Show POINTS ON CARDS Card Tricks Viewed from the Standpoint Stand-point of Exact Science Card tricks so called can be divided properly prop-erly into two classestricks which are purely tricks and nothing else and tricks which are founded on mathematics Of the former it can only be said that it requires I re-quires a special dexterity to handle the e cards coupled with long practice to make any sort of a success at it There are scores of trick books which profess to reveal hidden hid-den secrets and to show the willing enthusiast enthu-siast how to astonish and mystify his friends on every occasion The basis of many of these tricks is the I art of palming which alone not one in a thousand can learn to do with any degree of success In fact it requires a born I genius to manipulate cards skillfully and I j when a genius of this sort comes into the i world he is switch off I likely to from the playing of harmless tricks to working I I boys in the vernacular of the gambling table and become an out and out sharper There are however a number of simple card tricks some of which are founded on mathematics and others which require but little skill and are easily learned which are extremely interesting To the mind not versed in the range and power of numbers it is simply wonderful what can be done with cards For instance take the old spelling trick which is nothing more than a simple arrangement of the cards but always al-ways a constant source of delight to the children and of instruction as well especially espe-cially to those who are just learning to spell Arrange the thirteen cards of any one suit in the following order o 910 king knave 24 0 queen ace 7 8 3 with the 5 at the bottom Then take the top card from the top and place it at the bottom Continue the operation and begin to spell remembering each card represents a letter Spell in this way one Then turn j I up the fourth card and it will be the ace or one spot Then continue and spell two I and the fourth card will be the two spot Then th ree and the sixth card will belie be-lie three spot and so on leaving out each I card as it is spelled This is an excellent trick for the children chil-dren and here is another one similar in idea and which will give them a knowledge knowl-edge of the vowels A little story goes with it A certain ship contained a crew of fifteen Christians and fifteen Turks Provisions running short owing to a storm laving driven the ship out of her course it became necessary for fifteen of the crew to die in order to save the rest i The wily captain therefore made the following I lowing proposition That the crew should I eplaced in a lino and every ninth man counted out until fifteen men had been MJ I ectol He then placed thorn in such a position that every ninth man was a Turk I Now the question is How did he do it Let fifteen black cards represent the Turks t j II II and fifteen red cards represent the Christians I Chris-tians Of course it all depends upon the arrangement of these cards but it has I I been found best in order to facilitate the i memorizing of them to take a sentence in which the five vowels appear Here is the sentence From numbers aid and art never will famcdcpart The first vowel in the sentence is o In the grammatical arrangement of the vowels a e i o u this is the fourth Therefore beginning be-ginning with the red cards take four and place them on tho table face down U is the mitt vowel and the fifth in the order Therefore take five cards from the black pile and place them on the four red ones Then two lcd one black three red one black one red two black twp red three black one Kd two black two red and one black alternating the red and black Then beginning be-ginning with the pile face up every ninth card left out will be a black one until they I are exhausted from the packF F WILLING |