in the preceding trick, and tell the taker to put the card on the top.
Take out the needle, and prick a hole nearly through the top _left_-hand
corner. Replace the needle, shuffle the cards, or let any one shuffle
them. Place the pack on the table, cover them with a hat, and the marked
card will be known by a little raised knob on the _right_-hand top corner.
Draw out card by card, saying whether it is that card or not, until you
come to the marked one, which you throw on the table carelessly, and when
you are about taking out another card, stop suddenly, and pretend to find,
by some magic process, that it is the chosen card.
12. TO CALL THE CARDS OUT OF THE PACK.
Tell the spectators that you will call six cards out of the pack. Secure
a card, say the ace of spades, in the palm of your hand. Throw the pack
on the table, face downwards, spread out the cards, give one of the
spectators your conjuring wand, and tell him, when you name a card to
touch one, which you will take up.
First name the ace of spades. He touches a card, which you take up without
showing the face of it. This card may be, say the eight of diamonds. Put
it into your left hand, and place it upon the ace of spades, which is
already there, so that the two look like one card. Then call for the eight
of diamonds. Another card is touched, say the queen of clubs. This you put
with the others, and, after pretending to calculate, call for the queen of
clubs.
Proceed in this manner until six cards have been drawn. Then substitute
the last card drawn (which is of course a wrong one) for the ace of
spades, and conceal it in the palm of your hand. Then strew the others on
the table, and while the eyes of the spectators are fixed upon them, get
rid of the card in your left hand.
It is a good plan to ask some one to write down the names of the cards
as they are called, and then to have the list called over, in order that
every one may see that there has been no mistake.
13. HEADS AND TAILS.
While you are shuffling the cards, contrive to arrange quietly all their
heads one way, or as many as possible, rejecting all the diamonds except
the king, queen, knave, and seven, and passing them to the bottom. Put
the pack upon the table, take off a number of the upper cards, and offer
them for some one to choose a card from. While he is looking at it, turn
the cards round, and offer them to him, in order that he may replace it.
Shuffle the cards, and on looking them over, the chosen card will be
standing with its head one way, while the others are reversed.
14. THE SURPRISE.
When you have discovered a card, the following plan will make a _striking_
termination to the trick. Get the card to the bottom of the pack, and tell
one of the spectators to hold the cards by one corner as tightly as he
can. Give them a sharp rap with your finger, not with your hand, and all
the cards will be struck out of his hold, and fall on the floor, except
the bottom card, which will remain between his finger and thumb. It has
a rather more dashing effect, if you put the chosen card at the top, and
strike them upwards, when the whole pack will fly about the room, like a
flock of butterflies, only leaving the top card in the person's grasp.
15. THE REVOLUTION.
Another neat way of finishing a trick is as follows. Get the card to the
top of the pack; and taking care that all the cards are even, drop the
pack on the floor, taking care just as you let go, to slip the top card
a little off the rest of the pack. In falling, the resistance of the air
will turn the card over, and it will rest with its face upwards on the top
of the pack.
16. THE SLIPPED CARD.
Ascertain the bottom card of the pack; hold the cards in your left hand,
with their faces downwards. Place your right hand upon them, and with your
right fore finger slide them slowly over each other, asking some one to
stop any card he chooses, by putting his finger upon it. When he has done
so, open the pack at that card, but while opening it, make the pass, and
bring the bottom card under the one touched. Hold up the cards, and ask
the chooser to be sure of his card; hand all the cards to him, and let him
shuffle as much as he chooses. Afterwards discover the card in any manner
that you prefer. The following is a good plan.
17. THE NAILED CARD.
Take a flat-headed nail, and file it down until its point is as sharp as
a needle, and the head quite flat. The nail should be about half an inch
long, or even shorter if anything. Pass the nail through the center of any
card, say the ace of spades, and conceal it in your left hand.
Take another pack of cards, get the ace of spades to the bottom, and
perform the preceding trick. When the cards are returned, shuffle them
about, and exchange the pierced card for the other. Put the pierced card
at the bottom of the pack, and throw the cards violently against a door,
when the nail will be driven in by the pressure of the other cards against
its head, and the chosen card will be seen nailed to the door. The nail
should be put through the face of the card, so that when the others fall
on the floor, it remains facing the spectators.
18. TO ASCERTAIN THE NUMBER OF POINTS ON THREE UNSEEN CARDS.
In this amusement the ace counts eleven, the court cards ten each, and the
others according to the number of their spots.
Ask any one to choose any three cards, and lay them on the table, with
their faces downwards. On each of these he must place as many as with the
number of the card will make fifteen. He gives you the remaining cards,
and when you have them in your hand, you count them over on the pretence
of shuffling them, and by deducting four, you will have the number of
points on the three cards.
