Playing cards

“ But to how many of those to whom playing cards as a means of recreation are familiar is it known what may be found on the cards? Yet upon these "bits of painted cardboard" there has been expended a greater amount of ingenuity and of artistic effort than is to be found in any other form of popular amusement. ”

“ The "playing cards" are the production of an ingenious human device, derived from the divine origin of time; the history of which but little has heretofore been known and understood by the world of card players and the public in general. So far as the author is informed, no like historic record has ever been published, and card players have, seemingly, taken little or no interest to learn and know the historic origin of the greatest enterprise known to the sixteenth century, the period of their advent, so valuable and important to the present generation. ”

“ TO SMART POKER PLAYERS
I have invented a process by which a man is sure of winning if he can introduce his own cards. The cards are not trimmed or marked in any way, shape, or manner. They can be handled and shuffled by all at the board, and, without looking at a card, you can, by making two or three shuffles or ripping them in, oblige the dealer to give three of a kind to any one playing, or the same advantage can be taken on your own deal. This is a big thing for any game. In euchre you can hold the joker every time, or the cards most wanted in any game. ”

“ In Germany, hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns were generally adopted; in Spain, swords, cups, batons, and coins prevailed as devices for cards.
Various materials have been adopted in the production of playing cards. At South Kensington Museum, besides cards printed from etched steel and copper-plates, wood blocks, and by lithography, we find a pack of silk embroidered cards. A pack of white metal engraved cards were shown at this institution, if we remember rightly, some year or so ago. ”

“ All the above sent prepaid on receipt of price, 25 cents.
Fortune-Telling by Cards. Here, indeed, is a book every young man or woman should have. To-day “playing cards” for an evening’s enjoyment is a most popular pastime. No matter where you are, no matter where you go, nowadays “playing cards” is the thing. When played solely for amusement it is a most innocent entertainment, and at the same time a great memory-trainer. ”

“ Divide the players equally and seat them in two rows facing each other. The leader of each row is provided with a pack of playing cards. At a given signal, each leader passes one card to the next person, who in his turn gives it to the next person, and so on down the line until the last one drops it on the floor beside him. ”

“ Most of the playing cards of Persia are also round, and are similarly decorated by the same means. About a dozen years ago round playing cards were patented in America as a novelty, in ignorance of the fact that cards of that shape had probably been in common use in the East, centuries before the discovery of that great and inventive country! ”

“ The dealer's left-hand player begins by playing any card he likes, choosing one, if possible, that is one of a sequence, so that he may have the opportunity of ridding himself of, perhaps, several cards at once. Any other player having the next higher card in sequence plays it, then another, until either a king, a seven of diamonds, or some other stop card is played. ”

“ When there are no more available cards to play, proceed to deal out the remainder of the pack, turning the cards one by one, playing all suitable ones on the foundations, or placing them on the sequences of the tableau. The cards that cannot be so employed are laid aside in one packet, forming the talon. ”

“ One card is enough, as you are really playing six cards to everyone else's five. This card will make a 'straight' of a 'flush' sometimes; or, very often, will give you 'two pair' or 'three' of a kind. If you are very expert, you can play the machine on your own deal ”

“ When you are playing with the pack, drop out the diamonds, from the ace to the ten, and contrive without being perceived, to get all the other cards with their heads in the same direction; then request a person to choose a card; do not force one, but let him choose whichever he pleases: while he has it in his hand and is looking at it, carelessly turn the pack in your hand, so that the position of the cards may be reversed; then bid him put the card he has chosen into the centre of the pack ”

“ Skill in the game consists in remembering the line following the one read and rapidly finding the card on which it is written. Especially must each one watch his own and pick it up before it is seized by another. If an opponent is nimble he snatches the card from the careless player, giving several from his own hand, and the one who is first able to match and discard all of his cards wins the game. The players usually range themselves on opposite lines and play against each other. ”

“ In dealing, you may not play a card from any row until that row is complete. After dealing each row, pause and examine the tableau, playing and marrying all suitable cards, and refilling vacancies, both in the rivers and helps, with cards from the pack. In filling up vacancies in the rivers, those in the uppermost rows must first be refilled.
After the entire pack is exhausted, the skill of the player will be required. The four packets of help cards may now be increased to eight. ”

“ When the talon is exhausted, the combinations that have been made are taken into the owner's hand, and the last eight cards belonging to both players are disposed of the same way as in Whist, the second player following suit, and heading the trick, if he can possibly do so, either by trumping or playing a higher card. ”

“ It is not our purpose to historically trace the evolution of cards—this is a subject beyond the reach of the present article—but a look farther afield will give us evidence that during the last three centuries there has been a constant adaptation of cards to purposes which take them beyond their intention as the instruments for card playing only. ”

“ He wasn’t playing with a full deck of cards. ”

“ Despite what many wise card players maintain, a deck can be stacked in the shuffle—if there are not more than three, or at the most four, players; but in a half-dozen riffles of the cards I can put a good hand at the bottom and deal it at will though the eyes of twenty men are on me. ”

“ There are card players, or ‘card sharps,’ as they are called, who can shuffle cards so adroitly as to ‘put up a hand’ right before your eyes, and you not know it. Even a ‘bungler’ can shuffle so as to give himself a ‘pair,’ or at least to have knowledge of what cards are left on the top or bottom of the pack, which knowledge he can make useful in many ways. For instance, after the deal, he finds in looking at his hand that he has a pair that match the card he knows is on the bottom of the pack. ”

