Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-29

short jacket with flowing sleeves. the
body being crossed by q sash. The knave
Of hearts has a battle-ax, and In his other
hand laurel leaf. The knave Of diamonds
holds a pike with a hook below the point.
The queer-looking staff Of the knave Of
clubs is supposed to have been an arrow.
The peculiar attribute of the knave OF
spades is a twisted ribbon, which may have
been a FOOLS staf once, with gay ribbons
twined around It The knaves Of hearts
and spades are in profile. while the others
show their full faces. Why this Is so no.
body knows; they have had these positions
as far back as the middle of the fifteenth
century.
The knave is frequently called the Jack
from his buffoon's dress, q slang name for
Jester being Jack. In German packs the
knaves are represented as workingmen or
peasants. The word for peasant being
Bauer, hence the bowers right and left
of euchre. The English term Jack-a-napes
Is probably derived from Jack-a-Naipes. or
Jack the-cards, Naipes being the Span
ish name for the pack.
Cards In Early Days.
Playing cards were brought to Europe
from the east about the time Of the cru
SADIE. very likely by home-returnfng war
riors. The gypsies. who at that period be-
gan to wander over Europe. are said to
have introduced them, using them as they
do now for telling fortunes. The first
packs contained seventy-eight cards. in
twenty-five embiematic picture cards.
which served as trumps. The numbered
cards We're marked with swords. cups
sticks and money. Each Of these suits con-
sists of fourteen cards, four Of which were
king, queen. knight and knave. The en-
blem cards had such pictures on them as
an emperor. Cupid, a chariot a hermit. the
gallows, death. the pope, fortune, the sun
and the moon.
These early packs were called tarots or
tarocchi. They differed good deal in
various localities. Packs closely resem-
bling them are found today in parts of
Germany and Switzerland which are not
much frequented by travellers. In cards of
this kind the emblem of death is numbered
ID. The notion Of bad luck attached to
that number is of oriental origin. A tradi-
ton relates that a Venetian-perhaps Marco
Polo or his father, Niccolo-frst brought
cards from China to his native city. which
was the first place in Europe where they
were known.
In China playing cards are called PAPER
tickets They used to be called Dome
tickets" from the material formerly en-
ployed. Several kinds of cards are used
in that country. One pack has thirty-two
covered with small circular dots In red
and black, with court cards Of one man and
'one woman. Chinese cards are printed I'm
black usually on thin cardboard, one inch
| broad by three and q half inches long. In
some packs the cards have animals, such
as horses or deer, printed on them. Whist
| Is of Chinese origin. and other European
games are more than suspected Of being
derived from the same source.
| The playing cards of Corea are strips of
| thick implanted paper half an inch wide
| and six to eight inches long. The cards
| of India proper are circular. Persian cards
are beautifully painted and lacquered The
quaintest cards are those Of Japan. They
differ entirely from any others In the
world, the symbols on them having been
invented on the Islands. They are Of the
same shape as our cards, of pasteboard,
hoc htttr lu tx1ya Inc
long. The designs are stencilled on them,
usually representing the months of the
year by flowers and other emblems. There
are twelve suits Of four cards each. with
one plain white card for a joker. The
Japanese children play with cards that
have songs and proverbs on them.
The modern cards are copies OF the
French packs of the fifteenth century, with
notifications. But In Germany the old
fashioned playing cards of that country
are still manufactured, with suits of bells,
hearts, leaves and acorns Even these,
however, have been 80 far changed that
the hearts are surrounded by champagne
bottles. the acorns have loving cup the
bells are accompanied by punch bowl
and with the leaves are hour glasses and
no queens, the places of these royal ladies
being taken by the knights on horseback
in beautiful uniforms. German friar.
Thomas Murer, first conceived the notion
OF adapting cards to the instruction of
children. This idea has been developed un-
til now 1t Is possible to study history, seog-
raphy and many sciences with PLAYING
cards. Babies In the nursery learn to speil
and to read from their games.