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Deck Of Cards Lyrics By Wink Martindale

    narrative
    during the north african campaign a bunch of soldier boys had
    been on a long hike and they arrived in a little town called casino the
    next morning being sunday several of the boys went to church a sergeant
    commanded the boys in church and after the chaplain had read the prayer
    the text was taken up next those of the boys who had a prayer book took
    them out but this one boy had only a deck of cards and so he spread
    them out the sergeant saw the cards and said soldier put away those
    cards after the services was over the soldier was taken prisoner and
    brought before the provost marshall

    the marshall said sergeant why have you brought this man
    here for playing cards in church sir and what have you to say for
    yourself son much sir replied the soldier the marshall said i
    hope so for if not i shall punish you more than any man was ever
    punished the soldier said sir i have been on the march for about six
    days i have neither a bible nor a prayer book but i hope to satisfy
    you sir with the purity of my intentions and with that the boy
    started his story

    you see sir when i look at the ace it reminds me that there
    is but one god and the deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into
    two parts the old and the new testaments when i see the trey i think
    of the father the son and the holy ghost and when i see the four i
    think of the four evangelists who preached the gospel there was matthew

    mark luke and john and when i see the five it reminds me of the five
    wise virgins who trimmed their lamps there were ten of them five were
    wise and were saved five were foolish and were shut out when i see the
    six it reminds me that in six days god made this great heaven and
    earth when i see the seven it reminds me that on the seventh day god
    rested from his great work and when i see the eight i think of the
    eight righteous persons god saved when he destroyed this earth there was
    noah his wife their sons and their wives and when i see the nine i
    think of the lepers our savior cleansed and nine out of the ten didn’t
    even thank him when i see the ten i think of the ten commandments god
    handed down to moses on a table of stone when i see the king it
    reminds me that there is but one king of heaven god almighty and when i
    see the queen i think of the blessed virgin mary who is queen of
    heaven and the jack or knave is the devil when i count the number
    of spots on a deck of cards i find 65 the number of days in a year
    there are 5 cards the number of weeks in a year there are 4 suits the
    number of weeks in a month there are picture cards the number of
    months in a year there are tricks the number of weeks in a quarter
    so you see sir my pack of cards serves me as a bible an almanac and a
    prayer book

    and friends the story is true i know i was that soldier

    Artist: Wink Martindale

    Year: 1959

    Decade: 50s

    Language: en

    Word Count: 260