!

r8 THE SUN, SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 1913.PLAYING CARDS

IN NEW LIGHT AXD

History Fold In Packs of All Countriesand All Times Gathered by Mrs.

John King Van Rensselaer rotiw:HAT la tald to be the mostcuinpluto collection of play-Iu- ktuid lu the world 1b the

properly uf Mm. John KingVan Rensselaer, who founded the orlgl-n:- il

chapter of tho OatiKhtcrs ot theAmerican Revolution In Now York city.

Hit collection was begun twenty yearsDKo wllh a pad; brought hack by atraveller from Algiers. It has Brmmuntil It till dozens of broad, shallowdrawer In a specially made waist highmahogany cabinet In the library of herhome. The cards themselves am onard square wheels of led pasteboard,

held In plncu by strips of the same ma-terial.

Some of the cards are In separateboxes of their own, like the round, redrdKi'il paek from Hindustan with Itseight suits and the lone, slender Hava-rln- n

cards made of celluloid with onlyloom for a simile emblem and the num-ber. A few of the most Interesting ofthe packs are hanging framed In thernlrunce hall along with a pen sketchof a New York ball of thirty years ago,In which every face Is nn easily rocog-- inimble likeness.

l'nrhaps the strangest of the packs Ipainted with the Spanish rmuleius of)rods, swords, money and cup? mid the jcavalier on horseback Instead of thequeen. It Is on a yellowish. slightlywrinkled substance.

"So. Ii Is not leather." Mrs. VanKonsselaer coriects. "It Is skin - humanskin. The pack was bought In a lucked ihandbag at a railroad auction. A manwho came to see my collection told muthe history jf the pack."

Ilrletly, the bag belonged to the youngwife of an army otllcer at a Western,post. She was very badly treated nnd 'found her only consolation In longgames of solltalrland the sympathyof all her acquaintances. Among thesewas the young chief of n tribe of In- -dlans on a neighboring reservation whoworked al:otit the fort. After a partlcu- -l.irly brutal outbreak he followed theotllcer Into the hills, killed him andmade a pack of cards out of his skin.They were painted with vegetable dyesIn the Spanish emblems, the only onesthe Indian knew. When the paek wasfinished he sent it to the wife with the

''message that he knew It would be moreof a comfort to her than her husbandhad ever been.

Horrltled though she was, she decidednot to betray the young chief, but totake the grewsome reminder Knst andbury It In the family vault. Hutcare of her handbag convinced the

,

ter on the train that It contained herJewels and he stole It. Itefore she couldhave any thorough search made for thebag the train was wrecked. She decidedthat her bag must have been destroyedand went back West, where she pres-ently married another otllcer and Is nowliving happily. The porter was killed i playand the locked bap, found In his closet, rldwas sold by the railroad company.

--N'ot all of Mrs. Van Rensselaer's cardshave such startling stories connectedwith them. Most of them have comefrom the dusty top shelves of the littlestalls which card making families ofKurope havo kept for generations. Thehistories of some of the packs willnever be known. What vicissitudeshtought the paek of the King of Wur-tember-

who married the daughter ofOeorge III., to a little tobacconHt'swhop'.' It Is In a leather case with hisname on It. It has only tho kins andun upper and lower knave for courtcards, while the suit cards showacorns, leaves, hearts nnd bells bril- -llantly colored, Instend of the sober redunit black of French card.

As ,i people Americans have made nocontributions to the history of cards,.Mrs. Van Rensselaer says, except to addthe j'ikcr to the Trench pack. Hut 'that card carries the pack back Into theiniMs of untiqultv, even to the castingof rotls mentioned In the Hlble.

In her new book. Prophetical, lSduca- - jtlomil and l'luylng Cards," she tracesthe history of the cards back to the t

hwokIs, money or cups. tho

on the of Naturallyphysicians, car-lie- il

hae-rei- l staff Into the sickto In pole,

painted to Mmtilnte Mer-cury decidedly

consult.

Hut with the coming of Christianitytho walls of his temples were razed.So pictures, nnd the bundles ofsworaa, money nnd cups were translerreci to Wis of parchment. Again theway in which they fell foretold thofuture. The first card game playedby two persons, the man who came toconsult, nnd the priest or soothsayer,who Interpreted the cards, llesldes thotHenty-on- e picture cards, which retireseated all sorts of things from Mercuryto wheel of fortune, strength, Justice, death and temperance, nil appearaloim with the world, the devil, theana iooi. nestiles tliese ntollts, asthej called, there were thosuits, with four court cards, a cavaliermounted on Horseback, as well as the.kmc. queen and Jack, nnd the ten suitcards.

