Any pins knocked down through the dead wood remaining on the alley cannot be placed to the credit of the player. The maximum is 10. FIVE BACK. [Illustration: O O O O . . O . . . ] The pins are set as shown in the diagram. Three balls (not exceeding 6 inches in size) are bowled in each inning.
The cards dealt, each player sorts and counts his hand to see that he has the correct number of cards, thirteen. If not, he should immediately claim a misdeal; for a player having more or less than his right proportion of cards cannot win anything on that hand, but will have to stand his proportion of all losses incurred by him or his side. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ There are seven distinct objects in the Solo Whist, and before play begins each player has an opportunity of declaring to which of these objects he proposes to attain. They are:-- 1st. To win 8 of the 13 tricks, with the assistance of a partner. This is called a _=Proposal=_; the partner’s share is an _=Acceptance=_. 2nd. To win 5 of the 13 tricks, against the three other players combined. This is called a _=Solo=_.
Malaga Raisins. Marbles. Mary Brown. Mary mixed a Pudding up. Merrils. Merritot. Merry-ma-tansa. Milking Pails. Mineral, Animal, and Vegetable. Minister s Cat.
e._, no new deal shall commence) at a specified time, and the rubber is unfinished at that hour, the score is made up as it stands, 125 being added to the score of the winners of a game. A deal if started must be finished. 12. A proved error in the honour score may be corrected at any time before the score of the rubber has been made up and agreed upon. 13. A proved error in the trick score may be corrected at any time before a declaration has been made in the following game, or, if it occur in the final game of the rubber, before the score has been made up and agreed upon. CUTTING. 14. In cutting the ace is the lowest card; between cards of otherwise equal value the heart is the lowest, the diamond next, the club next, and spade the highest.
=_ Each player in turn, beginning with the eldest hand, may either play or pass. If he passes, he lays his cards face downward in front of him, and takes no further part in that deal unless a general rams is announced. If he plays, he engages himself to take at least one trick, or forfeit five counters to the pool. He may play with the hand originally dealt him, or he may risk getting a better by taking the widow in exchange. If he exchanges, his original hand is dead, and must not be seen by any player. If any player takes the widow, those following him must play the hand dealt them or pass out. In some clubs the eldest hand is obliged to play, either with his own hand or with the widow. If all pass except the pone, he must play against the dealer, either with the cards dealt him, or with the widow. If he declines to play, he must pay the dealer five counters, and the pool remains. The dealer must play if he is opposed by only one player; but if two others have announced to play, the dealer may play or pass as he pleases.
If the heart ace is led, and one player holds the Jack alone, and another the Five alone, neither of these cards need be played, because the trump led is inferior to both of them. If a superior trump is played in following suit, such as the Five played on an Eight led, the holder of the lone Jack of trumps or ace of hearts, need not play it, because the lead was inferior. This privilege of reneging is confined to the three highest trumps. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ In Spoil Five there are three things to play for. If any one person can win three tricks he takes the pool. If he can win all five tricks he not only gets the pool, but receives an extra counter from each of the other players. If he has no chance to win three tricks, he must bend all his energies to scattering the tricks among the other players, so that no one of them shall be able to get the three tricks necessary to win the pool. When this is done, the game is said to be _=spoiled=_, and as that is the object of the majority in every deal it gives the game its name. In the older forms of the game the winner of three tricks counted five points, and if he could be prevented from getting three tricks his five points were spoiled.
--Penzance, Cornwall (Mrs. Mabbott). II. Come all ye young men, with your wicked ways, Sow all your wild oats in your youthful days, That we may live happy, that we may live happy, That we may live happy when we grow old. The day is far spent, the night s coming on, Give us your arm, and we ll joggle along, That we may live happy, &c., &c. --Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 57). (_b_) There must be an odd number of players at this game. They form into couples, each standing behind the other, making a ring, the girls inside, one boy standing alone in the middle.
