The Penetrative Guinea
Provide a large tin box, of the size of a large snuff-box, and in this
place eight other boxes, which will go easily into each other, and let
the least of them be of a size to hold a guinea. Each of these boxes
should shut with a hinge, and to the least of them there must be a
small lock, that is fastened with a spring, but cannot be opened
without a key;--observe, that all these boxes must shut so freely,
that they ma
with their tops open, in the drawer of the table on which you make
your experiments; or, if you please, in your pocket, in such a manner
that they cannot be displaced.
Then ask a person to lend you a new guinea, and desire him to mark it,
that it may not be changed. You take this piece in one hand, and in
the other you have another of the same appearance, and putting your
hand into the drawer, you slip the piece that is marked into the least
box, and shutting them all at once, you take them out; then showing
the piece you have in your hand, and which the company suppose to be
the same that was marked, you pretend to make it pass through the box,
and dexterously convey it away.
You then present the box, for the spectators do not yet know there are
more than one, to any person in company, who, when he opens it, finds
another, and another, till he comes to the last, but that he cannot
open without the key, which you then give him, and retiring to a
distant part of the room, you tell him to take out the guinea himself,
and see if it be that which he marked.
This amusement may be made more surprising, by putting the key into
the snuff-box of one of the company, which you may do by asking him
for a pinch of snuff, and at the same time conceal the key, which must
be very small, among the snuff; and when the person, who is to open
the box, asks for the key, you tell him that one of the company has it
in his snuff-box. This part of the amusement may likewise be performed
by means of a confederate.
More
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