Part 16 (1/2)
_The Four Confederate Cards._
A person draws four cards from the pack, and you tell him to remember one of them. He then returns them to the pack, and you dexterously place two under and two on the top of the pack. Under the bottom ones you place four cards of any sort, and then, taking eight or ten from the bottom cards, you spread them on the table, and ask the person if the card he fixed on be among them. If he say _no_, you are sure it is one of the two cards on the top. You then pa.s.s those two cards to the bottom and, drawing off the lowest of them, you ask if that is not his card. If he again say _no_, you take up that card, and bid him draw his card from the bottom of the pack. If, on the contrary, he say his cards _are_ among those you _first_ drew from the bottom, you must dexterously take up the four cards you put under them, and, placing those on the top, let the other two be the bottom cards of the pack, which you are to draw in the manner before described.
_The Numerical Cards._
Let the long card be the sixteenth in the pack of piquet cards. Take ten or twelve cards from the top of the pack, and, spreading them on the table, desire a person to think on any one of them, and to observe the number it is from the first card. Make the pa.s.s at the long card, which will then be at the bottom. Then ask the party the number his card was at, and, counting to yourself from that number to sixteen, turn the cards up, one by one, from the bottom. Then stop at the seventeenth card, and ask the person if he has seen his card, when he will say _no_. You then ask him how many more cards you shall draw before his card appears; and when he has named the number, you draw the card aside with your finger, turn up the number of cards he proposed, and throw down the card he fixed on.
_The Card found out by the Point of the Sword._
When a card has been drawn, you place it under the long card, and by shuffling them dexterously, you bring it to the top of the pack. Then lay or throw the pack on the ground, observing where the top card lies. A handkerchief is then bound round your eyes, which ought to be done by a confederate, in such a way that you can see the ground. A sword is put into your hand, with which you touch several of the cards, as if in doubt, but never losing sight of the top card, in which at last you fix the point of the sword, and present it to the party who drew it.
_The Card hit upon by the Guess._
Spread part of the pack before a person, in such way that only one court card is visible; and so arrange it, that it shall appear the most prominent and striking card. You desire him to think on one; and observe if he fix his eye on the court card. When he tells you he has determined on one, shuffle the cards, and, turning them up one by one, when you come to the court card tell him that is the one.
If he does not seem to fix his eye on the court card, you should not hazard the experiment; but frame an excuse for performing some other amus.e.m.e.nt; neither should it be attempted with those who are conversant with these sort of deceptions.
_The Card changed by Word of Command._
You must have two cards of the same sort in the pack, (say the king of spades.) Place one next the bottom card, (say seven of hearts,) and the other at top. Shuffle the cards without displacing those three, and show a person that the bottom card is the seven of hearts. This card you dexterously slip aside with your finger, which you have previously wetted, and, taking the king of spades from the bottom, which the person supposes to be the seven of hearts, lay it on the table, telling him to cover it with his hand.
Shuffle the cards again, without displacing the first and last card, and, s.h.i.+fting the other king of spades from the top to the bottom, show it to another person. You then draw that privately away, and, taking the bottom card, which will then be the seven of hearts, you lay that on the table, and tell the second person (who believes it to be the king of spades) to cover it with his hand.
You then command the cards to change places; and when the two parties take off their hands and turn up the cards, they will see, to their great astonishment, that your commands are obeyed.
_The Three Magical Parties._
Offer the long card to a person, that he may draw it, and replace it in any part of the pack he pleases. _Make the pa.s.s_, and bring that card to the top. Next divide the pack in three parcels, putting the long card in the middle heap. You then ask the person which of the three heaps his card shall be in. He will, probably, say the middle; in which case you immediately show it to him. But if he say either of the others, you take all the cards in your hand, placing the parcel he has named over the other two, and observing to put your little finger between that and the middle heap, at the top of which is the card he drew. You then ask at what number in that heap he will have his card appear. If, for example, he say the sixth, you tell down five cards from the top of the pack, and then, dexterously making the pa.s.s, you bring the long card to the top, and tell it down as the sixth.
_The Magic Vase._
Construct a vase of wood, or pasteboard, see Fig. 20. On the inside let there be five divisions; two of them, _c d_, to be large enough to admit a pack of cards each; and the other three, _e f g_, only large enough to contain a single card. Place this vase on a bracket, L, which is fastened to the part.i.tion M. Fix a silken thread at H, the other end of which pa.s.ses down the division _d_, and, over the pulley I, runs along the bracket L, and goes out behind the part.i.tion M.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 20.]
Take three cards from the piquet pack, and place one of them in each of the divisions _e f g_, making the silk thread or line go under each of them. In the division _c_ put the remainder of the pack.
You then get another pack of cards, at the top of which are to be three cards, the same as those in the three small divisions: and, making the pa.s.s, bring them to the middle of the pack. Let them be drawn by three persons; let them shuffle all the cards; after which place the pack in the division _d_, and tell the parties that the cards they drew will rise at their command, separately, from the vase.
A confederate behind the part.i.tion then gently drawing the line, the three cards will then gradually appear from the vase; then taking the cards from _c_, you show that those three are gone from the pack.
The vase must be placed so high that the company cannot see the inside.
_The Divining Perspective Gla.s.s._
Procure a small perspective-gla.s.s, wide enough, where the object-gla.s.s is placed, to hold the following table:
+-------+--------+--------+
1,131
10,132
19,133
2,231
11,232
20,233
3,331
12,332
21,333
+-------+--------+--------+
4,121
13,122
22,123