The considerations which must guide the player in judging the comparative value of his hand, both before and after the draw, must be left until we come to the suggestions for good play. _=THE ANTE.=_ The player to the left of the age is the one who must make the first announcement of his opinion of his hand, unless he has straddled, in which case the player on the left of the last straddler has the first “_=say=_.” If he considers his hand good enough to draw to, let us say a pair of Kings, he must place in the pool, or toward the centre of the table, double the amount of the blind, or of the last straddle, if any. This is called the ante, because it is made before playing the hand, whereas the blind is made before seeing it. The player is not restricted to double the amount of the blind or straddle; he may bet as much more as he pleases within the limit fixed at the beginning of the game. For instance: If there has been only one straddle he must put up four white counters or pass out of the game for that deal. But if he puts up the four, he may put up as many more as he pleases within the limit, which is two blues, or fifty whites. This is called _=raising the ante=_. If he does not care to pay twice the amount of the blind or straddle for the privilege of drawing cards to improve his hand, he must throw his cards face downward on the table in front of the player whose turn it will be to deal next.
Han -and-Hail. Hand in and Hand out. Handy-Croopen. Handy Dandy. Hap the Beds. Hard Buttons. Hare and Hounds. Harie Hutcheon. Hark the Robbers. Hats in Holes.
_=Playing Alone.=_ The chief peculiarity in Railroad Euchre is in playing alone. Any player announcing to play alone, whether the dealer or not, has the privilege of passing a card, face down, to his partner. In exchange for this, but without seeing it, the partner gives the best card in his hand to the lone player, passing it to him face down. If he has not a trump to give him, he can pass him an ace, or even a King. Even if this card is no better than the one discarded, the lone player cannot refuse it. If the dealer plays alone, he has two discards; the first in exchange for his partner’s best card, and then another, in exchange for the trump card, after seeing what his partner can give him. In this second discard he may get rid of the card passed to him by his partner. If the dealer’s partner plays alone, the dealer may pass him the turn-up trump, or any better card he may have in his hand. Any person having announced to play alone, either of his adversaries may play alone against him; discarding and taking partner’s best card in the same manner.
What Captain Wow liked was Underhill s friendly emotional structure, the cheerfulness and glint of wicked amusement that shot through Underhill s unconscious thought patterns, and the gaiety with which Underhill faced danger. The words, the history books, the ideas, the science--Underhill could sense all that in his own mind, reflected back from Captain Wow s mind, as so much rubbish. Miss West looked at Underhill. I bet you ve put stickum on the stones. I did not! Underhill felt his ears grow red with embarrassment. During his novitiate, he had tried to cheat in the lottery because he got particularly fond of a special Partner, a lovely young mother named Murr. It was so much easier to operate with Murr and she was so affectionate toward him that he forgot pinlighting was hard work and that he was not instructed to have a good time with his Partner. They were both designed and prepared to go into deadly battle together. One cheating had been enough. They had found him out and he had been laughed at for years.
When _=four=_ play, the partners sit opposite each other. When _=five=_ or _=seven=_ play, the maker of the trump in each deal selects his partners, and they play against the others without any change in their positions at the table. When _=six=_ play, three are partners against the other three, and the opposing players sit alternately round the table. _=STAKES.=_ If there is any stake upon the game, its amount must be settled before play begins. When _=rubbers=_ are played, it is usual to make the stake so much a rubber point. If the winners of the game are five points to their adversaries’ nothing, they win a _=treble=_, and count three rubber points. If the losers have scored one or two points only, the winners mark two points for a _=double=_. If the losers have reached three or four, the winners mark one for a _=single=_. The side winning the rubber adds two points to its score for so doing; so that the largest rubber possible is one of eight points;--two triples to nothing, and two added for the rubber.
After the second rubber, those who have played the greatest number of consecutive games give way; ties being decided by cutting. _=7.=_ _=Cutting.=_ In cutting, the ace is low, the other cards ranking, K Q J 10 9 8 7, the King being the highest. A player exposing more than one card, or cutting the Joker, must cut again. _=8.=_ _=SHUFFLING.=_ Every player has a right to shuffle the cards, the dealer last. _=9.=_ _=DEALING.
