Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1898 — THE FOUR SUITS. [ARTICLE]

THE FOUR SUITS.

Some Facts About Cards that Are Not According'to Hoyle. They were sitting around the table, waiting for the rest of the party to arrive, when a new man in the game picked up the cards and began to spread them before him on the cloth. “Of course,” he said, in a half soliloQuy, “you all know that cards were invented in 1390 to divert the mind of Charles IV. of France, who was dreadfully in the dumps with a torpid liver, or something of the kind, but possibly you don’t know about the figures of the four suits. Well, the Inventor proposed by them to represent the four states or classes of men in France. By the Caesars (hearts) -are meant the Gens de Choeur, choir men or ecclesiastics; the nobility or military piirt are represented by the points of liinces or pikes, which we, in our ignorance of the meaning or resemblance of the figure, call spades. The Spaniards have espadas (swords) instead of pikes, which means the same thing. The diamonds (earreaux, square stone tiles or the like) designate the order of citizens, merchants and tradesmen. The Spaniards have a coin, dlneros, which answers to it, and the Dutch call the French word carreaux, steineen, stones ami diamonds, from the form. Treste, the trefoil leaf or clover, corruptly called clubs, alludes to farmers and country folks generally. It is not known how this figure came to be called clubs, unless the name was borrowed from the Spanish game, which has staves or clubs instead of the trefoil. “The history of the four kings is that of David, Alexander, Caesar and Charles, names which were ami still are on French cards. These names are those of the great monarchies of the Jews, Greeks, Romans and Franks under Charlemagne. By the queens are intended Arglne, Esther. Judith and Pallas, typical of birth, piety, fortitude and wisdom, the qualifications residing in each, and. I may add, most of those necessary in a good poker player. I may also explain that Arglne is an anagram for regina, meaning queen by nature. By the knaves were meant the servants to knights, the old definition of knave being servant. There are some, however, who think that the knights themselves were intended by those cards, because Hogier and Lahire, two names on French cards, were famous knights at the time cards were invented. “Now,” continued the new player, warming to his subject, “If you will take the history of cards from the time of ” but ho was never allowed to finish, for the other members of the party came in then, and who ever heard of a lot of,poker players delaying the game for anything, historical or otherwise?