Sleight of Hand: A Practical Manual of Legerdemain for Amateurs & Others

by Edwin Thomas Sachs

The performer must force duplicate cards of those arranged in the small division of the card-case, of course taking no notice of those over which the silk passes, as they will never be exposed, and, asking the audience to remember the names of them, have them put in the pack and shuffled. The rest of the trick follows as a matter of course. The pack is placed in the larger front division of the case, and, as the chosen cards are called for, the assistant, who must have a view of the cards from his place of concealment, pulls the thread. A very commonly practised piece of humour is to include a knave in the forced cards, and to place two in the small rear division of the card-case. The one that is to appear first is put in upside down, court cards with one head only being used. It is upbraided for thus making its appearance, and it is replaced in the pack—still upside down—but in the front division. The second time, the other knave appears, right side up. The marvel of the audience is how the card managed to reverse itself in the pack. These card-cases can be procured from any of the vendors of conjuring apparatus.

A better arrangement is the following, which enables the performer to have his case examined by the audience—always a great advantage. It will require a little construction on the part of the performer himself, unless he is more fortunate than I ever was, and can find someone to carry out his ideas for him.

Instead of having the tin case made with partitions, let him have it quite plain, and just large enough to take from thirty-five to forty cards. This will bear any amount of examination, and a pack of cards should always be put in it before the audience, to show that it is entirely filled therewith, and so cannot possibly be made to contain any mechanical contrivance. The performer's little arrangement lies in a few cards, which, with others, are lying carelessly upon his table. These cards are prearranged with the silk exactly as just described for the small partition of the case, the end of the silk being affixed to the top of the undermost card. When the performer returns to his table with the pack, he should place it, whilst arranging his case in the decanter, with the loose prepared cards, which should then be picked up with it, the pack being undermost. The trick can then proceed as usual, and the case be handed round for examination afterwards. Great care must be taken not to disarrange the silk whilst picking up the cards, as any fault in this respect cannot possibly be remedied. The more simple and free from apparatus the method of performing this trick, the better it will be appreciated.

A third method, quite original, which I have adopted with unvarying success, the performer, will, I expect, prefer to any of the foregoing. It is the only method which does not call for the forcing of the cards; and its general surroundings are so simple that I find conjurors themselves sometimes puzzled to explain how the result is brought about. The performer has the usual bottle, which it is, perhaps, as well to open before the company. It should be of perfectly clear glass, and some fluid should be left in to give it steadiness during the performance of the trick. The card-holder should have the front side open, a quarter-inch flange being left on each side, to prevent the cards from falling out, and the inside coloured black. The silk, by means of which the chosen cards are to be made to rise out of the pack, has a small round cloth-covered button attached to the free end, and this button must be lying upon the table, in a convenient position. The performer first comes forward, and gives the bottle and card-holder into the hands of the company for examination. The examination concluded, he takes the articles to the table, and, as soon as possible, drops the button into the bottle. He next fits the holder into the neck, taking care, as he does so, to cause the thread to pass over the top of it. He now brings forward his pack, which he gives up entirely into the hands of the company, who select three cards. As many people nowadays have some idea of the "force," this at once disarms suspicion in a remarkable manner, and puts off many knowing ones, who are sure to have seen the trick before, otherwise performed, it being a very favourite one with conjurors. The performer now takes the pack back to the table, getting a picture card to the front, as he does so. If he chooses, he may ask the selectors of the cards to mark them with pencil, and whilst this is being done, he goes with the pack to the table, where he places it carelessly into the holder, taking care that the thread passes over the top of the cards. It also passes over the front of them, but, as a picture card is in front, it is not seen, as it would be if a card with much white showing were there. For this same reason, the inside of the holder is coloured black. The three cards are now fetched from the audience, faces downwards, so that the performer, as he will explain, cannot see them. It will not assist him in the least if he does; but audiences invariably think an immense deal attaches to the fact of the performer seeing a card, and it is as well for all conjurors to conspire to keep up the delusion. Laying the cards first upon the table, he takes up one, and places it amongst those in the holder, some three or four from the front. As the card is pressed down, it takes the silk with it, care being taken to keep the latter as near the middle of the card as possible. The second card is now placed a few cards farther in the rear, and the third still farther back. It will be necessary to keep a finger of the disengaged hand upon the top of the card or cards in front of the one being placed into position, or the downward pressure will cause a corresponding, but premature, upward motion to be imparted to those already in position, which would spoil the trick at once. Whilst the cards are being thus placed in the pack, the performer must be careful to keep the company engaged in conversation. The trick then proceeds as usual; but, at the conclusion, the performer, seizing the bottle in one hand and the holder in the other, separates them, and comes rapidly forward to give them and the cards for examination. The assistant keeping firm hold of the thread, the button is drawn out of the bottle, and no trace remains of the medium by which the ascension was accomplished. I take some pride in this little arrangement, which, I need scarcely say, is not elsewhere made public.