Suppose a person bets that you will not cut a court card, K Q or J, from a pack of 52 cards, what are the odds against you? In this case there are three favourable events, but only one can happen, and as any of them will preclude the others, they are called _=conflicting events=_, and the probability of one of them is the sum of the probability of all of them. In this case the probability of any one event separately is 1/13, and the sum of the three is therefore 1/13 + 1/13 + 1/13 = 3/13; or ten to 3 against it. In order to prove any calculation of this kind all that is necessary is to ascertain the number of remaining events, and if their sum, added to that already found, equals unity, the calculation must be correct. For instance: The probability of turning a black trump at whist is 13/52 + 13/52 = 26/52; because there are two black suits of 13 cards each. The only other event which can happen is a red trump, the probability of which is also 26/52, and the sum of these two probabilities is therefore 26/52 + 26/52 = 52/52, or unity. Another fallacy in connection with the maturity of the chances is shown in betting against two successive events, both improbable, one of which has happened. The odds against drawing two aces in succession from a pack of 52 cards are 220 to 1; but after an ace has been drawn the odds against the second card being an ace also are only 16 to 1, although some persons would be mad enough to bet 1000 to 1 against it, on the principle that the first draw was a great piece of luck and the second ace was practically impossible. While the four aces were in the pack the probability of drawing one was 4/52. One ace having been drawn, 3 remain in 51 cards, so the probability of getting the second is 3/51, or 1/17. Before a card was drawn, the probability of getting two aces in succession was the product of these fractions; 1/13 × 1/17 = 1/221.
Fox. Fox and Goose (1). Fox and Geese (2). Fox in the Fold. Fox in the Hole. French Jackie. French and English. French Blindman s Buff. Friar-rush. Frincy-francy.
Two players outside the ring run round it, singing the second and alternate verses. When singing Penny loaves ll get stole away, one of the two outside children goes into the ring, the other remains and continues her part, singing the next verse. When the last verse is sung the prisoner is released. The Berkshire game (Miss Kimber) is played by the children forming two long lines, each line advancing and retiring alternately while singing their parts. When the last verse is begun the children form a ring and gallop around, all singing this last verse together. In the Cork version (Mrs. Green) the children form a circle by joining hands. They march round and round, singing the verses to a sing-song tune. When singing, If the cock should meet a hen, they all unclasp hands; two hold each other s hands and form an arch. The rest run under, saying the last verse.
This prevents A from going any further, because it is not his turn to say anything. He is not asked to meet any one’s raise, nor to make any bet himself, but simply to show his hand, in order to see whether or not it is better than D’s. _=SHOWING HANDS.=_ It is the general usage that the hand _=called=_ must be shown first. In this case A’s hand is called, for D was the one who called a halt on A in the betting, and stopped him from going any further. The strict laws of the game require that both hands must be shown, and if there are more than two in the final call, all must be shown to the table. The excuse generally made for not showing the losing hand is that the man with the worse hand paid to see the better hand; but it must not be forgotten that the man with the better hand has paid exactly the same amount, and is equally entitled to see the worse hand. There is an excellent rule in some clubs that a player refusing to show his hand in a call shall refund the amount of the antes to all the other players, or pay all the antes in the next jack pot. The rule of showing both hands is a safeguard against collusion between two players, one of whom might have a fairly good hand, and the other nothing; but by mutually raising each other back and forth they could force any other player out of the pool. The good hand could then be called and shown, the confederate simply saying, “That is good,” and throwing down his hand.
| | |41.| -- | -- |How many pounds will | | | | |set him free? | |42.| -- | -- |Three hundred pounds | | | | |will set him free. | |43.| -- | -- |The half of that I | | | | |have not got. | |44.| -- | -- |Then off to prison he | | | | |must go. | |45.| -- | -- | -- | |46.| -- | -- | -- | |47.
In France, it is always the custom to establish the _status quo_, if possible, and to assume that the error was quite unintentional. In England, all laws are based on the assumption that your adversary is a rogue, and the penalties are absurdly severe, but we have no authority to change them. _=Irregularities in Drawing.=_ If a player has forgotten to take his card from the talon, and has played to the next trick, the English laws compel him to play the remainder of the hand with eight cards; the French laws give his adversary the option of calling the deal void, or allowing the player in error to draw two cards from the stock next time. If a player draws two cards from the stock, instead of one, he must show the second one to his adversary if he has seen it himself. If it was his adversary’s card, he must show his own card also. If he has not seen it, he may put it back without penalty. If he draws out of turn, he must restore the card improperly drawn, and if it belongs to his adversary, the player in error must show his own card. If both players draw the wrong cards, there is no remedy. If the loser of any trick draws and looks at two cards from the stock, his adversary may look at both cards of the following draw, and may select either for himself.
