Slam, winning all the tricks. Little Slam, winning 12 out of 13 possible. Sleeper, a bet left or placed on a dead card at Faro. Sneak, a singleton which is led for the especial purpose of ruffing the second round of the suit. Snowing the Cards, milking or fuzzing them. Soda, the first card at Faro, exposed face upward in the box before any bets are made. Splits, two cards of the same denomination coming on the same turn at Faro. Spot Stroke, a series of winning hazards with the red ball at English billiards. Square Game, one in which the cards are perfectly square, and have not been trimmed for wedges, strippers, etc. Squeezers, cards with indicators on the edges.
Some of them even resented him. He was suspected of thinking ugly thoughts of the Partners on occasion, but since none of the Partners ever thought a complaint in articulate form, the other pinlighters and the Chiefs of the Instrumentality left him alone. Underhill was still full of the wonder of their job. Happily he babbled on, What does happen to us when we planoform? Do you think it s sort of like dying? Did you ever see anybody who had his soul pulled out? Pulling souls is just a way of talking about it, said Woodley. After all these years, nobody knows whether we have souls or not. But I saw one once. I saw what Dogwood looked like when he came apart. There was something funny. It looked wet and sort of sticky as if it were bleeding and it went out of him--and you know what they did to Dogwood? They took him away, up in that part of the hospital where you and I never go--way up at the top part where the others are, where the others always have to go if they are alive after the Rats of the Up-and-Out have gotten them. Woodley sat down and lit an ancient pipe.
Pray, whose nuts will you gather away, Gather away, gather away? Pray, whose nuts will you gather away, So early in the morning? We ll gather Miss A---- s nuts away, Nuts away, nuts away, We ll gather Miss A---- s nuts away, So early in the morning. Pray, who will you send to take them away, To take them away, take them away? Pray, who will you send to take them away, So early in the morning? We ll send Miss B---- to take them away, To take them away, take them away, We ll send Miss B---- to take them away, So early in the morning. --Symondsbury, Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 226-7). [Illustration: Fig. 1.] [Illustration: Fig. 2.] (_b_) The children form in two lines of equal length, facing one another, with sufficient space between the lines to admit of their walking in line backwards and forwards towards and away from each other, as each line sings the verses allotted to it (fig. 1).
479. III. Give me a pin to stick in my chin (? cushion) To carry a lady to London; London Bridge is broken down And I must let my lady down. --Northall s _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 353. (_b_) In this game two children cross hands, grasping each other s wrists and their own as well: they thus form a seat on which a child can sit and be carried about. At the same time they sing the verse. Carrying the Queen a Letter The King and Queen have a throne formed by placing two chairs a little apart, with a shawl spread from chair to chair. A messenger is sent into the room with a letter to the Queen, who reads it, and joins the King in a courteous entreaty that the bearer of the missive will place himself between them. When he has seated himself on the shawl, up jumps the King and Queen, and down goes the messenger on the floor.
The dealer’s partner must collect the cards for the ensuing deal, and has the first right to shuffle that pack. 31. Each player after shuffling must place the cards properly collected, and face downwards, to the left of the player about to deal. 32. The dealer has always the right to shuffle last; but should a card or cards be seen during his shuffling, or whilst giving the pack to be cut, he may be compelled to reshuffle. THE DEAL. 33. Each player deals in his turn; the right of dealing goes to the left. 34. The player on the dealer’s right cuts the pack, and, in dividing it, must not leave fewer than four cards in either packet; if in cutting, or in replacing one of the two packets on the other, a card be exposed, or if there be any confusion of the cards, or a doubt as to the exact place in which the pack was divided, there must be a fresh cut.
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. _=Bidding to the Board.=_ Modern players usually adopt the practice of bidding to the board, eldest hand having the first bid. In this form of the game the points bid count to no one, and anyone can bid up to four, no matter what the scores are. No one can claim the privilege of pitching the trump for as many as bid, as each in turn must bid higher or pass. _=Playing.=_ The successful bidder has the first lead, and whatever card he plays, whether by mistake or not, is the trump suit for that deal. After that, the winner of the trick may lead any suit he pleases.