To force three or more cards, pass them all from the bottom to the centre together, and not one at a time. Always be very particular about showing round the decanter or bottle, the most innocent portion of the whole apparatus. Where convenient, it causes a good effect to have a bottle of champagne opened on purpose. Give some of the wine away, and use the bottle half emptied, saying that you must keep some of the spirits in it for your trick.

The Salamander Card.—A card is chosen and torn in halves. One half is given into the custody of the audience, and the other placed in a cleft stick or crayon-holder, and burnt over a candle. The ashes are put into a piece of paper, which is rolled up and made to vanish by sleight of hand, the method used being one which ought, by this time, to be familiar to the performer. A letter here arrives addressed to the performer, brought in by an attendant at the door by which the audience has entered. The performer asks one of the audience to open it for him, as he cannot stop in the middle of a trick. Inside the envelope, which is sealed, is found another, and, inside that, another; and so on until a fifth or sixth is reached. Inside the innermost of all that half of the card which was only an instant before burnt before the eyes of the audience is found, as is proved by fitting it to the portion in the custody of a spectator.

This trick is thus managed: The cleft stick, which is an ordinary piece of firewood rounded and smoothed a little, has a cleft at each end. A metal crayon-holder, with double ends, also serves the purpose admirably. In one end, the performer has fixed the half of a card, which must be one of the pack from which the card is to be chosen, doubled up tolerably small. This end he conceals in his hand, and then has the half of the card which is to burnt doubled up and placed in the cleft in the other, retaining the stick in his hand all the time. On turning round to his attendant (who must know his part, and have rehearsed it once or twice) for a candle, he reverses the ends of the stick, and, removing the piece of card just placed in it, gives it to his attendant whilst in the act of taking the candle. If the attendant is not very proficient, the performer may go to the side and stretch the hand containing the abstracted piece of card behind the screen or curtain, and so effect the transfer. The attendant should stand with one hand open and the candlestick in the other (of course, out of sight). The performer will call out for the candle, but, receiving no answer, will go quickly to the side, where he will obtain it. The stick, with fictitious card in it, he must have in the other hand, which must be outstretched all the time, and never for an instant removed from the view of the audience. If this is not done, no suspicion will be attached to the fact of his going to the side. The instant the attendant receives the piece of card, he must slip it inside the small envelope, which will be arranged, in order with the others, beforehand (the outside one being already addressed, as a matter of course), and either take it round to the front himself or deliver it to the servant who is to take it into the room. Too much rapidity cannot be exercised in executing this portion of the trick. When once the letter is delivered, the performer has nothing more to do in the way of exerting his skill, but has merely to do a little talking, and eventually have the letter opened. Indeed, in this trick there is but little sleight of hand to be exhibited; but a bungler would nevertheless make an egregious muddle of it. It requires great neatness of execution. For instance, in turning round for the purpose of reversing the position of the stick in the hands, great care must be taken that no movement of the elbows is visible. The movement made must be confined to the arm below the elbow, or even to the wrists only. This movement of the wrists must be practised, as it is a highly essential one and has to be brought into use frequently. If any of the audience see the arms moving, they know, or surmise, that something is going on, even though they cannot divine what it is.

Although not absolutely necessary, it is as well always to force a card for this trick. The card can then be doubled up with the pips outwards if the prepared end of the cleft stick contains a portion of a similar card. For frequent performances of this trick and [The Missing Link], it will be advisable to have what I have previously described as (but condemned the open use of) "forcing packs," viz., packs the cards of which are all of one denomination and suite, as it will not do to tear up cards from ordinary packs. They are easily obtainable at conjuring repositories or card manufacturers.

This trick is also exceedingly effective when a borrowed letter or other document is used instead of a card. In large public audiences, a bank note or other paper of value may be borrowed. It is easy to have a piece of a note of the "Bank of Elegance" in the concealed cleft, in imitation of a bank note. On important occasions the performer should always have three or four sticks prepared with various coloured papers, so as to be ready for any emergency. The preparation is trifling, and the sticks not used will do for another time.

It is quite immaterial which way it is done, but sometimes I tell the person to whom I give the stick and candle not to burn the paper, but to "put it in the candle." When I notice that it is in a fair way to be burned I look in another direction, as if not noticing what is going on, and am horrified on turning round to find the paper destroyed. This answers best when the material burnt is a borrowed paper.