The Divining Rod

In effect. A card is freely selected by the company and replaced in the pack, which is thoroughly shuffled. The performer is now blindfolded, shuffles the cards in this condition, then spreads them face down over the table, poises a pen-knife over the mass, and suddenly pierces the selected card through with the open blade.

Sleights. Shift, Palm and Blind Shuffle.

Execution and Patter. “Ladies and Gentlemen. It is a fact well known to archaeologists that many very wonderful arts which were possessed by the ancients have, through the course of ages, been completely lost to modern civilization. Prominent among these superior accomplishments was the mysterious power of divining the presence of water or metals that lay hidden far under the ground. Now it may be that the assertion I am about to make will be received by you with polite but none the less absolute incredulity; but it has been my very great good fortune to discover, by the merest accident, the underlying principle of this lost art, and I have mapped out a plan of experiment and study that will in time, I trust, enable me to give once more to the world complete and scientific data for positively ascertaining the immediate whereabouts of such metals as gold, silver or copper by a process as simple as the waving of a willow wand over the prospected area.

“I do not myself as yet fully understand the exact nature of the power I have stumbled upon, but I know it to be a sort of magnetic or sympathetic attraction, and I shall illustrate to you the principle involved by experimenting with a deck of cards. Will some one please make a selection of one card? Thank you. Now I wish you to remember the name. Put it back anywhere in the deck.” (Shift and palm off card.) “Would you like to shuffle? Mix them up thoroughly.” (Take back deck, placing palmed card on top and show large handkerchief.) “Now, ladies and gentlemen, although no ordinary power on earth can find that selected card, I am going to satisfy all present that it is a very extraordinary power indeed that will assist me in producing it. As a matter of fact, the power is entirely apart from any personal ability I may possess; the merit of the feat will be solely due to the mysterious properties of this little pen-knife. To conclusively prove that I take no part in the action I shall have some one blindfold me with this handkerchief.” (Fold the handkerchief, and when it is being knotted at back adjust fold over eyes and nose so that table can be seen when looking straight downwards.) “Now, as it is utterly impossible for me to see at all, I shall again shuffle the cards” (blind shuffle and leave one extra card on top), “And spread them out over the table.” (Spread the deck on the table with a rotary motion, gradually working off top card and retaining second card with finger or thumb, employing both hands so that selected card can be almost wholly covered. Keep exposed corner in sight and spread balance of cards still further over table. Now take open pen-knife in hand.) “Please observe that I do not touch the cards at all.” (Poise knife daintily between finger and thumb, circle about with hovering motion, and suddenly pierce card through its exposed part. Remove handkerchief, request name of card and slowly turn it up on point of blade.)

We consider this trick a capital one if performed with some address. Of course the patter is all a matter of taste and any invention may answer. The possibility of getting a perfect view of the table when the eyes are bandaged is never suspected by the uninitiated, but it is a fact well known to conjurers. The slightest glint is quite sufficient, as the head may be moved about freely so as to take in the whole plane below. Under any circumstances it is difficult to fold a handkerchief so that no ray of light will enter from beneath.

This trick may be performed without getting sight of the card, by retaining the selected card under finger of one hand and then the other, and when spreading is complete retaining its position well exposed, and piercing by mechanical judgment of its location.