=_ _=The Rubber=_ is the best of three games. If the first two are won by the same players, the third game is not played. The winners gain a _=triple=_, or three points, if their adversaries have not scored; a _=double=_, or two points, if their adversaries are less than three scored; a _=single=_, or one point, if their adversaries have scored three or four. The winners of the rubber add two points to the value of their games, and deduct the points made by the losers, if any; the remainder being the value of the rubber. _=4.=_ _=FORMING THE TABLE.=_ A Euchre table is complete with six players. If more than four assemble, they cut for the preference, the four lowest playing the first rubber. Partners and deal are then cut for, the two lowest pairing against the two highest. The lowest deals, and has the choice of seats and cards.
_=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The trump suit and the value of the tricks settled, the player on the dealer’s left begins by leading any card he pleases. After he has played, the second player, Y, lays his hand face up on the table, and takes no further part in the play beyond availing himself of the privilege of asking his partner if he has none of a suit to which he renounces. From the moment that Y’s cards are exposed the game becomes Dummy, the dealer, Z, playing Y’s cards for him. The dealer gathers the tricks for his side; either adversary may gather for the other. The first six tricks taken by one side make a “book” and all over six count toward game. The tricks should be so laid that they can be readily counted by any player at the table. _=The Revoke.=_ Should a player fail to follow suit when able to do so, it is a revoke. Dummy cannot revoke under any circumstances; but the penalty for any other player is the loss of three tricks for each revoke made, which are taken from the side in error at the end of the hand.
E. take two moves; to repair, R.E. take ten moves. To destroy a railway culvert R.E. take one move; to repair R.E. take five moves. To destroy a river road bridge R.
There is no raising or betting of any kind. An extra hand, called _=the widow=_, is dealt face down at Whiskey Poker. The dealer gives each player and the widow five cards, one at a time, beginning on his left, and dealing to the widow just before he deals to himself. Each player in turn, beginning with the age, then examines his hand, and has the option of exchanging it for the widow; keeping it for the purpose of drawing to it; or risking his chances of winning the pool with it as it is. If he wishes to exchange, he must place his five cards face upward on the table, and take up the widow, but without showing it to any other player. The hand he abandons then becomes the widow. If he prefers to draw to his hand, he says: “_=I pass=_,” which transfers to the next player the option of taking the widow. If he wishes to stand on the merits of the hand dealt to him, without drawing to it, he _=knocks=_ on the table, which also passes the option of taking the widow to the next player on his left. If any player takes the widow, the next player on his left can do any one of three things: He may discard from his own hand any card he pleases, taking one from the widow in its stead; the card which he discards being placed on the table face upward, and becoming part of the widow; or he may exchange his entire hand for the widow; or he may stand on the hand dealt him, and knock. Whether he draws one card, exchanges his entire hand, or knocks, the next player on his left has the option of drawing, exchanging, or knocking; and so on, until some player does knock.
W. Moore. ISLE OF WIGHT-- Cowes Miss E. Smith. KENT Pegge s _Alphabet of Kenticisms_. Bexley Heath Miss Morris. Crockham Hill, Deptford Miss Chase. Platt Miss Burne. Wrotham Miss D. Kimball.
=_ The usual method of cutting for partners, etc., at auction, is to shuffle the cards thoroughly, and “spread” them face downwards on the table; each candidate drawing a card, and turning it face upwards in front of him. The four cutting the lowest cards playing the first game, or rubber. [Illustration: SPREADING THE PACK.] The four having been selected, the cards are again shuffled and spread, and partners are cut for; the two lowest pairing against the two highest; the lowest of the four is the dealer, and has the choice of cards and seats. _=TIES.=_ As between cards of equal value in cutting, the heart is the lowest, diamonds next, then clubs and then spades. _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ The four players at the bridge table are indicated by letters; A and B are partners against Y and Z; Z always represents the dealer, who always makes the first bid, A being the second bidder, Y the third and B the fourth. [Illustration: +-----+ | Y | |A B| | Z | +-----+ ] _=DEALING.
The pool goes with every successful play. If the single player is unsuccessful, he does not double the pool, as in Boston, but pays into it the same amount that he loses to each adversary, over-tricks and all; so that he really loses four times the amount shown in the table. At the end of the game, or on the twelfth hand, if the caller does not succeed, he pays the pool as usual, and his adversaries then divide it amongst themselves. The _=Suggestions for Good Play=_, etc., are given in connection with Solo Whist and need no further amplification for Boston de Fontainbleau. The _=Laws=_ vary so little from those used in the regular game of Boston that it is not necessary to give an additional code, either for Fontainbleau or for French Boston, which follows. FRENCH BOSTON. _=CARDS.=_ French Boston is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as at Whist, both for cutting and playing; except that the diamond Jack is always the best trump unless diamonds are turned up, in which case the heart Jack becomes the best trump, and the diamond Jack ranks next below the diamond Queen. _=COUNTERS=_ are used as in Boston, their value being a matter of agreement before play begins.
