Cassell's Book of In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun

by Various

TO NAME A CARD NOTED.

Take a number of cards out of a full pack, say from ten to twenty, carefully counting and remembering the number, and holding them up with their faces to the audience, and so that the backs only can be seen by the performer. Open the cards out, commencing from that card which was uppermost when they were turned faces downwards, and request some person present to note the designation of any one of the cards shown, together with its order from the top of the pack, whether it is first, second, third, fourth, or what order, and to name the order. Immediately then place the cards face downwards on the table, and place upon them the remainder of the pack of cards, knocking the sides and ends well together, or indeed, if it is desired, letting the cards be knocked together by any of the audience. To find the card noted, subtract from fifty-two (the number of cards in a full pack) the number of cards held out at the commencement of the trick, and to the result add the order number of the card noted; the result will give the position in the whole pack at which the card will be found. For example, hold out twenty cards, and suppose that the seventh card from the top was the card noted; the position of that card in the whole pack will be found by subtracting twenty from fifty-two, and adding seven to the result, which will indicate that the card noted will be the thirty-ninth card in the whole pack. To pick out the card and show it is, of course, then an easy matter.

TO GUESS THE RESPECTIVE CARDS THOUGHT OF BY DIFFERENT PERSONS.

Show to each person cards equal in number to the number of persons the performer intends to request to think of a card, and from the cards shown to each person request that one may be mentally noted. For example: if three persons are to make selections, to each show three cards. When the first has made his selection, place on one side the cards from which his choice was made, and proceed in the same manner with the second and third. Then deal out the first three cards, placing them with their faces uppermost, on them deal the second three cards, and on these again the third three cards. Request each person to name the heap in which the card he selected is to be found, and the result will be that the card chosen by the first will be at the bottom, by the second in the middle, and by the third at the top of the respective heaps in which the cards are to be found. The more persons selecting cards the better and more complicated does the trick appear.

TO DISCOVER A CARD BY THE TOUCH OR SMELL.

This is not a first-rate trick, as it is done either with prepared cards or with the aid of a confederate; as, however, it is a universal favourite, we give it a place here.

First Method, with Prepared Cards.—Offer the long card (previously described) or any other card of which the designation is known, and as the person who has drawn it holds it in his hand, pretend to feel the pips with the forefinger, or, if blindfolded, smell it, and declare its designation.

Second Method, with the Aid of a Confederate.—Offer, when blindfolded, to select from a pack of cards all the court or some other combination of cards. Before commencing, however, arrange some signal with a confederate that shall be intelligible to the performer, but that shall remain unnoticed by the audience. Accompany the performance of the trick with plenty of "patter," the better to keep attention away from the confederate; expatiate upon the delicacy of the sense of touch or upon the strength of the sense of smell, directing full attention to the thoroughness of the blindfolding, and one by one hold up the cards to the audience, declaring in accordance with the signal given whether the cards held up are of the designation to be named, or the reverse. The signal agreed upon may be by touch or sound, according to the circumstances of the case.

TO TELL ALL THE CARDS WITHOUT SEEING THEM.

This is generally one of the most successful of this series of tricks, inasmuch as the whole pack of cards is brought into use, and in the hands of an operator of ordinary intelligence and care it need never fail. The secret of the whole trick is a pre-arranged order, and if this be not carefully done the trick, of course, fails. The following is the order in which the cards may be arranged: 6, 4, 1, 7, 5, king, 8, 10, 3, knave, 9, 2, queen; but it is, of course, open to the performer to vary the order, and provided he maintains a uniform order throughout, and remembers the order, one arrangement is as good as another. In order to keep the above order in mind, the following sentence has been prepared to serve as an artificial aid to memory:—