Look, Rose, he gasped. I want out. Bad enough that our losses can t be stopped by this creep Smythe. Now you drag in another TK. Buy me out! What s a business worth that s losing its shirt? Rose sneered. We were in clover, you fool, till this cross-roader got to us. This is our only chance to get even. That finished Simonetti. He went back to his desk and slumped against it, scowling at the points of his handtooled boots. * * * * * Rose looked over at me.
The maximum is 20. FOUR BACK. [Illustration: 4 3 2 1 O O O O ] The pins are spotted as above. Three balls (not exceeding 6 inches in size) are allotted to each inning. Each pin counts as spotted, and only one pin can be made at a time; if more than one pin is made with one ball, it is termed a break, and the player loses that inning and scores nothing. There are no penalties. The dead wood must be removed. Any pins knocked down through the dead wood remaining on the alley cannot be placed to the credit of the players. TEN PINS--HEAD PIN OUT. ALSO KNOWN AS AMERICAN NINE PINS.
=_ This is the most important thing in the five-card game, and it is much more important to baulk your adversary’s crib than to preserve your own hand. The best baulking cards are a King with a 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 or A. Never lay out a Jack, nor two cards which form a five, nor any pair, nor any two close cards. In laying out for your own crib, Fives, Sevens and Eights are the best. Any pair, any two cards that make five or fifteen, and any close cards are also good. Keep pairs royal and runs in your hand, and do not forget that a flush of three counts in the hand; but the starter must agree to make a flush in the crib. _=Playing Off and On.=_ The pegging in play is usually small; 2 for the dealer, and an average of 1½ for the non-dealer, hence the importance of the go. The average hand is a little less than 5, and the crib about 5. The player is at home if he has pegged 17 in two deals, his own and his adversary’s.
For instance: Second Hand holds A J of a suit in which King is led; Third Hand plays the Four; Fourth Hand plays the Nine. The leader remains with Q 3 2; Third Hand still has 8 7 6 5; and if he has also the 10, Fourth Hand has no more. Again: The leader shows a suit of six; Second Hand holding two only. If the suit is led a third time it is a doubtful trick, and with four trumps the Second Hand should pass. If the leader shows the exact number of the suit originally led, and then changes to a four-card suit, the adversaries know at least nine of his cards. So obvious is this that it is an almost invariable rule for a player, on quitting his suit, to conceal the length of the second suit led by leading the highest card of a short suit. If it were allowable to exercise some judgment in using these leads, they might not be open to so many objections; but they are worse than useless unless the partner can depend on their being uniformly adopted. _=The Minneapolis Lead.=_ This is another variation in the leads, which is confined to one combination; that of Ace and any four other cards, not including the King. With strength in trumps the fourth-best is led instead of the Ace, the theory being that the Ace is more likely to be valuable on the second or third round of such a suit than on the first, and that the trump strength justifies the finesse of the original lead.
To limber up guns = half a move. Rivers are impassable to guns. NEITHER INFANTRY, CAVALRY, NOR ARTILLERY CAN FIRE AND MOVE IN ONE MOVE. Royal Engineers. No repairs can be commenced, no destructions can be begun, during a move in which R.E. have changed position. Rivers impassable. Transport and Supply. No supplies or stores can be delivered during a move if T.
There are two principal uses for trumps. The most attractive to the beginner is that of ruffing the adversaries’ winning cards; and the most important to the expert is leading trumps to prevent this. No matter how strong or well established a plain suit may be, it is of uncertain value as long as the adversaries have any trumps with which to stop it. A suit is established when you can probably take every trick in it. If a player with a good established suit is sufficiently strong to make it probable that he can, with his partner’s assistance, exhaust the adverse trumps, he should do so by leading trumps. If they are probably stronger than he, he must _=force=_ them, by leading the established suit which they will be compelled to trump, weakening their hands and gradually reducing their trump strength until it is possible to exhaust what remains by leading. It being to the advantage of the player with a good suit to exhaust the trumps, it must be desirable to his adversaries to keep theirs, if possible, for the purpose of ruffing this good suit. Trumps are also useful as cards of re-entry, when a player has an established suit, but has not the lead; their most important use, however, is in defending or stopping established suits. _=Rules for Leading Trumps.=_ With five or more trumps, the beginner should always begin by leading them, regardless of the rest of his hand.
