Hold a pair of scissors on the first two joints of your little fingers with your palms upward, their blades pointing to the floor (Fig. 27). Then throw the points over toward you, turning your hands at the same time and bringing your knuckles back to back, the scissors standing out straight from you (Fig. 28).
I have never seen any one accomplish this simple feat until they learned the secret. When you throw the scissors over on the palms of your hands, with their points toward your chest, allow the blades to rest there for an instant with the tips of your little fingers touching your palms through the scissors' bows; then bring the backs of your fingers together with your hands closed and the points of the scissors outward. The uninitiated, instead of allowing the bows to slip to the points of the little fingers, hold them tight on the second joints and, of course, fail.
This trick consists of fastening the scissors securely to the back of a chair with a piece of string and then removing them without cutting or untying the string. First make a loop of a piece of string about two feet in length and pass the double end through one of the bows and the two loose ends through the loop and pull tight. Next pass the two single ends through the other bow of the scissors and tie them to the back of the chair. The puzzle is how to remove them, which is simple enough when you know how. Loosen the loop and draw it upwards and pass it through the other bow, and then over both bows and points, when the scissors will be free.
Take three cigarette papers, fold one up into a very small square, and paste it lightly on the top right corner of the second paper. The third paper roll lengthwise, and conceal it in your ear. Show the first paper between both thumbs and fingers, your right thumb on the pasted corner, then proceed to tear it up into squares, placing the pieces in front of each other before tearing again. When it is in pieces about the size of the pasted square, under the shelter of your left hand, with its back to the audience, separate the pieces from the square and hold the latter up between your right thumb and finger. Then, pretending to moisten your left forefinger on your tongue, slip the pieces in your mouth and conceal them there, and carefully unfold the square held in the other hand, when the paper will appear to have been restored. You then roll the paper length wise, and say, "I will swallow it." Put it in your mouth and pretend to do so. Putting your left hand to your ear, say, "I will now reproduce from my ear." Pull out the paper concealed there very carefully, and as you turn to lay it on your table allow the pieces in your mouth to drop into your hand.
