With short suits, such as K x, Q x; or even with King or Queen alone, the honour is a good lead if Dummy has no court cards in the suit. The Queen is rather a better lead than the King, the only danger being that second hand holds fourchette. With Q J x, or J 10 x, one of the high cards should be played. With Q 10 x, Dummy having Ace or King, the Queen should be led. With K 10 x, Dummy having Jack, the suit should not be led. With such combinations as K x x x, Dummy having Q x, the suit should not be led. When you have a suit which is both long and strong, such as A K x x x, and Dummy has no honour in the suit, it is a common artifice to underplay, by beginning with the smallest, if playing against no-trumps and you have a card of re-entry. This should not be done unless you have the general strength to justify such a finesse. If you open a long suit, Dummy having only small cards, and your partner wins with Q, J, or 10, and does not return it, he has evidently a finesse in the suit and wants it led again. _=End Games.
* * * * * _=PRUSSIAN WHIST.=_ This is the ordinary 5, 7 or 10 point whist, with or without honours, except that instead of turning up the last card for trump, the player to the left of the dealer cuts a trump from the still pack, which is shuffled and presented to him by the dealer’s partner. _=FAVOURITE WHIST.=_ This is the regular 5, 7 or 10 point whist, with or without honours, except that whichever suit is cut for the trump on the first deal of the rubber is called _=the favourite=_. Whenever the suit turns up for trump, after the first deal, tricks and honours count double towards game. There must be a new favourite at the beginning of each rubber, unless the same suit happens to be cut again. A variation is to attach a progressive value to the four suits; tricks being worth 1 point when Spades are trumps; when Clubs 2; when Diamonds 3; and when Hearts 4. Honours do not count, and the game is 10 points, made by tricks alone. The hands are played out; the winners score all tricks taken, and the winners of the rubber add 10 points for bonus. The value of the rubber is the difference between the scores of the winners and that of the losers.
Keeling the Pot Brockett mentions that a friend informed him that he had seen a game played amongst children in Northumberland the subject of which was Keeling the Pot. A girl comes in exclaiming, Mother, mother, the pot s boiling ower. The answer is, Then get the ladle and keel it. The difficulty is to get the ladle, which is up a height, and the steul wants a leg, and the joiner is either sick or dead (_Glossary North Country Words_). A sentence from _Love s Labours Lost_, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot, illustrates the use of the term keel. See Mother, Mother, the Pot Boils over. Keppy Ball In former times it was customary every year, at Easter and Whitsuntide, for the mayor, aldermen, and sheriff of Newcastle, attended by the burgesses, to go in state to a place called the Forth, a sort of mall, to countenance, if not to join in the play of Keppy ba and other sports. This diversion is still in part kept up by the young people of the town (Brockett s _North Country Words_). It is also mentioned in Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_, and in Ross and Stead s _Holderness Glossary_. Mr.
=_ Vingt-et-un is sometimes played with a pool. Each player contributes one counter at the start, and the pool is afterward fed by penalties. Every player who is créve puts in a counter; all ties with the dealer pay one, and the dealer pays one for any irregularity in dealing. The pool may be kept to pay for refreshments, like the kitty in Poker, or it may be won by the first natural shown, as may be agreed. _=Probabilities.=_ The only point in the game is for a player to know what hands to stand on, and what to draw to. The dealer is guided by the cards dealt to other players, and by what they ask for. The other players should stand on 17, but draw on 16. In practice it has been found that the odds are about 2 to 1 in favour of drawing at 16; 3 to 1 for drawing at 15. The rules for drawing, etc.
Although this method saves time, the practice is not to be recommended, as it hinders the players in counting the tricks already gained by each side. Immediately upon the completion of the play of a hand, the score should be claimed and marked. Any discussion of the play should be postponed until this has been attended to. The adversaries must detect and claim revokes before the cards are cut for the following deal. The laws of whist should be carefully studied. _=OBJECT OF THE GAME.=_ The object of all whist play is to take tricks, of which there are thirteen in each hand or deal. The first six tricks taken by one side are called a _=book=_, and do not count; but each trick above that number counts one point towards game. The seventh trick is called the _=odd=_; and two or more over the book are called _=two=_, _=three=_, etc., _=by cards=_.
