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Bob Wallace / Magic
← The Expert at the Card Table
S. W. ErdnaseContents

The Card and Handkerchief

In Effect. A card is freely selected, restored to the deck and thoroughly shuffled. The deck is now wrapped up in a borrowed handkerchief, which is held suspended by the corners, and upon command the selected card is seen to slowly project itself through the handkerchief and flutter to the floor.

Execution. Borrow a rather large handkerchief first. Place it in full sight in vest or on table, then have card selected and replaced in deck, shift to top, palming in right hand, and return deck to be shuffled. Now take corner of handkerchief in each hand, show both sides by crossing right hand over left, keeping right palm to person, then throw handkerchief over right palm, one corner Lying along right arm, and diagonal corner hanging down over right fingers the hand being about the middle. Now take back deck with left hand and place it on handkerchief lengthwise over right hand, seizing it by ends with that hand, and squaring up palmed card against it, at same time taking out the crimp so that it will lie flatly. Then, with the left hand, bring up the overhanging corner of handkerchief, covering the deck, and showing the right hand fingers; seize sides of deck with left hand, gather back the folds of handkerchief with right so that the selected card will be retained at its inner end and suspend the deck by the folds with the right hand, holding well above the pack. (See Figs. 99 and 100.)

Figure 99 from The Card and Handkerchief, The Expert at the Card Table.
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Figure 100 from The Card and Handkerchief, The Expert at the Card Table.
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Now command the selected card to appear, first requesting the drawer to give its name, and by giving slight up and down jolts to the deck, the card will slowly emerge from the back, having all the appearance of forcing its way through the center of the handkerchief at the lower end of the suspended deck.

Book contents

Front matter

  1. Title Page
  2. Preface and Introduction
  3. Table of Contents

Card-table artifice

  1. Professional Secrets
  2. Technical Terms
  3. Position For Shuffle
  4. Blind Shuffles
  5. Blind Riffles
  6. Blind Cuts
  7. Fancy Blind Cuts
  8. One-Handed Fancy True Cut
  9. To Indicate the Location for the Cut
  10. Bottom Dealing
  11. Top And Bottom Dealing With One Hand
  12. Second Dealing
  13. Ordinary Methods Of Stocking, Locating And Securing
  14. Stock Shuffle
  15. Erdnase System of Stock Shuffling
  16. The Erdnase System of Cull Shuffling
  17. The Erdnase System of Palming
  18. To Maintain the Bottom Palm While Dealing
  19. To Hold the Location of Cut While Dealing
  20. Shifts — Card-Table Artifice
  21. To Ascertain the Top Cards While Riffling and Reserve Them at Bottom
  22. Mode of Holding the Hand
  23. Skinning the Hand
  24. The Player Without an Ally
  25. Three Card Monte
  26. Mexican Three Card Monte

Legerdemain

  1. Legerdemain
  2. Shifts — Legerdemain
  3. The Blind Shuffle for Securing Selected Card
  4. Forcing
  5. Palming
  6. The Back Palm
  7. Changes
  8. Transformations-Two Hands
  9. Transformations-One Hand
  10. Blind Shuffles, Retaining Entire Order
  11. Methods for Determining a Card Thought of
  12. To Get Sight of Selected Card
  13. The Slide
  14. Favorite Sleights for Terminating Tricks

Card tricks

  1. Card Tricks
  2. The Exclusive Coterie
  3. The Divining Rod
  4. The Invisible Flight
  5. Tricks With the Prearranged Deck
  6. The Traveling Cards
  7. The Row of Ten Cards
  8. The Acrobatic Jacks
  9. A Mind-Reading Trick
  10. Power of Concentrated Thought
  11. The Acme of Control
  12. The Card and Handkerchief
  13. The Top and Bottom Production
  14. The Three Aces
  15. The Card and Hat

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