Treatise on Modern Magic - Professor Hoffmann

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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.

      Another Method.—The card having been drawn and replaced, bring it to the top by the pass, palm it, have the pack shuffled, and replace it on the top. Invite the audience to choose at what number it shall appear. They choose, we will suppose, fifth. “Very good,” you reply; “permit me, in the first place, to show you that it is not there already.” Deal out the first five cards, face downwards, and show that the fifth is not the chosen card. Replace the five cards, in their present order on the pack, when the card will be at the number named.

      Several Persons having each Drawn and Returned a Card, to make each Card appear at such Number in the Pack as the Drawer chooses.—Allow three or four persons each to draw a card. When all have drawn, make the pass in such manner as to bring the two halves of the pack face to face. The pack should not, however, be equally divided. The upper portion should only consist of about half-a-dozen cards, and therefore in making the pass you should insert the finger only at that number of cards from the bottom. Receive back the drawn cards on the top of the pack, “ruffling” the cards (see page 27), and saying “Pass!” as each card is replaced. You may casually remark, “Your card has vanished; did you see it go?” When all are returned, you quickly “turn over” the pack (see page 37), and, taking off the top card, say, addressing yourself to the person who last returned a card, “You see your card has vanished, as I told you. At what number in the pack, say from the first to the tenth, would you like it to re-appear?” We will suppose the answer to be “the sixth.” You deal five cards from the end of the pack that is now uppermost, then pretending a momentary hesitation, say, “I fancy I dealt two cards for one; allow me to count them again.” This draws the general attention to the cards on the table, and gives you the opportunity to again turn over the pack. You continue, after counting, “We have five, this makes six; then this should be your card. Will you say what the card was?” You place the card on the table, face downwards, and do not turn it till it is named, this giving you the opportunity to again turn over the pack, to be ready to repeat the operation with the next card. You must be careful to invite the different persons to call for their cards in the reverse order to that in which they are replaced in the pack. Thus, you first address the person who last returned his card, and then the last but one, and so on. You must tax your ingenuity for devices to take off the attention of the spectators from the pack at the moment when it is necessary to turn it over; and as each repetition of the process increases the chance of detection, it is well not to allow more than three or four cards to be drawn.

      If you have reason to fear that the cards left undealt will run short, you may always replace any number of those already dealt upon the reverse end of the pack to that at which the chosen cards are.

      The “Three Card” Trick.—This well-known trick has long been banished from the répertoire of the conjuror, and is now used only by the itinerant sharpers who infest race-courses and country fairs. We insert the explanation of it in this place as exemplifying one form of sleight-of-hand, and also as a useful warning to the unwary.

      In its primary form, the trick is only an illustration of the well-known fact

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