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.
When the service was over, a constable took Richard before a
magistrate.
"Well," asked the magistrate, "what have you brought the
soldier here for?"
"For playing cards in church."
"Prisoner, what have you to say?"
"I have been," said the soldier, "about six weeks on the
march. I have neither Bible nor Book of Common Prayer. I
have nothing but a pack of cards, and I'll satisfy your
worship of the purity of my intentions."
And, spreading the cards before the magistrate, he began
with the ace:
"When I see the ace, it reminds me there is but one God.
When I see the deuce, it reminds me of Father and Son. When
I see the tray, it reminds me of the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. When I see the four-spot, it reminds me of the four
evangelists--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
"When I meet the five, it reminds me of the five wise
virgins that trimmed their lamps--there were ten, but only
five were wise, while five were foolish and were shut out.
"When I see the six, it reminds me that in six days the Lord
made heaven and earth. When I see the seven, it reminds me
that on the seventh day He rested from the great work He had
created, and hallowed it.
"When I see the eight, it reminds me of the eight righteous
persons that were saved when God destroyed the
world--namely, Noah and his wife, with his three sons and
their wives. When I see the nine, it reminds me of the nine
lepers that were cleansed by our Saviour; there were nine
out of ten who never returned thanks.
"When I see the ten, it reminds me of the Ten Commandments
which God handed down to Moses on tables of stone. When I
see the king, it reminds me of the King of Heaven, which is
God Almighty.
"When I see the queen, it reminds me of the Queen of Sheba,
who visited Solomon, for she was as wise a woman as he was a
man. She brought with her fifty boys and fifty girls, all
dressed in boys' apparel, for King Solomon to tell which
were boys and which were girls. King Solomon sent for water
for them to wash; the girls washed to the elbows and the
boys to the wrists, so King Solomon told by that."
"Well," said the magistrate, "you have given a good
description of all the cards but one."
"What is that?"
"The knave," said the magistrate.
"I will give your honor a description of that, too, if you
will not be angry."
"I will not," said the magistrate, "if you do not term me to
be the knave."
"Well," said the soldier, "the greatest knave that I know of
is the constable that brought me here."
"I do not know," said the magistrate, "if he is the greatest
knave, but I begin to think that he must have been a fool to
arrest so devout a man."
"When I count the number of cards in a pack," continued the
soldier, "I find there are fifty-two, the number of weeks in
a year; and I find four suits, the number of weeks in a
month. I find there are twelve picture cards in a pack,
representing the number of months in a year; and on counting
the tricks, I find thirteen, the number of weeks in a
quarter. So, you see, a pack of cards serves for a Bible,
almanac, and prayer-book."