Page:Magic oracle, or, Conjuror's guide.pdf/17



You must have cards made for the purpose of this feat, half cards, as they may be properly termed, that is, one half kings or knaves, and the other half aces. When you lay the aces one over the other, nothing but the kings or knaves will he seen. Then turning the kings or knaves downwards, the four aces will be seen. You must have two perfect cards, one a king or knave, to cover one of the aces, or else it will be seen; and the other an ace to lay over the kings or knaves. When you wish to make them all blank cards, lay the cards a little lower, and by hiding the aces, they will all appear white on both sides. You may then ask the company which they choose, exhibit kings, aces, or blanks as required.

This is one of the most simple ways, but by no means the less excellent, of ascertaining what card a person chooses. When you are playing with the pack, drop out the diamonds, from the ace to the ten, and contrive without being perceived, to get all the other cards with their heads in the same direction; then request a person to choose a card; do not force one, but let him choose whichever he pleases: while he has it in his hand and is looking at it, carelessly turn the pack in your hand, so that the position of the cards may be reversed; then bid him put the card he has chosen into the centre of the pack; shuffle and cut them, and you may to a certainty know the card chosen, by its head being upside down, or in a different direction from the rest of the pack.

When you have found a card chosen, which you have previously forced, or any card that has been drawn, and which you have discovered by the means before described, in order to finish your trick cleverly, convey the card, privately, to the top of the pack; get all the other cards even with each other, but let the edge of your top card project a little over the rest; hold them between your finger and thumb, about two feet from the table, let them drop, and the top card (which must be, as we have said, the one drawn,) will fall with its face uppermost, and all the rest with their faces toward the table.

Select any twenty cards, and having them shuffled by any person that pleases, lay them in pairs upon the table, then desire