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Logro 10 Contenidos Ejercicios o actividades de aprendizaje autónomo (a distancia)
To Cause a Card Secretly Thought of by one Person to Appear at such Number in the Pack as another Spectator may Choose at Pleasure.
T
his is a trick which I can recommend to the reader as one of the most surprising that can possibly be performed.As in the trick previously described, compel a spectator to "think of," say, the queen of spades.
1.
By means of a false shuffle, place the queen of spades seventh from the top, and leave the pack on the table.
2.
Then addressing one of the spectators, "Will you have the kindness, sir," you say, "to think of a number between one and ten?"
3.
It is all but certain that the number seven will be chosen. The reasons which compel the choice of this particular number will be explained hereafter in a special chapter upon the modes of influencing thought.* But in the exceptional case of this number not being chosen, the trick would not on that account fail, as we shall proceed to show presently. For the moment we will continue our description as though the number seven had been actually chosen.
*This promise appears to have been overlooked by the author, the work containing no such chapter--ED.
"Will you be kind enough, madam, to name the card you thought of?" "The queen of spades." "And you, sir, what number did you think of?" "The number seven."
"Be good enough, then, sir, to take the pack with your own hands from the table, and satisfy yourself that the card the lady thought of is placed precisely at the very number which you, of your own accord, selected. Take particular notice, gentlemen, please, that I have not been even near the cards."
Where the trick is completely successful, as above, it invariably calls forth a round of well-merited applause.
Let us now take into consideration contingencies unfavourable to the success of the trick.
The Thoughts of Two Persons Anticipated
Let us suppose that the queen of spades has been chosen (we will consider presently the case of that particular card not being chosen), but that on the other hand the
spectator has thought of one of the numbers following, two, three, four, five, six, eight, or nine. I do not mention either one or ten, because the terms of your request are
between one and ten. Should either of those numbers be selected, you remind the
spectator that those two numbers are excluded by the very terms of your question. Supposing the choice falls on one of the numbers two, three, four, or five, nothing is easier than to produce the queen of spades at that number; the only difference being that instead of having the cards counted by the spectator, you yourself take the pack in your left hand, and secretly transfer from the top to the bottom by means of the pass (as the case may be) five, four, three, or two cards, thereby bringing the card thought of to the required position.
If "six" is the number chosen, the use of a double meaning brings the trick to as satisfactory a termination as if seven had been thought of. In point of fact, you have only to ask the spectator to take the pack, count off six cards from the top, and look at the card which comes next.
For the numbers eight and nine, you count the cards yourself, and when you reach the queen of spades, which is the seventh card, you "change" the card once for the number eight, and once for the number nine--i.e., instead of actually taking the seventh card in its proper turn, you leave that card and take the next following.
Let us now suppose (which is a much more serious contingency) that instead of fixing on the queen of spades, the spectator has thought of some totally different card, the ten of diamonds, for instance.
As soon as the card is named, you ask what number has been chosen, and proceed as above described, as though the ten of diamonds was the seventh card;* but when you reach the queen of spades you place it on the table without showing what it is.
(Or any other number which may have been chosen --ED.)
You then pass the ten of diamonds, as already explained, to the top of the pack, while showing the spectators (ostensibly) that the card, not being in the pack, must be the one on the table.
Take the queen of spades in your right hand, and showing it to the lady who thought of the card in such manner that she alone can see what it is, "Here," you say, "madam, is the card you thought of; you see the experiment has completely succeeded."
You forthwith return to your table, and in so doing "change" the queen of spades for the ten of diamonds, which you lay upon the table. The lady to whom your observation was addressed naturally exclaims that instead of the ten of diamonds, you have shown her the queen of spades. "I really think, madam, you must be under a mistake, or perhaps some optical illusion has made you take one card for another; for I am sure I showed you the ten of diamonds." The lady of course insists on the correctness of her assertion. During the discussion, you palm the queen of spades, which remained, after
The Thoughts of Two Persons Anticipated
the change, on the top of the pack, and putting it in the breast-pocket of your coat, as though merely to take something out, you leave the hand there for the moment. "Pardon me, madam," you reply, "if I still insist that you are wrong; but you see the success of my experiment is at stake. You can, however, readily satisfy yourself that you could not have seen the queen of spades, for knowing that that card is unlucky in a trick, I put it in my pocket before the performance began, and here it is, as you see." (You take the queen of spades out of the pocket and exhibit it.) "As a further proof of my sincerity, there is the card I showed you, still on the table; any one may take it up who pleases, I wont even go near it." "Will you, sir, be good enough to turn up that card yourself?"
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The Thoughts of Two Persons Anticipated
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