For example, the spectator chooses a four, an eight, and a king. On the
four he places eleven cards, on the eight seven, and on the king five.
There will then be twenty-six cards left. Deduct from this twenty-six
four, and the result will be twenty-two, which is the number of points on
the three cards, the king counting ten, added to the eight and the four.
19. TO TELL THE NUMBERS ON TWO UNSEEN CARDS.
As in the preceding trick, the ace counts eleven, and the court cards ten
each. Let the person who chooses the two cards lay them on the table with
their faces downward, and place on each as many as will make their number
twenty-five.
Take the remaining cards and count them, when they will be found to be
just as many as the points in the two cards. For example, take an ace and
a queen, _i. e._ eleven and ten, and lay them on the table. On the ace
you must put fourteen cards, and on the queen fifteen. There will be then
fifteen cards in one heap, and sixteen in the other: these added together
make thirty-one cards: these subtracted from the number of cards in the
pack, _i. e._ fifty-two, leave twenty-one, the joint number of the ace and
queen.
20. THE KNAVES AND THE CONSTABLE.
Select the four knaves from a pack of cards, and one of the kings to
perform the office of constable. Secretly place one of the knaves at the
bottom of the pack, and lay the other three, with the constable, down upon
the table. Proceed with a tale to the effect that three knaves once were
to rob a house; one got in at the parlor window (putting a knave at the
bottom of the pack, taking care not to lift the pack so high that the one
already at the bottom can be seen); one effected his entrance at the first
floor window (putting another knave in the middle of the pack); and the
other, by getting on the parapet from a neighboring house, contrived to
scramble in at the garret window (placing the third knave at the top of
the pack); the constable vowed he would capture them, and closely followed
the last knave (putting the king likewise upon the top of the pack). Then
request as many of the company to cut the cards as please; and tell them
that you have no doubt the constable has succeeded in his object, which
will be quite evident, when you spread out the pack in your hands; as the
king and three knaves will, if the trick is neatly performed, be found
together. A very little practice only is required to enable you to convey
a knave or any other card secretly to the bottom of the pack.
21. THE PAIRS RE-PAIRED.
Tell out twenty cards in pairs, and ask ten people to take a pair each,
and remember them. Take up the pairs in their order, and lay them on the
table in order, according to the accompanying table, which forms a memoria
technica, and may be construed, "Mutus gave a name to the Coci," (a people
who have yet to be discovered.)
M U T U S[2]
1 2 3 2 4
D E D I T
5 6 5 7 3
N O M E N
8 9 1 6 8
C O C I S
10 9 10 7 4
Arranging these words in your mind on the table, take the first card of
the first pair, lay it on M in Mutus, and the second on the M in Nomen.
The next pair goes entirely in Mutus, being two U's. The first card of the
second pair goes on T in Mutus, and the second on T in Dedit; and so on
until all the cards are laid in their places.
Ask each person in succession in which rows his cards are, and you can
immediately point them out. For example, if he says the second and third
row, you point out the second and fourth cards in those rows, because they
both represent the letter E. If another says the first and last rows,
you point out the last cards in each, because the cards represent S in
Mutus and S in Cocis. It will be seen that the whole table consists of
ten letters, each repeated, which will always point out the positions of
the pairs if they are put in the places of those letters. Any number of
bystanders may choose pairs, and to make the trick more mysterious, the
pairs may be placed on the table back upwards.
23. THE QUEENS DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS.
Select from a pack the aces, kings, queens, and knaves, together with four
common cards of each suit. Lay down the four queens in a row, and say,
"Here are four queens going to dig for diamonds. (_Lay a common diamond
over each queen._) They each took a spade with them (_place a common spade
on each diamond_) and dug until they were nearly tired. Their four kings,
thinking that they might be attacked by robbers, sent four soldiers to
keep guard. (_Lay an ace on each spade._) Evening came, and the queens had
not returned, so the kings, fearing that they might have come to harm,
became uneasy and set off themselves. (_Place a king on each ace._) They
were only just in time, for as they came along, they met their queens
being carried off by four villains (_lay a knave on each king_), who,
although only armed with clubs (_place a common club on each knave_), had
overpowered the guards and driven them off. But the four kings, being
possessed of bold hearts (_lay a common heart over each king_), soon
vanquished the villains, and bound them." Gather up the cards, place the
heaps upon each other and direct some one to cut them. Have them cut four
or five times, and continue to do so until a common heart appears at the
bottom. Then continue the tale, and say, "The party then returned home in
the following order. First the queen, (_lay down the top card_) with the
diamonds which she had found (_lay down the second card, which will be a
diamond_) in one hand, and her spade (_the third card will be a spade_) in
the other, &c., &c." You continue dealing out the cards in that manner,
and it will be found that they will be in precisely the same order as when
they were taken up.
24. THE TRIPLE DEAL.
Take any twenty-one cards, and ask some person to choose one from them.
