"Card Tricks And the Way They Are Performed" By Si Stebbins (Circa 1905) There seem to have been several versions of this book. The original seems to have been a one-dollar pamphlet, and only had tricks 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and "A Mind Reading Trick". This edition included advertisements for Cinco cigars.CONTENTS INCLUDE3 To the Novice3 The System4 Rules- Rule 1 Shuffling - Rule 2 Numerical Value - Rule 3 Position - Rule 4 Position as to Suits5 Trick 1 To Name a Card that a Person May Draw From Behind the Back5 Trick 2 To To tell how many and what cards a person may draw from behind the back5 Trick 3 To allow a person to take a handful of cards from behind the back and place them in his pocket; then to make him take out one at a time any card you may call for.6 Trick 4 To allow a person to draw a card, placing it in his pocket without looking at it, and then to make him tell what it is7 Trick 5 To let a person think of a card that they see as you run them over; and then to make that person place the card they are thinking of in their pocket without knowing it8 Trick 6 To run the cards over behind the back and name any card you may be asked to stop on8 Trick 7 To tell how far from the top any card is that may be called for9 Trick 8 How in a game of Whist to deal every trump to yourself9 Trick 9 How in a game of Hearts to deal every Heart to yourself9 Trick 10 How to deal a pat flush of any suit called for to any person asking it10 To allow a person to draw a card from the pack, afterward placing the card back in the pack and shuffling; then to take the pack, throw at wall or ceiling and stick card selected to wall or ceiling with a tack through the center of the card10 This is my famous Three-Deck Trick. Note In order to do it you must have three decks, stacked according to the system in front of this booklet11 To allow a person to cut the deck into three parts, then after letting them name a number in either part they may select, make them tell what card is that number from the top in the part they select12 A mind-reading trick...........................................- ABOUT SI STEBBINS -Si Stebbins (1867 - 1950) performed as an acrobat as well as a clown in a variety of circuses. He was billed as "Vino". He published some books under the name "Vino" too.He became known as Si Stebbins in 1892. He is the creator of the card stack called the Si Stebbins Stack. The version he published was actually a bit different than how he performed it. The cards he used were four numbers apart, not the familiar three, and there was a different rotation of suits. Stebbins was one of the first to do trade shows and toured with the Willys Overland Company auto agencies. He also lined up some baker's alliance and went from town to town sponsored by the local bakery.Stebbins died of a heart attack in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.- Si Stebbins System -Horacio Galasso described the progression in Giochi de Carte (1593) which was translated to French and possibly the source for Gaspar Cardozo de Sequeira's Portuguese book Thesouro de Prudents" (1612).In the winter of 1895-1896, Si Stebbins was traveling through New England giving "store shows." Another member of the show was a Syrian magician named Selim Cid, a card manipulator who performed a routine with a stacked deck that Stebbins learned from him. This is what is now known as the Si Stebbins Stack.Si Stebbins publishes his version in William Vino's Card Tricks (1898). This booklet was reprinted in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch on December 18, 1898 (a reprint of the article appeared in the July 1945 issue of The Linking Ring, vol. 25, no. 5.).Howard Thurston publishes his version as "The Thurston System" in Howard Thurston's Card Tricks (1901).