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342 The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games
bit of army blue and a bit of gray cloth, with two swords crossed above them. At sight of it:
"In eighteen hundred and sixty-one That cruel war was first begun," said itself to those of us who knew the old jingle with its sad burden.
Another had upon her card a white flag with a red cross, and underneath the words, "God wills it," with a cross, a crescent, and a sword dripping with blood. The year of the first Crusade was not difficult to guess from its suggestions.
A third card bore upon it the picture of an Indian and the drawing of a caravel, while underneath it was written, "We are discovered!"
The card of another guest had upon it a few letters printed in script—the capitals done in red ink—to suggest the year of the first successful printing-press in Europe. The red capitals were believed to be done with blood, it will be remembered, when the marvel was thought to proceed from Faust's dealings with the devil.
The year of the Reformation was represented, of course, by the picture of an open Bible, and the year 1776 by a picture of the Liberty Bell and a few bars of the music of "Yankee-Doodle"—splashes of red paint to represent blood, and palms to suggest victory.
All were not as simple and easy to guess as these. The initial year of the Renaissance was suggested by small cuts of a cathedral, a painting, a bit of bric-a-brac of pure, elegant, and artistic outlines.
The card that was found to be the most puzzling was one decorated with a cannon pointed at a knight who was falling off his horse, while a Chinaman was faintly outlined in the distance of one corner. It was intended to represent the year of the introduction of gunpowder |
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