Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

by Professor Hoffmann

Fig. 45.

There is a mode of performing the trick of the rising cards entirely without apparatus, and without the necessity of forcing particular cards. The performer in this case invites a person to draw a card, and when it is returned makes the pass to bring it to the top of the pack. He then makes a false shuffle, leaving it on the top, and offers the pack to a second person to draw. When he has done so, and before he replaces the card, the performer makes the pass to bring the card first drawn to the middle, so that the second card is placed upon it, and then again makes the pass to bring both together to the top. The process may be repeated with a third card. The three cards are thus left at the top of the pack, that last drawn being the outermost. The performer now asks each person, beginning with the last who drew, to name his card, and, holding the pack upright in his right hand, the thumb on one side, and the third and fourth fingers on the other, with the face of the pack to the audience (see [Fig. 45]), he causes the cards to rise one by one by pushing them up from the back by an alternate movement of the first and second fingers (which should previously be slightly moistened). If the face of the cards is held fairly to the spectators, it will be impossible for them to discover that the cards do not rise from the middle of the pack.

We have been more prolix than we could have desired in the description of this trick, but minute details are the very soul of conjuring. The experience of Horace, “Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio,” applies with peculiar force to the magic art; and if we occasionally irritate the reader of quick apprehension by too great minuteness, he must remember that we have, as far as we can, to anticipate every possible question, and that a single point left unexplained may render useless an otherwise careful description.

The Jumping Cards.—Two or three Cards having been drawn, returned, and shuffled to make them jump out of the Pack.—This trick is somewhat similar in working to that of the rising cards as performed in the hand, which we have just described. The course of the two tricks is precisely the same up to the point when, the two or three cards having been drawn and returned, you have got them all to the top of the pack. Here, however, the resemblance ceases. In the present case you drop the whole pack into an open-mouthed box, made for that purpose, and announce that, although the chosen cards have been replaced in different parts of the pack, and the whole have since been thoroughly shuffled, you have only to blow upon them in order to separate them visibly from the rest of the pack. You blow upon the box accordingly, when the chosen cards instantly fly out of the pack, rising to a height of three or four feet, and fall on the table.

Fig. 47. Fig. 46. Fig. 48.

The secret of the trick, apart from the sleight-of-hand necessary to bring the chosen cards together at the top of the pack, lies in the box. It is in general appearance something like a miniature pedestal for a statue, but hollow, and open at the top, the cavity being rather more than large enough to hold a pack of cards. (See [Fig. 46].) It is divided longitudinally into two compartments, the foremost being large enough to hold a whole pack, the hindmost to hold only three or four cards, the partition between the two coming about half way up the box. The bottom of the larger compartment is level with the top of the plinth, but the smaller is open to the whole depth, save that across it is a steel spring about half an inch in width. [Fig. 47] represents a section of the apparatus, A being the upper part, of which a is the larger or front compartment, and b the smaller compartment at the back. B is the plinth. A is so constructed as to slide forwards on, or rather in, B, to the extent of about an eighth of an inch, but is prevented doing so, in the normal condition of the apparatus, by the spring c, which is screwed to the bottom of A, its free end pressing against the side of the plinth. If, however, the spring be pressed down from above, so as to be below the level of the shoulder d (for which purpose a thin slip of wood is supplied with the apparatus), and A be at the same time pushed towards d, it will slide forward to the position indicated in [Fig. 48], and the spring c will be held down beneath the shoulder d. This is the condition in which the apparatus is first exhibited to the audience. After turning it over, to show that there are no cards already concealed in it, the performer places in it the pack, first, however, slipping his little finger between the chosen cards (which are on the top) and the rest of the pack, so as to enable him to drop the chosen cards into the smaller compartment at the back, where they rest upon the bent spring. (See [Fig. 48].) Standing behind the box, and placing his hands around the plinth, as if to hold it steady, the fingers of each hand being in front, and the thumb behind, he blows smartly upon the box, at the same moment pushing A forward with the thumbs to the position which it occupies in [Fig. 47]. The spring c, being drawn back with it beyond the shoulder d, is released, and instantly flies up to its old position, shooting out of the box the cards resting upon it.

This trick is sometimes, like that of the rising cards, worked with a forcing pack, duplicates of the forced cards being placed beforehand in the hinder compartment. This method, however, is very inferior to that above described, and would hardly be adopted by any performer who had acquired a competent mastery of sleight-of-hand.

To make a Card stand upright by itself on the Table.—This is a little trick of hardly sufficient importance to be performed by itself; but as an incident introduced in the course of some more pretentious illusion, produces a very good effect. A great deal of the sparkle of a conjuring entertainment depends upon the performer’s readiness in what may be called “by-play,” consisting of a number of minor tricks not supposed to form part of the settled programme, but merely introduced incidentally, and used, as it were, as a garnish to the more important feats. Thus, when a coin, an egg, or other small article, is required for the purpose of a trick, the performer may fetch it openly from behind the scenes, or have it handed to him by his servant; but this is a commonplace proceeding. The higher class of performers prefer in such cases to produce the article from the hair, whiskers, or pocket of one of the audience; and in like manner, when the article has served its purpose, to make it vanish by some magical process, rather than by the prosaic methods of every-day life. These little incidents serve to keep the audience on the qui vive, and they further assist materially in keeping up the continuity of an entertainment. In a thoroughly good performance the audience should have no time to think, but should be led direct from one surprise to the contemplation of another.

The trick we are about to describe is of the class above alluded to. In the course of one or other of your card tricks, you have or make occasion to ask some person to go and place a given card on the table, or to examine a card already placed there. He does so, and is about to return to his place; but you check him. “No, sir, that won’t do. I want everybody to see what card it is. Will you be good enough to stand it up on end, with its face to the company, so that everybody can see it.” He looks foolish, and finally says that he can’t do it. “Not do it?” you reply. “My dear sir, it’s the simplest thing in the world. Allow me!” and taking the card from him, you place it upright on the table, and leave it standing without any visible support. Taking it up again, you hand it round, to show that there is no preparation about it, and on receiving it back, again stand it upright, but with the other end upwards; or, if challenged, allow the audience themselves to choose a card, which you cause to stand alone with equal facility.