THE STORY OF
"The embroidered King who shows but half his face" — Pope.
CEO. M. MACKENZIE
CARD TRICKS A Card Trick is welcomed at any time. It can be carried in the vest pocket. It is enteraining, and best, of all, the selection given here are easy to do. There is no skill required; the cards themselves are faked so that you can emulate the feat of the professional with little or no practice. THE EVER-CHANCINC CARD This is a single card, the Nine of Clubs. In front of your eyes it changes to a Five, then to a Three, and lastly an Ace. Price 6d. PASSE-PASSE
CARDS
Two cards are placed under two hats. Without a move on the part of the performer, the cards change places. The Three appears where the Ace rested and the Ace where the Three was first placed. No skill required. Price 8d. PICKITOUT The modern version of Find the Lady, only the Lady in this case happens to be an Ace. Three cards shown fairly, laid down slowly, back up, yet, they can never find the Ace. Again simple to do and an astounding effect. Price only 1/-. THE PROTEAN CARDS One of the cleverest card tricks and yet so simple. Four blank cards shown and four only remember, yet these change to Aces and then to Three's and finally back again to blank cards. Simply amazing and amazingly simple. Price 1/3i TWO CARD MONTE Two cards are shown, one thrown down on the table, and the spectator asked to name this card. What a surprise he gets when the card is turned up. The catch of the season, and only 8d. complete. All prices above include postage.
MAC'S MYSTERIES 132, WEST NILE STREET, GLASGOW, C.2.
I
THE STORY OF EACH PLAYING CARD by
CEO. M. MACKENZIE
Published by MAC'S MYSTERIES, 132, West Nile Street, Glasgow, C.2.
DEDICATED TO H. BRUCE SPENCER Hon. Secretary Playing Card Collectors Association
PREFACE For years I have been collecting1 old, curious and unusual Playing Cards. It was only about ten years ag-o I noticed that quite a few of the cards had nicknames. This so intrigued me that I began to collate these names. Never did I realise that the whole of the 52 cards had a name or incident connected with them until I started my research. Up till now I have managed to locate 51 stories of 51 cards of the pack. For several years I have had this material locked away. Time and time again I have been asked to publish this, but have always hung back as I was afraid this material would be of no interest to anyone but a card collector. In lecturing on this subject in recent years, I was astonished at the interest displayed by my hearers on the History of the Playing Card. That a wider audience may enjoy this subject, here then, is the story of Each Playing Card. GEORGE M. MACKENZIE. Glasgow, 1945.
AN ABBREVIATED HISTORY OF THE PLAYING CARD
What's on the cards? That's a question often asked; but how many nonchalantly holding their bridge hands have any suspicion of the romance hidden in the cards he holds ! Is it not queer in this age of modernism that the cards as we know them, have not altered from the time of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." England, when she adopted the French pack, introduced a particular Queen of her own, the mother of Henry VIII, Elizabeth of York. That modern players will not tolerate change in their cards is evidenced by a happening at the beginning of this Century. A messenger was sent to the card maker to complain that the garter on one of the Jacks had been altered and every member was complaining that he was unlucky and they were all losing. How they could all lose has never been explained ! What was the origin of these oblongs of pasteboard with their pictured Kings and Queens ? Certain hack writers now and again rush into print with the story of the cards having been invented in France to amuse the mad King Charles, in 1390, yet, German knights were sending back a species of cards taken from Saracen prisoners during the Crusades. These picture cards the Germans called "Briefe Karten." To this day, Briefe Karten is still the name for picture postcards in Grermany. Where did the Saracens get these cards? These cards were known to be used for fortune telling.