Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-21

was, gambling implements have been found
They were found with the bones and stones
on which appear the first pictures ever
made by man. So man did not learn art be-
fore he also learned to gamble.
These gambling implements of the gray
past were pebbles, each of which had de-
signs on one face. The designs were stained
with various colors, and there is no doub,
that they were the first Dice At least they
were the first dice SO far as known. Per-
haps some day it will be discovered that
epochs before the missing link itself threw
dice, too.
From these colored pebbles in the cave OF
Mas dAzil to the art palace of Garfield OF
New York the history of gambling forms
almost an unbroken chain.
The gambler Of today who talks Of going
new. The cliff dwellers of Colorado went
up against the Eagle Bird long before
America was discovered. They played with
gambling reeds and a bowl, and on the
which means ''Eagle Man" This bird was
the patron Of those long vanished gamblers.
"Crooked" Games Were Early.
That the Eagle Bird was as liable to
moral strabismus then as now Is shown by
the fact that intricate safeguards were
thrown around the game and became more
complex with each year in order to pro-
tect the gamblers from the dealer.
The Eagle Bird is not the only "old one"
In ancient East Indian gamblers outfits
are found ivory tigers which were used as
chips are used now in bucking the tiger OF
1903 The Chinese had game Of dice sew
eral thousand years ago in which the most
difficult throw was known as the Tiger.
In another Chinese game there is Roaring
Tiger.
The Lake jewellers were gamblers like all
the rest Of sinful humanity. In Bohemia
and in Berne are sticks marked with con-
centric rings which were thrown like dice:
They have been found In the remains OF
many of the piie-dwellings.
The famous knuckle bones Of old Rome,
made from the bones in the ankle joints of
sheep, were neither original with the Ro-
confined to them. The ancient Peruvians
used the astragalus bone Of the cow or OK
the North American Indians used the bone
from the bison, and bones from sheep and
other animals are used today throughout
southern Europe, Spanish America, and in
most of the Mohammedan countries.
From the oldest times to the present, one
Of the important rules In throwing knuckle
bones has been, and is, that the bones must
be changed frequently. The CROOKED
gambler loaded those simple dice ages ago
and does now.
All the Worlds Dice.
Besides knucNe bones, the old Romans
used dice made from all sorts Of material
from rock crystal to meteoric iron. And
the gambler knew what to do with them
OF more than one hundred gambling tables
found in ancient Rome a good score were
fitted with ingenious devices to make the
dice come in the manner best adapted
to separate the player from his sesterces.
The great and noble Assurbanipal OF
Assyria loved to daily with the kubos. They
were dice made Of glazed baked clay. Be-
sides being a great gambler Assurbanipal
was a great art collector like Mr.. Garfield
| and he left a fine library Of earthen tiles
full Of the history Of his life and other
moral stories.
Wherever ancient dice are found, all sorts
of receptacles are found with them, shaped