Lorento, Professor: Amateur Amusements ©1878, Hurst & Co., Publishers, NY Hardcover, 376 pages

Image courtesy e-Bay seller Oddclem1

Comments: "Including almost every kind of play and sport suitable for parties and parlor recreations, giving full directions how to get up shadow pantomimes, gallantry shows, short comic plays, which are all fully illustrated with capital pictures; also showing how to do all kinds of Conjuror's and Magician's Tricks, with illustrative engravings. Hundreds of Conundrums, Puzzles, Riddles, and Ingenious Problems. The Chinese Wizard's way of working Wonderful Feats, Magic and Puzzles, to which is added a full description of the elegant and fashionable entertainment of Acting Charades, and a choice selection of Tableau Vivants or Living Pictures."

Contents:

iii Preface
v Contents

7 Shadow Pantomimes
7 General Directions
10 Shadow Buff, or Who's Who?
11 The Dentist or Tooth-Drawing Extraordinary
13 Amputation Like Winking, or The Marvellous Reviver
16 Jocko, or the Mischievous Monkey
23 Regular Hash, or the Boarding House Conspiracy
27 The Madcap Barber, or the Unfortunate Victim

32 Ghosts, and How to Raise Them
32 The Spectres In the Room

40 The Gallanty Show
41 The Wonderful Crocodile: puppet show

46 Parlor Theatricals
46 The Compliments of the Season: A Fancy-ful interlude for New Years Eve (a play)
54 Abandoning the Bloodless: a Romantic Drama
56 The Wilkd Wolf of Tartary, or The Empty Kahn and the Khurdish Conspirators: a play
62 The Ever So Little Bear, or The Pale Faces and the Putemindecauldron Indians
67 The White Rose of the Plantation, or Lubly Rosa, Sambo Don't Come

73 Charades in Action; or Plays Without Words
73 Introduction
75 Courtship, a Charade in Three Acts
79 Mischief, a Charade in Three Acts
82 Birthday, a Charade in Three Acts
85 Seashore, a Charade in Three Acts
89 Bugbear, a Charade in Three Acts

92 Tableaux Vivants (Living Pictures)
92 General Directions
93 The Fortune-Teller
94 The Lorelei
94 Ceres and the Seasons
95 The Reaper and the Flowers
96 Zekle and Huldy
96 With the Tide and Against the Tide
97 Two Blind Beggars
97 Paul and Virginia
98 Cain and Abel
99 Old Woman In the Show
99 Snow Birds
100 Indian Sun Worshipers
100 Flower of the Family
100 Faith
101 Hope
102 Charity
102 Merry Christmas
103 Sunrise
103 Noon
103 Sunset
104 Midnight
104 Song of the Shirt
104 Yes or No
105 Music, Song, and Dance
106 Come to Diner
106 You're Not Expected, Sir
107 Lear and Cordella
107 Flora's Garden
109 Betsy and I are Out
110 Return of the Runaway
110 Courtship
111 Matrimony
111 Love Looks Not With the Eyes
112 Rest in the Desert
113 Forbidden Fruit
113 The Soldier's Dream
114 The Artist's Dream
115 Spring
115 Summer
116 Autumn
116 Winter
117 Rock of Ages
117 The Prodigal Son
118 Statuary

121 Riddles, Conundrums, Puzzles, Etc.
121 Riddles and Conundrums: 343 of them
133 Charades: 60 of them
141 Enigmas: 56 of them
153 Puzzles, Acrostics and Rebuses: 43 of them
158 Anagrams and Transpositions: 40 of them
160 Problems: 20 of them
166 Answers to Riddles
172 Answers to Charades
173 Answers to Enigmas
174 Answers to Puzzles
175 Answers to Anagrams and Transpositions

177 Magic and Conjuring
177 Chapter I Introduction

180 Chapter II Of Palmistry and Passes
180 First Pass: or method of apparently carrying an object from the right hand to the left, while actually retaining it in the right hand
181 Second Pass: method of apparently transferring an object from the left hand to the fright while retaining it in the left hand
183 First Trick: To command a dime to pass into the center of a ball of Berlin Wool, so that it will not be discovered till the ball is unwound to the very last of its threads
184 Second Trick: To change a bowl of ink into clear water, with gold fish in it (no chemicals)
185 Third Trick: The dancing egg
186 Fourth Trick: The Walking Cent

189 Chapter III Tricks With and Without Collusion
191 Trick 5: to make a quarter and a penny change places, while held in the hands of two spectators
192 Trick 6: Another trick with the dime, handkerchief, and an orange or lemon
193 Trick 7: How to double your pocket money
194 Trick 8: The injured handkerchief restored
195 Trick 9: To make a large die pass through the crown of a hat without injuring it
196 Trick 10: To produce from a silk handkerchief bon-bons, candies, nuts, etc.

