Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

A CARD HAVING BEEN THOUGHT OF, TO MAKE SUCH CARD VANISH FROM THE PACK, AND BE DISCOVERED WHEREVER THE PERFORMER PLEASES.--This trick should be performed with twenty-seven cards only. You deal the cards, face upwards, in three packs, requesting one of the company to note a card, and to remember in which heap it is. When you have dealt the three heaps, you inquire in which heap the chosen card is, and place the other two heaps, face upwards as they lie, upon that heap, then turn over the cards, and deal again in like manner. You again inquire which heap the chosen card is now in, place that heap undermost as before, and deal again for the third time, when the card thought of will be the first card dealt of one or other of the three heaps. You have, therefore, only to bear in mind the first card of each heap to know, when the proper heap is pointed out, what the card is. You do not, however, disclose your knowledge, but gather up the cards as before, with the designated heap undermost; when the cards are turned over, that heap naturally becomes uppermost, and the chosen card, being the first card of that heap, is now the top card of the pack. You palm this card, and hand the remaining cards to be shuffled. Having now gained not only the knowledge, but the actual possession, of the chosen card, you can finish the trick in a variety of ways. You may, when the pack is returned replace the card on the top, and giving the pack, face upwards, to a person to hold, strike out of his hand all but the chosen card (see page 44); or you may, if you prefer it, name the chosen card, and announce that it will now leave the pack, and fly into a person’s pocket, or any other place you choose to name, where, it being already in your hand, you can very easily find it. A very effective finish is produced by taking haphazard any card from the pack, and announcing that to be the chosen card, and on being told that it is the wrong card, apologizing for your mistake, and forthwith “changing” it by the fifth method (see page 32) to the right one.