[Ads-l] cut the cards (UNCLASSIFIED)

[James A. Landau]

On Tue, 16 Oct 2018 20:06:11 Zibe + 0000 "MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM AMRDEC (US)" wrote:
         <william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL>
<quote>
"The Expert at the Card Table" is a seminal book on sleight of hand with 
cards, and an interest of mine (the author, S. W. Erdnase, is presumed 
to have been named E. S. Andrews [reversal], and is otherwise unknown). 
<snip> 
I find "Put your faith in Providence and keep your powder dry" in 1894 
(newspapers.com).
<end quote>

I presume S. W. Erdnase is the inventor or maybe popularizer of a magician's trick known as the "Erdnase one-hand shift".
Source:  a magician named Clayton Rawson (an old friend of David Mauer's, by the way) circa 1940 wrote 4 detective novels featuring a magician named Merlini (Too Many Magicians, The Footprints on the Ceiling, The Headless Lady, and No Coffin For The Corpse; he also wrote one detective book under a pseudonym).  In at least one of them is the line "the Erdnase one-hand shift, which is not, as you might suspect, a lady's garment". (quoted from memory, probably not exact).

Isn't "Put your faith in Providence and keep your powder dry" a paraphrase of Oliver Cromwell?

- Jim Landau



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