"FIND THE LADY"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23381, 24 June 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

"FIND THE LADY"

Duke of Somerset Card-sharpers

THE Duke of Somerset, the tall, 57-year-old holder of the second oldest dukedom in Britain, who made one of his rare public appearances to open two new 8.8.C. transmitting stations at Start Point and Clevedon, Somerset, on June 14, is more feared than a policeman by cardsharpers.

THE Duke is one of the most expert conjurers and sleight-of-hand men in Britain, and is president of tho Magic Circle, the society which was started over thirty years ago by Mr. Jasper MaskeJyne and to which most brilliant illusionists belong. He has the reputation of being able to outwit the cardsharpers, and it is because racecourse tricksters can never be quite certain that the Duke is not among the crowd to whom they are "telling the tale" that he is so feared. A few years ago when he was at a race-meeting in Ireland a friend of his was fleeced of £\'!o by some sharpers. Tho Duke heard about it. Ho joined

tho ring of "suckers" who .'crowded round the Utile collapsible table -jou ivliicli the sharpers sproad out tlio cards. Keeping up bis pretence of being an "innocent." iho Duke eventually allowed himself to bo drawn in. The trick the sharpers wanted to play on him was tho old one of "Find, the Lady," where three cards, one of wliich is a."queen, are manipulated so quickly that the final position of the "Lady" is not where it seems to be. But the Duke, who was even better at tlie triek than the sharpers themselves. found the Lady every time, and within a few minutes had taken over £-10. The shock of having met their master was so much for the sharpers that they took to their heels. The Duke, who is a South African war veteran with tho Queen's Medal and flvo clasps, and a D.S.O. from tho Great War. started his sleight-of-hand tricks when be was a boy because he was so dissatisfied with a box of conjuring tricks his father gave him as a birthday present. "Not in Public" One of his iricks lias even baffled tho magicians of the Magic Circle. He "burns" a £u note in full view of his audience and then restores it to the owner undamaged. Although he has been asked, many times to give a demonstration of his conjuring, the Duke refuses to perform in public. "I don't believe ih giving shows in public," lie told a Sunday Poferee reporter in London, "as it would be doing a lot of hard-working professionals out of a job."