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How to Do Mechanical Tricks

To Acquire a True Eye.

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Here is a peculiar and clever recreation, easily performed, though at first sight it may appear difficult.

Put a tumbler upside down. By means of bread crumbs, fix a match vertically on the top. On the edge of the table place another match, partly raised on a piece of cork or wood.

Stoop down and aim at the vertical match on the glass, so that the one on the table is in the exact line of fire.

When you think it is aimed straight, give it a fillip on the lower end, it will shoot up and touch the one placed on the glass if the aim be good.

Illustration from How to Do Mechanical Tricks Containing Complete Instruction for Performing Over Sixty Ingenious Mechanical Tricks

If you succeed, you may congratulate yourself on having good eyes—a very desirable gift if you should have to handle a gun, as a soldier or a sportsman.

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