Four Packets of Cards having been Formed face downwards on the Table, to discover the Total Value of the Undermost Cards.—This trick must be performed with the piquet pack of thirty-two cards. Invite one of the spectators to privately select any four cards, and to place them, separately and face downwards, on the table; then, counting an ace as eleven, a court card as ten, and any other card according to the number of its pips, to place upon each of these four so many cards as, added to its value thus estimated, shall make fifteen. (It must be remembered that value is only to be taken into consideration as to the original four cards, those placed on them counting as one each, whatever they may happen to be.) You meanwhile retire. When the four heaps are complete, advance to the table, and observe how many cards are left over and above the four heaps. To this number mentally add thirty-two. The total will give you the aggregate value of the four lowest cards, calculated as above mentioned.
You should not let your audience perceive that you count the remaining cards, or they will readily conjecture that the trick depends on some arithmetical principle. You may say, “You will observe that I do not look even at one single card:” and, so saying, throw down the surplus cards with apparent carelessness upon the table, when they are sure to fall sufficiently scattered to enable you to count them without attracting observation.
To Name all the Cards in the Pack in Succession.—This is an old trick, but a very good one. To perform it, you must arrange the cards of a whist pack beforehand, according to a given formula, which forms a sort of memoria technica. There are several used, but all are similar in effect. The following is one of the simplest:—
“Eight kings threatened to save
Ninety-five ladies for one sick knave.”
These words suggest, as you will readily see, eight, king, three, ten, two, seven, nine, five, queen, four, ace, six, knave. You must also have a determinate order for the suits, which should be red and black alternately, say, diamonds, clubs, hearts, spades. Sort the pack for convenience into the four suits, and then arrange the cards as follows: Take in your left hand, face upwards, the eight of diamonds, on this place the king of clubs, on this the three of hearts, then the ten of spades, then the two of diamonds, and so on, till the whole of the cards are exhausted. This arrangement must be made privately beforehand, and you must either make this the first of your series of tricks, or (which is better, as it negatives the idea of arrangement) have two packs of the same pattern, and secretly exchange the prepared pack, at a suitable opportunity, for that with which you have already been performing. Spread the cards (which may previously be cut any number of times), and offer them to a person to draw one. While he is looking at the card, glance quickly at the card next above that which he has drawn, which we will suppose is the five of diamonds. You will remember that in your memoria technica “five” is followed by “ladies” (queen). You know then that the next card, the one drawn, was a queen. You know also that clubs follow diamonds: ergo, the card drawn is the queen of clubs. Name it, and request the drawer to replace it. Ask some one again to cut the cards, and repeat the trick in the same form with another person, but this time pass all the cards which were above the card drawn, below the remainder of the pack. This is equivalent to cutting the pack at that particular card. After naming the card drawn, ask if the company would like to know any more. Name the cards next following the card already drawn, taking them one by one from the pack and laying them face upwards on the table, to show that you have named them correctly. After a little practice, it will cost you but a very slight effort of memory to name in succession all the cards in the pack.
The Cards being Cut, to tell whether the Number Cut is Odd or Even.—This is another trick performed by the aid of the prepared pack last described, and has the advantage of being little known, even to those who are acquainted with other uses of the arranged pack. Notice whether the bottom card for the time being is red or black. Place the pack on the table, and invite any person to cut, announcing that you will tell by the weight of the cards cut whether the number is odd or even. Take the cut cards (i.e., the cards which before the cut were at the top of the pack), and poising them carefully in your hand, as though testing their weight, glance slily at the bottom card. If it is of the same colour as the bottom card of the other or lowest portion, the cards cut are an even number; if of a different colour, they are odd.
The Whist Trick.—To deal yourself all the Trumps.—The cards being arranged as above mentioned, you may challenge any of the company to play a hand at whist with you. The cards are cut in the ordinary way (not shuffled). You yourself deal, when, of course, the turn-up card falls to you. On taking up the cards, it will be found that each person has all the cards of one suit, but your own suit being that of the turn-up card, is, of course, trumps; and having the whole thirteen, you must necessarily win every trick.
The weak point of the feat is, that the cards being regularly sorted into the four suits, the audience can hardly help suspecting that the pack was pre-arranged beforehand. There is another and better mode of performing the trick, by which you still hold all the trumps, but the three remaining players have the ordinary mixed hands. This method, however, involves sleight-of-hand, and would therefore be out of place in the present chapter.
To allow a Person to think of a Card, and to make that Card appear at such Number in the Pack as Another Person shall Name.—Allow the pack to be shuffled and cut as freely as the company please. When they are fully satisfied that the cards are well mixed, offer the pack to any of the spectators, and request him to look over the cards, and think of any one, and to remember the number at which it stands in the pack, reckoning from the bottom card upwards. You then remark, “Ladies and gentlemen, you will take particular notice that I have not asked a single question, and yet I already know the card; and if anyone will kindly indicate the place in the pack at which you desire it to appear, I will at once cause it to take that position. I must only ask that, by arrangement between yourselves, you will make the number at which the card is to appear higher than that which it originally held.” We will suppose that the audience decide that the card shall appear at number 22. Carelessly remark, “It is not even necessary for me to see the cards.” So saying, hold the pack under the table, and rapidly count off twenty-two cards from the bottom of the pack, and place them on the top.C You then continue, “Having already placed the card thought of in the desired position, I may now, without suspicion, ask for the original number of the card, as I shall commence my counting with that number.” We will suppose you are told the card was originally number 10. You begin to count from the top of the pack, calling the first card 10, the next 11, and so on. When you come to 22, the number appointed, you say, “If I have kept my promise, this should be the card you thought of. To avoid the suspicion of confederacy, will you please say, before I turn it over, what your card was.” The card being named, you turn it up, and show that it is the right one.
In all tricks which depend on the naming of a card drawn or thought of, it adds greatly to the effect to have the card named before you turn it up.
This trick, unlike most, will bear repetition; but it is well on a second performance to vary it a little. Thus you may on the second occasion say, when the card has been thought of, “I will choose for myself this time; your card will appear at number 30.” It is desirable to name a number very near the total number of the pack (which we are now supposing to be a piquet pack), as the difference between that and the total number being very small,