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Fig. 19.

Fig. 20.

Fifth Method. (To change a given card without the aid of the pack.)—A card having been chosen and returned to the pack, make the pass to bring it to the top, and palm it. Give the pack to be shuffled, and when it is returned pick out hap-hazard any card you please, and holding it up between the first finger and thumb of the right hand (in which is the palmed card), announce boldly that that was the card chosen. You will, of course, be contradicted, whereupon you pretend to be disconcerted, and ask if the person is quite certain that that is not the card he drew, and so on. Meanwhile, you take the card, face downwards, between the first finger and thumb of the left hand, whence you immediately take it again in the right hand (see Fig. 19), taking it so as to bring the palmed card immediately over it, when the two will at a little distance appear to be only one card. You then say, “Well, if you seriously assure me that it is not the right card, I must endeavour to change it to the right one. May I ask what your card was?” When you are told, you continue, “It is a very simple process. I have merely to lay the card upon my hand, so, or if you prefer it, I will change it in your own hands. Oblige me by holding the card face downwards. I think you said your card was”—(say) “the ace of spades? Change!” As you say the words, “lay the card upon my hand,” you place the two cards for an instant on the palm of the left hand (see Fig. 20), and draw off rapidly the top card, which is the right one, leaving the other palmed in the left hand, which then drops to your side. The audience do not suspect that the change is already effected, or that you have had more than one card in your hand throughout, and if you have performed the trick neatly, will be utterly nonplussed when the transformation is revealed. You may, if you please, conclude by asking what card the audience imagine that they first saw, and, when told, remarking that they must have been mistaken in their impression, as that card has been in Mr. So-and-so’s tail-pocket all the evening, as you prove by plunging your left hand (in which the card remains palmed) into the pocket, and producing it accordingly.

Fig. 21.

Sixth Method. (To change several cards at once.)—This sleight is extremely useful in cases where you desire, without the knowledge of the audience, to gain possession of a given number of selected cards. Palm in the left hand, face downwards, a number of cards equal to that which you desire to abstract. Take the cards which you desire to gain possession of between the second finger and thumb of the left hand (after the manner of the single card in Fig. 19). Cover these cards lengthways with the right hand, and palm them in that hand (see Fig. 21), at the same moment seizing crossways, with the fingers and thumb of the same hand, the cards already palmed in the left hand (which to the eyes of the spectators will be the same they have just seen), and throw them face downwards on the table.B

To Get Sight of a Drawn Card.—The power of doing this is a sine quâ non for the conjuror. As already mentioned, even the most expert operator cannot be absolutely certain of “forcing” the card which he desires, and a novice is very likely indeed to find a wrong card occasionally drawn. It is therefore necessary to be provided with a remedy for such a contretemps. One mode of meeting the difficulty is to allow the card to be returned to the pack, make the pass to bring it to the top, and palm it, immediately giving the pack to be shuffled, and in so doing to get sight of the card, which remains in your own hand, and can in due time be reproduced in any way you please. (See Fig. 15.) For the present purpose, we assume that you do not desire to retain possession of the card, but merely wish to know its suit and value. These may be ascertained as follows:—

Fig. 22.

First Method.—Ask the drawer to return his card to the pack, which you offer for that purpose in the left hand, spreading the pack fanwise, in order that he may insert the card where he pleases. As he replaces the card, slip the little finger of the left hand below it, and close the fan. You now have the pack held in the palm of the left hand, but divided just below the chosen card by the little finger, the three remaining fingers being on the top. Offer the cards to be shuffled, or make any gesture you like with the pack, at the same moment slightly straightening the fingers. The effect of this movement will be to lift the upper packet, and thus open the pack bookwise, the opening being towards yourself, and the lowest card of the top heap, which is the card you desire to ascertain, being for the moment in full view. (See Fig. 22.)

Second Method.—Proceed as above, but instead of opening the pack to get sight of the card, bring it secretly to the bottom by the pass, and offer the cards to be shuffled, holding them at the upper end between the thumb and first and second finger of the right hand, and slanting from you at an angle of 45°, as in Fig. 15. As the faces are towards you, you have a full view of the card. Even if it should suggest itself to the audience that you are able to see the bottom card, as they are not aware that the chosen card is now in that position, there is nothing to excite their suspicion.

