The Card In The Mirror
Provide a mirror, either round or oval, the frame of which must be at
least as wide as a card, and the glass must be wider than the distance
between the frame, by at least the width of a card. The glass in the
middle must be made to move in two grooves, and so much of the
quicksilver must be scraped off, as is equal to the size of a common
card. You then paste over the part where the quicksilver is rubbed
off, a piece
the space, which must at first be placed behind the frame.
Fix this mirror against a partition, through which two strings are to
go, by which an assistant in an adjoining room can easily move the
glass in the grooves, and make the card appear or disappear at
pleasure. Or it may be done without an assistant, if a table be placed
against the partition, and a string from the glass be made to pass
through a leg of it, and communicate with a small trigger, which you
may easily push down with your foot, and at the same time wiping the
glass with your handkerchief, under the pretence that the card may
appear more conspicuous; which will also serve most effectually to
disguise the operation.
Having every thing thus arranged, you contrive to make a person draw
the same sort of card as that fixed to the mirror; if you do not
succeed in this with a stranger, make some pretence for shuffling the
cards again, and present the pack to a confederate, who, of course,
will draw the card you wish, and who is to show it to two or three
persons next to him, under the pretence that it might slip his memory.
This card you place in the middle of the pack, then make the pass,
and bring it to the bottom. Direct the person to look for his card in
the mirror, which the confederate behind the partition is to draw
slowly forward; or if you perform the operation yourself, press the
trigger with your foot, and the card will appear as if placed between
the glass and the quicksilver. While the glass is drawing forward, you
slide off the card from the bottom of the pack, and convey it away.
More
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