Gin Rummy from East to West

The earliest true Rummy, a kind of proto-Gin, was first described briefly under the name 'Coon Can' in The Standard Hoyle (New York, 1887), and in more detail under the name Conquian by R. F. Foster in Foster's Complete Hoyle of 1897. A scholarly researcher of some repute, Foster was nevertheless mystified by its name and origin, remarking only that "little is known except that it is a great favourite in Mexico, and in all the American states bordering upon it, especially Texas".

This is quite likely, given that it is played with the typically Spanish 40-card pack and is certainly more likely to have originated in the New World rather than Spain itself, as the earliest forms of Rummy appearing in Spanish card-game literature (under the name Ramy) are obvious twentieth-century transatlantic imports. In 1896 Stewart Culin records it as being played by Apaches and spells it con quien, the Spanish for "with whom"; but it's hard to see what bearing this phrase has on any aspect of the play and Foster is probably right not to bother mentioning it.

A likelier origin may be sought in the Orient. The Rummy principle of drawing and discarding with a view to melding appears in Chinese card games at least as early as the 18th century and is, in fact, the essence of Mah-jong. In 1891 one W. H. Wilkinson, enthusing over a Chinese card-game relative of Mah Jong called kun p'ai, persuaded Messrs Goodall (UK) to publish an adaptation of it for western cards under the name Khanhoo. (You can find the rules for this in Sid Sackson's Card Games Around the World, Toronto 1981, reprinted by Dover Publications, New York, 1994.)