At Charminster the dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who dances about the room with a cushion in his hand, and at the end of the tune stops and sings:-- Man: This dance it will no further go. Musician: I pray you, good sir, why say you so? Man: Because Joan Sanderson will not come to. Musician: She must come to, and she shall come to, And she must come whether she will or no. Then the following words are sung as in the first example:-- Man: Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome. Both: Prinkum-prankum is a fine dance, And shall we go dance it once again, And once again, And shall we go dance it once again? Woman: This dance it will no further go. Musician: I pray you, madam, why say you so? Woman: Because John Sanderson will not come to. Musician: He must come to, and he shall come to, And he must come whether he will or no. And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who, kneeling upon it, salutes her, she singing-- Welcome, John Sanderson, &c. Then, he taking up the cushion, they take hands and dance round singing as before; and this they do till the whole company is taken into the ring. Then the cushion is laid down before the first man, the woman singing, This dance, &c.
Selecting one of the girls, he threw the handkerchief into her lap, or put it round her neck, holding both ends himself. Some spread the handkerchief on the floor at the feet of the girl. The object in either case was to secure a kiss, which, however, was not given without a struggle, the girls cheering their companion at every unsuccessful attempt which the boy made (fig. 2). A girl then took the handkerchief, singing the next verse (fig. 3), and having thrown the handkerchief to one of the boys, she went off to her own side among the girls, and was pursued by the chosen boy (fig. 4). When all were thus paired, they formed into line, facing each other, and danced somewhat like the country dance of Sir Roger. [Illustration: Fig. 1.
AMERICAN SKAT. In this variation, now so largely played, the highest bidder always sees the skat before announcing his game. Although a gucki, it need not be a grand, but may be solo or nullo if he likes. If he wins the game he announces the scores as usual; but if he loses he always loses double. He may announce schneider or schwarz after discarding for the skat. If he makes an announced schneider, it doubles the value of his game, instead of simply adding a multiplier. An announced schwarz trebles it. For example: Spade solo with 1, schneider announced. His game is 1 for game, 1 for schneider, without 1, 3 × 11 = 33, doubled for announcing schneider, 66. If lost, it costs 132.
If, without waiting for his partner to play, either of the declarer’s adversaries play or lead a winning card, as against the declarer and dummy and continue (without waiting for his partner to play) to lead several such cards, the declarer may demand that the partner of the player in fault win, if he can, the first or any other of these tricks. The other cards thus improperly played are exposed. 72. If either or both of the declarer’s adversaries throw his or their cards face upward on the table, such cards are exposed and liable to be called; but if either adversary retain his hand, he cannot be forced to abandon it. Cards exposed by the declarer are not liable to be called. If the declarer say, “I have the rest,” or any words indicating the remaining tricks or any number thereof are his, he may be required to place his cards face upward on the table. He is not then allowed to call any cards his adversaries may have exposed, nor to take any finesse not previously proved a winner unless he announce it when making his claim. 73. If a player who has rendered himself liable to have the highest or lowest of a suit called (Laws 80, 86, and 92) fail to play as directed, or if, when called on to lead one suit, he lead another, having in his hand one or more cards of the suit demanded (Laws 66, 76, and 93), or if, when called upon to win or lose a trick, he fail to do so when he can (Laws 71, 80, and 92), or if, when called upon not to play a suit, he fail to play as directed (Laws 65 and 66), he is liable to the penalty for revoke (Law 84) unless such play be corrected before the trick be turned and quitted. 74.
Three honours on one side and three Aces on the other would be a tie, and no honours to score. If the Aces are a tie, the side that wins the most tricks scores them. Suppose the bidder has three honours and two Aces. He scores five honours if he wins the odd trick; otherwise he scores one only, the Aces being a tie and he having only one more honour than his adversaries. In no-trump hands, the honours are worth 25 times the value of the tricks. If Aces are easy, neither side scores. If one has three Aces, they are all scored. Suppose the bid to have been “two at no-trumps,” then the Aces are worth 25 times 20, and three of them are worth 1,500 points. _=Coronets.=_ A sequence of three or more cards in any suit, trumps or plain, held by an individual player, is a coronet.
For illegally capturing an adversary’s man, the offender must move his King, or legally capture the man, as his opponent may elect. For attempting to Castle illegally, the player doing so must move either the King or Rook, as his adversary may dictate. For touching more than one of the player’s own men, he must move either man that his opponent may name. For touching more than one of the adversary’s men, the offender must capture the one named by his opponent, or if _either_ cannot be captured, he may be required to move the King or capture the man which can be taken, at the adversary’s option; or, if _neither_ can be captured, then the King must be moved. A player moving into check may be required, by the opposing player, either to move the King elsewhere, or replace the King and make some other move--but such other move shall not be selected by the player imposing the penalty. For discovering check on his own King, the player must either legally move the man touched, or move the King at his adversary’s option. In case neither move can be made, there shall be no penalty. While in check, for touching or moving a man which does not cover the check, the player may be required to cover with another piece, or move the King, as the opposing player may elect. _=Touching the Squares.=_ While the hand remains upon a man, it may be moved to any square that it commands, except such squares as may have been touched by it during the deliberation on the move; but if all the squares which it commands have been so touched, then the man must be played to such of the squares as the adversary may elect.
