Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The various passes may be employed not only to cause the disappearance of an article, as above described, but to secretly exchange it for a substitute of similar appearance. These exchanges are of continual use in conjuring; indeed, we may almost say that three parts of its marvels depend on them. Such an exchange having been made, the substitute is left in sight of the audience, while the performer, having thus secretly gained possession of the original, disposes of it as may be necessary for the purpose of the trick. We proceed to describe various forms of changes, denoting them, as in the case of the passes, by numbers. CHANGE 1.--You desire, we will suppose, to exchange--or, in conjuror’s parlance, to “ring”--a florin, marked by the audience, for another. You have the latter, which we will call the “substitute,” ready palmed in your left hand, of course taking care to keep the palm turned away from the audience. Taking the marked florin in the right hand, you palm it in that hand by Pass 1, but instead of closing the left hand as the fingers of the right touch it, keep that hand loosely open, and show lying on its palm the substitute, which the audience take to be the original just placed there by your right hand. CHANGE 2.--This is the same as Change 1, save that you use with the right hand Pass 2 instead of Pass 1. CHANGE 3.--Here also you use Pass 2, but you have the substitute palmed in the right hand instead of the left. Taking up the marked florin with the same hand, you make with it Pass 2, at the same instant dropping the substitute from its palm into the left hand. This is a very neat and effective change. Some performers are expert enough to make this change by means of Pass 1 instead of Pass 2, the genuine coin taking the place of the substitute in the palm; but this demands dexterity of a more than average order.