1. OBEDIENT SILKS
Effect. Eight silk handkerchiefs of different colors—for example, red, dark blue, yellow, green, white, light blue, violet, and rose—are tied together and displayed in a chain, and the order of the colors is written on a blackboard. Thus red will be 1, dark blue 2, yellow 3, and so on. The silks are then placed in a hat; a spectator is asked to call out any one of the numbers and to say at what number in the chain he wishes it to appear.
Suppose, for example, he chooses number six and the color green. The performer lifts out the chain of silks and the green silk is found to be at the sixth place.
Method. The silks are not really knotted together but are attached to one another by snap buttons at the corners, the knots being of the trick variety (see Trick 5, the Sympathetic Silks). After displaying them and checking their positions with the list on the blackboard, the performer gathers them into a bundle by first bringing the lower end of the last silk—in this case the rose silk—against the top corner of the first silk of the chain—the red one—and in doing so fastens the two together, thus forming the silks into an endless chain.
When the spectator calls a number and a color, all the artist has to do is to count back, from the number the color occupies, to the number called and separate the chain at that point. For example, in the case given above—number six and green color—the backward count of six arrives at the violet color; therefore, the separation must be made between the violet and the light blue silks. The performer seizes the violet silk and, in bringing the bunch out of the hat, detaches the light blue silk and holds up the chain, showing the green silk at number six.
For a single repetition, not more, simply attach these last two again by their snap buttons and proceed in exactly the same way as before, with a new number and a different silk.
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