ODD OR EVEN; OR, THE MYSTERIOUS ADDITION

You take a handful of coins, and invite another person to do the same,
and to ascertain privately whether the number he has taken is odd or
even. You request the company to observe that you have not asked him a
single question, but that you are able, notwithstanding, to divine and
counteract his most secret intentions, and that you will, in proof of
this, yourself take a number of coins and add them to those he has
taken, when, if his number was odd, the total shall be even; if his
number was even, the total shall be odd. Requesting him to drop the
coins he holds into a hat, held on high by one of the company, you
drop in a certain number on your own account. He is now asked whether
his number was odd or even; and, the coins being counted, the total
number proves to be as you stated, exactly the reverse. The experiment
is tried again, with different numbers, but the result is the same.

The secret lies in the simple arithmetical fact, that if you add an
odd number to an even number, the result will be odd; if you add an
odd number to an odd number, the result will be even. You have only to
take care, therefore, that the number you yourself add, whether large
or small, shall always be odd.

TO RUB ONE DIME INTO THREE

This is a simple little parlor trick, but will sometimes occasion a
good deal of wonderment. Procure three dimes of the same issue, and
privately stick two of them with wax to the under side of a table, at
about half an inch from the edge, and eight or ten inches apart.
Announce to the company that you are about to teach them how to make