A Card Caught On The Corner Of A Borrowed Handkerchief
The above trick is a variation of a much older feat of catching chosen cards on a sword, and is to be recommended, inasmuch as no special apparatus is necessary.
A card is selected, not forced, replaced, and the pack shuffled and held by a spectator. The performer now requests the loan of a gentleman's handkerchief, which he shows to be an
ordinary one. The gentleman holding the pack is now requested to throw the same in the air, and, as the cards descend, the performer waves the handkerchief amongst them, whereupon
the chosen card is caught on the corner of same (see Fig. 35), both being immediately passed for inspection.
Figure 35
The following is the explanation of this effective little trick:
On the top vest-button the performer has a small portion of soft adhesive wax. When the chosen card is returned, the pass is made and the card is palmed off, the pack being
immediately handed to a spectator to thoroughly shuffle. While this is being done the artiste removes the wax and sticks it to one corner of the palmed card. A handkerchief is now
borrowed and held, as in Fig. 36, the back of the hands, of course, facing the audience (in the illustration they are drawn as they appear to the performer).
Figure 36
The left hand now places the corner A of the handkerchief in the right hand, as in Fig. 37, at the same time pressing corner B on to the wax.
Figure 37
In this position the handkerchief can be waved in the air to still show it is unprepared, but when the spectator throws the cards, the performer slips the end between his fingers,
and, again waving the handkerchief among the falling cards, releases the card from the palm, which thereupon becomes visible on the end of the handkerchief (see Fig. 35), the effect
being that the performer has actually caught one of the falling cards.
The above trick does not require much practice when once the reader is proficient in the "pass" and "palm," but is, in my opinion, a very pretty and effective experiment.
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