bCi oresand Card-Table Talk ! ^^ pv-?^^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ©lap^SM dtrorig^t 'SiA2I2f [ UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. WHIST SCORES AND CARD-TABLE TALK, WHIST SCORES AND CARD-TABLE TALK WITH 51 25ilJiiograpIjp of WWt BY RUDOLF H. RHEINHARDT n ^ . . Suit of Black Knights, Chinese Pack. / ^^ ^^ (British Museum, Catl. PI. xxi.) 4 CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY 1887 Copyright by A. C. McClurg and Company 1886 ©etiicatcti [without permission] TO THE DEUCE AND TREY. Note. — It is but proper to acknowledge indebtedness for the above unique portrait of these celebrated individuals to the late Rev. E. S. Taylor, of Orraesly St. Margaret, Great Yarmouth, England. PREFACE. OME three years ago, at a little whist-party that I had the pleasure of attending, the score was kept on the back of a visiting-card, which was tucked partly under the marble slab of the table on which we were playing. When the rubber was fin- ished, our hostess brought forth from under this same slab other cards containing the scores of many games at whist that had been played at that table during the preceding winter. She explained to us whom the initials designated, and had a number of items of in- terest to tell concerning the various whist-parties and their play. We were delighted with it all, and there came to me the idea that a little book prepared to re- ceive just such items as these, as well as the autographs of the players, would be a welcome thing in every whist-circle, to every whist-player, and might in after days serve to bring to mind in a dehghtful way the charm of evenings in the past. The idea of adding to the blanks matter of interest connected with cards and card-players was a natural one ; and the farther I 8 PREFACE. progressed in the undertaking, the more coiivinced did I become of the desirability of a good bibliography. Such was the growth of this little volume. Much that is of interest has been written as to cards and card-players, but it lies, in large part, hidden away in elaborate and expensive treatises and documents, buried in old and rare newspapers and magazines, or scattered in little fragments up and down the highways and by ways of literature. To search it out and bring it to the light was a task far greater than I anticipated, but one that compensated for the many difficulties and perplexities that it presented, by the substantial rewards and thousand and one delightful little surprises it afforded. In the chapter on Etymologies, etc., I have attempted to give what no one dictionary does, — a correct deri- vation of words connected with whist, and one that makes clear just how the card-meaning of the word is '^derived." It is to be hoped that the English diction- aries now in process of making will give adequate and scholarly treatment to this class of words, and not simply harbor the guesses advanced by writers on cards, who for the most part have not the scholarly training fitting them for speaking with authority on etymological questions. A peep into the " Catalogue of Playing and other Cards in the British Museum " would delight the heart of the seeker for additional words for new supplements to our dictionaries ; but the discovery will also lay upon him the duty of a proper study and treatment of these words. PREFACE. 9 In the preparation of the historical part of the volume I have been to much pains to present the facts and theories in accordance with the results of the labors of the most trustworthy and recent investigators, and to give an account of the subject that would be at once comprehensive and brief. The illustrations are in- tended to be representative ; but I saw no occasion to give copies of French and English cards, as they differ only slightly from those in use among us. In this as in other parts of the book I have striven to keep in mind that I was writing for entertainment, and not for instruc- tion, and have therefore given preference to those facts and items that seemed fraught with most interest. The book consists avowedly to a large extent of extracts and gleanings from the writings of others, and I have made no attempt by re-wording or other dodges to give it a look of originality which it could not possess. I have, on the contrary, — perhaps to an extent that may savor of pedantry, — tried to give full credit not only for extracts, but also for adopted ideas. I trust no one will regard this little book as an attempt at a treatise on whist ; I do not know enough about whist to venture such a thing. Indeed, I am afraid I am one of those who would cause " unmingled distaste in the fine last-century countenance of Sarah Battle j " for I enjoy whist most as a relaxation, and will not deny that I do heartily delight in a dainty bit of card-table talk that is not an analysis of the hand just playe^d : and it is the behef that I am not the only bird of the feather that has given me courage lO PREFACE. to do SO bold a thing as provide more talk for the whist-table. I desire to make special acknowledgment of my appreciation of the kmdness shown me by Prof. Otis T. Mason, curator of the Ethnological Department of the Smithsonian Institution, by which I was enabled to make copies of playing-cards in the United States National Museum, including the hitherto unpubHshed buckskin cards of the Apache Indians. RUDOLF H. RHEINHARDT. CONTENTS. Page Bibliography 17 Games and Gaming before Cards 35 History of Playing-Cards Origin 43 Naibis, or Tarots 47 Numeral Cards 53 First Mention 55 Cards in China 55 Cards of India and Persia 59 The Material 61 The First Makers 63 Cards and Card-Making in Germany 65 Spanish Cards and their Derivatives 73 Cards of Italy 85 Cards in France 85 Cards in England Sy Cards with a Secondary Purpose 89 Unique Cards 93 Card Oddities 95 Peculiar Uses of Cards 97 Manufacture of Cards 99 Card-Games other than Whist loi Carding and Gaming in France 105 " " '' England 11 1 " " " Germany 129 Gaming at Monte Carlo 137 1 2 CONTENTS. Page Gambling in America 139 Legislation as to Cards and Gaming 145 The Morality of Card- Playing 157 Whist The Etymologies and Meanings of Certain Words connected with Whist 161 History of Whist 169 Books on Whist 179 Edgar Allan Poe on Whist 181 Whist a Language 183 Teaching and Learning 185 Advice to Whist Students 187 Simple Elementary Rules 192 The Duffer's Whist Maxims 195 Great Whist Players 203 Talking at Whist 203 Whist and the Temper , . 203 Whist Etiquette 207 Whist Tyrants 207 Playing Whist (.^) 209 Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist 209 Whist with Charles Lamb 213 A Catechism of Whist 217 German Whist 219 Preference, or Swedish Whist 221 Shuffling 223 A Shuffling Machine 223 Whist Played by Machinery 223 The Number of Different Hands 227 Tricks with Cards 229 Card-Sharping 237 Fortune-Telling with Cards 245 Clergymen and Cards 253 Wesley and Whist 257 Card Sermons 259 Richard Middleton's Cards 261 Cards at Christmas 269 CONTENTS. I ^ Page A Satire on Carding 271 The Ettrick Shepherd on Card-Playing . . . .275 Hawthorne and Card-Playing 289 Chitchat Playing for a Child 293 Lookup, the Gambler 293 Epitaph on a Great Card-Player 295 Cards at Wakes 295 Paying his Debts 295 The Malay Gambler 297 Gaming in Spain 297 Well Laid 299 Snap-dragon 299 An Ancient Transaction on 'Change 299 Waste of Time 301 Superstitions as to Cards 301 Card Nicknames 303 Index 305 ILLUSTRATIONS Page Suit of Black Knights, Chinese Pack (British Mu- seum, Catl., PI. xxi.), Vignette, Titlepage. The Deuce and Trey, Dedication. Tarot, the Emperor. (British Museum, CatL, PI. i.) 49 Tarot, Man hanging by his Foot. (British Museum, CatL, PL iii.) 51 Suit of Chains, Chinese Pack. (National Museum.) 57 Suit of Horses, Chinese Pack. (British Museum, CatL, PI. xxi.) 57 Forty Thousand Cords of the Suit of Wood, Chi- nese Pack. (National Museum.) 57 King of White, or Moons, Hindustani Pack. (Chatto, PL i.) 59 Queen of Hares, North German Pack, about 1500. (British Museum, Catl. 210, Chatto, 221.) 65 King of Green, or Leaves, Old Style Piquet Pack, Recent Make. Frankfurt-am-Main. (National Museum.) 67 Ten of Acorns, Old Style Piquet Pack, Recent Make. Frankfurt-am-Main. (National Museum.) 69 Three of Bells, Saxon Pack, 1511. (Bibliotheque Nationale, Taylor, PL xvii.) ']'] Five of Cups, Mexican (Puebla) Pack of Spanish Cards, 1883. (National Museum, 73,737.) . , . . ']'^ l6 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Three of Money, Spanish (Barcelona) Pack, 1850. (National Museum, 74,734.) 75 King of Clubs, Mexican (Puebla) Pack of Spanish Cards, 1883. (National Museum, T^,'] '};].) . , .. . jj King of Clubs, Buckskin Pack of the Apaches of Arizona. (National Museum, 21,550.) 79 Knave of Clubs, Buckskin Pack of the Apaches OF Arizona. (National Museum, 21,550.) .... 79 Knight of Money, Buckskin Pack of the Apaches OF Arizona. (National Museum, 10,730.) . . . 79 Seven of Swords, Spanish (Barcelona) Pack, 1850. (National Museum, 74,734.) 81 Seven of Swords, Italian Pack (reduced). (British Museum, Catl., PI. ix.) 83 Queen of Clubs, Scottish Heraldic Pack, 1691. (Taylor, PI. xxxix.) 91 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Note. — In the following bibliography will be found the chief books on the history of cards, on gaming, etc, and all books and articles on whist that I could learn of. Those that I was not able to examine personally have been designated by an asterisk. Works in foreign languages have been included only when of paramount importance. It is intended to add to the whist bibliography in future editions, and I shall be thankful for bibliographical data as to any title or edition not noted. The only other bibliography of whist known to me is Linderfelt's, and to this I am indebted for about half a dozen titles. R. H. R. I. HISTORY OF CARDS, GAMING, Etc. Apperley, Chas J. [pseud. Nimrod). The Anatomy of Gam- ing. Eraser's Mag., vols. xvi. and xvii., 1837-8. Bartsch, Adam. Le peintre-graveur. Leipzig: 1803-21- 54, 8vo. vi. 55; X. 70-120; xiii. 120-138.* BoiTEAU, Paul (Dieudonne Alexandre Paul Boiteau, nom de giter7'e Boiteau d'Ambly). Les cartes a jouer et ia cartoman- cie. Ouvrage illustre de 40 bois- Paris : Hachette, 1854. pp. 390, sm. 8vo. [ The foiuidation of Taylor's book.\ Same. Reprint. London: J. C. Hotten, 1859. pp. 390. Bullet, J. B. Recherches historiques sur les cartes a jouer. A Lyon : 1757. pp. 163, sm. Svo. Chatto, Wm. A. Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards. London : J. R. Smith, 1848. pp. 343, 8vo. Heller, Joseph. Ursprung der Spielkarten. [pp. 299-337 in Geschichte der Holzschneidekunst. Bamberg : Kunz, 1823. pp. 457, 8vo.] * 2 1 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Hoffmann, Prof., pseud, for Angelo J. Lewis. Leber, M. C. Etudes historiques sur les cartes a jouer, prin- cipalement sur les cartes fran9aises, ou Ton examine quel- ques opinions publiees en France sur ce sujet. (Extrait du tome xvi des memoires de la soci^te royale des anti- quaires de France. Paris: 1842.) 8vo. Lewis, Angelo J. (psezcd. Prof. Hoffmann). Tricks with Cards. London and New York. [N. D.] pp. 145, i2mo. Merlin, R. Origine des cartes a jouer. Recherches nou- velles sur les naibis, les tarots, et sur les autres especes de cartes. Ouvrage accompagne d'un album de soixante- quatorze planches. Paris : [1869]. 4to. NoRDHOFF, Chas. Cards and Dice. Harper's Mag. xxvi. 163- 176. \Mostly fro7n Chatto and Apperley.] Seaver, Wm. A. The Gaming Table. Harper's Mag. xli. 130-5. [Little more than a condensation of Steinmetz's wor/e.] Seidel, J. C. Das I'Hombre-Cabinet, etc., nebst einer Nach- richt von Erfindung der Spielkarten [pp. 148-166]. Frank- furt a. d. Oder : 1785. pp. 168, 8vo. Singer, Samuel W. Researches into the History of Playing Cards ; with illustrations of the Origin of Printing and En- graving on Wood. London: R. Triphook, 1816. pp.373, 4to. Steinmetz, Andrew. The Gaming Table, its Votaries and Victims. 2 vols. London: Tinsley, 1870. pp. 436 + 444, 8vo. Taylor, Rev. Ed. S. The History of Playing Cards, with Anecdotes of their use in Conjuring, Fortune-telling, and Card-sharping. London: Hotten, 1865. pp. 529, sm. 8vo. [See Boiteau d'Ambly.] Times, John. Clubs and Club Life in London, with anec- dotes of its famous Coffee-houses, Hostelries, and Taverns, from the 17th century to the present time. London : Chatto & Windus. [N. D.] pp. 544, 8vo., illustrated. WiLLSHiRE, Wm. H. A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and other Cards in the British Museum, accompanied by a con- BIBLIO GRAPHY. 1 9 cise General History of the Subject, and remarks on Cards of Divination and of a politico-historical character. Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1876, pp. 360. With Supplement containing 23 plates, 1877, pp. 87, royal 8vo. [Rez'iewed in Nation, xxv. 260, Oct. 25, 1877.] Wright, Thomas. A History of Domestic Manners and Sen- timents in England during the Middle Ages. London ; 1862. pp. 502, 4to. II. WHIST. A*****, Major, ps end. for C. B. Coles. Ames, Fisher. Modern Whist, with the Laws of the Game. New York: Harper, 1879. pp- 84, 32mo. (Harper's Half- Hour Series, No. 119.) Aquarius, pseud. Easy Whist. London : Chapman & Hall, 1883. pp. 48, 32mo. \See Buckland, 2.] The Hands at Whist. Chapman & Hall, 1883. pp. 64, 32mo. Advanced Whist. Chapman & Hall, 1884. pp. 64, 32mo. Art and Mystery of Modern Gaming. The whole fully ex- pos'd and detected ; containing an Historical Account of all the Secret Abuses practised in the Games of Chance. Lon- don : J. Roberts, 1726. pp. iii. [Whisk, pp. 94-103.] Baldwin, John L. The Laws of Short Whist, ed. by J. L. Baldwin, adopted by the following Clubs : Arlington, Army and Navy \a71d 20 others\ ; and a Treatise on the Game by J[ames] C[lay]. London: Harrison, [1864]. pp. vii+iii, i6mo. ^Reviewed in Blackwood, xcvii. 46; April, 1865.] Same. 2d ed., with alterations and additions. London : Harrison. [N. D., 1870?] pp. 120, 8vo. Sai?ie. New ed., London : De La Rue, 1881. i2mo.* Sa?7ie. 1st American ed., with an Introduction. New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1866. pp. 153, i6mo. Same. New Amer. from 2d Eng. ed. New York : Llolt, 1880. pp. 163, i6mo. — Same. See Whist Triad. 20 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Bellecour, Abbe. The Academy of Play, [from the French]. London : F. Nevvbery, [1754]. pp. 8 4- 280. [Trumps, pp. 168-202.] B[lyth], Colonel. The Whist-Player, the Laws and Prac- tice of Short-Whist explained and illustrated by Lieut.- Colonel B . London : Addey, 1856. pp. xv + 72, 8vo. [ist ed.] Same. 2d ed. London : Chapmarf & Hall, 1858. pp. 72, i6mo. ■- Same. 3d ed. 1866. pp. "](}. BoHN, Henry G., ed. The Hand-book of Games, comprising new and carefully revised Treatises on Whist, etc., etc., writ- ten or compiled by Professors and Amateurs, ed. by Henry G. Bohn. London : Bohn, 1850. pp. 617, 8vo. [Wh. pp. xii-198. Wh. according to Matthews, pp. 7-30 ; Hoyle, 31-77; Deschapelles, 78-145; the Editor, 146-198.] Bohn's New Hand-book of Games, comprising Whist, by Deschapelles, Matthews, Hoyle, Carleton, etc., etc. ; en- larged and improved by an Amer. Ed. Philadelphia : H. F. Anners, 1850. pp. 652, i2mo. [Wh. pp. 1-198; by J. W. Carleton, pp. 146-198.] BucKLAND, C. T. Whist for Beginners; 2d ed. London: Allen, 1883. pp. 31, 32mo. [ist ed. appeared in 1882.] Whist for Beginners, and the famous Whist Rhymes ; \also pp. 37-80: Easy Whist by Aquarius]. New York: Carleton. London : Low, 1884. 8vo. BuRNEY, Charles. Treatise on the Game of Whist. Lon- don : Boone, 1846. i8mo.* , James. See F. P. Watson. C, A. and B. D. Whist Studies; being Hands of Whist played through according to the System of Cavendish, etc., etc., by A. C. and B. D. London : Smith, Elder, & Co., 1863. i2mo.* Cam, pseud, for W. Lewis. [Carlyon, T. T. S.], (pseud. Coelebs). The Laws and Prac- tice of Whist, by Coelebs. London : Saunders, 1856. i2mo. {Also ascribed to^. A. C2iX\yoxi.'\ [isted. 1851. — Litiderfelt.]'^ BIBLIOGRAPHY, 2 1 [Carlyon, T. T. S.], [pseud. Coelebs). Same. New ed. Lon- don : Hardwicke, 1856. i6mo.* Same. New York : Appleton, 1859. pp. 71, sm. 8vo, illust. Cavendish, pseud, for Henry Jones. C[lay], J[ames]. See Baldwin, Cavendish's Card Essays, and Whist Triad. C GELEB s, pseud, for T . C arly on . [Coles, Chas. B.], [pseud. Major A*****). Short Whist, its Rise, Progress, and Laws, together with Maxims for Be- ginners, etc., etc., by Major A*****. London : Longmans, 1834. pp. 95, i6mo. [Comic frontispiece.] Safne. 14th ed. To which are added Precepts for Tyros, by Mrs. B***** [attle]. London: Longmans, 1858. pp. Ill, i2mo. Saine. i8th ed. To which are added, etc., etc. ; with an essay on the Modern Scientific Game of Whist, by Professor P[oleJ. London: Longmans, 1865. i2mo. [6' 32mo. P[ettes], G[eorge] W[illiam]. American, or Standard Whist, by G. W. P. Boston: Osgood, 1880. pp. xi 4- 268, i2mo. PoHLMAN, J. G. Whist rendered Familiar. 1827.* Pole, William. The Value of Skill at Whist. The Field, June 16, 1866.* Same. The Theory of the Modern Scientific Game of Whist. 2d ed. London: Longmans, 187 1. pp. viii -|- 93, i6mo. [ist ed., 1870. Fii^st appea^^ed in the 16th ed. of Coles's Short Whist, 1864, which see.] Same. 14th ed. London ; Longmans, 1883. pp. xii + 112, i6mo. Same. From the last London ed. New York : Carle- ton, 1872. pp. 96, i6mo. Same. From the last London ed., to which is added the Laws and Rules of Whist, from the Portland Club Code. New York : Carleton, 1880. pp. 144. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 29 Pole, William. Same. To which are added the Laws of Whist, as revised by the Portland and Arlington Clubs. Chicago and New York : Belford, Clarke, & Co. [N. D., but from the 5th ed., 1873. J PP- I39> sm. 8vo. Same. To which, etc., etc. New York: Lovell, 1884. pp. 139, i6mo. (Loveirs Library, No. 406.) — — Cards [Whist] played by Machinery. Macmillan's Mag , xxxiii. 241-247 ; Jan., 1876. Conventions at Whist. Fortnightly Review, new series, XXV. 576-587 ; April, 1879. The Game of Whist. Macmillan's Mag., vii. 201-209. W^hist. Chambers's Journal, xxxix. 133.* The Philosophy of Whist : an Essay on the Scientific and Intellectual Aspects of the Modern Game. Part I., the Phil- osophy of Whist Play; Part II., the Philosophy of Whist Probabilities. 2d ed. London: De La Rue, 1884. pp. xiii + 218, sm. 8vo. Sa7ne. See Whist Triad. PoTE, B. E. Whist. Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 48.* Proctor, Richard A., [pseud. Five of Clubs). Our Whist Column. Knowledge, v. 153 ; March 7, 1884, and following numbers.* Sa77ie. N. Y. Tribune, 1885 : Feb. 8, 15, 22 ; March i, 8, 15, 30; April 5, 12; May 3* How to play Whist ; with the Laws and Etiquette of Whist, Whist-whittlings, and 40 fully annotated Games. London : Longmans, 1885. pp. xi + 248, 8vo. (Knowledge Library.) [Reviewed in Academy, xxvii. 128 ; Feb. 21, 1885.] Same. New York : Harper, 1885. pp. 7 H- 199, i2mo. (Handy Series, No. 7.) Whist Chat. Longmans Mag. v. 369; Feb. 1885.* Home Whist. Knowledge, viii. 323 ; Oct. 9, 1885.* Same. London : Longmans, 1885. sq. i6mo.* Language of Whist. Longman's Mag., vi. 596-611 ; Oct. 1885. QuiSQUis, (pseicd.). American Leads. The Field, Feb. 2r 1885.* 30 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Rouse, Wm. The Doctrine of Chances, d'/<:. London: Lack- mgton, Allen, & Co. [N. D.] pp. 350. [Cards, pp. 61-121.] Roy, R. Treatise on Whist. London : Causton, 1848.* RuMMENS, Richard, [pseud. ?). Sample chapter of Rummens on Whist; comprising Maxims and General Remarks of all sorts, (pp. 86-95 ^^^ ^^^^ Philidorian, ed. by Geo. Walker, London: 1838.) Seymour, Richard. The Court Gamester, or Full and Easy Instructions, etc.^ etc. Written for the Use of the young Princesses. 3d ed. corrected. London : 1722. pp. 102, i2mo. [No Wh.] [ist ed., 1719, 2d, 1720.] Same. 4th ed., improved. London: 1728. pp.106. [No. Wh.] \l7i one voliwie with the Game of Quadrille, etc.^ etc, 2d ed. London: 1728.] The Compleat Gamester, in three parts. 5th ed. Lon- don : 1734. pp. 132+94, i2mo. [Wh. 11. i-ic] [With this ed. Seymour's Court-Gamester and Cotton's Compleat Gamester were consolidated^ Same. Revised etc., etc., by Chas. Johnson. 8th ed. Lon- don : 1754. pp. 324, sm. 8vo. [Wh. pp. 137-194.] Seymour, S. A Compend of Short Whist, being a summary of the Principles, Rules, etc., etc. Compiled from the latest authorities. New York News Co., [1878].* Stephens, Alexander H. Whist. Johnson's Cyclopaedia, 1877. iv. 1390. Ten ACE, Major, [pseud.). A Handbook of Whist, and Ready Reference Manual of the Modern Scientific Game. New York and London: Putnams, 1886, [copyright, 1885]. pp. no, 8vo. Thistlewood, Arthur, [pseicd. ?). Whist in Rhymes for Modern Times. Edinburgh : Seton & Meckenzie, 1873. PP- 27, i2mo. {Also, London: Simpkin.] [Thomson, Alexander.] Whist, a Poem in Twelve Cantos. London: 1791.* Trebor, Eidrah, pseud, for Robert Hardie. Trist, Nicholas Browse, (''N. B. T."). American Leads. The Field, Feb. 28, 1885 ; March 28, 1885.* BIBLIOGRAPHY, 31 Trump, A., Jr., [/^d"?/^. /^r W. Pembroke Fetridge?]. Laws and Regulations of Short Whist. Adopted by the Wash- ington Club of Paris, etc.^ etc. New York : Harpers ; Paris: Galignani ; London: Adams, 1880. pp. iii, i2mo. Same. Harpers, 1882. pp. 112. Tku^ivs, pseud, for W. B. Dick. Walker, Capt. Arthur Campbell. The Correct Card, or how to play at Whist ; a Whist Catechism. London : Long- mans, 1876. pp. xiv4-82, i6mo. Sa??te. New York: Appleton, 1876. pp. ix + 82, i6mo. Same. New ed., with additions. New York : Ap- pleton, [1877].* Same, nth thousand. New York : Appleton, 1884. pp. xiv -1-78, i6mo. Watson, F. P. Short Whist; to which is added Long Whist, by Admiral [James] Burney. 4th ed. London : Boone, 1846. i8mo.* Westminster Papers, The : a Monthly Journal of Chess, W^hist, etc.^ etc. London : W. Kent. No. i, April, 1868. \Disco7itinued after a number of volumes had bee7t published. — Linderfelt.]* Whist. Rees's Cyclopaedia. London: 1819-38. [Mostly from Matthews.] Whist. American Cycl., New York: 1876. xvi. 598-601. Whist. Chambers's Journal, xix. 133; Feb. 28, 1863.* Whist. [A 7nonthly jow-nal published in London. No par- ticulars obtainable. — Linderfelt.] * Whist. The Game briefly Explained. To which is annexed the Laws of Whist in force at the Amicable Whist Club, 1831.