A lookout sits on the right of the dealer to see that he pays and takes correctly, and to watch that no bets are changed, or coppers slipped off, during the turn. _=Splits.=_ If two cards of the same denomination win and lose on the same turn, it is a split, and the dealer takes half the bets on the split card, no matter whether it is bet to win or lose. Splits should come about three times in two deals if the cards are honestly dealt. _=Keeping Cases.=_ As the cards are withdrawn from the box they are marked on a case-keeper, which is a suit of thirteen cards, with four buttons running on a steel rod opposite each of them. As the cards come out, these buttons are pushed along, so that the player may know how many of each card are still to come, and what cards are left in for the last turn. In brace games, when the cards are pulled out two at a time to change the run of them, the case-keeper is always a confederate of the dealer, and is signalled what cards have been pulled out under the cards shown, so that he can secretly mark them up. A bet placed or left upon a card of which none are left in the box is called a _=sleeper=_, and is public property; the first man that can get his hands on it keeps it. When only one card of any denomination is in the box, it is obvious that such a card cannot be split, and that the bank has no advantage of the player.
Possibly the strange myths of the labyrinths might have had something to do with Hop-scotch, and a variety of the game played in England, under the name of Round Hop-scotch, was almost identical with a game described by Pliny as being played by the boys of his day. Mr. Crombie also said he believed that the early Christians adopted the general idea of the ancient game, but they not only converted it into an allegory of heaven, with Christian beliefs and Christian names; they Christianised the figure also; they abandoned the heathen labyrinth and replaced it by the form of the Basilicon, the early Christian church, dividing it into seven parts, as they believed heaven to be divided, and placing paradise, the inner sanctum of heaven, in the position of the altar, the inner sanctum of their earthly church. See Hap the Beds. Hop, Step, and Jump See Half-Hammer. Hornie A game among children in which one of the company runs after the rest having his hands clasped and his thumbs pushed out before him in resemblance of horns. The first person whom he touches with his thumbs becomes his property, joins hands with him, and aids in attempting to catch the rest: and so on until they are all made captives. Those who are at liberty still cry out, Hornie, Hornie. --Lothian (Jamieson). Jamieson says: Whether this play be a vestige of the very ancient custom of assuming the appearance and skins of animals, especially in the sports of Yule, or might be meant to symbolise the exertions made by the devil (often called Hornie ) in making sinful man his prey, and employing fellow-men as his coadjutors in this work, I cannot pretend to determine.
” Duffer, one who is not well up in the principles of the game he is playing. Dummy, the exposed hand in Dummy Whist, Bridge, or Mort. Duplicate Whist, a form of Whist in which the same hands are played by both sides, and as nearly as possible under the same conditions. Dutch It, to cross the suit at Euchre. Ecarter, F., to discard. Echoing, showing the number of trumps held when partner leads or calls; in plain suits, showing the number held when a high card is led. Edge, a corruption of the word “age,” the eldest hand. Eldest Hand, the first player to the left of the dealer in all English games; to his right in France. Encaisser, F.
If B has one, it must fall to this trick. He cannot have both, for A drew only two cards. If A has both, Y must catch his Pedro, no matter how A plays; and as long as Y does not get into the lead himself, he cannot lose his own Pedro. At trick 5, A naturally places the Pedro with Z, as Y did not save it on the King, and it is perfectly natural for A to trump with his Pedro, intending to lead the Ten to catch Z’s. A-B score nothing, not having made good their bid. Y-Z score Right and Left Pedro, and Low, 11 points; adding the 8 points bid but not made by A-B, 19 altogether. CINCH LAWS. _=Formation of Table.=_ A cinch table is complete with six players. If more than four assemble, they cut for preference, the four highest playing the first game.
When one side has nothing but the odd honour, three out of the five, it is called _=simple honours=_. The value of simple honours is always the same as two tricks. _=Slams.=_ Little Slam is made by taking twelve of the thirteen tricks; it counts 20 points. Grand Slam is made by taking the thirteen tricks, and it counts 40. Either score must be exclusive of revoke penalties. _=PENALTIES.=_ If the declarer succeeds in making his contract, he scores below the line for tricks and above the line for honours according to the table of values already given, and he scores for as many tricks as he wins, regardless of the smaller number he may have bid. But if the declarer fails to make good on his contract he scores nothing but honours as actually held, while his adversaries score 50 points penalty in the honour column for every trick by which the declaration falls short, no matter what the declaration was, but they never score anything toward game, no matter how many tricks they win, because they are not the declarers. They may, however, score slams.