197 Chapter IV Practice
198 Trick 11: A sudden and unexpected supply of feathers from under a silk handkerchief or cloth
200 Trick 12: Heads or Tails?
201 Trick 13: To cook pancakes or a flat plum cake in a hat, over some candles
203 Trick 14: To eat a dish of paper shavings, and draw them out of your mouth like an Atlantic cable
204 Trick 15: How to cut off a nose, of course without actual injury

205 Chapter V Tricks by Magnetism, Chemistry, Galvanism and Electricity
206 Trick 16: The Watch obedient to the word of command
208 Trick 17: sparks of electricity from candy
209 Trick 18: A chemical trick to follow one where a young friend has assisted
209 Trick 19: To draw three spools off two tapes without those spools having to come off the ends of the tapes, and while the four ends of the tapes are held by four persons
211 Trick 20: To restore a tape whole after it has been cut in the middle

214 Chapter VI On the Continuity of Tricks
217 Trick 21: The invisible hen, a very useful trick for supplying eggs for breakfast or dinner (a large egg-bag)
220 A Series of Tricks 22, 23, 24, the Chief Agent Being a Gold Ring
220 - Trick 22: a borrowed ring vanishes from handkerchief and is found in an Orange
220 - Trick 23: ring passes from glass through a table
221 - Trick 24: ring suspends in the air

222 Chapter VII Friendly Suggestions
224 Trick 25: The Conjurer's Bonus Genius, or Familiar Messenger
225 Trick 26: The Shower of Money
226 Trick 27: To furnish ladies with a magic supply of tea or coffee at their selection, from one and the same jug
227 Trick 28: A pleasing exhibition for both the performer and the audience, to view when they feel a little exhausted
228 Trick 29: To furnish a treat to the gentlemen (with gin, sherry, and port wine)

