Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

THE MAGIC PICTURE AND THE CHOSEN CARDS.--We notice this trick in this place as having a very close affinity, in effect, to the two last described. It is, however, wholly independent of stage appliances, and is equally well adapted for the drawing-room as for the platform. The performer, taking an ordinary pack of cards, allows three to be chosen. These are returned to the pack, and the pack shuffled. He then brings forward a small picture in a frame, and measuring, say, fourteen inches by twelve. Having exhibited both front and back, he entrusts the picture to a spectator to hold, and taking the pack of cards, throws them smartly against the glass, when in an instant the three chosen cards appear in front of the picture, but under the glass. The back of the frame is next taken out, and picture, back, frame, and glass are separately handed for inspection; but the closest scrutiny of the audience cannot discover any mechanism or special arrangement to account for the effect above described. The reader will already have anticipated that the three cards are “forced.” The picture is on the principle of the frames last above described, with a slight variation. There are, in fact, two pictures exactly alike. One of these is pasted upon the wooden back of the frame, and upon this are fastened duplicates of the cards to be chosen. The second picture is mounted on cloth, and works on a spring roller artfully concealed in the upper part of the frame, taking, in fact, the place of the black blind in the other frames. This is kept down by a pin at the lower side of the frame, and is so arranged as to be released by the smallest pressure against the glass. The pack of cards, smartly thrown, supplies this pressure. The foremost picture flies up, and reveals apparently the same, but really a similar picture, with the chosen cards between it and the glass.