Three cards of one suit are a better point than two cards, even if there are more pips on the two cards. If no higher combination than a point is shown, the player with the winning point receives _=one counter=_ from each of the other players at the table, besides winning the pool, and everything in it. In case of ties, the player having two cards in sequence wins. For instance: an 8 and a 7 will beat a 10 and a 5. If this does not decide it, the elder hand wins. _=The Prime.=_ Four cards of different suits, sometimes called a Dutch flush, is a better hand than the point. If a prime is the best combination shown, the holder wins the pool, and receives _=two counters=_ from each of the other players. If the pips in the prime aggregate more than thirty, it is called _=Grand Prime=_, and the holder receives _=three counters=_ from each of the other players, instead of two. If two or more primes are shown, the one with the highest number of pips wins.
While he was still searching, he caught the warning from her. _We jump again!_ And so they had. The ship had moved to a second planoform. The stars were different. The Sun was immeasurably far behind. Even the nearest stars were barely in contact. This was good Dragon country, this open, nasty, hollow kind of space. He reached farther, faster, sensing and looking for danger, ready to fling the Lady May at danger wherever he found it. Terror blazed up in his mind, so sharp, so clear, that it came through as a physical wrench. The little girl named West had found something--something immense, long, black, sharp, greedy, horrific.
Impérial in hand, sequences first. Impérial de retourne. Impérial tombée. Honours in tricks. Odd tricks. CASSINO. This is a very old and always popular game, which has lately been much improved by the introduction of the variations known as Royal and Spade Cassino, the latter especially being a very lively game. Like Euchre, Cassino is eminently respectable, and is one of the few games of cards that are unhesitatingly admitted to the domestic circle. _=Cards.=_ Cassino is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which have no rank in play, their pip or face value being the only element of importance.
If the eldest hand accepts, he pushes into the pool as many counters as he is bid, and the successful bidder pitches the trump. If no bid is made, the eldest hand must pitch the trump himself. A bidder is not allowed to give the seller enough points to put him out, and should he do so by mistake, he forfeits his right to bid at all for that deal. If the seller has only two to go, and a player is able to bid three or four, he loses nothing by bidding one only, for no one can overbid him, and he is entitled to count all he makes. The only risk he runs is that the seller can afford to refuse one, and will go out on his own pitch. To remedy this it is the custom in some clubs to allow a player to bid the full value of his hand. If the seller accepts, he scores to within one of game; but if he refuses, he must make as many as bid, even if he does not actually want them. It is one of the fine points of the game for the seller to refuse when the number of points offered would put the bidder out if he was successful. There is no penalty for bidding out of turn. If a player chooses to expose to a preceding player what he is prepared to bid, that is usually to his own disadvantage.
If you have proposed once, and hold the King, and feel pretty sure of the point, you may propose again on the chance of getting strength enough to make the vole. When only two cards can be discarded, it is a safe rule to stand on the hand; either to play without proposing, or to refuse cards; unless you hold the King. There are no authoritative laws for Écarté, and the various French and English codes do not agree. The code adopted by the English clubs is not in accord with the best usage, and fails to provide for many contingencies. All that is essential in the laws will be found embodied in the foregoing description of the game. _=TEXT BOOKS.=_ The best works on the subject of Écarté are usually to be found in conjunction with other games. The student will find the following useful:-- The Westminster Papers, Vols. IV to XI, inclusive. Bohn’s Handbook of Games; any edition.
=_ In addition to the case-keeper, score sheets are provided on which the players may keep a record of what cards win and lose on each turn. These tabs are printed in vertical columns, about five deals to a sheet. A dot indicates the soda card; a dash, hoc. All winners are marked with a down stroke, and all losers with a cypher. The diagram in the margin will give a very good idea of a faro tab for a complete deal. The Queen was soda, the Five split out, and the Eight was in hoc. A | 0 0 1 0 2 | 0 1 1 1 3 | 0 0 1 1 4 | 1 0 0 0 5 | 0 0 X 6 | 1 1 1 1 7 | 0 1 1 0 8 | 1 1 0 - 9 | 0 1 0 1 10 | 0 0 0 0 J | 1 1 1 0 Q | . 0 1 0 K | 1 0 1 1 _=Systems.=_ On the manner in which the cards will go, a great many systems of play are based. There are sixteen different ways for a card to “play,” which are simply the permutations of the stroke and the cypher arranged in rows of four at a time.
