There are several variations of this story, one being written in the French language and in rhyme; but as their theme is nearly identical with the one quoted, it is unnecessary to repeat them.
It is supposed that the visiting-card now in common use derived its origin from a custom, quoted by Mr. Taylor, of writing messages on the backs of playing-cards,—a practice which is mentioned in the “Spiritual Quixote,” a novel of George the Third’s time. This practice is also mentioned in “Henry Esmond,” where an invitation is sent on a ten of Diamonds; and it was not confined to the novelist’s world, as it was evidently the custom in America before the Revolution, for some of these invitations still exist and are treasured among family relics. There is one belonging to an American family which bears an invitation from Sir Jeffrey Amherst, printed on the back of the King of Clubs, to one of the fair damsels of his day; and this was dated 1769. Another card which apparently belonged to the same pack bore on its back an invitation to dinner from the same General to Mr. Ten Eyck for this same anniversary of Saint George’s Day. It seems a strange coincidence that both these cards should have been sent to the author,—one of them coming from Boston; the other from Cazenovia, New York, where it was found in an old iron chest belonging to the Ten Eyck family. Another invitation card which is treasured in New York, carried an invitation from Miss Kitty and Miss Anna Livingston to Miss Laurence. These ladies are the ancestors of many well known townspeople, and the date of the invitation must have been about the same as that one issued by Sir Jeffrey Amherst, showing that it was a common practice during the middle of the last century to use playing-cards on which to write invitations.
Playing-cards have also been used to carry on their surface important messages; as before mentioned, the message written by the Duke of Cumberland was on a playing-card (the nine of Diamonds).
The fascination that games have for some people led to their being carried into queer places and strange company. The preacher’s catastrophe and the soldier’s apology have already been related; but cards have been played on the battle-field as well as by the home fireside, they have been used when travelling and even at the play, as one writer mentions that during a visit in Florence he was invited to join a game in an opera-box, where he was told that “good music added greatly to the pleasure of a whist-party, that it increased the joy of good fortune and soothed the affliction of the bad.”
One writer has described a visit to a temple in Thibet, in which he found among other decorations “a couple of old playing-cards,”—the Knave of Hearts and the Ace of Acorns. Whether these were worshipped by the natives or considered as decorations, he could not discover.
The descendants of Lady Katherine Alexander, daughter of Major-Gen. Lord Sterling and wife of Col. William Duer, relate the following anecdote of her. The dame was fond of the rubber at Whist; and it is probable that in the beginning of the century cards were not as common nor as cheap as they are now, and that ladies carried their own packs with them to card-parties. At any rate, one morning while attending services at St. Paul’s Church, New York, her Ladyship pulled her handkerchief out of her capacious pocket, and with it drew out a pack of cards, which, to the amusement of her neighbours and her own consternation, flew about the pew. Her mischievous sons never lost an opportunity of reminding her of the circumstance and teasing her about it.
PIPS, SUITS, AND COLOURS.
THE emblems on the cards have been, since 1656, called pips, or peeps, and sometimes points; the former is the term generally used by card-makers and players, by which they designate the symbols at the present day.
The manufacturers call the court cards têtes; but this name has not been adopted among players. They are also frequently named coat cards,—a term which is supposed to be derived from the coats worn by the figures, in contradistinction to the other designs, which were sometimes flowers and animals as well as the symbols familiar to our eyes.
Many old and curious packs have survived the hard usage they were called upon to endure not only in the course of play, but also by their having been impressed into the book-binders’ service, which has in many cases been the fortunate means of their being preserved to be prized and studied at the present day; and there are valuable collections in European museums which contain rare specimens of cards, not only delicately painted like the most beautiful miniatures on parchment and other materials, but also exquisitely engraved; and among them are some of the first specimens of that art.