Lay sixteen cards on the table in four rows of four each, face up.
You state that you will leave the room, and, on your return, name any
one card touched in your absence.
[Illustration: Fig. 164.]
All the clue you ask is such a one as may be found in a passage read out
of any poet on your return by any one. This any one, however, must be
your confederate. The cards should be placed in the order in which they
are here shown, 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 class everything in the
world as biped (A), quadruped (B), vegetable (C), and mineral (D). Each
class is subdivided similarly 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.
12 to have been touched, and that, a volume of Wordsworth having been
presented to your confederate to select from, he gives the following
lines to be read:
“A _violet_ by a mossy _stone_,” &c.
The first word which can be classed as above is “violet;” you may thus
be certain that the card touched is in class C, a violet being a
vegetable. The next word you can fix upon is “stone,” which you rank in
the mineral class, and know that card No. 12 was the one touched, it
being the mineral of the vegetable class.
Suppose the trick to be repeated, as is very likely, and that Shakspeare
is given to your partner; he selects the passage in “Othello”
commencing:
“My mother had a maid called Barbara, &c.”
You know, “mother” being the first word that can be classed, the card
touched must be in class A (biped), and the next word “maid” being also
a biped, the card touched must have been No. 1, which is the biped of
the biped 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.