WILL ALMA

M.I.M.C. (LONDON)
CARD TRICKS
Th at Are Easy to Learn,
Easy to Do
p2«^^o
 SECOND EDITION

CARD TRICKS
That A re Easy to Learn,
Easy to Do

By W. F. (RUFUS) STEELE

Author of

“Card Tricks You Will Do.”

“Card Tricks You Can Do.”
“50 Tricks You Can Do.”
♦

CARD TRICKS THAT REQUIRE

NO SLEIGHT-OF-HAND
♦
The simplicity of a Card Trick adds much
to its mystery!

Edited by
RAY GAMBLE and HERB SCHUH

Published by
RANTER’S MAGIC SHOP
1311 WALNUT ST.. PHILADELPHIA 7 . PA.

4- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4
 SECOND EDITION

Copyright, 1935
by
Ray Gamble and W. Herbert Schuh

• • • • •
.Copyright, 1946
by
Mitchell Kanter

Reserving the rights to all foreign countries.

Printed in the United States of America.

 The State Library of Victoria
“ALMA CONJURING COLLECTION”

FOREWORD

Tricks with a pack of cards afford one of the easiest and most interesting
forms of entertainment in existence. They are amazing and mysterious to
those who witness them, yet they are within the ability of everyone.
The idea that long practice and exceptional skill are necessary in the
performance of card tricks is erroneous. Some of the cleverest and most
bewildering tricks are made possible by the use of subtle principles and
unique methods that are easily learned, yet which are capable of deceiving
the keenest and most intelligent spectator.
Such are the methods explained in this booklet. These tricks have been
devised by experienced performers of card tricks—men who understand the
psychology of deception and who know that a clever, well-developed prin­
ciple can be used to create an amazing mystery.
Each trick depends upon a special system, simplified to make it effective
in actual practice. The instructions are clear and easily understood. By
following them carefully and performing each trick in a convincing manner,
the reader can quickly gain an enviable reputation as a master of card magic.
This booklet is not a picture book that can be looked through in half an
hour—it must be carefully read to be properly understood.
Anyone who studies and masters the different card tricks in this little
book need never be at a loss to do his bit when called upon. You will
astonish your friends and add greatly to the gaiety of the gathering.
Remember that a good trick is a jewel and should be guarded as such
against the depredations of the members of your audience who are ever
ready to steal its lustre. The value of your trick lies in its degree of mystifi­
cation, which is lessened, not augmented, by repetition. “Do that again!”
cries your audience as a result of that mystification, and this is just what
you should not do, at least during that performance. You have been striving
to put them in just that condition—leave them there. This book affords
enough material for your part of the evening’s entertainment without repeat­
ing ahy individual trick and thus giving your audience a chance to find
out how it is done. By doing a trick only once an evening, your audience
gives you credit for skill which you do not possess and your glory is the
greater.
The following effects have proven worth-while in actual practice and
conform to the above qualifications. Some of the tricks are original with the
author; but for the most part they are adaptations of old ideas or new
applications of the old principles.
In presenting this booklet to you we have not only given complete
instructions for the actual doing of the trick, but have included “patter
ideas,” which have been used before many audiences throughout the country.
With best wishes,
RAY GAMBLE
HERB SCHUH
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
No. Title Page
■1. Riffle Trick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Frank Lane’s Three Pellet Card Trick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3. Appleton’s Fooler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Hull’s “Joker” Spelling Trick. (A wonderful trick).. . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Pearce’s Triple Card Mystery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. The Master Card Location.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7. The Lady and Man Card Prediction.(This is a dandy). . . . . . . . . . 10
8. Simple Addition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
9. A Brain Teaser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
10. Mephisto’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
11. Improved Guesser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
12. Sequel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -. . . 15
13. A Prediction Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
14. My Personal Stack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
15. A Coincidence . . . . . . 18
16. The Four-Ace Merry Mix Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
(Try this at the bridge table some evening)
17. The Piano Trick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
18. The Joker’s Own Deception. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
19. The Marvelous Prediction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
20. Can You Do It?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
21. Fortune Telling Trick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
22. The Devil’s Tickets. (A marvelous opening trick). . . . . . . . . . . . 24
23. Pellet Trick . . . 25
24. The Joker Trick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
25. Card Spelling De Luxe. . . . . . . . . . . . -. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
26. Knock-Out Spelling Trick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
27. Sleeve Fooling Trick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
28. Kater’s Improved Spelling Trick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
29. Sympathy Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
30. Dual Attraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
31. How Many Cards Did I Take?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
32. Cecil’s Mind Reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
33. Watch Locator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
34. “Follow Me” Card Trick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
35. The Vernon Five-Card Mental Force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
36. Figures Can’t Lie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
37. Place the Pack in Back of You. (Don’t overlook this one). . . . . . . 34
38. Son John Story. (This is a big laugh producer). . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
39. The Three Heaps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
40. Jordan’s Spelling Card Mystery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
41. Thought Foretold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
42. Getting the Spectators Number. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
43. Jack-Jack-Jack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
44. Number Trick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
45. Just a Teaser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
46. What Card Am I Thinking Of?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
47. Letter “P” Trick. (This trick is worth the price of the book). . . . . 42
48. The Whispering Queen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
49. You Can't Miss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
50. A Peculiar Turn Around. (This isa real fooler). . . . . . . . . . . . 44
51. Si Stebbins’ Master System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
 !—Riffle Trick
EFFECT: Cards are riffle-shuffled once by spectator, then cards are cut
and the suit remembered of card cut, then the spectator turns the deck face
up and remembers the first card of the suit he just cut. If the first card he
cut was a heart and the first card he sees is the Jack of Hearts that is the
the card to be remembered. Then the cards are shuffled again and now
the performer has the cards in his hand for the first time during the trick
and now produces the card selected.
SECRET: You must use an arrangement so here it is. First select two
suits; for instance, Spades and Hearts and see that they are well mixed.
Now remove two cards from the twenty-six (26) cards, Ace of Spades and
King of Hearts, for example. Now make two piles of twelve (12) each of
the assorted Spades and Hearts and on the face of each pile place six cards,
Diamonds and Clubs, then on the back place six cards on one pile and eight
on the other and close up the deck by placing either half on top of the other.
This places twelve (12) or fourteen (14) cards, Diamonds and Clubs, in
the center of the deck. Now place the Ace of Spades and the King of Hearts
third and fourth from the bottom of the deck and you are ready for the trick.
Ask spectator to divide the deck in halves and give them one riffle shuffle.
This does not interfere with your two cards on bottom as all it did if they cut
in center was place more Diamonds and Clubs on the bottom. Now ask spec­
tator to cut the cards and remember the suit of the card to which he cut. (See
that he cuts deck somewhere near the center.) This done he turns the deck
over so that faces of cards are toward himself, and looks for the first card of
the suit to which he cut and remembers same. This done he now shuffles the
deck again and passes deck to you and you look at the bottom card and if
it is a black card you say, “you cut a red card, didn’t you?” and if he says:
“No,” then you know it is the Ace of Spades and proceed to find it. Should
spectator say, “Yes,” then you know the card looked at was the King of
Hearts and produce same.

2—Frank Lane's Three Pellet Card Trick

If you get nothing else out of this book except this trick, you will be
repaid one hundred times for buying it. This is my FAVORITE Club trick
and has made me in actual cash, hundreds of dollars. How? Because when
I have done this trick for different organizations it has made them talk so
much that this trick alone has brought me plenty of engagements; and in
some instances, I have been hired to do this one trick AND NOTHING ELSE.
JOHN NORTHERN HILLIARD saw me do this six successive nights at six
different organizations, and he was so impressed that he offered me anything
that I wanted so that he could publish it in the new book which he was about
to have printed and which was to cost $15.00. I am telling you all this so
that you will realize you are getting something; not only a secret, but an
effect that will absolutely knock your audience cold and one that you will
continually keep in your performance and thus bring you actual cash besides
prestige.
THE EFFECT: An ordinary deck of cards is used. The deck is shuf­
fled. Three cards are selected by three different men, with the deck in

1
THEIR hands, and WITH YOUR BACK TURNED TO THEM AND TO THE
AUDIENCE ALL THE TIME. The spectators write the name of the card
on three different slips of paper. These are collected by a fourth spectator,
performer takes them in his fingers one at a time, and without opening
them, HE NAMES EACH ONE OF THE MEN’S CARDS. Before I give you
the secret, let me tell you this:
The deck is ordinary.
There is absolutely no sleight-of-hand.
You can do it immediately.
The effect is perfectly uncanny; and this, combined with the ease
with which you do it, makes it one of the best effects to offer an
audience.
Now ... if you’re still interested, here it is:
THE SECRET: If there is no sleight-of-hand to it, and yet at the same
time it is so easy to do, we must have a set-up; so we have the deck set up
for the Si Stebbins System. (See Si Stebbins Master System—Effect 1—
page 44.) You address your audience somewhat like this, “Ladies and
Gentlemen: For my last effect I’m going to try to prove to you that I’m
a real magician. I’m going to show you something that you have
never seen before—and something you’ll never see again—unless you see
me do it. When magic is mentioned in your home, or in other places, you
will forget all about the other tricks I have done here tonight; but THIS one
will remain in your memory. You might have an idea of how I do the trick
with the dollar bill, or the trick with the handkerchief, but you WON’T have
the SLIGHTEST idea or the faintest inkling of how this is performed. I’m
going to ask three gentlemen to come up on the platform and help me. I’ll
promise there will be no jokes. I’m going to be serious every moment.”
(When the men come up on the platform you take out three pieces of paper
from your pocket, about 2 in. square, fold each one in halves, then fold it
over again, and with a pencil, mark one of the papers “1,” another “2,” and
the other “3” ON BOTH SIDES. Give one paper to each of the men and
have them place it in their vest pocket. As you do this you talk.) “I’m
folding three pieces of paper, Ladies and Gentlemen, and I’m marking each
of them No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 on both sides. I pass one of the papers to
you, sir; one to this gentleman, and one to you. Will you kindly put them
in your pockets because I’m going to have you use your hands in a moment.”
(Pick up your cards and take them out of the case, fan them out, and let
the audience see that it is an ordinary deck.) Continue: “I have here an
ordinary deck of cards, Ladies and Gentlemen, and when I get through what
I’m going to do, one of these men is going to have this deck for himself.
Which one of you gentlemen plays cards? You, sir? Very well, then, the
deck will be yours. Every time I do this trick, folks, I give away a deck of
cards—not because I like to give things away, especially to strangers—but
because I want everybody to know that I’m using NOTHING but an ordinary
deck; and you can see how foolish it would be for me to give a deck of cards
away to anyone if there was anything the matter with them. I know that if
anyone in this audience would like to examine these cards, the gentleman
here will be courteous enough to allow you to do so. Here’s the case, sir.
I’ll give you the cards later on. Now I’m going to ask the audience to help
me out in this respect: I want to be sure that these gentlemen do EXACTLY
as I tell them to do—no more, no less. When I tell you gentlemen to cut the
deck I mean to cut it—like this—and then complete the cut. (An ordinary
cut.) Later on, when I have you take a card I’m going to ask you to show
it to someone else. You may show it to the audience, or to only one person—
ANY person—and if I allow you this privilege of showing it to ANYONE
you want, or to the whole audience, you must realize that I have no one to
assist me in any way. Now, the first gentleman: Will you take the cards and
place them on your left hand? Don’t do anything until I tell you. I’m going
over here with my back turned and I’m going to ask you to follow my
instructions.” (Walk away from him down to one side of the audience with
your back turned towards him and start giving instructions.) “Will you
2
kindly cut the deck? Is it done? Cut it once more. Are you satisfied, sir,
that with my back turned to you, and with you handling the deck,
that I don’t know where any particular card is in the deck? Thank you.
Would you cut them once more? Now I’m going to ask you take the card
nearest you, the TOP card, take it in your right hand, look at it, and now
remember, you have your own choice of whether to show it to one person
or to the entire audience. Is it done? Now you have the deck in your left
hand and the card in the right. Take that card—tuck it in the center of the
deck some place—even the deck all up on the ends and sides so I won’t even,
know APPROXIMATELY where your card is. Is it done? Thank you.”
(You walk back to performer, take deck from his hand ... as described
in “Two Hours with Frank Lane” . . . thereby getting a peek at the
bottom card, simply REMEMBER that bottom card.) “Now I’m not going
to run through this deck . . . I’m not even going to look at it . . .
I’m going to pass it to No. 2 man.” (Here’s where you get your peek at the
bottom card, as you pass the deck to the man with your right hand. Now
turn to No. 1 man and say:) “I’m going to ask you, sir, to take your seat
and when you are sure I’m not looking at you to open your paper, write
down the name of the card in any way you desire on the inside of the paper,
and then fold the paper again so that the number will show on the outside.”
(Now you address No. 2 man and when you walk away you have him do exactly
the same routine as described above for the first man, with this one addition:
—Let him cut the cards twice, and then have him cut off about a THIRD of
the deck, and then complete the cut. This makes it a little safer for you,
as he might cut to the same spot where the other man put his card. When
you have him cut a third of the deck, the third time he cuts will eliminate
any danger. After the routine is over, have him take his seat in the same
manner as No. 1 man, and when you have learned the bottom card, as you
pass the deck to the third man, you continue talking, as follows:) “Now,
for this third gentleman I’m going to work a little different. I’m going to
ask you, sir, to shuffle that deck of cards as much as your heart desires.
Later on I’m going back to you and I’m going to say: “You’re the gentleman
that shuffled the deck as much as you wanted” and when I say that, I want
you to reply, ‘Yes’. So I want you now to shuffle them so you CAN say,
‘Yes.’ Are you satisfied that they are shuffled enough? Now, here’s what
I want you to do—and I want you, Ladies and Gentlemen, to see that he
does exactly as I say—take the deck in your left hand, and with your right
thumb and second finger, I want you to pull out some cards from the center
of the deck . . . take as few or as many as you wish . . . and when
you get this portion out in your right hand, turn that portion over so that
you can see the bottom card of that portion, show it to somebody else, and
then put the whole portion back on the deck again.” (As you say the above,
you demonstrate what you want him to do; and as you say, “Is that clear?”
you get a glimpse of the bottom card of the whole deck and then overhand
shuffle the cards, leaving that bottom card on the top of the deck—and hand
the deck to him. Now don’t you see that when he takes the portion from the
center and looks at the bottom card, then puts them on top of the deck, that
the card he looked at will be to the LEFT of the card you noted, when you
fan the deck later on. Before you walk away from him and turn your back
while he is doing this, simply watch him for a second until you see that he
is starting right. Then turn your back. After he goes through the routine,
have him cut the deck and then tell him to lay the cards down on the table—
that you don’t even want to touch them. Now continue talking:) “Now,
sir,” (,after you come back to the stage) “let’s work with you a little different
again. Let’s forget your paper. YOU MERELY THINK OF YOUR CARD.
Then take your seat, please.” (You now walk down to No. 1 man and with­
out looking at his paper, you stretch out your right hand and take the paper
from him. Hold it above your head. Ask him to think of his card . . .
and bring back to your audience the fact that your back was turned, some­
thing like this:) “Now, sir, you remember you told me that as far as you
knew there was no possible way I could tell any card while my back was
turned; yet you cut the deck three or four times . . . you took some

3
card . . . and you are now thinking of it. The gentleman took a black
card ... it was a Queen . . . and you TOOK, sir, the Queen of
Spades.” (Say, ‘‘The Queen of Spades,” in a hesitating manner, as if it were
somehow coming to you through some mental process. Of course, all you do
is add three to the first card you remembered and take the next suit. That
will be the man’s card. When you name the card, open the paper . . .
tell the audience how he wrote it . . . then give it to someone in the
audience. Follow this same routine with the No. 2 man. When you get to
the third man, say this:) “Now this is the first time that I’m taking the deck
in my hands. I don’t know whether I showed you folks that this was an
ordinary deck or not—but it is.” (And as you run through them, faces
toward audience so that they can see they are all different, you locate the
card that was on the top and then note the card to the left of it—and that
will be the man’s card. You fan these cards in a hurried manner, as if you
just thought of showing the cards were all different. After you have found
out what his card is, you take the deck down to the man you are going to
give the deck to, saying:) “This is your deck, sir. Hold it in your hand, sir,
just like this for a moment, until I get through. Now I’m going to ask the
No. 3 man to be serious. I want him to really think of his card.” (Look at
him intently.) “Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m going to try to SELL this trick
to you, exactly the same way a salesman would sell something to a business
man. Remember, this gentleman shuffled the cards as much as he wished.
He took some cards from the middle—he looked at one of the cards—and
put them back. I have had no chance to manipulate the cards—my back was
turned—and you must realize without my telling you that there was NO
possibility of sleight-of-hand in any way whatsoever. If it ISN’T sleight-of-
hand, it must be something else. I’m going to ask the gentleman to think of
his card. You’re thinking of a red card . . . you’re thinking of a
heart . . .” (Put your hand up to your forehead and look at one spot
as if you were thinking intently, and repeat:) “You’re thinking of a heart,
sir, and it’s . . . the s—, the s—, the seven spot of hearts.”
NOTE: Now you see how simple this is to do, but the preparation and
the salesmanship of it are what get me the engagements that I told you
about. You can sell it as good as I can, sc go to it!

