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Personally I find any trick using a swastica not a particularly good idea today, because the swastica is loaded with meaning not necessarily appropriate for entertainment. But we should not forget that this manuscript was originally written in the 1940s.
The gem in my opinion is the last effect, "The All Clear Card Transformation."
Here are the effect descriptions as they were originally written by Stewart James.
SWASTRICKA
The performer writes a prediction and anyone retains it for the time being. He now displays a card, the same size as a playing card, bearing a Swastica. The assertion is made that invariably when something is predicted, the actual prediction is not seen until the event has transpired. In this case the swastica itself is the prediction—the meaning of which you will explain as the trick progresses—and which will be verified by the notation on the slip retained by a spectator.
Two cards are now very fairly selected—you do not know what they will be in advance—and you disclose that both the swastica and the written message are correct. In doing so, an interesting oddity is revealed that your audience will remember and talk about.
MEMO-GRAPHIA
The performer writes two predictions, one on each of two slips of paper. They may be left with anyone for safe keeping. The pack is handed to the audience and two spectators each select a card and a number mentally.
Now, without the performer ever touching the pack, both predictions—based on the numbers freely selected by the spectators—are shown correct AND THE TWO MENTALLY SELECTED CARDS HAVE CHANGED PLACES.
"THE ALL CLEAR" CARD TRANSFORMATION
The volunteer is first handed the pack. He decides upon a number and notes the card at that position in the face-down pack. The pack is cut and the volunteer again counts to a number and removes whatever card is at that position.
He fans the cards, or spreads them face down on a table. One card is face-up in the face-down spread. It is the card first noted. More than that, it is the same number of cards down in the pack as there are spots on the second card he selected. So much for the magical reversal of the mentally chosen card and the "coincidence" of finding it at the "predicted" position in the pack.
However an even greater surprise awaits him on turning the card face-down to find that it is the only red-backed card in an otherwise blue-backed pack. His first reaction is to look through the pack for a duplicate—which I am happy to say he will not find.
1st edition 1944; original 16 pages; PDF 11 pages.
word count: 2401 which is equivalent to 9 standard pages of text
