Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
To make a bird appear as dead.
Marks fec.
A curious trick with a cup of tea.
HOLIDAY FROLICS;
OR,
ENDLESS AMUSEMENT
FOR THE CHRISTMAS FIRESIDE.
CONTAINING,
The most Astonishing Feats of Legerdemain,
AND
ASTOUNDING CONJURINGS;
Entertaining Experiments
IN VARIOUS BRANCHES OF SCIENCE;
TRICKS with CARDS & DICE.
ART OF MAKING
FIREWORKS;
TOGETHER WITH AN EXCELLENT COLLECTION OF
Puzzles, Conundrums, Riddles, Charades, &c. &c.
The whole admirably calculated to beguile the leisure hours of our Holiday Friends.
Embellished with a Copper-plate Engraving.
PREFACE.
Legerdemain and Conjuring are words frequentlyapplied to the same object, but the definitionsof them are quite different.
Legerdemain is that which conveys deceptionto the eye from philosophical principles, whileConjuring is nothing more or less than Sleight ofHand. Simple as the denomination seems fromthe title which it bears, many of our first Professorshave applied much of their valuable timein developing the mysteries of it; and our youngfriends may rest assured, that the ascertaining ofthe power of mechanism has, in many instances,4emanated from an hour or two’s amusing experiments.
The Tricks, Puzzles, Conundrums, &c. whichare now presented, have been selected from thebest works,—some have never yet appeared beforethe Public in print. If the perusal of the followingpages, afford one hour’s amusement, the Author’swishes will be obtained.
Oct. 16, 1830.
HOLIDAY FROLICS,
OR,
ENDLESS AMUSEMENT
For the Christmas Fireside,
&c. &c.
Conundrums.
- 1.
- Why is a drunken man like a Quaker?
- 2.
- Why is a nobleman like a book?
- 3.
- What burns to keep a secret?
- 4.
- When is a door not a door?
- 5.
- Why is your nose like V in incivility?