Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

A CARD HAVING BEEN SECRETLY THOUGHT OF BY ONE OF THE AUDIENCE, TO PLACE TWO INDIFFERENT CARDS UPON THE TABLE, AND TO CHANGE SUCH ONE OF THEM AS THE AUDIENCE MAY SELECT INTO THE CARD THOUGHT OF.--Arrange your pack beforehand in such manner that among the fifteen or sixteen undermost cards there may be only one court card, and note at what number from the bottom this card is. Advance to the company, offering the cards face downwards in the ordinary way, and requesting some person to draw a card. Then, as if upon a second thought, say, before he has time to draw, “Or, if you prefer it, you need not even touch the cards, but merely think of one as I spread them before you.” So saying, spread the cards one by one, with their faces to the company, beginning at the bottom. The single court card being conspicuous among so many plain cards, and there being nothing apparently to create a suspicion of design about the arrangement it is ten to one that the person will note that particular card, which we will suppose to be the knave of hearts. When you have run over twelve or fourteen cards in this way, ask, still moving on the cards, “Have you thought of a card?”