One of the few of my father's possessions that has been passed down to me is a
rather tattered ('dog-eared' would generate an emergency call to the ASPCA!)
copy of The Official Rules of Card Games (aka "Hoyle up-to-date" - the year of
the 'up-to-datedness' of this particular edition being 1932).
The last three card games included in this edition are unknown to me; and bear
the not-uninteresting names 'Streets and Alleys', 'The Idiot's Delight'
(purported to be 'the most interesting and difficult of all solitaires') and
'The Gathering of the Clans'.
The book closes not with the rules of a card game, but the anecdotal 'Mysteries
of a Pack of Cards' - perhaps familiar to list members through the (country and
western?) hit song of several years (decades?) ago which relates the tale of a
soldier being admonished for playing cards in church. The protagonist defends
himself by drawing the parallels between various characteristics of a deck of
cards and miscellaneous doctrinal and biblical elements of Christian devotion
and worship.
Unlike the song, the protagonist in the story in this edition of
'Hoyle-up-to-date' concludes, after counting off those devotional parallels,
with a secular coda:
"Besides serving as a bible and a prayer book, a pack of cards can also be used
for an almanac.
"There are 365 spots in a pack of cards, as many as there are days in the year.
The four suits indicate the four seasons of the year. The twelve court cards
indicate the twelve months in a year. A pack consists of fifty-two cards, the
same as the number of weeks in a year."
The part that I can't figure out is a counting that gives '365 spots in a pack
of cards.' Can anyone point out to mean just what is meant by 'spots' (I took
it to mean occurrences of the emblems for the suits) - and just how they add up
to 365?
Chris Bruce,
working out the 'classical'
parallels in a deck of cards:
Ace - Zeus, who rules in Olympus;
Deuce - the twins, Castor and Pollux;
Trey - the three graces: Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia;
and so on - continuing up to (but not content to conclude with)
The twelve 'court' cards - the twelve labours of Hercules;
etc., in Kiel, Germany
P.S. What is the name of the song mentioned above, and who first - or most
popularly - recorded it?
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