231 Experimental Magic
231 The Magic Knife: a simple version of the color changing knife
231 A Cheap Way of Being Generous: a dime vanishes from spectator's palm
232 To Bring Colored Ribbons from Your Mouth
232 To Catch Money from the Air
234 How to Fire a Loaded Pistol at the Hand Without Hurting It
234 Curious Watch Trick: to tell at what hour a person will rise in the morning
235 The Flying Time: sleeving
236 The Mysterious Bag that Swallows or Ejects any Number of Articles
236 To Produce a Cannon Ball from a Hat
237 Evanescent Money: dime vanish
237 The Winged Coin: with a pull
238 The Aerial Coin: coin vanishes and falls into a glass
238 An Aviary in a Hat: with a confederate
239 A Dollar Bill Concealed in a Candle
240 The Conjurer's Banquet: He eats a quantity of paper shavings; afterwards draws from his mouth a Barber's pole, six feet in length; then draws out several yards of different colored ribbons, then pushes out with his tongue an ounce of pins; and lastly, after well shredding the paper shavings, to show that there is nothing in them, a flight of birds come out from among them, their number ad libitum.
242 How to Swallow a Number of Needles and Yards of Threads
243 Magical Appearance of a Globe of Water Full of Fish
244 The Fairy Canary Bird, Enchanted Egg, and the Magic Ring
246 A Very Extraordinary Experiment in Natural Magic: How to make an egg, apparently of itself, leave the center of a room and traverse to a saucer of water placed in the corner
247 To Eat Cotton Wool and Blow Fire and Sparks Out of Your Mouth
247 Instantaneous Growth of Flowers
248 How to Let Twenty Gentlemen Draw Twenty Cards, and to Make One Card Every Man's Card
249 How to Allow Six Persons to Draw a Card Each, Shuffle Them and Immediately After the Performance at Once Produce Them, Pulling Them Rapidly Out of the Pack One After the Other
249 The Performer Leaves the Room; While He is Absent a Person Draws a Card; When the Conjurer Returns, He Takes the Pack in His Hand and Immediately Pulls the Card from the Pack Drawn in His Absence
249 How to Tell a Person Any Card He Thinks of, and to Convey it Into a Nut
249 To Make a Card Jump Out of the Pack on the Table
250 To Make Liquid Steel: a physics trick
250 The Landlady and Her Guests: a trick with the Four Jacks
250 To Change the Color of a Bird or Flower: a chemical trick
251 Magic Pictures Alternately Representing Summer and Winter: picture changes when heated
252 To Split a Piece From Off a Coin: a chemical stunt
252 The Magic Flask: more chemical magic
252 Scrap or Blowing Book
253 To Keep a Stone in Perpetual Motion: chemical magic
253 How to Cut a Man's Head Off, and Put it in a Platter a Yard From His Body: illusion
254 Ice made in Red Hot Vessel: chemical magic
255 Magical Colors: chemical magic
255 Freezing With Liquid: with ether
255 The Self-Balanced Pail: a pail is balanced on a stick
256 Destruction of Two Fluid Bodies, and the Formation of One New Solid in their Stead: chemical stunt
256 The Two Invisible Substances: chemical magic
256 The Egyptian Fluids: To mix wine and water together, and then separate them by means of a red and white tape
257 To Illuminate the Surface of the Water: chemical
258 The Well of Fire: chemical
258 To Produce Fire by the Mixture of Two Cold Liquids: chemical
258 The Exploding Bubble: physics with melted glass
259 To Give a Person a Supernatural Appearance: chemical
259 The Magic Picture: chemical
260 Beautiful Phenomena: chemical
260 Artificial Lightning: chemical
260 To Split a Piece of Money into Two Parts: chemical
