29. "HOLD IT FAST."
You commence by asking the most athletic person in company whether he is nervous; he will most probably answer in the negative; you then ask whether he thinks he can hold a card tightly. If he answers, No, ask the question of some one else, till you obtain an answer in the affirmative. You then desire the party to stand in the middle of the room, and holding up the pack of cards, you show him the bottom card, and request him to proclaim what card it is; he will say it is the knave of hearts; you then tell him to hold the card tightly at the bottom, and look to the ceiling. While he is looking up, you ask him if he recollects his card; if he says, Yes, desire him to draw it away, and ask him what it is; he will, of course, answer, the knave of hearts; tell him he has made a mistake, for if he look at his card, he will find it to be the knave of spades, which will be the case. You then give him the remainder of the pack, telling him that if he looks over it, he will find the knave of hearts in quite a different situation.
This feat, though it excites much admiration, is very simple. You procure an extra knave of hearts, and cut it in half, keeping the upper part, and throwing away the lower. When commencing your feat, get the knave of spades to the bottom of the pack, and lay over the upper part of it, unperceived, your half knave of hearts; and, under pretence of holding the pack very tight, throw your thumb across the middle of the knave, so that the joining may not be perceived, for the legs of those two knaves are so much alike that there is no danger of detection. You, of course, give him the legs of the knave of spades to hold, and when he has drawn the card away, hold your hand so that the faces of the cards will be turned towards the floor, and take an opportunity of removing the half-knave: you may vary the feat by having a half-knave of spades.
30. THE CHARMED TWELVE.
Let any one take a pack of cards, shuffle, take off the upper card, and, having noticed it, lay it on the table, with its face downward, and put so many cards upon it as will make up twelve with the number of spots on the noted card. For instance: if the card which the person drew was king, queen knave, or ten, bid him lay that card, with its face downward, calling it ten; upon that card let him lay another, calling it eleven, and upon that card, another, calling it twelve; then bid him take off the next uppermost card: suppose it to be nine, let him lay it down on another part of the table, calling it nine, upon it let him lay another, calling it ten, upon the latter another, calling it eleven, and upon that another, calling it twelve; then let him go to the next uppermost card, and so proceed to lay out in heaps, as before, until he has gone through with the whole pack.
If there be any cards at the last, that is, if there be not enough to make up the last noted card, the number twelve, bid him give them to you; then, in order to tell all the number of spots contained in all the bottom cards of the heaps, do thus: from the number of heaps subtract four, multiply the remainder by thirteen, and, to the product, add the number of remaining cards, which he gave you; but if there were but four heaps, then those remaining cards alone will show the number of spots on the four bottom cards. You need not see the cards laid out, nor know the number of cards in each heap, it being sufficient to know the number of heaps, and the number of remaining cards, if there be any, and therefore you may perform this feat as well standing in another room, as if you were present.
31. THE TRICK OF THIRTY-ONE.
A trick often introduced by "sporting men," for the purpose of deceiving and making money by it. It is called "thirty-one." I caution all not to play or bet with a man who introduces it: for, most probably, if he does not propose betting on it at first, he will after he gets you interested, and pretend to teach you all the secrets of it, so that you can play it with him; and perhaps he will let you beat him if you should play in fun; but if you bet, he will surely beat you. It is played with the first six of each suit—the aces in one row, the deuces in another, the threes in another; then the fours, fives and sixes—all laid in rows. The object now will be to turn down cards alternately, and endeavor to make thirty-one points by so turning, or as near to it as possible, without overrunning it; and the man who turns down a card, the spots of which make him thirty-one, or so near it that the other cannot turn down one without overrunning it, wins. This trick is very deceiving, as all other tricks are, and requires much practice to be well understood. The persons using it I have known to attach great importance to it, and say that Mr. Fox, of England, was the first to introduce it; and that it was a favorite amusement of his. The chief point of this celebrated trick is to count so as to end with the following numbers, viz., 3, 10, 17 or 24. For example, we will suppose it your privilege to commence the count: you would commence with 3, and your adversary would add 6, which would make 9; it would then be your policy to add 1, and make 10; then, no matter what number he adds, he cannot prevent you counting 17, which number gives you the command of the trick. We will suppose he add 6, and make 16; then, you add 1, and make 17, then he to add 6, and make 23, you add 1, and make 24, then he cannot possibly add any number to count 31: as the highest number he can add is 6, which would only count 30, so that you can easily add the remaining 1, or ace, and make 31. There are, however, many variations to the trick.
32. TO TELL THE NAMES OF THE CARD BY THE WEIGHT.
You desire any person to cut a pack of cards as often as he pleases, and undertake, by weighing each card for a moment on your finger, not only to tell the color, but the suit and number of spots, and, if a court-card, whether it be king, queen, or knave.