Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1907-08-29
CARDS.
PecuIiarities of Those Used by the
Different Nations.

Pecuiiarities Of Those Used by the
Different Nations.
zone Of the most interesting collec-
tons of foreign loot that I've seen
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 yisited-and he went to q
good many-picked up cards of local
manufacture and so representative Of
the nation.
1.-THE Russian cards are perhaps the
most elaborate. The faces Of the kings
and queens are different in each suit,
Indicating the racial elements thai go
to compose the empire.
"On the Greek cards classical heroes
and heroines are represented. Nestor.
for example, is the king Of hearts n
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
" does honor to the celebrities por-
trayed-
~Cadiz Is q center for a r 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 m~agnifcence.
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
~o-o op1 for hnorfc Qnd dfQm0nde
there are disks and dice cups. The
cards in some of the Spanish packs are
very thin and have a capital spring.
The Madeira cards come from Lis
bon. The figures are more convention
al N design than on the Spanish. The
ace cards are adorned with typica
Portuguese scenes.
"A popularity of the pack bought II
Constantinople is that the ace cards
in addition to the single spade, dia
mond, club or heart in the center O.
each, have diminutive aces at the up
per left hand and lower right hant
corners
1.-THE Italian face cards portray de
cidedly gloomy personages. Each on
Of the face cards, by the way, carrie
In small print the name and address o
r the maker. There are tiny packs, al
inch and a quarter by an inch an
, three-quarters in size, which can b
bought on the streets Of Naples for
. soldo. These resemble the Spanis
3 cards to some extent, although tn
+, royalties are more dignined.
1 Cairo is a great card emporium, an
Mousky street offers rich returns t
the card hunter. Fortune telling card
h must be in demand there, to 5udg
from the samples I saw in the colle<
tion. The Cairo playing cards com
mostly from Germany. They are bri
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 al
small, one and three-quarters by tw
and a half inches In size, and b bac
design is the edelweiss. The king
queens and jacks are delightful studio
in Swiss costume, and the purchase
u certainly gets his moneys worth, fe
each face card has two half figure
quite unlike. On the aces are Sw1s
d scenes and objects of interest, also tw
to a card, the subjects including tt
castle Of Chillon, the Matterhorn, tt
: bridge at Lucerne and the Lion Of L
: cerne."-Ind1anapolis Star.