See also Murray s _New English Dict._ For the different games played with marbles, see Boss Out, Bridgeboard, Bun-hole, Cob, Hogo, Holy Bang, Hundreds, Lag, Long-Tawl, Nine Holes, Ring Taw. Mary Brown I. Here we go round, ring by ring, To see poor Mary lay in the ring; Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, To see your dear mother go through the town. I won t rise, I won t rise [from off the ground], To see my poor mother go through the town. Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, To see your dear father go through the town. I won t rise, I won t rise [from off the ground], To see my dear father go through the town. Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, To see your dear sister go through the town. I won t rise, I won t rise from off the ground, To see my dear sister go through the town. Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, To see your dear brother go through the town.
Z cannot pursue the hearts, but shows his supporting minor suit, bidding three diamonds. This says to Y, “Go no trumps if you can stop the spades.” When A passes, having bid his hand on the first round, Y goes two no trumps and makes game. B leads the top of his partner’s declared suit, and A leads a fourth round, hoping to get in with the club jack. At tricks 8 and 9, B signals control in hearts. A keeps the protection in clubs to the end and saves a trick by it. Y keeps two clubs in dummy, so that if club is led, he will have one to return after he has made his diamonds. In the second example, they are playing nullos, Y declaring. The points in the play are holding the spade queen, so as to lead a diamond or a spade at trick 6. This B prevents, hoping to force two clubs on Y and Z and set the contract.
If one side had bad cards, they could offer to abandon the hand, and allow the adversaries to count a point without playing. If the adversaries refused, they were obliged to win all five tricks or lose two points. It was compulsory to win the trick if possible, and to trump, over-trump, or under-trump if the player had none of the suit led. This peculiarity survives in the games of Rams and Loo, which also belong to the euchre family. After a time we find a variation introduced in which any number from two to six could play, each for himself, and the player first winning two tricks out of the five marked the point. Later still we find the ace ranking above the King, thus becoming the best trump. If the ace was turned up, the dealer had the privilege of robbing it, or the holder of the ace of trumps could rob the turn-up, discarding any card he pleased, just as in Spoil Five. But in Triomphe the dealer turned up another card, and if that was of the trump suit the holder of the ace could rob that also, and so on until he turned a card of a different suit. This did not alter the trump, but merely stopped the robbing process. Whether or not Triomphe borrowed this feature from Spoil Five or Maw, it is now impossible to say.
When I dead-panned him, he shrugged and lowered himself into the chair beside my desk. Thought you hated snakes, Lefty, he said. A guy could get used to almost anything, Grand Master, I said. I found a cobra under my pillow when I rolled out of the sack this morning. A coral snake fell out of the folds of my towel when I went to take a shower. Somebody stashed a bushmaster here in my locker to meet me when I dressed for surgery. I m getting almost fond of snakes. Maragon semaphored doubt by squeezing his eyebrows down in a scowl. Even _real_ snakes? he protested. It s the most artful hallucination I ve ever experienced, I granted.
In addition to the foregoing conventionalities, which are proper to the leader of a suit and his partner, there are two usages which apply equally to any player at the table. These are discarding and forcing. _=Discarding.=_ When a player cannot follow suit, and does not wish to trump, his safest play is to discard whatever seems of least use to him. It is not considered good play to unguard a King or to leave an Ace alone; but this may be done if the partner is leading trumps, and there is a good established suit to keep. Beginners should be careful to preserve cards of re-entry, even if they have to discard from their good suit in order to do so. When the adversaries have shown strength in trumps, or are leading them, there is little use in keeping a long suit together. It is much better to keep guard on the suits in which they are probably strong, letting your own and your partner’s go. A player having full command of a suit, may show it to his partner by discarding the best card of it. Discarding the second-best is an indication that the player has not the best; and in general, the discard of any small card shows weakness in that suit.
And what shall we dress her in, dress her in, dress her in? And what shall we dress her in? Dress her in red. Red for the soldiers, soldiers, soldiers, Red for the soldiers, and that shan t do. [Then follow blue for the sailors, black for the mourners, and finally--] What shall we dress her in, dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in? Dress her in white. White for the dead people, dead people, dead people, White for the dead people, and that will do. --Auchencairn, Kirkcudbright (A. C. Haddon). XVII. How s poor Jenny jo, Jenny jo, Jenny jo? He s very ill. Oh, very good, very good, very good.
