Borrowing a hat from the audience, he crept about the dimly lighted stage to the accompaniment of weird music, and with eager eyes and avaricious clutch seemingly plucked from the air half-dollars innumerable, which he deposited in the hat, until he had accumulated twenty-five or thirty.
More modern conjurers have tried to improve on Herrmann's method by using apparatus of one kind or another in the trick, but he relied exclusively on his ability to palm a coin.
As it will be necessary for my readers first to master this important element of conjuring, I shall try to teach it before explaining the other details of the trick. To palm a coin, hold it lightly between the tips of the second and third fingers and the thumb of either hand, as shown in Fig. 1. Balancing it on the finger-tips, let the thumb resume its normal position, and at the same moment let the two fingers press the coin into the hollow of the palm. See Fig. 2. Now contract the thumb so that the coin will be held by the ball on one side, and on the other by the opposite fleshy part of the hand, as in Fig. 3. Though at first it may be difficult to press the coin into the exact position, practice will soon make it easy.
The beginner is apt to try to have his hand appear perfectly flat when seen from the back; but let him notice the open hand of a friend as it hangs in a normal condition, and he will find that it is slightly arched. Supposing that my reader is now an adept at palming, let us proceed with "The Miser" as Herrmann did it.
When he came on the stage he held twenty-five or thirty coins in his left hand and one coin in his right. As an excuse for keeping the left hand closed it grasped the lower part of the lapel of his coat. In the right hand he carried his wand, or badge of office, a round ebony stick about eighteen inches long, fitted at the ends with ivory ferrules.
Approaching some man in the audience, he asked for a high hat, and as it was handed to him he thrust the left hand inside of it, the thumb only remaining outside to grasp the rim. Extending his arms, he struck the left arm with his wand and the closed right hand, asking the nearest person to feel his arms and body so as to assure himself that nothing was concealed there. This examination over, he turned to go back to the stage, throwing his wand ahead of him, and letting the coin in the right hand slip into his sleeve.