the next, and so on in like manner. Even in an audience of half-a-dozen only, it is very likely that there will be some one acquainted with this form of the trick, who will proclaim aloud his knowledge of “how it is done.” We will suppose that you have performed the trick with this result. Passing your hands again behind you, but this time merely passing the top card to the bottom, without turning any other card, you reply that you doubt his pretended knowledge, and name the card as before. He will naturally justify his assertion by explaining the mode of performing the trick. You reply, “According to your theory, there should be an exposed card at each end of the pack. Pray observe that there is nothing of the kind in this case” (here you show the opposite side of the pack), “but, to give a still more conclusive proof, I will for the future keep the whole of the pack behind me, and name each card before I bring it forward. Perhaps, to preclude any idea of arrangement of the cards, some one will kindly shuffle them.” When the cards are returned, you give them a slight additional shuffle yourself, and remarking, “They are pretty well shuffled now, I think,” continue the trick by the
Second Method.—Glance, as before, at the bottom card. Place the cards behind you, and name the card you have just seen. Passing the right hand behind you, palm the top card, and then taking hold of the bottom card (the one you have just named) face outwards, with the two first fingers and thumb of the same hand, bring it forward and throw it on the table. Pause for a moment before you throw it down, as if asking the company to verify the correctness of your assertion, and glance secretly at the card which is curled up in your palm. Again place your hands behind you, call the name of the card you last palmed, and palm another. You can, of course, continue the trick as long as you please, each time naming the card which you palmed at the last call. You should take care to have a tolerably wide space between yourself and your audience, in which case, with a very little management on your part, there is little fear of their discovering the secret of the palmed card.
You should not be in too great a hurry to name the card you have just seen, or the audience may suspect that you gained your knowledge in the act of bringing forward the card you last named. To negative this idea, you should take care first to bring forward again the right hand, manifestly empty, and do your best to simulate thought and mental exertion before naming the next card.
To make Four Cards change from Eights to Twos, from Black to Red, etc.—For this trick you require three specially prepared cards. The backs should be similar to those of the pack which you have in ordinary use, the faces being as depicted in Fig. 36. They may be purchased at any of the conjuring depôts.
Fig. 36.
Fig. 37.
Fig. 38.
Fig. 39.
You place these three cards privately at the bottom of the pack. You begin by remarking that you will show the company a good trick with the four eights and the two of diamonds. (If you use a piquet pack, you must provide yourself with a special two of diamonds, of similar pattern to the rest of the pack.) You take the pack, and picking out the four genuine eights, hand them for examination. While they are being inspected, you insert the little finger of your left hand between the three bottom cards (the prepared cards) and the rest of the pack. When the eights are returned, you place them with apparent carelessness on the top of the pack (taking care, however, to have the eight of clubs uppermost), and hand the two of diamonds for examination. While this card is being examined, you make the pass to bring the three prepared cards on the top. The two of diamonds being returned, you lay it on the table, and taking off the four top cards, which are now the three prepared cards and the eight of clubs, you spread them fanwise, when they will appear to be the four eights, as in Fig. 37. The eight of clubs is alone completely visible, one half of each of the other cards being covered by the card next preceding it. The spectators naturally take the four cards to be the four ordinary eights which they have just examined. Insert the two of diamonds behind the eight of clubs, and lay that card in turn on the table. Close the cards and again spread them, but this time with the opposite ends outward, when they will appear to be the four twos, as in Fig. 38. Again take in the eight of clubs in place of the two of diamonds, and turn round the supposed two of hearts. This you may do easily and naturally by remarking, “I must now touch something black; my coat-sleeve will do. I gently pass either card along it, thus, and replace it as before. The cards are now all black cards,” which they actually appear to be. (See Fig. 39.) Again substitute the two of diamonds for the eight of clubs, touch any red object, and again turn and spread out the cards, when they will appear to be all red cards, as in Fig. 40. Once more take in the eight of clubs in place of the two of diamonds, and replace the four cards on the pack, again making the pass in order to bring the three prepared cards to the bottom, and to leave the genuine eights on the top.
Fig. 40.
There is a more elaborate form of this trick procurable at the conjuring depôts, in which several groups of cards are used in succession, and the changes are proportionately multiplied, various colours and patterns being produced in the place of the ordinary figures on the cards. In our own opinion, the trick loses rather than gains by this greater elaboration, as the more fanciful changes have the disadvantage of showing clearly (which the simpler form of the trick does not) that the cards used are not ordinary cards; and this being once understood, the magic of the trick is destroyed.
We have had occasion more than once to direct you to turn round the cards, and it will be well for you to know how to do this neatly and without exciting suspicion. Hold the four cards fanwise in the left hand, the fingers behind and the thumb in front of the cards. Having exhibited them, turn their faces towards yourself, and with the thumb and finger of the right hand close the fan, and taking them by their upper ends lay them face downwards on the table. Their lower ends will now be away from you, and when you desire again to exhibit the cards (in a transformed condition), you have only to turn them over sideways, and pick them up by the ends which are now directed towards you. This little artifice (which is simplicity itself in practice, though a little difficult to describe) must be carefully studied, as upon neat manipulation in this respect the illusion of the trick mainly depends.
A Card having been Drawn and Returned, and the Pack shuffled, to make it Appear at such Number as the Company Choose.D—Invite a person to draw a card. Spread out the pack that he may replace it, and slip your little finger above it. Make the pass in order to bring the chosen card to the top; palm it, and offer the pack to be shuffled. When the pack is returned to you, replace the chosen card on the top, and make the first of the false shuffles above described, but commence by sliding off into the right hand the two top cards (instead of the top card only), so that the chosen card may, after the shuffle, be last but one from the bottom. Take the pack face downwards in the left hand, and carelessly move about the pack so that the bottom card may be full in view of the audience. Inquire at what number the company would like the card to appear; and when they have made their decision, hold the pack face downwards, and with the first and second fingers of the right hand draw away the cards from the bottom one by one, throwing each on the table face upwards, and counting aloud “one,” “two,” “three,” and so on. The first card which you draw is naturally the bottom one, and the chosen card, which is second, would in the ordinary course come next; but you “draw back” this card with the third finger of the left hand (see page 36) and take the next instead, continuing in like manner until