These fortune telling cards are stillused In Italy, the only country wherethe picture cards have survived, exceptIn Persia, where they are used withouttho suit pack. Mrs. Van Rensselaer hasa very rare and valuable old atoilt packdiscovered In the wainscoting of a Vene-tian palace and dating from tho six-teenth century. They form Illustrationsin her book.

was many jears before the cardswere used to play panics. Hut one IIIfated evening Charles VT. of Francewent to a masked Riven by one ofins ravoritcs, Hugonln Jouzcs.Charles and live of his courtiersdressed precisely alike, with red cloaksand long beards of tow, and (i mined together, fcvrry one was trying to tlndthe King, and his brother, the Due d'Or-lean- s,

snatched up a torch to look moreclosely. Instantly the tow. bears wereIn Mames. Chained together tho maskerswere hopelessly tangled In a flamingmass. The King was saved by his nunt.the Duchesse de Herri, who recognizedhim nnd threw her cloak about him.Hut his mind was unbalanced theshock.

To divert him and keep him frommeddling In affairs of state his secre-tary Invented the game of piquet. Theclumsy Italian pack was shortened toIts four suits and the cavalier wasdropped. The symbols too were slmpll-- ,tied. The cups were changed to heartsIn honor of Jacques Cceur. the King'sbanker. The rods were changed to

i clover leaves ns a compliment to Agnesj Porel. the King's mistress. The swords

were changed to halbert heads, and theround coins of the money suit to dla- -

,,,,r monds.por-- ! i tie varied colorings of the old pack

were simplified to plain black and red.So the suits stood ceurs, carreaux,tretles and piques. They soon wentacross the Channel to Knglnnd. TheOauph.n betrothed to an EnglishPrincess. Elizabeth of York, who dressedIn French fashion and was tauirht to

piquet. Hut eventually he mar-Ann- eof Hrlttany. Elizabeth In.

troduced the French cards, slightly mod-ified, at court. The queen shows herface and costume, with the rose In mem-ory of the War of the Hoses. Tho kingIs her husband, hut Henry VIII.,her son. The French halberts lookedlike upades to the English courtiers andreceived tiint name. For clubs they Iwent hick to the old rod suit. French jnumbers still cling In tho deuce andtrey. Other games besides piquet andombre Into after 1400. 'The ancestor of poker has been said to ,

prlmero, and had many of Its Iterms, such ns Whist came from ,a game called triumph, soo'n shortened it trump, to denote the leading suit.In Fr.inre tho nM nnrr,n v. 'telling picture cards, atom. Is still usedto denote trump, though no ntouts havebeen used France for centuries.

The cards grew so popular that somecheaper than painting them byhand was necessnry, nnd the xylo-graph-

art came to foreshadow theEarly In the fifteenthcentury tho makers of Augsburg had

became so that lawn wr An.nciea in ji.iiy nnd A natnli. .

ivr-l,li- . Mereoiv the N'ehn of tl, """'""" protect' ' - loeni maKers ngatnst them,AbbMllilans. anil tilt; Thoth of the ,, . , ,Egyptians. Tho (Jypsles brought him ., . nn ok" Rnd thswit them when they came to wander " ' '.C' ,Tn A'Iea from Se north"over Ih.rope. For It was to consult t ,m,s w"'h cameMercury, the Joker, that the rest of the ' "un Spanish and

I

originally Mercury was consulted In . Bam,! "f enclire originated" '"""Vlvanla he Joker had to beIlls own temples. Various llgures werethe inquirer cast bundles of rods, 1 Spanish card was added to

:.UAe. .,,ac.k lnstPa(1 of ,llc 1,lanl cardnalnted on walls, and before theseHy WniClltt'HV . . K"3 norma

they fell tho priests foretold the future, . " ' """ " V. V , CRanfour emblems wen, sacred to Mer- - lusingiyJZ lt,lyaco ?"h C.""cury, who was the cupbearer of the foo, , blls emergt- d-gods before ho got to., imsy and had to Mercury In one of his guises thoughgive up tho Job to Hebe. 'Jho otfcrlngs lh(1 sPn(pr wlnged' nn0of money meant that he was the Bod sandals Is more familiar

or'cadu: willed i enr Si'T Thad Klven h.m In exchaiiKO the lyre 'hav"he hail Invented. And he had htolen forte.1 thn nmn . "

".i.hi. lootmnn to et'lie Rous no presmcu at uirins nun lirarv tnbli

rods.

were

were

favor

flush.

