“1. The pack being held in the ordinary manner in the left hand, with a chosen card on the top (either placed there by the chooser, or by the pass, or one of the subjoined slips), lift off the top half, raising it rather hingewise, so that the top card being retained by the fingers of the left hand it is left on the top of the half retained in the left hand, as in m.
“2. The chosen card being on the top of the pack, being held as at d, and covered lengthwise by the right hand, by a sudden contraction of the fingers of the left hand, the top card is drawn off (under the right hand) as at n, with a ‘flip,’ caused by the bending of the card as it bends and straightens out at the bottom of the pack. The cards are immediately ‘ruffled’ to disguise the flip. In the same manner a card may be sprung from the bottom to the top, or from the top to the centre, in the latter case the pack being opened a little in the left hand, and the top half slightly raised by the thumb and fingers of the right hand. The elasticity of the card will cause it to spring, in the instant it finds an opening.
“3. A card having been chosen, the pack is presented, just raising the top half to make a place for it, but not looking at the place, or indeed at the hands at all. The card being inserted, before replacing the top half the two middle fingers are inserted just over it, and directly the two halves join, the card is flipped out by the two fingers as in n, and brought to the bottom. The cards are immediately ‘ruffled,’ and your point is gained, i.e. you know the exact card chosen. If the chooser demurs to re-inserting the card at the opening you make—
“4. Spread out the pack fanwise before him, spreading them to your right, and letting the fingers of your two hands meet underneath the fan. By this means wherever he pushes in his card, you can feel it, and in collapsing the fan into pack form, the fingers are slipped in over the top as in slip No. 3, and the card is flipped out as there set down.
“These demonstrate the active principles of slips, which your own ingenuity will multiply ad infinitum. It will be seen that by their means any card chosen and returned to the pack may be at once secured and ascertained, which is the prime object of the card trickster, in whatsoever experiment he may be engaged. Simply a ‘slip,’ combined with any of the following ‘exposures,’ will constitute a trick in itself, far above the comprehension of any one not himself a master of the art.
“Exposures.—These are the methods of ‘exposing’ a card chosen, and returned to the pack. Your own fancy will suggest any quantity of methods, but the following are a few for a start. In fact, almost all card-tricks consist of one sleight, and a more or less complicated exposure.
“1. Slip the chosen card to the top. Let the pack be held by any one (say the chooser of the card) with the face upwards, i.e. so that his card is at the bottom. See that the pack is held well into the hand of the holder, secured by the thumb set rather near the edge of the pack. Now, with your own hand, or let any one else, strike the pack smartly downwards, and all the cards will be knocked out of his hand except the bottom one (his own) which remains staring him in the face, retained by adhesion to his own fingers. Result, natural, but extraordinary.
“2. Slip the chosen card to the top. Take the pack in the right hand, and cover it with the left, as you do so sliding the top (chosen) card sideways till it projects nearly half over the side of the pack. This state of things will be hidden by the left hand, holding the pack endways. On dropping the pack bodily from the left hand at an elevation of about 1½ feet from floor or table, the top (chosen) card will turn as it falls, and lie face upwards on the top of the pack. Result, simple, but startling.
“3. Slip the chosen card to the top. Give the chooser a paper knife, and, holding the pack as at d, tell him to cut the pack with it where he likes. Where he cuts, divide the pack, and lift off the top half, doing at the same time slip No. 1, which will bring his card to the top of the lower half. Put down the top half, and observing that you in no way influenced his cut, tell him to take the (now) top card. He will be surprised to find it his own. Result, easy but supernatural.