You may, by way of variety, instead of offering the cards to be shuffled, hold them in the right hand, and make the single-handed “ruffle” above described, at the same time turning their faces slightly towards yourself. You may effect the same object, even more simply, by the mere act of passing the pack from the one hand to the other, keeping the bottom card turned inwards as above.

Fig. 23.

To “Slip” a Card.—Hold the pack in the left hand having first slightly moistened the fingers, which should rest upon the back of the cards. Open the pack bookwise, at an angle of about 45°, holding the upper packet lengthways between the thumb and second finger of the right hand. Draw this upper packet smartly upwards to a distance of two or three inches from the lower packet. (See Fig. 23.) The top card of the upper packet, being held back by the pressure of the fingers upon it, will not move upwards with the rest of the packet; but immediately the remaining cards are clear, will fold itself down on the top of the lower packet. If the top card of the lower packet be examined before and after the slip, the card will appear to have changed, the fact being that the original top card becomes the second after the slip, the slipped card covering it.

Fig. 24. Fig. 25.

To Draw Back a Card. (Glisser la carte.)—The performer shows the bottom card, then dropping the pack into a horizontal position, face downwards, he draws out, with the thumb and second finger of the other hand, apparently that card, but really the next above it. This is effected as follows:—Hold the pack upright in the left hand between the first finger and thumb, the back of the cards towards the palm, and the thumb and finger about the middle of each side of the pack. Let the third finger, which should be previously moistened, rest on the face of the cards. (See Fig. 24.) You will find that in this position, by moving the third finger, you can draw back the bottom card about an inch below the remaining cards, and thereby leave exposed a corresponding portion of the next card. (See Fig. 25.) This is the whole mechanism of the operation. You must, of course, take care, after showing the bottom card, to turn the pack downward before you slide back that card in order to draw the next card in its place.

Fig. 26.

To “Turn Over” the Pack.—There are certain tricks (as, for instance, where you have undertaken to produce a given card at a particular number in the pack) for which it is necessary to deal a certain number of cards from the top, and then (without the spectator’s knowledge) to continue the deal from the opposite end of the pack. As a necessary preliminary, you must “face” the cards—i.e., bring the upper and lower portions face to face. This you have already been taught to do by means of the pass. Whichever way the pack is turned, it will now, of course, show backs only. Take the pack flat in the left hand, the fingers clipping it rather tightly, but without the aid of the thumb. Pass the thumb underneath, and with the ball of the thumb press the pack smartly upwards (see Fig. 26), when it will describe a semi-revolution on its longer axis, the lower face of the pack being thereby brought uppermost. If performed with the hand at rest, the movement is very perceptible; but if you at the same time make a semi-circular sweep of the hand and arm from left to right, the smaller movement of the pack in the hand is much less likely to attract notice.

To Spring the Cards from one Hand to the Other.—This is a mere flourish, and belongs rather to the art of the juggler than to that of the magician; but it is so frequently exhibited by conjurors that a work on magic would hardly be complete without some notice of it. The cards are held in the right hand, between the tips of the second and third finger at the top, and the thumb at the bottom. If the thumb and fingers are now brought slowly nearer together, so as to bend the cards slightly, they will one by one, in quick succession (beginning with the bottom card) spring away from the pack; and if the pressure be continued, the whole of the cards will spring away one after the other in this manner. If the left hand be held at ten or twelve inches distance from the right, with the fingers slightly bent, the released cards will be shot into the left hand, which, as the last cards reach it, should be rapidly brought palm to palm with the right, and square up the pack to repeat the process. By giving the body a quick half turn to the right as the cards are sprung from one hand to the other, you may make the hands (and with them the moving cards) describe an arc of about two feet, and so deceive the eye of the spectator into the belief that the hands are that distance apart, though in reality, as they both move together in the same direction, they retain throughout their original relative distance of ten or twelve inches.

To Throw a Card.—This sleight also belongs rather to the ornamental than to the practical part of conjuring, but it is by no means to be despised. It is a decided addition to a card trick for the performer to be able to say, “You observe, ladies and gentlemen, that the cards I use are all of a perfectly ordinary character,” and by way of offering them for examination, to send half-a-dozen in succession flying into the remotest corners of the hall or theatre.

Fig. 27.

