To Make the Four Aces Travel to different Parts of the Pack, to Transform them into other Cards, and Cause them to Multiply to an unlimited extent.
T
he trick of the Four Aces, which I am about to describe, was the invention of the well-known conjuror Conus. It was his favourite trick, and was performed by him with equal artistic finish and charm of manner. Its effect, as I have seen it executed by the inventor himself, was as follows:The performer asked one of the spectators to step forward, and handing him a pack of cards, requested him to pick out the four aces.
Then, himself taking the rest of the pack, he opened it bookwise, and asked his interlocutor to place the four aces in the opening. He then immediately inserted his little finger between them and transferred them by means of the pass, two to the top, and two to the bottom. The pack being thus disposed, he laid it on the table.
"Now, sir," he said, "without my touching the cards in any way, the four aces which you have placed in the middle of the pack shall go and place themselves in such positions as you may choose. For instance, would you like them all at top or all at bottom; or would you rather have them three at top and one beneath; or three at bottom and one at top; or two at top and two at bottom? Stay one moment; for greater safety be kind enough to put your hand on the pack."
As the various positions mentioned were enumerated with great rapidity, and as it was somewhat difficult to remember them, the mind of the spectator was always struck by the arrangement last suggested, and this arrangement was almost invariably the one selected. "Two above and two below," answered the spectator.
"Take them yourself," replied the conjuror, without even going near the pack. If, on the contrary, some other distribution of the cards was demanded, Conus took the pack in his own hands, saying:-
"Did you feel them pass? No? In any case I will show you that your orders have been faithfully complied with." And he forthwith, by means of the pass, placed the aces in the positions selected."*
*Thus, if all four were demanded at top or bottom, he would pass the two which at the outset were at the opposite end of the pack, to that position. If three were required at top and one at bottom, he would pass one of those at the bottom to the top, and vice versâ.--ED.
The Four Aces
"Now, sir," he continued, taking the four aces, and making a feint of exchanging them somewhat awkwardly for other cards, "I will place these four aces on the table; be kind enough to put your hand on them, and take care not to let one of them escape. You are quite sure you have the four aces?"
The extempore assistant, taking the make-believe movement for a genuine change, naturally expressed some doubt on the subject. "What, you are not certain! Why surely, there they are under your hand. Ah! I see what it is. The fact is, you distrust me, and perhaps you are right; for most unquestionably those cards will change presently under your very hand, and that without your knowing anything about it."
While thus speaking, he slipped the little finger under the first card of the pack, and when, after having placed the aces once more on the top, he removed them again, he took off this card with them.
He held them for a moment or two, taking care only to show the last of the five cards, which was not an ace, replaced them on the pack in order to get rid of this fifth card, and once more taking the four aces only, laid them on the table.
"Take notice, sir," he remarked, "that at any rate I have not changed them this time, and that I place them really here on the table."
The spectator, who had noticed the undermost card, fancied, not unnaturally, that the aces had been changed; but notwithstanding, when asked whether he was sure of having them, he hesitated to reply, or sometimes from a polite desire to spare the performer embarrassment, said that he believed he had got the aces under his hand. "Come, that's better," said the performer; "we shall agree at last, I see. Come now, you have such confidence in me, that you wont mind making a bet with any gentleman present that you really have the aces."
"Oh dear, no!" the victim was sure to exclaim, "I shant bet, for in point of fact I am certain that I have not got the aces."
The conjuror showed that the spectator was again mistaken, by turning the aces face upwards, and then down again on the table. He then secretly palmed off five cards, and placed the rest of the pack by the side of the four aces. In picking up these latter, he placed the five palmed cards on the top of them, squaring up the packet thus made so that the addition might not be noticeable, and placed the whole on the pack. When he, a moment afterwards, inquired, "Where are the aces now?" the spectator answered with confidence that they were on the top of the pack. Then, taking successively the four first cards of the pack, the performer laid them delicately on the table, and requested the spectator to place his hand upon them. He drew attention to the fact that the card which next followed was not an ace, and spreading the pack fanwise, showed that neither was there an ace left in the rest of the pack. To do this, he had only to abstain from spreading the five or six last cards of the pack, which he kept together, so that no one could see what they were.
