FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 4, 24 January 1907, Page 38

FAMILY FUN

A certain amount of mystery centres in being able to tell the name of a card chosen by -the^ audience, and" therefore any. simple method of locating the card is of service to the would-be magician.- The most elementary manner of doing this is previously to divide the pack into '' reds ' an3d ''blacks.' - The conjurer then spreads the cai'ds before one of the audience, requesting him to select one. "The performer notes particularly from which part of the pack the card is taken. If from the reds, he must take care that the card is returned' to the black half, and vice versa. This enables the conjurer at a.- glance to name the card, and to reproduce it »in any manner he lias arranged. Another, method is as follows : — When the person who 'has selected a card is looking at it, the performer opens the pack near' the centre and glances at the bottom card of the top half. The card is replaced on the top of the - bottom half of the pack, and .being therefore next tojthe know.n card, the chosen _ card can be easily reproduced when required. . Still another way of locating a card is to open the pack in the centre and to have the chosen card replaced on the top of the bottom -half. The tip of the little finger of the left hand is . then inserted between the ' two halves of the pack and above .the chosen card, thus forming a ' break.' The cards-are "nextopened at the ' break,' the -top half being shuffled over and, under, until the chosen xard -is reached and placed on the top. ~ The bottom half can now be snuffed, and the three" top cards are now placed at— the bottom as a part* of the shuffle. The - whole of the cards are " shuffled down to- the last three, which are placed together on the top • of the pack" as a conclusion to the shuffle, and the chosen card will be left on the -top.