The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-19
SOCIETY,".
BY ANNIE PERRY REID.
 Bell Telephone 1697.
PLAYING CARDS.

While so much enthusiasm is being re- Yived in the game of cards. the following will be of interest to card lovers:
 "One of the most interestin collections of foreign loot that I've seeen recently" said man ordinarily too busy 10 make the trip over the seas himself, "is an as sortment of playing cards from various parts of the world" says the Indianapolis Star.
 "In every country the owner of the collection Yisited-and he went To a good many-he picked up cards of local manu- facture and so representative of the na- ton.
 "The Russian cards are perhaps the most elaborate. The faces of the kings and queens are different in each suit, in- 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 Creek pack is rather cheap one and scarcely does honor to the celebrities portrayed
 "Cadez 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 magnncence. The clubs are big bludgeons in green and red and the knaye of clubs, gayly caparisoned on a prancing horse, reminds you instantly of Jack the Giant Killer. The spades are ff., Ia, nd monds there are disks and dice cups The cards in some of the Spanish packs are very thin and have q capital spring.
 The Madeira cards come from Lisbon. The figures are more conventional in de- sign than on the Spanish. The ace cards are adorned with typical Portugues scenes.
 "A peculiarlty of the pack bought in Constantinople is that the ace cards, ill addition to the single spade diamond, club or heart in the center of each have dlmnutiYe aces at the upper left hand and lower right hand corners.
 The Italian face cards portray decided ly gloomy personages Each one 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 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, al- though the royalties are more dignihed
 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 l saw in the collection. The Cairo playing cards come mostly from Germany. They are brilliant in their col bring. 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 q half inches in size, and the back design is the edelweiss. The kings, queens and jacks are delightful studies in Swiss cos tune, 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 Chiffon, the Mat terhorn, the bridge at Lucerne and the Lion of Lucerne."