To cry notchil is for a man to advertise that he will not be answerable for debts incurred by his wife. Cuck-ball A game at ball. The same as Pize-ball. It is sometimes called Tut-ball. --Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_. See Ball. Cuckoo A child hides and cries Cuckoo. The seekers respond-- Cuckoo cherry-tree, Catch a bird and bring it me. --Burne s _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 222.
If an adverse piece stands upon a square to which a man might be moved, and there is a vacant square beyond, the man must jump over the adverse piece to the unoccupied square, at the same time removing from the board the piece so jumped over. In the position shown in Diagram No. 1, for instance, it being White’s turn to move, he must jump over the black man, removing it from the board. Black will then have a choice of two jumps, over one man or over two, and will of course select the jump toward the right of the board first, and then over the second man, removing both from the board. A man may jump over and capture several men at one move, provided there are vacant squares between them, and beyond the last man. [Illustration: No. 1. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | ⛂ | | ⛀ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | | | ⛀ | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ ] _=Huffing.=_ If a player who can capture a piece neglects to do so, his adversary has the choice of three things:--To compel the player to take back his move and capture the piece; to huff (remove from the board,) the man that should have captured the piece; or to let the move stand, and go on with his own move. A huff does not constitute a move; the piece is simply removed from the board as a penalty, but the penalty must be enforced before the player exacting it makes his own move.
If one player has made a build of any description, it cannot be interfered with or increased except by other cards from a player’s hand, those from the table not being available. For instance: One player has built a 5 by combining two Aces on the table with a 3 from his hand. On the table are also a 2 and 4 and a following player holds a 9 and 7. He cannot use the deuce on the table to increase the build from 5 to 7, nor the 4 to increase it to 9; because that would not be building from his hand; but if he held the 4 and 9 in his hand, he could build on the 5. The simple rule to be remembered is that no combination of cards once announced, and left on the table, can be changed, except by the addition of a card from the hand of some player. _=Taking In.=_ Any player who has made a build is obliged either to win it, when it is next his turn to play, or to win something else, or to make another build. For instance: He has built a 5 into a 9 with a 4, and holds another 4; if another 5 appears on the table before it comes to his turn to play, he may build that into a 9 also, with his other 4, announcing, “Two Nines.” Or if some player should lay out a 4 he could pair it and take it in, leaving his 9 build until the next round. In the same way a player may increase or win another player’s build instead of taking in his own.
II THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN LITTLE WARFARE THE beginning of the game of Little War, as we know it, became possible with the invention of the spring breechloader gun. This priceless gift to boyhood appeared somewhen towards the end of the last century, a gun capable of hitting a toy soldier nine times out of ten at a distance of nine yards. It has completely superseded all the spiral-spring and other makes of gun hitherto used in playroom warfare. These spring breechloaders are made in various sizes and patterns, but the one used in our game is that known in England as the four-point-seven gun. It fires a wooden cylinder about an inch long, and has a screw adjustment for elevation and depression. It is an altogether elegant weapon. It was with one of these guns that the beginning of our war game was made. It was at Sandgate--in England. [Illustration: Showing a country prepared for the war game] [Illustration: Showing countries prepared for the war game] The present writer had been lunching with a friend--let me veil his identity under the initials J. K.
The accompanying diagram is drawn on the slate, and a certain figure (generally twenty) is agreed upon as game. There are two players, one takes noughts [o], the other crosses [x]. The three places drawn on the slate above the diagram are for the players each to put down marks or numbers for the games they win, the centre place being for Old Nick, or Old Tom. The object of the game is for each player to occupy three contiguous places in a row or line with either noughts or crosses, and to prevent his opponent from doing so. The diagram is of course empty when play begins. One player commences by putting his mark into either of the vacant places he prefers, the other player then places his in another, wherever he thinks he has the best opportunity to prevent his opponent getting a three, and at the same time to get a three himself; then the first player plays again, and so on alternately until all the squares are occupied, or until one of the players has a three in line. If neither player gets a three, the game is won by Old Nick, and one is scored to his name. In the diagram the result of the game is shown when won by Old Nick. Whichever player first wins a game adds Old Nick s score to his own. In some games Old Nick keeps all he wins for himself, and then most frequently wins the game.
