Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1884 — Magic Circle. [ARTICLE]

Magic Circle.

You tell a person you will place him in the center of a room and draw a circle of chalk round hiqa, which shall not exceed three feet in diameter, yet out of which he shall not be able toPescape, though his legs shall be perfectly free. When the party has exhausted his ingenuity in trying to discover by what means you can prevent his accomplishing so seemingly easy a task, you ask if he will try; and on his assenting youbring him into the middle of the room,' and having requested him to button his coat tightly, you draw with a piece of chalk a circle round his waist, outside his coat, and tell him to jump out of it It will greatly improve this trick if the person be blindfolded, as he will not be aware of the mode of performing it till the bandage is removed, providing his attention be diverted while you are drawing the line round him. Tanner’s record in fasimg has been greatly surpassed by a Newburg spider that lived two hundred and four days without food or water. That specimen ought to be stuffed and mounted for permanent preservation with the record of his extraordinary fast. California spiders stuffed are in great demand for collections at 50 cents apiece. This Tanner spider ought to fetch a large price for a premium.— Dr. FootFs Health Monthly.