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AN you carry four bricks hnlf a mile? Of course
I you can, but wait minute. There are condl
B I tiling to this proposition. The bricks are to bo
I carried in each hand, grasped Hmn the
thumb and fingers, the fingers pointing down
ward anil the ha mis held at the side. Simple
enough. Isn't It? Pick up four bricks In thlg
manner ami It still seems easy. It Is easy
enough to hold two bricks In each hand In the manner
described, easy enough to carry them for. say. a block. Mut
when It comes Wi carrying them half a mile the proposition
Is apt to look different. If you cm do It you are an excep
tion, yet everybody will think that the foat Is easy.
This Is only one of the many " catch " tricks that prove
stumbling blocks in the -way of the person who thinks that
"everything Is possible." Often the easier a feat appears
the harder It is to perform.
Some of the little trick that have been found to be well
nigh Impossible of aconmpllshment are so ridiculously easy
on the face of them that when It Is averred' that they are
difficult there Is always some one In ft company who prompt
ly voices his skepticism and loudly proclaims his ability to
do the trick. When they are told to (to ahead and do the
same their antics are apt to furnish much amusement for
those assembled
Try !;1o Stand Still for an Hour.
For Instance, there is the feat of standing perfectly still
for an hour. Draw a circle on a floor and try to Stand In It,
Just Ftand there, motionless,
for sixty minute. Ten mln
utes Is enough to convince
the average man that this Is
not work for him. and he Is
ready to quit ; yet there hnve
hnve been, plenty of wagers
made on this subject.
So far as. Is known Just
one of any consequence has
ever btcn won. A phleg
matic German tailor in New
York wagered his employer
thnt be could stand within
a two foot circle, without
moving his legs, for twelve
hours. He was allowed to
talk, and move his arms,
and he won the bet. Rut he
was as near to being a ner
vous wreick as any man of "
hi type can well be.
Put this a monotonous
manner of trick. There a.re
other simpler and more
productive of amusement to
the kiokerson than the trick
of s t a n d 1 n g motlonleso.
There Is the trick of trying
to smoke n cigar through
from beginning to end with
out taking the weed from
the Hps. The cigar Is to be
smoked In regular, consecu
tive puffs, down to a stub of
an Inch and a quarter.
Try this on some lnvei
eraitei smoker. Probably he
will laugh you to scorn. He
thinks thnt he smokes all
hlg cigars' right through.
Trovlde him with a good
cigar nnd let him start. If
he can get the cigar down
shorter than two Inches he
Is doing well. It socms ri
diculous, but try It. The
expression cm a man's face
after he haa puffed regu
larly for tern or fifteen min
ute is one that Is worth
a hint of pained surprise In it
io sit on It, legs crossed, one heel resting on the floor, and
attempt to light one candle with another. It Is n good plan
to wear one's oldest and most worn clothes when accom
plishing, or trying to accomplish, this trick. When one sits
down with nrms widely outstretched the way to the perform
ance of the trick opens up apparently easy, but when the
hands are brought together. In front, there is apt to be a
roll on to the floor for the performer. No living person to
whom this trick has been proposed has been known to affect
anything but scorn for It and to loudly avow that any one
can do It. It can le done, but the novice Is sure to furnish
some amusement to his spectators before his object is ac
complished. There Is another candle lighting trick, much more elab
orate than the one Just mentioned, and much more produ
tlve of enjoyment. It requires two men and two candles
7 V.
Lighting' one candle by another whilst sitting on g bottle
like this is s very difficult task.
one lighted to play this game. The men kneel on one knee
lacing each other, each with a candle In his left hand, nnd
each holding up the right leg In the right hand. Without
touching each other they must advance their left bunds and
light the unlighted candle from the flame of the other. Man
was never meant to be a kneeling animal, and least of all
was his center of balance arranged with a view to remaining
upright on one knee. Hence the difficulty of this feat.
Another balancing trick (which Is less of a trick than a
test of stringth) Is to lean forward to the Hour, supported
tnly by on.- arm, the other held on the back, and pick up a
handkerchief with the mouth without falling. The difficulty
here is In maintaining the balance at the same time sup
porting the body with one arm.
