A player who intends to take the widow, but no partners, can bid _=eight=_ and one who intends to take neither widow nor partners can bid _=fifteen=_. In this form of Euchre the scores are generally known, and 100 points is game. In some clubs it is the practice for the successful bidder to select one of his partners by asking for the holder of a certain card. For instance: B has the lead, and has bid five in hearts, holding the three best trumps, the club ace, and a losing spade. Instead of selecting his partners at random, he asks for the spade ace, and the player holding that card must say, “Here”; upon which the bidder will pass him a counter, marking him as one of his partners. CALL-ACE EUCHRE. In this variety of euchre, each player is for himself so far as the final score goes. The one who takes up the trump or orders it up, or who makes it after it is turned down, may call upon the best card of any suit but the trump. The player holding the best card of that suit must be his partner, but he does not declare himself. When the highest card of the suit asked for falls in play, the partner is disclosed.
=_ There should be two score-cards at each table. The various methods of putting down and comparing the scores can best be described in connection with the variety of competition to which they belong. It is a common practice to note the trump card on the score sheets. _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ The four players at each table are distinguished by the letters N S E W; North and South being partners against East and West. West should always be the dealer in the first hand, North having the original lead. In all published illustrative hands, North is the leader, unless otherwise specified. The deal passes in rotation to the left, and the number of hands played should always be some multiple of four, so that each player may have the original lead an equal number of times. 24 hands at each table is the usual number, and is the rule at all League tournaments. The partners and adversaries should be changed after each eight hands.
Work’s “Whist of To-day,” and “Foster’s Whist Tactics,” giving the play in the first match by correspondence; and in 1896, Val Starnes’ “Short-suit Whist,” and Howell’s “Whist Openings.” In 1897, Mitchell’s “Duplicate Whist.” In 1898, Foster’s “Common Sense in Whist,” and in 1900, Fisher Ames’ “Standard Whist.” Since then whist literature has given place to bridge. In periodical literature we find whist taken up in the pages of the “Sporting Magazine” in 1793. The London “Field” has had a card column since December 6, 1862. Proctor’s work first appeared in “Knowledge.” The “Westminster Papers” devoted a great deal of space to whist games and “jottings” every month for eleven years, beginning in April, 1868. “Whist,” a monthly journal devoted exclusively to the game, began publication in Milwaukee in 1891; but gave it up when bridge supplanted whist in popular favor. Whist rapidly became a “newspaper game.
=_ As the positions go round the table from the first bettor to the age, they become more desirable, and little need be said of them beyond the consideration of the average strength necessary for a player to _=go in=_ on. _=GOING IN.=_ There is a great difference of opinion as to the minimum value of a hand which should justify a player in drawing cards if he can do so for the usual ante. In close games many players make it a rule not to go in on less than tens, while in more liberal circles the players will draw to any pair. In determining which course to follow, the individual must be guided by his observation and judgment. Suppose five play, and A observes that B and C constantly draw to small pairs, while D and E never come in on less than tens. If A has the age, B, D, and E having anted, A may be sure that there are at least two good hands against him, and will guide himself accordingly. But if B and C are the only players in, A may safely draw to a small pair. It can be mathematically demonstrated that what is called an _=average go-in hand=_ should be at least a pair of tens; but a player who waits for tens in a liberal game, in which others are drawing to ace high, will ante himself away if there are many jack pots, and will get no calls when he gets a hand. _=BETTING.
_=Fours, and Triplets.=_ Any four cards of the same denomination, higher than a Nine, is called a Quatorze; three of any kind higher than the Nine is called a Trio, or sometimes a Brelan. As a trio is seldom mentioned without naming the denomination, it is usual to say; “Three Kings,” or “Three Jacks,” as the case may be. The 7 8 and 9 have no value except in point and sequence. The player holding the quatorze of the highest rank may score any inferior ones that he may hold, and also any trios. Should his adversary hold any intermediate ones, they are of no value. In the absence of any quatorze, the best trio decides which player shall count all the trios he may have in his hand, his adversary counting none. For instance: One player holds four Tens and three Jacks, his adversary holding triplets of Aces, Kings, and Queens. None of the latter would be of any value, as the lowest quatorze is better than the highest trio, and the player with the four Tens could count his three Jacks also. Pairs have no value.