Lay them out in three heaps, and ask the person who took the card in which
heap it is. You may turn your back while he searches. Gather them up and
put that heap between the other two. Do this twice more, and the chosen
card will always be the eleventh from the top.
25. THE QUADRUPLE DEAL.
This is a variation of the preceding. Take twenty-four cards, and lay them
in four heaps. Act as in No. 24, putting the heap in which is the chosen
card second. The tenth card will be the one thought of.
26. THE CARD DISCOVERED BY THE TOUCH OR SMELL.
Offer the long card, or any other that you thoroughly well know; and, as
the person who has drawn it holds it in his hand, pretend to feel the pips
or figures on the under side with your fore finger, or smell it, and then
sagaciously declare what card it is.
If it be the long card, you may give the pack to the person who drew it,
and allow him either to replace it or not. Then take the pack, and feel
whether it be there or not; shuffle the cards in a careless manner, and
without looking at it, decide accordingly.
27. THE INGENIOUS CONFEDERACY.
Lay sixteen cards on the table, in four divisions, four cards in each,
with their faces upwards. You then state that you will leave the room,
and, on your return, will name any one card which may have been touched
in your absence, on one of the company (your confederate) pointing out a
passage from any author to be read to you, on your return, by any person
present. To perform this trick, the cards should be placed in the order
in which they appear in the cut inserted on the next page, you previously
making your confederate acquainted with your mode of proceeding, which is
thus: The cards are supposed to be divided into four classes, as A, B, C,
D; you likewise agree to class everything in the world under the four
denominations of biped, quadruped, vegetable, and mineral: class A stands
for bipeds, B for quadrupeds, C for vegetables, and D for minerals. Each
class must now be subdivided in the same manner: in class A, No. 1 is the
biped, 2 the quadruped, 3 the vegetable, and 4 the mineral; and so with
the other classes. When performing the trick, your confederate must take
care to select an appropriate passage. For example, we will suppose the
card No. 4 to have been touched, and that a volume of Moore having been
presented to your confederate to select from, he gives the following lines
to be read:
"Breathes there the _slave_ so lowly,
Condemned to _chains_ unholy,
Who, could he burst his bonds at first,
Would pine beneath them slowly?" &c.
The first word which can be classed as above is _slave_, you may thus be
certain that the card touched is in class A, a slave being a biped. The
next word you can fix upon is _chains_, which being commonly made of some
metal, you rank in the mineral class, and know that card No. 4 was the one
touched, it being the mineral of the biped class.
[Illustration:
A B
1 2 5 6
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
3 4 7 8
9 10 13 14
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
11 12 15 16
C D
]
Supposing the trick to be repeated, as is very likely, and that a volume
of Byron is given to your confederate, who selects the passage commencing--
"Know ye the land, where the cypress and myrtle
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime?" &c.
you know, "cypress" being the first word that can be classed, the card
touched must be in class C (vegetable), and the next word "myrtle" being
also a vegetable, the card touched must have been No. 11, which is the
vegetable of the vegetable class. Many appropriate passages may be easily
selected, and your confederate should select a long passage to be read,
as it gives greater scope, and helps to mislead the rest of the company;
for should they imagine that the card is discovered by the number of lines
read, and they touch the same card again, he can select another passage,
desiring them to read only as many lines as they choose.
29. "HOLD IT FAST."
You commence by asking the most athletic person in company whether he
is nervous; he will most probably answer in the negative; you then ask
whether he thinks he can hold a card tightly. If he answers, No, ask the
question of some one else, till you obtain an answer in the affirmative.
You then desire the party to stand in the middle of the room, and holding
up the pack of cards, you show him the bottom card, and request him to
proclaim what card it is; he will say it is the knave of hearts; you then
tell him to hold the card tightly at the bottom, and look to the ceiling.
While he is looking up, you ask him if he recollects his card; if he says,
Yes, desire him to draw it away, and ask him what it is; he will, of
course, answer, the knave of hearts; tell him he has made a mistake, for
if he look at his card, he will find it to be the knave of spades, which
will be the case. You then give him the remainder of the pack, telling
him that if he looks over it, he will find the knave of hearts in quite a
different situation.
This feat, though it excites much admiration, is very simple. You procure
an extra knave of hearts, and cut it in half, keeping the upper part,
and throwing away the lower. When commencing your feat, get the knave
of spades to the bottom of the pack, and lay over the upper part of it,
unperceived, your half knave of hearts; and, under pretence of holding the
pack very tight, throw your thumb across the middle of the knave, so that
the joining may not be perceived, for the legs of those two knaves are so
much alike that there is no danger of detection. You, of course, give him
the legs of the knave of spades to hold, and when he has drawn the card
away, hold your hand so that the faces of the cards will be turned towards
the floor, and take an opportunity of removing the half-knave: you may
vary the feat by having a half-knave of spades.