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means

press.

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.... her cards from II- -deaths, conducting the across the calls so that she never leftStj. or wrltlm: tho rutiiro of tho carriage Mio said;boin tnblets fate.bo was tho Rod of who

his room.It Is still left us tho barber

tandaes.was busy; but he the

divinity tn

tho

was

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sunnie

four

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ballde

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was

not

sprang

be It

In

printing

skilful

V,

the tho nrrnni..m.iii

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for

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was

'Now, Wllklns, we havn onlv flvi.morn und then you may tell Martin tn

To

There are many other treasures InMrs. Van cabinet. An oldNuremberg pack shows tho dresses ofpeasants of 300 years ago. There areIons, slender Airds from Corea andChinese cards that look like nothingWestern except laundry list. Cardsused during the civil war show flng,shield, eagle and star Instead of thofnrnlilar pips. Grant Is the king, Colum-bia tho queen and Klsworth the knavo.

Another truly American pack, slncogave New York city one of Its wellknown families, came from Austriamany years ago. young noblemanwas expelled from Vienna for some cardcard scrape. Ho asked his betrothedfor her miniature and her garter nndlocked them up In Ilttlo hox with thepack which had been his undoing. Theywere all he brought to America, but hemudo fortune nnd vinrs lnlnr hn wrni.

dl'lve linilie." n ),S SWPPtllpart nvklm- - hor nnmnorry, ma'am," he renlled. "hot nnd mnrrv htm. Shi. rnlfn,l Ihnl fift.r

can t go to five places, for we'vo got years had passed without word fromonly the six of diamonds and Hie Jack him she had married another. So theof spades left:" lover married nn American irlrl nnd lh' I

a

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jSJO newspaper has ever published such an interesting, artistic andelaborate number as will be issued by THE SUN next Sunday.

This Special Easter Number will have supplements numbering forty pages,on fine paper, with beautiful halftone illustrations. This will be in additionto the regular news and semi-new- s sections.

An Intaglio PrintedArt Supplement

This will of 8 pages showing recentlytaken photographs of the Holy Land and theTrue Stations of the Cross as they look to-da- y.Also four pages of charming paintings by cele-brated artists. These latter will be reproducedby the famous Intaglio process used only byTHE SUN in America.

Among the well known artists whose work will em-bellish this Issue are

JEAN BERAUDEUGENE

J. WENCKERA. B. FROST

PENRHYNCHARLES DANA GIBSON

ANDJESSIE WILCOX SMITH

Attractive and ImportantPictorial Magazine

This section will consist of 16 pages. Whileprofusely illustrated it will contain many highlyimportant articles. Among them one by JosephH. Choate, who speaks for the framers of theHay-Pauncefo- te Treaty, whose lips are now

by J. I. C. Clarke, now at Panamafor THE SUN, explains the menace to thecanal of the Culebra cut These are onlysamples of many others, some, however, in" amuch lighter vein.

This issuemake

Rensselaer's

consist

BURNAND

sure a at

The

THE S

pack was given to Mrs. Vanby his youngest

It Is a strange pack, for beneath thepips and high Roman numerals It bearspictures of aiIco in animalssuch as never were on land or sea. Itsplace Is really In the Hocletyrooms with the two old packs there.

BIRD COMMUTEROTHERS.

STANLAWS

sealed death.

slides.

AND

Not all the come to townIn luxurious trnlns or nthours: some must rise early.

A town miles out, on n frostythe hour 6MB. nnd even the

sun but Just up nnd still red In thefoce-n- s it climbs nbovo tho horizon. Thovillage street still quiet nndexcept for n man or two hur-rying to catch this train; all tho llfo tobo seen Is around tho railroad stations.

It Isn't very lively even there. Youdo see n string of people waiting to takethis train, but they stand nlong pretty

Sixteen Page Fashionand Womans Magazine

This will contain an illustrated article bythe Queen of Spain's chamberlain, who provesby her dressmaking bills that she is the mostexpensively dressed sovereign in the world.

Also not photographs of the latestfashions seen at the spring openings in anddescribed by Rittenhouse but also seven fullpages of illustrations of the of the costumesin the following New and Brooklyn shops:

ARNOLD, CONSTABLE CO. OPPENHEIM CO.

