Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards

by Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer

In the New English Dictionary, commonly called the Oxford Dictionary (1905), we find the following:

EUCHRE or UKER or YUKER.—Of uncertain origin, supposed to be German. As Bower, one of the terms used in this game, is of German origin, it has often been supposed that the word Euchre is also from the German, but no probable source has been found in that language. Can it be that it is the Spanish Yuca, in the sentence “Ser yuca,” given by Cabillero as an American expression for “cock of the walk,” meaning to “get the best of anything”? In 1847 Euchre was common in Mississippi, and is alluded to in various celebrated lawsuits growing out of disputes over the game.

It would seem that the compilers of the English dictionary had not given enough weight to the localisms of Pennsylvania when they could discover only a Spanish derivation for the terms used in Euchre, a game unknown in Spain. The game that apparently started in the western part of that State seems to have travelled down the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, for the earliest mention of it comes through the boatmen on those great streams.

Poker seems also to be a game evolved by gamesters of the United States from the old Primero, with its ancient derivations, for so many of the rules and expressions common in the modern game may be traced to the fourteenth century. It is played by four or more persons, who bet on the value of their hands, a pair being the lowest and a straight flush being the highest hand, the names of which were inherited and explain themselves. Jack Pot, Widow, and Kitty are some of the cant words used in the game, the derivations of which are evidently from Primero. The first signifies the Pool under certain circumstances. The Widow (or the forsaken, the discarded one) was originally called the Stock, or the cards unused after dealing. The Kitty is the name for the forfeit paid at the end of each game by its winner to the gambling house, that frequently amounted to a considerable sum of money.

In 1908, a variation of Poker was arranged in England, although one writer thinks that it originated in China, but without giving any authority for the statement. The game is called Poker Patience. It can be played by one or more persons, who are supplied with a board on which are twenty-five squares that, when covered with the cards, according to the rules, will count ten poker hands, five horizontally and the other five vertically.

The first card is placed on square No. 13, directly in the middle of the board, and the next card played must touch the first one on one of its eight adjoining squares. The third card should touch either the first one or the second, and so on until the twenty-five squares are covered. The hands are counted exactly as in Poker, a straight flush being the highest, and counting thirty points, while a pair is rewarded with only one point. The flushes are not of much scoring value, being only five points, but they are not difficult to make. This game is easy and interesting when used as a solitaire, but when two or more players are pitted against each other and bent on preventing the score of the opponent, it will be seen that there is a great deal of “play,” for there are so many cards left in the Widow that the game is uncertain until its finish, as a card that is most desirable may never turn up, and, therefore, there is much chance as well as skill in the baby prodigy.

“According to Hoyle” has become a proverb among card players, most of whom could give no more explanation for the term than they could for the origin of Playing Cards, although it trips so readily from the tips of their tongues. But whenever a play at cards is disputed, the justification is that it is “According to Hoyle,” which leads to the query of how and where the sentence originated that is freighted with so much weight and expression. With this cant phrase goes another, that was once frequently on the lips of card players, which condemned an unlucky player or a careless partner to “go to Halifax.”

These proverbs will be explained by a cursory glance backwards over the life story of Edward Hoyle, born in England, in 1672, near the little town of Halifax, in Yorkshire. He was of a good family and was educated for the law, for which his clear, analytical, and logical mind seemed to be particularly adapted. Living in London, he amused himself in the evenings by meeting some friends at what was the precursor of men’s clubs, the Crown Coffee House, in Bedford Row, to play Whist or Triumph, a title that was about that time shortened to Trump, a name that is retained to designate the highest suit elected by the players at the beginning of each hand, either by turning up the last card of the deal or by electing a suit according to the preference of the players. The French retain the old name of Atout for that purpose, although those picture cards have not been used in that country for centuries.

The first mention of Whist under the revised name is in “The Compleate Gamester,” which was published in 1674, and was intended to supply standard rules for the fashionable games of the time. But Cotton’s laws were confusing, and the game was played in various ways in different parts of England, since this standard was not universally accepted, and it is said that Whist was a favourite only in the servants’ hall, so that these unarbitrary rules led to quarrels and sometimes even to bloodshed.

But when Edward Hoyle became interested in the game of Whist, he had for partners or opponents some of the deepest players and most distinguished men about town, and the gamesters gradually adopted regular rules for their own guidance, which usually originated with Hoyle, so the fame of his decisions about disputed points was noised abroad throughout London. This led to his taking pupils at a guinea a lesson, and finally Hoyle wrote out his rules for their benefit, distributing them first in manuscript, but finally publishing them in “A Short Treatise on Whist,” for which he received one thousand guineas. Hoyle’s rules were adopted by the clubs and players throughout England, so, when any dispute arose, his book was consulted, and, instead of the players saying, “It is the wish (or the voice) of the gods,” as had been the original custom when consulting the oracles of Mercury, and continued by card votaries, it became customary to say, “It is according to Hoyle.”