"Perhaps I ought to have explained at the beginning that this method of cooking rice is rather slow; if the rice is at all aged and tough it may take hours and hours--or even longer--to cook itself in a proper manner; of course, this rice is strictly proper--highly refined. It can be used for puddings, cakes, poultices, dog-biscuits and bill-stickers' paste; it can also be used for waterproofing boots, and it is invaluable for invalids. I once induced an invalid friend of mine to try some of my patent rice pudding. The invalid got better at once--afraid of having to face a second dose. It's dangerous stuff--rice pudding. Many a happy home has been nearly wrecked--all through a cold, heavy, stodgy, underdone, beastly rice pudding. Ladies, let it be a warning to you. . . . I beg your pardon--I've been talking so much that I've been forgetting my own cooking. (_Lift bowl and pour water from one bowl to the other._) I'm very sorry. Really I must apologise. All the rice has been cooked away--perhaps it's as well, because nobody really likes rice pudding."
In its simplest form this trick consists in putting some silver sand into a bowl of water and taking it out--perfectly dry. But the trick in that form is hardly worth doing and certainly not worth the trouble involved in its preparation.
An important additional effect is produced by using sands of three colours--red, white, and blue. The white sand is not really white, but the natural colour of the sand. In this case, not only does the conjurer take out the sand perfectly dry, but he takes out the sand of the colour named by the audience.
This is a trick which depends largely for its effect upon the showmanship of the performer, for unless the audience are thoroughly convinced that the bowl of water is what the conjurer says it is and nothing more--an ordinary bowl nearly filled with ordinary water--and unless the audience are further convinced of the fact that the sands of different colours are poured into the bowl and are thoroughly stirred up into the water they will not be properly surprised when the conjurer comes to the climax of the trick.
Therefore, the conjurer should lead off by giving the bowl out for examination. The bowl can be either of glass, metal, or china. The trick is most effective, I think, when a glass bowl is used; it should be a large flat bowl.