The players may begin with a game exactly like the ordinary Kriegspiel, with scouts and boxed soldiers, which will develop into such battles as are here described, as the troops come into contact. It would be easy to give the roads a real significance by permitting a move half as long again as in the open country for waggons or boxed troops along a road. There is a possibility of having a toy railway, with stations or rolling stock into which troops might be put, on such a giant war map. One would allow a move for entraining and another for detraining, requiring the troops to be massed alongside the train at the beginning and end of each journey, and the train might move at four or five times the cavalry rate. One would use open trucks and put in a specified number of men--say twelve infantry or five cavalry or half a gun per truck--and permit an engine to draw seven or eight trucks, or move at a reduced speed with more. One could also rule that four men--the same four men--remaining on a line during two moves, could tear up a rail, and eight men in three moves replace it. I will confess I have never yet tried over these more elaborate developments of Little Wars, partly because of the limited time at my disposal, and partly because they all demand a number of players who are well acquainted with the same on each side if they are not to last interminably. The Battle of Hook s Farm (one player a side) took a whole afternoon, and most of my battles have lasted the better part of a day. VI ENDING WITH A SORT OF CHALLENGE I COULD go on now and tell of battles, copiously. In the memory of the one skirmish I have given I do but taste blood.
They go up to the two that form the gate, and the leader asks the first question, as in version No. 2. The dialogue then proceeds to the end. The two then lift their arms as high as they can, still joined, and the line of players passes through. All at once the two bring their arms down on one and make him (or her) prisoner. The prisoner is asked in a whisper, so as not to disclose the secret name, which of the two is to be chosen. The one so captured takes his (or her) stand behind the one chosen. The same process is gone through till all the players are taken captive, and have stationed themselves behind the one or the other of the two forming the gate. The last one of the line goes through three times. The first time the word breakfast is pronounced; the second time dinner; and the third time supper.
” The dealer, starting on the second round, says, “Two clubs,” supporting his partner’s declaration. Next player, A, who passed the first time, says, “Two royals.” Both Y and B pass, but the dealer, Z, says, “Three clubs.” Observe that while three clubs is worth no more than two royals, 18, the club bid offers to win more tricks than the royals and therefore ranks as a higher bid. A doubles three clubs. Y passes and B says, “Two no trumps.” As will be explained presently, doubling does not affect the value of the declaration in bidding, so two no trumps, worth 20, over-calls three clubs. Z, A and Y all pass, so two no trumps becomes the winning declaration and B is the declarer, A being the dummy, with Z to lead for the first trick. In this example, had the bid been left at three clubs, doubled or not, that would have been the winning declaration, and the partner who first named that suit, Y, would be the declarer, Z being the dummy, although Z actually made the highest bid. It is only when the two players that have both named the winning suit are not partners that the higher bidder becomes the declarer.
_The Laws and Etiquette of Cinch_, issued by the Chicago Cinch Club, 1890. HEARTS. Hearts is supposed by some persons to be an entirely new game; but its leading principle, losing instead of winning tricks, is to be found in many other card games, some of which are quite old. Slobberhannes, Enflé, Schwellen, Polignac, and The Four Jacks, all belong to the same family, but most of them have given way to the more popular game of Hearts. There are several varieties of Hearts, but the principal arrangements are the same in all, and the chief differences are in the manner of settling at the end of the hand. _=CARDS.=_ Hearts is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2: the ace is the highest in play, but in cutting it ranks below the deuce. There is no trump suit. When three persons play, the deuce of spades is thrown out of the pack; when five play, both the black deuces are laid aside, and when six play, all four deuces are discarded. It is usual to play with two packs, one being shuffled while the other is dealt.
[Illustration: 🂻 🃝 🃍 🃎 🂮] 3008 to 1 _=Tiger.=_ 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.
Micklethwaite (_Arch. Journ._, xlix. 322), where diagrams of this game are given which have been found cut in several places on the benches of the cloisters at Gloucester, Salisbury, and elsewhere. See Noughts and Crosses. Nip-srat-and-bite A children s game, in which nuts, pence, gingerbread, &c, are squandered.--Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_. Nitch, Notch, No-Notch Children cut a number of slices from an apple, extending from the eye to the tail, broader on the outside than on the inner, which reaches nearly to the core; one piece has a part cut out, making a notch--this is called Notch; another is not cut at all--this is called No-Notch; while a third has an incision made on it, but not cut out--this is called Nitch. The pieces when thus marked are replaced, and the game consists in one child holding the apple, and pointing to one of the pieces, asking another child which he will have, Nitch, Notch, or No-Notch; if he guesses right, he has it and eats it; if wrong, the other eats it.--Sussex (Holloway s _Dict.
_=10.=_ Beginning on his left, the dealer must give to each player in rotation _=two=_ cards on the first round, and _=three=_ on the second; or three to each on the first round, and two on the second. Five cards having been given to each player in this manner, the next card is turned up for the trump. The deal passes to the left. _=11.=_ There must be a new deal by the same dealer if any card but the trump is found faced in the pack, or if the pack is proved incorrect or imperfect; but any previous scores made with the imperfect pack stand good. _=12.=_ The adversaries may demand a new deal if any card but the trump is exposed during the deal, provided they have not touched a card. If an adversary exposes a card, the dealer may elect to deal again. If a new deal is not demanded, cards exposed in dealing cannot be called.
| -- | -- | -- | |10.| -- | -- | -- | |11.| -- | -- | -- | |12.|One go rush and the | -- | -- | | |other go hush. | | | |13.| -- |Give a gold ring and a|A guinea gold ring and| | | |silver watch. |a silver pin. | |14.|Pretty young lady, bop|Pray, young lady, pop |Pray, young lady, pop | | |under my bush. |under.
