small amount of liquid bearing a noticeable scent. Some may be toilet scents, and others medicines or essences used in cooking. A card numbered according to the bottles is given to each player, and the game is to guess as many of the scents as possible.

The performers in this concert, who should be of nearly the same size, take their places behind a sheet stretched across the room at the height of their chins. They then put stockings on their arms and boots on their hands (or this may be done before they come into the room), and stand looking over the sheet at the company, with their hands and arms carefully hidden. The concert begins by the singing of the first verse of a song. Immediately the verse is finished, the singers, stooping down so that their heads disappear from view, thrust up their arms and wave them about, the effect being that of a row of people standing on their heads. The chorus is thus sung. Then they pull down their arms and put up their heads again and sing the next verse.

This is a very amusing illusion and easy to arrange. All the players but two are sent out of the room and these stand behind a table. One stands close to the table, his arms in front of him so that the fingers rest on the table. Boots, or stockings and shoes, are put on their arms and a long dark cloak is thrown over the shoulders of the first player covering the one behind him. The one behind furnishes the arms by thrusting his out in front. The little feet resting on the table show from the folds of the cloak and give the appearance of a dwarf. The players are then called back and the dwarf, whose face should be disguised, performs any feat that they ask for—he sings