The Magical Box — Great Trick of Magicians

1874

MAGICAL BOX

A magician has lately been giving a series of performances, some of which are as surprising as they are entertaining and amusing. One of them is as follows:

A common empty packing box, with a lid hung by iron, hinges, is placed upon the stage, and a committee from the audience asked to examine it. They report that it is a firmly made packing box. After a thorough examination, outside and inside, they take a rope and tie it up, passing twice around the ends and sides, passing it through the staples for the two padlocks, and then tie the ends firmly, and seal them with sealing wax. They then envelop the box in a canvas, which covers all six sides, when another rope is added, tied and sealed. Surely the box is safe from any attempt to get into or out of it without removing the ropes!

The assistant then comes forward with a canvas sack, open at one end. This is examined by the committee and by the audience. It is then placed over the head of the assistant, and tied below his feet and the knots sealed. He is then laid in the box, and the box surrounded by a screen. In two and a half minutes the sack is thrown over the screen, the knot and seals untouched. The screen is instantly removed, and the committee, after examining the seals and finding them unbroken, commence untying the ropes and removing the canvas. The box is opened and the man found inside!


1909

No More Teddy Bears?

The days of the Teddy bear are over, but while they lasted, the inventor of that popular plaything reaped a rich harvest. It is said his profits are up in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.


Genius Hair

"Why is it," asks a writer in Fliegende Blatter, "that when a man discovers that he is a 'genius' he allows his hair to grow long, and that when a woman becomes similarly conscious she has her hair cut short?"

—Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, Nov. 30, 1909, p. 2.