Note.—You ought not to see the bottom cards of the heaps, nor should you see them laid out, or know the number of cards in each heap; it suffices if you know the number of heaps and the number of the remaining cards, if any such there be: and therefore you may perform this feat as well standing in another room as if you were present.—You must have a whole pack.
To make any two Cards come together which may be named.
When any one has named what two cards he would have come together, take the cards and say, “Let us see if they are here or not, and, if they are, I’ll put them as far asunder as I can;” then, having found the two cards proposed, dispose them in the pack, and cause them to come together.
This trick would seem much more strange, if, when you have brought the proposed cards together, by laying them in heaps, you lay the heap wherein the proposed cards are at the bottom of the pack, and then shuffle the cards; cut them asunder somewhere in the middle; thus the proposed cards will be found together in the middle of the pack, which will seem very strange.
Card nailed to the Wall by a Pistol-shot.
A card is desired to be drawn, and the person who chooses, is requested to tear off a corner, and to keep it, that he may know the card; the card so torn is then burnt to cinders, and a pistol discharged with gunpowder, with which the ashes of the card are mixed. Instead of a ball, a nail is put into the barrel, which is marked by some of the company; the pack of cards is then thrown up in the air, the pistol is fired, and the card appears nailed against the wall. The bit of the corner which was torn off is then compared with it, and is found exactly to fit; and the nail which fastens it to the wall is recognised by the persons who marked it.
Explanation.—When the performer sees that a corner of the chosen card has been torn off, he retires, and makes a similar tear on a like card. Returning, he asks for the chosen card, and passing it to the bottom of the pack, he substitutes expertly in its place the card which he has prepared, which he burns instead of the first. When the pistol is loaded, he takes it in his hand, under the pretence of showing how to direct it, &c. He avails himself of this opportunity to open a hole in the barrel, near the touchhole, through which the nail falls by its own weight into his hand: having shut this passage, he requests one of the company to put more powder and wadding into the pistol; whilst that is doing, he carries the nail and card to his confederate, who quickly nails the card to a piece of square wood, which stops a space left open in the partition, but which is not perceived, as it is covered with a piece of tapestry, similar to the rest of the room; and by which means, when the nailed card is put on, it is not perceived; the piece of tapestry which covers it is nicely fastened on the one end by two pins, and on the other a thread is fastened, one end of which the confederate holds in his hand. As soon as the report of the pistol is heard, the confederate draws his thread, by which means the piece of tapestry falls behind a glass; the card appears the same that was marked, and with the nail that was put in the pistol. It is not astonishing that the trick, being so difficult by its complexity to be guessed at, should have received such universal applause.
N. B. After the pistol has been charged with powder, a tin tube may be slipped upon the charge, into which the nail being rammed along with the wadding, by inclining it a little, in presenting it to one of the spectators to fire, the tube and contents will fall into the performer’s hand, to convey to his confederate. If any one suspects that the nail has been stolen out of the pistol, you persist in the contrary, and beg the company at the next exhibition to be farther convinced; you then are to show a pistol, which you take to pieces, to show that all is fair, without any preparation; you charge it with a nail, which is marked by some person in confederacy with you, or you show it to many people, on purpose to avoid its being marked. In this case the card is nailed with another nail; but, to persuade the company that it is the same, you boldly assert that the nail was marked by several persons, and you request the spectators to view it, and be convinced.
To tell what Card one thinks on.
Take twenty-one cards, and begin to lay them down three in a row, with their faces upwards; then begin again at the left hand, and lay one card upon the first, and so on the right hand, and then begin at the left hand again, and so go on to the right; do this till you have laid out the twenty-one cards in three heaps, but, as you are laying them out, bid any one think of a card, and, when you have laid them all out, ask him which heap his card is in; then lay that heap in the middle, between the other two. Now lay them all out again into three heaps, as before, and, as you lay them out, bid him take notice where his noted card goes, and put that heap in the middle, as before. Then, taking the cards with their backs towards you, take off the uppermost card, and, smelling to it, reckon it one; then take off another, and, smelling to it, reckon it two; this do till you come to the eleventh card, for that will always be the noted card after the third time of laying them out, though you should lay in this manner ever so often. You must never lay out the cards less than three times, but as often above as you please. This trick may be done by any odd number of cards that may be divided by three.