* Whist. Eclectic Mo., Ixxii. 687 ; cviii. 707 ; cxxxiii. 626 ; Ixxxiv. 523-* Whist. London Morning Post, Jan. 1871.* Whist. London Daily Telegraph, Jan. 31, 187 1.* Same. Cavendish's Card Essays, pp. 240-246. Whist. Review of Whist, or Bumblepuppy. Nation, xxxvi. 241.* 32 BIBLIOGRAPHY, Whist. Origin and Name. Notes and Queries, iii. 3 : 91 ; Jan. 31, 1863. Whist. Tenace, Love, Lurch. Notes and Queries, iii. 3 : 328; April 25, 1863. Whist as a Business. London Society, xxxvii. 43-47 ; Jan. 1880. Whist at our Club. Tales from Blackwood, No. xxiv. Re- printed from Blackwood's Mag., cxxi. 597-604 ; May, 1877. Whist, a Catechism of. Blackwood's Mag. xxxviii. 637-642 ; Nov. 1835. [Humorous.] Whist, Cheating at. Spectator, April 5, 1879. Whist, Developments of. Spectator, Iviii. 1259 ; Sept. 26, 1885. \Revie'w (t/" Cavendish's Whist Developments.] Whist, its History and Practice, with illustrations by Meadows. New ed. London : Bogue, 1844. i2mo.* Whist, Maxims for Playing the Game of. London : Payne, 1773* Whist, Modern. A review of Hoyle's Short Treatise, 1743 ; Cavendish's Principles of Whist, 1862 ; Clay's Treatise on Short Whist, 1864; Pole's Theory, 1865. /;/ the Quar- terly Review, cxxx. 43-71 ; Jan. 187 1. Same. Littell's Living Age, cviii. 707 ; March 28, 1871.* Whist, Modern, Short Rules for ; extracted from the Quar- terly Review of Jan. 1871. London : Triibner, 1874. 48mo. [Printed on a folded card.] * Whist, Rational and Artificial. Cornhill Mag., liii. 143; Feb., 1886* Whist Reminiscence, A, by an Old Hand. Blackwood's Mag., cv. 345-352 ; March, 1869. [A story.] Whist, Trump Leads in. Outing : April, May, June, July, Au- gust, September, 1885. Whist, Unscientific American. Knowledge, vi. 307 : Oct. 10, 1884.* Whist-player's Hand-book, containing the Laws, Rules, etc., 1831.* Whist-player's Hand-book, containing most of the Maxims of the Old School, and several new ones, etc., etc. To which are added Observations on Short Whist, etc., etc., by an Experi- enced Player. Philadelphia : Isaac M. Moss, 1844. pp. 96. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 33 Whist Score Book, a simple method of keeping Tally. New York: C. C. Shelley, [18S1]. Whist Triad, The; comprising Cavendish's Laws and Princi- ples; Baldwin's Law^s of Short Whist ; Clay's Treatise, a7id Pole's Philosophy of Whist. London : De La Rue, 1884. sm. 8vo. Whistology. All the Year Round, ii. 480-484; March 17, i860.* ' W., J. R. The A B C of Whist. New York : Scribner, Wel- ford, & Armstrong.* Whist. London : Warne ; New York : Scribner, W el- ford, «&: Co. [1872 }\ pp. 92, i6mo, illust. Young, Major. See T. Matthews. WHIST SCORES AND CARD-TABLE TALK GAMES AND GAMING BEFORE CARDS. IT would seem that from the first men have found a peculiar satisfaction in submitting themselves to the guidance of a power they do not understand. Thus, lots were early cast to de- cide matters of religion, of state, and of the home ; and chance soon became a favorite factor in the sports that were devised to pass away time not spent in work or war. " Plutarch would lead us to beheve that dice were a very early invention in Egypt, and acknowledged to be so by the Egyptians themselves, since they were introduced into one of their oldest mythological fables, — Mercury being represented playing at dice with the Moon previous to the birth of Osiris, and winning from her the five days of the epact, which were added to complete the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year." (Wilkinson and Birch, Anc. Egypt., ii. 62.) The Egyptians were also fond of playing a game re- sembhng draughts, calling the pieces, or men, '' dogs," 36 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ >l ^ v^ 1 .^■ ^ ^ ^^ . Si 8 •<§ -S 1 , Rubbers •-' c^ CO Games CO Tt r^ Points 5- CO 00 2 < o H CO CO N N Tl- ** 00 ro ro vO ^ CO * CO Tj- c^ c^ lO CO s, C^ Tt- MD Tf « ^ vD (^ lO >^ CO * 00 t-H M CO l-l C^ l-H ^ i * 1 ^ CARD-TABLE TALK. 37 as the Arabs do. Some of these are still in existence, as also a board formed of a solid block of wood, hav- ing the squares cut on the top surface, and hollowed out so as to admit a drawer containing the '' dogs." The game was common to the huts of the poor and the mansions of the rich. As early as the reign of Usertesen I., whom Wilkinson considers coeval with Joseph, or nearly 2000 b. c, in a grotto on the eastern bank of the Nile were sculptured two persons playing at draughts. (Anc. Egypt., i. 32.) Similar games were known to the Greeks, and one of them thf y were fond of representing as invented by Palamedes while the Grecian hosts lay encamped about Troy. Such games were also played at Rome, and sanctioned by the law. But dice-playing, at which large sums were squandered, was interdicted ; and the law offered no protection to persons who allowed gam- ing in their houses, not even in case of robbery and actual violence. (Becker's Gallus.) But in the cor- rupt days of Rome, gambling and unfair playing be- came very common. Caius Caligula practically turned the imperial palace into a gambling-house. On one occasion he condemned to death several rich Gauls^ and at once returning to the gaming-table, said, '^ I pity you when I see you lose a few sestertii ; while with a stroke of the pen I have just won six hundred millions." Seneca pictures the gambling Emperor Claudius in hades, doomed to play forever with a bottomless dice-box, and to suffer the repeated disap- pointment of his ever-reawakened hopes. Nero is said 38 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points CO 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 39 to have staked four hundred thousand sestertii on a single throw of the dice. The convulsion of nature which overwhelmed Pompeii surprised a party of gen- tlemen at the hazard-table, where they were discovered two thousand years after, with the dice firmly clasped in their fists. (Apperley, xvii. 271.) There are still preserved Roman silver dice, in the form of a human being, so bent over that, like cubes, they must fall in one of six ways. Strangely, the same fancy was sug- gested long after to a German, who carved quite a dif- ferent figure out of boxwood, which makes even a better die. Tacitus tells us that the ancient Germans were much addicted to gambhng, and would stake their property, and even their lives, upon the throw of a die. More- over, they looked upon their folly as a matter of honor, much as German students to-day regard duelling. If losers, they submitted with dignity to being bound and sold into slavery. (Germania, xxiv.) Before the introduction of cards, tables (our back- gammon) and dames (our draughts or checkers) were common in Europe. But the favorite games were dice and chess. Dice were much played by men, and im- mense sums were lost and won ; but those who made a business of dicing were not well regarded. On the other hand, chess and professional chess-players were highly thought of, though even at this game the custom was to play for stakes, and these often large. Every knight and every lady that moved in courtly circles had to understand chess, and children were practised in it 40 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^^ Rubbers Games Points c/f < 5; CARD-TABLE TALK, 4 1 from their earliest years. Dice were made of ivory, the cheaper ones of bone ; and the playing is said to have been done upon a marble plate or board. The chess-men, which were very large, were carved out of ivory and ebony, or out of precious stones of two dif- ferent colors. Chess-boards were made of elm or ivory, and not seldom of gold and silver. They, too, were very large, and, it is said, fit to use as shields in case of need. The game was often the cause of fatal quarrels, and the romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries give graphic accounts of heads being beaten in with chess-men or cleaved open with chess-boards. (Schultz, Das hofische Leben, i. 416.) We smile when we read that about the year 1180 Count Siboto von Falkenstein bequeathed to his heirs twenty feather- beds, three chess-boards, three dice-boards, and the accompanying ivory pieces and dice. "• We often read of men who got into the taverner's hands, playing as well as drinking themselves naked \ and in a well-known manuscript of the beginning of the fourteenth century we find an illumination which represents this process very Hterally. One of the two players is already perfectly naked, while the other is reduced to his shirt. The illuminator appears to have intended to represent them as playing against each other till neither had anything left, — like the two celebrated cats of Kilkenny, which ate one another up, until nothing remained but their tails.'* (Wright, Domestic Manners, ii. 15.) 42 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 43 THE HISTORY OF PLAYING-CARDS. ORIGIN. F all devices for adapting to sports the ele- ment of chance, no other appears to have been so successful as playing-cards. Whence they came, is still a matter of uncertainty, though numerous theories have been advanced as to their origin. It has often been claimed that they first came into use in the East, — in India or China, — and tliat they were brought to Spain by the Saracens, or came into Europe in the hands of fortune-telHng Gypsies. It is true that cards have long been used in China and in India, and it cannot be denied that these have points of marked likeness to European cards ; but this does not prove that the latter were derived from the former, any more than it proves the reverse. Moreover, the Koran's strict prohibition of all games of chance and of the representation of the human form makes it unlikely that the Saracens were the circulators of playing-cards. " Even now those Mohammedans who play openly with cards are of the sect of the Shiites, or followers of Ali, belonging to India and Persia, and regarded with suspicion by 44 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 ! 1 c/T 1 I- CARD-TABLE TALK. 45 the more faithful followers of the Prophet. The latter, when they so far forget themselves as to play, do so in secret." (Willshire, p. 10.) But the supposition that cards were brought from India by the Gypsies — while, to be sure, only a supposition — cannot be dis- proved by saying, as Willshire does, that " cards wxre known in Europe before 141 7, the year that the first Gypsies made their appearance in Europe ; " for it is now settled that Gypsies were common in Austria and other parts of Eastern Europe long before that time. (Encyc. Brit., 9th ed.) Chatto argues that cards are but a development of chess, as certain card-games have a decided resemblance to it ; but it is more likely that these games, not cards themselves, w^ere modelled after chess. " Resorting to China for the origin of cards is only another mission to the ^ refuge for the destitute.' At any rate, we are justified in assuming that if, in the Celestial Empire, cards really had a separate and early birth, Europe had not any more hand in robbing her of that progeny than she had in taking from her gun- powder, printing, and engraving, — all of which, with other things, are considered by some to have been originally Chinese inventions." (Willshire, p. 11.) The most recent critics are practically unanimous in discarding the various theories as to the oriental origin of our playing-cards, and are of the opinion that, what- ever may be the history of cards in India and China, European cards had their origin in Europe, and that it is more than probable that they were gradually developed from the picture-cards called naibis. 46 WHIST SCORES AND K ^ Rubbers Games Points 2 1 1 1 3? CARD-TABLE TALK. NAIBIS, OR TAROTS. 47 These were picture-cards, the use of which is un- certain. A series, or pack, usually contained twenty- two, with the following emblematic figures : — I. A Juggler. 12. A Man hanging by his P'oot. 2. A Popess. 13. Death (or Time). 3. An Empress. 14. Temperance. 4. An Emperor. 15. The Devil. 5. A Pope. 16. A Tower struck by Lightning. 6. Lovers. 17. A large Star. 7. A Charioteer. 18. The Moon. 8. Justice. 19. The Sun. 9. A Hermit. 20. The Last Judgment. 10. The Wheel of Fortune. 21. The World. II. Force. 22. A Fool. What was the origin of the tarots is a most interest- ing question, and upon it will depend the decision as to the ultimate origin of European cards. Certain writers (M. Court de Gebelin, Eliphas J^evi, and others) have studied the tarots as a branch of thau- raaturgic knowledge, and assert that these emblematic figures had a very remote origin, — '* an origin stretch- ing as far back, indeed, as the ancient Egyptians, from whom they have descended to us as a book or series of subjects of deep symbolic meaning. Some of these subjects have in the course of time, however, become somewhat changed or metamorphosed, yet leaving traces in sufficiency of the original symbols by which 48 WHIST SCORES AND ^u ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 to CARD-TABLE TALK, 49 those learned in archaeology and illuminism may es- tabhsh their true nature." (Willshire, p. 138.) The most ancient cards that have come down to us are tarots ; they are four in number, and were probably | g:^'Li:MPEREVR^ E3 TAROT, THE EMPEROR. (British Museum, Catl., PL i.) made about 1425 in Venice. Tarots are some- times as large as seven by four inches, some being on thick cardboard, and others on very thin paper. Their old name, fiazbis, is probably preserved in naypes, the Spanish name for cards. 4 5° WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 1 • CARD-TABLE TALK. 51 To furnish entertainment for children and older persons, and especially to keep or wean them from dice-playing, it would seem that a game was devised by combining fifty-six numeral cards with these twenty- TAROT, MAN HANGING BY HIS FOOT. (British Museum, Catl., P!. iii.) two tarot-cards. The game, becoming rapidly popular, spread from Venice, its native place, and was soon modified in various ways. There thus arose in Italy three or four tarot-games, two of which are still played to a considerable extent in northern Italy, and occa- 52 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 53 sionally in France and Germany. By more decided modifications and the reduction of the pack from seventy-eight to fifty-two, playing-cards, substantially as we have them to-day, are believed to have come into existence. (Cavendish, Card Essays, p. 48.) NUMERAL CARDS. The full set of numeral cards was divided into four suits or colors. The original symbols by which these suits were distinguished were cicps., mo?iey, clubs, and swords; and these still appear on Spanish cards. (Willshire, p. 30.) The Germans early adopted hearts or red, leaves or gree?i, bells.^ and acorns ; while the French favored hearts, diamonds, trefoil, and spear- heads. Cards having the French suits are now exten- sively made and used in Germany, and are the only ones to be found among English-speaking peoples ; but to trefoil and spear-heads we give names derived from the Spanish pack, — chchs and spades (Spanish espadas = swords), which on Spanish cards are real clubs and swords. Furthermore, books, flowers, ani- mals, and various other things have in their time served to m^ark suits. Of course it is evident that the ^^ spades" on our cards are but a variety of the "leaves" on German cards, and their round "bells," of the Spanish " coins ; " while the common origin of "acorns," "trefoil," and our "clubs" is easily seen. 54 WHIST SCORES AND % ^ Rubbers Games 1 Points 2 1 CARD-TABLE TALK, 55 FIRST MENTION. The first positive mention of playing-cards as such is in an account of Charles Poupart, treasurer of Charles VI. of France, which monarch was so unfortunate as to become more or less deranged in consequence of a sun -stroke. The item says that fifty- six sols were paid '' Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards, gilt and colored and variously ornamented, for the amusement of the king." The date of the entry is Feb. i, 1392. This was at one time supposed to prove the French origin of cards ; but it has long ago been pointed out that the payment evidently was for the painting of the cards, and not for their invention. CARDS IN CHINA. The Chinese have a tradition that cards were de- vised for the amusement of the numerous concubines of their imperial ruler Seun-ho. " In the Chinese dictionary entitled Ching-tsze-tung, compiled by Eul- koung, and first published a. d. 1678, it is said that the cards now known in China as Teen-tsze-pae, or dotted cards, were invented in the reign of Seun-ho, 1 120 ; and that they began to be common in the reign of Kaou-tsung, who ascended the throne in 1131." (Chatto, Facts, etc., p. 55.) The Chinese pack Tsee?i- wan-jin-pae, or '' a thousand times ten thousand men's 56 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 2 < 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 57 names cards/' contains the names of persons famous in Chinese history. The suits are chains, arms, money, and human beings, and are usually printed in black (2) CHINESE PLAYING-CARDS. (i) Suit of Chains (National Museum). (2) Suit of Horses, having the sign of a Fish (British Museum, Catl., Plate xxi.). (3) Forty Thousand Cords of the suit of Wood (National Museum). 58 WHJST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T < - I- CARD-TABLE TALK, 59 on flexible cardboard. The cards are small and narrow in proportion to their length, being seldom wider than one inch. Fig. (i) represents one of a peculiarly attractive pack. See also vignette, title- page. CARDS OF INDIA AND PERSIA. KING OF WHITE OR MOONS. Hindustani Pack. (Chatto, PI. i.) The tradition among the Hindus as to the origin of their cards is that they were invented by a favorite sultana^ or queen, to wean her husband from a bad habit he had acquired of pulling or eradicating his beard. (Chatto, Facts, etc., p. 44.) Hindu cards usually have eight suits, — crowns, white (moons). 6o WHIST SCORES AND :^ ^) Rubbers Games Points 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 6 1 sabres, slaves, harps, red (suns) , diplomas, merchandise. In a unique pack of ten suits, the emblems are those of the ten avatars, or incarnations, of Vishnu, the second person in the Hindu trinity. (Chatto, p. 36.) Singer gives illustrations of beautiful Persian cards deHcately painted on ivory and illuminated with gold. And Merlin gives (pi. 74, p. 124) five samples from another Persian pack, which are neatly painted on carton va-nis, and represent the shah^ or king, the bibi, or queen, the couli, or dancer, a Hon, and serbas, or soldier. The cards of Teheran are of the ordinary shape, but Hindu and Persian cards are usually circular, and average two and a half inches in diameter, the suits being dis- tinguished by different colors as well as by different emblems. (Willshire, p. 55.) Nevertheless an Ameri- can seems to have had no difficulty in getting a patent on circular cards which distinguish the suits in this way. Circular cards were also made in Germany in the second half of the fifteenth century. THE MATERIAL. The cheaper cards among Oriental peoples are made of dried leaves ; others are prepared from leather — as are those of the Apache Indians — or by painting and polishing little sheets of canvas. Still other Eastern cards are thin tablets of wood, ivory, or metal. Em- broidered silk cards are said to have been exhibited at Kensington, England, and Willshire was assured by a dealer that cards of tortoise-shell and of small tiles had 62 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 3 5; I* CARD-TABLE TALK, (^2, passed through his hands. Moreover, Merlin gives copies of thirty-four cards consisting of silver plates, which were at the time in his possession. The earliest European cards were painted, and some of them by painters of great abihty in their time. It is on record that a set of cards '' containing figures of the gods with their emblematic animals, and figures of birds likewise, was painted for Filippo Visconti, duke of Milan, in the early part of the fifteenth century, and cost fifteen hundred pieces of gold." Stencils early supplanted painting in the more rapid production of cards. THE FIRST MAKERS. The years just preceding and following 1400 saw not only the beginnings of cards in Europe, but also the first attempts at wood- engraving. From the first, the card-maker and the wood-engraver seem to have been as intimately connected as were the old barbers and sur- geons ; and it has been held by some of the leading critics, — Heineken, Von Murr, and Leber, that the figures on cards were the first impressions made with blocks, and that the printing of images of the saints, and wood-engraving in general, as well as the printing of books and papers, are but developments of this humble art. This has not, however, been proved, and we know, as stated above, that cards were made by painting and by means of stencils for a long time before they were printed from blocks. 64 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 1 c/T < 1 .. ..{ CARD-TABLE TALK. 65 CARDS AND CARD-MAKING IN GERMANY. QUEEN OF HARES. North German Pack, about 1500. (British Museum, Catl., 210, Chatto, 221.) Nlirnberg, Augsburg, and Ulm were early noted for the manufacture of playing-cards, and during the fif- teenth century did a large export business, the cards usually being sent to other countries packed in little casks. At Niirnberg many of the card-makers were women. xA.s the art of engraving advanced, cards were favored with the best efforts of some of the most skilful of German engravers. They often introduced about the 5 66 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ;^ Rubbers Games Points 3 < i i ! — CARD-TABLE TALK. 67 KING OF GREEN, OR LEAVES. Old Style Piquet Pack, Recent Make. Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. (National Museum.) pips, or spots, figures of men and women, quadrupeds, birds, vines and foliage, and the like. "These orna- mental appendages are frequently of a grotesque char- acter, and are sometimes indecent." (Chatto, p. 236.) The Cartes Allemandes, jeii Lilliputien en Arge//t, 68 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points ' 2 • 5; CARD-TABLE TALK. 69 represented in Merlin's work, measure only five eighths by three eighths of an inch. The Germans call cards TEN OF ACORNS. Old Style Piquet Pack, Recent Make. Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. (National Museum.) Karten, or Spielkarten. also Briefe, and a pack of cards ein Spiel Karten. Early cards had king, queen, cavalier, and fante, or man-servant. But German and Spanish 7° WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ < Rubbers 1 Games Points 1 1 i 1 CARD-TABLE TALK, n THREE OF BELLS. Saxon Pack, 1511. (Biblioth^que Nationale, Taylor, Plate xvii.) cards, like Oriental cards, have no queen. In the cards of other peoples, however, the cavalier was dropped, and the queen retained. 72 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 5: .5 CARD-TABLE TALK. 73 SPANISH CARDS AND THEIR DERIVATIVES. FIVE OF CUPS. Mexican (Puebla) Pack of Spanish Cards, 1883. (National Museum, 73,737.) The people of Spain were among the first Europeans to domesticate cards ; but we know little of their man- ufacture in that country. According to De la Vega, 74 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 < CARD-TABLE TALK. 75 THREE OF MONEY. Spanish (Barcelona) Pack, 1850. (National Museum, 74,734.) when in want of cards at Santo Domingo, the Spaniards resorted to leaves and leather to provide themselv*es. Herrera mentions that upon the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, Montezuma took great pleasure in 76 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 3 1 1 1 St: CARD-TABLE TALK. 77 seeing them play at cards ; this was in 15 19. (Chatto, Facts, etc., p. 106.) And tradition has it that cards were played upon the ship in which Columbus made KING OF CLUBS. Mexican (Puebla) Pack of Spanish Cards, 1883. (National Museum, 73,737.) his first voyage to America. Spanish cards are also used in Spanish America and in those parts of the 78 WHIST SCORES AND .^ • Rubbers Games Points 2 < ! i CARD-TABLE TALK. 79 C- o ^ 7\ ^ > a 2 N o eg-*, 2; S 2 5^ '"' 2. "tJ g =^ ni N o c c "-^ > W K^ 5" «2 7t i^ 3 — ^ § > ?^ s ?r N hr; ;:> 3 y ^ g ■* ■ n> > :z: w k! 8o WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 i (—1 I to CARD-TABLE TALK, 8i United States which border upon Mexico. The In- dians there also play the Spanish games and prepare SEVEN OF SWORDS. Spanish (Barcelona) Pack, 1850. (National Museum, 74,734.) cards of native-tanned buckskin, which are rude copies of the Spanish cards. There are several packs of these leather cards, in excellent condition, in the National 6 82 WHIST SCORES AND ^ i^ Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 I to CARD-TABLE TALK. 83 Museum at Washington. From one of these packs a copy is here given of the king of clubs, together with SEVEN OF SWORDS. Italian Pack (reduced). (British Museum, Catl., Plate ix.) the corresponding Spanish card from which it is de- rived ; also the knave of clubs from the same pack, and the knight of money from another. 84 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 3 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK, CARDS OF ITALY. H Early Italian cards were spoken of in treating of the origin of playing-cards. One of the distinctive points in Italian cards is the interweaving of the marks of the suits on the numeral cards. To show this the seven of swords {spadd) of the ItaHan pack is given, with the corresponding card of the Spanish pack. Modern Italian cards are said to be stout and inflex- ible. Some of them have a narrow ridge of paper on the edge of the face-side, in order to protect it from being soiled. • CARDS IN FRANCE. The French were quite independent in their treat- ment of cards. About 1500 they began the practice of placing on cards the names of well-known persons. Among them the most common were David, Hector, Alexander, Rachel, Pallas, Judith, Helen, Venus, Caesar, and Charles the Great. No attempt was made to observe chronological or national consistency. The French Revolution changed cards with everything else. The kings became philosophers, valets were replaced by Roman heroes, while the queens were transformed into virtues and liberties, — liberties of marriage, of worship, of the press, etc. Even Napoleon deigned to make regulations as to the devices on playing-cards. Playing-cards manufactured in France and in Switzer- land are usually smaller and more delicate than those 86 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 I CARD-TABLE TALK. 87 in general use in other countries. The French call cards cartes a jouer^ and a pack of cards U7i jeu de cartes. CARDS IN ENGLAND. Into England cards were brought from France and Spain. Originally the figures were fair representations of kings and queens in the attire of the day. But the costumes of the time of Henry VII.. with some incor- porations of a later date, became stereotyped (much as did the Enghsh spelhng of the seventeenth century), and were executed in so unskilful a manner that they degenerated into the strange-looking caricatures now mostly to be seen. During the past fifty years various endeavors have been made to replace these by more sensible figures ; but such efforts have met with little support, and Messrs. De La Rue & Co., the leading Enghsh manufacturers, after losing heavily, gave up the attempt. As Taylor says, the knave of clubs still holds his arrow, head-end up, but it has become distorted into a bed-post, and its feathers are gone. One change from the older style of cards has met with favor, — the substitution of two upper half-figures for one full-length figure. Thus the card is more easily recognized, how- ever it may fall. It has been suggested that the instru- ment held by some knaves of spades is a kind of spring-fork^ formerly used by constables to catch run- away offenders. What are called in America the '' spots " on cards, are in England termed *'pips " or "singles.'* 88 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 3 1 1 I CARD-TABLE TALK, 89 They have also been called *^ points/' and in Seymour's time "drops." (Compleat Gamester, p. 49.) In Shakspeare's " Henry VI./' Part HI. act v. sc. i., we read : — *^ But whiles he thought to steal the single ten, The king was slyly finger'd from the deck ! " " Deck " is the proper word for a pack of cards orderly piled. Though at one time much used thoughout England and properly defined in almost every English dictionary, the word has been forgotten by the dwellers in southern England, and so Bartlett, the good shep- herd of " Americanisms," has kindly adopted it into his fold. CARDS WITH A SECONDARY PURPOSE. x^t an early day there were cards devised with a secondary purpose. Of these the would-be instructive cards are the most interesting. There were cards designed to teach arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, heraldry, mythology, astrology, astronomy, military science, and almost every branch of human knowledge. The " author cards " of our time belong to this class. Toward the end of the seventeeth cen- tury, a London manufacturer announced : '' These cards are ingeniously contrived for the comprising the general rules of Lilhe's Grammar, in the four principal parts thereof, viz. Orthographia^ Prosodia, Eiymolo- gia, and Syntaxis, thereby rendering it very useful to all Persons and that have already the Latine Tongue, 90 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ : Rubbers Games Points 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 91 for the recollecting their memories, and also for the better Improvement of such as have made some begin- nings in the study thereof, besides the Divertisement Lcnijox Scott Vutcfies of B^cct^h QUEEN OF CLUBS. Scottish Heraldic Pack, 1691 (Taylor, Plate xxxix.) which they afford in all our Enghsh games for the other common cards." In the beginning of the pres- ent century sl similar pack was dedicated, '' with most humble submission, to every respectable person in the 92 WHIST SCORES AND N !^ Rubbers Games Points 1 I to I' CARD-TABLE TALK. 93 British Empire." In December, 1692, the London papers advertised : — " The Genteel Housekeeper's Pastime^ or the mode of Carving at Table represented in a pack of playing-cards, with a book by which any ordinary capacity may learn how to cut up or carve in mode all the most usual dishes of flesh, fish, fowl, and baked meats, with the several sawces and garnishes proper to each dish of meat.. Price \s, 6d. Sold by J. Moxom, Warwick Lane.'' Of comical cards there is no end, and even in our own day a number of such packs have been pubhshed, displaying considerable ingenuity. *^ French cards," or such as show when held toward the light a picture, which usually is indecent, are distributed by unscrupu- lous persons, especially in boys' schools. There have been cards devised for the use of ecclesiastics ; and more recently cards for the use of the blind have been contrived, with spots and figures shghtly raised. These were first prepared for a member of the English royal family, and are only made to order. UNIQUE CARDS. Willshire describes a unique pack of modem French cards in the British Museum. They are but one and three quarters inches by seven eighths of an inch, very dehcate and pliable, and capable of being carried in a purse or the vest-pocket, or concealed in the palm of the hand beneath the glove. The pack is enclosed in a delicate lilac-colored and glazed paper case. 94 WHIST SCORES AND % > Rubbers Games Points < 1 1^ CARD-TABLE TALK. 95 In 1 85 1 a pack of cards valued at a thousand pounds was exhibited in London. The designs were by Mr. Owen Jones, and consisted of the monograms of the different members of the reigning house, wreathed with emblematical flowers. In Willshire's work is a description of a pack of sensational cards published in the United States. Kings, queens, and knaves are supplanted by army officers and goddesses of liberty ; and on a title-card is to be read : " National Emblems ; something new in the card world. . . . Time for a change. Foreign Emblems used long enough in the U. S.," and much more '^ of a very vulgar character." But what is most amusing is, that Dr. Willshire quotes in full the old copyright formula, "• Entered according to Act of Congress," etc., and regards it as a legislative author- ization and approval of the cards on the part of our government ! CARD ODDITIES. At one time it was customary to give books and pamphlets titles derived from card-playing, just as sermons were preached with card term.inology. The following is the title-page of a pamphlet as to the struggles of Charles I. : '* The bloody Game at Cards, As it was played betwixt the King of Hearts And the rest of His Suite, against the residue of the packe of Cards, Wherein Is discovered where faire play was plaid, and where was fowle. Shuffled at London, Cut 96 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers I Games Points 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 97 at Westminster, Dealt at Yorke, and Plaid in the open field, by the City-clubs, the Country Spade-men, Rich Diamond Men, and Loyall Hearted Men." In the early part of this century a card almanac was published at Tlibingen. In one set of cards there given, the heroes and heroines of ancient mythology, serving as court-cards, are comically travestied. Ju- piter sits smoking in an arm-chair and wears a mam- moth wig, while Juno is decked out with feathers and a parasol. PECULIAR USES OF CARDS. In the time of Charles II. playing-cards were used for the purpose of advertising. Moreover, inasmuch as servants often made mistakes in carrying verbal messages, it became customary in both England and America to write notes and invitations on the backs of old playing-cards or parts of cards ; for English cards generally had plain backs. Such an invitation to a card-party, from the Countess of Northumberland, is printed from a copper-plate on the back of a ten of spades, and at the bottom are added the words, '' With- out a hoop, if agreeable." It is perhaps still more interesting to learn that this is also the origin of visit- ing-cards. A part of an old playing-card, with their '' name and quality " printed on the reverse, was pre- sented by the nobility as well as by the gentry, when calling upon their friends. Not long ago an old house in Dean Street, Soho, London, was undergoing repairs, 7 98 WHIST SCORES AND ^ :^ Rubbers Games Points ' 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 99 in the course of which a marble chimney-piece was removed, and there were thus brought to Hght several such visiting-cards, one of which bore the name of Sir Isaac Newton. MANUFACTURE OF PLAYING-CARDS. Playing-cards are now usually prepared in the fol- lowing way. The card-boards are made of a sort of cartridge-paper stuck between two sheets of white or tinted paper. This must then undergo a prolonged process of drying, and afterward pass through polished iron rollers and be subjected to a pressure of eight hundred tons. In this way the cards are made straight and even, and acquire a considerable pohsh. The polish is not made just alike on both sides, for it has been found that two equally polished surfaces do not so easily ghde over one another. An ivory appearance is sometimes given by preparing the face of the paper with a composition of size and French white. Each manufacturer has his own process, and tries to keep it from others. The impressions are made from blocks of wood or stone, much as ordinary printing is done. When several colors are to appear in one picture, as many blocks are used, each printing its own color, and in just the right place. The gilt lines sometimes seen are produced by scattering gold-dust over the card after the desired figure has been printed in colorless size ; the dust adheres to the size only, and thus the gilt figure appears. lOO WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points in 1 5; I* CARD-TABLE TALK. loi CARD-GAMES OTHER THAN WHIST. (Condensed from Willshire, 21-24, and Cavendish's Essays, 54-70.) SSUMING that the original game of all was the tarocchi of Venice, played with seventy- eight cards (fifty- six numerals and twenty- two tarots), the first alteration was probably made by the Florentines, who increased the emblematic pieces to forty-one, and invented the game of minchiate with ninety-seven cards. Later the Bolognese diminished the pack to sixty-two. The game played with these cards was called tarocchino. Then the Venetians re- duced the number of cards still more, and established the game of trappola. No nations seemed content to adopt 671 bloc any game as it travelled to them. Though the varieties introduced were marvellously ingenious and numerous, the old fundamental elements were maintained in most instances so closely that there is no great difficulty in tracing the pedigrees of the prin- cipal modern games, owing to their easily recognized family likenesses to older ones. Very early primero was played at Florence and at Rome, and soon spread to France and to England, where it was very popular in the time of Elizabeth. From primero grew post and pair ^ and from this brag, which in America devel- oped into the famous betting-garne oi poker. I02 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers ! i Games 1 Points ! i 3 < 1 si; I CARD-TABLE TALK. 103 In Germany, hvisqueiiet, or La?idsknechtspiel^ was a favorite, and by some authorities is called the national German card-game. It is, in fact, hardly a game at all, but merely a complicated way of playing pitch-and- toss with cards instead of coins ; and this remark appHes to every game of chance, from basset to rouge- et-noir (roozh-a-nwor) . In Germany Landsknechtspiel seems to have been the most usual pitch-and-toss card-game ; but to elevate it to the dignity of a national card-game, is to treat it with a respect it does not deserve. The national game of Spain was and is ombre (om-br). It is played by three persons with forty cards, the tens, nines, and eights being discarded. It is a very complicated game, and introduced an entirely new feature, — that of playing with a partner or ally, instead of, as in the older games, every man's hand (in two senses) being against every one's else. Ombre is a game of great merit, and was much played at one time in France and England. Piquet (pee-ket) and ecarte (a-cart-a) may be regarded as especially French games. The former is probably derived from the Saxon game Schwerier Karte. Ecarte was indi- rectly derived from triomphe {trionfi is mentioned as early as 1526). Triomphe, brought to America by French settlers, developed into euchre^ — at one time the national game in the United States. The game of triomphe, or French-ruff, must not be confused with the English game of trumps or riiff-aiid-hoiiors, the predecessor of whist, the national game of England. I04 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers — Games J^OINTS 3 1 5; CARD-TABLE TALK. 105 CARDING AND GAMING IN FRANCE. AMBLING, says an old French proverb, is the child of avarice and the father of despair; Ij and, as some one suggests, not anywhere have there been more affectionate offspring than in the country that gave the saying birth. In early days gambling in France was confined to the court and the mansions of the great; but here it became so fasci- nating that it often happened that individuals found it necessary to put themselves under voluntary bonds not to play at cards or dice, — as people nowadays sign a teetotaler's pledge, except that there w^as a penalty in case of failure. '' In the latter part of the sixteenth century Paris was inundated with brigands of every description. A band of Italian gamesters, having been informed by their correspondents that Henry III. had estabhshed card-rooms and dice-rooms in the Louvre, got admission at court, and won thirty thousand crowns from the king." (Steinmetz, i. 75.) Henry IV., '^ good King Henry," was passionately fond of gaming, and even patronized notorious cheats. During his reign gambling spread to all classes of society and became the rage. Louis XIII. disapproved of games of chance and suppressed, to a large extent, gaming among the io6 WHIST SCORES AND 1^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 107 people ; at court it continued in a quiet way. But Louis was very fond of chess, and in order to play on his journeys, had a chess-board fixed up in his car- riage, the pieces being provided with pins at the bottom, so as not to shp from the board. Mazarin re-established gaming at the court of Louis XIV. It now became practically an institution of state, and again involved all classes of society. Things went so far that extremely severe measures had to be resorted to to control gambling, at least in the army. Louis also established lotteries, and thereby the gambling spirit spread to individuals and classes that did not approach the gaming-tables. During the minority of Louis XV. the celebrated Scotchman John Law be- cam^e controller-general of France, and inaugurated those wild financial schemes which were to make everybody rich. Surely everybody became possessed of a mad passion to get money without earning it. When the schemes collapsed, the resulting anguish and disappointment sought requital at the gaming-table. Every one gambled, and gambled in everything he did. A man returning from the burial of his brother, at which he had exhibited the signs of profound grief, gambled and won. To the question, ^^ How do you feel now? " he answered, ^^A httle better; this consoles me." Louis XVI. hated gaming of any kind, but Marie Antoinette was fond of playing at cards, and encour- aged it. One of the favorite tricks in fine society at the time was to place a poKshed gold or silver snuff- box in such a position that it reflected an opponent's io8 WHIST SCORES AND ^ % Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 • I to CARD-TABLE TALK. 109 cards. Fouche, Minister of Police under Napoleon I., derived an income of about six hundred thousand dollars a year from licensing gaming-houses. The attendants at the gaming-tables — a hundred and twenty thousand in number — were also required to act as spies of Fouche. But Jan. i, 1838, gambling was prohibited by law in France, and is now carried on only in secret. '' Whist was a favorite game with Josephine and Marie Louise, and it is on record that Napoleon used to play whist in Wlirtemberg, but not for money, and that he played ill and inattentively." Of gaming he positively disapproved ; but during his exile he spent nearly every evening playing at whist or vt?igt-et-im. '' x\fter the Restoration, whist was taken up in France more enthusiastically. ^The nobles,' says a French writer, ' had gone to England to think, and they brought back the thinking game with them.' Charles X. is reported to have been playing whist at St. -Cloud, on July 29, 1830, when the tricolor was waving on the Tuileries, and he had lost his throne." (Cavendish, Laws, etc., 52.) In Paris the stakes at whist are low compared with those at the London clubs. '' Count Achille Dela- marre calculated his average rubber at two hundred louis. . . . The principal players at the Union were Lord Granville (the English ambassador). Count Medem, Count Walewski, the Due de Richelieu, General Michelski, Comte Deschapelles (the author), Comte Achille Delamarre, and M. Bonpierre." (Hayward, 45.) no WHIST SCORES AND ^ \ Rubbers i Ga]\ies Points err 1 I CARD-TABLE TALK. m CARDING AND GAMING IN ENGLAND. I HE fact that the importation of playing-cards was forbidden in England in 1463, on com- plaint of home manufacturers, proves that they were then common in that country. The follow- ing, written Dec. 24, 1484, is interesting : — To 7ny ryght worsliipfiil husband, John Pas ton : Ryght worshipful husbond, — I recomaund me on- to you. Plese it you to wete [know] that I sent your eldest Sonne to my Lady Morlee to have knolage wat sports wer husyd [used] in her hows in kyrstemesse next folloyng aftyr the decysse of my lord, her husbond; and sche seyd that ther wer non dysgysyngs [masking], ner harpyng, ner lutyng, ner syngyn, ner non lowde dy sports, but pleyng at the tabyllys [backgammon], and schesse, and cards. Sweche dysports sche gave her folkys leve to play and non odyr. . . . Wretyn on Crestemes Evyn, By yor Margery Paston. Cards must have been common at the court of Henry VII.; for in 1503 his daughter Margaret, at the time fourteen years