This makes the game too much like Auction Pitch, and spoils some of the finer points in leading. _=Low=_ is sometimes counted for the person to whom it is dealt. Such a rule causes endless confusion and disputes. The old method of _=scoring=_ has already been mentioned. Another variation is that if the bidder’s side do not make at least 8 points they cannot score anything, no matter what they bid. If both sides score 7, neither having bid more than 7, neither scores. If one side bids 6, and makes 8, it scores 8; but the adversaries score the 6 they make. If the side bidding 6 had made 6 only, it would score nothing, while their adversaries would mark the 8 they made. The only good result of the 6 bid in this case is to prevent the adversaries from scoring for a failure; for if 7 had been bid, and only 6 made, the adversaries would have scored the 7 bid in addition to the 8 they made, or 15 in all. This system, while better than the old way, because it never sets players back, still allows one side to sweat out; because if the bidder does not make 14, the adversaries must count something every deal.
The 7 red counters lost by A and Y being divided, shows a loss of 35 white counters for each of them. If three players take four tricks apiece, they each pay the fourth man a red counter. _=WINNING THE POOL.=_ Besides the white counters won and lost by the players individually, the successful caller takes the pool, provided he has made a bid of seven tricks or better, which is called _=a pool bid=_. Any lower bid does not entitle him to the pool, unless the other players compel him to play the hand out. In order to save the pool, it is usual for the adversaries, before playing to the second trick, to say: “_=I pay.=_” If all agree to pay, the bidder must accept the amount of his bid without any over-tricks, and the pool is not touched. If a player has made a pool bid, and the adversaries, before playing to the second trick, agree to pay, they cannot prevent the caller from taking the pool; but they save possible over-tricks. The agreement of the adversaries to pay must be unanimous. Misère Partout does not touch the pool.
Draw a bucket of water For my lady s daughter; One go rush, and the other go hush, Pretty young lady, bop under my bush. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). IX. Draw a bucket of water For the farmer s daughter; Give a gold ring and a silver watch, Pray, young lady, pop under. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). X. Draw a bucket of water For my lady s daughter; A guinea gold ring And a silver pin, So pray, my young lady, pop under. --Haydon (Herbert Hardy). XI. Draw a bucket of water To wash my lady s garter; A guinea gold ring And a silver pin, Please, little girl, pop under.
” 7 ” 6 to 1. As an example of the value of a thorough knowledge of these odds to a careful player, suppose he had to win two rounds of a plain suit, of which he held six cards; or to lead the ♡7, having three higher. The suit would be the better play, because it takes in only one heart, while the lead of the heart might take in four. The following table shows the exact number of times in 1,000 deals that a heart would probably be discarded on a plain suit led, according to the number of cards in the suit held by the leader, and the number of times the suit was led: Cards held by the leader. | 1,2,3,4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 ----------------------------------+---------+------+------+------+----- Times hearts will be discarded:-- | | | | | On first round | 44 | 63 | 122 | 200 | 315 On second round | 358 | 430 | 659 | 857 | 1000 On third round | 842 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 This shows that 158 times in 1,000, when the leader has 1, 2, 3, or 4 cards of the suit, it will go round three times, because 158 is the balance necessary to bring our last figure, 842, up to 1,000. Reducing this to a small fraction, the odds are about 5⅛ to 1 that a suit will not go round three times without affording to some player the chance of discarding hearts on it. This calculation shows the hopeless nature of all hands that contain at least three cards of each suit, unless the smallest card in every suit is below a 6; for if any one of the suits is led three times, it is even betting that you will have to win the third round, and 5⅛ to 1 that you get a heart on it if you do. _=PLAIN-SUIT LEADS.=_ The favourite lead with most heart players is a singleton; or, failing that, a two-card suit. This is a mistake, unless the singleton is a high card; for if the adversaries are sharp players they will at once suspect the nature of the lead, and carefully avoid the suit.
