Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

L I V I N I L A N A T A L E V E T E N O V O T O ANOTHER MODE OF DISCOVERING A CARD THOUGHT OF.--Have the pack well shuffled. Then deal twenty-five cards, in five rows of five cards each, face upwards. Invite a person to think of a card, and to tell you in which row it is. Note in your own mind the first or left-hand card of that row. Now pick up the cards in vertical rows, i.e., beginning at the last card of the last row, placing that card face upwards on the last of the next row, those two on the last of the next row, and so on. When you have picked up all the cards in this manner, deal them out again in the same way as at first. You will observe that those cards which at first formed the first cards of each row, now themselves form the first row. Ask the person in which row his card now is. When he has told you, look to the top row for the first card of the original row, when the card thought of will be found in a direct line below it. As you have just been told in which lateral row it is, you will not have the least difficulty in discovering it, and by a slight effort of memory you may even allow several persons each to think of a card, and name it. A comparison of the subjoined tables, showing the original and subsequent order of the cards, will explain the principle of the trick.