old, was found playing at cards by James IV. of Scotland, her betrothed, on his first interview with her. In the privy purse expenses of TI2 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 2 < 1 I I' CARD-TABLE TALK. II3 Mary, daughter of Henry VIII., and afterward queen of England, there are numerous entries of money spent at the card-table. Queen EHzabeth also was a great card-player ; and in the literature of the time frequent reference is made to cards and card-playing. Primero was then the favorite game. " James I. played at cards as with affairs of state, — in an indolent manner, requir- ing in both cases some one to hold his cards, if not to prompt him what to play" (Chatto, 126). Mawe was the favorite game at the time of his reign. English gallants then diverted themselves with cards at the play-house before the performance began. The Puritans strongly opposed card-playing ; but after the Restoration the court went to the other ex- treme, and the greatest excesses were indulged in. John Evelyn, writing on the day James II. was pro- claimed king, expressed himself thus as to life at court under Charles II : "I can never forget the inexpressi- ble luxury and profaneness, gaming, and all dissolute- ness, and as it were total forgetfulness of God (it being Sunday evening), which this day se'nnight I was witness of, the King sitting and toying with liis concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarine, etc., a French boy singing love-songs, in that glorious gallery, whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at Basset round a large table, a bank of at least 2,000 in gold before them ; upon which two gentlemen who were with me made reflections with astonishment. Six days after, all was in the dust." x\fter the death of Charles there was a brief lull in 8 114 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 1 3 < 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. I15 the ardor of the gaming world ; but it was soon revived, and spread to classes of society where it had not been known before. And now we begin to read frequently of women who were devoted to gaming. Moreover professional gamesters from any class of society were admitted among the aristocracy. The case of Bour- chier, at one time the footman of the Earl of Mulgrave, is to the point. " Once Mr. Bourchier, going over to Flanders with a great Train of Servants, set off in such a fine Equipage that they drew the Eyes of all upon them wherever they went, to admire the Splendor and Gaiety of their Master, whom they took for no less than a Nobleman of the first Rank. In this Pomp, making his Tour at king William's Tent, he happened into Play with that great Monarch, and won of him above ;^2,5oo. The Duke of Bavaria being also there, he took up the Cudgels, and losing ^15,000, the Loss put him in a great Chafe, and doubting some foul Play was put upon him, because Luck went so much against him, quoth y[x. Bpurchier : 'Sir, if you have any Suspicion of the least Sinister Trick put upon your Highness, if you please I '11 give you a Chance for all your Money at once, tossing up at Cross and Pile ; and you shall have the Advantage too of throwing up the Guinea yourself The Elector admir'd at his bold Challenge, which never the less accepting, he tossed up for ;^ 1 5,000, and lost the m.oney." (Lucas, Memoirs of Gamesters.) During the reign of Anne the government under- took to regulate gaming, but with little success. The ii6 WHIST SCOHES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 5; CARD-TABLE TALK. 117 "Evening Post" for Oct. 12-14, 1702, contains the following : " An Inditement is presented against a Person in Westchester, for playing away his Wife to another Man, which was done with her own consent." During this reign, moreover, there was formed the famous "South-Sea Bubble" of John Law, which — if it be permitted so to express it — absorbed much of the gaming energy of the people during the following reign. When the bubble burst, it was found that thous- ands were ruined, and the House of Commons had to step in and do what it could to restore credit. But card-playing continued, and became even more general in every class of society. The preface to Seymour's " Compleat Gamester " begins : " Gaming is become fo much the fafliion amongfh the Beau-Mo7ide that he who, in Company, fhould appear ignorant of the Games in Vogue, would be reckoned low-bred, and hardly fit for Converfation." All memxbers of the family were devoted to it, and business and house- hold duties were neglected. Of course this did not escape the pen of the writers of dramas and satires (see page 271), to say nothing of the denunciations of the clergy. The following is abridged from a " censure of carding," published in the " Gentlemen's Magazine," June, 1735 • — A CARDING WOMAN is a fafhionable Monfler ; too co7n7noii to be carried about for a Shew, and too Ugly to bear looking at ; Elfe there is not among the Mtf-fhapeit, grwt Aniiitals, which are proclaim'd tui- natural by found of Trumpet, anything fo deteftably the ii8 WHIST SCORES AND ^ S Rubbers Games Points 1 2 < • CARD-TABLE TALK, II9 Reverfe of what fhe was intended for as this Rational Grimalkin I this voracious, dry Harpy in Mafqiierade ! this half human Tyger in Petticoats ! Let nobody tell me of the Refpect due to Ladies. . . . Thefe are no Ladies. . . . They have renounced whatever is tender and amiable in Woman ; and the rights of the Sex are advan- tages they are too manni/h to lay any claim to. I have ftruggled fo long to fuprefs my Refentuient that it has given me the Heart-Burn ; and I can contain myfelf no longer ; but am for executing all fuch incorrigible Of- fenders for High Treafon against Love and the Sexes Hereditary Right of Dominion. The Goths and Vandals were lefs barbarous dejlroyers, than thefe Dome/tic Sub- verters of Government. ... I pity the Hufbands, Sons and Daughters, great part of whofe Happinefs or Mifery in Life, is dependent on the Conduct of thefe good Chrif- tians, who may be, literally, faid to eat and drink, ajtd rife up to play. Another correspondent of the same magazine (Sep- tember, 1736) describes a '' polite family card-party '' as consisting '' moftly of two or three infignificant old Maids ; the fame Number of gay Widows in want of more Things than one ; a batter'd old Beau or two ; and fome decay'd Perfon of a good Family, made ufe of merely as a Cypher to carry on the Bufmefs, by having the Honour to be marry'd to the Lady, who to oblige her Friends and People of good Fafliion only, fuffers her houfe to be made ufe of for thefe Purpofes." It had been customary in France the century before for a woman during confinement to " keep her room I20 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points ! 2 < c 1 1 1 1 I 1^1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 1 21 in State and with great ceremony, and receive there daily her female acquaintances, who passed the after- noon in gossip." (Wright, Dom. Manners, 481.) This custom had passed into England, but card-players took the place of gossiping ladies. In 1759 Walpole wrote : '' Loo is mounted to the zenith. The parties last till one and two in the morning. We played at Lady Hertford's last week, the last night of her lying-in, till deep into Sunday morning, after she and her lord were retired. It is now adjourned to Mrs. Fitzroy's, whose child the Town calls Pam€(\d.''' (a play on '^pam," an old name for the knave of clubs in loo and other games). Some years before this the fashion arose for children, too, to give card- parties, and toward the end of the century whist and casino were taught in fashionable boarding-schools. During the eighteenth century Bath was a fashion- able watering-place, and one of the principal localities of card-playing. This was due to the genius of that remarkable man Beau Nash. A notorious gamester and spendthrift, he somehow got a peculiar power at Bath, and was denominated the King of Bath ; and by certain rules and regulations, and their wise enforce- ment, raised the little country town with its mineral springs into the most fashionable resort of the day. The Corporation had a full-length portrait of Nash hung in the ball-room, with the bust of Newton on one side, and that of Pope on the other ; while his statue was placed in the pump-room. Here Mr. Pickwick is depicted playing whist with Mrs. Bolo 122 WHIST SCORES AND •^ ^ Rubbers Games — Points 3 < 1 i 5; CARD'TABLE TALK. T23 against the Dowager Lady Snuphanuph and Mrs. Colonel Wugsby. A great impetus y\'zs given to gaming in England at the end of the last century by the flood of penni- less wretches that poured in from France in conse- quence of the French Revolution. Gambling had become with them a second nature, and now they put their skill in this direction to use in gaining a living. ' About this time high play at whist became customary, especially at White's and Brooks's, then the most aristocratic and elegant of the London " hells." These were fitted up in great style ; the furniture alone of " Fishmongers' Hall," or Crock- ford's, is said to have cost about ^200,000, while its expenses were not far from $5,000 a week. The amount netted by the proprietor the first year was equal to $750,000. (Apperley, xvi. 23.) The great Fox was notorious as a gamester. At one time he is said to have played for twenty-two consecu- tive hours, losing on an average £^^00 an hour. So infatuated was he with the passion for deep play that he once declared that the greatest pleasure in life was to play and win ; the next, to play and lose. It was his reputation as an inveterate gambler, more than anything else, that deprived him of the confidence of the people. Major Aubrey, " no less distinguished for his love for than for his skill in almost every game that was in vogue, on first hearing the rattling of the dice-box, exclaimed, as Charles XIL of Sweden did when he first heard the whistling of bullets, ^This 124 WHIST SCORES AND :^ ;^ Rubbers Games Points 1 ( i CARD-TABLE TALK, 1 25 henceforth shall be my music' Aubrey's favorite toast was, ^ Play ; like the air we breathe, if we have it not, we die.' '* (Apperiey, xvi. 13.) During the last century and the early part of the present ^^ betting was the prime amusement of all classes, and nothing was too trivial, ridiculous, or disgusting to bet upon. The utmost excitement would prevail, and ruinous sums were staked on which of two drops of rain coursing down the window-pane would sooner reach the bottom, or which of two maggots would achieve in a certain time the greater distance across the cheese-board. ^What will you lay?' was the question in everybody's mouth, and a bet settled every dispute. George IV., when Prince of Wales, lost ;^6,ooo on a race between twenty drakes and twenty geese ! A gambhng friend victimized him by inducing him to bet on the drakes, having himself wagered largely on the other side. A funny sight it must have been to see the heir-apparent to the Brit- ish throne urging his drakes on with a pole having a bit of red rag tagged to it, and strewing barley along the ground with his own royal hands, in the vain en- deavor to coax his rebelHous lieges from their too fre- quent roost in the trees by the wayside." (Nordhoff.) How the betting and gaming spirit had hardened men a few generations back may be seen from the following incidents : '' Horace Walpole relates that on a man falling down in a fit before the bay-window of White's, odds were instantly offered and taken to a large amount against his recovery, and that on its 126 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points i 2 < 1 1 1 — i I CARD-TABLE TALK. 1 27 being proposed to bleed him, the operation was vehe- mently resisted as unfair ! When Lord Thanet was in the Tower for the O'Conner riot, three friends — the Duke of Bedford, the Duke de Laval, and Captain Smith — were admitted to play whist with him and re- main till the lock-up hour of eleven. Early in the sit- ting Captain Smith fell back in a fit of apoplexy, and one of the party rose to call for help. ' Stop ! ' cried another, ' we shall be turned out if you make a noise. Let our friend alone till eleven. We can play dummy, and he '11 be none the worse ; for I can read death in his face.' " (Hayward, 459.) " There is a well-authenticated story of the late Lord Granville's devotion to whist. Intending to set out in the course of the afternoon for Paris, he ordered his carriage and four posters to be at Graham's at four. They were kept waiting till ten, when he sent out to say that he should not be ready for another hour or two, and that the horses had better be changed. They were changed three times in all, at intervals of six hours, before he started. When the party rose, they were up to their ankles in cards, and the ambassador (it was reported) was a loser to the tune of eight or ten thousand pounds. About this time there was a set at Brooks's who played hundred-guinea points, be- sides bets. We still occasionally hear of ;£^300 and ^500 on the rubber ; but five-pound points are above the average, and many of the best players are content with two-pound points (ten, bet) at the Turf, and half pounds at the Portland." (Hayward, 456.) 128 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers " Games Points CO < 1. CARD-TABLE TALK. 129 CARDING AND GAMING IN GERMANY. HE story of card-playing and gambling in Ger- many differs little from that in England and France. As soon as cards were made clieap enough to be within the means of the working classes, they were prohibited. In time, however, they were allowed at the meeting-houses of the trades and — at least at Nordlingen — at the annual magistrate's goose- feast or corporation dinner, just as they were permitted to apprentices in England at Christmas time. Still, cards and dice were very common, and gambling called for the severe denunciation of the clergy. We read that in 1452 Cardinal Johannes Capistran was received with great pomp at Nlirnberg, where he held a very successful revival. In the market a gorgeous throne was arranged for him, and here he held mass and preached in Latin, one of his helpers translating the sermon into German. '' This he did every day, the while he was here, four whole weeks. And touching the people with the venerable relic of the saint, he prayed God in their behalf; and then blind saw, deaf heard, lame went, and many great wonders happened. And on St. Laurence Day his sermon lasted three hours ; and then they set fire to three thousand six hundred and twelve chess-boards, and more than twenty thousand 9 I30 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 2 < I CARD-TABLE TALK. 131 dice, and packs of cards to a great number, and^seventy- two shovel-boards." (Chronik, Niirnberg, i. 191.) In 1467 there appeared for the first time, at the folk-shooting- festival at Mlinchen, the urn of fortune. The prizes were cups of gold and silver, velvet girdles, weapons, etc., twenty-two prizes in all against thirty- six thousand tickets, costing about a cent each. Such was the origin of European lotteries. (Freytag, Bilder, ii. 2 (10), 327.) Freytag gives a good picture of gaming in the army during the Thirty Years War. An open space in the camp was set aside for this purpose, and there the gamesters gathered about tables under temporary awn- ings. Here card-playing had given place to the more rapid decision of dice. Dicing had frequently been interdicted in camp ; but the players had then secretly gathered behind hedges, and there played away their rations, arms, horses, and clothes. So it was deemed best to authorize the play and put it under supervision. But cheating and contentions were frequent. Dice were made of the horn of the deer, heavier on one side than on the other ; or certain spots were bored out and loaded with quicksilver or lead, and colored black again. Often the quietness of the game was inter- rupted by curses, wrangling, and the flash of the rapier. Among the excited players ghded eager-eyed trades- men, often Jews, ready to appraise and buy the chains, rings, and other articles staked, (iii. (2), 67.) During the eighteenth century gaming flourished in Germany as elsewhere. Already we see it at the 132 WHIST SCORES AND • % Rubbers Games Points < 1 * CARD-TABLE TALK. -^zi watering-places the bane of the German landed pro- prietors. Here they came together and played with the Poles, — then the greatest gamesters of Europe. ^^ There used to be high play at Berlin and Vienna. Count Palfy won enough, at a single sitting, of Prince John of Lichtenstein to build and furnish a chateau. It was shown to the loser, who on being asked how he Hked it, rephed : ' Pas du tout ; cela a tout a fait I'air d'un chateau de cartes.' There is a current anecdote of Count Rechberg, late Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Austria, which justifies a surmise that he also is a proficient. His left-hand adversary made so desperate though successful a finesse that his excellency uttered an exclamation of surprise ; whereupon the gentleman offered a bet that the Count himself should acknowl- edge that he had a sound reason for his play. It was taken, and he then coolly said, ^Why, I looked over your hand.' This gentleman must have graduated under the Artful Dodger, w^ho, when playing dummy in Fagin's den, is commended for ' wisely regulating his play by the result of his observations on his neigh- bor's cards.' Some forty years since [written 1869], a remarkable set used to meet in Berlin at Prince Witten- stein's, including Count Alopeus, the Russian Minister, General Nostitz, Henry Bulwer (then attached to the Berlin embassy), and the Duke of Cumberland (after- ward King of Hanover)." (Hayward, 457.) But Germany is peculiar in the mammoth develop- ment during this century of gambling at watering- places. The chief of these were Baden-Baden, Spa, 134 WHIST SCOPES AND ^ ^ : Rubbers Games Points O I CARD-TABLE TALK, 1 35 and Homburg. Here public gaming-tables were es- tablished, and people of all nations came to spend the summer and try their fortune at the rouge-et-noir and roulette tables. The stories told of the consequent anguish, madness, and suicide would fill volumes. Among the interesting sketches given by Mrs. Trollope of people she observed at the German watering-places in 1833, is that of ^^ a pale, anxious old woman, who seemed no longer to have strength to conceal her eager agitation under the air of callous indifference which all practised players endeavor to assume. She trembled till her shaking hand could hardly grasp the instrument with which she pushed or withdrew her pieces ; the dew of agony stood upon her wrinkled brow ; yet hour after hour and day after day she sat in the enchanted chair. I never saw age and station in a position so utterly beyond the pale of respect. I was assured she was a person of rank ; and my informant added — but I trust she was mistaken — that she was an E?tglisk woman." The monopoly of the gaming business was usually granted by the rulers to individuals, who guaranteed to advance a certain per cent of their income as a con- sideration for the privilege. In Baden-Baden, in the year 1840, such a monopohst agreed to pay an old debt of 120,000 florins, spend 230,000 florins in im- proving the grounds, and pay the government 40,000 florins yearly. But with 1872 came the purification of Germany of this plague-spot, and there is now but one place in Europe where public gaming-tables still hold out. 136 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ % Rubbers Games Points 2 r-' I CARD-TABLE TALK, 137 GAMING AT MONTE CARLO. INE miles east of Nice, and bounded on the north by the French department of the Mari- time Alps, Monaco, the smallest of the sover- eign principalities of Europe, juts out into the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Here, in the casino of Monte Carlo, are the only public gaming-tables legalized in Europe. Established in 1856, they after- ward passed into the hands of M. Blanc. He agreed not only to pay the government ten per cent of his earnings, but also to maintain all the officers and servants as well as the garrison of the prince of this little state ; and he not only did this, but besides ex- pended fabulous sums in magnificent improvements. On his death the business passed into the hands of his wife, who long conducted it. At present a stock- company has control of the lease, which will not expire until 191 6. The citizens of Monaco are not admitted to the tables, but their interest in the main- tenance of the institution is secured by the high price brought by their lands and by complete exemption from taxation. In this delightful place desperate gaming, with all its attendant evils, flourishes, and as yet no success has followed the efforts of the " Inter- national Association for the Suppression of the Gaming- Tables at Monte Carlo.'