3—Appleton's Fooler
EFFECT: Performer has spectator shuffle the deck of cards and then
place them on a table. Now spectator cuts the deck into two parts and
selects either part without any forcing. Now he is requested to remove
any card he desires from his part of the pack and place same on top of
his cards and the performer does the same with his part of the cards. Then
the cards are placed together again and the deck cut once more if so desired,
and the two selected cards are found to be next to each other in the deck.
SECRET: This is an old effect in a new dress and when shown to the
author it fooled him pronto. Like all good tricks the secret is very simple.
The shuffle the spectator gives the deck is on the square and also the cut
as the performer does nothing but a little lying to complete the trick. When
the performr tells him to take a card out of the middle of his portion of the
deck and place on top of his portion the performer does the same thing and
the deck is placed back together. Now the deck is cut so the cards are
apparently lost. Then performer says, “What was the name of your card?”
Spectator says, “Jack of Clubs.” The performer says, “Mine was the eight of
spades.” Now ask spectator to see if they are not together in the deck. Of
course they are because the little lie the performer told was when he
said, “My card was the eight of spades.” That was not so because the eight
of spades was on the bottom of the performer’s portion and the card he
took out of the center and placed on the top of his portion had nothing to
do with the trick and was only misdirection so as to take the spectator’s mind
away from the bottom card. Try it and you will like the effect I am sure.
4
 A—Hull's "Joker" Spelling Trick
If you are looking for the best spelling trick extant, here it is. I do
not claim originality in this trick except the last half, which is the climax
and with the “sucker” variation with the Joker, it makes it one of the finest
effects possible with an unprepared deck of cards.
1 The first part of this trick should be credited to the SEVEN CIRCLES,
and seems to be a compilation of various spelling tricks and dove-tail
shuffles.
The effect of the trick will become evident to the reader as he pursues
the explanation of it, which is herewith set forth.
PREPARATION: A set-up of two suits of the four is necessary. Pref­
erably the clubs and spades should be used, although it will make no
difference if you use the hearts and diamonds. By means of the suggestions
given below you will have no difficulty in memorizing the order of these
cards, and you can generally set them up in short notice while fooling with
the cards, unless you happen to be using your own deck, in which case it is
best to have the cards already set up and do this as your first card trick.
THE CLUBS
Arrange the clubs in the following order: 5-2-10-4-3-Q-6-A-J-K-9-7-8.
The main cue to remembering this setup easily is based upon the figure “12,”
although the first three cards and the last three may be remembered easily
in another manner. Here’s the way I remember them:
5 times 2 is 10 (larger number 5 comes first).
4 times 3 is 12 (Queen; larger number 4 first).
6 times 1 (ace) is 6 (half of 12).
Jack (11) one less than 12.
King (13) one more than 12.
The last three, 9, 7, 8, easily remembered on account of their order.
These cards are arranged in this order with the 5 on top and 8 on bottom
when cards are face down. Have the hearts and diamonds well shuffled
together and place the clubs in order herewith set forth on top of hearts
and diamonds, with faces down.
THE SPADES
Now arrange the spades in the following order: Q-7-10-A-5-J-2-9-6-
K-4-8-3. Although just a little harder to remember than the club formation,
yet by using the figure “11” as cue figure they may be easily remembered.
QUEEN—1 higher than 11 hence the figure 111 will be cue.
SEVEN—(Come 11, when associated with dice).
TEN—plus ACE (one) is 11.
FIVE—is the small half of 11.
JACK—is actually 11.
TWO—plus NINE is 11.
SIX—is the large half of 11.
KING—(13) plus FOUR is 17 which somewhat resembles 11.
EIGHT—plus THREE is 11.
With the spades arranged in this order place them on the bottom of
the red cards and with Joker somewhere among the red cards you are
ready to perform. The 3 of spades will be the bottom card.
PERFORMANCE: The beauty of the first part of this trick is the fact
that you can give to cards a genuine dove-tail shuffle two times in straight
succession, and still go ahead with the trick with an unerring accuracy.
It is this method of shuffling the cards that will throw the “wise ones” off
guard, especially should they suspect a “set up” deck.
In shuffling the cards, note that the bottom 13 cards are spades and
run down as near as you can approximate it, to the center of the deck, about
26 deep. This will take you somewhere in the middle of the red cards.
As you give them the first dove-tail shuffle, allow the spades to fall
a little more rapidly than the cards in other hand. This will still keep them
5
near the bottom of the deck, but will intersperse red cards among them, but
will in no way disturb their 'order.
Again you repeat the dove-tail shuffle, this time getting the cards again
divided as near the center as you can approximate, but be sure you can get
them divided above the point where the spades cease, and below the point
where the clubs are. If you try this a few times, you will soon get the
drift of it and will see that there will be quite a few cards in the center of
the deck that will be red cards and will separate the clubs above, from the
spades below. This second dove-tail shuffle can be performed in as fair a
manner as possible after getting the cards divided somewhere among the
red ones in the center of packet.
Now turn the deck face up after calling attention to the fairness of the
shuffle, and explaining that the best card man in the world cannot “dove­
tail shuffle’’ a pack of cards two or three times and have any idea of the
order of the cards. You start to separate the cards into two piles, one
containing all the red cards, and the other containing all the black cards.
Deal the cards into these two piles face up on the table, one card at a time,
until you have the deck divided into red and black cards. When you come
to the joker, lay it aside on the table face up for you will need it shortly,
and will want it where it will be handy.
Tell your spectators that you can use either red or black cards to do this
with and throw the red ones aside. Start through the black ones again, one
card at a time, separating them into clubs and spades, emphasizing the
fact that you are not changing the position of a single card since they
have been thoroughly shuffled. When you are through and the cards are
separated into clubs and spades, unbeknown to your spectators and even un­
thought of, is the fact that these clubs and spades are in the same identical
order that they were in in the beginning. Have seme one of your spectators
select either the clubs or the spades. If he selects the spades, pick them
up and hand them to him with faces down. If he selects the clubs you pick
them up, turn them face down and say, “all right, we will use the clubs.”
Then pick up the spades and hand them to him. In either instance, he gets
the spades, and you get the clubs.
Now you instruct your spectator to deal the top card face up on the
table. It will be the “Queen of Spades.” You start from your clubs and
spell “Q-U-E-E-N” placing one card from the top of the packet to the
bottom for each letter. Turn over the next card, and it will be the Queen
of Clubs. Lay it on the table face up beside the joker. He will now deal
the next card on top of the queen of spades, and it will be the 7 of spades.
You spell “S-E-V-E-N” and in like manner keep this up until you have
spelled “QUEEN, SEVEN, TEN, ACE and FIVE.” Each card you spell, place
on top of the card spelled before, and at the same time keep getting the
pile you are thus building, up a little closer to the joker which is on the table
face up. It will be well if when you place the joker on the table you will
bend the bottom right hand corner a little upward so that a card will easily
slide under it. As the pile gets closer to the joker, when you throw the five
spot on top of it manage to get the left hand edge of it under the right hand
side of the joker. Of course this will appear to the audience as of no
consequence. In fact, they will not even notice it at all. Now after you
have continued spelling two or three more cards, say the JACK, TWO and
NINE, you can square up the pile and thus you will have inserted the joker
in this pile between the FIVE and the JACK where it will be needed for the
next effect, and it will have been done in a manner entirely unnoticed by
your spectators. You continue to spell SIX, KING, FOUR, EIGHT and
THREE as spectator deals these cards from the packet he holds.
Now the climax for the whole trick! Your audience will think the trick
is all over and you pick up the cards (Clubs), (all stacked for a marvelous
effect). Tell your spectators that this trick is all in the “spelling” and
say “for instance you spell ace, you will find the ace”; as you say this spell
A-C-E and turn over the ace. Next spell T-W-O and turn over the two
spot. Next spell T-H-R-E-E and turn over the three. Now say to your

6
spectator, “you can do this just as easily as I can”; whereupon you hand him
the deck, and tell him to spell F-O-U-R. He tries and turns over what
he thinks will he the four spot, but, behold, it is the joker! You quickly take
the cards back, placing the joker on the bottom, and spell F-O-U-R, turning
over the four. Now you continue to show them how it is done, by spelling
FIVE and then SIX. Again hand deck to spectator telling' him to try
SEVEN. Again he spells and gets the joker. You again take the cards,
placing JOKER on bottom, you spell S-E-V-E-N, turning over the 7 spot.
Now you show them how it is done again this time spelling E-I-G-H-T and
N-I-N-E, emphasizing the last letter in each word (that is the letters “T” and
“E”) before turning over the cards to show them you are right. Allow
spectator to try on “TEN.” He again gets the joker and you place it on
bottom and spell T-E-N getting the TEN. He tries again on JACK and
again gets the JOKER. By this time the crowd is in an uproar and you
show him how it is done by spelling J-A-C-K and turning it over. He
tries on QUEEN and gets the JOKER again. In seeming disgust you have
him place JOKER on bottom again, and tell him to spell JOKER and get it
out of the way. He spells J-O-K-E-R and, of course, gets the Joker, which
he now throws out of the deck. Now that the JOKER has been spelled out
of the deck in a formal way, tell him he should have no trouble in spelling
QUEEN. He tries again and this time is successful in spelling Q-U-E-E-N
and turning up the Queen leaving only the King. Of course you explain
that the Joker was only appearing each time he spelled in rebuke for his
seeming carelessness in ignoring it and not spelling it before. Explain that
if he had spelled it out before he would have been able to do the trick from
the beginning.
You will find this trick to be a positive “knock-out.” It is the climax
of a series of spelling tricks that almost everyone seems to have had a hand
in forming. However, the JOKER comedy effect with which it closes is
my original effect.
I will be glad to hear of your results with this effect.

A VARIATION
You may like this ending better than the one described in the trick.
Performer spells ACE, TWO and THREE. Spectator tries to spell FOUR
and gets JOKER. Performer spells FOUR, FIVE and SIX. Spectator
tries on SEVEN and gets JOKER. Performer spells SEVEN, EIGHT and
NINE. Spectator tries on TEN and gets JOKER. Performer spells TEN.
Spectator tries on JACK and gets JOKER. Performer spells JACK. Spec­
tator tries on QUEEN and gets JOKER. By this time some of the audience
and perhaps the spectator will surmise that if he was allowed to spell
the second time, he could get the right card, so he is invited to try the second
time to spell QUEEN, or even the third or fourth times (just as many as
he likes) and yet he always gets the Joker. At this point JOKER may be
spelled out by spectator, and trick ended as in regular routine, or the per­
former may take the cards (after spectator has tried two or three times
to spell “QUEEN” and always got JOKER) and spell QUEEN and get the
QUEEN. All he needs to do in this instance is to take the cards from
SPECTATOR, placing the JOKER on top instead of bottom as is done all
the way through. Spectators are so excited at this point that this small
variation is never noticed. Then performer hands the two cards remaining
to spectator and he tries to spell KING and again gets JOKER. Performer
spells KING and gets KING and hands the last card (THE JOKER) to the
spectator, who indeed by this time will be a “JOKER” in reality.
Personally, I like this last routine very much. The JOKER remaining
until the last card makes a nice effect.
7
 5—Pearce's Triple Card Mystery
EFFECT: The performer requests a spectator to step up to his table
and handing him a pack of cards asks him to give it a thorough shuffling.
After that, spectator is requested to place the pack of cards upon the table
and cut the pack into two half packs. Spectator then makes a free selection
of one of the half packs and deals the cards into three packs upon the table,
with instructions to stop dealing at any time he feels like doing so but that
all piles must have the same number of cards in them. After that, three
spectators are requested to step up and look at and remember the top card
of each heap. All the time this is going on the performer stands as far away
from the table as possible so that he cannot be accused of seeing any of
the cards. After the spectators look at the three cards, the packs are piled
one upon the other thereby assembling all the cards into one heap. The
performer now takes the pack and explains that he will try and find the
selected cards by thought waves. He explains that he is going to throw
the cards face up on the table and when anyone of the three spectators who
selected a card see their card they are to think stop. He finds the first
card in this manner. For the second card the performer turns around and
holding the cards behind his back throws them face up on the table. He
stops when he comes to the second card. For the third card the performer
is blindfolded and a spectator takes the pack and throws the cards face down
upon the table. The performer says stop when the third selected card is dealt.
SECRET: After the spectator shuffles and cuts pack and takes one of
the halves performer, in order to explain how he wants the cards to be dealt
into 3 packs, picks up the unselected half and deals a card upon the table
then one next to this one and then a third one next to the second one then
one on the first one, one on the second one, one on the third one and so
on. When the spectator says he understands, the performer gathers the
cards he has dealt into one pack again, but in putting it down upon the
table he notes the name of the card on the bottom of the pack.
The performer then steps away from the table and tells the spectator
to start dealing his cards into 3 packs like you just showed him but remind­
ing him he is not to deal all the cards in his pack, but to stop dealing any
time he feels like it.
Performer standing some distance must watch and note by counting
mentally as spectator deals cards just how many cards are in each heap.
To find this out he only has to count the number of cards in say the last heap.
Naturally, the same number of cards will be in the other two heaps. Say,
for example, there are five cards in each heap. The three spectators then
come up and make a mental note of the three top cards. After that, the
spectator assisting is requested to pile the three packs one upon the other.
The performer steps up to the table and taking the original unselected half
(the bottom card of which the performer knows, say ace of diamonds) drops
it on the top of the pack on the table. The cards still in assisting spectators’
hands can be put on bottom of cards. The performer can now give the
cards a fake shuffle or cut if he is able to do so.
To find the cards: As performer deals the cards on the table he watches
for his key card, the ace of diamonds. When that card turns up he knows
that the next card is one of the noted cards and stops when he turns it up.
After one of the spectators admits that it is his card, the performer picks
up the cards he dealt upon the table and puts them on the bottom of his pack.
To find the next card it is not necessary for the performer to see the
cards. Since 5 cards were dealt into each pack, the next selected card will
be the fifth card dealt. If 7 cards were dealt into each pack it would be the
seventh card, and so on.
So in finding second selected card, performer turns his back to the
audience and holding cards behind his back deals them face up on the
table. He counts the cards, to himself, of course, as he deals them and
when he throws the fifth card on the table he stops.
After second spectator admits that this is his card, performer picks up
8
the five cards on table and puts them back on top of pack this time instead
of the bottom as at first. This then makes the third selected 10th from top.
The reason you do this is because if you put the cards on the bottom the
third selected card would be fifth from top as before and some keen spectator
might notice this and hit upon the secret. You then allow yourself to be
blindfolded, but no matter how well they do this you will find from experi­
ence that by looking down along your nose you will be able to see the top
of the table. You then instruct the assistant to throw the cards very slowly
one at a time face down upon the table. You count them as he does this
and exclaim stop just as he is about to throw the tenth card upon the table.

6—The Master Card Location

There is a great demand for an easy yet effective method of discovering
a chosen card without the aid of sleight-of-hand, or previous arrangement
of the pack. Here it is:
The performer offers the pack to be shuffled. He takes it back and
runs the cards from hand to hand, inviting a spectator to choose any card
as it goes by. The spectator touches a card. He is told to turn up the comer,
look at it, and to immediately take the pack in his own hands and square
up the cards so that no one can tell where the card is. Then he may cut
the pack four or five times, so that it seems impossible to find the card.
Nevertheless, the performer, upon looking through the pack, immediately
finds the chosen card.
THE METHOD: Upon receiving the shuffled pack, the performer casu­
ally notices the bottom card and remembers it. In running the cards from
the left hand to the right, he counts the cards as he goes along; when he has
passed about twelve, he hesitates and says: “Take any card as it goes
by.” Then he continues to count, and notes the number of the card selected.
The pack may then be cut by a series of single cuts. The magician
simply looks for the card that was on the bottom and counts down to the
chosen card.
EXAMPLE: The five of clubs is on the bottom. The twenty-third card
is taken. That card will continue to be twenty-three below the five of clubs.
If the five of clubs shows near the bottom of the pack, count to the bottom
and continue from the top.
In counting the cards from hand to hand, pay as little attention to them
as possible. This is a very effective location.
If the chosen card is near the top, the easiest way to produce it is to
count to it by dealing the cards. Turn up the chosen card when you
reach it.
You can remove the chosen card and put it in your pocket. Then
produce it from there when spectators find that it has left the pack.
THIS METHOD can be used as a regular way of finding a chosen card.
It is indetectible, for the vital secret is that you COUNT THE CARDS as
you spread them. You can do this so easily that no one can detect it. If a
spectator reaches further down for a card, spread them to the spot he wants
and count as you do so.
You can use the same method time and again during a series of card
tricks, as it is natural, in every respect. The more you use it, the more
you will like it. You can note the bottom card quite openly, because the
moment you allow a free selection, no one will suspect that that card can
possibly figure in the trick.
Please note that this trick was shown to several magicians, and all
were completely mystified. Each one to whom the secret was explained
immediately worked the trick on other magicians and fooled them. The
average spectator cannot even BEGIN TO DETECT the secret. The pre­
liminary shuffles and the final cuts are CONVINCING.
9
 7—The Lady and Man Card Prediction
EFFECT: Performer gives deck to a Gentleman and requests he count
down any number he desires and remember the card at that number. While
this is going on the performer is writing a prediction on a slip of paper
as to what card the man will select. This prediction is placed in a hat. Now
the deck is handed to a Lady with the request that she do the same thing
the Gentleman did. Again the performer writes down a prediction but this
time it is for the Lady. When the two cards are finally chosen they prove
to be the same two that were predicted by the performer.
SECRET: Performer hands deck to be shuffled. On its return state that
you want some one to count down any number they wish. (Count down a
few yourself to show what you mean and reverse them. Then place these
on the bottom noticing the bottom card and also the top card as you do so.)
Now the bottom card is your key card and the top card is one that will
be selected. After performer shows how he wants cards counted he hands
deck to a man. Now the man counts down any number reversing the
cards placing them again on top and cutting the deck as much as he
wishes. The man, of course, remembers this card. The performer has been
addressing the man all the while and while the counting is going on he is
writing on a piece of paper and explaining to the man that he is writing
the name of the card he will look at. This is not what is actually happening,
however, for the performer is really writing, “The lady will select—(the card
that was originally on top of deck).” Performer now folds up this paper and
places it on table or in hat. Then he picks up deck and runs through it for
his key card or the card that was originally on the bottom of deck. When
the key card is found the card next to its face will be the card the man
just looked at. Performer cuts the deck at this point again leaving the key
card on the bottom and the man’s selection on top. Now performer turns to
a lady and asks her if she will count down to a number, or to make it better,
count down the same number the man did and look at a card, (Performer
need not know how far the man counted down.) While lady is doing this,
performer tells her he is writing down the card she will select. In reality he
is writing down, “The man will take—(the card that was next to the key
card).” Performer folds up paper and places it in hat or on table even
before the lady has finished counting. After the lady has finished have
them reach into the hat and take out the papers showing that your pre­
dictions were correct.
This is a dandy trick and can be worked up into a real mystery.

8—Simple Addition
EFFECT: Deck is handed to spectator with the request that he shuffle
same and then deal 3 cards face down on the table. He is now requested to
note the denomination of the cards on the table and to add enough cards
to each card so that the total will be 15. For instance, the first card on the
table is the 8 of Hearts. Then 7 cards would be added to this 8 of Hearts
giving you a total of 15. The next card you have the 9 of Spades so in
this second case you would add six cards to get a total of 15. Now if the
last card is the 10 of Hearts add 5 more cards to it to bring the total to 15,
etc. The valuations of face cards are as follows: Jack is eleven; Queen is
twelve, and King is thirteen.
After the three piles are completed on the table the performer takes the
remaining cards from the spectator and on glancing through them tells the
spectator the total of the three cards originally placed on the table. In the
above case the three cards total 27.
SECRET: When performer receives the remaining cards all that is
necessary is to count them and subtract four. The answer will be the total
of the three cards first placed on table. In the above case 31 cards were
received back and subtracting four from 31 leaves the answer as 27.
10
 9—A Brain Teaser
This is a trick my friend, R. W. Hull, gave me and he calls it “Hull’s
Three-in-One Card Trick,” and to my notion it is just another one of Mr.
Hull’s masterpieces. This is the way my friend, the author, described
it to me.
, REQUIREMENTS: (1) one pack of cards, (2) one extra playing card
of same design, (3) two unprepared visiting cards.
PREPARATION: Discard any one of the 52 cards in the pack. Substi­
tute for it one extra card of the same denomination only in an opposite suit
of another deck, for example, if you remove the 10 of diamonds replace
that card with the 10 of hearts which will now give you four tens in
the deck, two of which are the 10 of hearts. Place one 10 of hearts on top
of deck and the other 10 of hearts on the bottom of the pack and you are
all set for “A Brain Teaser.”
On the back of an unprepared visiting card, write the name of this
extra card. Mr. Hull when he presents the trick usually uses two cards,
with writing on the back of one of them, and proceeds without even showing
the cards, just leaving the natural inference that he has a couple of
blank cards.
PERFORMANCE: Start the trick by fanning the deck and showing
apparently a full pack of 52 cards. Be careful not to show the two cards
alike. If you desire, instead of having one of the duplicates on the bottom,
have it next to the bottom, and then there will be no danger of anyone
noticing the two alike. In this case before shuffling the cards remove the
bottom card and place it in center, and you have the desired card on top
and its duplicate on the bottom, and you are now ready to proceed with
the feat.
SHUFFLING: Just make the ordinary shuffle and leave top and bot­
tom cards in their original position which will give your audience the im­
pression that you have made a fair shuffle.
TWO PACKETS: With a 10 of hearts on top of pack and a duplicate
of same on bottom you now proceed with the trick. Now divide the deck
into two packets of 26 cards each (the writer has them cut the pack in equal
halves which is about the same). To do this you count off the top 26 cards
without reversing their order. Place the top packet of cards face down on
the table (the 10 of hearts on top). Now make a remark something like
this, “if there are 26 cards there, unless we have made some mistake in
counting there must be 26 cards here, so let us count them so there can be
no mistake.” This is just a little misdirection and gives you a chance to
count the bottom packet and reverse their position which will now place
the card that was on the bottom on the top. The top card now of each
packet is the 10 of hearts, a fact which your audience will never suspect.
TWO VISITING CARDS: You now present the two visiting cards,
placing one in front of each packet. Your audience, not knowing what
you are about, will never think of anything being written on one of these
cards. As you lay down the unprepared one, if you so desire, you can
let it accidentally fall out of your hand and flutter to the table. This will
unconsciously impress your audience that cards are unprepared, but of course
say nothing along this line.
NUMBERING THE PACKETS: You now remark to your audience as
follows: “There is a little mathematical feature connected with this feat.”
Then you inform them that you are going to select a number between 1 and
26 for each of the two packets. Explain that you will pass the cards from
one hand to the other, counting them audibly as you do so. Tell one of your
spectators to mentally select any number between 1 and 26, and when you
reach that number in your count the spectator is merely to say “Stop.” This
method of selecting the numbers seems very fair. You now pick up one
of the packets and begin to count “one, two, three, four, etc.,” continuing
until your spectator says “Stop.” In this count you reverse the order of the

