Tricks with Long and Short Packs

One of the best tricks performed by the aid of “Longs and Shorts” is that known as - The demon cards.-In effect the trick is as follows: The performer obtains the assistance of some gentleman from the audience, to whom he hands the cards with a request that, having shuffled them thoroughly, he will allow five or six of the spectators to each select one card; this he does, and returns the remainder to the performer.

On receiving the cards from his temporary assistant, the performer returns to his table, and places them in a glass tumbler, and then hands both tumbler and cards to the gentleman, asking him to be good enough to collect the chosen cards, allowing each person himself to place his card in the pack contained in the tumbler; and this done, to remove all the cards, thoroughly shuffle, and place them in his pocket.

The performer now, although actually unacquainted with the exact number of cards drawn, undertakes to produce them all, no more and no less, one by one from the gentleman's pocket.

What makes the trick appear the more marvelous is the fact that the audience are quite convinced that the conjurer never once touches the cards. In support of this I would mention that I have on several occasions overheard auditors in debate on the merits of this and tricks of a similar nature; and the one invariably elicits from the other the reply,

“But he never once touched the cards”

- a proof of the gullibility of the spectators and their inability to give a correct report of what they witnessed.