USE AND ABUSE.
STRANGE tales have been related of the various uses to which cards have been put, and Mr. Singer tells one of a Friar “who, thinking to pull out his Breviary, displays a pack of cards which some mischievous wit had substituted for it. Not at all disconcerted by the circumstance, he explains to the people that he makes use of them as a Breviary, and in a most ingenious manner applies the different cards to this purpose.”
There is another history of a parson who loved gaming better than his eyes, quoted by Mr. Chatto. This preacher thrust his cards up his sleeves when the clerk called him to the pulpit. “‘Tis true that in the height of his reproving his parish for their neglect of holy duties, upon the throwing out of his zealous arm, the cards dropped out of his sleeve and flew about the church. What then? He bid one boy take up a card, and asked him what it was. The boy answers, ‘The King of Clubs.’ Then he bid another boy take up another card. What was that? ‘The Knave of Spades.’ ‘Well,’ quoth he, ‘now tell me who made ye?’ The boy could not well tell. Quoth he to the next, ‘Who redeemed ye?’ That was a harder question. ‘Look ye,’ quoth the parson, ‘you think this was an accident, and laugh at it; but I did it on purpose to show you that had you taught your children their catechism as well as to know their cards, they would have been better provided to answer material questions when they come to church.’”
The story does not go on to state that this precious preacher met the fate of Ananias, as he well deserved to do.
Not many years ago in England, the following story printed on a sheet or pamphlet, was circulated among the poorer classes and was received with great favour. It was called: “Cards Spiritualized; or the Soldier’s Almanac, Bible, and Prayer-Book.”
Richard Middleton, a soldier attending divine service with the rest of a regiment at a church in Glasgow, instead of pulling out a Bible like the rest of his fellow soldiers to find the parson’s text, spread a pack of cards before him. Thissingular behaviour did not long pass unnoticed both by the clergyman and the sergeant of the company to which he belonged. The latter, in particular, requested him to put up the cards, and on his refusing, conducted him after church before the mayor, to whom he preferred a formal complaint of Richard’s indecent behaviour during divine service.
“Well, soldier,” said the mayor, “what excuse have you for this strange, scandalous behaviour? If you can make any apology or assign any reason for it; it is well; if you cannot, assure yourself that I will cause you without delay to be severely punished for it.”
“Since your Honour is so good,” replied Richard, “I will inform you. I have been eight days on march, with a bare allowance of sixpence a day, which your Honour will surely allow is hardly sufficient to maintain a man in meat, drink, washing, and other necessaries that consequently he may want, without a Bible, Prayer-Book, or any other good book.” On saying this, Richard drew out his pack of cards, and presenting one of the Aces to the mayor continued his address to the magistrate as follows:—
“When I see an Ace, may it please your Honour, it reminds me that there is only one God; and when I look upon a two or a three, the former puts me in mind of the Father and Son, and the latter of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. A four calls for remembrance the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. A five, the five wise Virgins who were ordered to trim their lamps. There were ten indeed; but five, your Worship may remember, were wise and five were foolish. A six, that in six days God created heaven and earth. A seven, that on the seventh day he rested from all he had made. An eight, of the eight righteous persons preserved from the deluge; namely, Noah and his wife, with his three sons and their wives. A nine, of the nine lepers cleansed by our Saviour. There were ten, but only one returned to offer his tribute of thanks. And a ten, of the ten commandments that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai, on the two tables of stone.” He took the Knave and put it aside. “When I see the Queen it reminds me of the Queen of Sheba, who came forth from the farthermost parts of the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon, for she was as wise a womanas he was a man, for she brought fifty boys and fifty girls, all clothed in girls’ apparel, to stand before King Solomon, for him to test which were boys and which were girls; but he could not until he called for water to wash themselves. The girls washed up to their elbows, and the boys only up to the wrists of their hands; so King Solomon told by that. And when I see the King it puts me in mind of the great King of heaven and earth, which is God Almighty; and likewise his Majesty King George the Fourth, to pray for him.”