11
 cards as you pass them from one hand to the other. In other words, you
place each card counted on top of the card counted before, just like you
would do in dealing. This procedure will reverse the exact number of
cards you count, up until the time you are stopped.
When you are stopped you carelessly (?) throw the cards just counted
back on top of packet held, and lay this packet back on the table apparently
just the same condition it was in before you thus counted these cards. In
reality, however, you have reversed the order of the number of cards you
counted before you were stopped, so that now your desired card instead
of being on top of the packet, it is just as deep in the packet as the number
you were stopped on. This will never occur to your audience as they do
not know what you are leading up to. You now remark to the spectator who
stopped you in the count, “You had free choice in the number you selected,
did you not?" He will, of course, answer “yes,” for he really did have.
You now pick up the blank visiting card in front of this packet and
openly write on top side of it the number he just selected, and then lay this
visiting card on top of this packet.
Now pick up other packet and go through exactly the same routine in
having a number thus selected for it, allowing some other spectator to select
the number this time. Then write the second number on second visiting
card and place same on top of second packet.
Now you have two packets with the desired card at the position indi­
cated by the number written on card on top of packet.
CHOICE OF PACKETS: Your spectators can now freely select either of
the two packets to be used in the trick. Whichever packet your spectator
finally decides upon he is told to pick it up, and carefully count down
from the top card until he reaches the number chosen for this packet, and
to remove the card occupying the position of this number and return the
other 25 cards to you.
THE MOISTENED CARD: Now comes the vanishing of the chosen
card in a most mysterious manner. The effect is beautiful and yet the
method by which it is accomplished is so simple that one is almost afraid to
try it the first time. While the spectator is holding the chosen card, the
performer again counts the other 25 cards, one at a time and in an audible
manner. In starting to count these 25 cards, performer momentarily places
his thumb to his lips as if to moisten it for the purpose of dealing the cards
from one hand to the other while counting them.
However, instead of merely moistening the thumb as you would do in
dealing off a few cards, or turning the leaf of a book, you get a fairly good
amount of saliva on your thumb. A few trials at this will soon teach you
the required amount. You then immediately bring this wet thumb down to
the top card (cards being held face down as usual), placing it on the upper
portion of the top card near the center, as you would do if you were going
to deal it to a player at your left. As you remove this first card, count out
loud, “one.” Now do not remove your thumb from this card but slide the
next card from the packet right under this first card with your other thumb,
counting “Two” and then “Three,” etc., until you have counted all 25 cards.
All this time you keep your thumb on top of the top card in same position
placed, so that the air will not get under it and dry out the moisture. You
then say to spectator who is holding the chosen card, “I have 25 of the
cards and the One you are holding makes 26.” As you say this have him
place his card on the moistened card and with thumb on chosen card on top
of packet, press it down firmly and hold same for a second or so while
you tell your spectators, “that you want the packet given a square cut which
will place the chosen card (now on top) to some position in the middle of
the packet.” Now hold out your hand with the packet allowing anyone to
lift off any number of cards from top of packet and then you place the cards
remaining in your hand on top of the ones just lifted off, which will give
the cards a fair cut.
FIRST EFFECT: THE VANISHING CARD. Now lift the packet from

12
the hand and place the end of the cards, on which the moisture was applied,
between the first finger and the thumb of whichever hand you use, grip the
cards firmly in this position. This will place the cards with the faces towards
the spectators and will give you the opportunity to riffle them (the end
opposite from where moisture was applied), one at a time allowing spectators
to watch cards as they are passed. This you do to convince your spectator
that his card is still in the packet. He will see it and state it is still there.
Now turn the cards over in the same manner you would to deal. Be sure
the cards are so held that the one that is moistened will have the moistened
end away from you. A little ruse is injected at this point in the trick.
Yon must not tell your spectators that you are going to cause the chosen card
to disappear as this would put them on guard as to what to look for. Rather
you say to them, “I am going to show you these 26 cards one at a time and I
want you to watch for your card as I count them and see how deep it is.”
Hold the packet faces up and start counting the cards off one at a time
throwing them on table face up as you do so. This is the important move
of the whole trick, and you do it in a bold manner. Thus you slide the
top card first right off the packet. Repeat the same procedure with next
card and next, and so on until you have counted off all the cards in the
packet, of course, as you count the cards, you count them in an audible tone
of voice. All the time the spectator will be watching for his card which
he will never see, as his card adheres to the back of the card you have
moistened.
After you have passed the chosen card (and you can tell when you come
to it for it will feel thicker than others), then the critical part of the trick
is past and all the rest is very easy. Counting the cards in an audible manner
as already stated, when the last card is reached your count will only be 25,
due to the fact that two cards were counted as one. You pretend to be
surprised and say, "I only have 25 cards now, one of them is missing.” Turn
to spectator and say, “Did you see your card?” Some times Mr. Hull counts
the cards the second time.
THE SECOND EFFECT: THE RE-APPEARING CARD. Call attention
to the fact that you have not at any time touched the other packet since
spectator chose number for it and you wrote number on card and placed it on
top of packet. Call attention to his number at this time and state that
you are going to cause the vanished card to re-appear in this packet and at
exactly the same number of cards from the top as the number selected for
the packet and written on card on top of same. Spectator counts down to
chosen number and turns over card occupying that position in the packet.
Have him count the cards on the table, turning them face up as he does so.
When he comes to the chosen number and turns over the chosen card, you
can well imagine his surprise.
While your spectator is busily engaged counting the cards down to his
chosen number you secretly palm off the top card from the first packet. As
soon as spectator reaches chosen number and turns over the chosen card,
you take the remainder of his packet and add the palmed card to his
packet. Then later on just say, “count the entire packet and see if you
haven’t 27 cards,” which makes the illusion clear and a dandy finish.
THE THIRD EFFECT: A SPIRIT MESSAGE. It is well at this point
to review the effect of this trick to your spectators who just witnessed it,
showing them how seemingly impossible it has all been. Impress them
with the tought that they selected the numbers of their own free choice
and also selected the packet to be used, even counting the cards in their
own hands, etc. Also impress upon them on the possibility of the performer
being able to know in advance what card would be chosen under these condi­
tions. They will readily agree to all this. Then bring the trick to a final
climax by telling one of the spectators to turn over the visiting cards on
which the name of the card is written.
This trick can be done in about four to five minutes so don’t be fright­
ened with the lengthy directions. It can also be done without the use
of the calling cards and has a great many new possibilities.
13
 10—Mephisto's Message
By ADE DUVAL
EFFECT: The performer has three cards selected from the pack. The
cards are then replaced and the pack is shuffled. The performer then
passes for examination an ordinary lemon. The lemon is then placed on
the table, and the performer announces his intention of causing the three
selected cards to leave the pack and reappear inside the examined lemon.
He runs his thumb over the edge of the cards three times, announcing that
the cards have now left the pack, and proceeds to cut open the lemon. Upon
doing this, the lemon is found to be quite ordinary, and no trace of the
cards can be found. At this point the performer is interrupted by a mes­
senger, who brings him an envelope. Opening the envelope, the performer
announces that the message is from the Devil, and that he is sending him the
three cards which had just been selected. The three cards are, of course,
found in the envelope and are identified by the persons who drew them.
To perform, prepare an envelope with a sheet of paper and duplicates
of the three cards which later in the trick are to be selected by the audience.
In reality, the three cards are to be “forced.” This envelope is then left
with the person who is to act as the “messenger,” and he has instructions as
to just when to bring you the message. The pack of cards, with the dupli­
cates of the three cards contained in the envelope on top of the pack, along
with the lemon and a knife are on the table. The patter should run some­
thing like this: “In this next experiment I shall have to come among you
and ask several of the ladies or gentlemen to select cards, about three
should be enough.* Now that the cards have been selected, I shall ask the
persons who drew them to replace the cards in the pack, and each one in
turn shall give the pack a thorough shuffle.”
Returning to the stage the performer continues: Next I should like to
have you examine the ordinary lemon which I have brought along for a very
special purpose. Having satisfied yourselves that the lemon is ordinary, here
is what I propose to do. I shall cause the three cards to leave the pack and
travel invisibly to the inside of the lemon which you have just examined.
In order to do this, I merely run my thumb oVer the edge of the cards, three
times, like this . . . and you may not believe it but the cards have now
left the pack and are resting comfortably inside the lemon. Of course, you
will expect me to cut the lemon, and show you that such is actually the case.
And so, I shall cut the lemon in half, and you will notice that . . . that’s
strange! the cards are really supposed to be inside the lemon, and they are
not here. This is quite a surprise to me, as this trick has never failed before.
I can’t understand why. ... (At this point the messenger starts down
the aisle, calling your name and creating a general disturbance.) Pardon me,
young man, but couldn’t you possibly wait with the message until I had
finished my performance? The messenger replies: “No, it is very important.
It is for Mr. - - .” The performer replies: “Why, that is MY name.”
To which the messanger replies: “In that case, this message must be for you.
Here, take it.” Performer then opens envelope, takes out sheet of paper
and pretends to read. He then continues, “Oh, I see !! It’s from my friend
the Devil. Listen to what he says here”: “My dear Mr. Magician. I don’t
like lemons, and therefore could not help you in the last trick. However, in
order to straighten things out, I am enclosing herewith the three cards
which were just selected. I remain, yours sincerely, the Devil.”
The three cards are then removed from the envelope, one at a time,
and identified by the respective persons who drew them.

•Use a three-way forcing deck which is made up of three sets of seventeen

duplicate cards.

14
 11—Improved Guesser
EFFECT: Five cards are passed out to a spectator with the request to
remember any one of them. This is continued until five different people
have been given five cards each—in all 25 cards. Now another spectator
is requested to gather up the cards from each of the five people and shuffle
them. This being done the performer takes back the cards, shuffles them
with the remainder of the deck he still holds, and finally produces each of
the “thought of” cards.
SECRET: This is one of those effects that rely on a set of duplicates of
the first 25 cards. Place 25 cards, in any order desired, face down in one
pile on your table. Now take 25 duplicates of these cards and arrange them
exactly the same as the first pile. Now take these last 25 cards and deal
them face down into five hands of five cards each. (Do this exactly as you
would deal five hands of cards, i. e., the first card to the first hand, the
second to the second hand, etc.) Now pick up these five hands just dealt
placing them one hand on the other in any order desired but be careful not
to disarrange the original order of the hand. (Be sure the separate hands
are in order, i. e., the first card dealt each hand should be on the bottom,
the second card on top of the first, etc.) Place these 25 cards in your hand
face down and the other pile of 25 on top of them. Now you are set for the
trick. This deck should be all ready beforehand and either lying on your
table or else in your pocket. Come forward with your deck in hand and give
the top 5 cards to a spectator and remember him as number 1. Pass out
the next 5 cards to a second spectator and remember him as number 2.
Continue this with three more spectators and, of course, remembering their
respective numbers. (In remembering the order that you pass out the cards
I usually start at one end of the room and go directly to the other end
and thereby I can readily remember which person was number 1, 2, 3, 4
and 5.) Now have each of the five spectators think of and remember one
card of the five cards they are holding. Now have one of the spectators
gather up all of the cards that were passed out, shuffle them and hand them
to you. Performer now places these cards underneath the ones already in
his hand and if possible gives them a false shuffle. He next fans out 5 cards
from the top of the deck (which are the duplicates) and asks each spectator
if he sees the card he is remembering therein. If number 1 spectator says
“yes,” then the performer knows his card is the first card on the left of the
fan (performer’s left as he holds the cards facing the spectators) or the
card originally fifth down from the top of the deck. If number 2 spectator
says “yes” then his card is the second from the left in the fan or the card
originally fourth from the top. Number 3 spectator, the third from the left,
etc. Continue this until you have shown five fans of five cards each and
you will have located all of the “thought of” cards. Sometimes you will
find three or four of the selected cards in one fan. I think you will like the
time spent in this arrangement as it is surely a knock-out effect.

12—Sequel
EFFECT: A spectator is asked to take any card from the deck and place
it some other place in the deck while the cards are being riffled. Now two
spectators are asked to remember one card each of the two cards that are on
either side of the index card just placed in the deck. After spectator re­
moves index card from deck he then cuts deck into two piles. Now perform­
er has previously written a number on two pieces of paper and when the
pieces of paper are opened the two chosen cards are located, one in each
half of the deck, at the numbers in the deck previously written on the slips
of paper.
SECRET: Have any card taken from deck after it has been shuffled
by spectater. Performer explains he will use this card as an index card by
which to have two other cards selected. Riffle the deck endwise and have
15
spectator put card into deck any where he wishes. Close deck and fan out
having one person remember card in back of index card and another person
remember card in front of index card. Performer now counts cards into
four piles going from left to right. Left pile is number one and right pile
is number four. Performer now picks up piles putting number one pile in
his hand first, then two, three, and four on top of same. Performer now
fans cards and asks that the index card be removed so that he will have no
means of locating the cards. When index card is removed keep card to the
right of index card on lower half of deck or the half in left hand then cut
at this point putting half in left hand on top of half in right hand. Now
square cards up and ask for them to be cut. Performer now counts lower
half out loud thus reversing them. Now the 14th card down in the top half
is one of the selected cards and the 12th card down in the bottom half is
the other chosen card. The numbers twelve and fourteen have been pre­
viously written on two pieces of paper and in the spectator’s possession at
all times.

13—A Prediction Effect

EFFECT: Performer writes a prediction on a slip of paper which is
retained by a spectator. Two volunteers are each given half of a deck of
cards and the first volunteer shuffles his half and selects a card with the
cards in his own hands. Suppose he selects a four spot. He is handed a
sheet of paper on which is printed the names of several celebrities. He
counts to the fourth name which may be Ruth. Spectator opens the slip of
paper and finds the name Ruth written thereon.
Another prediction is written again by the performer and given into the
custody of a spectator as before. Second volunteer shuffles his half of deck
and selects a card as did the first. We will say this card is a ten spot.
Tenth name on the list may be Tunney. Prediction is read and found correct
the second time. Any cards are used, no sleights or exchanges.
SECRET: Four lists are used. The audience is only aware of one.
They may be placed in the pocket arranged in rotation ready for instant
separation or you may put the first list in the right coat pocket, second list
in lower right vest pocket, third list in lower left vest pocket, and the
fourth list in left coat pocket.
Shift all the court cards, nines and tens to the lower half of the deck.
You may separate these cards from the rest by bridging the upper half.
Write the name Ruth on a slip of paper and give to someone to hold.
Give volunteer the top half of deck. Tell him to select a card after shuffling
them. State that the spot cards will equal their face value and a court
card will count ten. Let us say he draws a four spot. You remove the list
of names from your lower right vest pocket because you know Ruth is
fourth on that particular list.
(The highest card the volunteer can draw is an eight. If he selects
two, four, six, or eight, hand him the list with the name Ruth at that position
designated by his card. If he selects a one, three, five or seven, hand him
the list with the name Ruth at a position just one beyond the value of the
card. Tell him to count down the number suggested by his card and note
the next one.)
Glimpse the last name on the list. In this case it will be Ford. Write
Ford on a scrap of paper and give to someone to hold. Second volunteer
chooses a card from the other half of the deck. If he chooses a court card,
which you stated previously would amount to ten, or a ten, he counts to
the tenth name. If he gets a nine, he counts down nine names and notes
the next. In any case, it will be Ford.
Volunteer must not see the faces of the cards in the half of the deck
that he chooses from. At the concluson both halves of the deck are shuffled
together and not a clue remains.
16
 14—My Personal Stack
By W. F. “RUFUS” STEELE
1 have had a great many requests tor my personal stack which I use tor
.several of my tricks including a knockout poker trick. I have always thought
that Si Stebbins’ stack was rather old and known by every school boy so
with this in mind I was prompted to make up a stack lor my own personal
use. My stack has met with approval around the country and upon requests
from many of the leadng card men of the country I offer same for your
approval.
Like Si Stebbins you are obliged to memorize your stack so as to enable
you to do the many wonderful things made possible by such.
The Stack
2C, OD. 4S, 5H, 6S, 9D, QC, 8H, 5D, 7S, JC, 6H, QS, 5C, 9S, 4D, QH, 2S,
3C, 10S, JH, 6D, 8D, 3S, 8S, JD, JS, 7D, 3D, 9H, 8C, IOC, AD, KS, 3H, 4C, KH,
AH, 2D, 7H, 5S, AS, KC, 2H, 10H, 7C, AC, KD, 9C, 4H, 6C, 10D.
MY POKER RUN-UP
Ask your spectators to mention any poker hands they would like to see
but not mention any certain cards like 6 full on tens or something similar as it
is hard enough to get the full house without getting special cards to make same
up with. The arrangement of this stack is so made as to cover all the hands
you will be asked for with the exception of the Royal Straight Flush. I
always get away from this by pretending not to hear the Royal asked for,
and pretend I do hear some one ask for Four Aces so I get away from the
Royal by saying, “the gentleman has already asked for Four Aces but I
can give you a Straght Flush.” This usually relieves you of this situation.
Here is how I start out: “Will somebody give me some number of poker
hands they would like to have me deal?” and I force five (5) hands on them
if they say four (4) hands 1 say you don’t mind if I play with you four
gentlemen and that gives me the five (5) hands. Now if they say six (6)
hands I say, “all right, and now what hands would you like to see?” Then
I get 4 Aces. That is my key hand; after that it is all easy. Now here are the
hands you are set to deal, at give handed poker; 4 Jacks, Queen full on sixes,
pair of eights, 4 full on three’s, straight flush of spades, pair of deuces, heart
flush, straight (almost straight flush) King full on tens and four Aces. This
gives ten different hands.
So you i«*t hands like this: Four of a Kind, a Flush, a Straight. Straight
Flush, Full House, Pair of Deuces, Two of a Kind and Three of a Kind.
Now you are read v to start your deal and you call attention to the fact
that you have ten or eleven hands called for and you will try and deal them
all but first of all not knowing the location of any of the cards you will try
and get their location by dealing a few hands. You then start to deal five
hands of Poker, when you have completed the five hands one person has two
Jacks next a Queen full and next a pair of eights and next five full and
your hand a Straight Flush. In looking at the first hand you say, “A Pair
of Jacks, well if the old saying is true there is always a Jack on top of the
deck.” Then start to deal and deal three cards off the top and two of which
is two more Jacks making four Jacks in all. You now pay no more attention
to this deal outside of showing the cards and picking them up and I usually
pick up the pair of eights first and place an indifferent card on top of them
and then put them on the bottom of your pack. Then put balance of the cards
underneath them so as you can make two pair out of the pair of deuces
that will show up in the next deal. Now pick up cards from the table which you
place on bottom of deck and if you can false shuffle them start dealing the
five hands again and this time you will have a pair of deuces, Heart Flush,
Straight, King Full on Tens and Four Aces. Now if somebody has called
for two pairs just deal three more cards from the deck and then you have
the pair of eights.
Now outside the poker stack you can do all the tricks you can do with
the Si Stebbins’ arrangement.
17
 15—A Coincidence
EFFECT: Spectator is requested to lay some cards on the table in a
rcw. Then to lay one card above the row and one card below the row.
Now spectator places four cards on each card in the row and places the
remaining cards in his hand aside. Performer then leaves the room
and directs the spectator to look at the card either above the row or the
card below the row and remember it. Then to place it on top of any pile in
the row and place two more piles in the row on top of that and set it aside.
Spectator can place any two piles that he desires on this pile that the selected
card is on. Spectator now looks at the other card that was above or below
the original row of cards and does the same with this card as he did with the
last card looked at. Now the two piles that are now on the table are
placed one on the other by the spectator. Performer comes in room
again. Spectator now deals these cards one at a time into two piles. (This
is like dealing two card hands, i. e., the first card on one pile, the second
on the second pile, the third on the first pile, etc. After spectator finishes
he discards one of the two piles he has just made and does the same thing
with the remaining pile. He then discards one of the two piles just made
and again deals out the remaining pile into two piles. He now has four
cards in each pile. Again one of these piles is discarded and the remaining
four cards are again dealt into two piles making two piles of two cards
apiece. Performer now requests spectator to point to one of the remaining
piles and on turning over the cards they prove to be the same two cards
the spectator was requested to remember at the start of the trick.
SECRET: When performer tells spectator to lay some cards down in a
row he must have six cards in the row. If spectator puts down five, per­
former says put down another one to make it even. If spectator puts down
more than six, performer tells him to take off two or one or whatever it
happens to be to leave six, for there will not be room for that many, etc.
Whatever number spectator puts down performer sees that enough are
added to or taken away so that the row will have six cards therein. Now
performer requests one card to be dealt above and one below the row of six
cards. When this is completed performer has 4 cards placed on top of
each of the six cards in the row and the remainder of the deck set aside.
Spectator now looks at either of the two cards not in the row and places
it on top of one of the row piles. Now two more piles are placed on this
and the stack set aside. This leaves three piles left in. the original row of
six and one single card. Spectator now looks at the other single card and
places it on any of the remaining three piles and places the other two piles
on top of it. Now the two piles just formed with the six piles that were in
the row are placed together. (No cutting or shuffling should be done.) Spec­
tator now deals the cards off one at a time into two piles just as he would
deal a hand of cards. Performer remembers which card was dealt first as
this is the pile to be used in the next deal. (Spectator usually deals the
first card to the left, the next to the right, etc. This is not always correct,
however, so always watch and remember which pile the first card was dealt
onto.) The performer now forces the pile that had the first card dealt to it,
or pile No. 1, and the other pile is discarded. This is done by the old
“point to a pile” method, i. e., if he points to the right pile you tell him
to discard the other and if he points to the other pile tell him to use the pile
that is left and discard the one pointed to, etc. Now this pile just forced is
dealt out again just as the first one and again the pile that received the
first card is forced. This is once more repeated and when finished the two
piles have four cards each in them. Repeat once more the above routine
thus leaving you with two piles of two cards each. Here again the pile
that received the first card dealt contains the two selected cards. A good
method of forcing this last pile is to have spectator place a hand on each
pile. Then request him to raise one hand. If he raises the hand over the
selected two cards have him look at the cards, if, however, he raises the
hand over the cards not selected have him discard these and look at the
other two.
18
 This trick is always done with the cards face down. The two selected
“cards” or “looked at” cards are always in the left hand pile if the spectator
deals from left to right or in the right hand pile if the spectator deals
from right to left.

