Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-30
BRIDGE CRAZE IN BUSINESS
Enormous Outlay for Card Game Ac-
c~essOries.
MORE WORK FOR PRINTERMAN
Five Times a. Many Cards Sold as
Five Years AEO-TOns of Paper
Used I'm Making score
Cards.

NEW YORK, Jan. pa matter scarcely
considered when the bridge fever first hit
New York was the impetus II would give
certain lines Of business. What this i'm
petus has been may be judged from the
statement Of the head OF the second largest
playing card mandatory in the United
States, that twenty years ago he was turn
ing out fifty gross OF packs a day. Nine
years later the faotory's output was eighty
gross a day. For the last two years or so
its output has been about 15O gross a day,
or nearly 100000 packs annually.
The outpu OF the largest factory is
about 100000 packs a year. The total
product of the five factories in this coun.
try which make playing cards only is at a
conservative estimate about 5000, 900 packs
a year. To this must be added the product
Of a few small concerns.
Speaking %offhand. the manufacturer
quoted said he thought about 500 per cent
more playing cards were sold now than
were sold twenty-five years ago, and the
most noticeable increase has been in tho
last ten years, or since bridge jumped into
wide popularity. Bridge had penetrated
into homes which had previously kept
card games out. The manufacturer told
of a progressive bridge party given re-
Gently at the rectory Of a Catholic church
in Greater New York when 200 tables were
in commission and 400 packs Of cards were
ordered directly from him, such cases on a
smaller scale being Of everyday occurrence.
The increased sales of playing cards, he
believes, are due to come extent to a
~stricter observance of that phase of card
etiquette which demands new cards at
every sitting. Women at their bridge
clubs or at their formal private bridge
parties are greater sticklers on this point
than formerly.
At up-to-date bridge parties two packs
Of new cards for every table Is the rule
and there are expert players Of both sexes
who will not use the same pack Of cards
twice. Naturally this means that instead
Of buying one pack of cards at a time the
average card player buys a dozen packs
and at that he demands a better quality
than once satisfied the general public.
When asked If the tremendous increase
in the number of playing cards sold did
not indicate a relative increase in gamb-
ling, especially. among women the manu-.
f~acturcr replied with emphasis;
mot at all. I am asked over and over
again that question by persons who know
that 1 am acquainted with a host Of per.
sons socially who play cards as we'll as
with hosts more in a business way, and
my invariable answer is that only about
10 per cent Of card players gamble, that is
play for money.
playing for prizes is more general thar
formerly, but that hardly comes under the
head of gambling. The very fact that
cards are used openly in the home by
every member of the family helps to keer
down instead Of to increase gambling, II
my opinion"
AS on offset to this opinion a New York
woman who plays bridge every time she
has a chance and says she never gets
enough of It, finds that about 30 per cent
Of her women friends play for money
whenever they have the opportunity, anC
that the tendency to play for money is in
~creasing all the time among New Yorl
women.
1t is the manufacturers Of score pads
and tally cards, though, who relatively
have benefited most from the increased
popularity of card games. Enormous guam.
titles of these articles are now needed tc