BEST It CO.

BONWIT, TELLER & CO.

BLOOMINGDALE BROS.

GIMBEL BROS.

GREENHUT-SIEGE- L COOPER

J. U KESNER & CO.

LORD TAYLOR

R. H. MACT CO.

JAS. M'CREERY CO.

onin

and ofto

is of theof the inby for

be no be

quietly; It Isn't exactly Jolly to have toget up and get and catch the6M5 trnln. As they come nlong theybuy at the

Then If you look a mile up thostraight track you thesteam of a up In nwhite cloud In tho frosty nlr. Then youhear tho rails and hero the

comes looming bigger nndNow her bell Is and

now hero she Is, nt thoTwo or three men who hadshelter whllo. they waited open the sta-tion door and come out nnd stepaboard with those who had beenoutside, nnd now you henr the bell

again, nnd tho engine's slow ex-haust as the engineer gives her steam.

as tne trnin starts ono Delated comaboard without rltlior mil

done, but still nthing to do. As tho

ono man comes, tostund leslde tho train andgrasp hand rails

O'NEILL-ADAM- S CO.

FRANKLIN SIMON ft CO.

SAKS . CO.

JOHN WANAMAKER

J. M. GIDDINGS k CO.ABRAHAM STRAUS

FREDERICK LOESER CO.

A. D. MATTHEWS' SONS

Other pages French house furnishing,beautiful interior decorations New homes

all sorts things that particularly appealwomen.

Boys and GirlsOwn Magazine

This section 8 pages and containsfirst Dickens stories tabloid form

Hallie Erminie especially

of THE SUN Tvill sold early, and second edition will printed.of copy order of $our newsdealer once mnd avoid being disappointed.

Rensselaerdaughter.

Wonderland

Historical

EARLY

commutersluxurious

twentymorning;

deserted,scattering

onlyParis

Annepick

YorkCOLLINS

York

re-

told Rivesyoung folks.

Easter EditionUNDAY

NEXT SUNDAY

breakfast

newspapers station.

see exhaustlocomotive boiling

singinglocomotivebigger. ringing

hnlting station.preferred

calmlywnltlng

ring-ing

touchlnesmoothly dangerous

gathers head-way loping,

moving

STERN BROS.

out

of

comes along and swings himselfaboard more dangerous still. Now thetrain 1b under rapid headway and Isgone; to lenvo the town and the station,once more deserted.

But not for long. The streets leadingto the station begin to people nnd fromnow on the trnlns nt more nndrnpro frequent Intervnls, nnd they nrelonger. Tho main street Is doing busi-ness now and the people wnltlng fortrnlns stand along In throngs; the stationIs n plnco of nctlvlty. l'lenty of peoplodon't come till tho last minute, but ntthis hour more come leisurely, I'eoplosay good morning; and there Is a flutterof newspapers; and whllo for tho mostpart .they Just stand nround nntl waitfor the train, still some discuss the uf.tnirs or tno town or or the nation; at

muter comes across the tracks nnd steps this hour there seems to bo moro timehiind

trnlnmore

come

for tnlk. Kor that fi:45 trnln there weremaybe twenty commuters, Including onewoman; for this trnln nn hour or moreInter there nro waiting two or threehundred or more, Including twenty or

platform thirty or more women.

jlj

SUN

And now again thnt white cloud ofsteam shows up the road; the long trainrolls In and the watting people stepaboard to leave the station once moreempty as the train moves on; a newline then beginning to form to wait forthe next train. Thoso early birds whotook the 6MB are now In the city nnd al-ready at work.

SNOW KEEPS FIREMEN BUSY.

One body of men who do not relish s,snowstorm nro the firemen. A snowfallmenns that tho firemen must get busyand clear away all the snow In front ofthe engine houses.

The task Is arduous. The firemen havoto clear not only the sidewalk but alsothe street over to the curb on the other.V Yhfn a llr,,houBo Is In the mlddl..of the block It Is not unusual for thefiremen to clear away the snow to thecorner so thnt the apparatus shall potbo Impeded nnd shall have easy going tothe avenues, where ear tracks are alttasakept clear by electric sweepers.

. ...... .n.r'-.-- - nr.. '...... .w-- .- . - ' ' A - 1 ' V ,1 ...... m..,'ll

1 RE PI COPPE

I