Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Insert the two of diamonds behind the eight of clubs, and lay that card in turn on the table. Close the cards and again spread them, but this time with the opposite ends outward, when they will appear to be the four twos, as in Fig. 38. Again take in the eight of clubs in place of the two of diamonds, and turn round the supposed two of hearts. This you may do easily and naturally by remarking, “I must now touch something black; my coat-sleeve will do. I gently pass either card along it, thus, and replace it as before. The cards are now all black cards,” which they actually appear to be. (See Fig. 39.) Again substitute the two of diamonds for the eight of clubs, touch any red object, and again turn and spread out the cards, when they will appear to be all red cards, as in Fig. 40. Once more take in the eight of clubs in place of the two of diamonds, and replace the four cards on the pack, again making the pass in order to bring the three prepared cards to the bottom, and to leave the genuine eights on the top. There is a more elaborate form of this trick procurable at the conjuring depôts, in which several groups of cards are used in succession, and the changes are proportionately multiplied, various colours and patterns being produced in the place of the ordinary figures on the cards. In our own opinion, the trick loses rather than gains by this greater elaboration, as the more fanciful changes have the disadvantage of showing clearly (which the simpler form of the trick does not) that the cards used are not ordinary cards; and this being once understood, the magic of the trick is destroyed.