You should now separate the different suits, and lay them on the table, face upwards, hearts first, then spades, diamonds next, and clubs last. Having done so, begin to sort (to yourself), according to your key: take up the eight of hearts, placing it in the left hand face up; then the king of spades, which you lay upon it, next the three of diamonds, next the ten of clubs, then the two of hearts, and so on, until you finish your line, which will terminate with the knave of hearts. You then take up the eight of spades, and go on in the same way till you come to the knave of spades, when you begin again with the eight of diamonds, and go on until you come to the knave of diamonds and beginning again with the eight of clubs, you go on until you come to the knave of clubs, which finishes the pack, and which is now ready for use; when you have made your exchange, and brought forward your prepared pack, hand it round to be cut.
You now want to know the first card, as a clue to the rest; and therefore take off the top card, and, holding it up between you and the light, you see what the card is, saying, at the same time, that the old way of performing the trick was by doing so, but that was very easily detected.
Having thus obtained a knowledge of the first card, which we will suppose to be the ten of diamonds, you then take the next card on your finger, and, while pretending to weigh it, you have time to recollect what is the next word in your key, to ten’d, which is to; you consequently know that this card is a two; you must then recollect what suit comes after diamonds, which is clubs; you, therefore, declare the card you are now weighing on your finger to be the two of clubs; the next will of course be the seven of hearts, the next to that the nine of spades, and so on as long as you please.
Variation.—Take a parcel of cards, suppose 40, among which insert two long cards; let the first be, for example, the 15th, and the other the 26th from the top. Seem to shuffle the cards, and then cutting them at the first long card, poise those you have cut off in your left hand, and say, “there should be here fifteen cards.” Cut them again at the second long card, and say, “There are here only eleven cards.” Then poising the remainder, you say, “Here are fourteen cards.”
TO DISCOVER A SELECTED CARD BY A THROW OF A DIE.
Prepare a pack of cards in which there are only six sorts of cards. Dispose these cards in such manner that each of the six different cards shall follow each other, and let the last of each suit be a long card. The cards being thus disposed, it follows that if you divide them into six parcels, by cutting at each of the long cards, those parcels will all consist of similar cards.
Let a person draw a card from the pack, and let him replace it in the parcel from whence it was drawn, by your only offering that part. Cut the cards several times, so that a long card may be always at bottom. Divide the cards in this manner into six heaps, and giving a die to the person who drew the card, tell him that the point he throws shall indicate the parcel and show him the card.
You should put the cards in your pocket immediately after performing this recreation, and have another pack, ready to show, if any one should ask to see the cards.
