The cards so named are, by a mechanical process equally distinguishable
to the initiated by their backs as by their faces; but, from the expense
of manufacturing them, they are not often had recourse to. They nearly
resemble those ingenious landscapes which, at first sight, present to
our view some beautiful scene in nature, but, upon a more minute
inspection, give us portraits of human faces with great exactness and
fidelity. Some years back this trick was played off on the Continent, to
the enriching of a German Jew and two or three of his confederates. He
attended the fairs of Frankfort and Leipzic with a large quantity of
these cards, which he sold at a price which bade defiance to
competition. Visiting the country again, by the time he thought they
would be in circulation at the various spas and watering-places where
high play was going on, himself and his friends, by being alone able to
decipher the apparently invisible hieroglyphics, made a fortune out of
this scheme.