To win _=Seven Tricks=_. To win one trick, neither more nor less, after having discarded a card which is not to be shown, there being no trump suit; _=Piccolissimo=_. To win _=Eight Tricks=_. To lose every trick, no trump suit, _=Grand Misère=_. To win _=Nine Tricks=_. To lose 12 tricks, after having discarded a card which is not to be shown; the single player’s remaining twelve cards being exposed face up on the table, but not liable to be called; _=Little Spread=_. To win _=Ten Tricks=_. To lose every trick, no trump suit, the single player’s cards being exposed on the table, but not liable to be called; _=Grand Spread=_. To win _=Eleven Tricks=_. To win _=Twelve Tricks=_.
If both players draw the wrong cards there is no remedy. If the loser of any trick draws and looks at two cards from the stock, his adversary may look at both cards of the following draw, and may select either for himself. If he chooses the second card, he need not show it. If, on account of some undetected irregularity, an even number of cards remain in the stock, the last card must not be drawn. The winner of the trick takes the last but one, and the loser takes the trump card. _=Irregular Announcements.=_ Should a player announce four of a kind, having only three; as, for instance, laying down three Kings and a Jack, and declaring four Kings, his adversary can compel him not only to take down the score erroneously marked, but to lead or play one of the three Kings. A player may be called upon to lead or play cards from any other erroneous declarations in the same manner; but if the player has the right card or cards in his hand, he is permitted to amend his error, provided he has not drawn a card from the stock in the meantime. _=SCORING.=_ It is better to score all points as soon as they are made.
A player having a marriage and a penchant on the table cannot afterward score for the pair of Queens; but if he adds a Queen from his hand he can score the triplet. Pairs, triplets and fours are divided into two classes, the major being formed of court cards; the minor of cards below the Jack. Minor combinations cannot be scored if the adversary has upon the table cards which form a major combination of the same or greater value in the same class; that is, in class A. For instance: If your adversary has two Queens on the table, you cannot announce any pair below Jacks. His Queens need not have been announced as a pair; they may be parts of a marriage and a penchant. But if you have on the table a pair as good as his, you can score minor pairs. For instance: He has two Kings on the table, and you have two Aces. Your Aces cancel his Kings, and you can score any minor pair; but he can not. If you have a minor triplet to declare, such as three Eights, no major pair of his will bar it, because your triplet counts more than his pair. No minor combination on his side will bar you; it must be one of court cards, and it must be better than any that you have laid on the table yourself.
If he can neither follow suit nor trump, he may discard any card he pleases. Should a player not follow suit, or should he decline to win the trick, when able to do so, it is a renounce, and if he makes the odd trick he counts nothing; if he makes all five tricks, he counts one point only, instead of two. Should he trump the trick when he can follow suit, he is subject to the same penalty. There is no such thing as a _=revoke=_ in Ecarté. When it is discovered that a player has not followed suit when able, or has lost a trick that he could have won, the cards are taken back, and the hand played over again, with the foregoing penalty for the renounce. The highest card played, if of the suit led, wins the trick, and trumps win all other suits. _=Leading Out of Turn.=_ Should a player lead out of turn, he may take back the card without penalty. If the adversary has played to the erroneous lead, the trick stands good. _=Gathering Tricks.
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. Paul Despatch, Milwaukee Journal, Baltimore American, Houston Post, Indianapolis Star, and the N.
The game does not appear to be sung. (_c_) This game is somewhat of a cumulative story, having for its finish the making angry and tormenting of a mother. All the versions point to this. One interesting point, that of milk-pails, is, it will be seen, gradually losing ground in the rhymes. Milk-pails were pails of wood suspended from a yoke worn on the milkmaid s shoulders, and these have been giving place to present-day milk-cans. Consequently we find in the rhymes only four versions in which milk-pails are used. In two versions even the sense of milking-can has been lost, and the South Shields version, sent me by little Miss Blair, has degenerated into male-scales, a thoroughly meaningless phrase. The Cowes version (Miss Smith) has arrived at wash-pan. The burden of the Chirbury version is a rea, a ria, a roses, and the Sheffield version is also remarkable: the I, O, OM refers, probably, to something now forgotten, or it may be the Hi, Ho, Ham! familiar in many nursery rhymes. The game seems to point to a period some time back, when milking was an important phase of the daily life, or perhaps to the time when it was customary for the maids and women of a village to go to the hilly districts with the cows (summer shealings) for a certain period of time.
|Suppose the man should|If the man should fall| -- | | |fall asleep. |asleep. | | |28.| -- | -- | -- | |29.| -- | -- |What has this poor | | | | |prisoner done? | |30.| -- | -- |Stole my watch and | | | | |broke my chain. | |31.| -- | -- | -- | |32.|Give him a pipe of | -- | -- | | |tobacco to smoke. | | | |33.
