I am bringing another early railroad advertising deck to the attention of the users of this website, not only because it is quite rare and desirable, but because I rediscovered a highly inspiring message on one of the cards that was appropriate then and remains just as relevant today, if not even more so.
This RR deck is so unusual, it was assigned two different reference numbers in The Great Book of Railroad Playing Cards by Phil Bollhagen because it advertises two different, but related, early railway lines. These were the Chicago & West Michigan Railway (Boll C&WM-1) which operated between 1881-1899 and the Detroit, Lansing & Northern Railroad (Boll DLN-1) which operated between 1876-1896. Both eventually became part of the Pere Marquette Railway. This deck is assigned a V7 value which means extremely rare. The date shown is circa 1890 but I believe that it may be closer to circa 1895.
As the two photographs show below, this deck features a splendid map of the two routes within a large central spade pip on the Ace of Spades and a very similar back design. The other unique feature of this deck is that every pip card has it's own advertising message, two of which appear on the Ace of Hearts which this post will focus on. The courts are standard and appear to indicate that these cards were made by either American or Kalamazoo but more research is needed in this regard. The other noteworthy feature of this deck is that it does not come with either a joker or a best bower but, instead, comes with a novel "53rd card". The edges are plain. I have never seen an original box for this deck.
Now to the primary reason behind this post. The two messages on the Ace of Hearts are as follows:
A light heart makes not only a good trip a better one for yourself, but insures your being a more agreeable companion for those who travel with you.
Travel is likely to teach observing and thoughtful people respect for the opinions, faith and ways of others, and impress them with the belief that other civilizations than their own are worthy of consideration.
Finding these two positive, uplifting messages on a playing card from a deck that is over 125 years old was most refreshing and, I feel, if they were taken to heart by those now inhabiting the planet, would greatly improve the challenging world in which we find ourselves these days.
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