Conjuring tricks with cards balls, and dice; magic writing, performing animals, etc.
This is a surprisingly interesting book edited by W. H. Cremer. It includes an early precursor of the Chop Cup. (See The Magic Dutch Balls.) It has interesting information on gambling, cheating, and scams. The chapter on 'Magic Writing' is a wonderful history of cryptography and steganography. The chapter on animal training is one of the most detailed I have encountered. It also includes a wealth of magic tricks, science experiments, and effects based on apparatus.
- Part I. Modern Magic By Sleight Of Hand & Mechanism
- A Capital Rope Trick
- The Little Golden Head On Three Rings
- A Simple Bird-Scarer
- The Magic Wand And Sandalwood Sandals
- The Newspaper Mask
- Parachute And Dart
- The Wondrous Restoration
- The Conjurer's Illumination
- Coloured Flames
- Japanese Paper Matches
- Japanese Day Fireworks
- Luminous Bust
- The Wonderful Ascending Globes
- Improved "Sphinx" Table
- The Automaton Statue Of Memnon
- The Sympathetic Execution
- The Inseparable Head
- The Conjurer's Candles
- The Telescope Of Power
- A Handkerchief Trick
- The Destroyed Handkerchief Restored
- The Paradox Of Ascension
- The "Davenport" Cabinet
- The Gordian Knot Unloosed
- The Conjurer's Fan
- Magic Traps For Horizontal And Perpendicular Appearances
- The "Vampire" Trap
- The "Star" Trap
- The Trap For Secret Appearance
- Lulu's Leap Explained
- Catching A Cannon Ball
- Professor Anderson's Magic Portfolio
- The Conjurer's Canary
- The Conjurer's Orange-Tree
- The Conjurer's Post Office
- The Dice Of Revelation
- The Impenetrable Sealed Box Trick
- The Conjurer's Clock
- Musical Box Mechanism
- The Mechanical Tumbler
- The Mechanical Leotard
- The Mechanical Harlequin
- The Mechanical Ship
- The Bewitched Palanquin
- Part II. Tricks With Cards
- The Three-Card Trick
- The Trick Of Thirty-One
- The Card That Changes To A Flower At The Word Of Command
- The Old Grandmother's Trick - Pug Ugly, Or The Man That Told Ages
- Euchre, Or Youker
- Pricking The Garter
- Cards At Leapfrog
- "Dog" Loo
- Dropping The Pigeon
- The Conjurer's Card-Case
- To Make A Card Which A Person Has Drawn Dance On A Wall
- To Change A Card Locked Up In A Box
- Gamblers' Pretended Witchcraft Exposed
- The Forced Card Trick Exposed
- Bending, Shifting, Turning, Stealing, &c
- The Three Jacks
- The Self-Restoring Card
- Playing In Partnership
- Playing By Signs
- Big Hands
- Three Up
- How To Hold Four Kings In Your Hand, And By Words Alone Seem To Change Them Into Four Aces, And Afterwards To Make Them All Blank Cards
- To Change A Card By Words
- Working The Telegraph
- Whist
- Stocking
- Coming The Change
- Stocking To Change The Packs
- Playing Three Against One
- Deceptions Used In The Game Of All-Fours
- Stealing Out
- Stocking
- Watching The Tens
- Turning Jacks Every Deal
- Changing Packs
- The Conjurer's Card Changing From A Five To A Four
- The Obedient Cards And The Wreath Of Flowers
- The Mysterious Bouquet
- Part III. Deceptions With Dice, Thimblerig, &c
- Loaded Dice
- Cogging, Now Called Securing
- Despatcher
- Scratched Dice
- "The Doctor Dice-Box"
- Unequal Dice
- Table With The Hollow Leg, &C
- Spring Tables
- The Pulley
- The Biters Bit
- The Game Of Thimblerig
- A Story In Illustration
- All Fair Above Board
- Part IV. Miscellaneous Magic
- Instrument To Imitate The Voices Of Animals
- The Musical Kaleidoscope
- Echo Lines On An Unpopular M.P.
- Curious Problems
- Freezing Water In A Red-Hot Vessel
- Practical Puzzles
- How To Make A Magic Mirror
- Of Women
- The Everlasting Soap Bubble
- Sensational Piano Playing
- A Natural Timepiece
- Riddle
- Anagrammatical Fans
- A Curious Love Letter
- Curious Song Of A Lover To His Sweetheart
- Curt Letters
- A Pugilist's Love-Letter
- A "Grammatical" Love-Letter
- S A To L N.
