- Name Book: The new games Treasury: more than 500 indoor and outdoor favorites with strategies, rules, and traditions
- Author: Merilyn Simonds, Mohr
- Year: 1997
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co.
- Location: Boston New York, USA
The new games Treasury: more than 500 indoor and outdoor favorites with strategies, rules, and traditions by Merilyn Simonds, Mohr
Merilyn was able to give clear descriptions of the game rules of various versions of Solitaire. About Klondike and Fascination she writes the following::
About Klondike:
“Canada’s contribution to Solitaire, Klondike became popular during the 1896 Yukon Goldrush for which it was named.
“Described in one memoir as a “vicious gambling patience” Klondike was undoubtedly responsible for a few fortunes changing hands. The so-called sourdoughs put up $50 for a pack of cards and, at the end, got $5 back for each card played on an ace. Since 5 or 6 cards are average a player stood to lose $20 a game.”
“In Klondike, a player may go through the stockpile only once, one card at the time.”
About Fascination;
“Increases the role of luck (compared to Klondike). Not surprisingly it was adopted in the 1890s by gamblers. notably one, Richard Canfield who operated a casino in Saratoga Springs New York. He gambled with Fascination which he renamed after himself. Much as the sourdoughs did with Klondike, selling a player a deck for a buck a card and paying him back $5 for every card moved to the foundation piles, with a $500 jackpot if the player won the game. Canfield Solitaire became popular at the same time as Klondike, and the two games have become confused in some manuals. Despite their common past, however, they are quite different in play.”