But the prise of these simpler balancing tricks Is con
ducted thug Stand on one leg, bend forward and pick up
with the mouth a paper folded so that Its top stands a foot
from the floor. The right hand should grasp the right ankle,
the left the right ear. It can be done, but It Is safe to hot
that the man who has not had plenty of practice at It will
never do It.
The great necessity to he provided for the proper per
formance of a beginner nt this trick Is a thick, soft mat or
rug. to tie placed about a foot In front of the paper. This
relieves the Inevita
ble fall of any pain
fulness and lends gay-
ety nnd eclat to the
entire performance.
As before hinted at,
the humor of all these
tricks is best appre
ciated by the specta
tors. Perhnrs the prize
beauty of nil funny
catch tricks Is the pin
nnd chnlr difficulty.
The pin is fastened
squarely in the
back of the chair
seat and the feat Is
to sit In the chair,
twist around, and ex
tract the pin with the
teeth without touch
ing the feet to the
floor. Also one should
not fail off the chair
on to the floor in a
lump, but most people
who try the trick do.
The way to do the
trlcU is to sit side
ways in the chair.
Then swing the body
around the back,
grasping the top w ith
one hand and the low
er end of one leg with
the other. In this
To pick up a paper with the mouth by leaning'
over i a very difficult fest.
Try leaning down like thla and pick up handkerchief. If you would test the
strength of your arm.
A tough skinned
dock laborer ti n hem
tills proposition was
broached rcei nt ly un
dertook in have a try
at the trick. He last
ed for two hours, and
at the i ml i.f that
time his hand was red
and Mistered from
the Incissant Grip
ping, nnd he said (hat
each drop was as a
heavy hammer drop
ping on his hand It
Is safe to f,iy that
most men will not
.tend the ft ram half
s long.
I J1
-t is practically impossible for
anyone to stand still for
an hour.
tfning far to oee. There is
that Is remarkable.
Candle Lighting Under Difficulties.
Here la another little feat that Is funny to the onlookers.
Lay a flat bottle on Its side on the floor and Invite any one
Whilst this feat will be found equally hard to accomplish. v
wWsWw, w -r- iiiW', i Ww-iw iW
way n purchase Is ob
tained on the chair
which prevrntg It
from upsetting, and
the acrobat can ex
tract the pin nt his
leisure. Then to per
form the trick prop
erly It Is only, neces
sary to resume the
previous position In
the chair seat.
The jo miss manner
In which persons to
whom this trick is
new swing around
and pull the pin,
then swing blithely
back and land on
their backs on the
floor is something
more than delightful.
It should be easy
enough to go back
where one has once
gone before, but the
pesky chair has a
way of tipping up and
upsetting just as the
trick is about to be
C o m p 1 e t ed that is
startling. This little
feat Is best attempted
for the first few times
in private, especially
if the beginner is at all sensitive to laughter.
Quail as a Diet.
Once in awhile papers i oroiilclc instances where men hnve
wagered to eat twenty quails in twenty consecutive days.
Now, a quail Is hardly a full meal for a hungry man, und
most people to whom such a wager is proposed are apt to
look upon it ns " easy money." If a man has a weakness
for quail on toast the feat is doubly attractive.
Twenty quails in twenty days, of course. How easy! A
few men have been known to accomplish this dietary trick,
but eight days Is about all that It takes to make the average
person tired of quail as a steady diet. The men who have
successfully filled their part of such a contract admit that
the odor and taste of quail will follow them to their graves,
and quail is strictly tabooed on their bill of fare.
Dropping Water Becomes Torture.
There is one trick the conditions of which no man up to
date has fulfilled. If you wish to win- notoriety as a pioneer
In this line do the following: Let a gallon of water be dropped
on any one spot on your body, drop by drop. The back of
the hand Is the favored spot for people who have sought to
do this, but it does not take long to convince one that this
trick is not a mild nor an easy one.
