Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1918 — ODIUM ATTACHED TO CARD [ARTICLE]

ODIUM ATTACHED TO CARD

Numerous Explanations as to Why the - Nine of Diamonds Is Called the Curse of Scotland. While the nine spot of spades is looked upon as a fatal and vindictive card in the trying of fortunes, it is the nine of diamonds that bears the odium of being called the curse of Scotland. All writers agree on the card, but as to the cause of the stigma attached to it there is a diversity of opinion and it is difficult to decide which of the many theories is correct. One theory is that after the Culloden struggle the duke of Cumberland picked up a nine of diamonds from the floor and wrote on it an order for the death of the insurgents. To clinch this argument, it is declared that the identical card is preserved at Slalns castle, Aberdeenshire. Another explanation was that a Scotch member of parliament, a part of whose family arms was the nine of diamonds, once voted for a malt tax for his country. Still another view is that diamonds’represent royalty and every ninth king of Scotland having been a tyrant and a curse furnishes the key to the mystery; One writer explains it by stating that the last queen of Scotland taxed her subjects heavily to pay for nine jewels for her own adornment. The “last queen of Scotland” in her own right was poor, pretty Marie Stuart, against whose memory has been tossed the mud of countless accusations by her bitter critics, and she might as well bear the nine o’ diamonds slander along with the others.