30. THE CHARMED TWELVE.
Let any one take a pack of cards, shuffle, take off the upper card, and,
having noticed it, lay it on the table, with its face downward, and put
so many cards upon it as will make up twelve with the number of spots
on the noted card. For instance: if the card which the person drew was
king, queen knave, or ten, bid him lay that card, with its face downward,
calling it ten; upon that card let him lay another, calling it eleven,
and upon that card, another, calling it twelve; then bid him take off the
next uppermost card: suppose it to be nine, let him lay it down on another
part of the table, calling it nine, upon it let him lay another, calling
it ten, upon the latter another, calling it eleven, and upon that another,
calling it twelve; then let him go to the next uppermost card, and so
proceed to lay out in heaps, as before, until he has gone through with the
whole pack.
If there be any cards at the last, that is, if there be not enough to
make up the last noted card, the number twelve, bid him give them to you;
then, in order to tell all the number of spots contained in all the bottom
cards of the heaps, do thus: from the number of heaps subtract four,
multiply the remainder by thirteen, and, to the product, add the number
of remaining cards, which he gave you; but if there were but four heaps,
then those remaining cards alone will show the number of spots on the four
bottom cards. You need not see the cards laid out, nor know the number
of cards in each heap, it being sufficient to know the number of heaps,
and the number of remaining cards, if there be any, and therefore you may
perform this feat as well standing in another room, as if you were present.
31. THE TRICK OF THIRTY-ONE.
A trick often introduced by "_sporting men_," for the purpose of deceiving
and making money by it. It is called "thirty-one." I caution all not to
play or bet with a man who introduces it: for, most probably, if he does
not propose betting on it at first, he will after he gets you interested,
and pretend to teach you all the secrets of it, so that you can play it
with him; and perhaps he will let you beat him if you should play in fun;
but if you bet, he will surely beat you. It is played with the first
six of each suit--the _aces_ in one row, the _deuces_ in another, the
_threes_ in another; then the _fours_, _fives_ and _sixes_--all laid in
rows. The object now will be to turn down cards alternately, and endeavor
to make thirty-one points by so turning, or as near to it as possible,
without overrunning it; and the man who turns down a card, the spots of
which make him thirty-one, or so near it that the other cannot turn down
one without overrunning it, wins. This trick is very deceiving, as all
other tricks are, and requires much practice to be well understood. The
persons using it I have known to attach great importance to it, and say
that Mr. Fox, of England, was the first to introduce it; and that it was
a favorite amusement of his. The chief point of this celebrated trick is
to count so as to end with the following numbers, viz., 3, 10, 17 or 24.
For example, we will suppose it your privilege to commence the count: you
would commence with 3, and your adversary would add 6, which would make 9;
it would then be your policy to add 1, and make 10; then, no matter what
number he adds, he cannot prevent you counting 17, which number gives you
the command of the trick. We will suppose he add 6, and make 16; then, you
add 1, and make 17, then he to add 6, and make 23, you add 1, and make 24,
then he cannot possibly add any number to count 31: as the highest number
he can add is 6, which would only count 30, so that you can easily add the
remaining 1, or ace, and make 31. There are, however, many variations to
the trick.
32. TO TELL THE NAMES OF THE CARD BY THE WEIGHT.
You desire any person to cut a pack of cards as often as he pleases, and
undertake, by weighing each card for a moment on your finger, not only to
tell the color, but the suit and number of spots, and, if a court-card,
whether it be king, queen, or knave.
You must have two packs of cards exactly alike: one pack to be constantly
in use during the evening in performing your other tricks; the second, or
prepared pack, in your pocket, which take an opportunity of exchanging, so
that it may be believed that the pack of cards of which you tell the names
is the same as that you have been using with your other tricks, and which
they must know have been well shuffled.
The manner of preparing your pack (which must be done previously) is by
the following line, which you commit to memory, the words in italics
forming the key:
Eight Kings threa-tened to save nine fair Ladies for one sick Knave.
_Eight King three ten two seven nine five Queen four ace six Knave_,
You will perceive that this is a kind of artificial memory, formed by the
circumstances of the initial letter of the words in the line and the names
of the cards being identical, as well as the near resemblance of some of
the words. The word "threatened" is divided into two words, in order that
it may answer for the three and ten; you should pay attention to this, or
you will be very likely to forget the ten altogether, which would set you
entirely wrong; you should likewise commit to memory the order in which
the suits come viz.: _hearts_--_spades_--_diamonds_--_clubs_.
You should now separate the different suits, and lay them on the table,
face upwards, placing heart first, spades next, 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 with its back to
the palm; then the king of spades, which you lay over 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 this 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.
TRICKS WITH CARDS, THAT REQUIRE APPARATUS.