The Selective Touch

"Jimmy Valentine" made popular the notion that one's finger tips could be made so sensitive that they would acquire abnormal qualities, and this idea was seized upon to dress the presentation of a number of conjuring tricks.

In this trick a shuffled pack is placed in your pocket, and the suit and value of a chosen card are matched by removing cards from the pack, presumably because of the sensitivity of the finger tips.

Preparation. Secretly place the ace of clubs, two of hearts, four of spades, and eight of diamonds with the backs outermost in your upper right vest pocket. The eight of diamonds is nearest your body.

Procedure. The steps are as follows:

1. Have someone shuffle the deck, remove any card, note it, and place it face upwards on the table.

2. Open your coat and have him place the remainder of the pack in your inner coat pocket. See that he places it back outermost.

3. Discourse on the sensitivity of your finger tips. "We all know that it is possible to read raised figures with the finger tips, but it is not so generally known that it is possible to read printing in the same manner," you say. "I frankly admit that I am unable to read fine print, such as that found in a magazine or newspaper; but I can read the large indexes of the cards, both the numerals and the pips."

4. "I'll try it with your card." Turn toward your left, open your coat a little with your right hand, and slide your left hand into the inner coat pocket, moving the fingers so that the movement shows through the cloth. Remove your hand from the pocket and remove one of the cards from your vest pocket, the suit of which matches that of the spectator's card. Knowing the sequence of the cards makes this an easy matter. Bring it out as if from your inner coat pocket, saying, "Here is a card of the same suit!"

5. Again reach under the coat. "Now to see if I can match the value of your card." Remove your hand and rub it briskly on your right coat sleeve, then plunge it under the coat again. Fumble about in the inner coat pocket, finally removing the card or cards necessary to match the value of the card–for example, for an ace bring forth the ace; for a three, the ace and two; for a four, the ace and three, and so on. Any number can be matched with the four cards–the jack, queen, and king being considered as eleven, twelve, and thirteen.

If the suit card you have already removed is needed to match the value, remove the other card or cards and place these upon the suit card, arriving at the proper value in this manner. For example, let us say that the spectator has the seven of spades. Bring forth the four of spades and show it, a spade, as the suit card. Now remove the ace and two, placing them beside the four, pointing out that the three values total seven.

A little experiment will show you that any card can be matched by using the four cards. The trick is simple but when given a good presentation it is, like other simple things, very entertaining.