He kisses her, he cuddles her, He sets her on his knee, And says, My dearest darling, Do you love me? I love you and you love me; We ll both be as happy As birds on the tree. Alice made a pudding, She made it nice and sweet, Up came Charley, cut a slice off-- A slice, a slice, we don t say No; The next Monday morning the wedding goes (or is our wedding day ). I ve got knives and forks, I ve got plates and dishes, I ve got a nice young man, He breaks his heart with kisses. If poor Alice was to die, Wouldn t poor Charley, he _would_ cry. He would follow to the grave With black buttons and black crape, And a guinea for the church, And the bell shall ring. Up came the doctor, up came the cat, Up came the devil with a white straw hat. Down went the doctor, down went the cat, Down went the devil with a white straw hat.[1] --Deptford (Miss Chase). III. Up the heathery mountains and down the rushy glen We dare not go a-hunting for Connor and his men; They are all lusty bachelors but one I know, And that s [Tom Mulligan], the flower of the flock; He is the flower of the flock, he is the keeper of the glen, He courted [Kate O Neill] before he was a man; He huggled her, he guggled her, he took her on his knee, Saying, My bonnie [Kate O Neill], won t you marry me? So ---- made a pudding so nice and so sweet, Saying, Taste, love, taste, and don t say no, For next Sunday morning to church we will go.
F. Foster, 1914. Auction Developments, by Milton Work, 1914. Whitehead’s Conventions of Auction Bridge, by Wilbur C. Whitehead, 1914. WHIST. _=CARDS.=_ Whist is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, ranking A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2; the Ace being the highest in play, but ranking below the deuce in cutting. Two packs are generally used, the one being shuffled while the other is dealt. _=MARKERS=_ are necessary to keep the score.
Fourchette, the two cards immediately above and below the one led, such as K J in the second hand on a Q led. Four Signal, a method of showing four trumps, without asking for them; usually made by playing three small cards, such as 4 6 2, in that order. Fourth-best, the fourth card of a suit, counting from the top. The modern substitute for the terms penultimate, and antepenultimate. Front Stall, one who makes acquaintances for gamblers to fleece. Frozen, balls touching at billiards. Frozen Out, a player who has lost his original stake, and cannot continue in the game. Fuzzing, milking the cards instead of shuffling them. Gallery, the spectators who are betting on the game. Gambling, risking more than one can well afford to lose on any game of chance.
| -- | -- | -- | |17.| -- | -- | -- | |18.|Sweetheart is dead. |True love is dead. |True love is dead. | |19.| -- | -- | -- | |20.| -- | -- | -- | |21.| -- | -- | -- | |22.| -- | -- | -- | |23.
S. Baker (_Northants Notes and Queries_, ii. 161). (_b_) One couple is chosen to lead, and they go off, whither they will, followed by a long train of youths and maidens, all singing the refrain. Sometimes the leaders part company, and branch off to the right or left; the others have to do the same, and not until the leaders meet can they join again. They march arm in arm. (_c_) Mr. R. S. Baker, who records this, says a Wellingborough lady sent him the tune and words, and told him the game was more like a country dance than anything else, being a sort of dancing Follow My Leader.
The discarding of pairs complete, the dealer begins by spreading her remaining cards like a fan, and presenting them, face downward, to her left-hand neighbour, who must draw one card at random. The card so drawn is examined, and if it completes a pair, the two cards are discarded. Whether it forms a pair or not, the player’s cards are spread and presented to the next player on the left, to be drawn from in the same manner. This process of drawing, forming pairs, and discarding is continued until it is found that one player remains with one card. This card is of course the odd Queen, and the unfortunate holder of it is the Old Maid; but only for that deal. LIFT SMOKE. The number of players must be limited to six, each of whom deposits a counter in the pool. A full pack of fifty-two cards is used. The cards rank from the ace down to the deuce, as at Whist. If there are four players, six cards are dealt to each, one at a time; if five play, five cards to each, and if six play, four cards to each.
