The mode of working the trick varies a good deal in the hands of different performers. The most legitimate method is to “force” cards corresponding to those already folded behind the star, and this method has the advantage of allowing the star to be brought in and placed upon the table before commencing the trick; and as it is not again touched by the performer or his assistant, the appearance on its points of (apparently) the identical cards just chosen seems really miraculous.
To be able, however, to force six cards in succession with ease and certainty, demands a more than average degree of dexterity on the part of the performer; and a “forcing pack” (see page [23]) is hardly available where more than three, or at most four cards have to be forced. Various expedients have been adopted to get over this difficulty. Some professors simply collect, or allow their assistant to collect, the cards which have been drawn, and forthwith secretly exchange them for the same number of others. These latter are laid upon the table, and subsequently placed in the pistol, while the originals are carried off by the assistant behind the scenes, and there attached to the star, which is then for the first time brought forward. Others, again, use what are called “longs and shorts”—i.e., two packs of cards, one of which has had a small portion shaved off its length or breadth. The performer offers the uncut pack for the company to draw from, letting each person retain his card, and then secretly exchanging the pack for the shortened pack, he requests each of the drawers (singly) to replace his card, and to shuffle freely. The substituted pack being a shade smaller than the returned card, the latter becomes a “long” card (see page [60]); and therefore, however well the cards are shuffled, the performer is able, with absolute certainty, to cut at that particular card. “Here is your card,” he remarks, “the knave of diamonds.” As he names the card, the assistant, behind the scenes, takes the cue, and attaches a corresponding card to the star. The card named is removed from the pack and laid upon the table, in order to be subsequently placed in the pistol, and a second drawn card is returned and shuffled with the like result.
The star may, in the absence of a mechanical table, be placed on the hand, the disc being pushed up by the fingers. Some stars have a moveable stud at the side of the pillar, connected with the rod within, to facilitate this mode of working the trick.
Fig. 285.
The Card Bouquet.—This is a trick very similar in effect to that last described, though differing a little as to the manner of the appearance of the cards. Six cards are drawn, and placed in a pistol, as in the last case. A vase (apparently of china, but really of tin, japanned), containing a handsome bouquet, is placed upon the table, and, at the instant of firing, the six cards appear ranged in a semicircle above the flowers in the bouquet. (See [Fig. 285].) In this instance, the cards are attached to the branches of a sort of fan, so constructed as to open of its own accord, unless forcibly kept closed. The cards having been duly placed in position, this fan is shut, and pressed downwards through a narrow opening in the lower part of the vase, the pressure of whose sides keeps it, for the time being, closed. When pressed upwards by the action of a piston, the fan rises above the level of the flowers, and at the same time opens and exhibits the six cards.
The vase is sometimes made with a second pedal, to produce a second series of six cards. In this case twelve cards are drawn; six of these first appear, and then, at the command of the performer, these six suddenly change to the other six. This is effected as follows:—The twelve cards are pasted back to back in couples. Each of the six arms which hold the cards is so arranged as to be capable of being turned half round (after the manner of the centre of the “watch target”), in which position it is retained by a catch, flying back however to its old position as soon as the catch is released. The six arms are each turned round in this manner, bringing what are naturally the hindmost cards in front. The movement of the first lever exhibits these cards; that of the second lever releases the six catches, when the arms instantly fly round and reveal the other six cards, into which those first exhibited appear to have changed.
The Demon’s Head.—This is a large and effective piece of apparatus, standing about twenty-eight inches from the table. It consists of a grotesque papier maché head, representing that of a demon or satyr, and painted according to taste. It is supported by an ornamental brass column, about an inch in diameter, springing from a velvet-covered base, nine inches square and four and a half high. (See [Fig. 286].) At the will of the operator, the head rolls its eyes and opens its mouth, and is sometimes made available in this way to answer questions; the rolling of the eyes being taken to signify a negative, and the opening of the mouth an affirmative. In addition to these accomplishments, the demon will indicate chosen cards in the following manner: Five cards having been selected, are returned to the pack, which, after being duly shuffled, is placed in the demon’s mouth. The performer now orders him to produce the chosen cards, when two of them fly from his mouth, and the other two spring up between his horns.
Fig. 286.