The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-06
DESIGNS For oARD-BAcKs.
Card Players Prefer the Familiar Back-super-
stitisus About View Ones.

The making OF designs for:the backs of play.
ing cards is one line of artistic work in which
novelty and originality count for little. Some.
thing fresh and striking that is practicable as
we'll is welcomed eagerly in all other fields Of do,
signing. The carpet, wall paper. cloth, and
tapestry manufacturers are always on the look
out for a novelty. but the playing card manu-
~facturer looks askance at a new deGign, no mat
ter how artistic and taking.
I'VE have o dozen or more orders to give out
for prosperous clubs throughout the country
during the year, said a leading card manufac-
turer, and. outside of this, we may, possibly
buy twenty or twenty-five original designs just
because they are too good to let slip, but that's
about all there is in the business for. the card
artist. We pay 800 or moro for a club design
that suits us. one that introduces the club colors
and words cleverly and has genuine merit.
Tho wealthy clubs are. liberal when they want
anything done that is out of the ordinary. Since
the craze for popuiar.s sports, golf. bicycling, and
tennis, has struck the country we occasionally
lave orders for II number of individual packs,
with the backs skctched out in that sort OF rig,
with sticks and balls and wheels and all that.
times that have on the backs some of their pc
culiar accoutrcments and symbols, and SO will
sign with spurs and a qulrt and lasso put in
somewhere, or n saddle and high.heeled boots.
These designs VIC have made to order by artists
whom we know, but the outside artist who Of
fers designs does not sell a dozen year.
Now hero is n design we bought yesterday.
buttcrcups. grasshoppers. a daisy field. the very
thing for people to take with them for n camp
from fnBoI it. tlrGi' they W" viii be- ls" a drug Unsi in = the iem mapr aShs
How do knowi oh, I've seen 1t tried too often.
I've got out beautiful polo backs and football
backs. yachting. hunting. and what not. and
never had return for the investment. People
put cards like that. with backs that are inter.
IN some convenient place, to be dragged out and
shown as curiositics when the main business Of
me evening ,end <, iI over, but, when card lovers.
they use the style of pack they are familiar
with and accustomed to-. Whether the buyers
who come here to me hail from San Francisco.
or Kansas City. or Mexico. or Chicago, they all
tell the same tale. Their patrons all want new
cards Of the same pattern backs that they have
Yes. that's admirable. gentcel.looking ar.
tistic; and: all that they say when ! show them
away, for me to buy it, 1t wouldn't. sell. A
San Francisco man told me the other day that
was no use trying to sell them any other sort.
They wouldn't think of sitting down to a game
spoil the luck. Often. in the .well-established
clubs out there, he says, you will see a veteran
p pt@ { l insis Gia a on %" Gsin Hs shEel i pa plad irO OF t ms
club cards, no matter how handsome. That
middle angel on the angel backs looks to you
basks all the same: The lily back is an9ther,
those, and they seem never to tire Of them.
Look over this sample book. no added,
opening a p,onderous leather. back volume. In
very, few that have lived. l have been In
the business exactly, twenty-cight years, and
know a thing or two about card manu-
are Austrian, and Russian. and German cards.
some or them are us pretty and well done us
miniatures, the crowned heads. men and wo-
men. cscutcheonso OF great houses, and all that.
There ore a lot of neurological subjects, all in.
teresting, bur none of them go in the trade.
Abroad; as in this country, there are a few
and admire, and u thousand ordinary, hack
neyed designs regarded as standbys and used
all over the Kingdom. Go into any of the
tries, where the card players. are really alb
sorbed in a game and you will find the sober,
conventional backs in use. Those with the
roynl parsonage, on them and the beautiful
miaidcns and garlanded oxen are stuck away
out or reach somewhere and forgotten. -
They say that superstition is dead and that
people no longer believe in luck and unseen in.
iucnces and all that, but it isn't 80 in our bust
ness. A man may not be troubled II he has to
n % N GmythinS on a Friday and may not take
at the new moon. but when he has a skilled op-
p1onGnt at a game of cards he is particular about
trian or AMERICAN, it's all the same.
1t looked as though the bottom had dropped
out or The playing card business n couple of
much competition and various other condi-
tions got us in n pretty tight place. We really
ran the factory for nearly two years merely TO
keep the operatives together, not for any profit.
Our machinery IL so perfect that 1t pays us bet.
ter to make the full number or packs than not.
We had boxes piled up with fine goods in ex-
up again now. and were doing a fair
but things ara not likely to brighten
for the card designer. There's an ingrained
against new designs that 1t will he
hard to rub out, and we won't have TO change
our machinery, often. 30 far as the card backs
are concerned"