SYMBOLISM OF PLAYING-CARDS.
Soldier Arrested for Shuffling the Pasteboards in Church During Divine Service Won His
Liberty by Convincing Magistrate That They May Be Utilized
as Pages of a Prayer-Book.
If the devil invented playing-cards, as more than once has been asserted, he was a very cosmopolitan devil; for cards have been used in every country whose people were intelligent enough to play with them. There is evidence that the Egyptians played cards in the days of Joseph. Later, the Hebrews brought cards into Palestine when they returned from the Babylonian exile. The Chinese played cards at a period when western Europe was a wilderness inhabited by wild beasts and prowling barbarians. In India the pack contained ten suits, each being symbolic of an incarnation of Vishnu.
Europe got its cards, apparently, from the Orient, in the days of the Crusades—for your Crusader was a great gambler. In the European history of the pack we find that the cards have frequently been used as symbols, political or social. But no more remarkable card symbolism has ever been evolved than that which is described in the following brief narrative:
A private soldier by the name of Richard Doe was taken before a magistrate charged with playing cards during divine service.
It appears that a sergeant commanded the soldiers at the church, and when the parson had read the prayers, he took the text.
Those who had Bibles took them out, but this soldier had neither Bible nor Book of Common Prayer. Pulling out a pack of cards, he spread them before him.
The sergeant of the company saw him, and said:
"Richard, put up the cards; this is no place for them."
"Never mind that," said Richard.