For instance, the tax on cards is probably the oldest amusement levy, and the penalty for avoiding it in the old days was something to make your blood curc//e^^ BY HENRY JAEGER, Former President American Bridge league. might be classed as one of our modern nui- sance taxes is a small blue revenue stamp, which forms the seal on every WHATdeck of cards, showing that Uncle Sam has collected 10 cents. But in reality the tax on cards was prob- ably the first amusement tax. dating back Above, a sixteenth rentnry even before the 13 Colonies had won their in- print showing German sol- dependence, and with penalties for evasion diers the game much mere severe than they would be today. playing of V You would hardly believe that only 300 or *"Lansquenet” pper left, 400 years ago, if you attempted to avoid pay- some of the “rump Parlia- ment of the tax on cards, you might be stood ment” cards left in I.ondon. in the p’llory, have your ears cut off, or your coffee houses by cavaliers in nostrils slit up and seared with, a hot iron. Cromweirs time to discredit Gruesome penalties, yes. but old court records show that all these things happened—that even the Puritans. death was inflicted on those who would "boot- leg” playing cards. notes, such as Marco Polo Another explanation of this As you while away the moments at your described 300 years later. harks back favorite solitaire game or struggle through a lugubrious designation Whether the Polos or neighborhood bridge party, you have probably to the battle of Culloden. 1746. some other Eastern traveler noticed the artistry of modern playing cards, which sealed the fate of the Stuart brought the game to Venice their beautifully designed backs exhibiting cause. On the eve of the battle the we cannot but at bathing beauties, silhouettes, Godey prints, fu- say; any Duke of Cumberland, who, for his rate the of leaves was turistic distortions, nature scenes, even the big, game extraordinary cruelty, became known throughout Europe bad wolf and the three little pigs. known as “the Butcher Duke,” before the fourteenth cen- But have you ever reflected that the laces wrote “No Quarter” across the tury was ended. In Italy it of these same cards are of a different time and face of the nine of diamonds, was at first called by the land, that they have changed but little in nearly thereby dooming 2.000 Scotsmen to Latin name, paginae. or 500 years evei since they came over to Merrie death in the Scotch moors pages; in Germany it was in the kit bags of her fighting men In Ireland the six of hearts has England ‘blattem’’ or leaves, and in from France? been known as "Grace’s Card It returning France, it was "feul- again, is alleged that the Irish soldier, lets.” It was much the same THE little royalties of the cards still affect Richard Grace, governor of Ath- game in any case. lone, received an offer from the the regal costumes of that day when kings The cards themselves bor- Duke of Schomberg, on behalf of rowed the Chinese markings, wore ermine-bordered robes, and great dames Penalties for avoiding the tax on cards. This tax evader is William III, conditional mi Grace’s having a suit of coins, a getting were bedecked with elaborate or long the usual slit deserting the cause of James n. headgear suit of which was punishment—nostrils and seared with a red-hot iron. batons, and that of the Protes- over their ears. Gallant the espousing lappets knaves, copied from the Chinese tants flntrp U said tn havp writ- are with flat strings oi coins, a suit oi swords and a suit oi king’s wardens, pictured caps There were games of skill, such as tarot, ten his reply, Indignantly rejecting the pro- both of which were of the on crown the battlements of a cups, perversions and games of chance, like which "broad the like Lansquenet, posal, on the back of the six of hearts. Chinese characters. took its name from Landsknecht or foot soldier. also the court’s who is house,” jester perpetu- cards The four of spades has been called “Ned The and suits underwent various Trapola, originally a Venetian game, was a ated with his and bells, in the design of the cap changes in different countries as the games with favorite said to be played by the Saracen sol- Stokes,” and the four of clubs is known as the in some which were joker, packs. they played multiplied. In Ger- diers, fighting as mercenaries of the Pope at "Devil's Bedposts." is diffi- Why so little change has occurred many. with a fond of the the the people chase, siege of Viterbo in 1379. Frizzle” was the derisive name of "Old applied cult to understand The habit card players suits were dogs and stags, falcons and ducks this By time cards were well established. to the ace of spades by early English card is strong and tradition may play a small part. and birds and beasts of all sorts and kinds. Brother Johannes, writing in the monastery at players. It was the duty or tax card of the And those odd-shaped spots the pips that Other playing cards were adorned with hearts, Brefeld in 1377, describes a pack of 52 cards so see that the tax of 10 the suits in this minature deck; you present designate pasteboard typifying the church, bells, standing for the of four suits with three 10 court cards and cents per deck, which Uncle Sam collects, an- army. Why are they so, and where did they lthbles, and acorns and leaves which stood for numerals each, and tells how men played with tedates our various modern amusement and come from? the and husbandmen. peasantry them in one way and another. He says that "nuisance” taxes. French tradition informs us that sym- they this is of to noblemen and to game advantage For more than bolize the divisions of society. ARDS later became known as 300 years card players