If any player turns over the stock before he has announced to stand and has discarded at least one card, he loses 35 points to each adversary, and the deal is void. If an adversary of the single player turns over the stock before the player has discarded, there is no penalty, and the player may discard as he pleases. If an adversary of the single player leads or plays out of turn, the player may abandon the hand at that point, and claim the stock and last trick, the adversaries being entitled to count only the points they have won up to the time the error occurred. _=Suggestions for Good Play.=_ The general tactics of the game are extremely like those employed in Whist and Skat. The player establishes his long suit as rapidly as possible, and preserves his tenaces and cards of re-entry. The adversaries of the player should lead short suits up to him, and long suits through him, and every opportunity should be taken advantage of to discard counting cards on partner’s tricks, Aces especially, which are not the best of the suit, but count the most. Both sides scheme to get their hands in shape for winning the last trick, which usually makes a difference of ten or twelve points in the score, owing to the high cards held back, and those found in the stock. Each side should keep mental count of its score, so as to know whether or not it must win the last trick to get to 18. The exposure of the stock, the number of cards discarded by the player, the suits which are led and avoided, will all prove useful guides in determining where the strength or weakness in each suit lies, and proper advantage should be taken of all such inferences.
The highest throw so far is 42, and there are only twenty more chances to be thrown. It is 2 to 1 that 42 is not beaten or equalled because it is 39 to 1 that 42 is not thrown, and there are only 20 more chances to throw it. If 45 had been thrown, and there were still 21 chances to be thrown, you would be safe in paying liberally for the 45 chance. The great mistake that people make in buying or selling chances on throws already made in raffles is in thinking that because a certain number has not been thrown, that therefore it is likely to be. If there are 116 chances, they argue that 44 or better should be thrown, because that number or higher should come once in 116 times. This is quite right at the beginning of the raffle, but it is not right to assume that because 100 of the 116 chances have been thrown without reaching 44, that the odds are only 15 to 1 that 44 will not be thrown in the remaining 16 chances. The odds are still 116 to 1 against 44, just as they were before the raffle began. If you are going back to take into account the previous throws of the dice, you should know the 100 throws that were made with those dice before the raffle began. CRAP SHOOTING. This game is a simple form of Hazard, and when played “on the square,” is one of the fairest of all games, the percentage in favour of either side being very small.
Any player having exactly 16 takes the farm and all its contents. If there is more than one 16, that which is made with the assistance of the ♡6 wins, otherwise the one which is made with the fewest cards. If this is a tie the eldest hand wins. If no one has exactly 16, the farm stays with its original owner deal after deal, until exactly 16 is held by some player. Whether any one wins the farm or not, when the hands are exposed all those who have overdrawn must pay to the one who owned the farm at the beginning of that deal, as many counters as they have points more than 16. These payments do not go into the farm, but are clear profits. Those who have less than 16 pay nothing to the farmer; but the one who is nearest 16 receives a counter from each of the others. Ties are decided by the possession of the ♡ 6, or the fewest cards, or the eldest hand, as already described. If the farm remains in the same hands, the farmer deals again, and collects his profits until he loses his farm. When the farm is won, it is emptied, and resold as in the beginning.
If a player is betting _=three on a side=_, he will take each card as it becomes a case, and bet that it either wins three times and loses once, or loses once and wins three times. In the foregoing deal he would have bet on the A 3 4 6 9 J to lose on the fourth card out of the box, and would have bet on the case cards of the 2 7 8 10 Q K to win. The Soda, it must be remembered, is really a winning card. Of these bets he would have won 5 out of twelve, taking back his money on the 8, as that card was left in hoc. Playing _=break even=_, these bets would have been exactly reversed, as all the cards would have played either to win and lose an equal number of times, or to _=win=_ or _=lose out=_; that is, to do the same thing all four times. Another favourite system is colours. The player takes some definite card, such as the soda, or the first winner or loser, as his starter, and whatever the colour of the third card of each denomination, that is, the card that makes it a case, he plays it to win or lose, according to the system of colours he is playing. Many players reverse on the last turn. When a player bets one card to lose and another to win, and loses both bets on the same turn, he is _=whipsawed=_. _=The Last Turn.
