He has definitely struck "pay dirt" in this book, which he has whimsically titled THE LIVING END. In simpler terms, this is an encyclopedic collection of endings for one of the most popular branches of Magic - the "take a card, look at a card, remember a card, think of a card, any card," opening.

Having completed this stage, the performer KNOWS either the identity of the card or its whereabouts in the pack, and sometimes he knows both. And, as John Northern Hilliard put it back in 1908 in DOWNS' ART OF MAGIC, "He would be a very lame performer who would simply take a card off the pack (or out of it) and hand it to a spectator with the remark, "Here's your card."

Professor Hoffmann said in Chapter III of MODERN MAGIC (1876) "There is a large class of tricks which may be described as consisting of two elements - the discovery of a chosen card by the performer, and the revelation of his knowledge in a more or less striking manner," and then gives four methods for achieving this goal. In Chapter II of DOWNS' ART OF MAGIC (1908) four "new methods" (at that date) were given. Jim has, in this collection, extended this number into hundreds (literally) and it cannot be said with absolute certainty that he has rounded up ALL of them.