CARD TRICKS AND COMBINATIONS.
For Parlour Magic a pack of cards will be found the source of endless amusement and variety. For the sleight-of-hand card tricks considerable practice is needed before they can be performed neatly and cleverly, so as to prevent the detection of the trick. To palm a card, to make the pass, to force a card, to make a false shuffle, to sight a card, are necessary accomplishments for the conjurer to learn and practise. As a general rule, it will be found more convenient to exhibit card tricks with a piquet pack of cards, or with an ordinary pack from which have been thrown out the twos, threes, fours, fives, and sixes; the pack so reduced can more readily be palmed; indeed, for a lad whose hand has not attained its full size, the reduction of the pack from fifty-two cards is absolutely necessary.
TO PALM A CARD.
This consists in bringing a card from the general pack into the hollow of the hand and keeping it there unperceived. The card it is desired to palm should first be brought to the top of the pack; hold the pack, with the faces of the cards downwards, in the left hand, covering the pack with the right hand. Push the card to be palmed until it projects beyond the edge of the pack; with the third finger of the left hand press the card upwards into the right hand, which should be half closed over it. Slightly bend the card, and it will lie snugly curved up against the inside of the hand. The better to prevent detection, then take the pack of cards between the finger and thumb of the right hand and offer it to be shuffled. If the palmed card is not known by the performer this will give him an opportunity of seeing it. The mere motion of taking the pack into the hand will give sufficient opportunity to return the palmed card into the pack. The possessor of a large hand with long fingers may in this way, if necessary, palm a whole pack of cards, and so enable him to increase very considerably his repertoire of card tricks.
TO MAKE THE PASS.
No one should attempt conjuring tricks with cards until he has thoroughly mastered this sleight; it requires a good deal of practice to perform it neatly and without risk of detection. Its object is to reverse the respective positions of the top and bottom halves of the pack. There are various methods of producing this result, some requiring the use of both hands and some of one hand only. Upon the instructions here given the plan may be varied after experience has been gained, but M. Robert Houdin states that at least an hour a day for a fortnight should be devoted to practising the "pass" before the conjurer appears before an audience. At any rate, it is useless to attempt card-conjuring until the "pass" has been mastered. The following description of how to make the pass is derived from Hoffmann's translation of Houdin's account of the trick:—The cards are to be held in the left hand, with the faces downwards, and between the two cards at which the pass is to be made the tip of the little finger is to be inserted; then cover the whole pack with the right hand, and at the same time take between the middle finger and thumb of that hand the opposite ends of the cards forming the lower portion of the pack; with the little and middle fingers of the left hand draw away and make the upper packet pass under the lower packet of cards. The whole trick will, after practice, be done easily, lightly, noiselessly, and in less than a second. The different motions here separately described will have to be done simultaneously, and with such rapidity that no motion of the cards should be apparent.
TO FORCE A CARD.
This means that when offering a pack to one of the audience for him to draw from it any card he chooses he is made to draw that card which the performer wants. The trick, although of some difficulty to perform successfully, is really more dependent upon mental address than upon manipulation. The card to be forced should be placed either at the top or the bottom of the pack, and by a cut brought into the middle of the pack, and should be held by the little finger, as explained in making the pass, immediately above that finger. Proceed with the pack closed to some one of the audience, requesting that a card may be taken, at the same time spreading the whole pack out fan-wise, and very slightly pushing forward the card to be taken. In all probability the card offered will be taken, owing to its being slightly more prominent than the rest; but if it seems that any other card is about to be selected close the pack up, appear to cut it again, and make the offer a second time. Be very careful not to spread out the cards until the invitation to take one has been given—so long as the pack is closed a card cannot readily be removed—but immediately upon giving the invitation spread the whole pack out, slightly advancing the desired card as instructed. If by inadvertence the wrong card is allowed to be taken, the mistake may be remedied by forcing the desired one upon some other person. The card to be forced should not be held, while all the other cards should be tightly secured in one or other of the performer's hands. The readiness with which the forced card may be removed will imperceptibly act as an inducement to its removal. If, on the other hand, the wrong card should be taken—and from the nature of the trick it is unadvisable to force the right card upon a second person—let the card taken be again placed in the pack; palm it in accordance with the instructions given as to palming a card, and manage then, unperceived, to get a sight of it, when it may answer all the purposes that the card it was desired to force would have answered.
TO SIGHT A CARD.
As stated above, it is sometimes necessary to sight a given card, and this has to be done in the presence of, but yet altogether unknown to, the spectators. The following plan will generally be found to succeed:—Slip the little finger, as in making the pass, under the card that it is desired to look at, bend the top half of the pack upwards and the bottom half downwards, so that in a modified degree they make two packs, bent in a concave form, thus:—