Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

THE BRIDGE.--The object of the bridge is to enable the performer, with ease and certainty, to cut or otherwise divide the pack at a given card. It is made as follows: Holding the cards in the left hand, with the thumb across the pack, the performer covers them for an instant with his right hand, as if about to make the pass. Grasping the pack between the thumb and second finger of this hand, he bends the whole of the cards slightly inwards over the first finger of the left hand, immediately afterwards bending the upper or outward portion of the pack backwards in the opposite direction. The effect of the double movement is that the two halves of the pack are bent in a double concave form, thus )(, though in a much less degree. If the cards be now cut, the concave portions, instead of being, as at first, back to back, will be face to face, thus (), leaving in the centre of the pack an elliptical opening, of a maximum width of about an eighth of an inch. This slight hiatus in the middle will generally cause a person who is invited to cut to do so at that particular point, and will in any case enable the performer either to cut or to make the pass at that point with the greatest ease. The cases in which the bridge may be employed with advantage will be more particularly indicated when we come to practically apply the processes already described, but it has a special use which may be at once mentioned. It will be remembered that some of the false shuffles already described leave the cards as if cut, though they in other respects retain their pre-arranged order; and it therefore becomes necessary to again cut them at a particular point, in order to bring them back to their original condition. This point is ascertained by the use of the bridge. The cards are first bent in the manner above described; the false shuffle is then made, leaving the cards in effect cut; but by again cutting or making the pass at the bridge, they are once more precisely as at first.