16—The Four-Ace Merry Mix Up

By CARYL FLEMING
EFFECT: Performer requests a spectator to cut a pack of cards into
four approximately even heaps. After this has been done performer asks
the spectator to remember the piles by numbers, i. e., the pile on spectator’s
left will be number 1, the next number 2, the next number 3 and the
last number 4.
Now performer directs spectator to take cards from one pile and put
them on another, etc. This goes on seemingly for an indefinite period until
the spectator thinks the cards could not possibly be in any arranged order, as
he has removed any number of cards he desired and placed them on
other piles. Finally the performer asks the spectator to stop and to turn
over the top card on each pile. As the four top cards are turned over by
the spectator they are found to be the four aces.
SECRET: This can be done with any deck and when properly presented
is a real trick. Performer borrows a deck of cards and runs through it
asking the lender if it is a full deck of 52 cards. This is just a stall for it
makes no difference if there are 52 cards or not. What the performer is doing
is placing the four Aces on top of the deck. When the Aces are on top the
performer says the deck is complete and gives it a few dove tail shuffles.
(Taking care not to disturb the top four Aces.) The deck is now handed
to a spectator with the request to cut it approximately in the center. After
this is done the performer has each of these halves cut approximately in half
thus making four piles. (I have found that this method of dividing the
deck into four piles is more satisfactory than having the spectator take
the full deck and divide it into four piles, as he often times, in the latter
method, makes one pile smaller than the other and in trying to “fix it”
disturbs the Aces.) After this is completed the performer requests that
the pile on spectator’s left be remembered as number 1, the next number 2,
etc. As this has been going on, the performer remembers the pile that was
originally on top of the deck, or, in other words, the pile that has the four
Aces on top.
From here on the results obtained with the trick depend entirely upon
the showmanship of the performer. The usual routine is for the performer
to direct that half of one pile be placed on another pile and half of some
other pile placed on still another pile, etc. (Always keeping track of the
Four Aces.) After this has gone on for some time performer directs that
two cards be taken from the pile that the Aces are on and placed on another
pile. This now leaves two Aces on top of the pile, there were originally
four, and puts two Aces on top of some other pile. The performer con­
tinues the “Mix Up” but remembers at all times where the Aces are located.
To conclude the trick, spectator is directed to place one card from an Ace
pile onto a pile that has no ACE. This leaves two piles with one Ace on
top of each, one pile with two Aces on top and one pile with no Ace. The
“Mix Up” is still continued until finally the performer directs that one card
from the pile with two Aces on be put on the pile with no Aces. This
concludes the trick and the spectator is requested to turn over the four top
cards on the piles and to his surprise, as well as the rest of the spectators,
they are all Aces. In directing this trick the performer always calls the
piles by their numbers and never points to them or touches the cards in any
manner. The trick could even be worked by having the performer leave
the room after the four piles have been made and numbered, and do the
directing from there. Give this trick a try and the results will be found
very surprising.
19
 17—The Piano Trick
By GEORGE PUGH
(Remove coat and roll up sleeves as following is delivered.) “It is now
my pleasure to show you my favorite experiment in Cardology. For a period
of twenty-five years I have been performing this particular experiment, and
have puzzled advanced students of magic everywhere. (Pick up deck.) I
will explain why it my favorite experiment. The reason is simply because
it is just as interesting to me as to the audience. Why? When one begins
the study of expert trickery, on the very first page of the book we find
that the effect about to be attempted must never be divulged in advance—
the reason is obvious, for an experiment in magic is simply two stories told
simultaneously, one to the spectator, and one to the performer. You can
readily understand this to be true, when you realize that both come to a
different conclusion. If the effect were to be told in advance, the audience
would be looking for the METHOD by which it was accomplished, and thus,
not only would the effect be lost, but in the great majority of cases the
secret would be discovered.
“Now, in this effect, I AM GOING TO TELL YOU IN ADVANCE WHAT
I AM GOING TO DO, and afford you every opportunity of discovering the
secret. I have removed my coat and turned back my sleeves so there can
be no possibility of anything being secreted in my sleeves or about my
person. And further, I warn you in advance to WATCH MY HANDS AT
ALL TIMES.
“I propose to steal a card deliberately, right under your watchful eyes,
and transport it to another place. Is that clear? Now, surely you realize
that at some point in the experiment I must divert the attention of every­
one for just the fleeting fraction of a split second. I cannot possibly tell
when the psychological moment will come, but at some time during the ex­
periment the moment will come. Inasmuch as I can never know exactly
when the opportunity will come, I do not claim to accomplish anything with
any particular card, (this line is important in event spectator should look at
ODD card before placing it on heap) but I will take advantage of the op­
portunity when it DOES arrive, and when our problem is completed, you will
find I have done just what I said I would.
“This perhaps explains another reason for my interest in this experi­
ment, for you can see it is a contest between the audience and myself.
“Now,-sir, please place your hands on the table in the position that you
would play a piano—I mean a Grand Piano, not a hurdy-gurdy—(take two
cards at a time from the deck and place between the fingers and the finger
and thumb of one hand and the fingers of the other. Place a single card
under the thumb of the last hand, pattering as follows while placing cards.)
Here is a Pair, a pair, a pair, a pair, a pair, a pair, and a pair (snap the
single card and place it under thumb) AND one odd card. I warn you
WATCH MY HANDS. (Now start with the hand with the four pairs and
pick up each pair in both hands, separate them and place the heaps in
front of the victim and as each pair is separated and placed on the table
the following patter is used.) Here is a pair, a pair, a pair, a pair, a pair,
a pair AND a pair and you, sir, still retain the odd card. (What has really
happened is this; seven pairs having been used there are now SEVEN cards in
each heap.) Certainly everything is open and above board up to this
point? Now, sir, you may place the ODD card upon either of the two heaps
(spectator does so, point to heap upon which he placed card.) You placed it
here, the idea is to have the odd card jump from here to here (point to
other heap.) DID YOU SEE IT GO—LOOK. (Pick up heap on which
he placed card, remove two at a time making TWO Heaps of four each.)
Here is a pair, a pair, a pair, and a pair. (Shove both heaps toward spec­
tator.) You may count them if you like—(Spectator will always start to
pick them up, but quickly pick up other heap.) WATCH MY HANDS, here
we have a pair, a pair, a pair AND (snap the odd card as it is laid down)

20
THE ONE ODD CARD—proving conclusively, my friends, that things that
you know cannot happen DO HAPPEN and though you don’t believe them,
you SEE them.” (Quickly pick up all the cards used and place with balance
of the deck to preclude possibility of any one counting and ascertaining how
many cards were used, and quickly go into another trick.)

18—The Joker's Own Deception

THE EFFECT: A borrowed pack is handed to the spectator with the
request that it be thoroughly shuffled. While the pack is still in the spec­
tator’s hands—spectator is requested to remove and lay face down on the
table any 7 cards. Spectator is now requested further to select any four. From
these four he selects one MENTALLY, (no forcing.) The remaining three
cards are returned to the pack. The spectator’s four cards are placed FACE
UP IN THE PACK in a reversed position so to speak. The performer
states that he will call upon the joker to cause a remarkable thing to
transpire. He will cause the spectator’s mentally selected card to appear
RIGHT SIDE up in the pack and the three other cards to appear upside-
down. The pack is riffled and fanned out and sure enough that is exactly
what has taken place.
INSTRUCTIONS: Follow these instructions with pack in hand so that
you can thoroughly appreciate and understand the beauty of this seem­
ingly impossible effect. Hand the pack to the spectator. Have it well
shuffled. Tell him to remove any seven cards and lay them face down on
the table, then tell him to select any of the four on the table and place
them aside. Now have him select one of the four mentally. You are
turned slightly to the side as you talk and you have the pack in your
hands. You secretly reverse the bottom card of the pack while he is doing
the above. Now turn the pack over and face him and the deck appears
face down. Take one of the three cards (the ones he ignored) and place
it face down on the bottom of the pack, it will appear fair enough to the
spectator. Take another one and shove it in the pack. Take the remaining
one and also shove it in the pack (these cards will appear reversed.) Now
turn the pack over so it will appear face up and take the spectator’s four
cards separately and place them in the pack face down telling the spec­
tator that you are shoving them in upsidedown, so it appears to him.
Now turn the pack over again, state that you will cut the pack at the
joker as he will be instrumental in this effect.
The pack is held in the left hand, apparently face down. The right
thumb riffles the end of the pack nearest you,—until it comes to the two
cards that are back to back,—in other words, until you come to the first
card that will appear with its back up facing you. Cut the pack here,
placing the lower half on top. The pack is still held in the left hand as the
right hand comes over the pack—and turns it over at the same time the
card is turned over—so it will appear face up. This move of turning the
card over is covered by turning the pack over. You now cut the pack
about 20 or less cards from the bottom—placing the bottom half on top.
In cutting be sure you don’t cut at a reversed card. The trick is over now
as far as you are concerned.
Ask the spectator what his mentally selected card was. He tells you.
You then fan out the cards face up, and sure enough his MENTALLY
selected card will be right side up,—while the other three will be re­
versed. Of course, you do not show the faces of the reversed ones,—to
him let it appear that they were the ones he had selected. Furthermore,
he does not look at them in the beginning,—he merely looks at the one
he notes mentally. The effect is a wonder. Just THINK—you do not
know what card he mentally selects—or the others, yet you cause it to
appear right side up,—and the others upsidedown. This is a card feat
that will make the magi THINK. The moves are all easy—just study
them and work them with proper rapidity.
21
 19—The Marvelous Prediction
REQUIREMENTS: A pack of cards of which these ten cards are ar­
ranged as follows: ACE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT,
NINE, TEN OF HEARTS. Arrange the cards from Ace to Ten in sequence,
then place an indifferent card between each, and an indifferent card above
the Ace. These cards are then placed on the remainder of the deck.
Make a small wooden holder with slots cut in it to hold ten slips of
paper. On these papers has been typewritten the names of the cards and in
the same order as the arranged cards. This container is placed in the
performer’s pocket before commencing the trick, the right pocket of the
trousers is most convenient. It is a simple matter to remove the slip to
correspond to the card selected. A spectator is requested to call out a number
between one and twenty. Now if the number called is even the spectator
is requested to count down from the top to that number and look at the
card. By halving the number called the performer knows in what slot of
the container, the slip bearing the name of the card, is located. Say the
number is 12. Then the twelfth card must be the six of hearts, and the
slip bearing the name of the six of hearts is removed from the container.
If the number called is nine, the spectator is requested to count off 9 cards
and look at the next, or tenth card.
An extra folded slip to match the one folded in the container is on the
table; also a yellow slip bearing the statement, YOUR CARD IS ELEVENTH
FROM THE TOP. Any number may be substituted for eleven. A hat is
placed on a chair or table, so the audience cannot see clearly into it.
The presentation will be readily understood. The white and yellow
slips are shown, and performer remarks that something is written upon
them. They are dropped into the hat. That is the yellow one is, but the
white one is retained, and pocketed. The deck is introduced and if possible,
given a false shuffle. A spectator is requested to call out a number between
one and twenty. He mentions 13. He is asked to count off 13 and to look
at the next card. During this and while the card is returned and shuffled
in deck, the performer removes the slip from the container and in act of
moving hat to some other place, it is dropped therein. Now performer takes
deck and runs through it to show that selected card is still there. Performer
locates same and can readily pass it eleventh from top. Spectator then
removes white slip and verifies what has been written thereon. Reads the
yellow slip, counts down 11 and finds his card. The fact that the per­
former does not touch cards or slips at this point greatly fools the spectators
and the trick is a real “MARVELOUS PREDICTION” effect.

20—Can You Do It?

This is just one of the simple problems that we use to get the crowds'
mind centered on a few card tricks.
Pass the 13 cards of a suit to your spectator and ask him if he can
arrange his cards so as he can deal every odd card face up and every even
card going on the bottom of pack so as that the face-up cards as they
are dealt will fall in order from the Ace to the King.
THE SECRET: Arrange cards in the following order: Ace, on top,
then Queen, Two, Eight, Three, Jack, Four, Nine, Five, King, Six, Ten
and seven on bottom.
After you get the arrangement everything is easy—just lay the top card
(the ace) on the table face up and the next card goes on the bottom of deck
face down and that means that every other card goes on the table which is
an odd card and the even card goes on the bottom of deck. When you have
finished, the face-up cards on the table will all be in order from the Ace
to the King.
22
 21—Fortune Telling Trick .
PRESENTATION: “Ladies and Gentlemen, I have here a deck of cards
and several little manila coin envelopes which are open, as you can see,
only on one end. Also a small card. Which one of you is interested in
having me tell your fortune? Very well, this lady is interested. I will try
■and not embarrass you by disclosing anything which you would not like
to have known and to make that sure I will confine my answer to some one
question which is of vital importance to you. I have here a small paste­
board card about the size of an ordinary calling card and I wish you would
step out of the room or over there in the corner and write upon it some
question of vital importance to you and to you alone. Such as, ‘Will I make
this journey?’ or ‘Will this business deal I am in turn out successfully?’ Any
question that pertains directly to you will be satisfactory I can assure you.
(After a moment’s waiting.) Thanks, have you the question you are inter­
ested in written on the card? You have—now so as to see how accurate my
prediction will be please place a number of one or two figures underneath
your question. Be sure no one sees it but yourself. Now turn the writing
face down so as it will be toward the floor and we will place it in this
envelope and seal it up for safe keeping for the time being. So this small
envelope will be in sight at all times and cannot be tampered with, I will
place it over here on the mantel or book case (whichever it might be).
Now all I ask you to do is take this deck of cards in your own hands and
shuffle it. Now while you are shuffling concentrate on your question and
when you think you have the cards well mixed place them on the table face
down in one pile. Thanks, are you concentrating? Now cut the deck into
one small heap of about fifteen cards, or so, and place them directly
in front of you. Keep your left hand upon this first cut of 15 cards.
Now with the rght hand cut about ten cards more off the large pile on the
table and lay these cards aside. Now cut the remaining cards in two even
piles and put the lower half on top of the upper half so you now have
three heaps of cards on the table. One which you have your left hand on
and two other heaps. Please pass me the first heap which you have your
left hand on. Thanks. (Performer now opens and fans them face towards
him) and says, ‘You are asking about a business transaction (or what ever
question is). That is right isn’t it?’ Now give me the second heap (go
through the same routine). Yes, you want to know if you will sell your
stock or not (or whatever the real question might be). I think your judg­
ment very good in this transaction and it will be successful. (Now pick
up the third heap and say)—Yes, the cards seem very favorable tonight as
they tell me you signed your note ‘14.’ Let us see how much of a fortune
teller I am. (With that go and get the envelope on the shelf or book
case and ask for a pair of shears, cut off the end of the envelope and take
out the card and pass same to some spectator and ask him to read same
aloud.) We find the cards have answered the question correctly and also
given the correct number which was written.”
SECRET: A small coin envelope of manila color, can be purchased in
any drug store, that opens on one end only (the long way of the envelope)
and a manila colored card that will just fit the envelope. Now slit the
envelope a quarter of an inch from the open end on the smooth side,
or the top side of the envelope, so when spectator passes you the card,
writing side down, you put it in the envelope but the card goes through the
slit and when you seal the envelope one-quarter of the card is in the
envelope and the rest is out against the palm of your hand. Now the dirty
work. While looking around to decide where you will place the envelope
so all can see it, you steal a look at the writing by holding the card and
envelope between your thumb and forefinger. Then proceed with your
reading the cards as you now know her question. Now when you get the
shears you cut in the same path as your slit and make a pretense of taking
the card out of the envelope, although it is really on the back of your en­
velope, held there by your thumb and finger. One trial will convince you how
simple it is. I use this trick with a hundred different variations and it
always fools them—even the wise ones.
23
 22—The Devil's Tickets
To a superficial mind a deck of cards is simply fifty-three pasteboards
forming a jumbled mass of painted figures and numbers, appearing in a
chaotic succession and disorder. At first glance a fickle hazard seems
to dominate all and so pernicious has been the lure of chance on ignorant
minds that in older days many church people thundered against the “devil’s
tickets.” Perhaps the real reason for branding an innocuous deck of cards
as “devil’s tickets” is to be found in the extraordinary importance and
respect given to cards in medieval magic.
Anyway, a story is told about one of the World War Veterans, who,
upon finding the World War was at an end, wandered away from his
barracks one Sunday morning and in his wanderings passed a small church.
He stopped and looked in and there found the town folk gathered for wor­
ship. The comrade wandered in, walked down an aisle and into a pew,
where he took a seat beside some other worshipers who were at that moment
sitting with their heads bowed in prayer. The comrade having no prayer
book reached in his pocket and took a time-worn deck of cards. He
opened them up fanwise and mumbled to himself. His fellow worshippers,
amazed at the comrade for displaying a deck of the “devil’s tickets” in a
place of worship, nudged him and whispered, “Put them away, you are in
God’s Temple.” The comrade paid not the least attention so carried on with
his cards and mumblings. Soon the fellow worshippers became alarmed and
sent out for a constable and had the poor comrade arrested. He was placed
in jail and the next morning was brought in front of the magistrate charged
with disorderly conduct for displaying a deck of cards in a place of worship.
The Magistrate asked what he had to say for himself, guilty or not guilty.
The comrade standing before the bar of justice replied, “Not guilty, your
honor, and I would like to offer the following defense for my actions with
your permission." Upon receiving the permission and the evidence which
was “the time-worn deck of cards,” he began:
“Your Honor, to me this deck of cards is a Bible and a prayer book.
When I look into this packet and see an Ace it reminds me there is just
one God, and the Deuce that the Bible is divided into two parts. The Old
and the New Testaments; the Trey, that there are three persons in the
Blessed Trinity—the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; the Four, of the
four great Evangelists, who wrote the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John; the Five, of the five Wise Virgins, who kept their lamps trimmed
against the coming of the Lord; the Six that the Lord made heaven and
earth in six days and rested on the seventh; the Seven represents the Sab­
bath, the day of rest and worship; the Eight, of the eight Righteous Persons
saved from the Flood—Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives; the
Nine, of the Nine Lepers who were cleansed but did not return thanks, such
was their ingratitude; the Ten, not only of the Tenth Leper, who did return
thanks, but of the Ten Commandments handed down by Moses on the Tablets
of Stone, each spot representing one Commandment; the Jack, or the Knave
of the Devil and to shun his temptation; the Queen, the Queen of Sheba who
was wise but not as wise as Solomon, for she brought fifty boys and fifty
girls all dressed in boys’ apparel for the King to decide which were boys
and which were girls. The King had them all wash and the boys washed
to their wrists and the girls to their elbows so he told by that; the King,
of the King of Heaven and Earth and All Things, to whom we should all
bow down and worship.”
Then he said, “If you count the spots in this deck of cards you will find
365 spots in a deck of cards and 365 days in a year. The joker standing
for' the leap year. There are fifty-two cards in the deck and fifty-two
weeks in the year. There are thirteen lunar months in a year and thirteen
cards to a suit. The twelve face cards in the deck represent the twelve
months in a year. The deck is divided into four suits, Hearts, Clubs, Spades
and Diamonds and the year is divided into four seasons—Summer, Fall,
Winter and Spring. You also find the deck of cards has two colors, red and
24
black—red, the light color, stands for day, and the black stands for the
night. So you see, Your Honor, this deck not only is my prayer book and
Bible but also is an almanac.”
With that His Honor said, “You are discharged.”

