"No Conjuror!"
TRICKS WITH CARDS.
Although proficiency in games with cards, is, in our opinion, a most pernicious accomplishment for youth, and one which cannot be too severely reprobated, we do not consider SLEIGHT-OF-HAND TRICKS with a pack of cards, at all objectionable, but rather a source of much harmless amusement; and, under this impression, we do not hesitate to insert the following series of excellent deceptions and sleight-of-hand tricks.
Playing cards are believed to have been invented in Spain as early as the fourteenth century; for, in 1378, John the First, king of Castile, forbade card-playing in his dominions, in an edict which is anterior to any similar legislative measure in other parts of Europe. The figures upon the cards themselves, add to the strength of the supposition; for the suits answering to those of spades and clubs have not the same inverted heart and trefoil shape which ours of the present day display, but espadas, or swords, and bastos, or cudgels, or clubs; so that in fact we retain their names, though we have altered the figures. At the present time, too, cards are a favorite diversion of the Spaniards, and the monopoly of selling them is vested in the hands of the sovereign.
In the reign of Henry the Seventh, card-playing was a very fashionable court amusement in England. The cards then used, differed materially in their figures from those now in vogue, as instead of clubs, spades, diamonds, and hearts, they had rabbits, pinks, roses, and the flowers called columbines, upon them; as also bells, hearts, leaves, acorns, deer, &c. Let us now turn to the tricks that can be played with cards.
In accordance with my rule, I shall lay the principal stress on card tricks that require no apparatus, and may be performed with ordinary cards.
1. TO MAKE THE PASS.