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. But I think it would not be difficult to procure a cheap clock--because, of course, no one wants a very accurate agreement with Greenwich as to the length of a second--that would have minutes instead of hours and seconds instead of minutes, and that would ping at the end of every minute and discharge an alarm note at the end of the move. That would abolish the rather boring strain of time-keeping. One could just watch the fighting. Moreover, in our desire to bring the game to a climax, we decided that instead of a fight to a finish we would fight to some determined point, and we found very good sport in supposing that the arrival of three men of one force upon the back line of the opponent s side of the country was of such strategic importance as to determine the battle.
V. How do you luby lue, How do you luby lue, How do you luby lue, O er the Saturday night? Put your right hand in, Put your right hand out, Shake it in the middle, And turn yourselves about. --Lady C. Gurdon s Suffolk _County Folk-lore_, p. 64. [Repeat this for left hand, right foot, left foot, heads, and put yourselves in. ] VI. Can you dance looby, looby, Can you dance looby, looby, Can you dance looby, looby, All on a Friday night? You put your right foot in, And then you take it out, And wag it, and wag it, and wag it, Then turn and turn about. --Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_. VII.
36, as being played in Edinburgh when he was a boy. Hood A game played at Haxey, in the Isle of Axholme, on the 6th of January. The Hood is a piece of sacking, rolled tightly up and well corded, and which weighs about six pounds. This is taken into an open field on the north side of the church, to be contended for by the youths assembled for that purpose. When the Hood is about to be thrown up, the Plough-bullocks or Boggins, as they are called, dressed in scarlet jackets, are placed amongst the crowd at certain distances. Their persons are sacred, and if amidst the general row the Hood falls into the hands of one of them, the sport begins again. The object of the person who seizes the Hood is to carry off the prize to some public-house in the town, where he is rewarded with such liquor as he chooses to call for. This pastime is said to have been instituted by the Mowbrays, and that the person who furnished the Hood did so as a tenure by which he held some land under the lord. How far this tradition may be founded on fact I do not know, but no person now acknowledges to hold any land by that tenure.--Stonehouse s _Isle of Axholme_, p.
, gave us “Bridge and How to Play It,” and John Doe published “Bridge Conventions,” A.G. Hulme-Beaman’s “Bridge for Beginners” appearing in the same year. In 1900, “Foster’s Bridge Manual” appeared in America, reprinted in England under the title of “Foster on Bridge.” In the years following, text-books on bridge came from the press by the dozen, the most notable authors being Dalton and “Hellespont” in 1901; Elwell and Robertson in 1902; Street and Lister in 1903. Many of the writers already mentioned published later and more complete works, embodying the results of time and experience. Foster’s Self-playing Bridge Cards were brought out in 1903. Elwell’s “Advanced Bridge” appeared in 1904 and Foster’s “Complete Bridge” in 1905. While bridge has never been such a popular “newspaper game” as whist was in America, it has been much more so in England. Articles on bridge, for beginners chiefly, were published in 1905 and 1906 by the San Francisco Call, Pittsburgh Post Despatch, Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, Chicago Journal, St.
There was the same old racket. The burnt out voice of a chanteuse, coming over the PA system from the dining room, tried to remember the sultry insouciance with which it had sung Eadie was a Lady in its youth. Waiters in dude-ranch getups swivel-hipped from table to table like wraithes through the mob of gamblers, trays of free drinks in their hands. This time Pheola didn t have the same greedy grab for the _hors d oeuvres_. She d wrapped herself around a couple pounds of high-quality protein before we had come to the casino. The gamblers were urging the dice with the same old calls, and the stick-men were chanting: Coming out! Five s the point! And _seven_! The dice pass! and all the rest. The ivories had a way to go before they reached us. I gave Pheola a stack of ten-buck chips and let her bet, without making any effort to tip the dice. She still had it. She moved the chips back and forth from Pass to Don t Pass and won at every roll.
At the beginning of the game the men move only one square at a time, and always forward, and can be placed only on squares which are unoccupied. 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.
of Provincialisms_. Brockett (_North Country Words_, p. 115) calls this Kitty-Cat, a puerile game. Then in his hand he takes a thick bat, With which he used to play at Kit-Cat --Cotton s _Works_, 1734, p. 88. See Cat and Dog, Cudgel, Munshets, Tip-Cat. Kit-Cat-Cannio A sedentary game, played by two, with slate and pencil, or pencil and paper. It is won by the party who can first get three marks ([o] s or [x] s) in a line; the marks being made alternately by the players [o] or [x] in one of the nine spots equidistant in three rows, when complete. He who begins has the advantage, as he can contrive to get his mark in the middle.--Moor s _Suffolk Words_.