=_ Must be seven high and deuce low; without a pair, sequence or flush. It beats a straight; but loses to a flush. [Illustration: 🃇 🂦 🂥 🂳 🃒] 636 to 1 _=Skip, or Dutch Straight.=_ Any sequence of alternate cards, of various suits. Beats two pairs and a blaze. [Illustration: 🂭 🂺 🃘 🃆 🃔] 423 to 1 _=Round-the-Corner.=_ Any straight in which the ace connects the top and bottom. Beats threes; but any regular straight will beat it. [Illustration: 🂾 🂱 🃂 🃃 🃔] 848 to 1 The rank of these extra hands has evidently been assigned by guess-work. The absurdity of their appraised value will be evident if we look at the first of them, the blaze, which is usually played to beat two pairs.
” (h) A card is “played” whenever, in the course of play, it is placed or dropped face upwards on the table. (i) A trick is “turned and quitted” when all four players have turned and quitted their respective cards. LAW I.--SHUFFLING. SEC. 1. Before the cards are dealt they must be shuffled in the presence of an adversary or the umpire. SEC. 2. The pack must not be so shuffled as to expose the face of any card; if a card is so exposed the pack must be reshuffled.
An indifferent spectator, agreed on by the parties, throws up a ball, of the size of a common cricket-ball, midway between the confronted players, and makes his escape. It is the object of the players to seize and convey the ball between their own goals. The rush is therefore very great: as is sometimes the shock of the first onset, to catch the falling ball. He who first can catch or seize it speeds therefore home, pursued by his opponents (thro whom he has to make his way), aided by the jostlings and various assistances of his own _sidesmen_. If caught and held, or in imminent danger of being caught, he _throws_ the ball--but must in no case give it--to a less beleaguered friend, who, if it be not arrested in its course, or be jostled away by the eager and watchful adversaries, catches it; and he hastens homeward, in like manner pursued, annoyed, and aided, winning the notch (or snotch) if he contrive to _carry_, not _throw_, it between his goals. But this in a well-matched game is no easy achievement, and often requires much time, many doublings, detours, and exertions. I should have noticed, that if the holder of the ball be caught with the ball in his possession, he loses a _snotch_; if, therefore, he be hard pressed, he _throws_ it to a convenient friend, more free and in breath than himself. At the loss (or gain) of a _snotch_, a recommence takes place, arranging which gives the parties time to take breath. Seven or nine notches are the game--and these it will sometimes take two or three hours to win. Sometimes a large football was used--and the game was then called Kicking Camp --and if played with the shoes on, Savage Camp.
This is the more general way of playing the game. In those versions where the reply, Very well, ladies, occurs, this is sung by the line of children just before they sing, We ve come to see Jenny Jones. Sometimes, as in the Berrington and Chirbury game, two lines of children facing each other advance and retire, singing the verses. They then carry Jenny Jones to a corner, lay her down, stand in a circle round, and sing to her the last verse. In the Hants versions sent by Miss Mendham, six or eight children carry Jenny stretched out and flat, lay her down, cover her over, and then sing the last lines. The rest of the children follow them. In the Irish (Belfast) version the game is played in the same way; the funeral is arranged, when Jenny suddenly comes to life again (W. H. Patterson). In the Southampton version, after the carrying of Jenny by her head and feet to the grave, and the other children following and standing round, Jenny Jones rises up and pursues the children.
The _first_ portion only of the tune is repeated for all verses sung after the first verse. The Barnes game is sung to the same tune as the Earls Heaton (Mr. Hardy), which is printed _ante_. A version played at Barnes is almost identical with the Southampton version, and another collected by Miss Thoyts in Berkshire (_Antiquary_, vol. xxvii. p. 193) is similar to the Hanbury version. The first lines run--Choose your lover; Open the gates; Go to church, love; Kneel down, love; Say your prayers, love; Put on the ring; Stand up, love; In the ring, love; Kiss together, love. (_d_) The words of all the versions are sufficiently similar to analyse without a special form. The game appears to be purely a love and marriage game, and has probably had its origin in a ballad, and this idea is strengthened by the fact that only one version (London) has the marriage formula sung at the end, and this is probably an arbitrary addition.
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. This inordinate factor of chance eliminated play; the individual freedom of guns turned battles into scandals of crouching concealment; there was too much cover afforded by the books and vast intervals of waiting while the players took aim. And yet there was something about it....