Danville intelligencer. [volume] (Danville, Pa.) 1859-1907, 1907-03-08
PLAYING CARDS.
PecuIiarities of Those Used by tho
Different Nations.

PecuIiarities of Those Used by tho
Different Nations.
zone of the most interesting collec-
tions of foreign loot that I've seen
recently" said man ordinarily too
busy to make the trip over the seas
himself, sis an assortment of playing
cards from various parts of the world.
In every country the owner of the
collection visited-and he went to q
good many-picked up cards of local
manufacture and so representative of
the nation.
THE Russian cards are perhaps the
most elaborate The faces of the kings
and queens are different in each suit,
indicating the racial elements that go
to compose the empire.
"On the Greek cards classical heroes
and heroines are represented. Nestor,
for example, is the king Of hearts and
Orestes the knave. Agamemnon Is the
king of clubs, Hercules the jack Of
spades and Minos and Danae the king
and queen of diamonds. The Greek
pack is rather a cheap one and scarce
ly does honor to the celebrities por-
trayed.
"Cadiz is a center for card manufac-
turing. The idea of the Spanish card
maker seems to be to get as much color
on the cards as possible The royal
robes are of unusual magnificence.
The clubs are big bludgeons in green
and red, and the knave of clubs, gayly
caparisoned on prancing horse, re-
minds you instantly of Jack the Giant
Killer. The spades are ugly little dag
gers, and for hearts and diamonds
cards in some of the Spanish packs are
very thin and have capital spring.
"The Madeira cards come from Lis
bon The figures are more convention.
al in design than on the Spanish. The
ace cards are adorned with typical
Portuguese scenes.
"a popularity of the pack bought in
Constantinople is that the ace cards
in addition to the sing'e spade dia'
! mond, club or heart in the center Of
each, have diminutive aces at the up"
per left hand and lower right hand
corners.
"The Italian face cards portray de-
cidedly gloomy personages. Each ons
of the face cards, by the way, carries
in small print the name and address OF
the maker. There are tiny packs, an
inch and a quarter by an inch and
| three-quarters in size, which can be
bought on the streets of Naples for a
soldo. These resemble the Spanish
cards to some extent although the
royalties are more dignitied.
"Cairo is great card emporium, and
| Mousky street offers rich returns to
the card hunter. Fortune telling cards
must be in demand there, to judge
| from the samples / saw in the collec-
ton. The Cairo playing cards come
mostly from Germany. They are bril-
liant in their coloring. The aces carry
scenes from lands both west and east.
"The gem of all the packs comes
from Switzerland. The cards are
! small, one and three-quarters by two
and half inches in size, and the back
| queens and jacks are delightful studies
in Swiss costume, and the purchaser
certainly gets his moneys worth, for
! each face card has two half figures
| quite unlike. On the aces are Swiss
scenes and objects of interest, also two
to a card, the subjects including the
castle of Chillon, the Matterhorn, the
bridge at Lucerne and the Lion of Lu-
cerne. e."-Indianapolis Star.