PECULIARITIES OF PLAYING CARDS

Evening Star, Issue 22194, 23 November 1935, Page 7

PECULIARITIES OF PLAYING CARDS

It has been left for a correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ to point out that the club suit of cards “ is the only one in which the royalties together possess six eves ” (the knave being counted, for this purpose, as a royalty). All the others have no more than five. It is perhaps a matter of gallantry that the queens are the only figures who always fet their full set of eyes; the kings ave only seven among them, and the knaves six. The knaves, on the other band, have a monopoly of symmetry, for two look to the right and two to the left, whereas both kings and queens are “ eyes left” in the proportion of three to one. Little matters like these (comments the ‘ Observer ’) emphasise the _ fact of the invisibility of the familiar. How many people play bridge regularly, and would yet be puzzled to answer this examination paper, “unseen”?: (1) Which king shows only half his face?.-(2) How many jewels are there in the Loyal crown? (3) What do the queens carry in their hands? (4) Which king has two hands? (5) Which king carries the orb? (6) Which knave is threatened with'an axe? (7) Which king has a moustache that does not curl? (8) Which king wears ermine? and (9) Which knave has a “W” on his shoulder? The style of, all the cards is emphatically Tudor. The king of hearts is said to show Henry Vlll. in his proper robes, and the queen is a picture' of Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII. But the ladies as a whole are an insipid'lot.