Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Second Method. (To keep a particular card in view.)--Bring the card in question, as before directed, to the top of the pack. Take the pack in the left hand, holding it upright on its side, the edges of the cards resting on the palm, the four fingers (which should be slightly moistened) being at the back or top, and the thumb on the face of the pack. Now, with the thumb and middle finger of the right hand (see Fig. 12) lift out edgeways that portion of the cards which now forms the middle of the pack, and drop them by packets of five or six at a time upon the face of the cards remaining in the left hand, moving aside the left thumb to allow of their passage. The pressure of the fingers will always keep the top card in its place, however many of the remaining cards you lift out with the right hand; and as you only shuffle on to the face of the pack, however often you repeat the process, this card will still remain at the top. Third Method.--(To retain the whole pack in a pre-arranged order.)--Take the pack in the left hand, slide off with the left thumb five or six of the top cards into the right hand, and place the remaining cards by parcels of five or six at a time (apparently) alternately above and below these first cards, as in the ordinary mode of shuffling. We say apparently, for in reality, although you go through the motion of placing every alternate packet above the cards in the right hand, you do not leave it there, but draw it back again with the thumb on to the top of the cards in the left hand, and then place it, by your next movement, under the cards in the right hand. The result is, that the cards in the left hand, instead of being placed alternately above and below the cards in the right hand, are really all placed below, and in precisely the same order which they occupied at first.