The card should be held lightly between the first and second fingers, in the position shown in Fig. 27. The hand should be curved inward toward the wrist, and then straightened with a sudden jerk, the arm being at the same time shot sharply forward. The effect of this movement is that the card, as it leaves the hand, revolves in the plane of its surface in the direction indicated by the dotted line, and during the rest of its course maintains such revolution. This spinning motion gives the flight of the card a strength and directness which it would seem impossible to impart to so small and light an object.

A skilled performer will propel cards in this way to a distance of sixty or eighty feet, each card travelling with the precision, and well-nigh the speed, of an arrow shot from a bow. The movement, though perfectly simple in theory, is by no means easy to acquire in practice. Indeed, we know no sleight which, as a rule, gives more trouble at the outset; but, after a certain amount of labour with little or no result, the student suddenly acquires the desired knack, and thenceforward finds no difficulty in the matter.

The Bridge.—The object of the bridge is to enable the performer, with ease and certainty, to cut or otherwise divide the pack at a given card. It is made as follows: Holding the cards in the left hand, with the thumb across the pack, the performer covers them for an instant with his right hand, as if about to make the pass. Grasping the pack between the thumb and second finger of this hand, he bends the whole of the cards slightly inwards over the first finger of the left hand, immediately afterwards bending the upper or outward portion of the pack backwards in the opposite direction. The effect of the double movement is that the two halves of the pack are bent in a double concave form, thus )(, though in a much less degree. If the cards be now cut, the concave portions, instead of being, as at first, back to back, will be face to face, thus (), leaving in the centre of the pack an elliptical opening, of a maximum width of about an eighth of an inch. This slight hiatus in the middle will generally cause a person who is invited to cut to do so at that particular point, and will in any case enable the performer either to cut or to make the pass at that point with the greatest ease. The cases in which the bridge may be employed with advantage will be more particularly indicated when we come to practically apply the processes already described, but it has a special use which may be at once mentioned. It will be remembered that some of the false shuffles already described leave the cards as if cut, though they in other respects retain their pre-arranged order; and it therefore becomes necessary to again cut them at a particular point, in order to bring them back to their original condition. This point is ascertained by the use of the bridge. The cards are first bent in the manner above described; the false shuffle is then made, leaving the cards in effect cut; but by again cutting or making the pass at the bridge, they are once more precisely as at first.

We have endeavoured to be as explicit as possible in the foregoing description of the different sleight-of-hand processes, so that the reader may, by following our instructions closely, be able to teach himself, unassisted, to perform the various movements described. We have done our best to make our descriptions intelligible, and trust that we have fairly succeeded. We should, however, strongly advise any student who desires to make rapid progress to take, if possible, a few preliminary lessons under the personal guidance of a competent performer, professional or amateur. It is an old saying that an ounce of example is worth a pound of precept, and a reader who has once or twice seen the processes we have described practically illustrated by skilful hands, will not only avoid the difficulties which are sure to be at first found in even the clearest written instructions, but will escape the formation of bad habits, which it may take much time and trouble to eradicate. Should the novice seek such assistance, he must not expect to find that any one performer uses indifferently all the processes we have described. Every Professor has his own favourite methods of procedure, and, generally speaking, pours scorn and contumely upon all others; or, in the words of Byron (a little altered)—

“Compounds for sleights he has a mind to, By damning those he’s not inclined to.”

The student who commences his labours without such assistance must make his own selection. In the “pass” we should recommend him to stick to the first method, the remaining passes being rather curious than useful. Among the false shuffles, the first, third, fifth, and sixth will be found the most effective. For the remaining processes he may be guided by his own taste, and the greater or less facility with which his fingers adapt themselves to one or the other of them.

The various sleights above described will cost the student some time and perseverance before they are fairly mastered, and until they are so it is hopeless to attempt any of the more brilliant feats. For his amusement in the meantime, we subjoin a few tricks for which sleight-of-hand is not necessary, but which, if performed with neatness and tact, will cause considerable astonishment to the uninitiated.

A The cards of the right-hand packet are darkened in the figure for the better distinguishing of the two packets, though there would, of course, be no such difference of shade in the original.

B The last two very useful and effective sleights are inserted by special permission of the inventor, Professor Hellis, of No. 13, Silver Street, Kensington, one of the cleverest and most genial drawing-room performers of the day.