- Maybe You Doubt It
- Condensed Readings
- How To Win In A Spider Race
- The Alphabet Of 1800
- The Obedient Courier
- The Year Of Ill-Omen
- How To Cut A Hair
- Dioramic Pictures
- Storm-Glasses
- The Artful Soldiers
- To Tell The Weight Of An Ox By Measurement
- Ambiguous Poem On The Ladies
- To Tell Any One's Age
- The Comic Platoon-Fire
- Magic Balls Found In A Cannon-Ball In A Hat
- To Be Invisible To The Audience, Though Unmasked And Bearing A Light
- Wonderful Appearance Of Marks Upon The Hand, Sent Through A Table
- Multiplication Of Flags
- The Acrobatic Feather
- The Ring Found In An Egg
- Spontaneous Growth Of A Flower
- Robert Houdin's Watch Trick
- The Siamese Dollar And Creese Trick
- Magician's Bottles For Holding Birds, &c
- Card-Printing On A Handkerchief With A Pistol-Shot
- The Card Studded With Pins
- To Stand Before A Cannon-Shot
- Tricks At Dominoes
- Restoration Of A Torn-Up Coat
- The Taglioni Card
- The Card Of Revelation
- The Marvellous Lemon-Tree
- The Magic Card-Bottle
- Comic Magnetism
- Writing In Snuff The Name Of A Chosen Card
- The Celebrated Ring, Glove, Nut, And Egg Trick
- The Biter Bit
- Part V. Mysterious Magic
- Illusions Of Touch
- The Juggler And The Painter
- Comus's Champion Card Trick
- A Simple Coin Trick
- Curious Napoleonic Prophecy
- Comicalities Of Sound
- Mysterious Revolving Disc
- The Bewitched Handkerchief
- A Magician's Adventure, With Explanations
- Chinese Magnetic Chariots
- Artificial Magnets
- "Top And Bottom" Dice Trick
- To Break A Stone With A Blow Of The Fist
- The Observant Conjurer
- The Magic Dutch Balls
- The Elephant Trick In Siam
- The Physiognotype
- The Incomprehensible Indian Trick Of Animated Dolls
- Animal Mesmerism
- Magical Trick With A Gaslight
- The Magic Double Globe
- A Wonderful Sleight-Of-Hand Feat
- The Famous Olivier's Coin Trick
- Magical Way To Tell The Distance Of Thunder
- The Mysterious Dancers
- Bullock's Automaton Soothsayer
- To Spin India-Rubber
- Robert Houdin's Automata
- Tricks With Words
- Tautological Tribute
- Numeral Epitaph
- Barnum The Showman's Trick
- Peculiarities Of The English Language
- The Undecided Question
- How To Raise A Laugh
- Triumph Of Alliteration
- Abbreviated Business Letter
- Weather Wisdom
- Catching The Conjurer
- A Spiritualistic Concert
- Sport With Coloured Wafers
- How The Amateur Conjurer Juggled Away A Man
- The Conjurer's Last Joke
- Can You Guess
- To Judge Of Weights
- Horticultural Trick
- Turtle Cloves
- Part VI. The Mystery Of Magic Writing
- The Mystery Of Secret Writing
- Vergennes' Wonderful Cards
- The Trithemean Systems
- Porta And Cypher Writing
- Circular Cyphers
- Musical Circular Cipher
- Porta's Indecipherable Alphabet
- Ciphers Of Blaise De Vigenére
- The Bead Telegraph
- Lord Bacon's Ciphers
- The Cipher Of Luneburg Selenus
- Cardan's Cryptograph
- The Mnemonic Cipher
- The Cipher Of Mirabeau
- Cipher In Punctuation-Marks
- Vigenere's Method
- Cipher Dictionary
- The Ciphered Cipher
- The Annulling Cipher
- The Slow But Sure Cipher
- Cipher By Books
- Tennysonian And Shakespearian Ciphers
- Cipher By A Pack Of Cards
- Decremps' Ribbon Writing
- Intermixed Cipher And Null Words
- Hermann's Impenetrable Cipher
- Pasigraphy
- Hieroglyphical Ciphers
- A Curiosity In Cipher
- Variation
- The French War Cipher
- Cipher In French
- Ciphers In English
- Ciphers In Italian
- Ciphers In Spanish
- Ciphers In German
- The Unravelment Of Ciphers
- Invisible Or Sympathetic Inks
- Ink To Be Wetted With Water
- Invisible Inks
- Ingenious Concealment Of Writing
- Floral Ciphers
- Part VII: The Mystery Of Training Animals
- The Trick Of Telling The Age, The Hour, &c
- Toby And Other Learned Pigs
- Dogs Of Montargis And Other Canines
- "The Dog Of Montargis"
- Training Of Wild Animals
- Trained Monkeys
- Trained Deer
- The Training Of Birds To Sing
- Teaching Birds To Talk
- Taming And Trick Teaching
- The Industrious Fleas
- Trained Elephants And Other Wild Fowl
1st edition 1876, 333 pages; PDF 189 pages.
word count: 80434 which is equivalent to 321 standard pages of text
