Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

THE WHIST TRICK.[H] IMPROVED METHOD. TO DEAL YOURSELF ALL THE TRUMPS, THE THREE OTHER PLAYERS HOLDING THE USUAL MIXED HANDS.--Having decided which suit (suppose diamonds) is to be the trump suit, arrange the pack in such manner that every fourth card shall be of that suit, the intervening cards being taken haphazard. When about to perform the trick, secretly exchange the pack you have hitherto been using for the prepared pack. Make the bridge (see page 39), and then a false shuffle by the third method (see page 24). Invite some one to cut, and make the pass at the bridge, thus restoring the cards to their original condition. Deal in the usual manner, when you will be found to hold all the trumps, the remaining suits being distributed in the ordinary way among the other three players. [H] For an inferior form of this trick, in which sleight-of-hand is not employed, see page 51. Where in this or any other trick it is found necessary to change one pack for another, the following will be found the neatest way of effecting that object. Have the prepared pack in the pochette on the left side. Hold the ordinary pack in the right hand, and in moving from the audience to your table, drop the left hand to the pochette, seize the prepared pack, bring the hands together, and make the pass with the two packs, when they will have changed hands. Drop the left hand, and get rid of the ordinary pack into the profonde, the prepared pack being left in the right hand. Any little clumsiness in making the pass is of small consequence, the hands being covered by the body. If, however, you find it impossible to make the pass with so large a bulk of cards, the prepared pack may be placed under the waistband, held in position by a strap of half-inch-wide elastic, stitched to the inside of the vest; the right hand in this case, at the moment of the turn to the table, transferring the ordinary pack to the left, and immediately drawing down the prepared pack, while the left hand, as in the former case, drops the ordinary pack into the profonde.