1
CARD TRICKS FOR PARLOR AND STAGE ENTERTAINMENTS—WITH FULL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE AMATEUR PERFORMER
By PROFESSOR ROMANOFF
Illustrated
Shrewesbury Publishing Co. CHICAGO
Copyright, 1930 by SHREWESBURY PUBLISHING CO.
Made in U. 8. A..
CARD TRICKS
CONTENTS CHAPTER I
I PAGE
Introductory
9 CHAPTER I I SLEIGHT-OF-HAND
IN CARD TRICKS
The Cards To "Make the P a s s " To " F o r c e " a Card To Make a "False Shuffle" To " P a l m " a Card To "Ruffle" the Cards To "Change" a Card To Get Sight of a Drawn Card To " S l i p " a Card To "Draw Back" a Card To ' ' Turn Over'' the Pack To Spring the Cards from One Hand to the Other To Throw a Card The " B r i d g e " Advice to the Novice
13 14 27 29 35. 36 37 45 47 48 49 50 51 52 53
CHAPTER I I I TRICKS "WITH ORDINARY CARDS NOT REQUIRING
SLEIGHT-OF-HAND
Simple Modes of Discovering a Given Card Various Modes of Disclosing a Discovered Card. To Make a Card Vanish from the Pack and Be Found in a Person's Pocket To Place the Four Kings in Different Parts of the Pack and to Bring Them Together by a Simple Cut To Distinguish the Suit of Any Given Card by Weight... To Catch Two Cards Thought of in the Air with the Hand
55 59 63 64 65 66
CONTENTS—Continued PAGE
To Tell the Cards Thought of by Four Persons Sixteen Cards Being Placed upon a Table, to Guess the Card Thought of To Tell Which Pair of Cards Was Selected The Magic Triplets Twenty-five Cards Being Placed Upon the Table, to Mention Which Has Been Thought of A Card Having Been Drawn from and Returned to the Pack, to Find It Under a Handkerchief To Tell Whether Any Card in the Pack is Eed or Black Without Looking at It The Triple Deal The Card Found at the Second Guess The Card Found Under the Hat To Tell the Names of All the Cards in the Pack by Their Weight To Sort the Pack without Looking at the Cards How to Deal Yourself All the Trumps in Whist The Gathering of the Clans To Tell a Card by Its Weight A Pack of Cards Being Cut, to Tell Whether There Is an Odd or Even Number in Each Portion The Nailed Card To Make a Card Jump Out of the Pack and Run on the Table The Trick of Thirty-one A Card, from Twenty-seven, Being Thought of by One Person, to Be Found at a Certain Number in the Pack Mentioned by Another Person To Make the Four Knaves Change Places with Four Sevens, Each Four Being Guarded by Different Persons The Royal Families The Revolution CHAPTER TV
66 67 69 70 70 72 72 73 73 74 75 76 77 77 77 78 78 79 79 80 82 83 84
CARD TRICKS REQUIRING CALCULATION
Three Cards Being Chosen by Three Persons, to Tell Which Each Has Chosen 85 To Tell the Number of Spots at the Bottom of Three Packets Which Have Been Made by the Drawer 86 Four Cards Having Been Chosen, to Tell the Total Sum of Their Value 87
CONTENTS—Continued PAGE
To Tell the Card Which Has Been Drawn from a Whist Pack To Tell a Card Thought of, and to Name Its Position in the Pack Four Packets of Cards Having Been Formed Face Downwards on the Table, to Discover the Total Value of the Undermost Cards Of Ten Cards Laid Out, to Tell That Which Anyone Thought of To Name a Card Drawn from a Piquet Pack To Tell the Card That May Be Noted To Tell the Sum of the Numbers of Any Two Cards Drawn from a Common Pack To Tell the Value of Two Cards Drawn from a Common Pack Without Touching or Seeing the Cards The Cards Being Dealt Out in Heaps, to Tell the Amount of the Bottom Cards Without Seeing Them CHAPTER V CARD TRICKS REQUIRING
89 90 91 92 92 93 94 95
CONFEDERACY
To TeH a Card That a Person Has Touched in a Pack To Distinguish the Court Cards from the Others by the Sense of Touch or Smell To Distinguish the Red from the Black Cards by the Sense of Smell Of Twenty-five Cards Laid on the Table, to Name the One Touched or Reversed Of Two Rows of Cards, to Name the One That Has Been Touched To Make a Chosen Card Be Found Under a Flower P o t . . . To Conjure a Certain Card in Your Pocket To Produce a Card Called for Instantly CHAPTER VI TRICKS REQUIRING
87
PREPARED CARDS OR
97 98 98 99 99 100 101 102
SLEIGHT-OF-HAND
The Long Card The Biseaute Pack A Card Having Been Chosen and Returned, and the Pack Shuffled, to Produce the Chosen Card. Instantly in Various Ways To Teach the Company a Trick Which They Learn Without Difficulty; then to Allow Them to Succeed or Cause Them to Fail at Your Pleasure
103 104 106 112
CONTENTS—Continued PAffI
To Distinguish the Court Cards by Touch To Name Any Number of Cards in Succession Without Seeing Them To Make Four Cards Change from Eights to Twos, from Black to Eed, ete , A Card Having Been Drawn and Keturned, and the Pack Shuffled, to Make It Appear at Such Number as the Company Chooses Several Persons Having Each Drawn and Eeturned a Card, to Make Each Card Appear at Such Number in the Pack as the Drawer Chooses The "Three Card" Trick To Make Two Cards Change Places at the Word of Command To Make Two Cards Change Places While Held in Separate Hands The Pack Being Divided into Two Portions, Placed in the Keeping of Two Different Persons, to Make Three Cards Pass Invisibly from the One to the Other To Change the Four Aces, Held Tightly by a Person, into Four Indifferent Cards The Shower of Aces Several Cards Having Been Freely Chosen by the Company, Eeturned and Shuffled, and the Pack Placed in a Person's Pocket, to Make Such Person Draw Out One by One the Chosen Cards Several Persons Having Each Drawn Two Cards, Which Have Been Eeturned and Shuffled, to Make Each Couple Appear in Succession, One at the Top and the Other at the Bottom of the Pack Four Cards Being Chosen and Eeplaced in the Pack, to Name Them by Feeling the Pulse To Ascertain the Card Chosen and Eeturned to a Pack by Throwing the Dice.
117 118 120 123 125 126 128 130 131 133 139
142 • 145 147 148
CARD TRICKS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTOEY
F
EW illusions of the conjurer are more truly magical, or to the uninitiated more inexplicable, than a really good card trick. The prestige of the illusion is enhanced by the simplicity of the conditions under which it is presented. When a quiet-looking gentleman at an evening party, with no visible apparatus save an ordinary pack of cards, tells the company not only what cards they have drawn, but what cards they have thought of, or even writes down what they will think of presently; when a card just seen in the performer's hand is, a moment later, found in the pocket of a person at the other end of the room; when chosen cards rise gravely from the pack, change suit and value, or vanish altogether; when a mutilated card repairs itself before the eyes of the company; when cards are seen to grow smaller and smaller, finally flying up the performer's sleeve and nestling on his shirt-front—the spectator, unless he adopts the hypothesis of a worthy old gentleman I once knew, "the devil's in it," is compelled to give all