I see no inconsistency in deploring the practice while perfecting the method. But I am a civilian, and Kriegspiel is not my proper business. I am deeply preoccupied with a novel I am writing, and so I think the best thing I can do is just to set down here all the ideas that have cropped up in my mind, in the footsteps, so to speak, of Colonel Sykes, and leave it to the military expert, if he cares to take the matter up, to reduce my scattered suggestions to a system. Now, first, it is manifest that in Little Wars there is no equivalent for rifle-fire, and that the effect of the gun-fire has no resemblance to the effect of shell. That may be altered very simply. Let the rules as to gun-fire be as they are now, but let a different projectile be used--a projectile that will drop down and stay where it falls. I find that one can buy in ironmongers shops small brass screws of various sizes and weights, but all capable of being put in the muzzle of the 4 7 guns without slipping down the barrel. If, with such a screw in the muzzle, the gun is loaded and fired, the wooden bolt remains in the gun and the screw flies and drops and stays near where it falls--its range being determined by the size and weight of screw selected by the gunner. Let us assume this is a shell, and it is quite easy to make a rule that will give the effect of its explosion. Half, or, in the case of an odd number, one more than half, of the men within three inches of this shell are dead, and if there is a gun completely within the circle of three inches radius from the shell, it is destroyed.
Twemlow). I. A dis, a dis, a green grass, A dis, a dis, a dis; Come all you pretty fair maids And dance along with us. For we are going roving, A roving in this land; We ll take this pretty fair maid, We ll take her by the hand. Ye shall get a duke, my dear, And ye shall get a drake; And ye shall get a young prince, A young prince for your sake. And if this young prince chance to die, Ye shall get another; The bells will ring, and the birds will sing, And we ll clap hands together. --Chamber s _Popular Rhymes_, pp. 137-38. II. A-diss, a-diss, a-green grass, A-diss, a-diss, a-dass; Come, my pretty fair maid, And walk along with us.
They regarded the objects upon the floor with the empty disdain of their sex for all imaginative things. But the writer had in those days a very dear friend, a man too ill for long excursions or vigorous sports (he has been dead now these six years), of a very sweet companionable disposition, a hearty jester and full of the spirit of play. To him the idea was broached more fruitfully. We got two forces of toy soldiers, set out a lumpish Encyclopaedic land upon the carpet, and began to play. We arranged to move in alternate moves: first one moved all his force and then the other; an infantry-man could move one foot at each move, a cavalry-man two, a gun two, and it might fire six shots; and if a man was moved up to touch another man, then we tossed up and decided which man was dead. So we made a game, which was not a good game, but which was very amusing once or twice. The men were packed under the lee of fat volumes, while the guns, animated by a spirit of their own, banged away at any exposed head, or prowled about in search of a shot. Occasionally men came into contact, with remarkable results. Rash is the man who trusts his life to the spin of a coin. One impossible paladin slew in succession nine men and turned defeat to victory, to the extreme exasperation of the strategist who had led those victims to their doom.
Simonetti finished licking the seam of his roach. He came forward as he lit it and blew too much smoke in my face. What you doing here? he said in a husky voice. I told Rose no dice. We need another TK like we need a hole in the head. You think I _want_ to be in this trap? I snapped at him. Say the word, Tex, and I m gone. You re fired, he said huskily. Scram! I started for the door, glad to be rid of the lot of them. Peno Rose beat me to it.
(_b_) The sport and name are very old. The Camping pightel occurs in a deed of the 30 Henry VI.--about 1486; Cullum s _Hawstead_, p. 113, where Tusser is quoted in proof, that not only was the exercise manly and salutary, but good also for the _pightel_ or meadow: In meadow or pasture (to grow the more fine) Let campers be camping in any of thine; Which if ye do suffer when low is the spring, You gain to yourself a commodious thing. --P. 65. And he says, in p. 56: Get campers a ball, To camp therewithall. Ray says that the game prevails in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. The Rev.