Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

It only remains to explain the modus operandi of the little variations before alluded to. The offended dignity of the queen, declining to appear when summoned in too cavalier a manner, is accounted for by the fact that the performer or his assistant refrains from pulling the thread until the offender has adopted a more respectful tone. The phenomenon of the knave first appearing feet foremost, and then invisibly turning himself right end uppermost, is produced by the use of two knaves, the first (i.e., hindmost) being placed upside down, and the second (with an indifferent card between) in its proper position. When the performer pushes the first knave down again, with a request that it will rise in a more becoming attitude, he thrusts it down, not as he appears to do, in the same place which it originally occupied, but among the loose cards forming the front portion of the pack, thus getting it out of the way, and allowing the thread to act on the second knave. It is hardly necessary to observe that, for producing this particular effect, the cards must be of the old-fashioned single-headed pattern. The alternate ascent and descent of a given card is produced by using a card at whose lower edge, between the back and front of the card, is inserted a slip of lead-foil. The card, so weighted, sinks down of itself as soon as the pull of the thread is relaxed, and may be thus made to rise and fall alternately, as often as the operator chooses, and finally, by a quick, sharp jerk, to jump right out of the pack.