23—Pellet Trick
This trick has been a favorite of the authors for a long time and it has
many possibilities. Give it a trial and then ask Stewart Juda to show
you his improvement of the trick with which he fooled me.
EFFECT: You have every one in the room take a card, that is providing
you don’t have more than a dozen people. (It can be done with 52 people.)
I like to use about ten (10) people to select their cards. Take the deck and
pass same to some spectator and ask that he shuffle the deck and then reach
in center and remove a card (which he will keep). Then pass the deck to the
next person and go through the same routine and so on until you have had
as many cards selected as you desire. Now take the remaining part of pack
and set it aside and pick up a sheet of writing paper. Tear off a small
piece of paper which you give to each spectator that has a card telling
him to write the name of his card on the paper and roll into a small wad.
This routine is carried out with each person holding a card. Pay no atten­
tion to what they are writing or doing. When they have finished writing
and wadding up paper, you pick up a glass tumbler and have each one
place his pellet in same. Now shake them up and set the tumbler down
on a table and pick up the cards from each spectator, which you proceed to
place in an envelope saying, “I will place them in this hat, or better still, I
will lean the envelope up against the hat where you can all see it.”
Now pick up the tumbler of pellets and shake out one into a spectator’s
hand and ask him to open same. He does so and say, for instance,
he reads, “Ten of Hearts.” You now pass him the envelope and have him
or the spectator who selected the card remove the ten of hearts from the
envelope. They find the card has disappeared from the rest and we find
same in the hat or under it on a book or wherever performer sees fit to
place same.
SECRET: Everything connected with this trick is simple and is up and
above board. The first secret lies in the gathering of the pellets. Some
one of these pellets will be either rolled up, some peculiar way, or folded
so as it will be noticeable from any one of the rest. Now just center your
mind on this pellet and remember which person had same so when you go
to collect your cards you will remember that this man’s card must be placed
on the bottom of the gathered cards. (For instance, you had twelve pellets
in your glass and the fifth one was the card the trick hinged on. When
you come to the fifth gentleman just place his card on the bottom of your
packet.) Now when you go to place the cards in the envelope instead of
putting all of them in just leave the bottom one on the back of envelope
which will be unnoticed by spectators. Now if you sire going to lay the
envelope under a hat or a book just start as though you meant just to do
this very thing and then change your mind and say, “no, I will place the
envelope here where you all can see it.” But leave the selected card on the
table under the hat or book or in the hat and the trick is now about over
as far as that card is concerned. (Sometimes I palm this card and place
same in my pocket.)'
Now to get the pellet out of the glass, just look for your irregular shaped
pellet and shake the pellets around in the glass until you get it on top of
the bunch. Then turn the glass on its side and shake out the pellet into
spectator’s hand and the trick is over. You might think this shaking the
pellet out is difficult and if you find it so just have spectator reach in glass
and remove four pellets. (He will surely get the correct one out of four.)
Now have him place them on the table and force the correct one by
elimination.
25
 2A—The Joker Trick
EFFECT: Performer shuffles a pack and shows it well mixed. Spec­
tator cuts and inserts the joker where he likes, removing card above
or below it. By looking at joker performer names the selected card.
SECRET: This will fool the man familiar with other arrangements.
It is simple and fool proof, yet pack may be examined after shuffle without
a trace of arrangement being found. Place all red cards together in pairs
that total fourteen, each pair consisting of a heart and a diamond. Jack, 11;
Queen, 12; and King, 13. It doesn’t matter which suit is above or below, and
is best to have some one way and some the other. Arrange the black cards
in same manner in pairs of a Club and a Spade. Place the red and black
packets together, bridging at the division, and have joker handy. Cut at
bridge and dove-tail shuffle once as evenly as possible. Party cuts deck as
often as he pleases and sees that pack cannot be arranged. Inserting Joker
he removes card above or below it, leaving joker in its place. Taking pack
to remove joker, you merely note the cards near it on either side. Look
for a card which hasn’t a partner near it of the same color but opposite
suit, which totals 14 with it. Subtract its size from 14 and name other
suit of same color, and it is the missing card. Two of hearts indicates that
a Queen of diamonds was taken and nine of Spades alone means a five
of clubs, etc.

25—Card Spelling De Luxe

EFFECT: The performer fans a deck of cards permitting the audience
to see that they are all different. After allowing the pack to be cut several
times, he requests a spectator to cut the deck at any point while the per­
former’s back is turned, remove the top card and after remembering its name
to insert the card in the center of the deck and then place the entire deck
into the outside pocket of his coat. Although all of this is done while
the performer’s back is turned, he nevertheless takes hold of the spectator’s
wrist and requests him to mentally spell out his card using one letter for
each card removed from his pocket and to think of the word, “stop,” when
the last letter of the card mentally spelled out is reached. In spite
of the fact that not a single question is asked, the performer, after removing
a number of cards from the spectator’s pocket, suddenly calls out, “You just
thought of the word, ‘stop,’ did you not? Well, strange to say, I not only
received the mental impulse to stop, but the card I am now holding is the
one you are thinking of. Will you please name it for the benefit of the
audience?” Upon the card being named the performer displays the card
he is holding and it proves to be the one originally selected.
COMMENT: The clean-cut manner in which this effect may be per­
formed from beginning to end will leave a profound effect upon the spec­
tators and at the same time should commend itself to the up-to-date
performer.
SECRET: Although the performer fans the pack and the cards appear
to be all different, the deck is not as innocent as it appears. Instead it
consists of four series of twelve cards each, arranged as follows:
5S, KH, QC, 9H, JS, 8C
3C, 5H, 9S, 4H,JH, 4S
Now regardless of where the spectator cuts the deck, if he should glance
at the top card and replace it in the center of the pack, the twelfth
card from the top will always be a duplicate of the one he looked at.
Furthermore, any card that he may think of will have exactly twelve letters
in it, so that although the spectator spells out his card mentally, count the
cards as he removes them until he reaches the twelfth, at which point he
proceeds as stated in the effect.
26
 26—Knock-Out Spelling Trick
If you don’t mind a little pre-arrangement here is a spelling trick that
fits in wherever you might be, in the club or at home. I have used it
repeatedly and besides being mystifying its fairness has all the spectators
fooled. Use it in your next show.
THE EFFECT: Removing your cards from the case you begin by
giving the ca^ds a riffle shuffle. Then say to a spectator, “Would you give
them a riffle shuffle as I want everyone to be sure they are well mixed.”
After spectator has shuffled the pack you now ask, “What is your favorite
color, red or black?” Now whichever color he says is all right at this time.
Let us say he says “red.” After which you say “all right, we will sort the
pack removing the red cards in two piles. In one pile we will place the
hearts and in the other pile the diamonds.” Now you proceed to do this very
thing and when finished ask him to choose a suit. Say he selects “hearts.”
Then you take the diamonds. Now patter about the fairness of it all so far.
Now ask a spectator to turn over his top card and place same on the table
face up. Say the card he placed on the table was the 3 of hearts, you spell
the 3 of diamonds from your deck by removing the top card of your heap and
place it on the bottom of your heap and continue doing the same until the
“THREE” has been spelled then turn over the next card on top and it will be
the 3 of diamonds which you lay on the table face up as he has done with his.
Now have him turn over his next card which will be the 8 of hearts. This he
lays on top of the 3 of hearts on the table. Now you spell “EIGHT” from
your heap and when it has been spelled turn over the next card which will
be the 8 of diamonds. This is carried out until all the cards of his heap have
been spelled out and laid in a heap in front of him on the table. Now you
ask spectator to again choose either heap and again it makes no difference
which heap he selects. Now have him do as you do and you start spelling the
deck by placing the top card of your heap on the bottom. Then spelling
“ONE” and when you come to the last letter “E” turn over the Ace and
lay it on the table. Then spell the “TWO” and put that on the table. Now
exchange packs with the spectator and let him spell “THREE” and then
carry this on until the entire packet has been spelled out in rotation
starting with Ace and finishing with King.
SECRET: First arrange thirteen hearts in the following manner: 2, K,
10, Q, 7, 3, 4, 9, 5, A, 6, 8, J and place these thirteen cards on top of pack
with the two on the top. Now take 13 diamonds and arrange them in the
following manner, 3, 8, 7, A, Q, 6, 4, 2, J, K, 10, 9, 5 and place these cards
on the bottom of your packet with the 5 of diamonds on bottom and you
are ready for the trick. When you present your cards and remove them from
the case just give them a shuffle but be sure you do not mix the bottom
13 cards (mix cards above them). Now ask a spectator to give them a good
riffle shuffle for you (allowing him to only riffle once). Then take the
cards from him and ask him, “what color he prefers.” They usually say
“red.” This color must be forced but providing he says “black” just pick
up the cards and start sorting them giving him all the black cards as they
come from the pack and you keep the red cards in front of you all in one
heap. Now without paying any attention to the spectator, providing he
has said he wanted black cards, just start sorting your red cards in front
of you putting hearts in one pile and diamonds in the other and according
to the arrangement of your stack the first card you can lay down of your
color is either the 3 of diamonds or the 2 of hearts, which is laid face up in
front of you and in two heaps (hearts and diamonds). Remember when
you are sorting the cards to get the red and black cards separated, turn
the pack face up so you can see them as they come off the pack and do the
same when you sort the diamonds and hearts. Now ask him to mention a
suit, Hearts or Diamonds, and should he say “Hearts,” you pick up the hearts
and give him the diamond pile or if you prefer you can take the diamond
pile and let him do the spelling, otherwise you must do it. I have usually
found in presenting the trick that the spectator gets all mixed up in the

27
act of placing them on the bottom and the trick usually is hurt so I play
safe and do it myself and then at the last of the trick when I am spelling
“ONE, TWO, THREE, etc.,” I let him do the spelling.
There is nothing hard about this trick just as long as you don’t disturb
the bottom 13 cards in your first riffle shuffle. The trick is self-working
and I get a great deal out of it.

27—Sleeve Fooling Trick

PRESENTATION: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have here a deck of cards
with a round hole a little larger than Vz inch through the center. I am going
to ask someone to select a card, in fact, two of you—here, you take one.
(Now just pass it to him or force one on him and walk away and do the
same with the second party.) You have both a selected card which I will
have you place back in the deck. Thank you both very much. Now may I
have the assistance of two other people. Thank you. Here I have a
ribbon about five feet long and I wish you would examine it and see if it
is all in one piece and fairly strong. You have found it so—thank you. Now
would you push one end of the ribbon through this hole in the cards and
you take one end and you the other. Notice that I am covering up the cards
with this silk handkerchief for just a moment. Looks like a wash, line,
doesn’t it? Now will the spectators who removed their cards originally
please mention the names of their cards out loud—Jack of hearts and nine of
spades. Thank you. Let us see if we can find them under this handker­
chief (reaching under the handkerchief you come out with the two selected
cards, one in each hand). Are these your cards? I thought so. Now I
must put the cards back in their place again. But, how would you like them
placed, reversed, or otherwise” (and they always say reversed, although
you can say I will put them back reversed so my committee here can find
them). (Reaching under the handkerchief and fooling about a minute you
give the cards a spin and pull the silk handkerchief off at the same time
and thereupon your committee finds the two selected cards back in the
deck and reversed as stated, all strung on the ribbon.)
SECRET: The secret of this trick is that you have two duplicate cards
up your sleeve, within reach of your fingers at all times. Now when you go
into your audience if you can’t force cards just reach in the center of the
deck and pull out the two duplicates of the cards up your sleeves. This is
very bold but they don’t know what you are going to do so it is all
right. Before you gather up these two cards again you reverse the bottom
card of your deck and turn the deck over which now makes the deck look
all right but your reversed card has covered up fifty cards that are now
face up with only this one reversed card on the top. Holding your cards
rather tight you take spectators’ cards and push them into the pack face
down, which causes them to be reversed in the pack although the spectator
does not think so. Place one about ten cards from the top and the other
ten cards from the bottom. Now while getting your committee you
have plenty of time to reverse back the top reversed card to its normal
position. While your committee is looking over the ribbon you hold your
deck together and while you are placing the ribbon through the deck see
that the committee doesn’t get a chance to see the two reversed cards. I
usually hold them after they are on the ribbon and with other hand remove
my silk handkerchief and spread over the cards. Then you are safe. The
trick has been completed. The rest depends upon your showmanship. Reach
under the handkerchief, spread cards a bit so spectators can see handkerchief
move, and with two fingers of each hand remove one card from each sleeve
and show same. Now to put them back just replace them in your sleeves
and spin the deck and pull the handkerchief off. The spectators now see
their two cards, with the rest of the deck, strung on the ribbon but
reversed.
This is very mystifying and always gets a big hand.
28
 28—Kater's Improved Spelling Trick
This is one from the mind of my good friend Jimmy (Kater) Thompson
and when Jimmy presents a trick there is none better, so here it is for
your approval.
. Remove from the pack the Ten of Clubs, Six of Hearts, King of Spades,
Eight of Hearts, Nine of Diamonds and the Three of Diamonds.
Place the Three of Diamonds face down on the top of the deck, the 9D,
on top of that, followed by the 8H, KS, 6H, and the IOC. Nine indifferent
cards are now placed on top of these cards.
Spread out the cards to show that they are all different and unprepared.
If you are able to give the cards a false shuffle or a false cut do so, but do
not disturb the pre-arranged portion of the deck. You now spread or fan
the cards taking care to expose to the view of your audience only the six
cards that have been pre-arranged, the other cards not having been spread
out, of course, cannot be distinguished. The spectator is now requested
to think of, and remember, “any card that he happens to look at.” The deck
is now closed and if you wish give it another false cut or shuffle and hand
it to the spectator.
You now ask him to name the chosen card and to spell out the card
and while doing so remove one card from the top of the deck as you
call each letter as T-E-N or C-L-U-B-S, etc. The card reached on the last
letter will be the one that has been selected.
If desired the following cards can be used instead of the ones named
above: 2C, 10S, JH, 8S, 5D, QD.

29—Sympathy Connection
A couple of decks of cards are used in this trick and the effect is very
pretty and causes quite a bit of surprise when it is presented in a crowd.
EFFECT: Deck of cards shuffled and cut in two heaps, the spectator
taking the lower heap which he counts and is then asked concerning his
memory of cards and you proceed to test same by asking him to turn over
two cards off the top of his heap. Then he is asked if he thinks he can
remember two cards like that. Now present second deck and ask spectator
to cut that in two equal heaps; and then lay them side by side on the table.
Now we return to the two cards we have face up on the table and ask
that they be forgotten as we will now use two different cards, then have
spectator turn two more cards face up and place them one on each part
of the pack he cut first. Ask him what they are and then ask him if he
could remember same if he saw same again and he will, of course, say “yes.”
Let us say he said the two cards are the 7 of Hearts and the 10 of Spades.
Now say, “all right, bury the seven of hearts in that packet and the ten
of spades in this other packet,” which he does. Now ask him what he has
done and make him tell you what cards he buried in the two packets and
when he does tell you, begin your patter about “Sympathy Connection” by
asking him how he would like to have his two cards appear in this second
deck he cut—face up or face down—(they usually say face up) and when
he says “Face Up” you lay your hands on the last deck which now lies
in front of you in two heaps and ask spectator to place his hands on yours
(if he places them palms down, just say, “palms up, please”). Now with
his hands on yours face up you have him say, “I want 7 of hearts and
10 of spades face up in these heaps.” You then remove your hands and
spread the heaps out and there face up among the cards is the 7 of hearts
and 10 of spades as called for.
SECRET: Before you start with the trick get hold of second deck and
reverse two cards say 7 of hearts and 10 of spades, placing one about five
or six from the top and the second one about ten cards from the bottom.
Now get the deck from which you will force the 7 of hearts and 10 of spades
29
and place these two cards on the bottom of deck with two other cards on top
of them; in other words, the 7 of hearts is now forty-nine cards deep in the
deck and the 10 of spades is fifty cards deep with two more cards in the
51st and 52nd position or on the bottom. Now have the deck cut and the
bottom half counted so as to reverse the position of the 7 of hearts and
10 of spades which are now 3rd and 4th from the top. The first two cards
he turns have nothing to do with trick as they just act as a misdirection
while you get out the second deck and have it cut in two equal heaps which
will place two duplicate cards of 7 of hearts in one-half of deck and the
10 of spades in the other half (faces up). Now you are ready for “Sympathy
Connection.” Have spectator bury the first two cards in their heaps of the
first deck used and turn over the two cards wanted for the trick, 7 of hearts
and 10 of spades, and have one placed on one heap and the other placed
on the other heap of the first deck used and bury same in these packets—
don’t touch other deck until ready to present trick then do as explained
above.
Note: Should spectator ask for the two (2) cards selected face down
just turn the deck over with the faces towards you and that will make them
appear face down.

30—Dual Attraction
EFFECT: Deck of cards is placed on table and the performer requests
spectator to run off as many cards as he so desires on the table in a row
and when he has done so to place a certain number of cards on each one
of the cards he has on the table, then when he has done so to look at the last
card he placed down and pick up the cards by the piles, the last pile first
and so on. Then when the deck is again together to cut the cards. Now the
performer spreads the cards on the table and tells the name of the card last
looked at by spectator.
SECRET: The performer must know the first two cards on top of the
deck because they are the key cards to the trick. By knowing the top two
cards he now knows the number of cards in each one of the piles (by count­
ing the number of cards between the Key Cards including one Key Card).
Now when he finds the number of cards between his Key Cards all he has
to do is count back twice that many from the first Key Card (card on top
of deck originally) and that will be the card spectator looked at. Don’t be
frightened at this simple trick as it will fool the wise ones and get results.

31—How Many Cards Did I Take?