Kenrick in his Review of Dr. Johnson s Shakespeare, 1765, on rules for seemly behaviour, in which the forfeits imposed by barbers as penalties for handling razors, &c, are set forth. Although barbers forfeits are not of the same nature as the nursery forfeits, it is possible that this general custom among so important a class of the community in early times as barbers may have suggested the game. Both Forby in his _Vocabulary of East Anglia_ and Moor in his _Suffolk Words_ bear testimony to the general prevalence of barbers forfeits, and it must be borne in mind that barbers were also surgeons in early days. A curious custom is also recorded in another East Anglian word-list, which may throw light upon the origin of the game from popular custom. A forfeit is incurred by using the word water in a brew-house, where you must say liquor; or by using the word grease in a chandlery, where it is stuff or metal. The forfeit is to propitiate the offended _genius loci_ (Spurden s _East Anglian Vocabulary_). The element of divination in the custom is perhaps indicated by a curious note from Waldron, in his _Description of the Isle of Man_ (_Works_, p. 55), There is not a barn unoccupied the whole twelve days, every parish hiring fiddlers at the public charge. On Twelfth Day the fiddler lays his head on some of the wenches laps, and a third person asks who such a maid or such a maid shall marry, naming the girls then present one after another; to which he answers according to his own whim, or agreeable to the intimacies he has taken notice of during this time of merriment.
The others must follow suit if they can, but they are not obliged to head the trick. If a player cannot follow suit, he must trump, and if the third player cannot follow suit either, he must play a trump, but he is not obliged to over-trump unless he likes. The eleven tricks played, each side turns over the cards taken in and counts the points. For every point the single player gets over 60 he must be paid a counter by each of the others who held cards. But if he does not get 60, he must pay each of the others at the table, including those who held no cards, if any, a counter for every point his adversaries get over 60. _=Chico=_ outbids Frog. The player offering this game can name any suit for the trump except hearts, but he must not touch the widow, although the points in it will count for him at the end. Each point under or over 60 is worth two counters in Chico. _=Grand=_ outbids Chico, and is the highest bid possible. Hearts must be trumps, and the player offering this game must not touch the widow until the play is finished.
This rhyme is repeated when it is decided to begin any game, as a general call to the players. The above writer says it occurs in a very ancient MS., but does not give any reference to it. Halliwell quotes the four first lines, the first line reading Boys and girls, instead of Boys, boys, from a curious ballad written about the year 1720, formerly in the possession of Mr. Crofton Croker (_Nursery Rhymes_). Chambers also gives this rhyme (_Popular Rhymes_, p. 152). Branks A game formerly common at fairs, called also Hit my Legs and miss my Pegs. --Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_. Bridgeboard [Illustration] A game at marbles.
| -- | -- | -- | | 4.| -- | -- | -- | | 5.|L. B. is broken down. |L. B. is broken down. |L. B.
” The pone pegs the go without playing, which shows that he is also unable to play, having nothing so small as a Seven. Both then turn down the cards already played, and the one whose turn it is to play begins all over again with his remaining cards or card, announcing its face value, his adversary playing after him until their cards are exhausted or they reach another 31. To continue the foregoing example, let us suppose the dealer to play one of his Nines. The pone plays a Jack, and announces “Nineteen.” The dealer plays his remaining Nine, and calls “Twenty-eight.” The pone tells him to go, and he pegs one. These three cards are turned down. The pone then plays a Ten, and the dealer marks one for the last card. The hands and crib are then shown. If either player can reach exactly 31, he scores two points for it, whether he has been told to go or not.
It has been repeatedly remarked that in all the published hands at whist which have been played in duplicate, or even four times over, with the same cards, no two have been alike. It would be useless to formulate rules intended to cover every case that might arise, because the conditions are frequently too complicated to allow the average human intellect to select the exact rule which would apply. All that can be done to assist the beginner is to state certain general principles which are well recognised as fundamental, and to leave the rest to experience and practice at the whist table. _=GENERAL PRINCIPLES.=_ Nothing obstructs the progress of the beginner so much as his attempts to cover all the ground at once. The more ambitious he is, the greater his necessity for keeping in view the maxim; “One thing at a time: all things in succession.” One must master the scales before he can produce the perfect melody. The novice should first thoroughly understand the object, and the fundamental principle of the game. _=The Object=_ is to win tricks. Not to give information, or to count the hands, or to remember every card played; but simply and only to win tricks.
