Browse:Invisible Writing Trick (Volume 1, entries 791)
Invisible Writing Trick
Volume 1, entries 791. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → Tricks. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 791
I heard lots of people, you know, would go to this guy. They would say that they would hit de numbers, an' I wanted to hit - ah wus playin' the numbers, too, at this same time. So I went to 'im an' he ast me whut I came for an' ah told 'im. After that, why, he put a [drinking] glass up theah [on table] - de glass wus thin ~ an' he put this glass up theah an' he had me to hol' mah han' over it like yat [partly cover the mouth of the glass so that she could blow into it. After she did this, a piece of paper he had placed in the glass kept circling round and round in the water]. So after that it would come some writin' in thare [on the paper]. I could see this writin'. I know it wusn't no writin' on this [before she blew]. He give me that piece of paper [which was the gambling hand]. Carry it with me. ["This story of how the informant got a hand in Philadelphia, Pa., for luck to choose numbers when playing policy, a gambling game widely spread among city Negroes, was first told without being recorded and then repeated for Telediphone. The second version, as usual in such cases, omitted some previous details, hence my promptings and annotations on the present cylinder. Further, the cylinder was transcribed immediately after the recording while the details were still fresh in my mind. Give my experience in Little Rock, Ark., with invisible ink or powder." This note was made soon after my Little Rock work.]