Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

by Professor Hoffmann

To make Four Aces change to Four Kings, and Four Kings to Four Aces.—This very effective trick is performed by the aid of four cards, which are so prepared as to appear aces on the one side and kings on the other. To make them, take four ordinary aces and four ordinary kings, and peel off half the thickness of each card. This may be easily done by splitting one corner of the card with a sharp penknife, when the remainder can be pulled apart without difficulty. The cards being thus reduced in thickness, paste back to back the king and ace of each suit, placing them in a press or under a heavy weight, that they may dry perfectly smooth and flat. Better still, entrust the process to some person who is accustomed to mounting photographs, when, at a trifling cost, you will have your double-faced cards thoroughly well made.

Place these four cards beforehand in different parts of the pack, the “ace” side downwards, i.e., in the same direction as the faces of the other cards. Place the genuine aces face downwards on the top of the pack, which being thus disposed, you are ready to begin the trick.

Take the pack in your hand, face uppermost. Remark, “For this trick I want the aces and kings,” and pick out, one by one, the real kings and the sham aces. Lay these cards on the table, the kings face upwards, and the prepared cards with the “ace” side uppermost. Draw the attention of the audience to these cards, and meanwhile make the pass so as to bring the two halves of the pack face to face, when the four genuine aces will (unknown to the audience) be at the lower end of the pack. Place the four kings ostentatiously upon the opposite end of the pack, i.e., that which is for the time being uppermost.

You now borrow a hat. Placing the pack for a moment on the table, and taking the four false aces in one hand and the hat in the other, place the aces on the table, and cover them with the hat, at the same moment turning them over. Then taking the pack in your hand, once more show the kings, and replacing them, say, “I shall now order these four kings to pass under the hat, and the four aces to return to the pack. I have only to touch the cards with my wand, and say, ‘Pass,’ and the change is accomplished.” As you touch the cards with the wand, turn over the pack (see page [37]), the bringing together of the hands and the gentle tap with the wand effectually covering the slight movement of the hand. If you do not use the wand, a semi-circular sweep of the hand which holds the cards in the direction of the hat, as you say “Pass,” will answer the same purpose.

Having shown that the cards have changed according to command, you may, by repeating the process, cause the cards to return to their original positions. It is better not to carry the trick further than this, or some of the audience may possibly ask to be allowed to examine the cards, which would be embarrassing.

After the trick is over, make the pass to bring the pack right again, and then get the double-faced cards out of the way as soon as possible. The best way to do this, without exciting suspicion, is to take them up in the right hand, and apparently turn them over and leave them on the top of the pack, but in reality palm them, and slip them into your pocket, or elsewhere out of sight. After having done this, you may safely leave the pack within reach of the audience, who, if they examine it, finding none but ordinary cards, will be more than ever puzzled as to your modus operandi.

Having made Four Packets of Cards with an Ace at the bottom of each, to bring all Four Aces into whichever Packet the Company may choose.—Take the four aces, or any other four cards of equal value, from the pack, and throw them face upwards on the table. While the company’s attention is being drawn to them, make the pass, as in the last trick, so as to bring the two halves of the pack face to face. The company, having satisfied themselves that the four cards shown are really the four aces, and are without preparation, take them up, and replace them face downwards upon the top of the pack, which you hold in the left hand, remarking, “I am going to show you a trick with these four aces. I shall first place them on the table, and put three indifferent cards on each of them.” Meanwhile, get the thumb of the left hand in position for the “turn over,” and the instant that you have drawn off the top card with the right hand, turn over the pack, which the movement of the hands in removing the top card will enable you to do without attracting notice. This top card is really an ace, and you may therefore show it, as if by accident, while placing it on the table. Lay it face downwards, and then place three cards from the end you have just brought uppermost (which the audience will believe to be the other three aces), in a line with it on the table. Next place three more cards, taken from the same end of the pack, upon each of the three cards last dealt. When you come to that first dealt (the genuine ace), before dealing the three cards upon it, you must again turn over the pack, thereby bringing the three aces on the top. You thus have upon the table four packets of four cards each, one packet consisting of aces only, and the remaining three packets of indifferent cards; but the audience imagine that the aces are divided, and that there is one at the foot of each packet. You now ask any one to touch two out of the four packets. The two packets which he touches may include, or may not include, the one containing the four aces. Whichever be the case, take up and put aside the two which do not include the packet of aces, and remark, “We will place these aside,” an observation which will be equally appropriate whether those were the two touched or not. Next ask the same or another person to touch one of the two remaining packets, and in like manner add that one which does not contain the aces to the two already set aside. Placing these three packets on the table, request some one of the company to place his hand upon them, and hold them tightly; then, taking the remaining packet yourself, observe. “You have three aces, and I have only one; but by virtue of my magic power I shall compel those three aces to leave your hand, and come to mine, I just touch the back of your hand, so” (touching it with the cards you hold), “and say, ‘Pass.’ The change is already accomplished. Here are all four aces. Please to examine your own cards, when you will find you have not a single ace left. Let me remind you that the audience chose, and not I, which of the four packets you should take, and which one I should retain.”[F]

[F] It will be observed that this trick is terminated after the manner described at page [45], to which the reader is recommended to refer, as the above description will be more clearly intelligible by the aid of the further explanations there given.

There is another method of performing this trick, which dispenses with the necessity of “turning over” the pack. In this case, as you place the four aces on the top of the pack, you insert the little finger of the left hand under the three uppermost, and make the pass to bring these three to the bottom, still, however, keeping the finger between them and the rest of the pack. You deal out the four top cards (supposed to be the four aces), as above, and three others on each of the three non-aces. You next ask some person to draw any three cards (taking care not to let him draw one of the three at the bottom), and place them at the top of the pack. The moment he has done so, you again make the pass, thus bringing the three aces upon them. You then say, taking off (without showing) the three top cards, “Now I will take these three cards, freely drawn from the middle of the pack, and place them here on this last ace.” From this point the course of the trick is the same as already described.

To Change the Four Aces, held tightly by a Person, into Four Indifferent Cards.—This is a most brilliant trick, and puzzles even adepts in card-conjuring. In combination with the “Shower of Aces,” which next follows, it was one of the principal feats of the Elder Conus, and subsequently of the celebrated Comte.