The Four Aces
He then took the top card of the pack. "Now, gentlemen," he said, "for the four aces. I won't bring them into my hand, but here on the table; the effect will be more
surprising."
While so speaking, and gesticulating accordingly, he intentionally exhibited the card which he held in his hand, and which, as will be remembered, was not an ace, then dexterously "changed" it for the uppermost ace.
"I will place, therefore, this first card here--one!" Here he made a false shuffle so as to have the opportunity of transferring the indifferent card from top to middle of the pack. He then placed on the table a second ace, saying "Two!" then another, "Three!" but instead of then at once taking the fourth ace, he "changed" it for the card next following, and showing it, observed-- "You see, gentlemen, the cards which I take from the pack are not aces" (here he again "changed" the card for the last ace), "but by shaking them a little, like this, they turn into aces."
He showed the card as such, then turned up the other three cards to show the four aces together; and when the spectator looked beneath his own hand, he found that the four aces had departed, and that other cards had taken their place.
This is a very ingeniously devised trick, and the sequel which Conus appended to it, though rather free-and-easy, is nevertheless decidedly effective. I proceed to describe it as exactly as possible.
When the trick as above described was concluded, the performer replaced the aces on the top of the pack, and, while indulging in a little chaff at the expense of his victim, transferred them by the pass to the middle.
"I see, sir, that you have a considerable talent for conjuring; and when you have acquired the manual dexterity, the mental agility, and the general acuteness which are indispensably necessary to the art, I shouldn't wonder if, some day or other, you made a really very fair conjuror. But, stop a bit, I can prove to you at once that you are already more of a conjuror than you imagine."
During the delivery of this "patter," the hand which held the pack, sinking naturally down, had got hold of a tolerable-sized pack consisting of aces only, hidden behind the performer's table; then, in order to conceal the increased bulk of the pack, Conus
covered it with the whole width of the other hand, as though merely to square up the cards.
It should here be mentioned, that in adding these aces to the rest of the pack, he had placed them face to face with the other cards. "Now, sir, be kind enough to say at what number you would like these aces, which are now on the top, to appear-fourth? sixth? twelfth?--just when you like--say 'Now.'"
He then threw a few of the cards rapidly on the table, repeating "Whenever you like." "Now I should like them," says the person.
The Four Aces
"How many would you like? I will give you as many as you please." So saying, he "turned over" the pack in such manner that the added aces should be on the top; and so that no one should notice the quantity of the cards he held, he kept his hand continually in motion in an up-and-down direction.
"Twelve," says the spectator.
"Twelve! You can't mean it. Why you know very well that there are only four in the pack. But it's all the same, if you really want twelve, I'm not particular to a few aces more or less. Here they are, you see." He threw twelve aces in succession on the table. "Will you have any more? There are plenty to come." He threw down a considerable number. "The supply is inexhaustible, you see and, indeed, even if I hadn't any more, I should know very well where to find some." And in order to prove his assertion,
separating the parcel of aces from the pack proper, he threw the latter on the table, and with great dexterity thrust the aces inside either the coat or the waistcoat of the victim, afterwards producing them from thence one by one to the very last. Conus had a
special talent, moreover, for making this exhibition last as long as possible, and very often, by the time he had produced fifty aces in this manner, the general impression was that he had brought out a couple of hundred or so.
By way of a comical termination to the scene,--when the unfortunate victim at last made an effort to escape from this avalanche of cards, and to get back to his place among the spectators, Conus caught hold of his coat-tails and shook out aces even from thence. These were merely cards which he had gathered from the table and let fall simultaneously with the shaking of the skirts of the coat.
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The Four Aces
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