Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

TO TEACH THE COMPANY A TRICK WHICH THEY LEARN WITHOUT DIFFICULTY; THEN TO ALLOW THEM TO SUCCEED OR TO CAUSE THEM TO FAIL AT YOUR PLEASURE.--This surprising trick is performed with the piquet pack of thirty-two cards, from which you must beforehand take away, and secretly pocket, one card of each suit, the spectators, however, believing that you use the whole thirty-two cards. You announce to the company that you will teach them a trick. You deal the cards face upwards in rows of four, according to the rules set forth in the trick already described under the title of “The Congress of Court Cards,” i.e., you place a card of each suit in the top row; you commence each row with a card of the suit with which the row above ended; you make the second of each row the same suit as the first of the row above, and the third the same suit as the second of the row above, and so on. Thus, if your top row be club, diamond, heart, spade, your second will be spade, club, diamond, heart; your third, heart, spade, club, diamond; your fourth, diamond, heart, spade, club; your fifth, club, diamond, heart, spade; your sixth, spade, club, diamond, heart; and your seventh, heart, spade, club, diamond. You now gather up the cards as directed in the trick already mentioned, i.e., in vertical rows, from the bottom upwards, commencing at the right-hand bottom corner. The pack thus arranged may be cut any number of times, but, if dealt in four heaps, all the cards of each suit will be found to be together.