Cries (Fig. 27), and another with Fables (Fig. 28), both of which date
from the earlier years of the last century, the former with the quaint
costume and badge of a waterman, with his cry of "Oars! oars! do you
want a boat?" In the middle distance the piers of Old London Bridge, and
the house at its foot with overhanging gallery, make a pleasing old-time
picture. The "Fables" cards are apparently from the designs of Francis
Barlow, and are probably engraved by him; although we find upon some of
them the name of J. Kirk, who, however, was the seller of the cards
only, and who, as was not uncommon with the vendor of that time, in this
way robbed the artist of what honour might belong to his work. Both of
these packs are rare; that of the "Fables" is believed to be unique. Of
a date some quarter of a century antecedent to those just described we
have an amusing pack, in which each card has a collection of moral
sentences, aphorisms, or a worldly-wise story, or--we regret in the
interests of good behaviour to have to add--something very much the
reverse of them. The larger portion of the card is occupied by a picture
of considerable excellence in illustration of the text; and
notwithstanding the peculiarity to which we have referred as attaching
to some of them, the cards are very interesting as studies of costume
and of the manners of the time--of what served to amuse our ancestors
two centuries ago--and is a curious compound survival of Puritan
teaching and the license of the Restoration period. We give one of them
in Fig. 29.

[Illustration: FIG. 29.]

The Ace of Clubs, shown in Fig. 30, is from a pack issued in Amsterdam
about 1710, and is a good example of the Dutch burlesque cards of the
eighteenth century. The majority of them have local allusions, the
meaning of which is now lost; and many of them are of a character which
will not bear reproduction. A better-known pack of Dutch cards is that
satirizing the Mississippi scheme of 1716, and the victims of the
notorious John Law--the "bubble" which, on its collapse, four years
later, brought ruin to so many thousands.

[Illustration: FIG. 30.]

[Illustration: FIG. 31.]

[Illustration: FIG. 32.]

[Illustration: FIG. 33.]

[Illustration: FIG. 34.]

Our space forbids the treatment of playing cards under any but their
pictorial aspects, though the temptation is great to attempt some
description of their use from an early period as instruments of
divination or fo