A NEW METHOD
Here is an absolutely new method of performing the same trick blindfolded, but with the aid of a confederate. You tell your friends that by placing your hands on a person’s head you can see with his eyes. To illustrate this, tell your assistant to seat himself at a table, and you then stand behind him blindfolded, with your fingers lightly touching his temples. The cards are spread out faces down on the table, and no matter which card he picks up and looks at, you at once say what it is. Of course, you take the tip from him; but how? I will tell you.
He must keep his mouth shut and his teeth together. The slightest pressure between his upper and lower teeth—so slight that it is quite imperceptible—will cause his 17 temples to throb—try it on your own temples—and, of course, by the arrangement of a very simple code he can communicate to you the name of each card. Say one throb stands for hearts, two for diamonds, three for clubs, and four for spades. We will say his temples throb twice. You say, “You are looking at a diamond.” Then we will suppose they next throb five times. You say, “It is the five of diamonds,” and so on. When you come to an ace, of course one throb will suffice; when he picks up a knave, let him give two throbs in rapid succession—a kind of postman’s knock; a queen, a postman’s knock and one throb over; and for a king, a double postman’s knock—rat-tat, rat-tat. With a little practice and a more elaborate code, you can describe all kinds of articles which may be selected—keys, watches, books, etc. It is a capital trick and one which no one can possibly discover.