The next player on his left must then declare. In some places players are allowed to throw down their cards when they pass; but in first-class games a penalty of five white counters must be paid into the pool by any player abandoning his hand before the second round of declarations, as it gives an undue advantage to players with medium hands to know that they have only a limited number of possible opponents. For instance: If six play, and the first three not only pass, but throw down and abandon their cards, a player with a pair of Jacks will know that he has only two possible adversaries to draw against him, which will so increase his chances that it may materially alter his betting. If no one acknowledges to holding Jacks or better, the pot is fattened, and the cards are reshuffled and dealt. The best practice is for the same dealer to deal again until some one gets Jacks or better. This is called _=dealing off the jack=_. If any player has forfeited his right in one deal, such as by having a foul hand, that does not prevent him coming into the pot again on the next deal with rights equal to the other players. If any player holds Jacks or better, he can open the pot, or “the jack,” for any amount he pleases within the betting limit. The expression “open” is used because after one player has declared that he holds Jacks or better, all restrictions are removed, and the pool is then open to any player to come in and play for it, regardless of what he may hold. Each player in turn, beginning on the left of the opener, must declare whether or not he will _=stay=_.
All this favoured the attack and led to a livelier game. Our next step was to abolish the tedium due to the elaborate aiming of the guns, by fixing a time limit for every move. We made this an outside limit at first, ten minutes, but afterwards we discovered that it made the game much more warlike to cut the time down to a length that would barely permit a slow-moving player to fire all his guns and move all his men. This led to small bodies of men lagging and getting left, to careless exposures, to rapid, less accurate shooting, and just that eventfulness one would expect in the hurry and passion of real fighting. It also made the game brisker. We have since also made a limit, sometimes of four minutes, sometimes of five minutes, to the interval for adjustment and deliberation after one move is finished and before the next move begins. This further removes the game from the chess category, and approximates it to the likeness of active service. Most of a general s decisions, once a fight has begun, must be made in such brief intervals of time. (But we leave unlimited time at the outset for the planning.) As to our time-keeping, we catch a visitor with a stop-watch if we can, and if we cannot, we use a fair-sized clock with a second-hand: the player not moving says Go, and warns at the last two minutes, last minute, and last thirty seconds.
Bone-yard, the stock at dominoes. Book, the first six tricks taken by either side at Whist which do not count toward game. Both Ends against the Middle, a system of trimming cards for dealing a brace game of Faro. Brace Game, a conspiracy between the dealer and the case-keeper at Faro, so that cards improperly taken from the dealing box shall be properly marked by the case-keeper. Break. In Billiards, a succession of counting shots made by one player, usually called a “run” in America. In Ten Pins, a break is a failure to make either a strike or a spare. Break Even, a system of playing Faro, betting each card to win or lose an even number of times. Brelan, F., three cards of the same denomination.
He could, for instance, choose 100 infantry and 5 guns, or 100 cavalry and no guns, or 60 infantry, 40 cavalry, and 3 guns. In the result, a Boer-like cavalry force of 80 with 3 guns suffered defeat at the hands of 110 infantry with 4. SIZE OF THE SOLDIERS The soldiers used should be all of one size. The best British makers have standardised sizes, and sell infantry and cavalry in exactly proportioned dimensions; the infantry being nearly two inches tall. There is a lighter, cheaper make of perhaps an inch and a half high that is also available. Foreign-made soldiers are of variable sizes. IV THE BATTLE OF HOOK S FARM AND now, having given all the exact science of our war game, having told something of the development of this warfare, let me here set out the particulars of an exemplary game. And suddenly your author changes. He changes into what perhaps he might have been--under different circumstances. His inky fingers become large, manly hands, his drooping scholastic back stiffens, his elbows go out, his etiolated complexion corrugates and darkens, his moustaches increase and grow and spread, and curl up horribly; a large, red scar, a sabre cut, grows lurid over one eye.
| 14TH. |PAISLEY. | CORNER. | CORNER. | SOUTER. | | | | | | | | | | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-16 | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-15 | | 23 19 | 22 17 | 23 19 | 24 19 | 24 19 | 22 18 | 23 19 | | 8-11 | 8-11 | 8-11 | | | | 9-14 | | 22 17 | 17 13 | 22 17 | | | | 22 17 | | 9-13 | 15-18 | 4- 8 | | | | 6- 9 | +=========+=========+=========+=========+=========+=========+=========+ | | | WILL O’ | WHITE | | |SWITCHER.|WHILTER. |THE WISP.| DYKE. | IRREGULAR OPENINGS.