The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-06-06
ORIGIN OF PLAYING CARDS.
They Probably Came From Asia and Were
Developed by Savage Nations.

tunes has been continued down to
the present day even among cult
waited people When we speak of
playing cards, we naturally think of
the familiar pasteboards of our day,
place and time bat there are many
kinds in the world, almost as many
as there are nations, and all having
the same ancestry, though descend
ing through different channels,
! said Stewart Culin of the University
museum of Philadelphia the other
night.
Hitherto we have known prac-
tically nothing of their history. No
one realized how deeply they were
rooted, and we have been content
with stories that the Chinese invent
ed cards in the twelfth century or
that they were first made for the
| amusement of Charles VI of Franco,
They are instead the product of
primitive conditions, of an age be-
fore mankind had a single alphabet.
They were once almost an epitome
of his culture, and their symbols
stood for all that he revered. Sur
prising as it may seem, the begin
ningS of playing cards are to be
found in America as we'll as else
where. The gambling sticks of the
Haidah Indians of the northwest
coast, covered with the totemic ami
mails of the eight directions of the
world, are counterparts of the most
primitive cards of Asia-those of
Korea-in which paper is substituted
for the slaves formerly used, and
the eight animals, although differ
emit and corresponding with Asia no
tions, are again repeated, while the
number of the cards is the same as
in America.
From much less striking similari-
ties it has been argued that Ameri-
can culture is direct importation
from Asia, but finding the same
things among the tribes of the At
lantic coast would make it appear
that the importation had been a very
wholesale one. 1t seems much more
likely these Identities in the two
cultures should be attributed rather
to the identity of man than to any
such transference.
''These Korean cards are the an
cestors of cards and card games in
Asia. Once having the idea, the
cards assumed their varied forms
through accidents of material and
the circumstances of life. Thus dice
became dominoes and dominoes
made of paper, cards. There is no
more striking illustration of what
some call evolution than is presented
by this series of bone dice turning
into paper playing cards. Again, the
cards commonly used 8oday in China
were originally paper money and
more as suit marks the devices found
on the Chinese bank notes of the old
Tartar dynasty of Marco Polo's time.
This furnishes the emblems of
another common Chinese playing
card, while children cards bear the
characters that form the texts of
their first writing lessons. The cos
mical associations are strikingly IL
Illustrated in the beautiful japanese
game huna garuta, or flower cards.
If this there are II suits, with flow
ers and emblems of the % months.
These flowers are repeated in the
crests of the noble families who are
apportioned to the different quar-
ters of the world of Japan.
I'm India the gungeefa-the beau
tiful painted circular oards-have
eight suits, as in Korea, bearing the
oolors of the different quarters of
the universe.
THE Specification of card suits
being thus established, it is easy to
perceive the meaning of suits in the
European game. The numerals, or
pip cards, correspond with those of
Asia, and the source of the king,
queen and knave, like the king,
knight, bishop and rock in the game
of chess, alone remains as yet OBJ
scure.
1--WE find the prototypes of all our
familiar card games-such as whist,
euchre and poker, not to speak of
the more nearly identified card
games-in Asia. 1t is unnecessary
TO assume that either they or the
cards were directly imported from
Asia, although have been unable
to trace the direct ancestry of Euro
pean cards satisfactorily. We are
confronted with the story of their
having been invented for the amuse-
ment of Charles vi, but it is safe to
say that there is no game in the
world that was ever directly invent
ed for the express purpose of amuse-
ment. Leaving this problem for
time, we find enough in European
cards that is strange and interesting,