Show IBE fayr w s by ELMO SCOTT WATSON WAY back in the seven century to the cardinal mazarin was en trusted the task of preparing a young prince for bis future career as king of I 1 ranee that career which wis to make louis quatorze louis XIV forever famous as the sun king and le grand mazarin found that his royal pupil was not nearly BO much interested in the studies which should fit him for his high position as he was in other activities which later were to make the french court notorious and which were to lead eventually to the downfall of the house of bourbon one of the young princes favorite diversions was to playe at cardes and the cardinal decided that he might as well take advantage of that interest by introducing an educational ele ment into the pastime so he ordered a maker of playing cards to devise bome cards from which the prince could learn such things as geography and history while he was playing the game soon there was delivered to the cardinal two sets of cards one was a historical set and bore the pic anres of famous queens and the stories of their careers the other was a geo graphical game each card representing bome country with a short description of that land and illustrated with a symbolic figure dressed in the native costume among the countries depicted thus were certain parts of america two of which virginia and florida are shown in the illustrations no 7 and 8 accompanying this article nat aurally the symbolic figures of these two are indian maidens Is in to note that the native cos tume as shown on these cords print finback in 1604 Is not so different per haps at denst in one case from those of today take a look at morida above and except for the bow and arr row you might almost think that you were looking at the picture of a hath ing beauty at palm beach miami or come other seaside resort I 1 it Is perhaps futile to speculate upon how much the young prince learned from these educational cards and it might be jumping at conclusions too hastily to ascribe to them the awakening of his interest in foreign coun tries which made him an imperialist and led to frances colonizing experiments in the new world but the fact remains that of all the french mon aichs archs of the seventeenth century louis XIV was the first and only one to dalre an active and enduring interest in the great crusade to the north ern wilderness lie began his person al relga about acco with a genuine display of zeal for the establishment ct a colony which would by its rapid growth and prosperity soon crowd the english off the new continent 9 aram lotts diw aw biow i stet a la i ct koft and this zeal kept on to the end of his reign although these cards of the french king which are preserved in the mu seam of the united states card company in cincinnati ohio were perhaps the first thus used to in form europeans about the bew world they were not the only ones in the same museum Is another set which deals out some american history to the visitor it Is a geographical card game made in england in no 1 and no 3 in the illustrations above on one of them no 1 Is given the following quaint description of new england new england by borne la counted a part ot the great region canada it is bounded with virginia on the south where la the late conquests of the new netherlands at present called new tork with a good city of that name here Is maryland where Is the town of balkemore Bal temore and carolina where Is charles town vc but the capital 0 this government la boston and bother considerable towns are new plymouth barnstable vc the church government Is presbytery vc this country abounds with all sort of fana where they may find room to plant in especially towards the west it being a country not well discovered full of woods V savage inhabitants therefore not bounded when their forces have strength to advance oth er plantations belonging to the eng elsh toward the north are land whose cheif town Is corbay torbay most considerable for the fishing trade north walles south walles the isle of cumberland vo are great regions in titled to the but are little inhabited as yet in a country abounding with nil sorts of one would ally expect to find the blue cosea frowning upon such frivolous things as playing cards but the fact Is that they were manufactured in this country even in puritanical new england isaiah thomas in his Ul story of printing in america mentions james franklin as a boston printer and tells how he printed upon cards verses that the youthful benjamin hid writ ten about black beard the pante ben himself afterward refers to them as miserable ditties but at that time they had a large sale iso less interesting than the alstor leal material to be found on the faces of the placing cards Is that found up on the baals of the cards in alie colonial days it was the custom to use the plain baals of the cards tor varl ous things in the cincinnati museum are cards with the backs printed and used as cards of admission to enter lectures and classes at the university of pennsylvania from to 1771 and as invitations to teas and assemblies and balls some also bear directions for figures of square dances and others various patriotic games one of the most interesting Is that shown in no 2 it Is a silhouette por trait of joseph by alie famous artist charles allson peale in 1824 when lafayette came back to visit the country whose dence he had helped to gain a isea england card maker baz U ford Is sued a set of playing cards in honor of the distinguished frenchman whose portrait surrounded by symbolic de signs was printed as the ace of spades as shown in 0 o 4 among the interesting exhibits in the museum are the playing cards of the civil war period in which the pa motif Is strong instead of hav ing the usual suit signs of spades clubs diamonds and hearts flags shields and other patriotic emblems were used an example of this Is no C of the illustration above in which the bewhiskered general Is the king of whatever suit Is designated by the flag up in the corner the queen of the flag suit was the symbolic figure of columbia another card of this same era Is shown in to 5 in which the figlie of the monitor famous for its victory over the was substituted for one of the conventional suit symbols |