Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

You may, if you please, use allegorical instead of caricature portraits; e.g., for a young lady, a rose-bud; for a conceited young man, a poppy or dandelion, or a donkey’s head. It is hardly necessary to observe that nothing short of very close intimacy would excuse the use of any portrait of a disparaging or satirical nature. A CARD HAVING BEEN DRAWN AND RETURNED, AND THE PACK SHUFFLED, TO PLACE ON THE TABLE SIX ROWS OF SIX CARDS EACH, AND TO DISCOVER THE CHOSEN CARD BY A THROW OF THE DICE.--The effect of this surprising trick is as follows:--You invite a person to draw a card, allowing him the utmost freedom of selection. You allow the drawer to replace his card in any part of the pack he pleases, and you thoroughly shuffle the cards, finally inviting him to “cut.” Then dealing out six rows of six cards each, face downwards on the table, you offer the drawer a dice-box and a pair of dice, and after he has thrown any number of times to satisfy himself that the dice are fair and unprepared, you invite him to throw each singly, the first to ascertain the row in which his card is, and the second to discover at what number it stands in the row. He throws, say, “six” first, and “three” afterwards, and on examination the card he drew proves to be the third card of the sixth row.