Years ago I learned to do the magnetic effect with two toothpicks, but only lately did I apply it to the location of a card, and find the result a quite perfect impromptu table trick. You’d better carry a few toothpicks of your own, though, for the best places rarely have them.
Put a toothpick on the table pointing directly at you. Now put another on top of the first, at right angles, and balanced so that it doesn’t touch the table at either ends. Stick your right index finger out straight, and rub it against your head for a second. Hold it an inch or so from the near side of the right end of the balanced toothpick. At the same time, open your lips just a thin trifle, and breath steadily and quietly. The balanced toothpick will swing towards your finger as though it were a magnet. Practice this a few times until you get the swing of it. You’ll find that very little breath is needed for the working. Now take two toothpicks from a little box of cotton and put into position. And make the toothpick swing, when you pass the selected and shuffled card over it. Watch the customers examine the toothpicks, which you then carefully put back in their box.
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