Have you read Hilliard’s Greater Magic? In that gargantuan tome of ephemeral mysteries emphasis is placed on subtlety rather than on “finger-flinging”, which Hilliardesque term is undoubtedly destined to live through the ages. Tricks of inspired artistry, gleaned from the minds of those high in subterfuge, seem to live for the sole purpose of refuting that misguided adage, “The hand is quicker than the eye”.

I feel quite sure of having here evolved a new and different effect for card table entertainment, but there is no reason why the presentation cannot be used before an audience of a size to clearly see the faces. We shall take that part up again presently. It practically is impromptu after a trick or two with borrowed cards.

Two spectators are seated opposite each other at a table. The performer hands a pack to one (A) who shuffles and returns the cards face down onto the performer’s outstretched left hand. (B) then cuts off any number for himself, the remaining lower half being dropped in front of (A). The performer stands at a little distance from the spectators and directs each to deal five cards face down in a row before himself.

Both (A) and (B) now select one card from among those before themselves. Each looks at and remembers his chosen card. Then each puts his card face down among the untouched cards of the opposite person. Each one now shuffles well the group of five cards before him. All action has been simple and direct.

Both (A) and (B) are told to deal their five cards face up before them. Each, in turn, is asked if he can positively, and without chance of failure, pick out his opponent’s selected card. The answers must, of course, be “no”. And is quite obvious to all that the performer has had no part in the proceedings. Yet, without hesitation, he is able to pick out, from among the others, the actual pasteboards chosen and shuffled by both (A) and (B)!

The reader readily can sense the presentation possibilities. The theme can be along the lines of how magicians invariably cut their “eye teeth” by the finding of selected cards. You, therefore, are giving two of your audience the opportunity of trying a simple location from among few cards rather than the whole deck and while they are entirely under their control. Failing, as they do, the performer relates that a most important requisite of a magician is to turn failure into success when, by some slip of inadvertent move of his fingers, he has lost control or track of the selected card. “What would you do now?” he asks (A) and (B), “You are before a large audience. Each of you is doing a trick. You have had a noted card looked at and placed in your pack. You even have shuffled the cards yourself. The audience is waiting for you to reveal what was chosen. But you have lost it. What are you going to do about it?”

The performer asks each, in turn, for suggestions. This point will excite some amazing and strange answers at times if the stunt is presented seriously as an example of what a magician must learn in order to cope with circumstances always besetting him. I have yet to hear a whisper during the trick for the reason, I believe, that every person present has been made to realize a serious predicament which can befall a magician at any time. Every watcher puts himself into the spot — and is thinking hard.

Finally the magician says “In such a case there is but one last resort. Digital dexterity having failed, a thorough student of all things mystical must fall back upon the mind alone to extricate himself without ever letting his audience know that he has been close to the brink of chaos. A true artist can never afford to admit he cannot finish what he has started. Let me show you. I have been at a distance throughout your selections and shuffles. Therefore I am in that described ‘spot’. I must depend entirely upon mental vibrations, your reactions, and what recently has come to be popularly known as extra-sensory perception. Look directly at me. (to A) In your mind think of the color of your card, now the suit, and now the value. Lastly repeat the full name of your card to yourself. Thank you. Was this —— your brain picture?”

At the last sentence the performer has reached into the opposite pile (B’s) and picked up the correct card. Without a pause he turns to (B). “Don’t bother with the separate features of your card. I must start like that to become en rapport with the conditions surrounding us here. Just look directly at me while I count ten and imagine your card as a large picture surrounding me.” The performer counts quickly and evenly. “Thank you, too. It developed into a very clear image of ——. This one right here.”

The second card is picked from (A’s) group. “It’s been nice of you both to help me illustrate just one of the many pitfalls in the life of a magician.” (A) and (B) are dismissed. Then, in closing, “I want all of you to remember what I’ve shown you when, in the future, you may do a trick of magic to entertain your friends. If something goes wrong, don’t get worried or excited. Think for a moment. There’s bound to be a way out. However, if you exhaust all of your ways and means to a happy ending, and still wonder what to do, my services are always available, I’m always willing to tell you anything I may know. I wouldn’t deceive you for the world.”

The secret (quite priceless, I assure you, when compared to the effect) is so simple that it reeks with respectability. Five cards are taken from the deck and deposited in the right trouser pocket, or, a favorite dodge of mine, hanging with faces to body under the lower edge of your coat on the right side. A paper clip sewn or pinned holds the packet about a quarter inch out of sight. You know the five cards and I suggest they be the same always for speed. I use five cards in Si Stebbins order. The move? It happens AFTER people may have expected something but saw nothing. (A) shuffles and places them on your open left hand. You turn to your right, swinging the left hand over for (B) to cut off a bunch. Your right hand on the offside secures the cards. You swing back towards left, pick the remaining half of pack off left hand with your right and place them in front of (A). The known group has been added. Step away and proceed as I have described. With the two sets of cards eventually face up you need only to pick the “stranger” among (A’s) known set, and the “stacked” card from (B’s). What could be closer to genuine mindreading?