The length of each stroke is measured before the ball is returned, by means of a cord made fast at one end near the trap, the other being stretched into the field by a person stationed there for that purpose, who adjusts it to the ball wherever it may lie. In a work entitled the _Costumes of Yorkshire_ this game is described and represented as Nor and Spell. The little wooden ball used in this game is in Yorkshire called the Nor, and the receptacle in which it is placed the Spell. Peacock (_Manley and Corringham Glossary_) gives knur, (1) a hard wooden ball, (2) the head. Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_) says knur is a small round ball, less than a billiard ball. It is put into a cup fixed on a spring which, being touched, causes the ball to rise into the air, when it is struck by a trip-stick, a slender stick made broad and flat at one end. The knur is struck by the broad part. The game is played on Shrove Tuesday. Brogden (_Provincial Words of Lincolnshire_) gives it under Bandy. It is called Knur, Spell, and Kibble in S.
When the next verse is sung they return, and again stand in the centre. At the next verse the boy pretends to put a ring on the girl s finger. They walk out of the ring when told to go to church (two children in the ring unclasping hands to let them walk out, and again clasping hands after they return), and kiss each other and shake hands when the two next verses are sung. The child who was first in the centre then joins the ring, and the game proceeds in the same way with the second child, who chooses in his turn. All the other versions follow the same rules, suiting their actions to the words, except Ogbourne, Wilts, in which the two children in the centre sing the verse, roast beef and plum pudding. They stand face to face, take hold of each other s hands, and sway their arms from side to side. The ring then sing the concluding verse. In those versions where say your prayers and kneel down occur, the two centre children kneel, and hold their open hands together in front of them to imitate a book. In the London version (A. B.
=_ The first card must be played before dummy’s hand is exposed. _=OPENING LEADS.=_ The position which we have first to consider is that of the eldest hand, usually designated by the letter “A,” who sits on the declarer’s left. [Illustration: Pone +-------+ | B | Dummy |Y Z| Declarer | A | +-------+ Leader ] _=Selecting the Suit to Lead.=_ If your partner has declared a suit, lead the best card you hold of it, regardless of number, unless you have an ace-king suit of your own, in which case lead the king first and have a look at dummy. If partner has not declared anything, lead your own suit. With high cards not in sequence, such as ace-queen, king-jack, or even queen-ten, in every suit but trumps, lead the trump. There is a great difference between playing against a trump declaration and against no-trumpers; because in the first case the leader is opposed to unusual trump strength and his object must be to make what he can of his winning cards, before the declarer gets into the lead and discards his weak suits, so as to be ready to trump them. But in the second case, there being no trumps, the leader’s object should be to get a suit established against the dealer, if he can, and the longer the suit is, the better. The dealer’s strength in a no-trumper is usually scattered, and he may often be found with a weak or missing suit, which is generally the suit in which the eldest hand or his partner is long.
_=PLAYERS.=_ Two, three or four persons can play Chinese Whist. When three play, the spade deuce is thrown out of the pack. Partners and deal are cut for from an outspread pack, as at Whist. _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ When four play, the partners sit opposite each other. When three play, the one cutting the lowest card chooses his seat, and dictates the positions of the two other players. _=DEALING.=_ When four play, the pack is shuffled and cut as at Whist. The dealer then gives six cards to each player, one at a time, beginning on his left.
gutenberg.org/contact Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with the IRS. The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate.
--Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_; and see Brogden s _Lincolnshire Words_. Chucks A game with marbles played by girls (Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_). A writer in _Blackwood s Magazine_, August 1821, p. 36, says Chucks is played with a bowl and chucks--a species of shells (_Buccinum lapillus_) found on the sea-shore [ bowl here probably means a marble]. Brockett (_North Country Words_) says this game is played by girls with five sea-shells called chucks, and sometimes with pebbles, called chuckie-stanes. Jamieson says a number of pebbles are spread on a flat stone; one of them is tossed up, and a certain number must be gathered and the falling one caught by the same hand. See Checkstones, Fivestones. Church and Mice A game played in Fifeshire; said to be the same with the Sow in the Kirk. --Jamieson. Click Two Homes opposite each other are selected, and a boy either volunteers to go Click, or the last one in a race between the Homes does so.
Where s the cat? In the wood. Where s the wood? Fire burnt it. Where s the fire? Moo-cow drank it. Where s the moo-cow? Butcher killed it. Where s the butcher? Eating nuts behind the door, and you may have the nutshells. --London (Miss Dendy, from a maid-servant). II. Please, mother, may I go a-maying? Why, daughter, why? Because it is my sister s birthday. Make three pretty curtseys and walk away. Where is your may? I met puss, and puss met me, and puss took all my may away.