After a person has taken in one or more hearts, his object will be to _=load=_ the others; that is, to see that they get some hearts also; or it may be to see that a given player takes at least one heart; or that no one but himself takes any. The manner in which a person must vary his play in accordance with these different objects will be discussed when we come to the suggestions for good play. In the meantime, it is necessary to bear in mind only the general principle that the object of the game is to avoid winning any tricks that contain hearts. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The cards dealt, the player to the left of the dealer begins by leading any card he pleases, and the others must follow suit if they can. The highest card played, if of the suit led, wins the trick. There is no trump suit. If a player has none of the suit led, he may discard anything he pleases. The winner of the trick takes it in and leads for the next trick, and so on until all the cards have been played. The tricks themselves have no value as such, and need not be kept separate.
Here is War, done down to rational proportions, and yet out of the way of mankind, even as our fathers turned human sacrifices into the eating of little images and symbolic mouthfuls. For my own part, I am _prepared_. I have nearly five hundred men, more than a score of guns, and I twirl my moustache and hurl defiance eastward from my home in Essex across the narrow seas. Not only eastward. I would conclude this little discourse with one other disconcerting and exasperating sentence for the admirers and practitioners of Big War. I have never yet met in little battle any military gentleman, any captain, major, colonel, general, or eminent commander, who did not presently get into difficulties and confusions among even the elementary rules of the Battle. You have only to play at Little Wars three or four times to realise just what a blundering thing Great War must be. Great War is at present, I am convinced, not only the most expensive game in the universe, but it is a game out of all proportion. Not only are the masses of men and material and suffering and inconvenience too monstrously big for reason, but--the available heads we have for it, are too small. That, I think, is the most pacific realisation conceivable, and Little War brings you to it as nothing else but Great War can do.
This is a banking game for any number of players, with a pack of fifty-two cards. After the pack has been shuffled and cut, the dealer lays off two cards, face up for “hand cards.” He then deals a card for himself and one for the players, also face up. If either of these is of the same denomination as either of the hand cards, it must be placed with them, and another card dealt; because all bets must be made on single cards. Having two cards, one for the players and one for himself, the banker turns up cards one at a time. If he draws the same denomination as the players’ card, he wins all the bets upon it. If he draws his own denomination, he loses all bets upon the other card. If he draws a card that matches neither, and is not in the hand cards, it is placed on the table, and the players can bet upon it. As soon as the players’ card is matched, the banker withdraws both cards, but he cannot withdraw his own card. All cards matching the hand cards must be placed with them.
” As will be explained presently, doubling does not affect the value of the declaration in bidding, so two no trumps, worth 20, over-calls three clubs. Z, A and Y all pass, so two no trumps becomes the winning declaration and B is the declarer, A being the dummy, with Z to lead for the first trick. In this example, had the bid been left at three clubs, doubled or not, that would have been the winning declaration, and the partner who first named that suit, Y, would be the declarer, Z being the dummy, although Z actually made the highest bid. It is only when the two players that have both named the winning suit are not partners that the higher bidder becomes the declarer. _=DOUBLING.=_ No player may double his partner, but he may redouble an opponent who has doubled. All doubling must be strictly in turn, like any other bid. Doubling does not affect the value of the bids, but simply doubles the value of the tricks or penalties when they are scored at the end of the hand. Suppose A bids two royals and Y doubles. B can take A out with three clubs, because, so far as the bidding goes, two royals are still worth only 18.
