_=Three-card Fifteens=_ may be formed in fifteen different ways, ranging from 10 4 A, to 5 5 5. If you hold any of these combinations, and have a fourth card which is a duplicate of any of the three forming the fifteen, the value of the combination will depend on how many cards you can replace with the duplicate card. [Illustration: 🂾 🃞 🃔 🂡 ] If you have an extra tenth card, you can replace the other tenth card once only, and the total value of the combination is therefore 6 points, which is expressed by the formula; “Fifteen-two, fifteen-four, and a pair.” [Illustration: 🃙 🂳 🃓 🂣 ] If your combination was 9 3 3, and you had another 9, the same thing would be true; but if your duplicate is a Three, there are two cards which can be replaced, and the combination is therefore worth 12; 6 for the three fifteens, and 6 more for the pair royal. [Illustration: 🂵 🃕 🃅 🂥 ] If your combination is one in which all three cards can be replaced with the duplicate, making three extra fifteens, it must be worth 20 altogether; 8 for the four fifteens, and 12 for the double pair royal. [Illustration: 🂢 🃖 🂷 🂧 🃇 ] If you have two duplicates of any one card in the original combination, there are only two extra fifteens, and the combination will be worth 12; 6 for the three fifteens, and 6 more for the pair royal. [Illustration: 🃒 🂦 🃖 🂷 🃗 ] If you have duplicates of two different cards you can form four fifteens; because you can replace the Seven first, and then the Six, and then put the first Seven back again with the new Six. This will make the combination of the same value as if you had three duplicates of one card, 12 points; 8 for the four fifteens, and 4 for the two single pairs. _=Combinations.=_ The beginner’s greatest difficulty is in counting hands which contain all three varieties of counts; pairs, sequences, and fifteens.
Burly Whush A game played at with a ball. The ball is thrown up by one of the players on a house or wall, who cries on the instant it is thrown to another to catch or kep it before it falls to the ground. They all run off but this one to a little distance, and if he fails in kepping it he bawls out Burly Whush; then the party are arrested in their flight, and must run away no farther. He singles out one of them then, and throws the ball at him, which often is directed so fair as to strike; then this one at which the ball has been thrown is he who gives Burly Whush with the ball to any he chooses. If the corner of a house be at hand, as is mostly the case, and any of the players escape behind it, they must still show one of their hands past its edge to the Burly Whush man, who sometimes hits it such a whack with the ball as leaves it dirling for an hour afterwards.--Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_. See Ball, Keppy Ball, Monday. Buttons Two or more boys take two buttons in their right hands, and try to throw them both into a small hole in the ground about two yards off. The boy who succeeds in getting both buttons in begins first next game, and takes a button as prize. [This seems merely a mild form of marbles.
[Pettes], in 1881; Proctor’s “How to Play Whist,” in 1885; and the “Handbook of Whist,” by “Major Tenace,” 1885. Then began the long list of American authors (Pettes has already been mentioned): “Foster’s Whist Manual,” by R.F. Foster, appeared in 1890; “Practical Guide to Whist,” by Fisher Ames, in 1891; Hamilton’s “Modern Scientific Whist,” in 1894, and in the same year, Coffin’s “Gist of Whist,” and “Foster’s Whist Strategy.” In 1895, Milton C. 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.