Book 3 — The Enchanted Card Frame
Reading edition
A mystifying card trick, in which the performer makes use of the enchanted card frame shown in detail in the illustration, is as follows: A pack of playing cards is given to one of the spectators, who selects a card, noting the number and suit. The card is then placed in an envelope and burned by the spectator. The performer takes the ashes and loads them into a pistol, which he aims at a small frame, shown as empty, and set upon a table a few feet distant. The frame is covered with a handkerchief, and the pistol is fired at the frame. On removing the handkerchief the selected and destroyed card appears in the frame, from which it is taken at the back.
Fig. 3 Fig. 2 Fig. 1
Fig. 4 Fig. 5
A Pocket is Cut into the Frame, and Filled with Black Sand, Obscuring the Card When the Frame is Inverted
The trick is performed as follows: A forced deck is prepared having 24 like cards, and the backs of the cards are held to the spectators when a card is selected. The frame is made of a molding 2 in. wide, mitered at the corners, and of the size indicated, the opening being 6³⁄₈ by 7¹⁄₂ in. The general views of the frame in normal position and inverted are shown in Figs. 1 and 5. A pocket is cut in the lower edge of the frame at the back, as shown in detail in Fig. 2. A pane of glass is fitted into the frame, and on the three edges other than the one having a pocket, strips of cardboard, ¹⁄₈ in. thick, are glued, as a bearing for a second piece of glass, as shown in Fig. 4. The back of the frame is fitted with a cover of thin wood, and a hinged door is arranged in the center of the back, as shown in Fig. 3.
A mat of black cardboard is fitted into the frame to form a background behind the card, Fig. 1. The pocket at the bottom is filled with black sand—that used by sign painters is satisfactory—and the frame is ready to receive the card for the performance of the trick. One of the cards from the forced deck is placed in the frame. By inverting the latter the sand is caused to run between the glass partitions, concealing the card on the black mat behind it. In this condition it is exhibited to the spectators and then placed upon the table. A handkerchief is thrown over it. The pistol is one of the toy variety and a cap is fired in it. In picking up the frame the performer turns it over, while removing the handkerchief, so that the black sand runs back into the pocket in the frame.—Harry Marcelle, Honolulu, H. I.
