If it be the long card, you may give the pack to the person who drew
it, and leave him at liberty either to replace it or not. Then taking
the pack, you feel immediately whether it be there or not, and,
shuffling the cards in a careless manner, without looking at them, you
pronounce accordingly.
_The Inverted Cards._
Prepare a pack of cards, by cutting one end of them about one-tenth of
an inch narrower than the other; then offer the pack to any one, that
he may draw a card; place the pack on the table, and observe carefully
if he turn the card while he is looking at it; if he do not, when you
take the pack from the table, you offer the other end of it for him to
insert that card; but if he turn the card, you then offer him the same
end of the pack. You afterwards offer the cards to a second or third
person, for them to draw or replace a card in the same manner. You
then let any one shuffle the cards, and, taking them again into your
own hand, as you turn them up one by one, you easily perceive by the
touch which are those cards that have been inverted, and, laying the
first of them down on the table, you ask the person if that card be
his; and if he say _no_, you ask the same of the second person; and if
he say _no_, you tell the third person it is his card; and so of the
second or third cards. You shall lay the pack on the table after each
person has drawn his card, and turn it dexterously in taking it up,
when it is to be turned, that the experiment may not appear to depend
on the cards being inverted.
_The Transmuted Cards._
In a common pack of cards let the ace of hearts and nine of spades be
something larger than the rest. With the juice of lemon draw over the
ace of hearts a spade, large enough to cover it entirely, and on each
side draw four other spades.
Present the pack to two persons, so adroitly, that one of them shall
draw the ace of hearts, and the other the nine of spades, and tell him
who draws the latter, to burn it on a chafing-dish. You then take the
ashes of that card, put them into a small metal box, and give it to
him that has the ace of hearts, that he may himself put that card into
the box and fasten it. Then put the box for a short time on the
chafing-dish, and let the person who put the card in it take it off,
and take out the card, which he will see is changed into the nine of
spades.
_The Convertible Cards._
To perform this amusement you must observe, that there are s
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