PARLOUR MAGIC
PHILADELPHIA: H. PERKINS, 134 CHESTNUT STREET.
MDCCCXXXVIII.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by Henry Perkins,in the Clerk’s office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Printed by Haswell, Barrington, and Haswell.
PREFACE.
To furnish the ingenious youth with the means ofrelieving the tediousness of a long winter’s or a wetsummer’s evening,—to enable him to provide for aparty of juvenile friends, instructive as well as recreativeentertainment, without having recourse toany of the vulgar modes of killing time,—to qualifythe hero of his little circle to divert and astonish hisfriends, and, at the same time, to improve himself,are the principal objects of the following little Work.
The boy whose wonder and curiosity have beenexcited by the experiments of the scientific lecturer,[vi]or the illusions of the ventriloquist, will here findmany of these mysteries unveiled, and plain directionsfor performing them, divested, as far as possible,of scientific or technical language. Many of thedescriptions are strictly original, and now, for thefirst time, appear in print; and especial care has beentaken to introduce only such Experiments as areadapted for performance at the parlour or drawing-roomtable, or fire-side, and such as are practicablewithout expensive chemical or mechanical apparatus,and require no implements beyond those which anyingenious youth may readily furnish from his ownresources, or at a trifling expense.
Another object of these pages is to inform, withoutbeing dryly scientific,—by imparting interestingfacts, to stimulate the young experimentalist toinquire into the laws that regulate them,—by aidinghim to acquire dexterity of practice, to smooth the[vii]road to the development of principles,—and, aboveall, to enable him to escape an imputation whichevery boy of spirit would consider the depth ofdisgrace,—that of being “No Conjuror!”
...