Читать книгу The Juggler's Oracle; or, The Whole Art of Legerdemain Laid Open - H. Boaz - Страница 4
ОглавлениеLEGERDEMAIN, OR SLEIGHT-OF-HAND,
Is an art whereby a person seems to work wonderful, incredible, and almost impossible feats. There is no supernatural or infernal agency in the case; for every trick is performed by nimbleness, agility, and effrontery.
The Operator.
The Operator, or Conjurer, should be a person of bold and undaunted resolution, so as to set a good face upon the matter, in case of the occurrence of any mistake whereby a discovery of the nature of the trick in hand may take place by one of the spectators.
He ought to have a great variety of strange terms and high-sounding words at command, so as to grace his actions, amaze the beholders, and draw their attention from the more minute operations.
He ought likewise to use such gestures of body as may help to draw off the attention of the spectators from a strict scrutiny of his actions.
In showing feats and juggling with cards, the principal point consists in the shuffling them nimbly, and always keeping one card either at the bottom or in some known place of the pack, four or five cards from it; hereby you will seem to work wonders, for it will be easy for you to see one card, which, though you be perceived to do it, will not be suspected, if you shuffle them well afterwards; and this caution I must give you, that, in reserving the bottom card, you must always, whilst you shuffle, keep it a little before or a little behind all the cards lying underneath it, bestowing it either a little beyond its fellows before, right over the fore-finger, or else behind the rest, so as the little finger of the left hand may meet with it, which is the easier, readier, and better way. In the beginning of your shuffling, shuffle as thick as you can, and, in the end, throw upon the pack the nether card, with so many more, at the least, as you would have preserved for any purpose, a little before or a little behind the rest, provided always that your fore-finger (if the pack lie behind) creep up to meet with the bottom card; and, when you feel it, you may then hold it until you have shuffled over the cards again, still leaving your kept card below. Being perfect herein, you may do almost what you like with cards by this means: what pack soever you use, though it consist of eight, twelve, or twenty cards, you may keep them still together unsevered, next to the card, and yet shuffle them often, to satisfy the admiring beholders. As for example, and for brevity sake, to show divers feats under one:—
To deliver Four Aces, and to convert them into Knaves.
Make a pack of these eight cards, viz. four knaves and four aces; and, although the eight cards must be immediately together, yet must each knave and ace be evenly set together, and the same eight cards must lie also in the lowest place of the pack; then shuffle them so always, at the second shuffling; so that, at the end of shuffling the said pack, one ace may lie undermost, or so as you may know where it goeth and lieth always: I say, let your aforesaid pack, with three or four cards more, lie inseparable together, immediately upon and with that ace. Then using some speech or other device, and putting your hands, with the cards, to the edge of the table, to hide the action, let out, privately, a piece of the second card, which is one of the knaves, holding forth the pack in both your hands, and showing to the standers-by the nether card, which is the ace, or kept card, covering also the head or piece of the knave, which is the next card, and, with your fore-finger, draw out the same knave, laying it down on the table; then shuffle them again, keeping your pack whole, and so have your two aces lying together at the bottom. And, to reform that disordered card, and also to grace and countenance that action, take off the uppermost card of the bunch, and thrust it into the midst of the cards, and then take away the nethermost card, which is one of your said aces, and bestow it likewise; then you may begin as before, showing another ace, and instead thereof lay down another knave, and so forth, until, instead of four aces, you have laid down four knaves; the spectators, all this while, thinking that four aces lie on the table, are greatly amused, and will wonder at the transformation. You must be well practised in shuffling the pack, lest you overshoot yourself.