Should any card be exposed by the dealer in giving out the cards, or be blown over by the wind before the player has touched it, such card must not be taken by the player under any circumstances, but must be placed with the discards on the table. A player whose card is exposed in this manner does not receive a card to take its place until all the other players have been helped. [The object of this rule is to prevent a dealer from altering the run of the cards in the draw.] Should a player ask for an incorrect number of cards and they be given him, he must take them if the next player has been helped. If too many, he must discard before seeing them. If too few, he must play them. If he has taken them up and has too many, his hand is foul, and shuts him out of that pool. If the dealer gives himself more cards than he needs he is compelled to take them. For instance: He draws three cards to a pair; but on taking up his hand he finds he had triplets, and really wanted only two cards. He cannot change his draw, and must take the three cards he has dealt off.
=_ The player bidding the highest number of tricks has the first lead, and the first card he plays must be one of the trump suit. The players must follow suit if able, but need not win the trick unless they choose to do so. The highest card played of the suit led wins the trick, and trumps win all other suits. The winner of the trick leads again for the next trick, and so on, until all five tricks have been played. After the first trick any suit may be led. The bidder gathers all tricks he wins, stacking them so that they may be readily counted by any player at the table. One of the other side should gather all tricks won by the adversaries of the bidder. A trick once turned and quitted cannot again be seen. In some places they have a very bad habit of gathering tricks with the cards face up, turning down one card only. This always results in numerous misdeals, on account of cards being continually found faced in the pack.
[Illustration] If the cue is held nearly level with the surface of the table the ball will be pushed or rolled along; but if the cue is held perpendicularly, and the ball is struck directly on the top, the ball will be _=pinched=_ to the table, as in the first figure in the margin, and will not move. If the ball is struck off the centre, as in the second figure, it will travel only a short distance, as a result of the cue’s being forced past it toward the cloth, and will then return with a very strong retrograde motion after touching the object ball. If the cue strikes too near the top, the pinch will be too strong for the cue ball to reach the object ball, and if the cue is not held perpendicularly, the ball will not return. If the cue points toward the centre of the ball, as in the third figure, the ball will be driven forward, without any tendency to return after striking the object ball. The latter shot is useful in making a “close follow,” to avoid making a foul. _=The Force Shot.=_ The beginner at billiards should strike his ball always exactly in the centre, until he learns the angles. With moderate strength the effect of the stroke is to cause the ball to roll naturally along the cloth until it reaches the object ball, after which it will be deflected from its original course according to the angle at which the object ball is struck. If the cue ball is struck very hard, however, and very slightly below the centre, it will slide for a certain distance before beginning to roll, and if it reaches the object ball before this sliding motion ceases it will simply come to a stop, or go off at a right angle if the object ball is not struck exactly in the centre. This method of forcing a ball to go off at a right angle is called “screwing” in England.
The winners gain-- I. A treble, or game of three points, when their adversaries have not scored. II. A double, or game of two points, when their adversaries have scored less than three. III. A single, or game of one point, when their adversaries have scored three or four. 9. The winners of the rubber gain two points (commonly called the rubber points), in addition to the value of their games. 10. Should the rubber have consisted of three games, the value of the losers’ game is deducted from the gross number of points gained by their opponents.
] [Illustration: Fig. 3.] [Illustration: Fig. 4.] (_c_) Chambers _Popular Rhymes_, p. 36, gives a slightly different version of the verses, and says they were sung by children at their sports in Glasgow. Mactaggart alludes to this game as Bumpkin Brawly, an old dance, the dance which always ends balls; the same with the Cushion almost. Wha learned you to dance, You to dance, you to dance, Wha learned you to dance A country bumpkin brawly? My mither learned me when I was young, When I was young, when I was young, My mither learned me when I was young, The country bumpkin brawly. The tune of this song is always played to the dance, says Mactaggart, but he does not record the tune. _To bab_, in Lowland Scottish, is defined by Jamieson to mean to play backward and forward loosely; to dance.
49). XIV. I love Antimacassar, Antimacassar loves me. Put your left foot in, Put your right foot out, Shake it a little, a little, a little, And turn yourself about. --Dorsetshire (Miss M. Kimber). (_b_) A ring is formed and the children dance round, singing the first verse. They then stand till, sing the next verse, and, while singing, suit the action to the word, each child turning herself rapidly round when singing the last line. The first verse is then repeated, and the fourth sung in the same way as the second, and so on. Another way of playing is that the children do not dance round and round.
