Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

by Professor Hoffmann

There is a more elaborate form of this trick procurable at the conjuring depôts, in which several groups of cards are used in succession, and the changes are proportionately multiplied, various colours and patterns being produced in the place of the ordinary figures on the cards. In our own opinion, the trick loses rather than gains by this greater elaboration, as the more fanciful changes have the disadvantage of showing clearly (which the simpler form of the trick does not) that the cards used are not ordinary cards; and this being once understood, the magic of the trick is destroyed.

We have had occasion more than once to direct you to turn round the cards, and it will be well for you to know how to do this neatly and without exciting suspicion. Hold the four cards fanwise in the left hand, the fingers behind and the thumb in front of the cards. Having exhibited them, turn their faces towards yourself, and with the thumb and finger of the right hand close the fan, and taking them by their upper ends lay them face downwards on the table. Their lower ends will now be away from you, and when you desire again to exhibit the cards (in a transformed condition), you have only to turn them over sideways, and pick them up by the ends which are now directed towards you. This little artifice (which is simplicity itself in practice, though a little difficult to describe) must be carefully studied, as upon neat manipulation in this respect the illusion of the trick mainly depends.

A Card having been Drawn and Returned, and the Pack shuffled, to make it Appear at such Number as the Company Choose.[D]—Invite a person to draw a card. Spread out the pack that he may replace it, and slip your little finger above it. Make the pass in order to bring the chosen card to the top; palm it, and offer the pack to be shuffled. When the pack is returned to you, replace the chosen card on the top, and make the first of the false shuffles above described, but commence by sliding off into the right hand the two top cards (instead of the top card only), so that the chosen card may, after the shuffle, be last but one from the bottom. Take the pack face downwards in the left hand, and carelessly move about the pack so that the bottom card may be full in view of the audience. Inquire at what number the company would like the card to appear; and when they have made their decision, hold the pack face downwards, and with the first and second fingers of the right hand draw away the cards from the bottom one by one, throwing each on the table face upwards, and counting aloud “one,” “two,” “three,” and so on. The first card which you draw is naturally the bottom one, and the chosen card, which is second, would in the ordinary course come next; but you “draw back” this card with the third finger of the left hand (see page [36]) and take the next instead, continuing in like manner until you have reached one short of the number at which the card is to appear. You now pause, and say, “The next card should be the card you drew. To avoid any mistake, will you kindly say beforehand what it was?” at the same time placing the card face downwards on the table. When the card is named, you request the drawer or some other person to turn it up, when it is found to be the right one.

[D] Another form of this trick, in which sleight-of-hand is not needed, has been given at page [52].

Another Method.—The card having been drawn and replaced, bring it to the top by the pass, palm it, have the pack shuffled, and replace it on the top. Invite the audience to choose at what number it shall appear. They choose, we will suppose, fifth. “Very good,” you reply; “permit me, in the first place, to show you that it is not there already.” Deal out the first five cards, face downwards, and show that the fifth is not the chosen card. Replace the five cards, in their present order on the pack, when the card will be at the number named.

Several Persons having each Drawn and Returned a Card, to make each Card appear at such Number in the Pack as the Drawer chooses.—Allow three or four persons each to draw a card. When all have drawn, make the pass in such manner as to bring the two halves of the pack face to face. The pack should not, however, be equally divided. The upper portion should only consist of about half-a-dozen cards, and therefore in making the pass you should insert the finger only at that number of cards from the bottom. Receive back the drawn cards on the top of the pack, “ruffling” the cards (see page [27]), and saying “Pass!” as each card is replaced. You may casually remark, “Your card has vanished; did you see it go?” When all are returned, you quickly “turn over” the pack (see page [37]), and, taking off the top card, say, addressing yourself to the person who last returned a card, “You see your card has vanished, as I told you. At what number in the pack, say from the first to the tenth, would you like it to re-appear?” We will suppose the answer to be “the sixth.” You deal five cards from the end of the pack that is now uppermost, then pretending a momentary hesitation, say, “I fancy I dealt two cards for one; allow me to count them again.” This draws the general attention to the cards on the table, and gives you the opportunity to again turn over the pack. You continue, after counting, “We have five, this makes six; then this should be your card. Will you say what the card was?” You place the card on the table, face downwards, and do not turn it till it is named, this giving you the opportunity to again turn over the pack, to be ready to repeat the operation with the next card. You must be careful to invite the different persons to call for their cards in the reverse order to that in which they are replaced in the pack. Thus, you first address the person who last returned his card, and then the last but one, and so on. You must tax your ingenuity for devices to take off the attention of the spectators from the pack at the moment when it is necessary to turn it over; and as each repetition of the process increases the chance of detection, it is well not to allow more than three or four cards to be drawn.

If you have reason to fear that the cards left undealt will run short, you may always replace any number of those already dealt upon the reverse end of the pack to that at which the chosen cards are.

The “Three Card” Trick.—This well-known trick has long been banished from the répertoire of the conjuror, and is now used only by the itinerant sharpers who infest race-courses and country fairs. We insert the explanation of it in this place as exemplifying one form of sleight-of-hand, and also as a useful warning to the unwary.

In its primary form, the trick is only an illustration of the well-known fact that the hand can move quicker than the eye can follow. It is performed with three cards—a court card and two plain cards. The operator holds them, face downwards, one between the second finger and thumb of the left hand, and the other two (of which the court card is one) one between the first finger and thumb, and the other between the second finger and thumb of the right hand, the latter being the outermost. Bringing the hands quickly together and then quickly apart, he drops the three cards in succession, and challenges the bystanders to say which is the court card. If the movement is quickly made, it is almost impossible, even for the keenest eye, to decide with certainty whether the upper or lower card falls first from the hand, and consequently which of the three cards, as they lie, is the court card. This is the whole of the trick, if fairly performed, and so far it would be a fair subject for betting, though the chances would be much against the person guessing; but another element is introduced by the swindling fraternity, which ensures the discomfiture of the unwary speculator. The operator is aided by three or four confederates, or “bonnets,” whose business it is to start the betting, and who, of course, are allowed to win. After this has gone on for a little time, and a sufficient ring of spectators has been got together, the operator makes use of some plausible pretext to look aside from the cards for a moment. While he does so one of the confederates, with a wink at the bystanders, slily bends up one corner of the court card, ostensibly as a means of recognition. The performer takes up the cards without apparently noticing the trick that has been played upon him, but secretly (that corner of the card being concealed by the third and fourth fingers of the right hand) straightens the bent corner, and at the same moment bends in like manner the corresponding corner of the other card in the same hand. He then throws down the cards as before. The bent corner is plainly visible, and the spectators, who do not suspect the change that has just been made, are fully persuaded that the card so bent, and no other, is the court card. Speculating, as they imagine, on a certainty, they are easily induced to bet that they will discover the court card, and they naturally name the one with the bent corner. When the card is turned, they find, to their disgust, that they have been duped, and that the dishonest advantage which they imagined they had obtained over the dealer was in reality a device for their confusion.

To Nail a Chosen Card to the Wall.—Procure a sharp drawing pin, and place it point upwards on the table, mantelpiece, or any other place where it will not attract the notice of the spectators, and yet be so close to you that you can cover it with your hand without exciting suspicion. Ask any person to draw a card. When he returns it to the pack, make the pass to bring it to the top, palm it, and immediately offer the pack to be shuffled. While this is being done, place your right hand carelessly over the pin, so as to bring the centre of the card as near as possible over it, and then press gently on the card, so as to make the point of the pin just penetrate it.