(_c_) Miss Courtney, in _Folk-lore Journal_, v. 55, says: I thought this game was a thing of the past, but I came across some children playing it in the streets of Penzance in 1883. It belongs to the cumulative group of games, and is similar in this respect to Milking Pails, Mother, Mother, the Pot boils over, &c. There seems to be no other object in the game as now played except the pleasures of teasing and showing defiance to a mother s commands, and trying to escape the consequences of disobedience by flight, in order that the mother may chase them. The idea may be that, if she is out of breath, she cannot chastise so much. Mr. Newell (_Games_, p. 172) gives versions of a similar game. Mother Mop All the players, except one, stand two by two in front of each other, the inner ones forming an arch with their hands united--this is called the oven. The odd child is Mother Mop.
With a long suit, headed by a single honour, weak trumps, and no cards of re-entry, they prefer selecting a strengthening card for the original lead, hoping it may be of some assistance to partner by affording a successful finesse. It is claimed that it is better for a person, especially with a strong hand, to play with the knowledge that his partner is weak, than under the impression that he may be strong. Such an opening lead should warn the Third Hand to finesse deeply, to hold any tenaces he may have, and to let nothing pass him which might be too much for his weak partner to attend to. This is a very difficult game to play well, and is seldom resorted to except by the most expert. _=Deschapelles Coups.=_ It often happens that after the adverse trumps are exhausted, a player will find himself with the lead, but unable to give his partner a card of his established suit. In such cases the best course is to sacrifice the King or Queen of any suit of which he has not the Ace, in the hope that it may force the best of the suit, and leave partner with a card of re-entry. For instance: The leader has established the Club suit; his partner has exhausted the trumps, Hearts; and having no Clubs, leads the King of Spades from K x x x. If the holder of the Club suit has Spade Queen, and the King forces the Ace, the Club suit will be brought in. If he has not the Queen, the Clubs are probably hopeless.
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Then is there such a running, leaping, and flinging among them that a man might think all these dauncers had cast all shame behinde them, and were become starke mad, and out of their wits, and that they were sworne to the devil s daunce. Then must the bride keep foote with all dauncers, and refuse none, how scabbed, foule, drunken, rude, and shameless soever he be. . . . After supper must they begin to pipe and daunce again of anew. And though the young persons come once towards their rest, yet can they have no quietness. --1575 edit., fol. 59, rev.
Unless a pack be imperfect, no player has the right to call for one new pack. When fresh cards are demanded, two packs must be furnished. When they are produced during a rubber, the adversaries of the player demanding them have the choice of the new cards. If it be the beginning of a new rubber, the dealer, whether he or one of his adversaries call for the new cards, has the choice. New cards cannot be substituted after the pack has been cut for a new deal. 96. A card or cards torn or marked must be replaced by agreement or new cards furnished. BYSTANDERS. 97. While a bystander, by agreement among the players, may decide any question, he should not say anything unless appealed to; and if he make any remark which calls attention to an oversight affecting the score, or to the exaction of a penalty, he is liable to be called upon by the players to pay the stakes (not extras) lost.
_=The High Hand=_ jack pot is played whenever a hand of an agreed value, such as a flush or a full, is shown to the board; that is, called. In some places four of a kind calls for _=a round of jacks=_, every player in turn making it a jack on his deal. _=Only Two In.=_ It is a common custom in large parties, say six or seven players, to make it a jack when no one but the dealer will ante. Instead of allowing the blind to make his ante good, and draw cards against the dealer, each player contributes two white counters, the age adding one to his blind, and the cards are redealt for a jack pot. Another variety of this custom is when the blind is opposed by only one ante, to allow the age to make this player take down his two counters, and to pay two counters for him, to make it a jack. For instance: Five play, and A has the age. B and C pass, and D antes two counters. The dealer, E, says: “I pass for a jack.” A then puts up three counters, one of which is added to his blind, the other two paying D’s ante in the ensuing jack.
A person who is shown a new game cannot remember all its details, some of which may not have been explained to him even. If he tries to teach it to others while his knowledge is in this imperfect state, he will naturally invent rules of his own to cover the points he has forgotten, or has never learnt, usually borrowing ideas from games with which he is more familiar. The pupils of such a teacher pass on to others the game thus imperfectly learnt, and in a short time we have a number of corruptions creeping in, and the astonishing part of it is the insistence with which some persons will maintain that they alone have the right idea of the rules, just because so-and-so showed them the game, or because they and their immediate friends have “always played it that way.” This does not alter the fact that the fundamental principles of every game are known and can be readily found if one knows where to look for them. The author is in possession of several hundred works in various languages--English, French, German and Italian--on nothing but indoor games, comprising probably everything ever printed on the subject that is worth preserving. By tracing the history of a game and its development through the various books in which it is described, the game will always be found to belong to some distinct family, which has certain well-defined traits which must be preserved, no matter how much they may be altered in minor details. All games follow certain general principles, and the surest mark of error in the local rules of any game is inconsistency. Pinochle is a striking example of this. In many places the players will not allow the same cards to be counted twice in the trump sequence, so as to meld 190; but they will count them twice in four kings and queens. They insist on the rule of at least one fresh card from the hand for each additional meld in one case, but totally disregard it in another, as when they meld 240 for the round trip, instead of only 220.