A TRICK FROM GREATER

MAGIC
THE TWENTY-FIVE CARD TRICK
A new method of performing an old and well-known non-sleight-of-hand trick.
The old form of the trick is so hackneyed that it has long since been relegated to
the apprenticeship branch of magic.
But due to the ingenuity of Mr. S. Leo Horowitz this obsolete "amusement" has
been developed into what may well be called a major mystery.
Mr. Horowitz has many brilliant card inventions to his credit and his Saturday
afternoon jaunt from Jersey City to Max Holden's always brings forth a new and
baffling wrinkle.
This "Twenty-five Card Trick," while one of the simplest, is assuredly not the least
of his bewildering conceits.

Effect: The performer, after shuffling the pack, passes out five cards each to five
members of the company.
Each assistant mentally selects one card of his group.
Another member of the audience gathers the cards, shuffles them, and hands the
packet to the performer, who, fanning the cards (in groups of five) before each of
the five assistants in turn, reveals the mentally selected cards.
As the reader will at once surmise, it is this shuffling of the cards by a spectator
that differentiates this effect from its prototype.

Time Occupied: Three minutes.

Requisites: A pack of fifty cards. The top twenty-five and the bottom twenty-five
are duplicates.

Preparation: The top twenty-five cards and the twenty-five duplicates on the
bottom are in the same identical order at the outset.
This order is not arbitrary, as no special prearrangement is necessary.
The simplest way of arranging the cards is to shuffle the top twenty-five cards, so
that they will be well mixed, and then arrange the bottom twenty-five cards to
correspond.
Each packet will now be in the same order. Now take one of the packets and deal
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the cards, face down, one at a time, in five piles, thus:

You now have five packets of five cards each' on the table.
Assemble the groups by laying I on 2; these two packets on 3; these three on 4
and the four packets on 5.
These twenty-five cards are now added to the BOTTOM of the pack, and
everything is in readiness for the trick.
By this maneuver you have rearranged the bottom twenty-five cards in a new
combination.
When these cards are dealt in packets of five cards, the first card of each packet is
a card originally in the first packet; the second card one of the original second
packet, etc.
In the old mode, this essential rearrangement of the cards had to be engineered
during the actual performance of the trick, which, however well camouflaged,
gave the trick away as based on mathematics.
In this greatly improved method all this is accomplished before you perform the
trick.

Presentation of Trick: Remove the pack from its case and give the cards a false
shuffle. A good plan is to have a short card-the joker preferred-on top of the pack
at the outset.
You can thus give the pack an overhand false shuffle-really just cutting the pack in
a manner that should now be familiar-ending up, if you are an adept in this
sleight, with a false riffle shuffle and several genuine cuts.
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The final cut, of course, brings the short card to the top, which restores the pack
to its original order.
Slip the short joker to the bottom of the deck. You now hand out five cards from
the top of the deck to each of five spectators. We will designate them A, B, C, D, E.
You must remember the order.
Remove each group of cards carelessly, as if paying no attention to the number of
cards you are giving out, and of course, directing no attention to the fact that
each group is made up of the same number of cards as there are assistants taking
part in the trick.
When each assistant has mentally selected a card, request one of the spectators
to collect the cards and shuffle them. Taking back the cards you place them on
TOP of the packet in your hand, inserting the little finger between the two
packets.
The pass is made, which brings the twenty-five arranged cards from the bottom to
the top. A false riffle shuffle and a false cut are effective at this stage, but unless
the reader is a master of these sleights he had better leave them severely alone.
Take the top five cards, fan them, and ask the first assistant, A, if his card is in the
group. If it is, it must be the bottom, or the left end card of the fan.
Whatever his answer may be, "yes" or "no," show this same fan to B and ask if his
card is present. If so, it must be the second card from the bottom. If C's card is in
the fan, it must be the third card from the bottom. If D's card is present, it must
be the fourth card from the bottom. If E's card is in the fan, it must be the fifth
card from the bottom-the top card, in fact. These positions are fixed and always
the same. The cards were placed in these respective positions automatically when
the twenty-five duplicate cards were rearranged in five packets, as in Fig. I.
As a result of this deal, each of the original groups of five cards will be
represented by some one card in each of the five new groups.
It may happen, of course, that none of the chosen cards is in the fan.
And it may happen, also that two or even three of the mentally selected cards are
present in the same fan. If the first condition obtains, simply toss the fan aside
and take up another group of five cards. If, say, three cards are present in the
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same fan, you will know their respective locations as soon as the spectators
acknowledge that their cards are in the group.
Let us suppose, by way of illustration, that A acknowledges his card in one of the
five fans. Whatever fan the card is in, it must be the bottom card of that fan.

"That is all I want to know," you say. "Now I want to call your attention to the fact
that I am not presenting a feat of magic or a sleight-of-hand trick. You will agree
with me that the very conditions of this experiment would rule out any element
of deception.
You have NOT drawn a card from the pack. You have merely THOUGHT of ONE
card. One card! Therefore, if I was presenting this experiment as a feat of magic, I
would have just one chance in fifty-two of finding your card.
But this is not a feat of magic.
It is an experiment in psychology. I am a psychologist, and that means I have
made a study of the human mind. I am using this deck of playing cards merely to
illustrate a peculiar phase of the mind and one-only one-of its many mysterious
features.
"First of all, it must be understood that we all possess two minds, or rather one
mind divided into two parts, so as to make the meaning clearer.
One part we shall call the conscious and the other the subconscious mind.
The conscious mind is that part of the mind which you are using right now.
The mind that reasons. Now I want to ask you to keep the card you thought of
firmly fixed in your mind. Visualize it, if possible. I shall not ask any more
questions, nor shall I even so much as glance at these cards in my hand."
Here, slowly, seriously, and always keeping the faces of the cards away from you,
you place the fan behind your back. "Keep a picture of your card in your conscious
mind," you continue. "Only by thinking very strongly of it shall I have a chance to
succeed in this strange experiment.
You are the positive pole. I am the negative. In other words, I must rely upon my
sub-conscious mind-that part of the mind that does not reason but accepts all
thoughts coming from a conscious mind as facts. If I can make my mind passive
enough, perhaps the sub-conscious mind will receive your thoughts.... Now."
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The last part of this pseudo-psychological rigmarole should be delivered slowly
and in all seriousness. Get the pulse of drama in it.
Here is where the element of showmanship comes in. It provides the misdirection
that is so essential in concealing the definite principle underlying the problem. I t
is the factor that will pull the wool over even a sophisticated audience's eye and
transmute a mathematical problem into an uncanny mental mystery.

As you utter the last word-"Now"-you close your eyes and stand perfectly
immobile for a moment. But at the same time your fingers are busily engaged
behind your back. You are removing A's card-the bottom card-from the fan.
Slowly, as if still under psychic influence, bring the card in front of you and lay it
face down in an imaginary first position on the table.
The instant the card is on the table you awake, so to speak, from your trance. You
are briskly alert again as you take up another group of five cards and fan them
before the spectators. Let us assume that the fourth spectator, D, sees his card in
the third fan. His card must be the fourth from the bottom. You go through the
same business with him as you did with A, finally removing his card from the fan,
behind your back, and laying it down in a fourth imaginary position on the table.
Repeat the procedure with the remaining cards, showing them in fans of five
cards each at a time. Each time you remove a chosen card lay it face down in its
imaginary position on the table. At the end there will be five cards in a row.
Ask the first spectator the name of his card, then turn over the first card, which
will be his. And continue in this way until all five cards have been revealed.

eEnjoy !
From The Magic Man
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