" ... It is considered very bad ethics among the conjuring fraternity to expose even a single trick, and, while it is not necessarily harmful in itself to do so, it does, as a matter of fact, detract from the mystery of all the other tricks performed during the same exhibition. To explain, however, by private lessons or in book form how to do the tricks is taken by magicians in general to be perfectly legitimate and correct.
I have had the thought in mind these many seasons of writing a treatise which would be especially suitable for the beginner in magic, and which would embody a choice collection of tricks. This I have at last succeeded in accomplishing in the present work. The tricks explained herein have been selected from over a thousand in my own repertory..." (RAYMOND DIXIE - 1922)