To tell the Amount of the Numbers of any Three Cards that a Person shall draw from the Pack.
After the person has drawn his three cards, draw one yourself and lay it aside, for it is necessary that the number of the remaining cards be divisible by three, which they will not be in a pack of fifty-two cards, if only three be drawn. The card you draw, you may call the confederate, and pretend it is by the aid of that card you discover the amount of the others. Then tell the party to add as many more to each of his cards as will make its number sixteen, which is the third part of the remaining forty-eight cards; therefore, suppose he has drawn a ten, a seven, and a six; then, to the first he must add six cards, to the second nine, and to the third ten, which together make twenty-five, and the four cards drawn being added to them make twenty-nine. You then take the remaining cards, and, telling them over, as in the last amusement, you find their number to be twenty-three, the amount of the three cards the person drew.
This amusement may also be performed without touching the cards, thus:—When the party has drawn his three cards, and you have drawn one, let him deduct the number of each of the cards he has drawn from seventeen, which is one-third of the pack after you have drawn your card; and let him tell you the amount of the several remainders, to which you privately add one to the card you drew, and, deducting that amount from fifty-two, (the whole number of the cards,) the remainder will be the amount of the three cards drawn.
Example.—Suppose the three cards to be ten, seven, and six, as before; then, each of those numbers subtracted from seventeen, the remainders will be respectively, seven, ten, and eleven, which, added together, make twenty-eight, to which the single card you drew being reckoned as one, and added, makes twenty-nine; and that number deducted from fifty-two, leaves twenty-three, which is the amount of the three cards the party drew.
The following amusements principally depend on dexterity of hand; and, as what is termed making the pass, will be necessary to be acquired, to enable the operator to perform many of them, we subjoin the following explanation of this term:
How to make the Pass.—Hold the pack of cards in your right hand, so that the palm of your hand may be under the cards: place the thumb of that hand on one side of the pack; the first, second, and third fingers on the other side, and your little finger between those cards that are to be brought to the top, and the rest of the pack. Then place your left hand over the cards in such a manner that the thumb may be at C, the fore-finger at A, and the other fingers at B, as in the following figure:
The hands and the two parts of the cards being thus disposed, you draw off the lower cards, confined by the little finger and the other parts of the right hand, and place them, with an imperceptible motion, on the top of the pack.
But before you attempt any of the tricks that depend on making the pass, you must have great practice, and be able to perform it so dexterously and expeditiously, that the eye cannot detect the movement of the hand; or you may, instead of deceiving others, expose yourself.