EFFECT: Performer fans a deck of cards behind his back and requests
a spectator to remove a small number of them. After this the spectator is
told to count them and then place them on top of the deck. Performer now
brings the cards to the front, and without looking at the face of any of the
cards, turns over a card that has the .same number on it as the number of
cards the spectator removed.
SECRET: Performer arranges ten cards of various suits as follows: 10,
9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. These are placed on top of the deck with the ten
uppermost. As the performer now fans the deck behind his back, he does
not fan the top ten cards but opens the deck near the bottom and requests
that a few cards be removed. (Do not let spectator take more than ten cards,
which you can direct by saying, “Will someone please take a small number
of cards from the deck?”) When the cards have been removed have them
counted and then replaced on top of deck. Now bring the deck to the front
and starting at the top, count off ten cards face down onto a table. Now
turn the eleventh card face up and the denomination thereon will be the
same as the number of cards removed by the spectator.
30
 32—Cecil's Mind Reading
My good friend, Harry Cecil, showed me this little effect while I was
visiting with him in Detroit. For my readers who are not acquainted with
Harry Cecil I will say you have missed something, for Harry is just chuck-
full of good little ideas such as this. The city of Detroit keeps him busy
playing dates at nights and in the day time he is serving the public with
wonderful Cecil Chocolates.
THE EFFECT: Take anybody’s pack of cards and have spectator shuffle
and deal them face down into five (5) heaps. Now we have two cards
left over, which are laid aside face down.
Performer picks up one of the extra cards and states he will use this
as his wand, touching each card on top of each one of the five heaps. Then
he asks spectators to come forward and look at the top card of each
heap and remember same, which spectators do while he is standing some dis­
tance away.
Then heaps are assembled by some spectator in any order spectator
sees fit along with the extra card on the table. The cards are cut several
times and if you can false shuffle this will help the effect quite a bit.
The performer now spreads the cards face up on the table. He picks
up his wand and runs it over the face of the cards stopping every now
and then pretending to get an impression. He now goes over the face up
cards again and pushes out the five selected cards.
SECRET: As you have already noticed the cards are ten cards apart
(5 heaps of 10 plus the 2 extra). Now the spectator noticed the top card
of each heap (10 cards apart) so you must locate one of the top cards
spectator looked at to do the trick. Harry’s secret was a very clever move
when he had the two (2) extra cards on the table. He chose one for a
wand and this was his misdirection (let us suppose the card was Jack of
Clubs), he now touches each pile with the Jack of Clubs (this Jack of Clubs
is only known by performer who glimpses same.) Now spectators gather
around to look at their card and performer picks up other card on table
which lies along side of the first card performer held.
This is where Harry did the dirty work. The extra card now lying on
the table is known to the performer (being the Jack of Clubs) so when
spectator starts to gather up cards he tells him to put that card in the
deck, also, which he does and it comes right on top of one of the chosen cards.
Now when the pack has been cut several times and the deck has been
spread face up on the table all you do is look for your Jack of Clubs and
the card under it is one of the chosen cards. Then count ten cards more
and you have another one of the chosen cards and so on until you have
produced all the cards. Should you desire to add still more mystery you
can spell all the cards out for the spectators if you just get the first
spectator’s card.

33—Watch Locator
PRESENTATION: “Would you kindly select a card from the deck?
Any card, just one card will do. Now while my back is turned show it to
the other spectators. Have you done that? Thank you. Now place the
card anywhere in the deck and you take the deck for safekeeping so that
I can do no trickery with your card. Now, I am going to let you locate
your selected card in a very normal way. Do you carry a watch and if so
what kind? Does it run and keep fairly accurate time? That is fine. I
wish you would take the watch out and add the hour to the total of minutes
your watch now shows. You say the total is 22? You mean thirteen minutes
after nine o’clock? Well, just count down in that deck of cards and remove
the 22nd card. And what was the card you selected first? Jack of Hearts?
31
What is the card you are now holding, the Jack of Hearts? Well, your
watch is accurate. Thank you very much.
SECRET: Early in the evening ask some spectator the time and see
that his watch corresponds exactly with yours to the minute, or else notice
the difference in minutes between his watch and yours. Then wait until
some time later when he probably has forgotten your asking him the time
and spring this trick, allowing about a minute and a half or two to present
the trick. While he is showing his card to the other spectators you just
count the total of minutes on your watch and allow another minute for the
trick and count the number of cards down less his card that you want his
card to be. Now cut the deck at this location and say, “put your card in
the center any place” and he puts it at the location his watch will now
total by counting the hour and the minutes. For instance, if the time you
are going to present the trick is 9:20 just count down 28 cards, and if it is
8:17 just count down 24 cards &s his card will then make the 25th.
This trick worked at the proper time is a sure knockout and fools the
wise ones, as well as the rest. It is all because you are using a new method
of producing.

34—"Follow Me" Card Trick

PREPARATION: The bottom card of a blue back pack, a picture card,
is prepared by placing two small pieces of Magician’s wax on two different
parts of the card where the pattern of the card will not cause the wax to be
seen easily. Now take any card from a red backed pack and place it
directly above the “waxed” card. The duplicate of this red backed card from
the blue back pack is placed the seventh card from the top in the blue
pack. The blue pack is now ready for the trick. The waxed card, say the
king of hearts, is on the bottom of the pack face down, a red back card, say
the nine of hearts, is directly above the waxed card and a blue backed nine
of hearts is the seventh from the top of the pack. The red backed pack
requires no preparation.
PRESENTATION: Give a spectator the red backed pack, ask him to
examine and convince himself that it is a regular pack of cards, at the same
time picking up the blue backed pack yourself showing same, saying, “This
is also a regular pack of cards.” Ask the spectator to select any card in his
pack (his free choice) and place it face down on the table. Be sure he
does not look at this card. You then say that you will do likewise and also
select a card from the blue backed pack at random. (Take out the seventh
card from the top and place same on the table face down.) Then have the
spectator place his card on the top of your pack, you also place your card
on the top of his pack, then have him cut his pack and you also will cut your
pack. This places the card (red back) directly below the card with the wax.
Square up the pack perfectly and press down so that the waxed card will
adhere to the red backed card. You now hand him the pack (blue back)
and take the pack he holds (red back) in your hands. Ask the spectator to
look through the pack he now holds for the selected card and place it face
down on the table. You also look through the pack for his card and place
it face down on the table. Have him look through both packs to see that
there are no other red cards in the blue pack or blue cards In the red pack.
Then turn over the two selected cards on the table and state that you have
selected the same card that he selected.

32
 35—The Vernon Five-Card Mental Force
Borrow or use your own pack. Remove the following five cards and
place them successively from left to right in an even row on the table—
King of Hearts, Seven of Clubs, Ace of Diamonds, Four of Hearts and Nine
Of Diamonds.
. Let us preface this description by stating that this is an experiment
in pure psychological reasoning and it has been proven by countless tests
to be almost infallible when properly presented.
In the first place it is based on the principal that, if any intelligent
person properly “guided” by the performer is asked to mentally choose one
of the five above cards he will, by a process of reasoning, eliminate every
card from his mind, with the exception of the Four of Hearts. This at
first glance sounds absurd but a few trials will convince you of the feasibility.
To best explain this principle, we will briefly set forth the remarks
generally used by Mr. Vernon in presenting this effect:
“Here are five cards in a row and I want you to mentally select
just one of them. Now let me emphasize in the first place that you
have an unrestricted choice so don’t imagine I am trying to influence
your choice in any way. For example, here’s the ace, a con­
spicuous card, that occupies the central position. For that reason
you may think of it, but again you may not. Perhaps you may
think I have some motive in placing just one black card among
the five—this might influence your choice, or on the other hand
it might not. There’s no way I could tell for I am not a mind-
reader. At any rate, look the five cards over carefully, as long as
you wish, but rest assured whatever card you definitely decide upon
in your mind, I shall presently place face down upon your own
hand. When you yourself are holding this card, and not until
then, I shall ask you to name your thought—it will be the card.
Even after this card is on your hand you are still privileged to
change your mind, but it will be your card.”
So saying, Mr. Vernon picks up the five cards, shuffles them face down,
draws out the four of hearts, exercising great precaution not to expose the
faces of any of the cards. The four of hearts is placed face down in spec­
tator’s hand. He is then asked to name the card which is inevitably the
four spot, and turns same over.
Why should spectator choose this particular card? Logical reasoning,
suggested or induced by performer’s remarks “leads” him to it. In other
words he is deliberately led into a process of mental selection and rejection.
For example, the average intelligent mind in looking over the five cards
reasons along these lines: The ace and king he immediately rejects as being
too conspicuous. The seven, being the only black card shares the same fate.
The seven also being an overworked number in magic tends to further
confirm this decision. The nine of diamonds, for some unaccountable psy­
chological reason, is never selected. (The late Dr. Elliott made wonderful
use of the nine of diamonds for this reason.) The only card left is the four
of hearts. It is not only pleasing to the mind’s eye but its position in the
row tends to “intrigue.” Thus it is chosen.
The one thing to remember in performing this effect, is to make sure
that the spectator does reason along these lines which he inevitably will
by following the above suggested remarks. This means that he must be
given plenty of time to make his choice. Haste is fatal. An antagonistic
or skeptical person is a perfect subject for this experiment.
A suggestion: Until performer is thoroughly familiar with the psycho­
logical aspects of the test, he may guard against spectator’s second choice,
king of hearts, by placing same slightly forward in the row. This will ef­
fectually steer him away from this card.
Give this effect a fair trial and you’ll discover it to be worth many
times the total cost of the entire collection.
33
 36—Figures Can't Lie
EFFECT: Performer hands spectator pencil and paper and asks him
to put down any four numbers in a row as 2, 4, 6, 8,
Then have him add these numbers and place the total underneath as:
2468
20
He next subtracts this number from the four original numbers as:
2468
20

2448
After this has been done, have him take out four cards from the pack
corresponding with the number of his answer, but he must take four different
suits. Let us say he takes the 2 of Clubs, 4 of Hearts, 4 of Spades, 8 of
Diamonds.
If there is a cipher in his answer, tell him to use a Queen.
After he has taken the four cards out of the pack as instructed above,
tell him to place one of them in his pocket. Now the performer can tell
instantly what card is in his pocket.
SECRET: Whatever the answer of the example may be, the performer
merely has to glance at the other three cards on the table and by noting what
suit is missing, he can tell the card in the pocket. It is the old (9) system.
Suppose a four spot is taken away, the performer adds the other num­
bers together which will be 14, and as the key is 9.18.27, etc., the next nearest
key number to 14 is 18 so you will know that a four has been taken, and the
missing suit tells the rest.

37—Place the Pack in Back of You

This effect is not original with the writer but was shown to me during
my visit in Chicago recently. The trick is simple, clean and a fooler.
EFFECT: When you are where there is a deck of cards being used
just ask to borrow same and start in by having the deck shuffled and then
cut in two heaps and the spectator retains one and you the other. Ask
spectator to shuffle his half and then remove a card from the center of his
packet, look at same and then place the card on top of his packet. Then
you place your packet on top of his and tell him you are going to have
him find his selected card in a most peculiar way. Now have the spectator
place the entire deck behind his back. Ask him to take the top card and
place it somewhere in the center of the deck (which he does). Now tell
him to take the next card and turn it face up and place that in the center
of the deck, or as near the center as he can, and then hand the deck to you.
When you receive the deck in your hands you ask him, “What was the
name of the card you originally looked at?” Say, for instance, he replies
with “the nine of spades.” You now say, “Let me see what kind of a
performer you are. You remember I told you to turn a card over and
place in center of deck,” which he answers, “yes.” Now performer spreads
the cards and looks for a face-up card which he finds and right below it is
the spectator’s nine of spades.
SECRET: When the deck is first cut and the spectator selects his packet
(this is a free selection), you pick up the remaining packet and while
spectator is shuffling his cards you slip the top card from your packet to the
bottom of your packet reversing same while doing so (this leaves a reversed
card on the bottom of your packet).
Now ask spectator to remove a card from his packet and show same
to other spectators. While this is being done you have plenty of time to
turn over the second card from the top on your packet. Now your packet
34
consists of the second card from the top reversed and also the bottom one
reversed. You now place your half on top of his and ask spectator to place
same in back of him. Now so as you can cover up your secret you have
him place the top card in the deck and that leaves a face up card on top
of the deck now behind him. Now you ask the spectator to turn the next
over (which he thinks will be face up) and place in center of deck. When
he has done this the trick has been completed, as the card you reversed
and placed on bottom of your heap is the card the spectator thinks he
placed face up in deck.
NOTE: This trick can also be arranged with having two cards selected
and remembered and then when they are placed back in the deck a pass
is made which places one of the cards on the top and one on the bottom
of deck. Your next move is to remove a card from the center of deck and
put face up on top of deck. Now say to spectator I am going to have you
place the deck behind your back and place this reversed card anywhere in
the deck and see what takes place. Now as you put the cards in the hands
of the spectator behind his back you make a one-handed pass unbeknown
to spectator and tell the spectator to place what he thinks is his face
up card in the center of the deck. Of course, the trick was done when the
one-handed cut was made as that placed the face up card somewhere between
the two selected cards which the spectator noted when he removed them
from the deck.

38—Son John Story

Here is a story that I usually get considerable fun out of. It is under
the same idea as the traveling men in the rooms in the hotel and the four
chamber maids along with four policemen. Then you just cut the deck
and they all come out together. I present my trick in this way:
First, I stack the deck, placing on top the King of Clubs (father), Jack of
Clubs (son), and Nine of Spades (900 acres of land), then the King of
Hearts and the King of Diamonds (who are the two hoboes), Jack of Spades,
Jack of Hearts, Jack of Diamonds (the three hired men), Queen of Hearts,
Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Spades and Queen of Clubs (the four cooks),
Ten of Hearts, Ten of Spades, Ten of Diamonds and the Ten of Clubs
(representing 40 dollars), Ace of Diamonds, Ace of Hearts, Ace of Spades
and Ace of Clubs (representing four cases of beer), and the King of Spades
(representing the blackest cook).
On top of this stack I put about 15 cards, remembering the one card
that is just ahead of my stack (say that card is the six of hearts). It is
then the next card above the King of Clubs. Now I can always remember
where my stack starts as it always follows the six of hearts.
PATTER: “A long time ago in the days of the covered wagon or in
Horace Greeley’s time (you are now turning cards from the top of the deck
waiting for the 6 of Hearts), an old man, well, this King of Clubs will do
for the old man (laying this card aside), who had a son, John (turning Jack
of Clubs and laying aside), found 900 acres of dark, rich soil (turning up
Nine of Spades and laying that beside father and son on table).
“Father said to John, ‘Here is where I think we should homestead but
we must have some help with which to work this farm.’ With that the old
man heard a noise out front and went out to see what it was. He found two
gentlemen of leisure out there (turning up the King of Diamonds and the
King of Hearts and laying these two cards on the pile of 15 cards which are
face up on table with the 6 of Hearts on top).
“The old man, after passing the time of day, asked them what they
wanted and they said ‘Nothing.’ So the old man gave them nothing and they
went on their way (now take the pile of 15 cards plus the two Kings and,
place this pile on the bottom of the deck which will now leave the two Kings
on the bottom of the deck).
“Father now returned to John and said, ‘John, you must go to the city
35
and see if you can get some help.’ John said, ‘All right, Dad,’ and Dad
said ‘Goodbye John.’ (Now place John (Jack of Clubs) on top of deck
and cut the cards about fifteen from the bottom. Now as you will notice the
two Kings are on top of the Jack of Clubs.)
“While the old man was looking the place over he heard a noise at his
pump and going out to see what it was (you are now turning the cards over
one at a time while this patter is going on and have come to the key card,
6 of Hearts, again) he found the two hoboes drinking. (Turning over the
two Kings and placing same on the 6 of Hearts, face up.) The old man
said, ‘What do you want now,’ and they said, ‘Just a drink of this water.’
The old man said, ‘Take it and go, I have no time to fool with you.’ (The
two Kings are on top of the pile with the 6 of Hearts on, and this is again
put on the bottom of the deck.)
“A short while after, the old man heard footsteps and voices, so went
out to see who it was. It turned out to be John (turning over John and
placing beside Dad on the table).
“Father said, ‘Hello, John,’ and John said, ‘Hello, Father.’ Now Dad
said, ‘I see you got the help.’ John said, ‘Yes, I got three boys, two whites
and one black boy.’ (Turn over the three Jacks that are now on top.) ‘Well,
that is fine, can any of you cook?’ And to his surprise none of them could
cook, so Dad said, ‘Well, John, we must have a cook, so go back to town and
see about getting one.’ John said, ‘All right, Dad,’ and ‘Goodbye, Dad,’ and
Dad said, ‘Goodbye, John.’ (Again placing John on top of deck and cutting
the cards about fifteen from the bottom, and start dealing while you are
pattering.)
“Dad asked the boys their names and when they told him, ‘Tom, Dick
and Harry,’ the old man laid out their work. He then heard somebody
again in the front yard at the pump. It was the hoboes (turning them face
up and placing them again on the 6 of Hearts).
“Dad said, ‘What do you want now?’ and they said they started on the
wrong road and had to come back this way and start over again. So Dad
was pretty mad at them, but just cussed them a bit and told them to be on
their way. (Put Kings on 6 of Hearts and put all on the bottom of the
deck again.) Later on Dad heard a noise out front and this time it was
John (turning up Jack of Clubs).
“John said, ‘Hello, Dad,’ and Dad said, ‘Hello, John, did you bring us
some good cooks?’ John said, ‘Yes, Dad, I brought four cooks, two white
girls and two black girls.’ (Turning up from top of deck, Queen of Hearts,
Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Spades and Queen of Clubs.) ‘Well,’ Dad
said, ‘that is fine, at least we can eat.’ After the old man had laid out
the plans for them he and John thought they would take a rest so they
laid down (turning them face down on table).
“While the father and John were sleeping the girls decided they did not
like the place so the two white girls went north (placing them on the bottom
of the deck next to the two Kings) and the two black girls went south
(placing them on top of the deck and now cutting the deck fifteen cards,
or so, from the bottom). All of a sudden the old man heard voices outside
and looked out of the window. There he saw the two hoboes on the lawn
with his cooks (turning up the Kings and placing them on the Six of Hearts
and the four Queens, which you place beside the three boys with John and
Dad on the table).
“ ‘Well, what seems to be the trouble,’ said Dad. The hoboes said, ‘These
girls are city girls and they expect their wages in advance.’ So Dad woke
up John and sent him into the city to get their wages for he didn’t have
enough cash on hand to pay them. (Place “John” on top of deck and
false cut.)
“John was gone some time and later in the day Dad missed his two
white girls and in scouting around found them in back of the barn with the

36
hoboes eating some pie. This made Dad pretty sore so he went in and
brought out a shot gun and drove the hoboes down the road. (Place pile,
that has Kings on, again on bottom.) Later on Dad heard footsteps and it
was John. John said, ‘Hello, Dad,’ and Dad said, ‘Hello, John, did you get
the money?’ John said, ‘Yes, Dad, here is 10 dollars, 10 dollars, 10 dollars
and 10 dollars, forty dollars in all.’ (Turn up John and the four tens.)
‘Well, that is sure fine, son. I think maybe we better open this ranch in
good style as today is Friday, tomorrow Saturday and the next day Sunday,
we will have a weekend celebration. I will go into the city this time and
get some refreshments.’
“With that, Dad started for the city, saying, ‘Good bye, John,’ and John
said, ‘Good bye, Dad’ (again placing Dad (King of Clubs) on top of deck, and
having the fifteen cards with 2 Kings on the bottom of the deck, cut the
deck and patter some more, turning over cards waiting for your Six of
Hearts).
“Of course, John had never met the hoboes so when they saw Dad
had left the ranch they came back (now turning them up), and when John
saw them he asked them to stay for the big doings, which they did (now
place the entire 15 cards and 2 Kings over with the rest of the help spread
out on the table). Later on John heard footsteps. It was Dad (turning over
King of Clubs or top card) and he said, ‘Hello, John,’ John said, ‘Hello, Dad,
did you get the refreshments?’
“Dad said, ‘You bet I did, here is a case of Schlitz, a case of Acme, a
case of Rainier and a case of Olympia.’ (Turning up the four Aces.) ‘But,’
said John, ‘you forgot a waiter for this affair,’ and Dad said, ‘No, I didn’t
(turn over the King of Spades), I brought the blackest waiter I could find.’ ”
If you can false shuffle it will help this story but you are not obliged to.
Just cut the cards above your key card and you are all right. If you want
to have the deck cut several times I would advise you to ink the Key Card
on the sides or scratch it so you can recognize its location.

