Easy Magic Tricks for Beginners - Ink Changed to Water

Fit a black silk lining into a glass vessel so that it lines the sides but not the bottom. Put water in the glass and gold fish, but let the audience see nothing except the black lining. Behind the glass have a spoon with ink in it.
Speak to the audience with an empty spoon in your hand, and then go to the glass, secretly change the spoons and pretend to take a spoonful of ink from the glass.
Now show the spoon with the ink in it to the audience, and they will believe the vessel is full of ink.
Throw a cloth over the glass and call upon the ink to change to water. Remove the cloth, and with it the black lining, and there you have the water and the gold fish swimming in it.

Excerpt from the book: Three Hundred Things A Bright Boy Can Do
BY MANY HANDS - FULLY ILLUSTRATED
LONDON - SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & CO., LTD. 1914