“Well,” said the mayor, “you have given a good description of all the cards save one, which is lacking.”
“Which is that?” said the soldier.
“The Knave,” said the mayor.
“If your Honour will not be angry with me,” returned Richard, “I can give you the same satisfaction on that as on any in the pack.”
“No,” said the mayor.
“Well,” returned the soldier, “the greatest Knave I know is the serjeant who brought me before you.”
“I don’t know,” said the mayor, “whether hebe the greatest Knave or no, but I am sure he is the greatest fool.”
The soldier then continued: “When I count the number of dots in a pack of cards, there are three-hundred and sixty-five,—as many days as there are in the year. When I count how many cards there are in a pack, I find there are fifty-two,—so many weeks are there in a year. When I reckon how many tricks are won by a pack, I find there are thirteen,—so many months are there in a year. So that this pack of cards is both Bible, Almanack, and Prayer-Book to me.”
The mayor called his servants, ordered them to entertain the soldier well, gave him a piece of money, and said he was the cleverest fellow he ever heard in his life.
There are several variations of this story, one being written in the French language and in rhyme; but as their theme is nearly identical with the one quoted, it is unnecessary to repeat them.
It is supposed that the visiting-card now in common use derived its origin from a custom, quoted by Mr. Taylor, of writing messages on the backs of playing-cards,—a practice which is mentionedin the “Spiritual Quixote,” a novel of George the Third’s time. This practice is also mentioned in “Henry Esmond,” where an invitation is sent on a ten of Diamonds; and it was not confined to the novelist’s world, as it was evidently the custom in America before the Revolution, for some of these invitations still exist and are treasured among family relics. There is one belonging to an American family which bears an invitation from Sir Jeffrey Amherst, printed on the back of the King of Clubs, to one of the fair damsels of his day; and this was dated 1769. Another card which apparently belonged to the same pack bore on its back an invitation to dinner from the same General to Mr. Ten Eyck for this same anniversary of Saint George’s Day. It seems a strange coincidence that both these cards should have been sent to the author,—one of them coming from Boston; the other from Cazenovia, New York, where it was found in an old iron chest belonging to the Ten Eyck family. Another invitation card which is treasured in New York, carried an invitation from Miss Kitty and Miss Anna Livingston to Miss Laurence. These ladies are the ancestors of many well known townspeople, and the date of the invitation must have been about the same as that one issued by Sir Jeffrey Amherst, showing that it was a common practice during the middle of the last century to use playing-cards on which to write invitations.
Playing-cards have also been used to carry on their surface important messages; as before mentioned, the message written by the Duke of Cumberland was on a playing-card (the nine of Diamonds).
The fascination that games have for some people led to their being carried into queer places and strange company. The preacher’s catastrophe and the soldier’s apology have already been related; but cards have been played on the battle-field as well as by the home fireside, they have been used when travelling and even at the play, as one writer mentions that during a visit in Florence he was invited to join a game in an opera-box, where he was told that “good music added greatly to the pleasure of a whist-party, that it increased the joy of good fortune and soothed the affliction of the bad.”
One writer has described a visit to a temple in Thibet, in which he found among otherdecorations “a couple of old playing-cards,”—the Knave of Hearts and the Ace of Acorns. Whether these were worshipped by the natives or considered as decorations, he could not discover.
The descendants of Lady Katherine Alexander, daughter of Major-Gen. Lord Sterling and wife of Col. William Duer, relate the following anecdote of her. The dame was fond of the rubber at Whist; and it is probable that in the beginning of the century cards were not as common nor as cheap as they are now, and that ladies carried their own packs with them to card-parties. At any rate, one morning while attending services at St. Paul’s Church, New York, her Ladyship pulled her handkerchief out of her capacious pocket, and with it drew out a pack of cards, which, to the amusement of her neighbours and her own consternation, flew about the pew. Her mischievous sons never lost an opportunity of reminding her of the circumstance and teasing her about it.