“ The card chosen having been next below the long card, is now at the top of the last heap. You ask the person who drew to name his card, and, touching the back of the top card with your wand, turn it over to show that it is the right one.
If you are tolerably expert in sleight-of-hand you may repeat the trick in a yet more striking manner. Proceed as before up to the moment when the word “stop” is pronounced. Having let fall as before all the cards below the long card, lay down the remainder of the pack, and take in the left hand the heap which you last dealt. ”

“ You must be careful to invite the different persons to call for their cards in the reverse order to that in which they are replaced in the pack. Thus, you first address the person who last returned his card, and then the last but one, and so on. You must tax your ingenuity for devices to take off the attention of the spectators from the pack at the moment when it is necessary to turn it over; and as each repetition of the process increases the chance of detection, it is well not to allow more than three or four cards to be drawn. ”

“ Second Method.—Proceed as above, but instead of opening the pack to get sight of the card, bring it secretly to the bottom by the pass, and offer the cards to be shuffled, holding them at the upper end between the thumb and first and second finger of the right hand, and slanting from you at an angle of 45°, as in Fig. 15. As the faces are towards you, you have a full view of the card. Even if it should suggest itself to the audience that you are able to see the bottom card, as they are not aware that the chosen card is now in that position, there is nothing to excite their suspicion. ”

“ The above delusive offer to show “how it’s done” can be equally well adapted to many other tricks, and never fails to create amusement.
A Card having been thought of, to make such Card Vanish from the Pack, and be Discovered wherever the Performer pleases.—This trick should be performed with twenty-seven cards only. You deal the cards, face upwards, in three packs, requesting one of the company to note a card, and to remember in which heap it is. ”

“ The more impossible a thing is, the more I want to do it. I will find out these cards or die! Don’t be alarmed, I don’t mean to die just yet; so I must do the other thing. It’s easy enough, if you know how to do it.
“In the first place I cut the pack into three portions.” (You cut three times, nipping the “long” corners between second finger and thumb, at each [80] of the drawn cards in succession, and placing the cards left at bottom on one or other of the three heaps; then solemnly rub your wand, without remark, with a silk handkerchief, and lay it across the tops of the three packets.) ”

“ The performer takes an ordinary pack of cards in his hands and shuffles them, then commences by making the cards run from one hand to the other several inches at a time, till he elongates them two or three feet. The performer can repeat this wonderful trick as many times as he likes. He then takes the cards in the palm of his left hand, and with his right hand runs the cards from the palm of the left hand right up to the shoulders, the cards lying on the arm one by one in the most beautiful order, and then, in an instant, the cards run down the arm and are caught in the palm of the hand. ”

“ When the second card is laid down, the player calls out the sum of the pips on the two cards played, and so on until all the cards are played, or until neither player can play without passing the number thirty-one. If one player has a card or cards that will come in and the other has not, he is at liberty to play them; at the six-card game he must play as long as they can come in, and he can score runs or make pairs, &c., with them. If one player’s cards are exhausted, the adversary plays out his own, and can score with them. ”

“ Each player, after discarding, shall ask for the same number of cards he has discarded, and the dealer shall place on the table, in front of such player, such number of cards, face downwards, from the top of the pack. ”

“ The object is to make certain cards, not prepared, slip off easier than others in shuffling. You can part or break the deck to an ace or king, and easily 'put up threes,' no matter where they lay in the deck. This fine advantage works fine single handed, or when the left-hand man shuffles and offers the cards to be cut. These cards are ten times better than readers or strippers, and they get the money faster. Price $2 per pack by mail, $20 per dozen packs. ”

“ Spread the cards a little, and fling them into the air, clutching at them with the right hand as they descend, and at the same moment bring the chosen card to the tips of the fingers. The effect to the spectators will be as if you actually caught it among the falling cards.
This feat also may be performed without the aid of a long card, and without the necessity of forcing a card. In this case, as in the pocket-picking trick, you make the pass as soon as the card is returned to the pack, in order to bring it to the top, and palm it; then offer the pack to be shuffled. ”

“ It is usual to deal these latter one at a time when going round with the regular hands, but they may be taken all at one time from the top of the pack, after the players have received their cards. The player on the left-hand side of the dealer then plays a card from his own hand, and takes with it every card of the same denomination among those exposed on the table, as well as all that will combine and make the same number. ”

“ CARD TRICKS AND COMBINATIONS. For Parlour Magic a pack of cards will be found the source of endless amusement and variety. For the sleight-of-hand card tricks considerable practice is needed before they can be performed neatly and cleverly, so as to prevent the detection of the trick. To palm a card, to make the pass, to force a card, to make a false shuffle, to sight a card, are necessary accomplishments for the conjurer to learn and practise. ”

“ Each plays, and, after one card all round is played, its place is supplied by a new deal of one card to each. Every card of the trump-suit takes any card of the other suits. Each player takes as many counting-cards as he can, and, at the end of the game, he who counts the most wins,—the account being made according to the value of the cards, as stated above. ”

“ FIRST CARD GAME—AWAITING THE CARD
Five players take their places at the table; the cards are shuffled, and are cut into eight packs of fifteen each. Three dice are cast, and three of the packs are removed in the order designated by the numbers on the dice. A third cast of the dice determines who is to take the first of the five remaining packs. The player on the right takes the second, and so on. The three packs that were removed are placed in a box, and the bottom card of all is turned round and given to the happy possessor of the first pack. ”