(Clock strikes two.) We ve come to see poor Jenny Jones, poor Jenny Jones, poor Jenny Jones, We ve come to see poor Jenny Jones, how is she to-day? Poor Jenny is folding, folding, folding, Poor Jenny is folding, you can t see her to-day. When can we see her? At three o clock. (Clock strikes three.) We ve come to see poor Jenny Jones, poor Jenny Jones, poor Jenny Jones, We ve come to see poor Jenny Jones, how is she to-day? Poor Jenny is ironing, ironing, ironing, Poor Jenny is ironing, you can t see her to-day. When can we see her? At four o clock. (Clock strikes four.) We ve come to see poor Jenny Jones, poor Jenny Jones, poor Jenny Jones, We ve come to see poor Jenny Jones, how is she to-day? Poor Jenny is poorly, poorly, poorly, Poor Jenny is poorly, you can t see her to-day. When can we see her? At five o clock. (Clock strikes five.
In a series of games each player alternately takes the white men with the first move. It is usual to draw for the first game, one player concealing in each hand a pawn of a different colour, and offering the choice of hands to his adversary. Whichever colour the chosen hand contains is the one the chooser must take for the first game. The duplicate pieces of each colour are distinguished by their position with regard to the King or Queen; those on the King’s side being called the King’s Bishop, the King’s Knight, and the King’s Rook. Those on the Queen’s side are the Queen’s Bishop, Queen’s Knight, and Queen’s Rook. The pawns are designated by the pieces in front of which they stand; King’s Pawn; Queen’s Knight’s Pawn, etc. The comparative _=value of the pieces=_ changes a little in the course of play, the Rooks especially not being so valuable early in the game. Authorities differ a little as to the exact value of the pieces, but if we take the Pawn as a unit, the fighting value of the others will be about as follows:-- A Knight is worth 3½ Pawns. A Bishop is worth 5¼ Pawns. A Rook is worth 9½ Pawns.
I have a little dog, it won t bite you-- It won t bite you--it won t bite you-- It _will_ bite you. --Leicestershire (Miss Ellis). The Forest of Dean version is the same as the Dorsetshire, except that the child who is unsuccessful in gaining the vacant place has to stand in the middle of the ring until the same thing happens to another child.--Miss Matthews. In Nottinghamshire the children form in a ring; one walks round outside the ring singing and carrying a handkerchief: I wrote a letter to my love, and on the way I dropt it; One of you has picked it up and put it in your pocket. It isn t you, it isn t you, &c. &c.; it is you. The handkerchief is then dropped at some one s back, the one at whose back the handkerchief was dropped chasing the other. Or they say: I lost my supper last night, I lost it the night before, And if I lose it again to-night, I ll knock at somebody s door.
They commenced driving the men and boys out of the Newarkes. It was very dangerous sometimes; they would lash the whip in such a manner round the legs of those they were pursuing as to throw them down, which produced laughter and shouting. Some would stop, and turn to the whipper and say, Let s have a pennyworth, and he would guard and parry off the lashes with his shinney stick. When the whipper was successful in lashing him he demanded his penny, and continued lashing until he paid. This was continued until five o clock, then the game terminated. This was suppressed, I believe, in 1847. At that period it was a prevalent idea that it could not be abolished, as it was connected with an old charter. It is believed in the town that this custom was to commemorate the driving out of the Danes from the Newarkes at the time they besieged Leicester.--Leicester (Robert Hazlewood). See Bandy, Camp, Football, Hood, Hurling.
