“but yet, by a very slight, simple movement, I shall make them appear, in couples as they were drawn, at top and bottom of the pack.” Then, showing the bottom card, you ask, “Is this anybody’s card?” The reply is in the negative. You next show the top card, and make the same inquiry. While you do so, you slip the little finger under the next card, and as you replace the card you have just shown, make the pass, thus bringing both cards to the bottom of the pack. Meanwhile, you ask the last person who drew what his cards were. When he names them, you “ruffle” the cards, and show him first the bottom and then the top card, which will be the two he drew. While exhibiting the top card, take the opportunity to slip the little finger of the left hand immediately under the card next below it, and as you replace the top one make the pass at that point. You now have the third couple placed top and bottom. Make the drawer name them, ruffle the cards, and show them as before, again making the pass to bring the card just shown at top, with that next following, to the bottom of the pack, which will enable you to exhibit the second couple in like manner. These directions sound a little complicated, but if followed with the cards will be found simple enough.
You may, by way of variation, pretend to forget that a fourth person drew two cards, and, after making the pass as before, appear to be about to proceed to another trick. You will naturally be reminded that So-and-so drew two cards. Apologizing for the oversight, you beg him to say what his cards were. When he does so, you say, “To tell you the truth I have quite lost sight of them; but it is of no consequence, I can easily find them again.” Then nipping the upper end of the cards between the thumb and second finger of the right hand, which should be slightly moistened, you make the pack swing, pendulum fashion, a few inches backwards and forwards, when the whole of the intermediate cards will fall out, leaving the top and bottom card alone in your hand. These you hand to the drawer, who is compelled to acknowledge them as the cards he drew.
To make Two Cards, each firmly held by a different Person, change places.—For the purpose of this trick you must have a duplicate of some one of the cards, say the knave of spades, and you must arrange your pack beforehand as follows: The bottom card must be a knave of spades; the next to it an indifferent card, say the nine of diamonds; and next above that, the second knave of spades. You come forward carelessly shuffling the cards (which you may do as freely as you please as to all above the three mentioned), and finish by placing the undermost knave of spades on the top. The bottom card will now be the nine of diamonds, with a knave of spades next above it. Holding up the pack in your left hand, in such a position as to be ready to “draw back” the bottom card (see page 36), you say, “Will you all be kind enough to notice and remember the bottom card, which I will place on the table here, so as to be in sight of everybody.” So saying, you drop the pack to the horizontal position, and draw out with the middle finger of the right hand apparently the bottom card, but really slide back that card, and take the one next to it (the knave of spades), which you lay face downwards on the table, and ask some one to cover with his hand. You then (by the slip or pass) bring the remaining knave of spades from the top to the bottom, and shuffle again as before, taking care not to displace the two bottom cards. Again ask the company to note the bottom card (which is now the knave of spades), and draw out, as before, apparently that card, but really the nine of diamonds. Place that also face downwards on the table, and request another person to cover it with his hand. The company are persuaded that the first card thus drawn was the nine of diamonds, and the second the knave of spades. You now announce that you will compel the two cards to change places, and after touching them with your wand, or performing any other mystical ceremony which may serve to account for the transformation, you request the person holding each to show his card, when they will be found to have obeyed your commands. The attention of the audience being naturally attracted to the two cards on the table, you will have little difficulty in palming and pocketing the second knave of spades, which is still at the bottom of the pack, and which, if discovered, would spoil the effect of the trick.
To Change Four Cards, drawn haphazard, and placed on the table, into Cards of the same Value as a Single Card subsequently chosen by one of the Spectators.—This trick is on the same principle as that last above described, but is much more brilliant in effect. To perform it, it is necessary, or at least desirable, to possess a forcing pack consisting of one card several times repeated. We will suppose your forcing pack to consist of queens of diamonds. Before commencing the trick, you must secretly prepare your ordinary pack in the following manner:—Place at the bottom any indifferent card, and on this a queen; then another indifferent card, then another queen; another indifferent card, then another queen; another indifferent card, and on it the fourth and last queen. You thus have at the bottom the four queens, each with an ordinary card next below it. Each indifferent card should be of the same suit as the queen next above it, so that all of the four suits may be represented. Shuffle the cards, taking care however, not to disturb the eight cards above mentioned. Then say, “I am about to take four cards from the bottom, and place them on the table. Will you please to remember what they are?” Show the bottom card, then, dropping the pack to the horizontal position, “draw back” that card, and take the next, which is one of the queens, and, without showing it, lay it face downwards on the table. You now want to get rid of the card you have already shown, which is still at the bottom. To effect this without arousing suspicion, the best and easiest plan is to shuffle each time after drawing a card, not disturbing the arranged cards at the bottom, but concluding the shuffle by placing the bottom card, which is the one you desire to get rid of, on the top of the pack. Thus after each shuffle you are enabled to show a fresh bottom card, which, however, you slide back, and draw the next card (a queen) instead. Repeat this four times, when you will have all four queens on the table, though the audience imagine them to be the four cards they have just seen. In order to impress this more fully upon them, ask some one to repeat the names of the four cards. While the attention of the audience is thus occupied, you secretly exchange the pack you have been using for your forcing pack, and advancing to the audience say, “Now I shall ask some one to draw a card; and whatever card is drawn, I will, without even touching them, transform the four cards on the table to cards of the same value. Thus, if you draw a king they shall all become kings; if you draw a ten, they shall become tens, and so on. Now, choose your card, as deliberately as you please.” You spread the cards before the drawer, allowing him perfect freedom of choice, as, of course, whatever card he draws must necessarily be a queen of diamonds. You ask him to be good enough to say what the card he has drawn is, and on being told that it is a queen, you say, “Then, by virtue of my magic power, I order that the four cards now on the table change to queens. Pray observe that I do not meddle with them in any way. I merely touch each with my wand, so! Will some one kindly step forward, and bear witness that the change has really taken place.”
If you do not possess a forcing pack, but rely upon your own skill in forcing with an ordinary pack, it is well to prepare this second beforehand by placing the four queens (supposing that you desire a queen to be drawn) at the bottom. Making the pass as you advance to the company, you bring these to the middle and present the pack. It is comparatively easy to insure one or other of four cards placed together being drawn.
Two Heaps of Cards, unequal in Number, being placed upon the Table, to predict beforehand which of the two the Company will choose.—There is an old schoolboy trick, which consists in placing on the table two heaps of cards, one consisting of seven indifferent cards, and the other of the four sevens. The performer announces that he will predict beforehand (either verbally or in writing) which of the two heaps the company will choose; and fulfils his undertaking by declaring that they will choose “the seven heap.” This description will suit either heap, being in the one case understood to apply to the number of cards in the heap, in the other case to denote the value of the individual cards.
The trick in this form would not be worth noticing, save as a prelude to a newer and really good method of performing the same feat. You place on the table two heaps of cards, each containing the same number, say six cards, which may be the first that come to hand, the value of the cards being in this case of no consequence. You announce that, of the two heaps, one contains an odd and the other an even number. This is, of course, untrue; but it is one of the postulates of a conjuror’s performance that he may tell professionally as many fibs as he likes, and that his most solemn asseverations are only to be