There are (11,444 drops in a gallon of water.: Dripping at
the rate of one a second It would take seventeen hours for
the water to trickle out. It is not Impossible to expose one
spot to the water for this period, but it is the little drops
that do the work.
Not easy to extract a pin from the back of a chair when bending over like this.
(
No one h yet acconipllahej the watr trick.
.. ttjiiLfiiiiE:
: - i ' - .
A B 1 'SSINIA N AUTOGRA PH.
This signature of Ras Makonnen, minister
of Kmperor Menelek of Abystilnla, took him
half an1 hour to write.
NEGRITO DICE.
IIIIIIX
A game of dice called saro is played by the
negritoes In the Philippines. Instead of dots
the marks on the small wooden cubes are
inclsd lines made with a knife.
TO DISPLACE THE GONDOLAS Of VENICE.
IRISH ALPHABET.
HAUNTEDxGALLERY IN HAMPTON COURT PALACE.
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American electric launches are being used on the canals of Venice,
picturesque as the gondolas, they are swifter.
Though not so
CHINESE CADDIE.
J A PANES-. CHESS.
This gallery has always been closed to the public, but will shortly be thrown open.
The door seen on the right (between the coats of mailt leads to thVchuprl which rung
parallel to the galleiy. and through It Henry VIII. had to pass on his way to his private
pew. Two versions of the ghoai story are given. One of them states that Catherine
Howard (beheaded 154:.'), whose apartments were entered by the door in the corner on thi
opposite wull, once came along the passage Just us Henry was entering the chapel. H
managed to get in before her, slammed the door behind him, and she fell fainting outside
She attlll pursues him as a shadow in the gallery. The other story tells that Mrs. Penn.
nurse to Edward VI., la often aeen spinning. In the gallery. She lived in the apurtmtms
reached by the door veen in the center of the picture.
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PUZZLE LOCK OF 15U.'t. TO GET INTO A HANSOM., I
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I 14 " jf N"'"'r" " tr 1 i i iiT vf f
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n Wft-i
;a - - - ' - n tv j m jew .1
r
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J'hls Interesting relic opens only to a cer
tain word spelled vertically In the ringn,
each of which contains the a'pliabet. The
lock hung for many years on a barn door near
Worthing, iMiglund.
Whoever gets Into a hansom tlrst shoulc
sit on the side near the pavement. Hy doing
thif the pe rson' that follows will lie able to
step across his companion quite easily and
tuki the vacant sent. ,
IRON RAIL AROUND TREE.
The Irish language has only eighteen let
ters. Sometlmew each letter Is written sep
arately and not Jointed together. The chief
difficulty in learning' Irish is that there are
innumerable abrevlatlons for words and
phruses. The Irish language is nonphonetle.
the words rarely being a key to the correct
pronunciation.
AE IV AUTO STYLES.
Golf is greatly Indulged in by the naval
officers and Europi an residents in China. In
consequence the Chinese boys have grasped
some Idea of the game, nnd they are fre
quently to be seen amusing themselves Willi
an old stick converted Into a club and a real
golf ball which some golfer ha lost.
Japanese chess Is complicated. The board
is nine square Inwleud of eight square, and
each player has twenty pieces, of eight kinds,
placed in three rows. Each kind of piece has
, Its own peculiar move, and if you take your
opponent's man you add it to your forces.
The pieces are fiat, like checkers, with de
signs on both sides, and when they reach the
' king row " they ure turned over and take
higher ranks and powers, which are not the
same for all pieces.
Z Wat
r
V . . 1 ; if to
v 1
1 i.e ldteul motoring costume for dogs con
sists of a coat and hood, regulation guggles,
silk laced rubber boots, and harness with
silver leader. TT
The extilosls-e that did this is known as "gelignite." It Is one of the most powerful
of the various prepi. rations from gun cotton, composed of blasting gelatine, collodion cot
ton, absorbent nitrate, sodium carbonate, and wood pulp, bo tightly was the rail wrapped'
about the tree that It cut deeply into the green wood of the trunk and caused bltf upliuterg
to start out on all tides.
F