* 138 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points < ^ ^ V k ^ t k*^ ^ CARD-TABLE TALK. 139 GAMBLING IN AMERICA. F the adventurers who first left the Old World in the hope of finding in a land of gold and pearls an easy road to wealth and luxury, many were desperate gamesters. On their journeys through forests and marshes, they carried with them cards and dice, and at their camp-fires at night gam- bled with one another for the little that each possessed. Even among the colonists who sought in this country to live in peace an honest life, it was found necessary to pass laws to crush the vice that would have been fatal to the prosperity of the struggHng communities. In a new country like ours, which draws from all lands the ambitious and venturesome, and offers to the alert and active opportunities and gains nowhere else to be found, it is but natural that the gambling spirit should blossom and thrive. The desire to make great achievements in a rapid and easy way is the mainspring of much of our material progress, and an element akin to gambling is to be detected in most of our political, financial, and industrial movements and schemes. Indeed it is chiefly in this country that stock-gambling has experienced its mam- moth development. Speaking of the time of Jack- son's administration, Josiah Quincy says : " Gambling 140 WHIST SCORES AND * ^ ^ 1 Rubbers Games Points 3 < 1 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK, 141 was considered a reputable pastime for gentlemen, and a room at most parties was reserved for this pur- pose. Card-playing for high stakes was usual among prominent politicians and men in office. The enor- mous increase of wealth without labor which had come to fortunate speculators since the peace of 181 5 seemed to make the invocation of chance almost a legitimate business. It was said that an original proprietor of a single share in the Charlestown Bridge Company had received in 1826 not only principal and interest, but a surplus of seven thousand dollars. Certain lands in Pennsylvania, purchased in 18 14 at sixty- two cents an acre, were selling at four hundred dollars an acre. Such facts as these, and many similar to them, in which the gains were not so enormous, seemed to make specu- lation honorable and respectable, and the controlKng spirit of the time found one of its outlets in games of chance." (Figures of the Past, 275.) Gambling in its more hmited sense has always been common among us. In spite of laws to the contrary, and their occasional severe enforcement, there are among us houses of great and of little pretentions to respectability whose only or chief purpose is to offer opportunity for gambling. In the palmy days of the South, gambling flourished, and on the Mississippi in particular became so natural- ized, as it were, that it was, perhaps, the first thing suggested by the mention of that beautiful stream. The wild fire of excitement aroused by the discovery of gold in California lured to the West and there 142 WHIST SCORES AND 1^ :^ Rubbers Games Points 1 1 c/T CARD-TABLE TALK, 143 inflamed to even greater ardor the gambling spirit of the country. A striking picture of the marvellous things of those days is furnished by the following extracts from Shinn's '^Mining Camps" (pp. 136, 244) : — "March 27, 1850, five prospectors — all New Eng- landers, and three at least from the woods of Maine — camped beside a gulch and tested the gravel. To their delight it was found that they could make eight or ten ounces a day to the man, though water was very scarce. They named the place Kennebec Hill, and proceeded to wash gravel with their utmost energy, knowing that others would soon find the gulch. Within a week another pros- pector joined them, and succeeded in taking out two and a half pounds of gold-dust during his first day's work. Within thirteen days from the time the five original pro- spectors camped on Kennebec Hill, there were eight thou- sand miners in the new town. Many gamblers came with the crowd, and at one time there were no less than a hundred and forty-three monte and faro banks in operation, the funds of which were nearly half a milhon dollars. Many were often seen to turn a card for three or four thousand dollars, sometimes for several times as much. It was one of the most rapid developments of a great and prosperous mining-camp ever known in Cahfornia. . . . " Gambling in Cahfornia was permitted under Mexican rule and under the military government of '46-'49. It was even a source of revenue to the aytuntainiento of San Francisco in August, 1849. It was a legalized and important pursuit, followed with zeal by Mexicans, Frenchmen, and Americans." 144 WHIST SCORES AND ^ : N 1 Rubbers — Games Points ►J 1 * I' CARD-TABLE TALK, M5 LEGISLATION AS TO CARDS AND GAMING. EGISLATION in reference to cards and to gaming has been quite extensive and varied. We have already spoken of the laws of an- cient Rome as to gambling and the keeping of gam- bling-houses ; from that time on, the pages of historical books are sprinkled with various decrees as to the matter. In 952 Otto the Great found it necessary to threaten to discharge clergymen who persisted in play- ing dice. " Eenedictus Abbas has preserved a very curious edict, which shows the state of gaming in the Christian army commanded by Richard the First King of England, and Phihp of France, during the Crusade in the year 1 190. No person in the army is permitted to play at any sort of game for money, except knights and clergymen, who. in one whole day and night shall not, each^ lose more than 20 shillings, on pain of losing 100 shillings to the archbishops of the army. The two kings may play for what they please, but their atten- dants not for more than 20 shillings. Otherwise they are to be whipped naked through the army for three days." (HazHtt, Popular Antiquities, ii. 345.) In 1397 the working- people of France were forbid- den to play at cards on working-days ; and most of the early decrees against card-playing aimed mainly to 10 146 WHIST SCORES AND ^ .^ Rubbers Games 1 1 Points % \ CARD-TABLE TALK. M7 prevent the wasting of time and the formation of idle habits on the part of the lower classes. By 1 1 Henry VII., 1496, c. 2, and 19 Henry VII. c. 12, it was laid down that " no apprentyce nor feruaunt of huf bandry, laborer nor feruant artificer, play at the tablys, tenyfe, dyfe, cardys, bowlys, nor at none othir vnlawfull game owt of the tyrae of Cryftmas but for mete and drynke, and in cryftmas to playe onely in the dwellyng howfe of his mayfter or in the prefence of hys mayfter." (Same, ii. 285.) In time it was deemed necessary to make other regu- lations, and we read of special injunctions to the clergy. In the reign of EHzabeth they are admonished that they " shall in no wise haunt or resort to any taverns or alehouses ; and after their meats they shall not give themselves to drinking or riot, spending their time idly by day, and by night idly at dice, cards, or tables play- ing." Moreover John, Bishop of Norwich, in 15 61 directs inquiry to be made whether any parsons, vicars, or curates be " dycers, tablers, carders, swearers, or vehemently suspected thereof" In the Massachusetts court records for March, 1631, it is " ordered that all persons whatsoever that have cards, dice, or tables in their houses, shall make away with them before the nexte Court, under paine of pun- ishment." And in the First Code of Laws, made May, 1650, by the General Court of Connecticut, we find the following as to gaming : " Upon complaint of great disorder by the use of the game called shufile-board, in houses of common entertainment, whereby much 148 WHIST SCORES AND ^ :^ ' Rubbers Games Points < I I' CARD-TABLE TALK, 149 precious time is spent unfruitfully, and much waste of wine and beer occasioned, It is therefore ordered and enacted by the authority of this court that no person shall henceforth use the said game of shuffle-board, in any such house, nor in any other house used as com- mon for such purpose, upon pain for every keeper of such house to forfeit for every such offense twenty shillings ; and for every person playing at the said game in any such house to forfeit for every such offense five shillings. The like penalty shall be for playing in any place at any unlawful game." An 07'donnance of Louis XIII. of France declared all debts contracted at play, as well as all promises to pay such debts, null and void. And in England in the time of Queen Anne (1711) it was enacted tha»t es- tates mortgaged at play pass to the heir as if the grantor had died. Moreover, any person losing jP^\o at one time might recover it, and persons cheating at cards were to forfeit five times the amount to the informer, and suffer corporal punishment as for perjury. These regulations were, however, repealed in 1844 to pro- tect eminent sporting characters who had become liable to its penalties to a large extent. But the following is still law in England : ^* And wx do hereby strictly enjoin and prohibit all our loving subjects of whatsoever degree or quality soever from playing on the Lord's Day at Dice, Cards, or any other game what- soever." (Notes and Queries, 1872, X. pp. 311, 377.) As has been stated above, the importation into Eng- land of foreign cards was prohibited in 1463. In 16 15 15° WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK, 151 the first tax on playing-cards was levied. In the " Calendar of State Papers," Domestic Series, A. D. 1 6 1 i-T 6 1 8, is the follo\ving : — " 1615, July 20, Westminster (19). Letters Patent granting to Sir Richard Coningsby, for a rent of ^200 per annum, the imposition of z^s. per gross on playing- cards imported in recompense of ^1,800 due to him from the King, and of his patent for the sole export of Tin, granted by the late Queen." " Every enactment relating to playing-cards is ac- companied by some reference to fraudulent practices with regard to the duties under the former act. The trick of selling shghtly soiled playing-cards as ' waste ' was largely practised. They were purchased for a few pence per pound, chiefly by Jew speculators, who sorted them and disposed of them at a cheap rate. In order to put a stop to this, the manufacturers were required to mark waste cards so that they would be unfit to play with. During the reign of George III. no less than seven Acts of Parhament were passed relating to cards and dice. The tax was made one shilHng a pack, and was paid for the ace of spades, — the duty-card, which the maker obtained from tlie government. He had, moreover, to supply the paper and pay for the engraved plate. This duty-card was called ' Old Frizzle,' on account of the elaborate flourishes which adorned it." (Cavendish, Card Essays, 85-102.) The custom of making the ace of spades an ornamental advertising card is a relic of its use as duty-card. In 1863 the duty was reduced to 152 WHIST SCOHES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 I CARD-TABLE TALK. 153 threepence, and is now collected by means of stamped wrappers. In Great Britain cards can be manufactured only in London, Westminster, and Dublin ; conse- quently nowhere in Scotland. In reference to the United States internal revenue tax on playing-cards and the duty on imported cards, it seems best to copy directly from letters from the Treasury Department at Washington. *^ There is now no internal revenue tax on playing- cards, the law imposing tax thereon (Schedule A, imme- diately following Section 3,437, Revised Statutes) having been repealed by the Act of March 3, 1883, the repeal taking effect July i, 1883. ^' The law thus repealed had imposed the tax in the fol- lowing language : ' Playing-cards. — For and upon every pack not exceeding fifty-two cards in number, irrespective of price or value, five cents.' This language was first incorporated in the law by the Act of July 13, 1866, amending the Act of June 30, 1864. Prior to this amend- ment, the Act of June 30, 1864, imposed tax on such cards in these words : ' Playing-cards. — For and upon every pack of whatever number, when the retail price per pack does not exceed eighteen cents, two cents. Exceed- ing the retail price of eighteen cents, and not exceeding twenty-five cents per pack, four cents. Exceeding the retail price of twenty-five, and not exceeding fifty cents per pack, ten cents. Exceeding the retail price of fifty cents, and not exceeding one dollar per pack, fifteen cents. Exceeding the retail price of one dollar, for every additional fifty cents, or fractional part thereof, in excess of one dollar, five cents.' ''Prior to the Act of June 30, 1864, the tax was im- 54 WBIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points < 1 5; CARD-TABLE TALK, 155 posed by the original Excise Tax Act of July i, 1862, in the following language : ' Playing-cards. — For and upon every pack of whatever number, when the price per pack does not exceed eighteen cents, one cent. Over eighteen cents and not exceeding twenty-five cents per pack, two cents. Over twenty-five and not exceeding thirty cents per pack, three cents. Over thirty and not exceeding thirty-six cents per pack, four cents. Over thirty-six cents per pack, five cents.' "Prior to this Act of July i, 1862, there was no inter- nal revenue tax on playing-cards. "JOS. S. MILLER, " Com7nissio?ter of Inte7'nal Revenue.^'' '' The duty on playing-cards has been as follows : Act July 4, 1789, playing-cards, ten cents per pack; May 2, 1792, twenty-five cents per pack ; July i, 18 12, fifty cents per pack; April 27, 18 16, thirty cents per pack ; August 30, 1842, twenty-five cents per pack ; July 30, 1846, thirty per cent ; March 3, 1857, twenty- four per cent ; March 2, 1861, thirty per cent ; July 14, 1862, costing not over twenty-five cents per pack, fifteen cents per pack ; costing over twenty-five cents per pack, twenty-five cents per pack ; June 30, 1864, costing not over twenty-five cents per pack, twenty-five cents per pack ; over twenty-five cents per pack, thirty-five cents per pack. With the exception of the period from August i, 1872, to March 3, 1885, when a reduction of ten per cent was made on the total amount of duty received (Act of June 6, 1872) ; this rate remained in force until July i, 1883, since when the duty on all playing-cards is one hundred per cent (Act, March 3, 1883). "J. N. WHITNEY, * " Acfg Chief of Bureau of Statistics:' iS6 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games — Points 2 1 1 4 I CARD-TABLE TALK. 157 THE MORALITY OF CARD-PLAYING. OT only has gambling, or playing for gain or from a passion for it, received the con- demnation of all writers on morals^ but even playing at cards and other games involving the ele- ment of chance, for the sake of recreation alone, has often been condemned. In the sixteenth century the matter was much discussed, and Puritan divines took the ground that games involving chance were ''lots," and therefore unlawful, inasmuch as lots had been "sanctioned by the word of God to a peculiar use." In " A Short and Plaine Dialogve concerning the Vn- lawfulnes of playing at Cards," etc. (James Balmford), London, 1590 [1623]," w^e read : — " Whatfoeuer directly, or of it felfe, or in a fpeciall man- ner, tendeth to the advancing of the name of God, is to be vfed rehgioufly, Mai. 1. 6. 7^ and not to be vfed in fport : as wee are not to pray or fweare in fport, Exod. 20. 7. FJa. 29. IS.Jer. 4. 2 but the vfe of Lots, directly of it felfe, and in a fpeciall manner tendeth to the aduancing of the name of God, in attributing to his fpeciall prouidence in the whole and immediate difpofmg of the Lot, and ex- pecting the euent, Pro. 16. 33. Act. 1. 2J^. 26. Therefore the vfe of Lots is not to be in fport." IS8 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points CO 1 5: 1^ CARD-TABLE TALK. 1 59 Since that time many pamphlets have been printed and countless sermons preached against card-playing ; while, on the other hand, there have not been want- ing good and able men who deemed it worthy of them- selves to oppose and refute more or less of the arguments thus brought forward. After condemning gaming, Jer- emy Taylor once said: ^^ That cards are themselves lawful, I do not know any reason to doubt. He can never be suspected in any criminal sense to tempt the Divine Providence who by contingent things recreates his labour. As for the evil appendages, they are all separable from these things. . . . He that means to make his games law^ful must not play for money, but for refreshment. But when our sports come to that excess that we long and seek for opportunities ; when we tempt others, are weary of our business, and not weary of our games ; when we sit up till midnight, and spend half days, and quite often too, — then w^e have spoiled the sport ; it is no recreation, but a sin." ^^Such," said Archdeacon Butler, ^^ are the sentiments of one of the most truly pious and most profoundly learned prelates that ever adorned any age or coun- try." The Puritan sentiment on this as on many other subjects has been pecuharly strong in this country, and it is this sentiment that w^e have to thank for the fact that, while most enlightened people do not oppose play- ing at cards and similar games in proper places and on proper occasions, there is among us a strong public sentiment against playing for stakes, betting on the game, or a devotion to play that savors of gambling. i6o WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers ! Games 1 Points c/T 1 • I CARD-TABLE TALK, i6l WHIST. THE ETYMOLOGIES AND MEANINGS OF CERTAIN WORDS CONNECTED WITH WHIST. Authorities. — y(?;?o Rubbers Games Points 1 — CARD-TABLE TALK, 221 not determined as usually, but the partner of the dealer has the first right to name the trump. If he fails to name it, then the dealer, then the left-hand adversary, etc. If the side which makes the trump does not make one above the book, the adversaries score two for each trick they make over the book. PREFERENCE, OR SWEDISH WHIST. In an elegant little volume, printed for private distri- bution. Librarian Linderfelt of Milwaukee expounds Preference, another modification of whist. As it has superseded English whist in Sweden, he calls it Swed- ish whist. There are partners, but these are changed after each rubber. The trump is determined by bid- ding. The leader has the first choice, then the second hand, then the third, and lastly the dealer. Each must bid a higher suit or else pass. The suits rank : clubs, spades, diamonds, hearts, — clubs being lowest. Higher than any of these is preference^ in which no trump is employed, — the intrinsic value of the cards determin- ing the issue. If the side that makes the trump or demands preference loses, the adversaries count double for each trick they get above six. The game is twenty points. Each trick above six counts, for a game in clubs, three ; spades, four ; diamonds, five ; hearts, six ; preference, eight points. Honors count as in Enghsh whist. Clubs and spades are no longer played as trumps, but ser\^e as signals to one's partner to de- mand preference, — spades being the more imperative. 222 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T I 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK, 223 SHUFFLING. " Clay was fond of shuffling the cards very thoroughly after every deal. Having suggested to him that so much shuffling was likely to produce wild hands, which are disadvantageous to good players, he said, ' I do not agree with you at all. I should like to have the cards thrown out of a volcano after every deal.' '' (Cav- endish, Card Essays, 164.) A SHUFFLING MACHINE. Sir Marc Isambard Brunei, the celebrated engineer and inventor, who in the latter part of the last century fortified the harbor of New York and built the Thames Tunnel, in response to a playful request on the part of Lady Spencer produced a machine for shuffling cards. These were placed in a box, a crank was turned, and in a few seconds the sides flew open and presented the pack divided into four parts and thoroughly mixed. WHIST PLAYED BY MACHINERY. In " Macmillan's Magazine " for January, 1876, Dr. Pole gives an account of a wonderful automaton, exhib- ited by Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London, which, among other things, could play whist, — even " the modern scientific game " so ably explained by Dr. Pole himself. The name of the remarkable figure is Psycho ; he is a little less than adult size, and sits cross-legged, in Oriental fashion, on 2 24 WHIST SCORES AND ^ S Rubbers Games Points 2 < CARD-TABLE TALK. 225 an oblong box about 22x18x15 inches. The box, with the figure on it, is entirely detached, and is carried about by Mr. Maskelyne and an assistant. When in action it is placed on the top of a strong hollow cylin- der of transparent glass, about ten inches in diameter and eighteen inches high. This cyHnder rests on a loose wooden platform about four feet square, covered with soft baize, and supported at a distance of about nine inches clear above the floor of the stage by four short legs. Before commencing the performance the platform is turned about and exhibited to the audience, and the cyhnder is handed round to the spectators for them to examine. When in position, persons are re- quested to walk round the figure and to pass their hands over his head, to satisfy themselves that there is no wire or other means of communication between the figure and the sides or ceiling of the room. A table is now prepared on the stage, three persons from the audience are invited to play, and Psycho makes the fourth. After cutting for partners, the deal takes place, and Psycho's cards are taken up by Mr. Alaskelyne and placed upright, one by one, in a frame forming the arc of a circle in front of the figure, the faces of the cards being toward him and away from the other players. W^hen it is Psycho's turn to play, his right hand passes with a horizontal circular motion over the frame till it arrives at the right card ; he then takes this card between his thumb and fingers, and by a new vertical movement of the hand and arm he extracts it from its place, hfts it high in the air, and 15 226 WHIST SCORES AND > ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 227 exposes it to the view of the audience ; after which, the arm descends again, and the card is taken away from the fingers by Mr. Maskelyne and thrown on the table, to be gathered into the trick. Besides playing whist, or any other game at cards. Psycho can perform several tricks of conjuring, and can add and multiply. Dr. Pole suggests that these strange results may be brought about by pneumatic action. It would not be impossible to construct within the figure mechanism to be operated by the pressure of a column of air, which is controlled, say, by the pressure, — upon a concealed treadle under the carpet, — of the foot of the operator who is looking over Psycho's cards. Thus the air would pass through one of the legs of the plat- form, through the tissue of the baize covering it, and so into the glass cylinder and the figure above it. THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT HANDS. " The number of different hands that an individual can hold at whist is simply the number of ways thirteen things can be taken out of fifty- two, without having two sets of thirteen alike. The answer to this is 635,- 013,559,600. It is evidently a ^x^^x^n^. whist-hand ii A Y B and Z one or all interchange an entire hand. It is also to my mind a different whist-haiid if a differ- ent trump-card is turned up. If this is admitted, the total possible number of whist-hands that can be held by all the four players is 697,381,590,951,354,306,910,- 086,720,000." (Cavendish, Card Essays, 201.) 