Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-08-13
PLAYING CARDS.,
PeeuIiarities Of Those Used by tiso
Different Nations.

Different Nations.
"One. of the most interesting collec-
tons of foreign loot that I've seer
recently" said a 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 a
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.
ION 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 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 magnlfcence.
The clubs are big bludgeons in green
and red, and the knave Of clubs, gayly
caparisoned on a prancing horse, re-
minds you instantly Of, Jack the Giant
Killer. The spades are ugly little dag
gers, and for hearts and diamonds
there are disks and dice cups. The
cards In some of the Spanish packs are
very thin and have capital spring.
1.-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 single 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.
1.-THE Italian face cards portray de
cidedly 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, al
inch and quarter by an inch ant
three-Quarters In size, which can b'
bought on the streets of Naples for 1
soldo. These resemble the Spanish
cards to, some extent, although TIT
royalties are more dignif1ed.
"Cairo is, a great card emporium, ant
Mousky street offers rich returns t.
the card hunter. Fortune telling card
must be in demand there, to judg
from the samples saw in the collec
ton. The Cairo playing cards com
mostly from Germany. They are bril-
liant In their coloring. The aces carr,
scenes from lands both west and east
: 1.-THE gem of all the packs come
from Switzerland. The cards ar
small, one and three-quarters by tw
and a half inches in size, and the bac
design Is the edelweiss. The king
; queens and jacks are delightful studio
/. in Swiss costume, 'and the purchase
| certainly gets his moneys worth, fc
each face card has two half figure
quite unlike. On the aces are Swis
scenes and objects of interest, also tw
to card, the subjects including I'll
castle of Chillon, the Matterhorn, tt
bridge at Lucerne and the Lion of IL
cerne. "-Indianapolis Star.