39—The Three Heaps

EFFECT: This is an excellent self-working trick. Take a pack of cards
and remove the joker and let a person deal three heaps of as many
cards as he wishes. While he is dealing you can let him deal irregularly:
two on one heap, three on another, any way he wishes, as many cards as
he wants.
When he has finished he must look at the top card of each heap; or three
different people may each look at a card. Then the heaps are placed in one
pile and cut.
When you spread the cards face up you can immediately discover the
chosen cards.
SECRET: This depends upon an old principle in a new guise. In re­
moving the joker, memorize the three top cards of the pack. When the
heaps are dealt those cards will be the bottom cards of each heap. Each
top card that is looked at will be located by one of the key cards when the
heaps are gathered and cut. Simply look for the cards you know and pick
out the card just under the face of each one. I usually remember which is
the bottom card of first heap (top card originally) and when I have the
cards cut I just look for that card and cut the deck so as that card will now
be on the bottom. Now palm off the top card of pack and when you fail
to find the third card spectator selected in the pack present same from
your pocket.
This is the old gag of knowing the card above the chosen one, but it will
fool the wisest spectator. The dealing is good misdirection, and somehow
people can’t just dope this one out, magicians included.
37
 40—Jordan's Spelling Card Mystery
(Improved by George Pearce)
EFFECT: Spectator first deals cards into two packs upon the table. He
is then requested to take one pack and remove one card, note what card it is
and then place it upon the other half of pack on the table. The cards in
spectator’s hand are then placed on top of the selected card.
Performer now takes pack and after shuffling the cards commences to
spell out the cards in this manner Y O U- - T O O K- - T H E- - etc., con­
tinuing in this manner until he spells out the name of the selected card.
He then turns up the next card and it will be the selected card.
METHOD: The improvement in this trick is the manner in which the
name of the selected card is obtained by the use of the short card.
When the spectator is handed the pack to deal into two packs the short
card is on the bottom. After the deal, the short card will be on top of one
of the half packs. When the spectator takes one of the half packs see that
he gets the half that does NOT contain the short card. When he selects a
card from his pack and puts it on top of the half on the table this auto­
matically places it on top of the short card. The rest of the cards are put
on top of the selected card. The selected card will now be the 26th card
in the pack because when the cards were dealt into two packs at the be­
ginning it automatically divided the pack into two packs of 26 cards each.
For this reason you must always use a complete pack of 52 cards when
performing this trick.
Now, to find out the name of the selected card you riffle the cards and
you will find that the cards have a tendency to stop when the short card is
reached and it exposes the selected card just a fraction of a second longer
than the rest of the cards. Of course, you do not do this openly, but while
talking to the audience and apparently playing with the cards you will be
able to accomplish this sleight without the audience being any the wiser.
A false shuffle will add to the general effect if you are able to make one.
Now that you know the name of the selected card you are ready to
start spelling. But before you can do this you will have to memorize the
following table:
You picked out the. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
You selected the. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
You took out the. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
You picked the. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
You chose the. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
You drew the. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
of Clubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 letters
of Hearts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 letters
of Spades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 letters
of Diamonds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 letters
Say the card selected is the Ace of Clubs. You say to yourself—of clubs
7 (letters) and ace (3 letters) 7 and 3 equals 10.
Referring to the first table you find that 10 is- - . You picked out
the- - . Therefore you spell out- - . You picked out the ace of clubs,
putting one card down for each letter. The card next to last one spelled
will be the selected card.
If the card was 5 of Diamonds it would be- - of Diamonds 10 (letters)
and five (5 letters) equal 15. You would then spell out: You drew the five
of diamonds.
At first all this may seem very complicated, but after you understand
the reason for figuring and have the two tables memorized, with a little
practice it is very easy.
The figuring of the number of letters in the different cards is very
easy when you note this—ace, two, six, ten contain 3 letters—four, five, nine,
Jack, King contain 4 letters; seven, eight, Queen contain 5 letters.
38
 41—Thought Foretold
EFFECT: Performer takes up pack of cards while same is in cardboard
case and asks some spectator to just think of any card in the deck. After
the spectator has done so the performer says, “Well, maybe it would be just
as well that you write the name of the card on this piece of paper.” (Hand­
ing him small piece of paper and lead pencil.) “Then fold the paper up so
I cannot see it and place it here on the table.” (So the spectator will have
something solid to write on the performer passes him the package of playing
cards.) When the spectator has folded up his paper performer takes back
package of cards and opening up same fans the cards, faces toward the
performer, and while so doing looks at the spectator carefully and then
removes a card from the deck and places same face down under the folded
paper on which the spectator wrote the name of the (thought of card). Now
turning to the spectator, performer says, “What was the name of the card
you thought of?” Spectator says, “Nine of hearts.” Now the performer turns
to some other spectator in the room and says, “See if this is the name of the
card the lady or gentleman wrote on the paper.” Spectator replies, “Yes,
sir, that is the name on the paper.” Performer now says, “Turn over the
card I laid on the table and see what card it is.” The spectator does so and
replies, “Nine of hearts.” There the trick ends.
SECRET: Of course, to be able to tell just what card a man thinks of
is bordering on the impossible so we must get the name of the card very
early. This is why we have him write the name of his card on a piece of
paper and fold it up. The spectator must have something to lay the paper
on so we pass him the package of playing cards and right here is where we
obtain the secret. The box is prepared with a piece of carbon paper and on
the face of the front card of the deck is pasted a piece of white paper. Now
when you fan the deck be sure and fan it towards you, thus concealing the
paper on the face of the first card. Then look for the card in the deck that is
written on the piece of paper and place same on table under his piece of
paper. This trick handled right will open your little act with a great deal
of mystery.
PREPARATION: On the back of the case of cards is a reprint of the
design on the deck of cards. The writer cuts out that design on the package
of cards and then soaks a playing card so it will be possible to split it. Split
it and then paste the split design of the card back on the case where you cut
out the design. (When cutting out the design on the case be sure and
leave enough room to paste on the split card. In other words, the hole you
cut out must be slightly smaller than the split card so as to give you some
surface to paste to.) Now paste a piece of carbon paper on the under side
of the split card which will be on the inside of the case. Next paste a piece
of white paper over the entire face of one of the extra cards that are always
in a deck and you are set for a beautiful effect. This makes the box appear
natural yet the side with the card design on it is very thin due to splitting
the card.

42—Setting the Spectator's Number

EFFECT: The spectator shuffles pack of cards and hands it to the
performer. The spectator names any number between one and ten. This
being done, the performer deals that number of cards in a row on the
table. Now the performer takes a card off of the bottom of the pack and
places it upon the first card dealt in the row. This is done with the remain­
ing cards in the row. The performer turns his back to the table and requests
the spectator to look at the last card he dealt. The performer turns around
and has the spectator cut the pack which has been in the performer’s hands.
The spectator is requested to pick up the pairs of cards that are on the table
in any order he desires and place them on the lower half of the cut. The
performer then places the upper half of the pack on the half on the table.
The spectator is asked to name his card. Immediately the performer
39
starts to spell the spectator’s card out in the usual manner. The last card
turned up is found to be the chosen card.
METHOD: The pack is genuinely shuffled by the spectator; and when
the performer receives the pack from the spectator, he glimpses the
bottom card.
The spectator freely selects any number between one and ten. The
performer places this number of cards in a row on the table. These cards
are taken from the top of the pack. During these procedures, though, the
cards are held in a position for the glide in the left hand. When a card
is placed on each card in the row, they are taken off of the bottom of the
pack. However, the card previously glimpsed is drawn back in the usual
manner with the little finger of the left hand. It is this glimpsed card
that is dealt on the last card of the row. In this manner, you see, the
performer knows the name of the card that the spectator is requested
to notice. It is really a force. '
While spectator is looking at this card, the performer with the pack
in his hand turns his back. He now counts the number of cards from the
pack corresponding with the number of letters in the name of the card.
These cards are separated from the pack and the rest of the pack is crimped.
The counted cards are placed on top of the crimped half. During this count­
ing, the spectator should be cautioned to concentrate on his card, etc.; this
will give the performer more time in the secret operation.
The performer turns around; and while still holding the pack, requests
the spectator to cut it. The crimping, as is well known, causes him to cut
off the counted cards. These two halves are placed on the table.
The spectator is asked to pick up the pairs of cards that are on the
table in any order he desires. During this, the performer must remember
how many of the pairs are placed on the selected or glimpsed card. After
the cut is completed as given in the “EFFECT,” the performer passes the
number of cards that were placed on top of the selected card by the spectator
when he picked up the pairs from the top of the pack to the bottom. This
leaves the correct number of cards on top of the pack for the spelling effect
which is too well-known to describe any further. A cut may be used to
pass the cards from the top to the bottom of the pack. This is preferable to
the pass as it eliminates any false movements that the average performer
makes when executing the pass.

43—Jack-Jack-Jack
Place three Jacks on top of deck then another card and next another
Jack. For instance, Jack of Hearts, Jack of Clubs, Jack of Spades, Six of
Hearts and Jack of Diamonds. Now ask the spectators if they like this
second deal of yours. Deal first one card to spectator then one card to
yourself, one card to spectator, one card to yourself, one card to spectator
and one card to yourself, but as you deal this third card to yourself just use
it as a scoop to gather up the other two cards leaving this third card dealt
yourself on the bottom of the three cards dealt yourself and immediately
place these three cards on top of deck again. Now turn over his three cards
and they are three Jacks. Place them back on top of the deck and proceed
again as before and again he has three Jacks but this time one of the Jacks
will be of a different suit but it usually goes by unnoticed if you don’t give
the spectator much more time than to glance at his cards. This trick brings
on the Jacks but the principal part of the trick is the last pick-up of your
cards where you use that sixth card dealt off the deck to gather up your
two cards thereby leaving that sixth card on the bottom of your cards.
Thereby your pile should now read: indifferent card, Jack and another in­
different card.
This can be repeated as often as desired and each time your partner will
have three Jacks.
40
 44—Number Trick
Performer asks spectator to take a piece of paper and write down the
following:
Year you were born. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0000
The year of some important event in his life. . . . . . . . . . . 0000
How old he is this year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
How many years ago was important event. . . . . . . . . . . . 0
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0000
This total will always be two times the present year: If 1935, it will be
3870; if 1938, it wiU be 3876.
Now to elaborate have him write down his phone number (if performer
knows it previously) or any other number that performer knows previously,
which will always be that much more than the known total. Performer in
meantime is shuffling deck and placing cards that correspond with the
total number he is forcing in reverse order on the bottom of the deck.
Performer now deals cards in four piles as spectator is totaling his number
and as top cards on each pile are turned over their numbers correspond
with spectator’s.

45—Just a Teaser
EFFECT: Take a deck of cards and give it a fair shuffle, calling atten­
tion to same as you talk with your spectators. Now as you patter put the
deck in the hand of a spectator and ask him to remove a card from some­
where near the center. Ask him to let someone else see it after which have
him place card back on top of deck and cut same. I forgot to mention to
have spectator do this with deck behind his back. Now have him bring
the cards to the front and give them an overhand shuffle. Performer then
presents the card chosen.
SECRET: When you are shuffling the pack of cards get a look at the
card on the top of the deck or on the bottom, either one is all right, so
remember one. The spectator removes a card from the center of the deck
and then keeps the deck in back of him. Now tell spectator to place card
on top of deck behind him and then just for a bit of misdirection say, “Oh,
yes, now cut them with a square cut and bring the deck back to the front.”
Then do some more pattering about what he has already done. You say,
“Just to make the card more difficult to locate you might give them an
overhand shuffle.” Don’t however, at this time, give him much time for a
shuffle, about one shuffle is enough. We all know this overhand (hay
mound) shuffle is just the same as cutting the cards. You now take
the deck from him and locate your key card and card is either above or
below it whichever card was your locater, the top or bottom.

46—What Card Am I Thinking Of?

How many times we have heard this from some smart member of our
audience and, of course, we are at a loss to know this card. Here is a
simple method of telling exactly what card any member of your audience
may be thinking of.
EFFECT: Tell your spectator the value of the cards are from 1 to 14.
The Ace being 1 and the King 14. Tell your spectator to think of the de­
nomination of his card. Now have him double this number and add three
to the total. Next multiply it by 5 and remember the result. Now have
him add 1 to his last figure if it is a diamond, 2 if it is a club, 3 if it is a

41
heart and 4 if it is a spade. Now ask spectator to give you the grand total
after which you immediately tell him what card he is thinking of.
SECRET: From the total spectator gives you subtract 15 and the
number thus arrived at will give you the card in the following manner:
The first number will give you the value of the card and the last number
will indicate the suit. In case the card was a face card, then the number
will be of three digits, the first two indicating the card and the last the suit.
For example: The card the spectator chose was the six of diamonds. Double
the value which makes the total 12, next add 3, which makes the total 15;
Multiply this by 5 and the total is 75. Now have spectator add the value of
his suit to this number. (Diamonds 1—Clubs 2—Hearts 3—Spades 4.) In
this case it is 1, giving him a Grand Total of 76. After performer is told the
number is 76 he subtracts 15 from it in his own mind which leaves 61. Now
the first number is 6 which denotes the denomination and the second number
is 1 which denotes the suit as per the above table. In this case the 6 of
diamonds is the card.
Chosen card 6 of Diamonds, doubled value 12, add 3 is 15, multiply by 5
is 75, add one for the Diamond suit is 76. Now subtract mentally, unknown
to spectator, 15 which gives you 61 or the 6 of Diamonds.

47—Letter "P" Trick

This has been a pet trick of the author’s for over twenty years and I
have used it in mixed audiences as well as stag affairs. Either crowd gets
a real kick out of it. It is a big laughing effect and causes talk for some time.
PRESENTATION: “Here I have a deck of cards, some are playing cards
and some are cards representing our alphabet primer in school. You re­
member our A-B-C’s. Now as I pass among you I want some person in this
part of the room to select a card and a person in this part of the room to
also do so. (After the cards have been selected you again gather them
up and have them replaced anywhere in the deck as it makes no difference
for the trick is about finished.)
(You are now back at your stand.) “Let me see, you selected a card
and you also selected a card, is that right? Would you mind telling me what
card you selected? The Queen of Hearts? Thank you. I always keep
Queenie under my foot (and with that hold up your foot and produce the
Queen from the instep of your shoe, held there by the crack in between
the rubber and leather of your heel. This, of course, is a duplicate Queen,
being there all the time.) So your card was a playing card. And what was
your card, sir, a playing card or alphabetical card? (While you are asking
this question be sure you are holding the Queen of Hearts facing the audience
in front of you about three inches from your chest.) An alphabetical card
you say? What letter, please? Letter ‘P,’ very well, sir (and with that
press a bulb in your pocket and throw a stream of water on the Queen of
Hearts you are holding in front of you. Soon the laughter will appear when
the spectators see the water falling).”
SECRET: Insert a small metal tube into one of the holes of the top
button on your vest. Next bend this short piece of metal tubing (about lYi
inches long) so that it lies flat against your chest and points downward
underneath your vest. Now connect a small piece of rubber tubing to the
end of the metal tubing on the button, and run this down to a large bulb
of water in your right pants pocket. (I use a big bulb in the pants pocket
with plenty of water.) This button is the trick.
Make up your deck of cards as follows: Take about ten or twelve Queens
of Hearts and place them about one-third of the way down from the top of
a deck. Next take about ten or twelve blank cards with the letter “P”
printed on them and place these about one-third of the way up from the
bottom of the deck. Now on top of the deck place three blank cards with
42
the letters A-B-C printed on them respectively. The rest of the cards in the
deck are regular but some of them wiE have to be discarded so that you wiU
have but 52 cards therein. In fanning and showing the cards I never show
the letter “P” or the Queen of Hearts. Just show the A-B-C cards and some
of the regular ones. In making the deck up in this manner you can very
easily force a Queen of Hearts on your first spectator and then force a “P”
card on your second spectator. The card I have under my foot, Queen of
Hearts, is pasted on a thin sheet of tin so that the water will splatter more
and also so it wiU not destroy the card. Get yourself some blank cards to
match your deck and have a printer print the A, B, C and P’s on them for
you. The fun you will get out of this trick is worth many times the expense
you will have in making up the outfit. The button is very simple to
make and it can remain forever on your vest by just removing the tubing.

48—The Whispering Queen

By HARRY “LOUINE”
EFFECT: Performer borrows a deck of cards and has them thoroughly
shuffled. He then has a spectator cut the deck into two piles, choose one of
the halves and count it. This being done the performer requests the spec­
tator to bury the top card of his pack, then to take the next card and give
it to some other member of the audience. Then to take the next card and
give it to another member of the audience and to keep the next card him­
self. Performer now displays a Queen and states that the Queen is so edu­
cated that it will whisper to him the name of each card the three spectators
are holding. Saying this the performer holds the Queen somewhere near
the first spectator. He then places the Queen to his ear and upon listening
a few seconds thanks the Queen and names the card the spectator is holding.
This is repeated for the remaining two cards.
SECRET: After the deck Has been shuffled performer takes same and
turns it face-up and runs through the cards displaying to the spectators that
the deck is weU shuffled and also mentions same. While doing this the
performer notices and remembers the 2nd, 3rd and 4th cards from the bottom
of the deck, or as the deck is now turned face up, these cards appear 2nd,
3rd and 4th from the top as the deck is now held. After doing this the
performer places the deck on a table face down. (Thus bringing the remem­
bered cards 2nd, 3rd and 4th from the bottom of the deck) and requests a
Spectator to cut into two piles. When this is done ask spectator to select
one of the piles. If he selects the top half performer says he will use that
and gives the spectator the bottom half. If spectator selects bottom half
say, “Very weU, I will take the other half.” In other words, see that the
spectator gets the bottom half. Now performer starts counting the cards
he has onto the table. This is done by placing the top card on table
first, then the next card on top of this, etc. As you wiU see, this reverses
the order of the cards. Performer requests spectator to do the same with
his pile to see how many cards each is holding. When spectator has com­
pleted his count, performer knows that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th cards that
were originally on the bottom of spectator’s pile are now 2nd, 3rd and 4th
from the top of his pile in the same order they were from the bottom of
his pile. Now performer turns his back and requests spectator to bury
the top card somewhere in the center of the pile. Then to take the next card
(which performer knows as 2nd card from bottom) and give to some other
spectator, to take the next card (which performer knows as 3rd card from
bottom) and give to still another spectator and to keep the next card for
himself. (Performer also knows this card as it was originally 4th from
bottom at beginning of trick.) Performer now runs through the half of the
deck he is holding and locates a Queen which is placed on the face of his
pack. He now states that this Queen has magical powers and wiU whisper
to him the name of the cards the spectators are holding. Thus saying, he
43
goes to the spectator who took the first card and waves the Queen over
his head a few times. Performer now places the Queen to his ear (per­
former’s), smiles, thanks the Queen and tells the spectator the Queen told
him that spectator is holding the ? (name card originally second from
bottom). Performer then goes to second spectator that took a card and
repeats the same only this time the card named is the one originally 3rd from
bottom. Performer now goes to spectator that did the countng, etc., or the
third one and does exactly as he did for the previous spectators but this time
naming the card that was originally 4th from the bottom
This trick may seem complicated in writing but a try will show you it
is very simple, yet very mystifying to your spectators.