228 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 3 < CARD-TABLE TALK, 229 TRICKS WITH CARDS. RICKS with cards involving sleight of hand are usually variations or combinations of the Pass, the Slip, the Force,, or the Change. The Pass^ or Sauter la coicpe, consists in reversing the cards in the hand after they have been cut, so that they return to the same relative position that they had before * being cut. There are at least seven different methods of doing this. The Slip is the getting of a particular card into a desired position in the pack. The Force consists in so managing a number of cards that another, person will select a particular one, though he is apparently given freedom of choice. It is done by holding the cards spread out, face down, in both hands and moving them slowly or rapidly from left to right or from right to left with the thumb, so that the intended card, which is controlled by the little finger, will be before the finger of the drawer at just the right moment. If the drawer passes by it, the cards are all quickly slipped to one side, and the separating and shifting begun over again. By the Change one card is dexterously substituted for another. There are some six ways of doing it. (Taylor, 520.) Palming a card consists in skilfully getting the top card of a pack con- cealed in the palm of the hand. Tricks of this kind 230 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 3 < 5; CARD-TABLE TALK. 231 are best performed with small cards, such as are used in France. But there are tricks which require no sleight of hand, and may be performed with ordinary cards. Many of these consist of two elements, — the discovery, by the performer, of a certain card, and his disclosure of this knowledge in a more or less striking manner. ''How to Discover a Given Card, — Deal the cards into three packs, face upward, and request a spectator to note a card, and remember in which heap it is. When you have dealt twenty-one cards, throw the rest aside, these not being employed in the trick. Ask in which heap the chosen card is, and place that heap between the other two, and deal again as before. Again ask the question, place the heap indicated in the middle, and deal again a third time. Note particularly the fourth or middle card of each heap, as one or other of those three cards will be the card thought of. Ask for the last time in which heap the chosen card is,, when you may be certain that it was the card which you noted as being the middle card of that heap.'^ (Hoffmann, 43.) "Ho7V to Disclose a Card in a Striking Manner after Having Discovered it, — Get the card to the top of the pack. Give the pack to some person to hold. The cards should be face upward, so that the chosen card will be undermost, with the thumb of the holder above and the fingers below the pack. The fingers should extend under the pack for about an inch, but the thumb above not more than half an inch. Request the per- son to nip the cards tightly, and as he does so give 232 WHIST SCORES AND ^ .^ Rubbers Games Points c/f < CARD-TABLE TALK. ^2>?> them a smart downward rap with your forefinger, which will knock all the cards out of his hand, with the excep- tion of the lowest card, which will be retained by the greater friction of the fingers, and will remain staring him in the face. This is a very old and simple finish, but it appears marvellous to those who witness it for the first time." (Hoffmann, 44.) '^ The Four Inseparable Kings, — Take the four kings (or any other four cards), and exhibit them fan- wise, but secretly place behind the second one two other court-cards, which, being thus hidden behind the king, will not be visible. The audience being satisfied that the four cards are really the four kings, and none other, fold them together and place them at the top of the pack. Draw attention to the fact that you are about to distribute these kings in different parts of the pack. Take up the top card, which, being really a king, you may exhibit without apparent intention, and place it at the bottom. Take the next card, which the specta- tors suppose to be also a king, and place it about half way down the pack, and the next, in like manner, a little higher. Take the fourth card, which, being act- ually a king, you may show carelessly, and replace it on the top of the pack. You have now really three kings at the top and one at the bottom, though the audience imagine that they have seen them distributed in different parts of the pack, and are proportionately surprised, w^hen the cards are cut, to find that all the kings are again together. It is best to use knaves or queens for the two extra cards." (Hoffmann, 47.) 234 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ : Rubbers 1 i — Games Points 3 < _j CARD-TABLE TALK. 235 "To detect which of Four Cards has been turned rou7id in your Absence, — It will be found upon examining a pack of cards that the white margin round the court- cards almost invariably differs in width at the opposite ends. The difference is frequently very trifling, but is still sufficiently noticeable when pointed out, and may be available for a trick which, though absurdly simple, has puzzled many. You place four cards of the same rank, say four queens, in a row, face up- wards, taking care that the wider margins of the cards are all one way. You then leave the room, and invite the company to turn round lengthwise during your absence any one or more of the four cards. On your return you can readily distinguish which card has been so turned, as the wider margin of such card will now be where the narrower margin was originally." (Hoffmann, 57.) Some mathematical tricks are interesting. For in- stance, the sum of the numbers of any two cards drawn from the pack may be readily told in this wise. The small cards must be reckoned by their spots, but each face-card should be counted ten. Some one having drawn two cards, tell him to take as many cards from the pack (each card counting one) as will make the numbers of the two cards selected amount to twenty- five each. Now, pretending to consult the cards re- maining, count them. They will equal in number the sum of the spots of the two cards drawn. Suppose he drew a ten and a seven ; he must add 1 5 to the former and 18 to the latter to make them equal 25 each. 27,6 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points ' < 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 237 2 + 15 + 18 = 35 cards drawn. 52 — 35 = 17 = 10+7, the spots on the first two cards. Or do not touch the cards, but tell him to draw two, subtract the number of each firom 26, add the two remainders, and tell you the sum. This you will mentally subtract firom 52, and the remainder is the sum of the spots on the first two cards. So 26 — 10 = 16, and 26 — 7=19; 16 + 19 = 35 ; 52 — 35 = 17 ; but 17 = 10 + 7. A person who performs feats of any kind should always be prepared for any pertinent — in such cases imperti- nent — remark or objection that may be made. He must never be put out and must be able to vary the details of his tricks. (Adapted from Taylor.) CARD-SHARPIXG. The devices of card-sharpers are too numerous to be detailed. !Many of them are but variations of cer- tain common elements. The Pass, or Saiiter la coupe, is sometimes used. Of course a cheat early learns to supply himself with duplicates of good cards in order that he may substitute them for the inferior cards that may be dealt to him, as well as how to get rid of cards that he cannot play to advantage. So cards are dropped on the floor and never acknowledged when found, while some are held in a vice consisting of the knee and the table-leg. How '^Bill Nye" laid his plans to victimize the "heathen Chinee," but was outdone "by the same," Bret Harte has told in 238 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 1 f K^ ^ CARD-TABLE TALK. 239 PLAIN LANGUAGE FROM TRUTHFUL JAMES. Which I wish to remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar, Which the same I would rise to explain. Ah Sin was his name ; And I shall not deny, In regard to the same, What that name might imply ; But his smile it was pensive and childlike, As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye. It w^as August the third. And quite soft w^as the skies ; Which it might be inferred That Ah Sin was likew^ise : Yet he played it that day upon William And me in a way I despise. Which we had a small game. And Ah Sin took a hand : It was Euchre. The same He did not understand ; But he smiled as he sat by the table, With tlTe smile that was childlike and bland. Yet the cards they w^ere stocked In a way that I grieve. And my feelings were shocked At the state of Nye's sleeve, Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers, And the same with intent to deceive. 240 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ' ^ Rubbers Games Points I I' CARD-TABLE TALK, 241 But the hands that were played By that heathen Chinee, And the points that he made, Were quite frightful to see, — Till at last he put down the right bower, Which the same Nye had dealt unto me. Then, I looked up at Nye, And he gazed upon me ; And he rose with a sigh, And said, " Can this be ? We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor; '* And he went for that heathen Chinee. In the scene that ensued I did not take a hand ; But the floor it was strewed Like the leaves on the strand With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding. In the game he "did not understand.'' In his sleeves, which were long, He had twenty-four packs, — Which was coming it strong ; Yet I state but the facts. And we found on his nails, which were taper. What is frequent in tapers, — that ''s wax. Which is why I remark. And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar, — Which the same I am free to maintain. " At the Licensed Victuallers' Ball, a few years ago, a person in the card-room was observed to scratch his 16 242 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ;^ Rubbers 1 Games Points c/f < 1 I to CARD-TABLE TALK, 243 neck rather more frequently than the usages of good society warranted. He was suspected, watched, and detected, having a card receptacle inside his coat-collar. He was given over to the police, prosecuted, and severely punished . ' ' (Taylor, 515.) Certain cards are also marked on the back, or pricked with a pin in a significant way, so as to make them recognizable when in the hands of an opponent or when being dealt out. Cards are bent for this pur- pose, as well as to make them a little shorter than the others, and so guide the cutting of the pack. But this is more usually accomplished by slightly shaving the edges. Such cards, already prepared, are often advertised in certain newspapers under the heading, " Cards to win with.'' A dishonest dealer sometimes holds the pack in such a way that his partner, by crouching down a little or by leaning back in his chair, may see the face of every card dealt. Honest but unskilful dealers sometimes unwittingly fall into this suspicious mode of dealing. But the most ancient of cheats is the '' telegraph." A confederate, acting either as partner or as an appar- ently disinterested observer, looks over the hand of the dupe and telegraphs to his confederate the desired information by various degrees of elevation of the eye- brows, significant movements of the lips, protrusion of the tongue, etc. In early days this was done, espe- cially in taverns, by various modes of placing the fin- gers on the stem of the pipe the cheat was smoking, and the process was called '^piping." 244 WHIST SCOI^ES AND ^ *^ Rubbers Games Points 1-3 < r ^ Ci ^ V ■&. CARD-TABLE TALIC, 245 FORTUNE-TELLING WITH CARDS. Sortilege was practised from the earliest times. Those that believe that European cards were brought from India by Gypsies, regard this as their primitive use. The first book on the subject was published at Venice in 1540. The following brief statement of the usual system employed in '^ telling fortunes " by means of cards is condensed from Taylor's work. The fol- lowing abbreviations are employed : Kg., King ; Q., Queen ; Kv., Knave ; A., Ace ; H., Hearts ; D., Dia- monds ; C, Clubs ; S., Spades. In general, a man of very fair complexion is repre- sented by Kg. D. ; a woman by Q. D. Persons of less fair complexion by Kg. and Q. H. ; a man and woman of very dark complexion by Kg. and Q. S. ; while those not quite so dark are represented by C. But a widow, no matter how fair, can be represented only by Q. S. A. H. denotes the house of the person consulting the decrees of fate ; A. C, a letter ; A. D., a wedding- ring ; A. S., sickness and death ; Kv. D. is a selfish and deceitful friend ; Kv. H. is a sincere, unselfish friend ; Kv. S. is a lawyer, a person to be avoided ; Kv. C. is a sincere friend, but of very touchy temper ; Kvs. also represent the thoughts of their respective Kgs. and Qs. Several D. coming together signify the receipt of money ; several H. denote love ; a concourse of C. foretells drunkenness and debauchery, with their consequent ill-health ; and a number of S. together 246 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 3 — CARD-TABLE TALK. 247 indicate disappointment. Moreover, Kg. D. is quick to anger^ but easily appeased ; while Q. D. is fond of gay- ety and of rather a coquettish disposition. Kg. H. is slow to anger, but when put in a passion is appeased with great difficulty ; he is good-natured, but obstinate ; his Q. is a model of sincere affection, devotion, and prudence. Kg. S. is so ambitious that in matters of love and business he is much less scrupulous than he ought to be ; while his Q. is a person not to be pro- voked with impunity. Kg. and Q. C are everything that can be desired : he is honorable, true, and affec- tionate ; she is agreeable, genteel, and witty. Following are the interpretations of the minor cards. 10 D., wealth, honorable success in business. 9 D,, roving disposition combined with successful adventures in foreign lands. 8 D., a happy marriage, though per- haps late in life. 7 D., satire, scandal. 6 D., "fearly marriage, succeeded by widowhood. 5 D.. unexpected but generally good news. 4 D., an unfaithful friend ; a secret betrayed. 3 D., domestic quarrels, trouble, unhappiness. 2 D., a clandestine engagement (a card of caution). 10 H., health and happiness, with man^ children. 9 H., wealth and good position in society. 8 H., fine clothes ; mixing in good society ; invitations to balls, theatres, parties. 7 H., good friends. 6 H., honorable courtship. 5 H., a present. 4 H., domes- tic troubles caused by jealousy. 3 H., poverty, shame, and sorrow, the result of imprudence (a card of cau- tion). 2 H., success in Hfe, and a happy marriage 248 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 I CARD'TABLE TALK. 249 attained by virtuousi discretion. 10 S., disgrace, crime, imprisonment ; death on the scaffold. 9 S., grief, ruin, sickness, death (a card of caution) . 8 S., great danger from imprudence. 7 S., unexpected poverty through the death of a relative (a card of caution). 6 S., a child ; to the unmarried a card of caution. 5 S., great danger from giving way to bad temper. 4 S., sickness. 3 S., tears; a journey by land (a card of caution). 2 S., a removal. 10 C, unexpected wealth, through the death of a relative. 9 C, danger through drunk- enness (a card of caution). 8 S., danger from cove- tousness (a card of caution). 7 C, a prison; danger from opposite sex. 6 C, competence by honorable industry. 5 C, a happy though not wealthy marriage (a card of caution). 4 C, misfortune through caprice or inconstancy (a card of caution). 3 C, quarrels ; it also has reference to time, signifying three years, three months, three weeks, or three days, and denotes that a person will be married more than once. 2 C, disap- pointment ; vexation. The manner of operation is as follows : The cards are shuffled and cut into three parts by the inquirer. The fortune-teller lays the cards, one by one, face up on the table, in rows of nine each, excepting the last. Every ninth card has an ominous import. Then the cards are read, as in the following example. The young lady being fair, but not too fair, is represented by Q. H. Sad to say, her lover (Kg. D.) is found flirting with a widow (Q. S.),rich in this world's goods (being accom- panied by 10 D.) . But her lover's thoughts (Kv. D.) ai-e 250 WHIST SCORES AND ^ i^ Rubbers Games Points c/f < CARD-TABLE TALK. 25 I directed toward her home (A. H.) ; a letter (A. S.) and a wedding-ring (A. D.) are in close combination, evi- dently signifying that though the lover is flirting with the widow, he is thinking of sending a letter with an offer of marriage to the young lady herself. There is a legacy (10 C.) in store for the seeker after fortune ; but a lawyer (Kv. S.) stands between her and it, who will cause some vexation (2 C.) and disappointment. A sincere friend (Kv. H.) will assist to put matters right. The unfaithful friend (4 D.) will find both satire and scandal (7 D.) helpless to injure our interesting queen of hearts. K present (s H.) will soon be received by her, honorable courtship (6 H.) will lead her to a happy marriage (2 H.), the reward of her virtuous dis- cretion ; health and happiness and troops of children (10 H.) will be her enviable lot. Do this young lady's thoughts, represented by the Kv. H., ever stray far from home ? Yes, look, there they are far away with the old, hot-tempered, dark-complexioned lover (Kg. S.), who, as is plainly shown by his being accompanied by the ten of diamonds, is prosperously engaged at the AustraHan diggings, or elsewhere. Does he ever think of his old flame, the heart-complexioned young lady now consulting the cards in England? No. His thoughts (Kv. S.) are fixed on that very fair but rather gay and coquettish lady, (Q. D.) : they are only divided by a few good hearts, one of them (6 H.) re- presenting honorable courtship. Count now from that 6 H. to the ninth card from it, and lo ! it is a wedding- ring (A. D.) : they will be married in less than a year. 252 WHIST SCORES AND ^ i"^ Rubbers 1 1 Games Points if 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 253 CLERGYMEN AND CARDS. N spite of special decrees against it, clergy- men, especially during the sixteenth and sev- enteenth centuries, were much given to playing at cards. Saint Francis de Sales played and cheated, and excused himself by the plea that what he gained he gave to the poor. But Cardinal Mazarin was perhaps the worst of gambling and cheating di- vines ; and '^ it is related by an eye-witness that when he was on his death-bed he still continued to play at cards, one of the company holding his ' hand,' and that he was thus employed w^hen he received the Pope's plenary indulgence, together with the viaticum, as a prince of the Church, from the Papal nuncio." (Chatto, 310.) Pope Leo X. was fond of cards, and is credited with having at one time saved a game by a trick so skilfully planned and executed that it would have done honor to the most expert Mississippi gam- bler of former days. It was no uncommon thing for priests, when playing with laymen, to stake masses and prayers against the money of the latter. In ''The Women's Advocate" (2d ed., 1683) we read of a parson too fond of play, who '' put up his cards in his gown-sleeve in haste when the clerk came and told him that the last stave was a-singing. In the 254 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 2 1 1 I CARD-TABLE TALK. 255 height of his reproving the parish for their neglect of holy duties, upon the throwing out of his zealous arm, the cards dropped out of his sleeve and flew about the church." The hearty laugh that ensued did not em- barrass him. " He bid one boy take up a card, and asked him what it was. ' The king of clubs,' answered the boy. Then he bid another boy take up another card. ' What is that ? ' ' The knave of spades.' ' Well,' quo' he, ' now tell me, who made ye ? ' The boy could not well tell. Quo' he to the next, ^Who redeemed ye?' That was a harder question. ' Look ye,' quo' the Parson, ' you think that was an accident, and laugh at it j but I did it on purpose to shew you that had you taught your children their catechism as well as to know their cards, they would have been better pro- vided to answer material questions when they came to church.' " " The clergy, especially in the West of England, were formerly devoted to whist. About the beginning of the century there was a whist- club in a country town of Somersetshire, composed mostly of clergymen, that met every Sunday evening in the back parlor of a barber. Four of these were acting as pall-bearers at the funeral of a reverend brother, when a delay oc- curred from the grave not being ready, or some other cause, and the coffin was set down in the chancel. By way of whiling away the time, one of them produced a pack of cards from his pocket and proposed a rubber. The rest gladly assented, and they were deep in their game, using the coffin as their table, when the sexton 2K6 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 CARD-TABLE TALK, 257 came to announce that the preparations were com- plete. We have carefully verified the fact that they played long whist, and we suspect that whist has been less popular in the church since the introduction of short, by reason of its inferior gravity. But we have seen short whist played by a member of the episcopal body, and a very eminent one, — the venerable Bishop of Exeter (Phillpotts) ; one adversary being the late Dean of St. Paul's (Milman), the other an American diplomatist (Mason), and his partner a distinguished foreigner (Count Strzelecki), whose whist was hardly on a par with his scientific acquirements and social popularity. The two church dignitaries played a steady, sound, orthodox game. The bishop bore a run of ill- luck like a Christian and a bishop ; but when (after the diplomatist had puzzled him by a false card) the Count lost the game by not returning his trump, the excellent prelate looked as if about to bring the rub- ber to a conclusion as he once brought a controversy with an archbishop, — namely, by the bestowal of his blessing; which the archbishop, apparently apprehen- sive of its acting by the rule of contraries, earnestly intreated him to take back." (Hay ward, 462.) WESLEY AND WHIST. