The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-08-11
Il d 8 IzE'RI
IT SEEMS To HAVE RiGlNATED@lrss
NEW ORLEANS.

II Me- ~ sVSsC1IGRfSS.5Efs ~ - z
i The American Version OF the Gam.
4 Is -AppnrentIy nm Improvement OF
!: the Old French e.an,c ..Le .Jcu slt
4 PoEue'' OF German ..PochcnspIel.s,
4 All the%evidence about poker whict
New Orleans. The question is, Where
| did New Orleans get 1t from. or is 1t ar
! Improvement on some game known tc
the population of that city. who. il
must be remembered, were French and
| used French terms in any games that
| they played?
There is no French game played with
only twenty cards. rs poker was played
at New Orleans in 1882, but there are
several French games In which all the
poker hands are to be found except fotlr
of kind. A mbigu, brelan and ANY
others Will at once suggest themselves
But all these French games are
played with three cards only In the
hand of each player. Where could the
inventor of poker have found 4 game
played with FIVE cards In Neach hand
and the pack consisting Of twenty
cards only?
The standard pack OF cards in Eu-
rope from the earliest days has been
what Is now called the plquet pack.
which is the same as our American ss.n
euchre pack, thirty-two cards. There is
only one country IN the Woriu tn nat
uses pack limited to twenty cards.
and that is Persia. There Is only one
country in the world where poker has
always been played with five cards In
the hand OF each player, ana that Is
Persia, but the game Is not called po-
ker. It is called as mas
Those who are Familiar With TINS an
Gent Persian game unhesitatlnGlE as
sert some f'rench1nan must nave
brought it to New Orleans In its priini-
tive form, with the pack hiniteas TO
twenty cards and the hand OF each
player increased to five. The question
still remains. How did it change it's
name?
The old Persian pack had no aces,
court cards and spots, like ours, but
each suit was made up of pictures
which ranked: Lion, king, lady. soldier
and dancing girl. This pack was
called varak as, varnk asands or
simply as, from the game as OF nsands,
which was played with it. This an
Gent game was simply twenty card
poker. as it was first played in Amer
lea at the beginning Of this century.
But If poker was originally known as
asands. how came it to lose that8name?
It seemed to the writer. and also to
Mr.. Jessel, that the answer to this
question must be looked for in the Ian
guage OF the people who brought the
game from Europe, If they did bring It.
If they brought it to New Orleans
from Persia, or II some resident of
that city was familiar with the Per
sian game and thought it an improve
mont on the French game OF anblgus
and brelan, the introducer was prob
ably French and more familiar with
French games and French terms than
with Persian.
Curiously enough, one of the oldest
and most authoritative works on card
games was published in France ana
ran through Il great many editions.
This is the famous Academic Univer-
selle des Jeux; Chez Theodore LeSras,
au Palnis, Paris
In the 1865 edition of this work we
find the first description of the game
of hoe
The game of hoe continues to be de-
scribed until the edition Of 1902, with
no mention Of any improvement or
change in its form. In 1873, however,
page 3O5, we find description Of lie
,f1H,a