Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-09-22
ABOUT PLAYING CARDS,
They Are Not Unjustly Called the
Devils Books"

| Oh. Schenorplug In Der Stein der weisen.
1t is not altogether unjustly that play
| ing cards have been and arc called the
"Devll's Books" For, from time i'm
memorial, they have been far more
used for the qualification of the gamb-
ling spirit, the lust of gain, and for
fortune-telling than for pastime and
social amusement. Both at court
and in the knightly castles of the
middle ages, the excitement of card
playing exercised the same irresistible
fascination which in spite of civil and
clerical prohibition, lured the mead
befuddled country boys and farmers to
stake their earnings thoughtlessly at the
public erinking-tables.
Even the stern penal enactments pro-
mulgated in France, towards the close
OF the last century, which rendered the
professional gambler subject to the pen
atty OF death, exile, life imprisonment,
or the galleys, appear to have been
powerless to stay the thoughtless gamb-
ling habit, for we find not long after it
was calculated that 1877 100000 francs
were lost in the period (1Sl0-1S37) in the
Paris gambling houses. The most invet-
crate card players arc to be found in
China, Siam, Thibet and Java.
Since the year 1854 in which Breitkopf
wrote his account of the origin of cards,
the interest of the investigator and friend
OF art has been thoroughly awakened
Tor these contrivances which, without
any essential mobilization, have for
centuries provided a means of amuse.
ment for SO many diverse nationalities;
Tor playing cards are not merely pre-
cious memorials of social customs, but
afforded an important contribution to
the history of the art of wood. engray-
ing, printing and copper plate printing
IN various countries, and no less i'm.
portant one to the history of costume.
Apart from this, the results of the in
Vestlgatlon into the origin and signifi-
canoe OF playing cards is by no means
as familiar or as highly appreciated as il
deserves to be.
Unfortunately there are no data, no
available documents, which throw the
least light on the name of the inventor
or the date of the invention. Bisbop
Cyprlan of Carthage, in the third CEN
Jury, attributed the invention to mercury
VINO IS said to have imprinted his por-
tralt on the cards, and ordered that the
prayers, before commencing the game,
should kiss the cards, or pour out liba-
tlon in his honor. The Christians he
sad had only altered the pictures, sub
shutting king, knaye, &C., for mercury
and other heather goods.
for a long time it was popularity be-
lleyed that playing cards were invented
IN the reign of Charles VII. of France,
as distraction for that weak monarch !,
put as evidences of greater antiquity
multiplied, the theory gained ground
that 1t was one of those games which
originated in the east
Playlng cards are said to have been in
vogue IN India for more than a thousand
years. In addition to cards of reotangu-
lar lorm they used also circular cards
made of stiff sail cloth or lackerd cards,
sometimes painted very artistically.
These cards are used in the game of
Ghendglteh, game somewhat resem-
bling l'llombre. The pack consists of
IL cards each of eight or ton suits, which
symbollzc the incarnation of Vishnu.
Each suit contains only two pictures,
the shah on an elephant, and his yizier
on horse or tiger; but there are count
cards of several colors, and eight, or it
may be ten, distinctive suits, viz, pine
conc, sword, fish, crocodile, boar,
monkey, antelope, and parasol.
The Persian cards are rectangular.
and exhibit the following five figures
the king on yellow ground, the queen
on red ground, the dancer on a green
ground, the lion on black, and the
soldier on golden ground. Their
emblems are crown, full moon, sword,
slave, harp, sun, letter, and pillow.
The Thibetan cards have two figures.
priest and vizier, and only four signs,
human head, wheel, bird, and ball.
Our cards can hardly be notifications
of any of these, and Just as little can
they be derived from the great Chinese
playing cards with their human and
beastly monsters which We're in use as
early as 1920 A. d.
The fact that the oldest cards in Italy
were called naibis, word sirnifvinr
captain or lieutenant in Arabic; suG
gested that the game originated In
Arabia, but gambling was denounced
by Mahommed, the pictorial art is on.
posed to the creed of Islam, and rs no
Arabian game has ever been discovered
we are hence forced to reject the state.
ment that the Arabs introduced cards
into Sicily and Spain in the seventh
century.
The oriental origin of our cards is
hence very doubtful. On the other hand.
Italy certainly seems to have invented
cards indepently towards the end of the
18th century. They are mentioned
under the name of naibi in the Chroni-
Giles of Giovanni Morelli q3o3), who
refers to them as universally in use dur.
ing the 14th century. These naibi were
individual representations of allegori.
cal and NEUROLOGICAL subjects, and
cosmic forces, and were in harmony
with the view of the age that pictures
were the best general means of convey
ing instruction, being Ineligible to the
unlearned. They were soon utilized
for games of chance, and appear to
have spread rapidly through Europe,
and to have been used for gambling
purposes, for we find them forbidden in
Paris in 1892, and in Ulm in 1897.
As already remarked, too, PLAYING
cards were universally consulted for
foretelling future events. AS a general
rule acorns (clubs) forebode misfortune.
sickness and death; green (spades), for
tune and success; diamonds, wealth and
freedom from care, and the chief color,
red (learts), indicates success in love
and everything, &C., &c; but every card
has its special Specification and potent,
GEORGE WiLLIIM CURTIS.