260 Artificial Thunder: chemical
261 The Tumbling Egg: chemical
261 Money Augmented by an Optical Delusion: optical illusion
261 To Set a Combustible Body on Fire by Contact of Water: chemical
261 To Construct the Camera Obscure: an optical trick
262 The Magnifying Reflector: optics
263 Sympathetic Ink: chemical
263 The Magic Oracle: invisible ink writing
264 Invisible Ink
264 The Magical Tea-Spoon: chemical
264 Invisible Correspondence: invisible ink
264 Beautiful Ornament for a Room: chemical magic
265 To Make Fire Bottles: chemical
265 Two Cold Liquids When Mixed Become Boiling Hot: chemical
265 The Silver Tree: mixing silver and mercury (I'd avoid this one!)
266 A Person Having an Even Number of Coins in One Hand and an Odd Number in the Other, to Tell in Which Hand the Odd or Even Number is
267 The Lead Tree: chemical magic
267 To Produce Beautiful Fireworks in Mixture: chemical
268 To Produce Nitrous Oxide, or Laughing Gas
268 To Inhale the Laughing Gas
268 Artificial Rain and Hail
269 Metallic Vegetations
269 Light Produced by Sugar: sparks
269 To Give a Ghostly Appearance to Persons in a Room: chemical magic
269 To Change Blue to White: chemical
269 To Break a Stick Placed on Two Glasses Without Breaking the Glasses
270 Magical Transmutations: chemical magic
270 Chemical Illuminations
270 To Melt Lead in a Piece of Paper
271 Artificial Illuminations: stage shadows
271 To Set Fire to Spirits of Wine by the Rays of the Sun
272 The Philosophical Candle
271 To make the Appearance of a Flash of Lightning When Any One Enters a Room with a Lighted Candle
271 Two Liquids When Mixed form an Almost Solid Mass
271 To Melt Iron in a Moment and Make it Run Into Drops
272 To Make a Bird Seem as Dead: hypnotize with a feather
272 To So Fill a Glass With Water That It Cannot Be Removed Without Spilling the Whole: a gag
272 To Make an Object Which is Too Near the Eye to be Distinctly Perceived, to be Seen in a Distinct Manner, without the Interposition of any Glass
273 New Camera Lucida
274 Two Figures One of Which Blows Out and the Other Re-Lights a Candle
274 An Optical Game: optics
274 A Vessel That will Let Water Out at the Bottom, as Soon as the Mouth is Uncorked
274 To Produce Great Heat by Presenting Two Solids to Each Other
275 A Powder which Catches Fire When Exposed to the Air
275 To Construct and Inflate a Small Balloon
275 To Melt a Piece of Money in a Walnut Shell Without Injuring the Shell
276 To Hydraulic Dancer
276 The Fiery Fountain
276 A Person Having Put a Ring On One of His Fingers so Determines the Person, the Hand the Fingers and the Joint on Which the Ring is Placed
278 To Construct Paper Balloons: from silk paper
278 The Magic Bottle: science trick with water and wine
278 The Wine Trick: a puzzle
279 To Discover Which Numbers Have Been Chosen: mathematical puzzle
280 The Globular Fountain: science trick
280 The Water Sun: water science
280 To Cause a Brilliant Explosion Under Water: with phosphorous
280 The Magical Mirrors: a mirror shows someone else's face
281 Tree of Crystal: chemical magic
281 The Magic Funnel: liquid pours on command
282 Art of Making Fireworks
283 How to Meal Gunpowder, Brimstone and Charcoal
283 To Make Touch-Paper
284 Of the Vertical Scroll Wheel
284 A Slow Fire for Wheels
284 A Dead Fire for Wheels
284 For a Blue Flame
284 Of Port of Wild Fires
285 A Brilliant Fire
285 Of Such Ingredients as Show Themselves in Sparks When Rammed Into Choked Cases
285 Of Saltpetre
285 To Pulverize Saltpetre
286 To Make Squibs and Serpents
286 To Make Crackers

