Oldest Tricks in the Book

"The oldest trick in the book of being dumped is to make them feel sorry for losing you." —The Big Book of Self-Help Tips

"It's the oldest trick in the book, hidin' in a wagonload o' hay!"
—Henry Clark, The Book That Proves Time Travel Happens

"Chances are they're getting paid for information.  Little tidbits they can see to the tabloids or whatever.  They show up here, work, listen, watch and then when their shift is over they head out there and debrief. ... Oldest trick in the book."
—Jason Mott, The Wonder of All Things

Prof. Oddfellow shares one of his secrets of walking through a brick wall, in Carrboro, North Carolina.  For Gordon Meyer.

"In an instant the red wig disappeared," and we wish we were at liberty to reveal the secret of this mystification.  From Dicks' English Library of Standard Works, edited by Percy Bolingbroke Saint John, 1884.

How young is too young for the tablecloth trick?  (Spoiler: there's actually no minimum age.)  From St. Nicholas magazine, 1877.

That's right—none of those is his actual hand.  This old trick is so tricky that to this day the phrase "clandestine macramé" delivers no Google results.  From My Years at the Austrian Court by Nellie Ryan, 1915.

"Some liquid matter rushed out of the camera and struck Eddard with startling force," from Wonderful Ching-Ching: His Further Adventures by Edwin Harcourt Burrahe, 1886.

Here's the oldest trick in the book, from Blasts from The Ram's Horn, 1902.

"The oldest trick in the book. . . . All they've got to do is get a picture of him in the act, whatever it is, threaten to leak it to the Press, and they've got him.  Nobody wants to see a picture of himself splashed all over the front of the paper with his socks off having his corns . . ." —N. F. Simpson, The Cresta Run

Our vintage illustration appears in Funny Books for Boys and Girls, 1856.

Giving a warning too late to be of any help.  It's the oldest trick in the book.  The caption reads, "Take care, Mr. Malone, the stairs are slippery."  From Shirley by Charlotte Brontë, 1897.

Here's the "outraged husband" trick from Mysteries and Miseries of America's Great Cities, Embracing New York, Washington City, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and New Orleans by James William Buel, 1883.