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, at one time told his congregation "' that when he was at college he was particularly fond of the devil's pops (or cards), and said that every Saturday he was one of 17 2S8 WHIST SCORES AND •^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 CARD'TABLE TALK, 259 a constant party at whist, not only for the afternoon, but also for the evening. ' But/ continued he, ' the latter part of my time there I became acquainted with the Lord ; I used to hold communion with him. On my first acquaintance I used to talk with the Lord once a week ; then every day ; from that to twice a day : till at last the intimacy so increased that he appointed a meeting once in every four hours.' He recollected, he said, the last Saturday he ever played at cards, that the rubber at whist was longer than he expected, and on observing the tediousness of the game, he pulled out his watch ; w^hen to his shame he found it was some minutes past eight, which was beyond the time he had appointed to meet the Lord. He thought the devil had certainly tempted him to stay beyond his hour ; he therefore suddenly gave his cards to a gentleman near him to finish the game, and went to the place ap- pointed, beseeching forgiveness for his crime, and re- solved never to play with the devil's pops again. This resolution he had never broken ; and what was more extraordinary, that his brother and sister, though dis- tant from Cambridge, experienced signs of grace on that same day and that same hour in the month of October." (Memoirs of Tate Wilkinson, York, 1790, iii. 9.) CARD SERMONS. ''^John Fox tells of a sermon of Bishop Latimer's, preached at St. Edward's church, Cambridge, the Sun- day before Christmas, 1527-28, ' concerning his playing 26o WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points < • I CARD-TABLE TALK. 261 at cards,' in which he dealt out an exposition of the pre- cepts of Christianity (seep. 169). ' It seems/ says Fuller, ' he suited his sermon rather to the ti77ie than the text, which was the Baptist's question to our Lord, Who art thou ? (John i. 19,) taking thereby occasion to conform his discourse to the playing at cards, making the heart trmmph. This blunt preaching was in those days admirably effectual, which would be justly ridiculous in our age. I remember,' adds Fuller, ' in my time a country minister preached at St. Mary's from Rom. xii. 3 : As God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. In a fond imitation of Latimer's sermon he prose- cuted the metaphor of dealing, — that men should play above board, i. e. avoid all dissembling, not pocket cards, but improve their gifts and graces, (take good care of their trumps, play promptly when their turn came,) follow suit, etc. All which produced nothing but laughter in the audience.' " (Gough, Archseol., viii.) RICHARD MIDDLETON'S CARDS. The following is one of several " spiritual exposi- tions " of the pack of cards. ''The Perpetual Alma- nack ; or. Gentleman- soldier's Prayer-Book : shewing how one Richard Middleton was taken before the Mayor of the city he was in for using cards in church during Divine Service : being a droll, merry, and hu- morous account of an odd affair that happened to a private soldier in the 60th Regiment of Foot. '' The Serjeant commanded his party to the church, 262 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ;^ Rubbers — Games Points 1 < 1 5; CARD-TABLE TALK. 26s and when the parson had ended his prayer, he took his text, and all of them that had a Bible, pulled it out to find the text. But this soldier had neither Bible, Alma- nack, nor Common Prayer-Book, but he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cards, and spread them before him as he sat ; and while the par- son was preaching, he first kept looking at one card and then at another. The serjeant of the company saw him, and said, ' Richard, put up your cards, for this is no place for them.' ' Never mind that,' said the soldier, ^you have no business with me here.' Now the parson had ended his sermon and all was over ; the soldiers repaired to the churchyard, and the commanding officer gave the word of command to fall in^ which they did. The serjeant of the city came, and took the man prisoner. ^ Man, you are my pris- oner,' said he. ^ Sir/ said the soldier, Svhat have I done that I am your prisoner ? ' ' You have played a game of cards in the church.' ' No,' said the soldier, ^ I have not played a game, for I have only looked at a pack.' ' No matter for that, you are my prisoner.^ ^ Where must we go ? ' said the soldier. ' You must go before the mayor,' said the serjeant. So he took him before the mayor; and when they came to the mayor's house, he was at dinner. When he had dined he came down to them, and said, ^Well, serjeant, what do you want with me ? ' ^ I have brought a soldier before you for playing at cards in the church.' 'What, that soldier?' ^ Yes.' ^Well, soldier, what have you to say for yourself? ' * Much, sir, I hope.' ^ Well and 264 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ;^ Rubbers Games Points 1 1 1 5; I- CARD-TABLE TALK. 265 good ; but if you have not, you shall be punished the worst that ever man was.' ^ Sir/ said the soldier, 'I. have been five weeks upon the march, and have but little to subsist on, and am without Bible, Almanack, or Common Prayer-Book, or anything but a pack of cards : I hope to satisfy your honour of the purity of my intentions.' " Then the soldier pulled out of his pocket the pack of cards, which he spread before the mayor ; he then began with the Ace. ' When I see the Ace,' said he, ' it puts me in mind that there is one God only ; when I see the Deuce, it puts me in mind of the Father and the Son ; when I see the Trey, it puts me in mand of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; when I see the Four, it puts me in mind of the four EvangeHsts that penned the Gospel, viz., Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; when I see the Five it puts me in mind of the five wise Virgins who trimmed their lamps : there were ten, but five were fooHsh, who were shut out. When I see the Six, it puts me in mind that in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth ; when I see the Seven, it puts me in mind that on the seventh day God rested from all the works which he had created and made, wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hal- lowed it. When I see the Eight, it puts me in mind of the eight righteous persons that weife saved when God drowned the world, viz., Noah, his wife, three sons, and their wives ; when I see the Nine, it puts me in mind of nine Lepers that were cleansed by our Saviour : there were ten, but nine never returned God 266 WHIST SCORES AND ^^ ^ Rubbers Games Points < I CARD-TABLE TALK. 267 thanks. When I see the Ten, it puts me in mind of the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai on the two tablets of stone.' He took the Knave, and laid it aside. ' When I see the Queen, it puts me in mind of the Queen of Sheba, who came from the furthermost parts of the world to hear the wisdom of King Solomon, for she was as wise a woman as he was a man ; for she brought fifty boys and fifty girls all clothed in boys' apparel, to show before King Solomon, for him to tell which were boys and which were girls. But he could not tell, until he called for water for them to wash themselves : the girls washed up to their elbows, and the boys only up to their wrists j so King Solomon told by that. And when I see the King, it puts me in mind of the great King of Heaven and Earth, which is God Almighty, and like- wise his majesty, King George, to pray for him.' " ' Well,' said the mayor, ' you have a very good description of all the cards, except one, which is lack- ing.' ' Which is that? ' said the soldier. ' The Knave,' said the mayor. ^ Oh, I can give your honour a very good description of that, if your honour won't be angry.' ' No ; I will not,' said the mayor, ' if you will not term me to be the knave.' ^Well,' said the soldier, ^the greatest that I know is the sergeant of the city, that brought me here.' ^I don't know,' said the mayor, ' that he is the greatest knave, but I am sure that he is the greatest fool.' " ' When I count how many spots there are in a pack of cards, I find there are 365 : there are so many days 268 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points en CARD-TABLE TALK, 269 in a year. When I count how many cards there are in a pack, I find there are 5 2 : there are so many weeks in a year. When I count how many tricks in a pack, I find there are thirteen : there are so many months [of four weeks each] in a year.' '' Then the mayor called for a loaf of bread, a piece of good cheese, and a pot of beer, and gave the soldier a piece of money, bidding him go about his business, saying he was the cleverest man he had ever seen/' CARDS AT CHRISTMAS. Christmas early became the card -playing season. The beginning of this we saw in Margery Paston's let- ter (p. Ill), and we have also found (p. 147) that at Christm.as only were cards allowed the working classes. From Stow's ^^ Survey of London," page 79, we learn that the holidays lasted " from All-hallows evening to the day after Candlemas-day, when there was, among other sports, playing at cards for counters, nailes, and points, in ever}^ house, more for pastime than for gain." But the license of the season was soon abused, and Christmas merry-making became a disgrace to England. In 1583 Stubbes, in his ^'Anatomic of Abufes," com- plains that '' efpecially at Chriftmas time, there is nothing els ufed but Cardes, Dice. Tables, Mafkyng, Mummyng, BowHng, and fuch like fooleries. And the reafon is, thei think thei have a commiffion and pre- rogative that tyme to do what thei lift, and to follow what vanitie they will." 270 WHIST SCORES AND • i^ Rubbers Games Points 1 I CARD-TABLE TALK. 271 A SATIRE ON CARDING. A new Proposal for the better Regulation of Qua- drille ; By Dr. S 1. [Condensed.] WHEREAS the noble Game of Quadrille has been found to be of great Ufe to the Commonwealth^ particularly as it helps to kill Time that lies heavily on our Hands, and to pafs away Life, which feems too long while we have it, and too fhort when we come to part with it: As it fuppreffes all Wit in Converfation, which is apt to turn into Scandal ; all Pohticks, which are ofFenlive to Governments, and all Reading, which is injurious to the eyes. And whereas divers Ladies are tardy and come late to the Rendezvous, being detained by the paltry Cares of a Family, or a nap after Dinner, or by hooking in a few Street Vifits at Doors where they expect to be denied and are fometimes cruelly bit ; while the true Profeffors, who confider the Shortnefs of Life, and the Value of precious Time, are impatiently waiting for such Loiterers. Now, in order to prevent thofe ill-bred and injurious Pra6lices for the future, and to the Intent that every Lady may have due Notice of the appointed Hour: // is hereby propofed, That a Subfcription be fet on foot for ere6ling a fquare Tower in the Middle of St Stephen'' s Green^ and that a Bell be hung in the fame, large enough to be heard over the Parifhes of St Aiine, St Andrew, and St Peter: That the faid Bell fhall be chriftened. 272 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^0 Rubbers Games Points < 1 1 , Si I' CARD-TABLE TALK, 273 according to the Rites of the Roman Church ; and that the Godfathers and the Godmothers fhall call it the Great Tom of Quadrille : That the faid Bell fhall be toll'd, beginning a Quarter before Six in the Evening, and ending at Six. (In the mean Time all the little Church- Bells fhall ceafe their Babblings, that Tom may be more diftinctly heard). And if, upon fuch legal Notice, any Lady of the Party fhall not be ready on the Spot, to draw for her Place before the laft Stroke of Toinj it is propofed that the Lady making Default fhall at the next Party-meeting take the chair neareft the Door, or againft a crack'd Pan- nel in the Wainfcot, and have no fcreen at her Back ; fhe fhall alfo lay down 5s by way of Fine, for the Ufe of the Poor; or, on Failure thereof, not to handle a Card that Night, but Dtinuny be fubftituted in her room. And that Parties may not be difappointed by Excufes of a Cold, &c. when it is too late to beat up for a new Recruit, it is propofed that no fuch Excufe fhall be ad- mitted unlefs certified under the Hand of fome graduate Phyfician : and for want of fuch Certificate the Default- refs to be amerced as aforefaid at the next Meeting. But if, for the unfeafonable Hours, her Huf band fhould with- hold her Pin Money, or chain her by the Leg to the Bed- poft, fhe fhall incur no Penalty for her Non- Appearance. But no Plea of a Hufband newly buried, or of Weeds delayed by the Manteau Makers, or other Matter of mere Ceremony, fhall be in any wife admitted. And it is ficrther propofed^ That the faid Great Tom fliall be toll'd a Quarter before eleven precifely ; after which no Pool fhall be made, that the Ladies may have a Quarter of an Hour for adjufting their Play-purfes and faying their Prayers. (Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1736.) 18 2 74 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 ~ \ CARD-TABLE TALK. 275 THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD ON CARD- PLAYING. North, Gaming is not a vice, then, in the country, James ? Shepherd, There ^s Kttle or nae sic thing as gamblin' in the kintra, sir. You 'II fin' a pack o' cairds in mony o' the houses, but no in them a' ; for some gucle fathers o' families think them the deevil's buiks, and sure aneuch when ower muckle read they begin to smell o' sulphur and Satan. N, Why, James, how can old people, a little dim- eyed or so, while an occasional evening away better than at an innocent and cheerful game at cards ? Sh. Haud your haun' a wee, Mr. North. I 'm no sayin' ony thing to the reverse. But I was sayin' that there are heads o' families that abhor cairds, and would half kill their sons and daughters were they to bring a pack into the house. Neither you nor me wull blame them for sic savin' prejudice. The austere Calvinistic spirit canna thole to think that the knave o' spades should be lying within twa three inches o' the Bible. The auld stern man wud as soon forgie the intro- duction into the house o' base ballads o' sinfu' love, and wishes that the precincts be pure o' his ain fire- side. Though I take a ggem o' whust now and then 276 WHIST SCOJ^ES AND ^ •■^ Rubbers Games Points 2 1 CARD-TABLE TALK, 277 myseP, yet I boo to the principle, and I venerate the adherence till't in the high-souled patriarchs of the Covenant. N. Perhaps such strict moraHty is scarcely practica- ble in our present condition. Sh, What ! do you maintain that cairds are absolutely necessary in a puir man's house ? Tuts ! As for auld dim-eyed people, few o' them, except they be blin' a'thegither, that canna read big prent wi^ povverfu' specs, and they can aye get, at the warst, some bit wee idle Oe to read out aloud to its grannies, without expense o' oil or cawnel, by the heartsome ingle-light. You '11 generally fin' that auld folk that plays cairds, have been raither freevolous, and no muckle addicked to thocht, — unless they 're greedy, and play for the pool, which is fearsome in auld age ; for what need they care for twa three brass penny-pieces, for ony ither purpose than to buy nails for their coffin ? N, You push the argument rather far, James. Sh, Na, sir. Avarice is a failing o' auld age sure aneuch, and shouldna be fed by the Lang Ten. I 'm aye somewhat sad when I see folk o' eighty haudin' up the trumps to their rheumy een, and shaking their heads, whether they wull or no, ower a gude and a bad haun' alike. Then, safe on us ! only think o' them cheatin', revokin', and marking mair than they ought wi' the counters ! N. The picture is strongly colored ; but could you not paint another less revolting, nay, absolutely pleas- ant, nor violate the truth of nature ? 278 WHIST SCORES AND 4 ^ ■ *5i i Rubbers 1 Games Points L in 1 _j CARD-TABLE TALK, 279 Sh, I 'm no quite sure ; perhaps I micht. In anither condition o' life, in towns, and among folk o' a higher rank, I dinna deny that I hae seen auld leddies playing cairds very composedly, and without appearin' to be doin' onything that 's wrang. Before you judge richtly o' ony ae thing in domestic life, you maun understan' the hail constitution o' the economy. Noo, auld leddies in towns dress somewhat richly and superbly, wi' ribbons and laces and jewels even, and caps mounted wi' flowers and feathejs ; and I 'm no blamin' them. And then they dine out, and gang to routes, and gie dinners and routes in return, back to hunders o' their friends and acquaintance. Noo, wi' sic a style and fashion o' life as that, caird-playing seems to be somewhat accordant. If taken in modera- tion and as a quiet pastime, and no made a trade o', or profession, for sake o' filthy lucre, I grant it harm- less ; and gin it makes the auld leddies happy, what richt hae I to mint ony objections? God bless them, man ! far be it frae me to curtail the resources o' ould age. Let them play on ; and all I wish is, they may never lose either their temper, their money, nor their natural rest. N. And I say, God bless you, James ! for your senti- ments do honor to humanity. Sh. As for young folks — lads and lasses like — when the gudeman and his wife are gaen to bed, what 's the harm in a ggem at cairds? It's a chearfu', noisy sicht o' comfort and confusion. Sic luckin' into ane anither's haun's ! Sic fause shufflin' ! Sic unfair dealin' ! Sic 28o WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points 1 . 5; I CARD-TABLE TALK. 28 1 winkin' to tell your pairtner that ye hae the king or the ace ! And when that wunna do, sic kickin' o' shins and treadin' on taes aneath the table — aften the wrang anes ! Then down wi' your haiin' o' cairds in a clash on the board, because you \ e ane ower few, and the coof maun lose his deal ! Then what gigglin' amang the lasses ! What amicable, nay, love-quarrels, between pairtners ! Jokin' and jeestin' and tauntin' and toozlin', the cawnel blawn out, and the soun' o' a thousan' kisses ! That 's caird-playin' in the kintra, Mr. North ; and where 's the man amang ye that wull daur to say that it 's no a pleasant pastime o' a winter's nicht, w^hen the snaw is cumin' doon the lum, or the speat 's roarin' amang the mirk mountains ? N, Wilkie himself, James, is not more than your equal. Sh, O man, Mr. North, sir, my heart is wae, my soul 's sick, and my spirit 's wrathfu', to think o' thae places in great cities which they ca' — Hells ! N. Thank Heaven, my dear James, that I never was a gambler, nor, except once, to see the thing, ever in a hell. But it was a stupid and passionless sight, a place of mean misery, altogether unworthy of its name. Sh. I 'm glad you never went back, and that the deevil was in the dumps ; for they say that some nichts in thae hells, when Satan and Sin sit thegither on ae chair, he wi' his arm roun' the neck o' that Destruction his daughter, a horrible temptation invades men's hearts and souls, drivin' and draggin' them on to the doom o' 282 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points c/T 1 I CARD-TABLE TALK, 283 everlasting death. ... I ance dreamed I was in ane o' thae hells. I faund mysel suddenly, without warnin' and without wonder, (for wha wonders at changes even in the laws o' Nature hersel in dreams?) in a lamp- lighted ha' furnished like a palace, and fu' o' we el- dressed company, the feck o' them sittin' round a great green central table, wi' a' the paraphernalia o' destruc- tion, and a' the instruments o' that dreadfu' trade. N. You did not, I hope, James, recognize any of our friends there ? Sh. No, sir, I did not; yet although a' the faces were new to me, I didna feel as if they were new, but I joined amang them without askin' questions wha they were, and was in a manner Vv^hirl'd about in the same vortex. N. James, you surely did not play? Sh. Nae questions. Some o' the company I took a likin' to, — fine, young, tall, elegant chiels, some 0' them wi' black stocks, like officers out o' regimentals. And oh ! sir, wad you believe it ? twa three that I was sure were o' the clergy, and ane or twa were bairns, that couldna be aboon saxteen. A' these, and ithers beside, I felt my heart warm towards, and melt too wi' a sensation maist sickenin' o' kindness and pity ; for although they tried to be merry and careless, atween the chances o' the game their een and their features betrayed the agitation o' their souls, and I couldna but wonder why the puir deluded creatures pat them- sels voluntarily into sic rackin' misery. N. These were the pigeons of your vision, James. . . . 