Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-04-04
Lucky Cards
Are Lucky if
You Get EN-
Ace OF. Spades Good
When Bidding Spades
BY DAMON RUNYON


his chair to the floor under a
bandit shotgun blast and a card
he had just drawn fiuttered from
the table TO land on his chest.
1t was the king of spades,
"ominous card OF fortune tell.
ers." as a Los Angeles news.
paper speaks of it in a tale OF
the preliminary hearing Of the
alleged killers. 1t also speaks
of 1.-The curse of spades"
Now the king Of spades Is not
an ominous card, as We remem-
Der our fortune telling. 1t is
just a dark Completed guy in a
DANES life, or a brunette in a
bloke's. Such characters may
be disquieting. we admit, but not
necessarily ominous. At least
they do not usually have the
sinister connotations suggested
In the newspaper story.
THE king of spades is not as
Il ISOLATED with death or dis
aster. but more with romance.
And in all our experience in card
playing we have never heard Of
any curse connected with spades.
Maybe we have not been play
Ing in the right circles. In our
set. spades are supposed to be
lucky cards, particularly the
ace. III ever you needed one,
you will know what we mean.
We were brought up in the
belief that the truly ominosH
card in the deck is the nine OF
diamonds. known "a the curse
of Scotland" for reasons that
are somewhat obscure TO us.
We vaguely recall that the
black mark against the nine had
something 10 do with the double
crossing OF some old time Scot.
Anyway. around the race track
give EN- a bad deal.
Our card playing education
included the information that
the cards related TO death are
aces and Fights of any suit in
poker hand. The story is that
long ago a gambler called his
opponents bet and fell back in
his chair dead as picked her.
ring before he could exhibit the
winning hand which was a pair
Of aces and a pair Of Fights.
Probably there are variations of
this yarn.
A CES and Fights came 10 be
"A known as the dead mans
hand. and in our youth we were
told that this combination was
unbeatable. Our confidence in
the information was soon dis
PEELED. however We learned
that three little deuces could
make the defunct mortal's duke
look very silly. indeed.
And eventually we became
somewhat confused when we
learned that in some sections II
is not aces and Fights that con-
stitute the corpse's hand but
jacks and Fights Of any suit.
In certain western cities the
poker players used 10 accept
both aces and Fights and Jacks
and Fights as the dead mans
hand but differentiated between
the two by calling tho sacks an
Fights 10 Montana dead mans
hand.
As We understood IL. a man In
Montana died holding jacks and
. Fights and the westerners
seemed TO feel that he was en-
TITLED To as much distinction as
the guy who passed away behind
tho aces and Fights.
Personally. we are inclined 10
think that the euphonic quality
Of the latter combination made
II famous rather than any NOR
tuarv circumstances surround
ing the holding thereof.
THE deuce 49, the poor little
i deuce won a disrespectful
name through that very same
euphony. You have undoubtedly
heard the expression dirty
deuce" Yet the deuce b not
commonly uncleanly. On the
contrary. II is rather a neat
card. if running wild. The un-
clean card in the deck is the
queen of spades as employed in
the game of hearts. in which IL
Is entitled Dirty Dora"
Speaking Of the game OF
hearts reminds us Of a friend Of
ours whose wife slipped him
Dirty Dora" or the queen of
spades, eight times in the course
Of single evening of play with
some neighbors. The following
morning she caused his arrest
on a charge Of assault and bat
terry and appeared in court with
black eye to press the case
against him.
The judge, after hearing all
the evidence. retired to his
chambers and wrote q learned
opinion holding our friend guilt
less Of any criminality because
he had given his wife only one
black eve when eight DIRTY