One of their number is sent away to a distance, but remains within call. Another girl, who stands in front of the line, asks the girls one by one what they would like if they could obtain their desires. After she has asked every one, she tells them to turn their faces to the wall, and calls after the girl who was sent away, saying, Little Dog, I call you. The girl replies, I shan t come to please you. I ll get a stick and make you, is the rejoinder. I don t care for that. I ve got a rice pudding for you. I shan t come for that. I ve got a dish of bones. I ll come for that.
If he succeeds, he and the boy at the other hole run to each other s places. Should the boy who throws the piece of wood succeed in getting it into the hole, the batsmen are out. Should the Cat fall into the ring or a span beyond, one of the bowlers picks it up, and both run to a hiding-place. They then agree as to which of them should hold the Cat. This must be carried in such a way that it cannot be seen by the batsmen, both boys assuming the same attitude. Both boys then resume their previous places. They kneel down, still keeping the same attitudes. The batsmen, keeping their sticks in the holes, then agree which of the two holds the Cat. One batsman runs across and puts his stick into the hole behind which the boy kneels whom they consider has the Cat, the other then running to his place. If they are right in their guess, the holder of the Cat throws it across the ground for the opposite bowler to put it in the hole before the second batsman reaches it.
When two partners each trump a different suit, it is called a _=cross-ruff=_, or _=saw=_. 4th. Taking advantage of the _=tenace=_ possibilities of the hand by placing the lead with a certain player; or by avoiding the necessity of leading away from tenace suits. For example: A player holds A Q 10 of a suit, his right hand adversary holding K J 9. These are known as the _=major=_ and _=minor=_ tenaces. Whichever leads makes only one trick; but if the holder of the major tenace can get the suit led twice, he makes all. This is called the _=short-suit game=_, or _=finesse and tenace=_. Its resources may be added to by finessing against certain cards. For example: Holding A Q 3 of a suit led by the partner, to play Q is a finesse against fourth hand having the King. Each of these systems has its advantages, and almost every hand will offer opportunities for practice in all of them.
was broached the idea: I believe that if one set up a few obstacles on the floor, volumes of the British Encyclopedia and so forth, to make a Country, and moved these soldiers and guns about, one could have rather a good game, a kind of kriegspiel. ... Primitive attempts to realise the dream were interrupted by a great rustle and chattering of lady visitors. They regarded the objects upon the floor with the empty disdain of their sex for all imaginative things. But the writer had in those days a very dear friend, a man too ill for long excursions or vigorous sports (he has been dead now these six years), of a very sweet companionable disposition, a hearty jester and full of the spirit of play. To him the idea was broached more fruitfully. We got two forces of toy soldiers, set out a lumpish Encyclopaedic land upon the carpet, and began to play. We arranged to move in alternate moves: first one moved all his force and then the other; an infantry-man could move one foot at each move, a cavalry-man two, a gun two, and it might fire six shots; and if a man was moved up to touch another man, then we tossed up and decided which man was dead.
Hyde thinks the morris, or merrils, was known during the time that the Normans continued in possession of England, and that the name was afterwards corrupted into _three men s morals_, or _nine men s morals_. If this be true, the conversion of _morrals_ into _morris_, a term so very familiar to the country people, was extremely natural. The Doctor adds, that it was likewise called _nine-penny_ or _nine-pin miracle_, _three-penny morris_, _five-penny morris_, _nine-penny morris_, or _three-pin_, _five-pin_, and _nine-pin morris_, all corruptions of _three-pin, &c, merels_ (Hyde s _Hist. Nederluddi_, p. 202). Nares says the simpler plan here represented (fig. 2), which he had also seen cut on small boards, is more like the game than the one referred to in the variorem notes of Shakespeare. [Illustration: Fig. 2.] Forby has, _Morris_, an ancient game, in very common modern use.
If four Kings are melded and scored, the other four may be added later; but if the eight Kings are first melded, the score for the four Kings is lost. Cards may be taken away from one combination to form less valuable combinations in another class. For instance: Four Jacks have been melded; the diamond Jack may be taken away to form a binocle with the spade Queen. If spades are trumps, and the sequence has been melded, the Queen may be taken away to form a binocle, because the binocle is in a different class of melds; but the Queen cannot be used to form a marriage, because the sequence and the marriage are in the same class. As there are three classes, one card may be used three separate times. The spade Queen, for instance, may be used in a marriage, in binocle, and in four Queens, and these melds may be made in any order. Cards once used in combinations cannot again be used in melds of equal value belonging to the same class; and combinations once broken up cannot be re-formed by the addition of fresh cards. For instance: Four Kings have been melded, and one of them has been used in the course of play. The player cannot add a new King to the three remaining, and meld four Kings again. A marriage in hearts has been melded, and the King played away.