Detección de casos de Apnea

So runs the Bill Matter.

There are many magicians skilled in the art of making ladies disappear. A magician who can vanish a lady could just as easily vanish a lanky youth or gawky man, dressed as an overgrown boy, and the man who disappeared could quite easily leave behind a rabbit in his place. Thus many an old cabinet, box, tent, palanquin or other old trick languishing in store might come out newly clothed.

The characters are a large or small boy, a policeman, a white rabbit and a brown rabbit. The sketch is appended.

But if it is desired to construct special apparatus, here is a suggestion for a simple device to meet the case.

In the centre of the stage is a washing stool, upon which stands a rabbit hutch, crudely made from remnants of a packing case and wire netting. The roof opens like a box lid and the front consists of two doors opening outwards. Accessories are a garden table and chair of rustic woodwork and a two-fold screen.

The screen, to be in keeping with the other furniture, should be of square lattice framing, after the style of pergola work, backed with material of floral pattern. This design also favours that part of the construction which it is necessary to disguise. As will be seen when reading the sketch which follows, two men in turn stand upright in the hutch (the lid being turned up to allow them to do so), the screen is wheeled in front to mask operations, and when moved aside in each case the man has

apparently changed into a rabbit.

The screen is built on two stout frames, connected by two-way hinges and runs on ball castors. A portion of one section is cut away to the height of a man and the space filled in by a wedge shaped box, formed of two panels externally decorated to match the screen and distended by a triangular top and bottom. The remaining side is open.

At the junction of the two panels, the box is hinged to the same support as the main hinges, and stops are provided so that the receptacle can be swung to bring either face flush with the rest of the screen surface. Into this space each man steps in turn, the first sideways, with his front and back adjoining the panels, and the second with his back to the first, with his shoulders adjoining the panels. By the method of turning the screen it may be shewn on both sides after each disappearance. To comprehend this, let Fig. 108 represent an end view of the folds, in

diagrammatic form, seen from above. Assistant steps down from stool into space A. The exhibitor seizes the screen at B, pulls it aside, into the position of Fig. 109. At this point the

moveable part of the panel is pushed through and the screen moved further round to the position of Fig. 110. In replacing screen in front of hutch, this movement is reversed. With the help of a stage attendant, the screen can be quickly turned round and shewn on both sides. Taking Fig. 110 position as a start, pull B round and close up to C (Fig. 111); bring C round in the direction of the dotted line and the position becomes as Fig. 112.

If any difficulty is experienced in visualising the effect, it can easily be tested by making a simple cardboard model.

And now to the story.

“Everybody knows that conjurers can turn naughty little boys into rabbits. But nobody has ever seen a conjurer turn a naughty little boy into a rabbit. And nobody has ever seen a rabbit that has once been a naughty little boy. Or they may have seen a naughty little boy

disguised as a rabbit and not known about it. As a matter of fact, between ourselves, most of the rabbits that come out of conjurers’ hats at Christmas time have once been naughty little boys. Only the conjurers don’t say anything about it.

“Occasionally I get little boys who have been extra naughty, brought to me by their parents, asking me to turn them into rabbits. I’ve been saving them up for some time and I am going to turn one into a rabbit at every performance as long as the supply lasts.

“Before getting a rabbit—whether you buy your rabbit from a shop or make it out of a naughty little boy, you must provide your rabbit with a hutch. I made this one. I got the idea from a little book called ‘How To Make Everything At Home, or Happy Week-Ends For Father.’

“And now let me introduce you to Little Willie Smith—a very flagrant offence.” (Enter Smith.—Smith is a long youth in short pants and the rest of his clothes correspondingly historic, disordered hair, the expression of an amiable cod-fish and conspicuously dirty knees. The skirt of his coat is well above the waist line, the sleeves reach to about midway between the elbow and the wrist, and tied to the upper arm is a large tag, addressed ———- Theatre).

“This little man—I regret to say—persistently refused to wash behind his ears. All kinds of punishment have been tried, and all sorts of threats. In the last extremity he has been sent to me, and I am to turn him into a rabbit for his own good, and as a warning to all little boys who won’t wash behind their ears.

“Get into the hutch.”

(Smith mounts by way of the chair and stands upright in the hutch, roof and doors being opened for that purpose).

“Have you anything to say before I turn you into a rabbit?” (Smith replies by putting out his tongue.)

“All right, my lad!

“We will draw a screen over the painful scene that follows.”

(The screen is temporarily wheeled in front of the hutch and when taken away, all that is visible within the hutch is a small white rabbit of not quite impeccable whiteness. Attached to the foreleg is a large tag, addressed ———— Theatre.)"

“Behold, Smith!

(The conjurer seizes the rabbit, rolls it up in a newspaper and crushes it into an empty paper ball. The methods involved in this part of the performance have been dealt with in a previous section. At this point, a policeman enters the hall from the back, marches down the gangway and mounts the stage).

Policeman,—"’Ere, wot’s all this?" (Exhibits rabbit). “I see this young feller drop down in Blank Street. He comes up to me, sez his name’s Smith Minor and he bin turned into a rabbit, havin’ bin a boy by birth, and arsts me the way to Theatre. Havin’ taken out me book and made a note o’ the circumstance I brings ‘im along. It’s my opinion you’re exceedin’ your licence. I want to know all about it, and I warns you that anythink you say will be took down in writin’ and used as evidence against you.”

Conjurer,—" You want to know all about it, do you. Well, step up into this little house and I’ll tell you."

(Policeman does so).

Conjurer,—"Ready? THEN GET OUT YOUR NOTE-BOOK."

(Wheels screen in front. When removed, the policeman is no longer visible, but his helmet occupies the hutch. The conjurer removes the helmet and, turning it over, produces from it a brown rabbit dressed in minature policeman’s uniform.)

“Carry on with the note-book, old boy, while I shew you the rest of the story.”

(Conjurer continues by wrapping policeman-rabbit in newspaper and vanishing, as before. Afterwards, looking round, he notices the policeman’s helmet on the floor.)

“Here, George!—Run up to Blank Street, and IF YOU SEE A LITTLE POLICEMAN RUNNING AROUND WITHOUT A HAT, GIVE HIM THIS!