CARD TRICKS
by Howard Thurston

card tricksCONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.
A FEW INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF HOWARD THURSTON, PREMIER CARD MANIPULATOR OF
THE WORLD,

CHAPTER II.
INDISPENSABLE SLEIGHTS,

CHAPTER III.
THE CONTINUOUS FRONT- AND BACK-HAND PALM, WITH CARDS AND TRICKS IN CONNECTION
THEREWITH,

CHAPTER IV.
THE "THURSTON" SYSTEM OF EXPERT CARD MA¬NIPULATION (NOW PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST
TIME)

CHAPTER V.
AN ENTIRELY NEW AND ORIGINAL COLLECTION OF MISCELLANEOUS CARD TRICKS, INCLUDING
THE CORRECT METHOD OF PERFORMING THURSTON'S NEW RISING CARDS,


CHAPTER I.

A Few Incidents in the Life of Howard Thurston.

HOWARD THURSTON, the Premier Card Manip¬ulator of the World, and known
throughout Amer¬ica as "The Man who Mystified Hermann," was born at Columbus,
Ohio, on the l0th of July, 1869, and is therefore now in his thirty-first year.

Originally intended by his father-a gentleman of firm Christian principles-for
the ministry, he entered the D. L. Moody College, in Northfield, Mass., and
completed a course of five years' train¬ing. During this period he came to the
conclu¬sion that Providence had never intended him to go through life as a
parson, and his natural love of Magic always predominated over his liking for
the more serious subject he was studying.

Upon graduating with honors from the College, very much against his father's
wish he decided to adopt Magic as his profession. (How many other well-meaning
enthusiasts have adopted this procedure, and with what result?) He did so, but
found that there were already too many "all-round" Conjurers in the business.
This some-

what damped his ardor at first; but, after cogitat¬ing for some considerable
time, he decided to adopt a single branch of the Magician's Art, viz., Card
Tricks.

Then came many weary months of assiduous practice, the greater part of the time
being occu¬pied in a strict adherence to a special system of strengthening and
giving additional flexibility to the muscles of the hands (a system which, much
as I should like, I am not in a position to divulge), and after five years'
traveling in America, pre¬senting a Magical Entertainment of two hours in length
in the smaller cities, Mr. Thurston first made his bow to a public audience as a
Card Ma¬nipulator at the Fountain Square Theatre, Cincin¬nati, Ohio, in January,
1895. Since then his career has been one of unprecedented success and brilliancy.

One of the chief characteristics of Mr. Thurs¬ton's act is his graceful stage
deportment. No other living artiste, in my opinion (and I have witnessed the
performances of the best Prestidigi¬tateurs of the past quarter of a century)
can com¬pare with him in the incomparable manner in which he presents his tricks.

There is nothing automatic about this Past Mas¬ter of the Art. During the whole
of his per¬formance he is thinking, and always on the alert, watching for new
ideas to occur to his energetic brain. Magic, like Literature is a double Art:
Mechanical Magic is the Prose, while Sleight-of-

Hand is the Poetry, and it is in this latter branch that this great artiste
excels.

Mr. Thurton's pièce de resistance is his celebrated Rising-Card Trick, with
which he absolutely mystified that guardian of an honored name in the world
of deception-HERMANN THE GREAT.

With regard to this trick I think it will be of interest to the readers of this
book, to reproduce at this point the following extract from the Denver
Sunday Post, of October 23d, 1898:



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