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The well-known custom at Greenwich is probably the same game, and there are examples at Tumbling Hill, a few miles from Exeter, at May Pole Hill, near Gloucester, and other places. Huckle-bones Holloway (_Dict. of Provincialisms_) says that the game is called Huckle-bones in East Sussex and Dibs in West Sussex. Parish (_Dict. of Sussex Dialect_) mentions that huckle-bones, the small bone found in the joint of the knee of a sheep, are used by children for playing the game of Dibs; also Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_. Barnes (_Dorset Glossary_) says, A game of toss and catch, played mostly by two with five dibs or huckle-bones of a leg of mutton, or round pieces of tile or slate. Halliwell s description is clearly wrong. He says it was a game formerly played by throwing up the hip-bone of some animal, on one side of which was a head of Venus and on the other that of a dog. He who turned up the former was the winner (_Dictionary_). Miss J.
We can consider transport, supply, ammunition, and the moral effect of cavalry impact, and of uphill and downhill movements. We can also bring in the spade and entrenchment, and give scope to the Royal Engineers. But before I write anything of Colonel Sykes suggestions about these, let me say a word or two about Kriegspiel country. The country for Kriegspiel should be made up, I think, of heavy blocks or boxes of wood about 3 x 3 x 1/2 feet, and curved pieces (with a rounded outline and a chord of three feet, or shaped like right-angled triangles with an incurved hypotenuse and two straight sides of 3 feet) can easily be contrived to round off corners and salient angles. These blocks can be bored to take trees, etc., exactly as the boards in Little Wars are bored, and with them a very passable model of any particular country can be built up from a contoured Ordnance map. Houses may be made very cheaply by shaping a long piece of wood into a house-like section and sawing it up. There will always be someone who will touch up and paint and stick windows on to and generally adorn and individualise such houses, which are, of course, the stabler the heavier the wood used. The rest of the country as in Little Wars. Upon such a country a Kriegspiel could be played with rules upon the lines of the following sketch rules, which are the result of a discussion between Colonel Sykes and myself, and in which most of the new ideas are to be ascribed to Colonel Sykes.
When I dead-panned him, he shrugged and lowered himself into the chair beside my desk. Thought you hated snakes, Lefty, he said. A guy could get used to almost anything, Grand Master, I said. I found a cobra under my pillow when I rolled out of the sack this morning. A coral snake fell out of the folds of my towel when I went to take a shower. Somebody stashed a bushmaster here in my locker to meet me when I dressed for surgery. I m getting almost fond of snakes. Maragon semaphored doubt by squeezing his eyebrows down in a scowl. Even _real_ snakes? he protested. It s the most artful hallucination I ve ever experienced, I granted.
Little spread. _=Petite misère sur table=_. Grand spread. _=Grand misère sur table=_. _=METHOD OF BIDDING.=_ The player to the right of the dealer has the first say. If he proposes to take a partner as in Solo Whist, he says, “Je demande,” at the same time placing one of his cards face downward on the table. This card must not be shown or named, but must be of the suit which he proposes to make the trump. He is not allowed to announce the suit, so that any player accepting him as a partner does so in ignorance as to whether he will play in belle or in petite. If the demand is accepted, the proposer and his partner make no change in their positions at the table, but must make eight tricks, just as in Solo Whist.
When at last she succeeds, the child caught takes her place, and the game is recommenced.--Winterton (Miss M. Peacock). See Fox and Goose, Gled-wylie. Here comes a Lusty Wooer [Music] --Rimbault s _Nursery Rhymes_. Here comes a lusty wooer, My a dildin, my a daldin; Here comes a lusty wooer, Lily bright and shine a . Pray who do you woo? My a dildin, my a daldin; Pray who do you woo? Lily bright and shine a . For your fairest daughter, My a dildin, my a daldin; For your fairest daughter, Lily bright and shine a . Then there she is for you, My a dildin, my a daldin; Then there she is for you, Lily bright and shine a . --Ritson (_Gammer Gurton s Garland_, 1783).
