The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-02-17

have wondered more about the origin
of the cards and their particular mean
ing than about their worth and value
in that particular game. / have read
everything I could find about cards
and how they came into use. You
! wouldn't think, would you, that play
ing cards were originally derived from
the knuckle-bones of sheep? Yet such
| is the fact. Nobody knows how long
| ago they were first employed for play
ing games. One day it occurred to
somebody that cube was better adapt
ed to the purpose. That must nave
happened in very ancient times, for the
Romans Of old had dice which were just
| like our own, even to the arrangement
| Of the numbers on the face-i- e., the
| six opposite the one, the five opposite
| the two, and the four opposite the
three. 1t will be observed that the
sum Of any two opposite numbers is
always seven. This may have some
thing to do with the fact that seven
| used to be regarded as a magical num-
Der. OF the respect accorded 10 1t there
is evidence in many passages of the
Bible. The most ancient cubical die
known dates back to 600 3. c.. that Is,
$500 years ago.
Ii was found at Naucratus, a Greek
colony in Egypt. The earliest dice
were made in pairs, rights and lefts,
always from the right leg and one from
the left leg of the animal. Two dice
We're usually employed, because there
We're two knuckle bones. From that
country they were carried to China,
whence they have been distributed all
over the world. The Chinese are great
gamesters; they invented a modifica-
ton of the dice. which is called the
domino. Put two dice faces side by
side and you have g. domino. Dominoes
are said TO have been devised IN the
year 1120 Of the Christian era by a
Chinese emperor for the amusement Of
his wives
AS there are twenty-one possible
throws with two dice, so rwenty-one
dominoes may be regarded as natural
dominoeS. However, the Chinese have
doubled up some Of the numbers so as
to make a full set for playing thirty
two in all. All over eastern Asia the
customary outfit of dominoeS is thirty
two. Our dominoes, obtained by way
of Europe, are only twenty-eight and
are modified by the introduction Of
blanks. The domino game of Europe
and America is the match game. 1t is
played in China, but is an unimportant
one among the many Chinese games Of
dominoeS. The Chinese domino games
are all of them dice games elaborated.
Dominoes are also used in China, like
dice, for fortune telling. That system
Of divination has an extensive litera-
ture of it's own. The Chinese dominoes
all have astrological names. In China
cosmical names are given to the num-
berS of the dice Six is the throw to
heaven, ace is the throw to earth, four
is the throw to man, while one ana
three are chosen to represent the mar
mony that unites heaven, earth and
man. The throw of double five is call
iya m =
the tigers head" four and six is red
head ten,' one and six is 'red-mallet
six" On Chinese dice the "one" and
-four are always red, while the dots
on the other faces are black. There is
a legend to the fact that on one occas-
sion an emperor of the Ming dynasty
was almost defeated in game by his
queen. The only possibility for him to
win was that the dice should turn up
'.fours." They did SO, and he was so
gratified that from that time forth the
''fours' on all dice were marked In req
Take an ordinary domino of bone or
wood, enlarge it, make it of paper, ana
it becomes a playing card My study
of the subject has led me to the conclu-
sion that this is the way in which the
playing card was originally evolved.
The evolution began with the knuckle
bone which became cubical die, the
latter was transformed into q domino
and the domino, in its turn, was meta
morphosed into a card. A domino with
two "fives' on it represents the 'ten
spot" of thepack. The origin of king,
queen" and Jack is unknown Pcs
sibly a little light may be thrown upon
the mystery by the fact that the four
sides of the knuckie bone are called in
Arabic the shah" ''vizier, peas
ant" and slave" The same names
are given to the numbers on the cubical
die. the six being the "shah." One OF
the games played with dominoes in
China is apparently the prototype OF
whist. Nobody knows when dominoes
and cards were introduced into