The Portland daily press., 1881-03-25
Playing Cards.
Some of the Variations in Them-who the
Kings, Queens and Jacks Represent.
IN. Y. Sunday News.l

IN L. ouhudy 1NoNs.l
There is much greater variety of pictures
employed on the face portion of playing cards
than the general public is aware of. The four
kings represented originally David, Alexan-
der, Caesar and Charlemagne. Distinctive
features are given to each of these in some
styles of French cards, The names are still
retained by the French. Another form of pic
ture is the representation of kings in the cos
tunes of jewish Greek, Roman and Frankish
menarchs
The queens in the same packs are generally
Esther, Judith, Palais and Argine, which lat
ter is merely transposition of the letters of
regina, meaning queen by descent. In fact,
history has been ransacked abroad for figures
to..replace the barbarous effigies which have be-
come historical, but sooner or later the efigies
were restored. They are easy to understand,
and the public is used to them.
American playing cards have presented as
great variety in this direction as the foreign
ones. Shortly after the Revolution one r.
Sanzade invented pack for four forefathers'
use Instead of kings there were Washington,
Franklin, Adams and Lafayette. For queens,
Venus, Fortuna, Ceres and Minerva were rep
resented. Indian chiefs provided the knaves
To-day couple of packs of them are valued
inmates Of as many historical museums.
In 1868 manufacturer here tried to intro.
duce an American playing card. Lincoln,
Buchanan, Pierce and Fillmore were the
kings; Secretary Welles, General Dix, Seward
and Stanton were employed to represent the
queens. The jacks were pictured as certain
well-known shoddy contractors. Another
novelty in the same line was the "Union"
playing cards. In these colonies were kings,
goddesses of liberty queens, majors in cavalry
boots knaves, and the suits were represented
by eagles shields, stars and flags, instead of
the familiar spots. The union cards were
dead failure from the start. The novelty of
the spots was entirely too novel. 1t mixed the
players up so much that it totally spoiled the
pleasure of the game.
The origin of playing cards has been and
still is disputed point. Some historians cred
it it to the Chinese, who, in spite of the bad
name they enjoy to-day, were the parents Of
most of the ingenious and useful things of the
earth, if the antiquaries do not perjure them
selves. By others the Hindoos are sustained
as the creators, and to this day they play fan
tastic games with packs which number ninety
six cards, being eight suits of twelve each. The
story that cards were introduced into Europe
for the amusement of the mad King Charles
III. of France, has long since been disproved.
| They made their first appearance toward the
| end of the fourteenth century, and were well
| known before the demented monarch was
| born.
| The early European packs had ffty-six
| cards. The four extra ones are cavaliers, who
stood between the queens and and the knaves.
| There were slso as manya as twenty extra cards,
| which had the power the joker in a modern
| pack enjoys. Cardsin those dayswere painted by
| hand, and the artists who got them up formed
special and prosperous guild. Many of the
| European cards were painted ON ivory, but pa
| per was the chief material employed. The
Chinese have always used paper for their
playing cards.