Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Third Method.--Get the chosen card to the top, and hold the pack in the right hand, lengthways and face downwards, about two feet above the floor or table. Push the top card a little off the pack sideways, so as to make it project throughout its whole length about an inch beyond the rest of the cards. Now let fall the pack, when the resistance of the air will cause the top card to turn over in its fall, and to appear face upwards, all the other cards remaining face downwards. Fourth Method.--Place the card in question and seven other indifferent cards in two rows, face downwards, on the table. Keep in your own mind which is the chosen card, but do not let the audience see the face of either of the cards. Ask the drawer if he is sure that he will know his card again. He will, of course, answer “yes.” Now ask either the same or another person to touch four of the eight cards upon the table. Necessarily, the four which he touches will either include or not include the chosen card. In either case you take up (whether he touches them or not) the four which do not include the chosen card, remarking, “I will return these to the pack.” Invite the same person to touch two out of the four which remain. Again take up the two (whether touched or not touched) which do not include the chosen card, saying, “I return these also to the pack.” You have now only two cards left on the table, one of which is the chosen card. Invite one of the spectators to touch one of these cards. As before, whichever he touches, you pick up and return to the pack the non-chosen card, remarking, “We have now only one card left. You have all seen that I dealt out eight cards on the table, and that I have withdrawn seven, you yourselves choosing which I should withdraw. Now, sir, be kind enough to name the card you drew.” The card having been named, you turn over the card left on the table, and show that it is the right one.