4, the player must be careful to come back on the proper side of the carrom ball, so as to get back to position 2, if possible. [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] When the player reaches the corner, there are three principal positions for accomplishing the turn. In the first shown, the spot white must be touched very lightly on the left side, the cue ball going to the cushion with a strong English on the right side. In the second position, the red ball is barely touched. The third position is a light force shot but would be a half follow if the spot white were further out. BAULK-LINE BILLIARDS. Professionals became so skilful in rail nursing that the baulk-line was introduced to keep the balls away from the rail. This is a chalk line, 10, 12, 14, or 18 inches from the cushions, according to agreement, dividing the table into eight baulk spaces, as shown in the diagram. [Illustration] It is foul if more than two successive shots are made on balls both of which are within any one of the eight interdicted spaces. Both balls being within the space, the striker can play on them once without sending either out; his next stroke must send at least one out.
|Get a man to watch all| -- | -- | | |night. | | | |27.|Perhaps that man might| -- | -- | | |fall asleep. | | | |28.| -- | -- | -- | |29.| -- | -- |What has this poor | | | | |prisoner done? | |30.| -- | -- |Stole my watch and | | | | |lost my key. | |31.| -- | -- | -- | |32.| -- | -- | -- | |33.
When it is the dealer’s turn to play to the first trick, he should take the trump card into his hand. After it has been taken up it must not be named, and any player naming it is subject to a penalty, (see Laws;) but a player may ask what the trump _=suit=_ is. If all follow suit, the highest card played wins the trick; trumps win against all other suits, and a higher trump wins a lower. The winner of the trick may lead any card he pleases for the next trick, and so on until all thirteen tricks have been played. _=Cards Played in Error=_, or dropped face upward on the table, or two or more played at once, are called _=exposed cards=_, and must be left on the table. They can be _=called=_ by the adversaries; but the fact of their being exposed does not prevent their being played when the opportunity offers. Some persons imagine that the adversaries can prevent an exposed card from being played; but such is not the case. _=Leading out of Turn.=_ Should a player lead out of turn, the adversaries may call a suit from the player in error, or from his partner, when it is next the turn of either of them to lead. American laws require the call to be made by the player on the right of the one from whom the suit is called.
Last night when we parted She was nigh broken-hearted, To-morrow we gather And a bright welcome be. Then give me your hand, love, Your hand, love, your hand, love, Then give me your hand, love, Isabella for me. Isabella, Isabella, Isabella for me. --North Derbyshire (S. O. Addy). (_b_) In the Enborne, Newbury, version (Miss Kimber) a ring is formed by the children (boys and girls) joining hands. Another child stands in the centre. The ring of children walk round while singing the verses. The singing is confined to the ring.
What do you want your pins and needles for? To mend my poke. What do you want your poke for? To put some sand in. What do you want your sand for? To sharpen knives with. What do you want your knives for? To cut all the little chickens heads off with. Here the Outsider tries to dodge past the Leader to catch one of the children at the further end of the row, the Leader meanwhile attempting to bar her progress. 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_.
The hand may be such that it is evidently impossible to avoid taking some hearts. The player must then decide whether he will play to give each of the others hearts, or will take them all himself. If he succeeds in either object he has a chance to win back his money in the ensuing Jack. In deciding on his chances to get clear without taking a single heart, the player must first consider the advisability of beginning with a heart, or with a plain suit. If hearts, he should know the probability of the heart he leads not winning the trick; if a plain suit, he should know the probability of the suit going round one or more times without hearts being discarded on it, especially if he intends to lead high cards. These chances must then be balanced one against the other and the more favourable selected. _=LEADING HEARTS ORIGINALLY.=_ 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.
| -- | -- | -- | | 39.| -- | -- | -- | | 40.| -- | -- | -- | | 41.| -- | -- | -- | | 42.| -- | -- | -- | | 43.| -- | -- | -- | | 44.| -- | -- | -- | | 45.| -- | -- | -- | | 46.| -- | -- | -- | +----+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +----+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | No.| Lincolnshire, |Sussex, Hurstmonceux.