To Nail a Chosen Card to the Wall.—Procure a sharp drawing pin, and place it point upwards on the table, mantelpiece, or any other place where it will not attract the notice of the spectators, and yet be so close to you that you can cover it with your hand without exciting suspicion. Ask any person to draw a card. When he returns it to the pack, make the pass to bring it to the top, palm it, and immediately offer the pack to be shuffled. While this is being done, place your right hand carelessly over the pin, so as to bring the centre of the card as near as possible over it, and then press gently on the card, so as to make the point of the pin just penetrate it.
When the pack is returned, place the palmed card upon the top, and thus press home the pin, which will project about a quarter of an inch through the back of the card. Request the audience to indicate any point upon the woodwork of the apartment at which they would like the chosen card to appear; and when the spot is selected, stand at two or three feet distance, and fling the cards, backs foremost, heavily against it, doing your best to make them strike as flat as possible, when the other cards will fall to the ground, but the selected one will remain firmly pinned to the woodwork. Some little practice will be necessary before you can make certain of throwing the pack so as to strike in the right position. Until you can be quite sure of doing this, it is better to be content with merely striking the pack against the selected spot. The result is the same, though the effect is less surprising than when the cards are actually thrown from the hand.
The Inseparable Sevens.—Place secretly beforehand three of the four eights at the bottom of the pack, the fourth eight, which is not wanted for the trick, being left in whatever position it may happen to occupy. (The suit of this fourth eight must be borne in mind, for a reason which will presently appear.) Now select openly the four sevens from the pack, and spread them on the table. While the company are examining them, privately slip the little finger of the left hand immediately above the three eights at the bottom, so as to be in readiness to make the pass. Gather up the four sevens, and place them on the top of the pack, taking care that the seven of the same suit as the fourth eight is uppermost. Make a few remarks as to the affectionate disposition of the four sevens, which, however far apart they are placed in the pack, will always come together; and watch your opportunity to make the pass, so as to bring the three eights, originally at the bottom, to the top. If you are sufficiently expert, you may make the pass at the very instant that you place the four sevens on the top of the pack; but, unless you are very adroit, it is better to bide your time and make it an instant later, when the attention of the audience is less attracted to your hands. You then continue, “I shall now take these sevens (you can see for yourselves that I have not removed them), and place them in different parts of the pack.” At the words, “You can see for yourselves,” etc., you take off the four top cards, and show them fanwise. In reality, three of them are eights, but the fourth and foremost card being actually a seven, and the eighth pip of each of the other cards being concealed by the card before it, and the audience having, as they imagine, already seen the same cards spread out fairly upon the table, there is nothing to suggest a doubt that they are actually the sevens. (You will now see the reason why it is necessary to place uppermost the seven of the same suit as the absent eight. If you had not done so the seven in question would have been of the same suit as one or other of the three sham sevens, and the audience, knowing that there could not be two sevens of the same suit, would at once see through the trick.) Again folding up the four cards you insert the top one a little above the bottom of the pack, the second a little higher, the third a little higher still, and the fourth (which is a genuine seven) upon the top of the pack. The four sevens, which are apparently so well distributed throughout the pack, are really together on the top, and you have only to make the pass, or, if you prefer it, simply cut the cards, to cause them to be found together in the centre of the pack.
The Inseparable Aces.—This is really only another form of the last trick, though it differs a good deal in effect. You first pick out and exhibit on the table the four aces, and request some one to replace them on the pack, when you place three other cards secretly upon them. This you may either do by bringing three cards from the bottom by the pass, or you may, while the company’s attention is occupied in examining the aces, palm three cards from the top in the right hand, and, after the aces are replaced on the top, simply cover them with that hand, thereby bringing the three palmed cards upon them. You now say, “I am about to distribute these aces in different parts of the pack; pray observe that I do so fairly.” As you say this, you take off and hold up to the audience the four top cards, being the three indifferent cards with an ace at the bottom. You cannot, of course, exhibit them fanwise, as in the last trick, or the deception would be at once detected; but the spectators, seeing an ace at the bottom, and having no particular reason for suspecting otherwise, naturally believe that the cards you hold are really the four aces. Laying the four cards on the table, you distribute them, as in the last trick, in different parts of the pack; taking care, however, that the last card (which is the genuine ace), is placed among the three already at the top.
You now invite some one to cut. When he has done so, you take up the two halves, in their transposed position, in the left hand, at the same time slipping the little finger of that hand between them. The four aces are now, of course, upon the top of the lower packet. You then announce, “I am now about to order the four aces, which you have seen so well divided, to come together again. Would you like them to appear on the top, at the bottom, or in the middle of the pack? I should tell you that I know perfectly well beforehand which you will choose, and indeed I have already placed them at that particular spot.” If the answer is, “In the middle,” you have only to withdraw the little finger, and invite the company to examine the pack to see that they are already so placed. If the answer is, “On the top,” you make the pass to bring them there. To produce them at the bottom is rather more difficult, and unless you are pretty confident as to your neatness of manipulation, it will be well to limit the choice to “top” or “middle.” In order to be able to bring the four aces to the bottom, you must, in picking up the cards after the cut, push forward a little with the left thumb the four top cards of the lower packet, and slip the little finger below and the third finger above them, so as to be able to make the pass above or below those four cards as occasion may require. If you are required to bring those four cards to the top, you must withdraw the little finger (thereby joining those cards to the upper cards of the lower packet) and make the pass with the aid of the third finger instead of the fourth. If, on the contrary, you desire to produce the four aces at the bottom, you simply withdraw the third finger, thereby leaving the aces at the bottom of the upper packet, when the pass will bring them to the bottom of the pack.
We have described the trick as performed with the aces, but the effect will, of course, be the same with four kings, four queens, or any other four similar cards.
Having