Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The performer offers the pack to a spectator, and requests him to draw a card. (This card may or may not be “forced.”) The card having been drawn and replaced in the pack, the performer makes the pass to bring it to the top, and palms it, immediately handing the pack to be shuffled. If the card was forced, he already knows it; if not, he takes the opportunity to glance at it while the cards are being shuffled. The pack being returned, the drawn card is placed on the top, and the pack placed in the pocket of a second spectator. The performer now announces that he not only already knows the card, but that he is able to pick it out without seeing it from the remainder of the pack, which he does accordingly. Presented in this barren form, the trick would attract only the most passing notice. We will now proceed to describe it, quoting again from Robert-Houdin, as it should actually be presented. “Ladies and gentlemen, I shall commence my performance with an experiment which is wholly independent of dexterity. I propose simply to show you the extreme degree of sensibility which may be acquired by the sense of touch. We possess, as you all know, five senses--sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. In the ordinary way, each of these senses enjoys one faculty only; but when the mysterious influences of magic are brought to bear, the case is altered. All five of the senses may be exercised through the instrumentality of one--‘touch,’ for example; so that we can not only touch, but hear, see, smell, and taste with the tips of the fingers. You smile, gentlemen, but I assure you that I am serious; and I venture to think that in a few minutes you will be fully convinced of the reality of the singular fact which I have mentioned.