Prepare two cards, say an eight of hearts and a seven of spades, by
blackening all their edges save one of the narrow ends,[4] and backing
each with velvet matching the mat. Lay the two cards so treated face down
with the white edge towards yourself on the mat at some little distance
apart, or preferably on separate mats. Force corresponding cards on two
members of the company and deliver an oration to something like the
following effect:
“We hear people talk sometimes about the quickness of the hand deceiving
the eye. I suppose such a thing must be possible, or nobody would have
thought of it, but it seems to me that if it did anything of the kind,
either the hand must be extra quick, or the eye extra slow. I know I
should be afraid to attempt anything of that sort myself, but if you
are a magician of the right sort you have no need to do so, for you can
deceive the eye without any quickness at all. I will prove it to you by
means of these two cards which have been chosen. Please give me one of
them. I don’t mind which.”
We will suppose that the card handed up is the eight of hearts.
“Notice please what card this is; the eight of hearts. You can’t possibly
mistake it for any other card, can you? I will turn it down here on the
table. And now for the other card.” (It is held up that all may see
it.) “This one, you see, is the seven of spades. No mistake about that,
either! I will lay that one here.” The card is in each case laid upon the
velvet-covered card of the opposite kind.
“Please don’t forget which is which. There has been no quickness of the
hand so far, has there? Now I am going to make these two cards change
places.” (You touch each with the wand.) “Presto, change!” (Picking up
the upper and lower cards exactly one upon the other you show what was a
moment previously the eight of hearts, but which now appears to be the
seven of spades.) “One card has changed, you see. And now for the other.”
(You show the other pair after the same fashion.) “And here we have the
eight of hearts. I will now order them to change back again.” You lay
both pairs again face down.
“Now I again give the cards a touch with my wand, and say ‘Right about!
Change!’ and now, you see” (showing the faces of the original cards),
“they have returned to their original positions.
“Now you will realise, if you think about the matter, that those two
cards couldn’t in any natural way change places without your seeing them
do it, neither could the one change into the other. But this is where
magic comes in. What I really did was to hypnotise you a little so as
to make you fancy, when I told the cards to change, that the eight of
hearts was the seven of spades, and that the seven of spades was the
eight of hearts. It’s quite simple, when you know it, and you can see for
yourselves that the quickness of the hand has had nothing to do with the
matter. For my own part I like to do things slowly; the more slowly the
better, and then you can all see how it’s done.”
The trick is simple enough; but it will test the performer’s expertness
as to neatness of execution. He must be careful in the first place to
put each of the drawn cards as exactly as possible on the opposite
velvet-backed card; and in picking up two cards together he should
frame them, so to speak, between the middle finger and thumb at top and
bottom, and the first and third fingers at the sides. Held in this manner
they rest squarely one upon the other and there is little fear of their
“duplicity” (or “duplexity”) being perceived. In the act of again turning
the double card down the upper one should be partially drawn off the one
below it; this facilitating the picking of it up alone a few moments
later.
An illustration of the use of the same device in a somewhat different
form will be found in the item next described, and in the trick entitled
_“Where is it?” post_. Other ways of using it will suggest themselves to
any reader of an inventive turn.
[4] Better still, thicken the under edge by the interposition between
card and velvet of a slip of white card, as described in _The Detective
Die, post._