Should C wish to call A, or even to raise him, A and C may continue the betting independently of B’s part of the pool. Should C have even less money than B, say one dollar, he may still further reduce the original pool, leaving the two dollars aside for settlement between A and B, and A’s third dollar still aside from that again for the decision of any other player. Let us suppose that A and C continue the betting until one calls. When the hands are shown, if either A’s or C’s is better than B’s, B loses his interest; but if B’s hand is better than either A’s hand or C’s hand, he takes the part of the pool for which he called a sight, while A and C decide the remainder between them. For instance: A calls C, and C shows three tens. Neither A nor B can beat it, and C takes everything. But if B had three Jacks, and A only three fives, B would take the part of the pool for which he called a sight, and C would take the remainder. Should C have raised and bluffed A out, or have bet so much that A finally refused to call, A would have no interest in either pool, and C would take all the money outside the pool for which B called a sight. Should it then transpire, on the show of hands between B and C, that A had laid down a better hand than either of them, that would not entitle A to claim the sight pool from B, because in laying down his hand he has practically acknowledged that C’s hand is better, and has retired from the game. If B’s hand is better than C’s, B takes the sight pool.
The changes in the words of the different versions are not very great, but they show the influence of modern history upon the game. The appearance of King George evidently points to the date when it was frequently played, though the older versions are doubtless those in which his Majesty does not do duty. Mactaggart has the following quaint note which perhaps may supply the origin, though it seems a far cry to the Crusaders:-- This sport has something methinks of antiquity in it; it seemeth to be a pantomime of some scenes played off in the time of the Crusades. King and Queen o Cantilon evidently must be King and Queen of Caledon, but slightly changed by time. Then Babylon in the rhyme, the way they had to wander and hazard being caught by the infidels, all speak as to the foundation of the game (Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_). In the _Gentleman s Magazine_ for December 1849, in a review of the _Life of Shirley_, it is stated that in many parts of England the old game of Thread the Needle is played to the following words, which refer to the gate of the city of Hebron, known as the needle s eye. How many miles to Hebron? Three score and ten. Shall I be there by midnight? Yes, and back again. Then thread the needle, &c. The game is also described in _Notes and Queries_, iv.
The original advance of the enemy was through the open country behind Firely Church and Hook s Farm; I sighted him between the points marked A A and B B, and his force was divided into two columns, with very little cover or possibility of communication between them if once the intervening ground was under fire. I reckoned about 22 to his left and 50 or 60 to his right. [Footnote: Here again the gallant gentleman errs; this time he magnifies.] Evidently he meant to seize both Firely Church and Hook s Farm, get his guns into action, and pound my little force to pieces while it was still practically in the open. He could reach both these admirable positions before I could hope to get a man there. There was no effective cover whatever upon my right that would have permitted an advance up to the church, and so I decided to concentrate my whole force in a rush upon Hook s Farm, while I staved off his left with gun fire. I do not believe any strategist whatever could have bettered that scheme. My guns were at the points marked D C E, each with five horsemen, and I deployed my infantry in a line between D and E. The rest of my cavalry I ordered to advance on Hook s Farm from C. I have shown by arrows on the sketch the course I proposed for my guns.
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. [Illustration: +-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+ |⛂| | | | |⛀|| |⛀| | | |⛂| |⛂| | | |⛀| ||⛀| | | | |⛂| |⛂| | | | |⛀|| |⛀| | | |⛂| |⛂| | | |⛀| ||⛀| | | | |⛂| | | | | | |⛀|| |⛀| | | |⛂| |⛂| | | |⛀| ||⛀| | | | | | | | | | | |⛀|| | | | | |⛂| |⛂| | | | | ||⛀| | | | | | | | | | | |⛀|| | | | | |⛂| |⛂| | | | | ||⛀| | | | | | LIGHT | INNER || OUTER | | OUTER || INNER | LIGHT | | | | | |⛂|| | | | | |⛀| |⛀| | | | | ||⛂| | | | | | | | | | | |⛂|| | | | | |⛀| |⛀| | | | | ||⛂| | | | | | | | | | | |⛂|| |⛂| | | |⛀| |⛀| | | |⛂| ||⛂| | | | | | |⛀| | | | |⛂|| |⛂| | | |⛀| |⛀| | | |⛂| ||⛂| | | | |⛀| |⛀| | | | |⛂|| |⛂| | | |⛀| |⛀| | | |⛂| ||⛂| | | | |⛀| +-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+ ] It will be observed that the black men on any point have exactly the same number of white men standing opposite them. In one table there are only two upon one point, and in the other there are only three upon one point. The table with the two men is always the _=inner table=_ while the one with three is always the _=outer table=_. This distinction is important, and may be remembered by observing that the number of letters in the words _=in=_ and _=out=_ are two and three respectively. In setting up the men the inner table is always placed _=toward the light=_, whether it be a window or the gas.
