Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1875 — Tricks for the Home Circle. [ARTICLE]

Tricks for the Home Circle.

THE CANDLE THICK. One of the simplest tricks in this department of fireside entertainments is the candle trick. Take a common tallow candle, in a brass candlestick, light it and let it stand until it has got a good head on. Then let one of the children, a boy about fourteen years old is best, take the candle, shake the grease from around the wick, and, opening his mouth very wide, stick the candle in it, immediately closing his lips. Tlie candle will not go out, but will shine through the boy’s distended checks with a ruddy glow. Now let the parent suddenly chuck the boy smartly under the chin. The candle will lie observed to go out immediately, or at least it will come out just as soon as the boy can get his teeth out of the tallow. This win teach tlie boy who swallows the candle never to attempt uncertain tricks when his lather is mean enough to plav practical jokes on his own chilaren. The other children will appreciate the lesson. —— THE E(JG TRICK. Procure a large egg, Brahma eggs are the best, and on the large end draw a cross with a lead pencil, and on the opposite end draw another smaller cross in ink. Place the egg, after showing the children the marks and permitting them to examine it carefully, so they will know it the next time they see it, upon tlie head of the oldest boy present, or if there is a grandfather handy with a bald head, balance the egg on his head. Then let one of the company take a large book and see if he can strike tlie egg hard enough to break it. To the surprise of everybody the egg will be suppressed at the first blow. Then you can show the person on whose head it was balanced the two crosses marked on the shell to prove that it was the same egg lie saw in its entirety, but he will probably be too cross to have much interest in tlie matter. This is not a very difficult trick, and can be quite easily learned, but care should be exercised in the selection of the egg. An egg that had been manufactured before the war would be apt to create an unpleasantness if it should be used in this trick. The dog trick. This trick is not always easy to perform, on account of the necessity of introducing a strange dog into the family circle. You must entice a strange dog, the more unsociable tlie better, into the room. Then let one of tlie company take hold of its ears, and hold the dog still, while another ties its tail in a bow-knot. If the dog has been properly trained and does his part of the trick promptly there will be lour or five legs in that room chuck full of dog’s teeth before the first wrinkle is laid in that knot. - This will teach the children to let a dog’s tail retain the shape which nature has given it. Any dog of average sagacity can be taught to perform this trick in two or three days’ practice. A terrier is generally considered better lor this experiment than a bull dog, because it doesn’t hold on so long, and knows when it has had enough. THE CHAIR TRICK. You can derive a never-ending fund of amusement by properly improving a common chair. With an ordinary hand-saw cut off about an inch and a half of the right front leg of the chair and about the same length from the left hind leg. Then keep the chair in a conspicuous place. No matter wElch oT'tlie short legS"imnay be resting upon when anybody sits down in.it, it will immediately keel over on_ the other one, and the party using it will wail and shriek in the liyeliest terror. No house should be without one of these chairs. They will be found very useful in the case of visitors.who drop in about dinner time. —Burlington Hawk-Eye.