49—You Can't Miss

EFFECT: The deck is divided into four piles. Four different spectators
are each given one of the piles. Each one is requested to thoroughly shuffle
the cards he has and to freely select one card each. The piles are then
gathered up and performer immediately spells out the cards one by one.
On the final letter the selected card will always appear.
SECRET: The top thirteen cards are the Ace, Two, Six and Ten of
Diamonds, the Three, Seven, Eight and Queen of Hearts and the Three,
Seven, Eight and Queen of Spades. Also the Joker which is always spelled
“The Jolly Joker.” The next twelve cards are the Four, Five, Jack and
King of Hearts, the Three, Seven, Eight and Queen of Clubs, the Four, Five,
Jack and King of Spades. The next eleven cards are the Ace, Two, Six and
Ten of Hearts, the Ace, Two, Six and Ten of Spades and the Four, Five and
King of Clubs. On the bottom of the deck place the Three, Seven, Eight
and Queen of Diamonds.
Fan the deck and hand the Joker and the cards above it to one man,
hand the King of Spades and the cards above to the next helper. To the
third assistant give the King of Clubs and the cards above it. Now force
one of the four bottom cards on your fourth helper.
Take the card the fourth man selects and place it on top of the cards in
your hand. Shuffle it to the bottom. Now shuffle two cards below the
selected card making it the third card from the bottom. Have the man
holding eleven cards give you one. Place it on top of the cards in your
hand. Then place the other cards he has on top of the selected card. Do
the same with the other two assistants.
Starting with the last man that gave you cards spell out each card.
On the final letter each selected card will appear.

50—A Peculiar Turn Around

EFFECT: Performer hands deck to be shuffled and returned. On re­
ceiving deck performer places same face down on his left palm and requests
a spectator to remove about half of the cards. Now performer asks spectator
to turn his half of the cards over so they will be face up. Now performer
places the half that is face down in his hand onto the half that is face up
in spectator’s hand. Performer now takes the deck and shows cards are
now face down on both halves of deck so he removes one from the bottom
and fans the deck with it. On returning it in the deck he turns it face
down as is the top half of deck. Performer now says that in sympathy with
his turning the one card face down the rest of the deck also turned face
down and now is shown to be all in order.
SECRET: Pass the deck to be shuffled and on receiving it back turn
the bottom card face up (unbeknown to spectator). Hold the deck in your
left hand with reversed bottom card nearest your palm. Ask a spectator to
44
take off the top half, which he does. Now performer with deck in left hand
says to spectator to turn his pack over. While performer says this he is
circumscribing a circle in the air with his left hand to more clearly explain
to the spectator what he means. While he is doing this, however, he turns
the pack in his hand over but because the bottom card is already turned
over it is not noticed. Now spectator is holding his cards face up and per­
former is apparently holding his cards face down (thanks to the top card).
Performer now places his half on top of spectator’s half giving the impression
that each half of the deck is reversed. Performer now takes cards into
his hands (being careful not to let the top reversed card slide around any)
and turns the deck over. This now brings all of the cards face down with
the exception of the bottom card which is face up. Performer now with­
draws this bottom card, face toward spectator, and fans the deck with it.
Then turns it back-side up and places it in the deck near the top. Now
show spectator the deck and they are all in order much to his surprise.

51—Si Stebbins' Master System

This consists of a pre-arrangement of an entire pack of cards, enabling
the performer to locate and name selected or desired cards. The cards—so
arranged—are not to be disturbed or shuffled, though the performer CAN
CUT THE CARDS, taking cards from one side of the pack and placing them
on the other side, or making what is known to magicians as the FALSE
SHUFFLE, which consists of taking a solid bunch of cards from the bottom
and placing them on the top. This done rapidly gives the impression that
the cards are really shuffled.
THE MASTER SYSTEM:
The cards are arranged—or stacked—first placing the ACE OF CLUBS
face up on the table, the next card the 4 OF DIAMONDS, and so on with
the entire pack, the cards being placed as they read across the chart:
Clubs Diamonds Spades Hearts
Ace 4 7 10
King 3 6 9
Queen 2 5 8
Jack Ace 4 7
10 King 3 6
9 Queen 2 5
8 Jack Ace 4
7 10 King 3
6 9 Queen 2
5 8 Jack Ace
4 7 10 King
3 6 9 Queen
2 5 8 Jack
RULE 1:
EACH CARD has a NUMERICAL VALUE, viz.: Ace as 1, etc., the
Jack as 11, Queen as 12, the King as 13.
RULE 2:
EACH CARD is THREE NUMBERS APART, as will be seen by a careful
study of the system, viz.: 6-9-Queen-12-2-5-8-Jack 11, etc.
RULE 3:
EVERY CARD of the SAME DENOMINATION is thirteen cards apart
and runs in the same order of suits as in the system, viz.: Clubs, Diamonds,
Spades, Hearts.
EFFECT 1:
TO NAME A CARD THAT A SPECTATOR DRAWS FROM THE PACK,
Spread the cards out fan shape and allow a card to be selected. When
the card is drawn YOU SEPARATE THE DECK AT THAT POINT, bringing
45
and placing the top portion of the pack on the bottom, at the same time
enabling you to see this bottom card.
In a way, you know that the selected card is the one following the
bottom card, ADDING 3 TO IT, and CALLING THE SUIT THAT FOLLOWS
THE BOTTOM CARD you will name the selected card.
EXAMPLE: The spectator selects a card—you cut the pack at the
point, as above, and you find the bottom card is the 9 of diamonds.
YOU ADD 3 to the 9, which is 12 or the QUEEN. SPADES follows the
Diamonds—the card selected is the “Queen of Spades.”
The card is replaced in its proper place and order, and you are ready
for the next trick.
EFFECT 2:
TO TELL HOW MANY AND WHAT CARDS HAVE BEEN DRAWN
FROM THE PACK.
Allow a handful of cards to be drawn from the pack, all in one portion.
Separate the cards at that point and NOTE THE BOTTOM CARD. Also
note the card of the SAME SUIT nearest the TOP OF THE PACK. SUB­
TRACT the number of the suit card on top from that of the same suit which
is on the bottom, MULTIPLY THE RESULT BY 4—and SUBTRACT the
number of cards, including the suit card of the pack, and the result will be
the number of cards drawn.
EXAMPLE: The cards are selected. Make the break and place the top
part of the deck on bottom. You find the bottom card to be the 12 or Queen
of Clubs; on looking at the top you find the 3rd card to be the 8 of Clubs.
SUBTRACT 8 from 12 which is 4. THE TOP SUIT CARD FROM THE
BOTTOM.
MULTIPLY 4 .by 4, which is 16. THE ABOVE .RESULT MULTIPLIED
BY 4.
SUBTRACT 3 from 16, which is 13—Number of top cards from the
above results, giving you the number of cards that were drawn—13.
In case the Card on the bottom is smaller than the one on top of the
same suit, ADD 13 to the bottom card and then proceed as per example.
EFFECT 3:
TO RUN THE CARDS BEHIND THE BACK AND NAME ANY CARD
STOPPED AT.
Place the cards behind the back, FIRST TAKING NOTICE OF WHAT
THE BOTTOM CARD IS. Add 3 to the bottom card, then call the suit that
follows. START with the top card and as you run the cards from hand to
hand you naturally know what card you are asked to stop at, as you are
naturally naming the cards to yourself as you go along.
EFFECT 4:
TO TELL HOW FAR FROM THE TOP ANY CARD IS.
A spectator calls for a card.
FIRST FIND the card of the SAME SUIT which is nearest the bottom.
SUBTRACT the number of the card called for from the number of the
card of the same suit nearest the bottom.
MULTIPLY the result by 4.
SUBTRACT the number of cards below the bottom suit card and the
result will be the number the card called for is from top.
EXAMPLE: The 4 of Diamonds is called. You look at the bottom and
find that the 9 of Diamonds is the 3rd card from the bottom.
SUBTRACT 4 from 9, which is 5. CARD CALLED FROM NEAREST
BOTTOM SUIT CARD.
MULTIPLY 5 by 4, which is 20. THE ABOVE RESULT MULTIPLIED
BY 4.

46
 SUBTRACT 2 from 20 which is 18. THE NUMBER OF CARDS BELOW
THE BOTTOM SUIT CARD. The result, being the 4 of Diamonds, is the
18th card from top.
In case the suit- card on or nearest the bottom is smaller, add 13 to it
and proceed as per example.
EFFECT 5:
TO DEAL YOURSELF EVERY TRUMP—IN A WHIST OR 4 HAND
GAME.
Apparently shuffle or cut the cards. Ask person on right to cut the
cards, placing the cut as usual on bottom.
BOTTOM CARD IS shown as the Trump Card.
Deal out regular—yourself as the fourth hand. Cards when turned up
will reveal you with every trump in the pack.
EFFECT 6:
TO DEAL A PAT FLUSH OF ANY SUIT CALLED FOR TO THE PER­
SON ASKING FOR SAME.
This trick can be done only in a four-handed game.
First ask the person what suit and what hand he wants, THEN get the
suit card by cut or shift to the proper position at the bottom and deal regular.
EXAMPLE:—The person wants a Flush of Hearts—and in third hand.
CUT THE cards until you have a CLUB at the bottom. This will make
the 3rd card from the top a HEART. Then as every 4th card after is a
Heart, the cards dealt to the third man would naturally be HEARTS.

47
 CUPS AND BALLS MAGIC
WITH AN INTRODUCTION by Henry R'dgely
Evans and a special article by John Mulholland, NEW
this splendid work will prove of interest and practical
value to all who aspire to this popular type of magic. COMPLETE
This, one of the oldest tricks in the whole category
of magic, is here explained in detail, enabling any­ MASTERLY
one to quickly and easily master the trick in all its
puzzling routines and surprising effects. 60 Pages
Beginning with the simple sleights and moves 63 Illustrations
employed, you are taken by easy stages through the
whole calendar of sleights and subleties—every art
and artifice, old and new that adds mystery and en­
tertainment to this famous trick. Included are:
palming, passes, steals, switches, moves, routines,
novelty effects, production of baby chicks, original
ideas, cup selection, etc., etc.
The most comprehensive work on the subject
ever produced, requiring months of preparation—
nothing like it ever attempted. Of course you know
that balls magically fly from cup to cup, multiply,
vanish, reappear, transform into other objects, etc.
Clearly written, 60 pages, 63 illustrations, beauti­
fully printed and bound in standard
size (6"x9")—a professional job
throughout—just what you have
long wanted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . VX\CZ JZ.UU
 EVERYBODY WANTS

"MARVELS OF MYSTERY"
. . . and that's what you get in
John Booth's latest book.
“Marvels of Mystery" is the fastest selling
book we have ever handled, purchasers in­
cluding smart magicians, amateurs and pro­
fessionals, all over the country. Booth's master­
piece, a marvelous Production Routine, is worth
many times the price of the whole book—and
you can make practically the whole outfit your-
selfl—something you can do almost any place
since Booth presented it in Nite Clubs with
people all around.
Paul Rosini, Annemann, Milboume Christo­
pher, Carlton King, Bill Larsen, Sid Lorraine,
Lloyd lones, John Mulholland and hundreds of
others rate it as a great book and great value,
possessing. . . . . .

SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY

It contains 25 completely routined masterpieces;
Booth's $25 Blendo; his $100 Stack of Glasses
Production; a prize Comedy Bow Tie trick; a
knockout Hydrostatic Glass routine; Blindfold
Finger Reading; complete Card Gambling
Lecture, etc., etc.

A GREAT BOOK PRACTICAL, TESTED EFFECTS

FULL OF HIT TRICKS New tricks, close-up tricks, tricks you have
never seen before. Club, Table, Impromptu
Introduction by Mrs. Harry Houdini. tricks, etc.
155 pages. illustrated; beautifully
bound in cloth, gold title, sire 6" x 9". NEW THIRD EDITION
You'll Be Delighted with this Fascinating Book. . $2.50
cvo

"Forging Ahead In Magic"

In this popular book, John Booth gives you the practical, proven
methods usea by over 136 eminent performers in their climb to
success—the secrets that are not to be found in any other book.
He tells you what they did, what they avoided and why their
further progress is assured. Completely covers .....

Preparation - Presentation - Publicity - Profit

. . . . Special Openings, Sequences, Masterpieces, Strong Closings,
Encores, Lighting, Music, Dress, Position, Starting Right, Style,
Rehearsing, Patter, Snoech, Personality. Showmanship, Applause,
Glamour, Souvenirs, Newspaper Interviews, Promotional Stunts and
Stories, Anecdotes, Press Releases, Ad Tie-ups, Photos, Radio and
Television, Club Talks, Direct Mail, Press Agents, Booking Clubs,
Vaudeville, Lyceum, Schools and Direct; Contracts, Hold-overs, etc.,
etc.

555 Winning Methods of 136 Magicians

in 154 Pages—New Second Edition
Cloth binding, size 6" x 9" — $1000 worth of valuable
information, not obtainable elsewhere, for only. . . . . . . .
$3.00
 THE THREE SHELL GAME

A T LAST, a complete work on “the old army game”

which is now so popular with magicians for
1 impromptu, club work, etc. This is not a mere
direction sheet with a few “moves” for performing
the simple shell game trick, but an extended treatise
outlining in detail the wonderful entertainment pos­
sibilities of the game. In a series of 13 Articles, it
describes and illustrates all the clever and subtle
moves, sleights and expedients with both pea and
shells which have been successfully used by profes­
sional operators. Following this, it gives you what
amounts to personal instruction in a series of 10
Lessons, teaching you how to practice and master the
various passes, manipulations, fake moves, and sucker dodges so you can
execute them with finesse and skill.
Then you are given a series of 33 Exhibition Routines in which you employ
your knowledge and ability in ways that are so truly deceptive that the
spectators find it utterly impossible to follow the wanderings of the elusive
pea. In addition, there are three Special Starting Routines and a trick Routine
with coins which will prove a knockout in the hands of any magician.
There is also a chapter on the History of the Game and one on Shills and
Sharpers both of which will prove highly interesting.
A standard size book, 6x9 inches, consisting of
60 pages with 47 drawings. Highly recommended to
all interested in this phase of the magic art. . . . . .
Price $1.25

New, Second Edition of Loyd’s

MASTER MANIPULATION
of THIMBLES 40 Pages
84 Illustrations
This was the first book, and is still the best book devoted
solely to the exposition of new technique and master sleights with from Life
thimbles—entirely sleight of hand.
Illustrations from 84 photographs made from living poses, make
each step clear and easy to follow, and make the work an out­
standing presentation of thimble magic that is readily appreciated
by both amateurs and professionals. And with the lucid text you
get what amounts to . . .

PERSONAL LESSONS IN THE ART

Section 1 consists of an array of standard and novel sleights,

many being the invention of the author. Section 2 gives Loyd’s
own original routine.

PARTIAL CONTENTS: Instantaneous Appearance of a Thimble

from Finger to Finger, using but one thimble—Ghost Thimble—
Master Back-Hand Palm—Hook Vanish-*-~Solid Thru Solid—
Loyd’s One-Hand Color Change—Over the Top Vanish—Unique
Comedy Production and Vanish—Routines, Etc.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT #3.00—KANTER

PUBLISHES THIS NEW 2ND EDITION
AT THE LOW PRICE OF— $1.00
 20 STUNNERS
With /7 Nail W'uieA.
By Franklin M. Chapman—Edited by Ralph W. Read
2nd GREATLY ENLARGED EDITION
When Mr. Chapman wrote his original Booklet, “Ten
Stunners With A Nail Writer,” he commented that he
had only scratched the surface when it came out with
Ten Stunners.” How true, for here we give you
“Twenty Stunners” containing ten new effects made
possible with the tiny secret writing device with which
all of these effects are accomplished . . . STARTLING
STUNTS IN MIND READING, OR TELEPATHY,
t UNCANNY PREDICTIONS, ETC.
The very latest methods and devices, and all of the known gimmicks are
described and illustrated. For the first time, complete instructions in ALL
METHODS OF APPLICATION ARE GIVEN.

You Can Perform These Amazing Effects:

Identical Twins—Light on the Subject—A Whis­
pered Selection—Two-Way Telepathy—Like an
A printed 6" x 9" book
Open Book—Word for Word—Easy Mark—The
uick or the Dead—At the Bar—Long Distance 28 Pages • Illustrated
? elepathy — The Swami Test — Telepathy — You
Think as I Think—A Pinch Hitter—Whose Name?
—Seeing Red—Easy Card Prediction—The Invisible ORDER POST
Hand—Via Telephone—Music in the Air—Is it
Telepathy ? NOW paid

Secrets and Methods Explained:
Producing Lighted Cigarettes—Regarding
Cigarettes—Fire Sleight—Double Produc­
tion from One- - Detailed Method—Switch­
ing — Types of Gimmicks — Pantomime
Cigarette—Novel Variation—Snap Pro­
duction—Bailey Sleight—Loyd’s Triple
Cigarette Production—Finale (Pipe Pro­
duction)—Penetration Vanish and Pro­
duction—Lighted Sleights—Bolton Master
Lighted Cigarette Sleight.
PRODUCING
LIGHTED
CIGARETTES
By “Loyd”
4th Edition—36 Illustrations
METHODS OF THE
FOREMOST MANIPULATORS
This popular book gives detailed in­
structions how to perform the famous
act of producing lighted cigarettes fiom
thin airl Not only the basic, simple,
sleights are given and illustrated so
that they are easily learned by anyone,
but a number of startling and novel
effects are given besides.
This New 4th Edition Now Ready
You get BIG VALUE and complete
information in this 6x9 printed book,
36 illustrations, leatherette covers.
GetYour Copy ^ r\f\
Now—Postpaid, Only. . 5 1-00
 THE FAMOUS

3—to—1 ROPE TRICK

The above facsimile signa­
ture of the author guarantee*
you the only authentic In­
formation on: Basic 3-to-l
presentation; * Two new starts
with rope In one piece; Cut-
by-spectator variations; 4-to-l
version; “Do As I Do** com­
edy; also all known methods
of using1 gimmicks, wax, ce­
ment, etc.
When three separate pieces of rope are made to become
a single piece, that's a trick for any routine! When the whole
thing is done right out in the open, it*s an elTect that Is
definitely out of the ordinary! But ... when you let the
spectators make ALL of the cuts and finally examine the
rope, restored, in their own hands ... that’s the MIRACLE
EFFECT you've been expecting for years! ! !
Here is the inventor’s original trick—plus all of the latest
additions, those starts and finishes that are now puzzling
those who think they “know it all.** Here In one volume
and at a single price, yo" get the inventor's exclusive secrets
—unobtainable elsewhere. Besides, there are ideas contri­
buted by Jack Gwynne, Lu Brent and Zerrance in apprecia­
tion of what this trick has done for them. Many dollars
worth of complete, authentic, exclusive Information In. . . . .
A COPYRIGHTED BOOK
15 PAGES OF INSTRUCTIONS
46 EXPLANATORY ILLUSTRATIONS
Price, Postpaid. . . . . . . . $1.00

ST.R.E..T..C...H...I....N....G
. .A ROPE..
Milbourne Christopher, famous professional magician, is
ttie Inventor of this remarkable feat in which a short piece
of rope stretches from ..... AQ Pages of
I Z Instructions
10 to 15 Times Its Original
Length! /) ft Clear-Cut
JL Am Illustrations
His performance of this trick has stretched .his reputa­
tion clear across the country. And others who do the trick
are finding their fame extending with it, too.
This seeming miracle is accomplished with the rope at
all times in full view of the audience. The moves are the
natural, simple ones of ... . Just stretching a rope. That’s
really about all there Is to It. Even when it seems as
though the limit must have been reached, you keep right on
stretching, using a principle that is entirely unique. It has
been called. . . . .
“One of the few absolutely new ideas
in magic.”
In this one book are given the author’s original method
pins his later Improvements, their genuineness guaranteed
by facsimile of his signature, as Illustrated.

2 Entirely Different Methods

Authorized Edition (Printed Book)

Price, Postpaid. . . . . . . . $1.00

THIS
IS
A
TEN
DOLLAR
BOOK