=_ When your hearts are so small as to be absolutely safe, such as the 7 5 3 2, it might be supposed that the best play would be to lead them at once, in order to get a large number of hearts out of your way. But with such cards it is usually much better play, unless you have a very dangerous hand in plain suits, to reserve these small hearts until you have a more definite idea, from the fall of the cards, to whom you are giving them. Such cards are particularly useful for getting rid of the lead at dangerous stages in the end-game. When the plain-suit cards are high or dangerous, but the hearts are reasonably safe, it is usually better to lead the hearts, and to continue leading them every time you get in. By following these tactics it is quite possible for you to take almost every trick in the plain suits, and yet to win the pool by rapidly exhausting the hearts. If you lead the ♡ 4, the only chance for it to win is that one player has no hearts, and that the 2 and 3 are divided. The odds against this combination of circumstances will vary with the number of hearts you hold with the 4, but may be generally stated on the average as about 50 to 1. It is usually considered a safer lead than a high card of a plain suit, even if you have only three of the suit. If your only heart is the 5, and you propose to lead it, the chances that the 2, 3, and 4 are not each in separate hands are about 19 in 25, or 19 to 6 against it, which is about 3 to 1. If you lead the 5, the odds against your winning the trick decrease as the number of hearts you hold with the 5 increases.
Biggly Name for Blind Man s Buff. --Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_. Billet The Derbyshire name for Tip-cat. --Halliwell s _Dictionary_. Billy-base A name for Prisoner s Base. --Halliwell s _Dictionary_. Bingo [Music] --Leicestershire. [Music] --Hexham. [Music] --Derbyshire. [Music] --Earls Heaton, Yorks.
Hark the robbers coming through, Coming through, coming through, Hark the robbers coming through, My fair lady. What s the robbers done to you, Done to you, done to you, What s the robbers done to you, My fair lady? They have stole my watch and chain, Watch and chain, watch and chain, They have stole my watch and chain, My fair lady. What s the price will set you free, Set you free, set you free, What s the price will set you free, My fair lady? Half-a-guinea will set me free, Will set me free, will set me free, Half-a-guinea will set me free, My fair lady. Half-a-guinea you shall not have, Shall not have, shall not have, Half-a-guinea you shall not have, My fair lady. Let s join hands, it is too late, Tis too late, tis too late, Let s join hands, it is too late, My fair lady. --Tong, Shropshire (Miss R. Harley). V. Hark at the robbers going through, Through, through, through; through, through, through; Hark at the robbers going through, My fair lady. What have the robbers done to you, You, you, you; you, you, you? What have the robbers done to you, My fair lady? Stole my gold watch and chain, Chain, chain, chain; chain, chain, chain; Stole my gold watch and chain, My fair lady.
The checks being scattered, the player throws up the ball, takes up one check, and catches the ball as it comes down, or, as it is sometimes played, after it has bounced once from the step. This is repeated till all the checks are taken up. 2. As the last figure, but the checks are taken up two at a throw. 3. As the last, but at the first throw one check, called the Horse, is taken up, and at the second the remaining three checks at once, called the Cart. 4. As before, but all the checks taken up together. 5. Called Ups and Downs.