The standard Hoyle; a complete guide and reliable authority upon all games of chance or skill now played in the United States, whether of native or foreign introduction

Front matter

ME

HOYLE

Class _ikVLLLA2>

Preface

A FAITHFUL endeavor has been made in this volume to present all the best known games of cards. It is believed, then, that The Standard Hoyle is complete, containing a greater number of games in actual usage, with the explanations in regard to the playing of them, than any work yet published. Little that is original can be claimed for a volume of this character, as the rules governing many of the games are fixed ; but what may be asserted is this, that when changes have been made, due to the modernizing of certain games, such alterations have been diligently sought for, and are to be found incorporated in the work. Many of these leading games have been entirely rewritten by various experts, and present, therefore, novel features. Prints of the cards themselves, in particular combinations, will be found useful, as they give a clearer insight into the peculiarities of games.

It would be impossible to print into one volume the thousand and one games which are only occasionally played. The larger proportion of such games have but a temporary existence, and played to-day are forgotten to-morrow. The ingenuity of the maker of new games is endless, but his apparent genius generally amounts to nothing more than the changing or blending of one or two well-known games and the production of a worthless hybrid.

The Standard Hoyle has been supplemented with the leading in and out of door games due to physical skill, and the description of such games, with their rules, adds in no small degree to the general usefulness of the volume.

The endeavor has been made not so much to condense as to get rid of that unnecessary verbiage which so often overloads the text in books on games. This book is compiled, then, not alone for those who wish to acquire a new game, but is to be consulted by the expert who desires information in regard to the rules governing games.

PREFACE.

CARDS AND THE ORIGIN OF CERTAIN GAMES OF CARDS.

Archaeological discussions in regard to the origin of cards are always interesting. As ethnologists trace the migrations of races, their studies are not directed alone to the resemblances of animal types, but the ways, manners, and customs of the various races of men are examined and compared. Looking at the subject in its broadest and most philosophical light, it must be apparent that as soon as primitive man became freed, in a certain measure, from the necessity of appeasing his hunger, or protecting himself from his enemies, there arose a desire for amusement. A stone, the first natural object found, if thrown into the air, will fall on one or the other side, and these sides differing in some simple way must have originated the game of Pitch and Toss. The antiquity of dice cannot be fathomed, for knuckle bones were played with in the most remote times. Some one has written a series of interesting chapters, not on the origin of games, but descriptive of their adoption by various peoples. In most of the cases the beginning was in the far East. In that long-lost civilization where art and luxury existed, the idea must be entertained that there was leisure. Men did not work all the time. There was need for recreation.

As to the origin of cards — that is, pictures printed on some kind of lasting substance, not necessarily paper — an advanced condition of civilization is to be presumed. Long and learned efforts have been made to show that playing-cards were first known in India and China and carried from these countries to Europe. The question, we think, is not one as to invention of cards, but simply as to the time when cards were brought, if they were brought at all, from the East to the West. It is useless, then, to speculate as to when or where cards were first used. We do not see anywhere the possibility mentioned that the Crusaders might have acquired some inkling of cards from the Saracens. Might not the Moors, some centuries before the crusades, have introduced their games of chance through Africa to Granada ? We do not dismiss, then, in a few words, speculations advanced by those who favor the idea of the Oriental derivation and transmission of playing-cards. A newer element, however, is one which is gradually being advanced by archaeologists in regard to many "inventions." It is this: that in accordance with the wants of mankind, human brains have striven toward the accomplishment of the same things in various parts of the world ; or, in other words, similar objects have been fashioned without one race of men having any possible connection with another.

The earliest date, which has never been disputed and from which the positive history of paying -card* in Europe begins, is the one discovered by Pere Menestrier m the registers of the Chambres des Comptes of Charles VI. of France, the account being that of Charles Poupart, the royal Treasurer. In the account commencing ist of February, 1392, is the following entry : "DonnSa yacquemin Gringonneur, peintre, pour trots jeux de cartes a or, et a diver ses couleurs, ornis de plusieurs devises, pour porter devers le Seigneur fioi\ pour son Abatement L VI sols Parisis." That is, " Given to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards in gold and various colors, and ornamented with several devices, to carry before the Lord our King, for his amusement, fifty-six sols of Paris."

The conclusion drawn from this passage, that cards were invented for the use of Charles VI., is unwarrantable. A aareful examination of the wording shows that the payment was for paintings not for inventing cards. The general tenor of the entry, the simplicity with which it is made, the absence of any allusion to novelty in the conception, all point to the conclusion that playing-cards were already known ; and that these cards were executed to special order, with more elaborate gilding and coloring than usual, as would probably be the case with cards intended for the personal use of royalty.

There are seventeen pieces in the National Library, Paris, which are erroneously called the Gringonneur or Charles VI. cards of 1392. They are in reality fine Venetian tarots of the fifteenth century, in the opinion of some judges not earlier than 1425. . s

In conclusion, it may be stated that the xylographic art, or printing from a surface which receives the ink and makes an impression, in fact printing, is derivable from the cardmakers of yore. Cards first were stenciled ; then later the design was cut roughly on wood and put through the press If the earliest known print taken from a wood block is the St. Christopher or the St. Sebastian of the first or second quarter of the fifteenth century, there is the certainty that there were playing-cards, with

ou S engravings on them, of a much earlier date. It need not shock then human susceptibilities to learn that the precursors of the pictures of saints were first the stencils, then the rough blocks made for the decoration of playing-cards. ^

A In 1328 there is a French romance which inveighs against the folly of g-umes such as " Dice, Checkers, and Cards." Cards must have been in use then for many years prior to this date. The account given by Charles Poupart in 1392 of the cards made for Charles VI. has already been presented. The price paid the artist, Gringonneur, " 56 sols of Paris, 1 would be equivalent to $40 to-day. We have the cost of a pack of cards, *

4 PREFACE.

not made for kings, in 1454, which was 5 sous Tournois. In 1397 there is aci edict promulgated by the Provost of Paris, forbidding people from playing " tennis, bowls, dice, cards on working days." The oldest printed cards in any private collection are of 1442. Cards were well known in Italy in 1379. There is a manuscript of that year which intimates that cards came from the land of the Saracen and were called Naib. The Duke of Milan in 1415 had cards painted on pieces of ivory. About this same time the Flemish nobles played with cards made of thin sheets of silver. In 1404 the Synod of Langres forbade the clergy playing cards. In 1423 St. Bernard of Sienna preached against playing cards, and with such effect that the people brought their " cards, dice, and games of hazard " and burnt them. Card-making must have been one of the important manufactures of Venice, because, in 1441, the Senate issued a decree ordering the Venetians to encourage cards made in Venice, and putting an embargo on the importation of foreign cards. In this decree prints of a sacred character for altar-pieces and playing-cards are classed in the same category.

The oldest pack of 52 cards known in the United States is one in perfect preservation, of the year 1642. It was found at an old house in New Jersey in 1870. The cards had never been U6ed. The cards are English ones.