Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

THE “TORN CARD.”--This is a very effective trick. The performer requests some one of the company to draw a card, and, having done so, to tear it up into any number of fragments. He does so, and hands them to the operator, who returns one corner to him, with a request that he will take particular care of it. The performer announces that out of the torn fragments he will restore the card anew, for which purpose he first burns the fragments on a plate or otherwise, carefully preserving the ashes. He then brings forward one of the changing card-boxes already described, and, after, showing that it is empty, closes it, and places it on the table in view of all present. He next takes the ashes of the torn card, and, loading a pistol with them, fires at the box. (If he has not a pistol at hand, placing the ashes on the box, rubbing them on the lid, or any other act which gets rid of them will answer the same purpose.) When the box is opened, the card is found whole as at first, with the exception of one corner, being (ostensibly) that which was retained by the drawer. Taking this piece in his right hand, and holding the card by one corner between the thumb and first finger of his left hand (see Fig. 53), the performer makes a motion as if throwing the small piece towards it. The small piece instantly vanishes from his hand, and at the same moment the card is seen to be completely restored, the torn corner being in its proper place. Some performers, instead of giving the drawer the torn corner to take charge of in the first instance, burn ostensibly the whole of the pieces, and pretend surprise on finding that there is a corner missing when the card is restored. Directly afterwards, however, they pick up the missing fragment from the floor, where they have just previously dropped it, and the trick proceeds as already described.