284 WHIST SCORES AND • :"^ Rubbers 1 Games — Points 1 1 1 CARD^TABLE TALK. 285 Sh, Then, oh, sir ! oh, sir, only think on 't : white, silvery- haired heads belanging to men atween seventy and eighty years o' age, or perhaps ayont four-score, were interposed amang the sitters round that terrible table. Some o' these auld men had as reverend coun- tenances as ony elder o' the kirk, — high and intillec- tual noses and foreheads, some wi' gold-mounted specs, — and they held the cairds in their haun's just as if they had been Bibles, wi' grave and solemn, ay, even pious expression. And ever and anon great shoals o' siller were becomin' theirs, which they scarcely pretended to look at ; but still they continued and continued playin', hke images. N. No dream that. You must have been in a hell. Sh, Whisht ! But a' the scene began to break up into irregularity ; for the soul in sleep is like a ship in an arm o' the sea amang mountains. . . . N, The police-officers, I presume^ broke your dream. Sh, No, Mr. North, it was finally my ain distracted spirit that kicked and spurred itsel' awake. But you shall hear. The goblins a' began to rage without ony apparent cause, and the hail pairty to toss about like trees in a storm, frae the bairns to the auld men. And a' at ance there was a flash and the crack o' a pistol, and a bonnie fair-hair'd boy fell aff his chair a' in a low, for the discharge had set him on fire. And bluidy, bluidy was his pale face as his ain brither lifted his shattered head frae the floor. N, My God ! James, did you not wake then ? Sh, Awake ! I didna ken I was sleepin' ; I wush I 286 WHIST SCORES AND '^ % \ Rubbers 1 1 Games Points 1 1 • ^^^ 1^ CARD-TABLE TALK. 287 had, for it was a dismal hour. Nane o' the auld grey- headed men moved a muscle, but they buttoned up their pouches, and tuk their great-coats aff pegs on the wa', and without speakin' disappeared. Sae did the lave, only wi' fear and fright ; and nane but me and the twa brithers was left — brithers, I sav\^, they were ; for like were they as twa flowers, the ane o' which has had its stalk broken, and its head withered, while the ither, although unhurt, seems to droop and mourn, and to hae lost maist o' its beauty. N. There is truth — sad truth in dreams. Sh. I heard him ravin' about his father and his mother, and the name o' the place the auld folk lived in — and ane he ca'd Caroline ! His dead brither's sweetheart ! We were on our knees beside the corpse, and he tore open the waistcoat and shirt, and put his hand to his brither's breast, in mad desperation o' hope to feel the heart beatin'. But the last sob was sobbed. . . . x\' the time our knees were dabbled in the bluid, and the thousand ghaistl}' lichts and shapes and faces wavered afoor my een, and I was sick as death. . . . And then I thocht, '' Oh, dear I oh, dear ! what wud I gie if this were but a bluidy dream ! " And, thank God ! a dream it was ; for I brake through the trammels o' sleep wi' a groan and a shriek, and a shiver and a shudder and a yell, and a happy man was I to see the sweet calm moon in the midnight lift, and to hear the murmur o' the Yarrow gHdin' awa' through the silent beauty o' reposin' Nature. (John Wilson, Blackwood, April, 1826.) 288 WHIST SCOSES AND S ^ Rubbers Games Points 2 1 5; I' CARD-TABLE TALK, 289 HAWTHORNE AND CARD-PLAYING. ATHANIEL HAWTHORNE wrote from Bowdoin College to his sister, April 14, 1822 : " My occupations this term have been much the same as they were last, except that I have in a great measure discontinued the practice of playing cards. One of the students has been sus- pended lately for this offence, and two of our class have been fined. I narrowly escaped detection myself, and mean for the future to be more careful." When United States Consul at Liverpool he boarded w4th his family at a Mrs. Blodgett's. Here " the smoking- room was an apartment barely twenty feet square, though of a fair height ; but the captains smoked a great deal, and by nine o'clock sat enveloped in a blue cloud. They played euchre with a jovial persistence that seems wonderful in the retrospect, especially as there was no gambhng. The small boys in the house (there were two or three) soon succeeded in mastering the mysteries of the game, and occasionally took a hand with the captains. Hawthorne was always ready to play, and used to laugh a great deal at the turns of fortune. He rather enjoyed card-playing, and was a very good hand at whist." And of their hfe at Rome, his son continues : " In the evenings — which were long, for everybody was indoors by six o'clock, Roman air 19 290 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games 1 1 Points 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 291 not being considered quite salubrious after that hour — it got to be the custom to play cards, all the family taking a hand first or last. We played whist and euchre and old maid, and had great fun. Hawthorne was an incomparable companion at such times ; he made the life and jollity of the amusement. Every- body wanted to be his partner, — not because he ahvays won, for he did not, but because either good or evil fortune was delightful in alliance with him. He was charming in victory, but I am not sure that he was not more charming in defeat. The true nature of a person is sure to discover itself in a long series of games of cards. He entered heartily and unreservedly into the spirit of the contest. When he was beaten he defrauded his opponents of none of their legitimate triumph by affecting indifference, and when he cap- tured the odd trick he made no pretence of not caring. It was a genuine struggle all the way through, and refreshing, however it turned out. Perhaps there are few men of fifty-four years who have enough of boyish freshness left in them to sit down with their family, night after night, and laugh and exult through an hour or two's play, in which the only stakes were the honor of victory. It never occurred to me to think it remarkable then ; but now it seems different. He never seemed old to us, however, even to the last. There was a primitive freshness in him that was always arching his eyebrows and twitching the corners of his mouth." (Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife, by Julian Hawthorne, ii. 204.) 292 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ^ Rubbers Games Points < I CARD-TABLE TALK. 293 CHITCHAT. PLAYING FOR A CHILD. N October, 1735, a child of James and Eliza- beth Leech, of Chester-le-Street, in the county of Durham, was played for at cards, at the sign of the Salmon, one game, four shillings against the child, by Henry and John Trotter, Robert Thomson and Thomas Ellison, which was won by the latter and delivered to them accordingly. (Sykes's Local Records, 79.) LOOKUP THE GAMBLER. Next to Beau Nash, perhaps the most famous English gamester was Lookup. By birth he was a Scotchman, and on the death of the master to whom he was apprenticed, wooed and won the widow, and thus came into possession of some five hundred pounds. With this he went to England and devoted himself to play, at which he was very successful. With what he won from Chesterfield alone, he was enabled to build a row of houses at Bath, which he named " Chesterfield Row." He died cards in hand. 294 WHIST SCORES AND ^ Rubbers 1 Games Points en 1 1 I CARD^TABLE TALK, 295 EPITAPH ON A GREAT CARD-PLAYER. Who in this world had many a rub to tame His spirits, yet he with his rubs was blest, For cards were heaven ; but now a single game, Quite grave and low, he plays at endless whist. His haitds are changed, and all his honors gone ; He cannot call at eight, howe'er afraid ; His suit a shroud ; his sequence, to be shown, Must wait untold till the last trump. (Tentha, Sport. Mag., iii. 141.) CARDS AT WAKES. Speaking of wakes in northern England, Henderson tells us that ^* on the Borders games at cards are act- ually played on these occasions, the coffin, incredible as it may appear, being the card-table, while the round table on which the candle is placed may on no account be used." (Folk-Lore, 1879, 55.) PAYING HIS DEBTS. Apperley tells of the case of one Shelton, a prize- fighter, who, when gaming in London in 1832 with a low companion, lost first his money, next all his clothes, which were taken from his person as they were forfeited, ^xA finally staked his life ! He lost it; and the win- ner, assisted by the man himself, immediately hanged him to a lamp-post ! A passing watchman cut him 296 WHIST SCORES AND ^. :^ Rubbers Games 1 1 Points 1 I 1^1 CARD-TABLE TALK, 297 down before he was quite dead ; when the first thing he did was to knock down his preserver ^^ for his offi- ciousness in preventing him from settHng what he considered a debt of honor." THE MALAY GAMBLER. The Asiatic gambler often becomes desperate, and then does not hesitate to stake his wife, his child, his own liberty, and at last his life. "A Malayan, how- ever, does not always tamely submit to this last stroke of fortune. When reduced to a state of desperation by repeated ill-luck, he loosens a certain lock of hair on his head, which, when flowing down, is a sign of war and destruction. He swallows opium or some intoxicating liquor, till he works himself up into a fit of frenzy, and begins to bite and kill everything that comes in his way ; whereupon, as the aforesaid lock of hair is'seen flowing, it is lawful to fire at and destroy him as quickly as possible, he being considered no better than a mad dog." (Steinmetz, i. 6.) GAMING IN SPAIN. The Spaniards have always been given to gambling to a great excess. The following, quoted by Steinmetz from '^ Observations in a Tour through Spain," gives a good idea how gaming and gaming people were re- garded in that country in the early part of the century, and we are assured that things have since changed but little. '•' After the bull-feast I was invited to pass the 298 WHIST SCORES AND ^ ;^ 1 Rubbers ' Games Points 1 c/T 1 1^1 CARD-TABLE TALK, 299 evening at the hotel of a lady who had a public card- assembly. She is an old countess, who has lived nearly thirty years on the profits of the card-tables in her house. They are frequented every day ; and though both natives and foreigners are duped of large sums by her and her cabinet-junto, yet it is the greatest house of resort in all Madrid.' ' WELL LAID. A gentleman, stammering much in his speech, laid down a winning Card, and then said to his partner : " Ho, sa-ay you now, was not this Ca-ca-card pa-a-ssing we-we-well la-a-aid?" ^^Yes," says t'other, "'twas well laid; but it needs not half that Cackling." (Ashton, Humor and Wit, 335.) SNAP-DRAGON. Cavendish tells us that people are wont to ask his opinion, not only as to whist, but also as to all sorts of games, and sometimes to put very droll questions. The following from a lady in the country, a total strah- ger, came to hand about Christmas, 1877: "May teetotalers join in a game of snap-dragon?" AN ANCIENT TRANSACTION ON 'CHANGE. An item in old Jewish history reads in the language of to-day : " Esau went short on birthright, Jacob hav- ing cornered him by calling in all the pottage there was on the market." (Seaver.) 300 WHIST SCORES AND ^ :^ Rubbers Games Points — 1 1 CARD-TABLE TALK. 301 WASTE OF TIME. Steinmetz tells a good story of a lady fond of gaming who was confessing her weakness and receiving the reproval of her priest. Among other arguments against gaming, he spoke of the great waste of time ; to which the lady eagerly replied : '' Ah ! that is just what vexes me, — so much time lost in shuffling the cards ! ^' SUPERSTITIONS AS TO CARDS. In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1796 a corre- spondent asks : " Why is it customary for women to sit cross-legged in order to bring their friends good luck at cards ? " But in Aubrey's " Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme," p. 199, we read that "When one has ill luck at Cards, 't is common to say that some body sitts with his legges acrosse, and brings him ill luck." In the "Gentleman's Magazine " it is also stated that to have a long succession of black cards (spades or clubs) dealt to a person while at play, is prophetic of death to himself or some member of the family. And Nutt writes to the "Folklore Society" (v. 129) that in Suffolk it is considered unlucky to sit opposite the " jimmers " (hinges) of the table when playing at cards. Whetstone, in his " Mirour for Mageftrates of Cities," 1584, says he once " heard a diftemperate dicer fodenly fwear that he faithfully beleeued that dice were firft made of the bones of a witch, and cards of her fkin.'* CHazlitt, Popular Antiquities, ii. 346.) 302 WHIST SCORES AND h^ ^ Rubbers 1 1 Games Points CO 1 I to CARD-TABLE TALK. CARD NICKNAMES. Z^Z Cards were formerly called by the pious *^ the devil's books," also '^ the devil's pops." Various cards have peculiar nicknames, to explain which many contradic- tory stories are told. The queen of diamonds has long been known as "the curse of Scotland," while in Ireland the' six of hearts is styled " Grace's card." Among the Spaniards the deuce of cups is called " the cow; " and we are informed that sailors call the four of clubs '' the devil's bed-posts." A number of card terms and expressions have passed into the language of common life, the card origin of some of which is seldom suspected. Few^ would im- agine that the familiar word discard is primarily a card- table word. (See p. 163.) The common phrase sweep the deck is erroneously supposed originally to designate the sweeping of the deck of a ship. Instead, it is the card-table expression for taking, or making a sweep of all the cards on the table. (See deck, p. 89.) Then we have He played his cards well; He showed his hand; He's a sure card; and Y021 got euchred that time. INDEX. Ace, etymology of, i6i. Acorns, 53, 69. Advice to whist-students, 187. America, cards in, 10, 61, 79, 81, 95, loi, 103. gambling in, 139. whist in, 177. American card-players, 185. leads, 179. Apache cards, 10, 79, 81. Arlington Club, 177. Aubrey, 123. Autographs of players, 7. Backgammon, 39. See Tables. Baden-Baden, 135. Basset, loi, 113. Bath, cards at, 121. Battle's, Mrs., opinions on whist, 209. Bells, 53, 71- Bentiuck, Lord Henr}^, 203. Betting, 125. Books on whist, 179, 195. Bourchier, 115. Bowls forbidden, 147. Brag, loi. Brooks's, 123, 127. Brunei's shuffling machine, 223. California, gambling in, 143. Caligula as a gambler, 37. Calling abolished, 177. Cambridge, whist at, 179. Canvas cards, 61. Capistran at Niirnberg, 129. Card almanac, 97. etymology of, 161. Card nicknames, 303. oddities, 95. sermons, 259. titles, 95. Card-games, loi. Card-party in 1736, 119. Card-player, epitaph on, 295. Card-players, distinguished, 109, 133, 203. Card-playing, Ettrick Shepherd on, 275- Hawthorne and, 289. morality of, 157. John Wilson on, 275. Card-sharping, 237. Cards, in America, 10, 61, 81, 95. , American Indian, 10, 79, 81. for the blind, 93. burned, 131. in China, 43, 45, 55. at Christmas, 269. circular, 61. and clergymen, 253. comical, 93, 97. in England, 87, loi. early European, 6i. first makers of, 55. forbidden, 145, 149. fortune-telling with, 245. in France, 53, 85, 93, 103, 145. French, 93. in Germany, 53, 61, 65, loi. history of, g, 43. for the housekeeper, 93. importation forbidden, 149. in India, 43, 59, 61. in Italy, 83, 85, loi. 20 3o6 INDEX. Cards, legislation as to, 145. first makers of, 63, 65. manufacture of, 99, 151. materia], 6i, 73. Mexican, 73. numeral, 53. odd uses of, 97. origin of, 43. Persian, 59. as a prayer-book, 261. Scotch, 91. with a secondary purpose, 89. small, 69, 93. in Spain, 53, 69, 73, 103. superstitions as to, 301. Swiss, 85. tax on, 149. tricks with, 229. unique, 67, 93. at wakes, 295. to ivin with, 243. Carding, in England, iii. in France, 105. in Germany, 129. a satire on, 271. Cavendish's laws and principles, 25, 179. Change, 229. Charles VI. of France, 55. Cheating, 205, 243. Checkers. See Draughts. Chess, III. Louis XIII. 's fondness for, 105. in the Middle Ages, 39. Chess-boards burned, 129. of gold and silver, 41. Child gambled away, 293. Children taught chess and whist, 39, 121. China, cards in, 43, 45, 55. Chinee, the heathen, 239. Christmas, cards at, 269. Claudius as a gambler, 37. Clay, James, 203, 223. Clergy forbidden to gamble, 147. Clergymen and cards, 253. Club-houses, 123. Clubs, 53, 77, 79. Coat-card, etymology of, 163. Coins, 53. Columbus and cards, 77. Combination of hands, 183, 192. Comical cards, 93, 97. Compleat Gamester, 117, 171. Connecticut's laws against gaming, 147. Coup, etymology of, 163. Court-card, etymology of, 163. Court-cards, 57 ff., 87. " Cow," the, 303. Cross-legs and luck at cards, 301. Crusaders, gaming among, 145. Culinary cards, 93. Cups, 53, 73. " Curse of Scotland," the, 303. Dames, 39. DeaHng, 243. Debts contracted at play, 149. Deck, 89. De La Rue & Co., 87. Deuce, etymology of, 163. portrait of, 5. Developments of whist, 179. "Devil's bed-posts," the, 303. " Devil's pops," the, 303. Diamonds, 53. Dice burned, 131. in Egypt, 35. forbidden, 147, 149. in Germany, 131. in the Middle Ages, 39. at Rome, 37. silver, 39. Discard, etymology of, 163. Discarding, 192. "Dogs," 35. Draughts in Egypt, 37. in Europe, 39. in the Middle Ages, 39. "Drops," 89. Duffer's whist-maxims, the, 195. Duty on cards, 151. Duty-card, 151. "Easy whist," 19, Ecarte, 103. [79. INDEX. 307 Egypt, games in, 35. Elizabeth fond of cards, 123. England, cards in, 87, loi, 103. gaming in, iii, 147, 149. Engraving, 63, 65. Esau and Jacob, 299. Etiquette at whist, 205- Ettrick Shepherd on card-playing, the, 275. Etymologies, 8, 161. Euchre, 103. Euchred, 303. Face cards, 57 ff., 87. False cards, 185, 199. Finesse, etymology of, X63. Fishmongers' Hall, 123. Force, 229. Forcing, 194. Fortune-telling with cards, 245. Fouche and gaming-houses, 107. Fourth hand, 194. Fox, 123. France, cards in, 53, 85, 93, loi, 103, 145- gaming in, 105, 149. " French cards," 93. Gambler, Malay, 297. Gambling. See Gaming. Games before cards, 35, with cards, 10 1. Gaming in America, 139. before cards, 35. among the Crusaders, 145. in England, iii, 147, 149. in France, 105, 149. in Germany, 129, legislation as to, 145. at Monte Carlo, 137. in Spain, 297. George IV.'s bet on drakes, 125. German whist, 219. Germany, cards in, 53, 61, loi. gaming in, 39, 129. " Grace's card," 303. Grammatical cards, 89. Granville's devotion to whist, 127. Greeks, games among the, 37. Gringonneur, 55. Gypsies and cards, 43, 45. Hares, queen of, 65. Haw^thorne and card-playing, 289. Hear:s, 53. "Hells," 123, 2S1. Heraldic cards, 89, 91. High play, 39, 115, 123, 127, 133. Hindu. See India. History' of cards, 9, 43. of whist, 169. Homburg, 135. Honor, etymology of, 163. Hoyle, Edmond, 173, 175. " If you had," 187. Illustrations, 9, 15. India, cards in, 43, 59, 61. Indian (Apache) cards, 10, 79, 81. Instructive cards, 89. Invitations on cards, 97. Italy, cards in, 83, 85, loi. " It made no difference," 201. Ivory cards, 61. Jacob and Esau, 299. Jack, etymology of, 163. Knave, 97. etymology of, 163. Koran and games, the, 43. Lamb, on whist, 209. whist with, 213. Landsknechtspiel, 10 1. Language, w^hist a, 183. Latimer's card sermons, 169, 259. Law, John, 107, 117. Leading, 192, 195, 209. Learning whist, 185. Leather cards, 61. Leaves, 53, 67. Legislation as to cards and gaming, 145- Leo X. as a card-player, 253. Life staked, 295. Long suit, 191, 195. Lookup, the gambler, 293. 3o8 INDEX. Lots, 3 5, 157. Lotteries in France, 107. origin of, 131. Luck at cards, 301. Lying-in, card-parties during, 119. Machinery, whist played by, 223. Malay gambler, 297. Manufacture of cards, 65, 99, 151. Marie Antoinette fond of cards, 107. Mason, 257. Massachusetts, laws against gaming, 147. Mawe, 113. Mazarin, Cardinal, 107, 253. Memory, artificial, 173. at whist, 189. Mercury playing dice, 35. Metal cards, 61. Mexican cards, 73 Middleton's cards, 261. Milman, 257. Minchiate, loi. ^Ministers and cards, 253. Mohammedans and cards, 43. Monaco, gaming at, 137. Money, 53, 75. Moi\te Carlo, gaming at, 137. Montezuma and cards, 75. Morality of card-playing, 157. Naibis. See Tarots. Napoleon and cards, 85, 109. Nash, 121. Nero as a gambler, 37. Newton's visiting-card, 99. Nicknames, 303. Number of hands, 227. Numeral cards, 53. Observation at whist, 181, ''Old Frizzle," 151. Old people at cards, 275, 277 Ombre, 103, 173. Opening, 193. Otto the Great, 145. Palamedes, 37. Partner's long suit, 191. 191. Pass, 229. Paston, Margery, iii. Persian cards, 59. Phillpotts, 257. Picture-cards, 201. See Court-cards. Piping, 243. Pips, 87. Piquet, 103, 173. Playing for a child, 293. for a wife, 117. w^hist, 209. Playing-cards. See Cards. Poe on whist, 181. Points, 89. Poker, loi. Pole's Philosophy of Whist, 29, 179. Pompeii, gambling at, 39. Pope and whist, 173. Portland Club, 127, 177. Post-and-pair, loi, Poupart, Charles, 55. Practice at whist, 187. Preference, 221. Primero, loi. Psycho, 223. Puritans and card-playing, the, 147, 157- Quadrille, 173, 281. Queen wanting, 69. Return of partner's suit, 192, 195, 197. Revoke, etymology of, 165. Revoking, 205. Rome, gambling at, 37. Rouge-et-noir, loi. Rubber, etymology of, 165. Ruff, etymology of, 165. Ruff-and-honors, 103, 171. Rules, 193, 197. Santo Domingo, cards at, 75, Satire on carding, 271. Saunders's, 175. Sauter la coupe, 229. Scolding, 185, 207. Scotch cards, 91. Second hand, 193. INDEX. 309 Sequence, 193, 197. etymology of, 165. Shakespeare, allusions to cards, 89, 113, 171- Short whist, 177. Shuffle-boards burned, 131. forbidden, 147. Shuffling, 223. machine, 223. Silk cards, 61. Silver cards, 61, 67- dice, 39. Single card, 195. Singles, 87, 89. Slam, etymology of, 165. SHp, 229. Spa, 135. Spade, etymology of, 165. Spades, 53, 81. ace of, 151. Spain, cards in, 53, 65, 73, 103. gaming in, 297. Spots, 87. Stakes, 109, 127. Stencilled cards, 63. Suit, etymology of, 167. Suits in Chinese cards, 57, in European cards, 53, in Hindu cards, 61. Sunday, games forbidden, 149. Superstitions as to cards, 301. Swabbers, 167, 171. Swedish whist, 221. Sweep the deck, 303. Swiss cards, 85. Swords, 53, 81, 83, 85. Tables, 39, in, 147, 269. Talking at whist, 203, 209. Tarocchi, loi. Tarocchino, loi. Tarots, 47. Tax on cards, 149. Taylor, Rev. E. S., 5, 18. Jeremy, and cards, 157. Teaching whist, 185. "Telegraph," 243. Tenace, etymology of, 167. Tenuis forbidden, 147. Third hand, 193. Thompson's poem on whist, 175. Time wasted, 301. Tom of Quadrille, 271. Tortoise-shell cards, 61. • Trappola, loi. Trefoil, 53. Trey, etymology of, 167. portrait of, 5. Trick, etymology of, 167. Tricks with cards, 229. Triomphe, 103. Triumph, 167, 169 = Troy, checkers at, 37. Trump, 103, 167, 169. etymology of, 167. nnportance of, 189. management of, 193. Truthful James, 239. Turf Club, 127. Tyrants, whist, 207= Uncle and aunt, 187. Visiting-cards, 97. Wakes, cards at, 295. Watering-places, gaming at, 133. ''Well laid," 299. Wesley and whist, 257. Whist, 161. advantages of, 181. in America, 177, 205. Mrs. Battle's opinions on, 209. for Beginners, 20, 179. books on, 179. at Cambridge, 179. a catechism of, 217. taught children, 121. developments, 179. an epic poem, 175. etiquette, 205. etymology' of, 167. German, 219. number of hands at, 227. Josephine fond of, 109. Lamb on, 209. with Charles Lamb, 213. a language, 183. 3IO INDEX, Whist maxims, 195. played by machinery, 223. players, great, 109, 133, 203. Poe on, 181. scores, 7, 36. at St. Cloud, 109. students, 185, 187. Swedish, 221. talking at, 203, 209. teaching and learning, 185. and the temper, 203. Whist tyrants, 207. Wesley at, 257. White's, 123, 125, 175. Wife gambled away, 117. Wilson, John, on card-playing, 275. Women as card-makers, 65. as gamesters, 115, 117, 271. Wooden cards, 61. W^orkiug-people, cards forbidden, 145. Young folks at cards, 279. THE END.