If you make use of a biseauté pack, there is, of course, no necessity for forcing the card in the first instance.
You may also reveal a chosen card with very good effect in the following manner: A card having been freely drawn, open the pack in such manner that it may be placed, when returned, immediately under the long card, which, by the way, should in this instance really be a wide card, though the term “long card” applies, as already mentioned, to both kinds of card. The pack may be moderately shuffled, with very little risk of the two cards being separated, the greater width of the long card tending to shelter the card beneath it, and making it very unlikely that that card will be displaced. If after the shuffle the long card does not happen to be tolerably high up in the pack, you should cut the cards in such manner as to make it so. Holding the cards in a horizontal position, face downwards, above the table, the thumb being on one side and the fingers on the other side of the pack, you say, “Ladies and gentlemen, I am now about to drop the cards, a few at a time, in a number of little heaps upon the table, stopping when you tell me to do so. It will be equally open to you to stop me when I have made one or two heaps only, or not until I have made seven or eight, but, whenever it is, the card at the top of the heap last made will be the identical card which was just now drawn, and which has since, as you have seen, been thoroughly shuffled in the pack.” You now drop the cards, four or five at a time, on various parts of the table. When the word “stop” is pronounced you let go all the remaining cards below the long card, which, from its greater width, a very slight pressure suffices to retain. The card chosen having been next below the long card, is now at the top of the last heap. You ask the person who drew to name his card, and, touching the back of the top card with your wand, turn it over to show that it is the right one.
If you are tolerably expert in sleight-of-hand you may repeat the trick in a yet more striking manner. Proceed as before up to the moment when the word “stop” is pronounced. Having let fall as before all the cards below the long card, lay down the remainder of the pack, and take in the left hand the heap which you last dealt. Cover it with the right hand for an instant, and, sliding away the hand gently to the right, palm the top card, and immediately take by one corner the next card, holding it face downwards until the drawer has named his card, which was, we will suppose, the queen of hearts. As soon as the card is named, you turn towards the audience the face of the card you hold, saying, “Here is the card, as before.” Do not look at it yourself, but at once replace it on the pack, and, covering the pack with the right hand, leave the palmed card upon it. You are by this time made aware by a murmur, if not by a more decided manifestation on the part of the audience, that something is wrong. You ask what is the matter, and are told that, so far from showing the queen of hearts, the card you produced was a totally different one, say, the seven of spades. You pretend to look embarrassed, and ask if they are quite sure. “It is very strange,” you remark, “I never failed in this trick before. Will you allow me to try again?” Then, appearing to recollect yourself, “Oh, of course!” you exclaim, “I forgot to touch the card with the magic wand.” You do so. “Will some one be kind enough to look at the card now?” The card is examined, and proves to be, as it ought to have been originally, the queen of hearts.
To teach the Company a Trick which they Learn without Difficulty; then to allow them to Succeed or to cause them to Fail at your Pleasure.—This surprising trick is performed with the piquet pack of thirty-two cards, from which you must beforehand take away, and secretly pocket, one card of each suit, the spectators, however, believing that you use the whole thirty-two cards.
You announce to the company that you will teach them a trick. You deal the cards face upwards in rows of four, according to the rules set forth in the trick already described under the title of “The Congress of Court Cards,” i.e., you place a card of each suit in the top row; you commence each row with a card of the suit with which the row above ended; you make the second of each row the same suit as the first of the row above, and the third the same suit as the second of the row above, and so on. Thus, if your top row be club, diamond, heart, spade, your second will be spade, club, diamond, heart; your third, heart, spade, club, diamond; your fourth, diamond, heart, spade, club; your fifth, club, diamond, heart, spade; your sixth, spade, club, diamond, heart; and your seventh, heart, spade, club, diamond. You now gather up the cards as directed in the trick already mentioned, i.e., in vertical rows, from the bottom upwards, commencing at the right-hand bottom corner. The pack thus arranged may be cut any number of times, but, if dealt in four heaps, all the cards of each suit will be found to be together.
So far, the trick is ingenious rather than astonishing, although, the arrangement of the cards having reference only to the suits, and not to individual cards, the cards do not at first sight appear to be specially arranged; and if you are rapid and apparently careless in placing them, the spectators will in all probability believe that they are placed hap-hazard. If you can induce this belief, you will greatly heighten their surprise at finding the different suits regularly sorted after the deal. But the trick is not yet finished. You again place the cards as before, remarking that the trick is simplicity itself when once the principle is known, and on this occasion you draw special attention to the necessary arrangement of the cards. Having completed the trick for the second time, you invite some of the audience to try their hands, which they do, and of course succeed, there being really no difficulty in the matter. When one or two have tried and succeeded, they will probably disparage the trick, as being absurdly easy. “Pardon me,” you say, “you have succeeded so far, because it was my will and pleasure that you should do so. You seem incredulous, but I am perfectly serious. To prove that I am so, I give you warning that the next person who attempts the trick will fail. Come, who accepts the challenge?” Some one is sure to respond, and in all probability to offer you a bet that he will succeed. “Sir,” you reply, “I never bet on certainties, or your money would be already lost. I have said that you shall fail, and you cannot, therefore, possibly succeed.” You have, meanwhile, secretly palmed the four cards which you pocketed before beginning the trick, and have watched your opportunity to replace them on the table with the rest of the pack.
Your opponent may now try as much as he pleases, but he cannot possibly succeed, the fact being that the process above described produces the desired effect with twenty-eight cards, but will not do so with thirty-two. The first thought of your audience is sure to be that you have abstracted some of the cards in order to make the trick fail, but on counting they find the number correct. Not one in a hundred will suspect that the reverse is the case, and that when you performed the trick the pack was incomplete.
By the time three or four of the company have tried and failed, you will probably have found an opportunity of again pocketing a card of each suit; and you may then announce that, having sufficiently proved your power, you will now graciously condescend to remove the prohibition, and allow the next person who tries to succeed. This, of course, he will do; and the trick may very well end here, with the satisfaction on your part that you have kept your secret, and that, even when removed from the sphere of your adverse influence, your pupils will fail in performing the trick, making the attempt, as they naturally will, with the full piquet pack. But it is just possible that a contretemps may arise, for which it will be well to be prepared. Some one of the audience, more acute than the generality, may suggest again counting the cards, to see if all are there when the trick succeeds. Even in this case you need not be discomfitted. At once offer yourself to count the cards, and, gathering them up for that purpose, add to them the four which you removed, which you should again have palmed in readiness. Count them deliberately on to the table, and, when every one is satisfied that the pack is complete, announce that you will once more perform the trick, in order to let every one see that you actually use no more and no less than thirty-two cards. Place the cards as before, counting aloud as you do so, till