Marbles Brand considers that marbles had their origin in bowls, and received their name from the substance of which the bowls were formerly made. Strutt (_Sports_, p. 384) says, Marbles have been used as a substitute for bowls. I believe originally nuts, round stones, or any other small things that could easily be bowled along were used as marbles. Rogers notices Marbles in his _Pleasures of Memory_, l. 137:-- On yon gray stone that fronts the chancel-door, Worn smooth by busy feet, now seen no more, Each eve we shot the marble through the ring. Different kinds of marbles are alleys, barios, poppo, stonies. Marrididdles are marbles made by oneself by rolling and baking common clay. By boys these are treated as spurious and are always rejected. In barter, a bary = four stonies; a common white alley = three stonies.
--Annie Dicker. I saw this game played in Endell Street, London, W.C., by two girls. Their game was not so long nor so complete as the above. They did not throw all four stones down as a preliminary stage, but began with the second figure, the four gobs being placed in a square ::, nor were they particular as to which stones they picked up. They knew nothing of numbering or naming them. Their marble was called a jack. They had places chalked on the pavement where they recorded their successful goes, and the game was played in a ring.--A.
| -- | -- | |20.| -- | -- | |21.| -- | -- | |22.|Last to stoop down |We ll all cow down | | |shall be married. |together. | |23.| -- | -- | |24.| -- | -- | |25.|He came to inquire, |They shall be married | | |down she came, so off |with gold ring. | | |with glove and on with| | | |ring, to-morrow the | | | |wedding begins.
Lyman’s Selected Problems. Backgammon and Draughts, by Berkeley. Anderson’s Checkers. Dunne’s Draught Proxis. Kear’s Sturges. BACKGAMMON. OR TRIC-TRAC. Backgammon is played by two persons, each of whom is provided with fifteen men, two dice, and a dice-box. The men on each side are of different colours, black and white, and the players are distinguished by the colour of the men with which they play. The board is divided into two tables, _=inner=_ and _=outer=_, and at the beginning of the game the men may be set up in either of the positions shown in the diagram.
The claim should always be prefaced by the word _=Muggins=_. If the error is one of omission in play, the adversary must play his own card before claiming muggins. If it is in the hand or crib, the adversary must wait until the points claimed are pegged and quitted. If there are no points claimed, he must wait until the cards are turned face down, thus acknowledging that there is apparently nothing to score. A player is not allowed to tell his adversary whether or not he has counted his hand or crib correctly, until it is pegged. _=Nineteen.=_ As it is impossible to hold 19 in hand or crib, it is a common practice for a player, when he has nothing at all to score, to announce, “Nineteen.” The numbers twenty-seven, twenty-six and twenty-five are also impossible. _=Pegging.=_ Neither player is allowed to touch the other’s pegs.
|L. B. is broken down. |L. B. is broken down. |L. B. is broken down. | | 6.
Eight. Nine.] When proper markers are not obtainable, many persons cut eight slits in a visiting card, and turn up the points. [Illustration: Visiting-Card Marker.] Whatever the apparatus employed, it should be such that every player at the table can distinctly see the state of the score without drawing attention to it. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ Whist offers very few opportunities to the card-sharper. When honours are counted, he may be able to keep one on the bottom of the pack until the completion of the deal by _=making the pass=_ after the cards have been cut. A _=greek=_ who possessed sufficient skill to do this without detection would be very foolish to waste his talents at the whist table; for, however large the stakes, the percentage in his favour would be very small. When whist is played with only one pack, a very skillful shuffler may gather the cards without disturbing the tricks, and, by giving them a single _=intricate=_ shuffle, then drawing the middle of the pack from between the ends and giving another single intricate shuffle, he may occasionally succeed in dealing himself and his partner a very strong hand in trumps, no matter how the cards are cut, so that they are not shuffled again.