289 Professor Hartz's Tricks and Diversions With Cards
289 How to Make the Pass
290 Forcing a Card
290 The Long Card
291 The Divining Card
291 Deceptive Shuffles
292 To Smuggle a Card
292 To Slip a Card
292 To Carry Away a Card
293 To Place a Card
293 The Ten Duplicate Cards - To Reveal a Persons Thoughts
296 Three Cards Being Presented to Three Persons, to Guess Which Each Has Chosen
297 To Produce a Particular Card Without Seeing the Pack
297 To Call for Any Card in the Pack
297 The Changeable Ace
297 The Convertible Aces
298 The Metamorphosed Cards
299 The Gathering of the Clans
299 To Tell the Number of Cards by the Weight
299 To Make a Card Pass From One Hand Into the Other
300 The Card Hit Upon By Guess
300 Ups and Downs
300 To Tell the Card that a Person Has Touched With His Finger
300 To Discover Any Card in the Pack by its Weight or Smell
301 The Four Accomplices
301 The Turn Over Feat
301 The Nerve Feat
302 The Card in a Mirror
302 The Card in the Opera Glass
303 The Magic Tea Caddies
303 Guessing a Card Thought Of
304 To Tell a Card by Smelling It
305 To Change a Card Locked Up in a Box
305 The Knaves and the Constable
306 To Guess the Spots on Cards at the Bottom of Three Packets, which Have Been Made by the Drawer
306 The Royal Emigrants
308 The Magic Opera Glass
309 To Separate the Two Colors of a Pack of Cards by One Cut
309 The Card Discovered Under the Handkerchief
309 The Cad Under the Hat
309 At the Game of Whist, What Probability that the Four Honors will be in the Hands of any Two Partners
310 Sixteen Cards Being Disposed in Two Rows, to Tell the Card Which a Person has Thought of
310 To Tell How Many Cards a Person Takes Out of a Pack, and to Specify each Card
311 To Guess the Number of Spots on any Card Which a Person Has Drawn From a Pack
311 To Change a Pack of Cards into Various Pictures
312 Another Method
312 To Let Twenty Persons Draw Twenty Cards and Make Each Draw the Same
312 To Make a Card Jump Out of the Pack and Run on the Table
312 To Tell all the Cards Without Seeing Them
313 To Tell a Card Thought of, and Name its Position in the Pack
314 To Change any Card by Word of Command
315 Twin Card Trick
315 Ten Cards Being Arranged in a Circle, to Tell That Which Any One Thought Of
316 To Produce a Card from a Nut or Cherry Stone
316 To Burn a Card, and Afterwards Find it in a Watch
317 The Card in the Egg
318 The Card in the Pocket-Book
318 To Pick Out a Card Thought Of, Blindfold
318 The Card Found Out by the Point of a Sword
319 To Name the Card Upon Which One or More Persons Fix
319 The Vanishing Card
320 To Produce a Mouse from a Pack of Cards
320 To Send a Card Through a Table
320 To Change Four Knaves or Kings Held In Your Hand into Blank Cards or Into Four Aces
321 The Locomotive Car
321 The Prestidigitoral Metamorphisis
323 The Queens' Dig for Diamonds
324 To Make a Card Which a Person Has Drawn Dance on the Wall
325 To Make a Card Spring Up Into the Air from the Pack
325 The Card in the Ring
325 To Name the Rank of a Card That a Person Has Drawn from a Piquet Pack
326 To Tell the Card That May be Noted
326 To Tell the Amount of the Numbers of any Two Cards Drawn from a Common Pack
327 To Tell the Names of all the Cards by Their Weight
328 Mysterious Disappearances of Knaves of Spades
328 To Make the Court Cards Always Come Together
328 To Turn a Card Into a Bird
329 The Card of One Color Found in a Pack of the Other
329 To Name Several Cards Which Have been Drawn Out of a Pack Which Has Been Divided into Two Heaps
329 To Find a Certain Card After It Has Been Shuffled In the Pack
329 Of Twenty Five Cards Laid in Five Rows Upon a Table, to Name the One Touched
329 The Four Inseparable Kings
330 To Name Several Cards which Two Persons Have Drawn from a Pack
330 Of Two Rows of Cards, to Tell the One Which Has Been Touched
330 To Hold Four Kings or Four Knaves in Your Hand, and to Change Them Suddenly into Blank Cards, Then into Four Aces
331 To Shuffle the Cards in Such a Manner as Always to Keep One Certain Card at the Bottom
331 The Transmuted Cards
331 The Circle of Fourteen Cards
332 The Shifting Card
332 The Magic Slide, or to Make a Card Disappear in an Instant
333 The Four Transformed Kings
333 To Guess the Cards Which Four Persons Have Fixed Their Thoughts Upon
334 The Chosen Card Revealed by a Pinch of Snuff
334 How To Arrange the Twelve Picture Cards and the Four Aces of a Pack in Four Rows, so that There Will be in Neither Row Two Cards of the Same Value nor Two of the Same Suit, whether Counted Horizontally or Perpendicularly
336 The Art of Fortune Telling By Cards
337 The Magic Twelve
338 The Drawn Card Nailed to the Wall
338 On Entering a Room, to Know of Three Cards Placed Side by Side, which Have Been Reversed, That is to Say, Turned Upside Down
338 To Bring a Card Which Has Been Thrown Out of the Window Into the Pack Again
338 A New Method to Tell a Card by its Weight
339 The Numerical Card
339 The Three Magical Parties
339 Several Different Cards Being Fixed On by Different Persons, to Name That on Which Each Person Fixed
340 To Discover the Card Which is Drawn, by the Trow of a Die
340 The Card Changing in the Hands
341 To Make Several Persons Draw Cards which They Will Themselves Replace in a Pack, and to Find them Again
341 The Buried Heart
341 Another Way
342 The Erratic Card
342 The Magical Trio
342 To Find in the Pack and Through a Handkerchief, Whatever Card a Person Has Drawn
343 To Conjure a Certain Card Into Your Pocket
343 To Tell Through a Wine-Glass What Cards Have Been Turned
343 To Change Five Kings Into Five Queens
344 The Magic Sevens
344 The Numerical Trick of Cards
344 The Novel Game of Tontine
345 To Guess in Which Hand, Holding Counters, Can be Found the Odd or Even Number
345 To Produce Numberless Changes With a Given Number of Cards

346 An Exposure of the Card Tricks Made Use of by Professional Card Players, Blacklegs and Gamblers (Professor Hartz)
346 Reflectors
347 The Longs and Shorts
347 Sauter La Coupe
348 Convex and Concave Cards
348 Handling the Cards
348 Garreting
348 Slipping the Cards
349 Walking the Pegs
349 Pricked Cards
349 The Bridge
439 Skinning
349 Shuffling or Weaving
350 The Gradus or Step
350 Slipping the Fives
350 Saddling the Cards
350 Dealing Fives from the Bottom

351 The American Ventriloquist, or Ventriloquism Made Easy
351 What is Ventriloquism?
354 Ventriloquism Amongst the Ancients
355 Modern Professors of the Art
360 The Theory of Ventriloquism
363 The Means By Which It is Effected
365 Practical Illustrations
365 - No. I The Voice In the Closet
368 - No. II
371 Polyphonic Imitations
372 A Mountain Echo
373 Points to Be Remembered
374 Concluding Remarks
375 The Magic Whistle