FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 26, 1 July 1909, Page 1038

FAMILY FUN

Tho Alternate Card Trick. — During the present long winter evenings games and tricks with cards will help "'"O pass the time pleasantly for the young people, and even for their elders. It is a pleasant and innocent pastime, and affords much amusement. .Here is one which is called the alternate card trick : Secretly arrange the thirteen cards of either suit (or, better still, thirteen cards of mixed suits), according to the following formula, placing each in turn face upwards on the table, and the next in like position upon it: Seven, ace, queen, two, eight, three, knave, four, nine, five, king six, ten. Place the cards thus arranged at the top of the pack. In exhibiting the trick you begin by counting off, without disturbing their order, thirteen cards from the top. This will give you the pre-arranged cards. Then announce that by a strong effort of the will you will make every other card appear in regular order. Begin by placing the top card )>ineath. Deal off the next card face upwards, sayirg ' One !' Place the third card underneath, and turn up the fourth, which will be a two. Place the fifth card underneath, and turn up the next, which will be a threo, and so on, continuing in like manner throughout the thirteen cards, which will be found in regular order.

Two Good Tricks. — Take a shilling or a halfpenny between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand ; then, by a rapid twist of the fingers, twirl the coin by the same motion, that you would use to spin a teetotum, at tho same time rapidly close your hand, and the coin will disappear up your coat-sleeve. You can now open your hand, and, much to the astonishment of your audience, the coin will not, be there. This capital trick may be varied in a hundred ways. One good way is to tako three shillings or three halfpennies, and, concealing one in the palm of your left hand, place the other two, one each between the thumb and forefinger of ,each hand, then give the coin in the right hand the twirl as already described, and, closing both hands quickly, the coin in the right hand will disappear up your sleeve, and the l°rt; hand, on being unclosed, will be found to contain two coins, while that which was in the right will have disappeared. Thus you will make the surprised spectators believe that you conjured the coin in the right hand into the left. Stick a fork or any pointed article in the wall, aboiit four or five feet from the floor, and on the end of it place a piece of candy; then tell some person to place his forefinger by the side of the candy when he has measured the height carefully; tell him to walk backward about five yards, then shut one eye and- walk forward and try to knock the candy off the fork with one blow of the forefinger. The probabilities are that he will make the attempt a dozen times before he is successful. When he is successful he may eat the candy.