have, cartes in others if they play it courteously and without Spades represented the lance points of the most of the time, been paying some form of France, and karten in Germany, while in money, and ends by saying "In this game the chivalrous knights. Diamonds, the arrow heads excise. Spain they were called “nalpes" and in Italy state of the world and our own times and of the bowmen and archers, the yeomanry of Both France and England collected taxes on modern ways are described and symbolized the army. Clubs, the clover leaf of “naiba,“ which is supposed to have come from the manufacture, sale or of cards. husbandry, perfectly." importation symbolize the peasantry, and hearts stood for the Arabic word darkness or In W Gurney Benham's Interesting history an meaning secrecy, The possibilities of cards as a means of men- the church. playing cards he tells of court records of forg- suggesting their Eastern origin, and their use tal training probably first occurred to Thomas Caras were not invented t>y a French courte- ing and counterfeiting, with several examples from the earliest times for fortune Mumer, a harassed monk, teaching logic in san. for the amusement of a sick king, nor by telling—a of the Cracow punishment. use which University of as long ago as 1507. a favorite concubine of the Chinese Emperor persists. wnere The textbook used at the time was written we read oi a case nrmin st. **aui, Seun-ho in A. D. 1120, as the Encyclo- by a Spanish friar and the classes of the good a master cardmaker of Paris, who had become pedia Britannica suggests. They were, like In was some later de- brother did not make the desired progress. And bankrupt 1771, years most of our well-rooted institutions, a gradual tected as established a secret so he devised a pack of cards, whereby the having factory. evolution through a complex social process, He was in the branded with a German youths learned their lessons with such put pillory, red- rather than the invention of an individual. hot iron on the shoulder with the letters dispatch and exactness that the master was ac- right As early as the sixth century the Chinese G and and chained in the cused of witchcraft and brought before the L, galleys. began Issuing paper money with which certain tribunal. It was not until he had shown the The last exertion for forgery in England games of chance were developed, but probably curious cards and explained his plan that be was in 1829. Son afterward the law sub- due to their value and the fact they wore out was exonerated. stituted penal servitude for a term of years, or easily, more durable cards were made in imita- Much of the tradition with cards is of French even for life. Other forms of punishment for tion of these first bank notes. origin, not only the old symbolism of the suits, forgery existed, such as “standing in the pil- The Chinese cards today still bear the money but many of the pretty stories that have come lory. having both ears cut of and his nostrils symbols that first adorned their paper money down to us associating characters of history slit up and seared with a hot iron." and denoted their value. There were four with Individual cards; such as the four Icings During the time of Oliver Cromwell, coffee suits, coins, strings of coins, myriads of coins of the deck representing David. Alexander, houses and playing cards were more plentiful and tens of myriads, picturing those strange Caesar and Charles the Great, the monarchies than newspapers, and so the royalists hit upon Eastern coins with holes in the center. Some of the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans and the the happy plan of poking fun at the roundheads time later honor cards were added to the pack Franks under Charlemagne. The four queens by caricaturing their activities on a pack of depicting the river folk of Chinese lore. represented Argine, Esther, Judith and Pallas, cards. A few of these have been preserved in which were the types of good birth, piety, forti- museums and are known as Rump Parliament I PON the authority of Catherine P. Har- | tude and wisdom. Also the knaves had one cards. grave, who has devoted much to or more study sobriquets. By leaving them at a tavern or coffee house, the history of playing cards, a gathering of card to be used instead of the usual pack, their fame /^NVER 30 of the cards of the deck have occurred in the tenth when no was spread by all sorts and conditions of play- players century, ^ names, one of the best known and most ers. They were the cartons and funnies of less a personage than Emperor T’ai Tsu as- the seventeenth century, and an excellent sembled his nobles to play at the game of yu interesting of which is the “Curse of Scotland.” means of passing on political propaganda. p'u, which was played with cards, “for em- Some old whist players have explained that broidered and damasks and of rugs gauze Queen Elizabeth of England was playing cards sorts.” when she determined upon the execution of A pleasant time was evidently enjoyed by all, of for later, in the year 969, "K'itan, the Tartar Mary, Queen Scots, and wrote the death Occupation prince, called his lords together for a tourna- warrant of Queen Mary on the nine of dia- ment of leaves.” The historian writing the monds, and ever since then these nine red pips First Tramp—Here’s a story about U m account explains that these “leaves,” known as have been known as the "Curse of Scotland." who done no work for 30 years. A court card a re- yu p’u, are Sung money—that is. coins or their from comparatively This is undoubtedly a pure myth not substan- Second Tramp (wearily)—Oh, don't talc equivalent,. which were the little paper bank cent Russian deck. tiated by fact. shop.