The exceptions are: If he holds A J alone, on a King led, the Ace should be played. If he holds A Q alone on a Ten led, the Ace should be played. With A Q x, the Ten should be passed. With Ace and small cards, the Ace should be played on the Ten. With Queen and small cards the Ten should be passed. When Third Hand plays Queen on a Ten led, it should be a certainty that he has no more of the suit. If he holds A K and only one small card, the King should be played on a Queen led. If he holds Ace and only one small card, the Ace should be played on the Jack led. If Third Hand has four trumps and a card of re-entry, the Ace should be played on Jack led, regardless of number, in older to lead trumps at once, to defend the suit. _=When Partner Leads Low Cards=_, the Third Hand should do his best to secure the trick.
303). Newell (_Games of American Children_, p. 171) also mentions it, and gives the rhyme as-- Frog in the sea, can t catch me! Gap The same as French Jackie. This game is called Tap-back or Tat-back at Bitterne, Hants. Garden Gate Children join hands and form a ring. One child stands inside the ring; this child walks round and asks one of the circle, called the Keeper-- Have you the key of the garden gate? Open and let me go through. The Keeper replies-- My next-door neighbour s got the key; Ask him and he ll give it to you. This is repeated by each one in the circle. Then the inside child comes again to the Keeper and says-- None of the neighbours have got the key, So you must let me go through. The Keeper answers-- I ve lost the key of the garden gate, And cannot let you through.
He holds the string that he may easily draw the ball back again after it is thrown. The possessor of the ball then throws it to one in the circle, calling out the name of either of the elements he pleases. This player must, before ten can be counted, give the name of an inhabitant of that element. When Fire is called, strict silence must be observed or a forfeit paid.--Cork, Ireland (Miss Keane). The players were seated in a half-circle, and the possessor of the ball faced the others. There was no string attached to the ball, but it was necessary that it should hit the child it was thrown to. When Fire was called, Salamander and Ph[oe]nix were allowed to be said. The third time Fire was called, silence was observed, and every player bowed the head. We called it Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
II. London Bridge is broken, And what shall I do for a token? Give me a pin to stick in my thumb And carry my lady to London. --_Notes and Queries_, 4th series, xii. 479. III. Give me a pin to stick in my chin (? cushion) To carry a lady to London; London Bridge is broken down And I must let my lady down. --Northall s _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 353. (_b_) In this game two children cross hands, grasping each other s wrists and their own as well: they thus form a seat on which a child can sit and be carried about. At the same time they sing the verse.
The winner of each trick draws the top card from the talon, and leads again. When any player’s cards are exhausted he withdraws from the game, and the others continue. The player who remains to the end, having a card when his adversary has none, wins the pool. If two players remain with a card each, the winner of the trick draws from the stock, and the card so drawn wins the game, his adversary having none. EARL OF COVENTRY. This game is sometimes called Snip Snap Snorem, by those who are not of a poetical turn of mind. Any number of persons may play, and a full pack of cards is dealt out, one at a time. If some players have a card more than others, it does not matter. The eldest hand lays upon the table any card he pleases, and each player in turn pairs or matches it, if he can, with another of the same denomination, accompanying the action with a rhyme. Suppose the first card played is a King; the person playing it would say: “There’s as good as King can be.
If all follow suit to that again, the winner leads for the next, and if all follow suit again, that ends it, and the winners of the several tricks divide the pool. All those who have not won a trick are _=looed=_, and must contribute three red counters each for the next pool, which, added to the three to be deposited by the next dealer, will make the ensuing pool a double. But if in any trick any player is unable to follow suit, as soon as the trick is complete the dealer turns up the top card on the remainder of the pack, and the suit to which it belongs is the trump. If any trump has been played, the highest trump wins the trick. In any case, the winner of the trick must lead a trump for the next trick if he has one. When all three tricks have been played, the winner of each is entitled to one-third of the contents of the pool. Those who have not won a trick are looed, and must contribute three red counters each for the next pool. This is called a _=Bold Stand=_. _=In Double Pools=_, an extra hand is dealt for the widow, and a trump is turned. No player is allowed to look at his cards until it comes to his turn to declare.