Most of you will instantly recognize the series of paintings titled Dogs Playing Poker created by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. Mr. Coolidge was born into a family of Quaker farmers who were very much into abolition and was named after one of the most eloquent orators of the time who was given the resounding nickname of “The Lion of White Hall. Coolidge, nicknamed “Cash” by friends and relatives, did not receive any formal training in the arts, but was nonetheless a prolific artist, publishing his drawings in papers before reaching the ripe old age of 20.

In 1903 he was commissioned a series of paintings on his favorite theme: mastiffs and Saint Bernards engaged in human activity. On nine of the sixteen paintings well bred and mannered dogs drink beer and whiskey, smoke cigars and pipes, and play five-card draw poker. Furry and in fur coats or flannel suits, they usually fill a cozy room with the only source of light being a shaded lamp above the table.

The players are established bourgeois, and seem to be reasonably well-behaved gentlemen, perhaps not altogether tame, but proper enough. The paintings reflect approximately the same period as that depicted in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. But Coolidge does not focus on the greed and violence of illegal underground clubs; rather, he shows poker finally emerge from the criminal murk into a more homely reality where decent members of society probably never bet more than a few symbolic cents and allowed themselves a few drops of bourbon when their wives weren’t looking. Poker was becoming common entertainment for most American men, not a means to make quick and dangerous money.

Well-respected gentlemen around 1875 were attending large evening poker games. A monthly rag called “Poker Chips” was one of the publications devoting itself to the game and most others published poker-related articles. As the century ended, rules became codified for draw-poker for the first time and were in force in all of the poker clubs. Some reporters went so far as to claim that baseball was no longer the national past time.

Interestingly, the ability to play poker and use a gun, in no relation whatsoever to any criminal reference, became gradually the accoutrements of a “real man.” If a fellow played a good game of poker they must also be good soldiers, good law men, and good, honest politicians. During World War I in Europe, in 1914, poker became THE mode of entertainment among the two million troops and of Harry Truman himself. As an artillery officer, Truman fine-tuned both draw and stud poker. And at the end of the war with the signing of the peace treaty, he and his combat comrades played infinite games of poker waiting to be shipped home. They continued to play the game after their arrival on home soil.

At that time, the prevailing view was to equate the ability to take risks at the table, to bet big, play smart, and bluff, (profitably, of course!) to the ability to survive in battle, in dangerous occupations like law enforcement, or do any job requiring a good brain and strong muscles.

Our boy, Cash Coolidge, was surrounded with plenty of opportunity to observe the types, the apparel and the game room ambiance of the basement clubs where games were regularly played. By adding his vivid, imaginative anthropomorphic humor to it all, he replicated very creatively the demeanor of the middle class engaged happily in a game that was at that time at least 200 years old.