Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

This draws the general attention to the cards on the table, and gives you the opportunity to again turn over the pack. You continue, after counting, “We have five, this makes six; then this should be your card. Will you say what the card was?” You place the card on the table, face downwards, and do not turn it till it is named, this giving you the opportunity to again turn over the pack, to be ready to repeat the operation with the next card. You must be careful to invite the different persons to call for their cards in the reverse order to that in which they are replaced in the pack. Thus, you first address the person who last returned his card, and then the last but one, and so on. You must tax your ingenuity for devices to take off the attention of the spectators from the pack at the moment when it is necessary to turn it over; and as each repetition of the process increases the chance of detection, it is well not to allow more than three or four cards to be drawn. If you have reason to fear that the cards left undealt will run short, you may always replace any number of those already dealt upon the reverse end of the pack to that at which the chosen cards are. THE “THREE CARD” TRICK.--This well-known trick has long been banished from the répertoire of the conjuror, and is now used only by the itinerant sharpers who infest race-courses and country fairs. We insert the explanation of it in this place as exemplifying one form of sleight-of-hand, and also as a useful warning to the unwary.