CASSINO. This is a very old and always popular game, which has lately been much improved by the introduction of the variations known as Royal and Spade Cassino, the latter especially being a very lively game. Like Euchre, Cassino is eminently respectable, and is one of the few games of cards that are unhesitatingly admitted to the domestic circle. _=Cards.=_ Cassino is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which have no rank in play, their pip or face value being the only element of importance. In cutting for positions at the table, or for partners in the four-handed game, the Ace is the lowest card, the others ranking upward to the King in the order of their sequence. _=Markers.=_ When a certain number of points is agreed on as a game, the score may be kept with counters, on a sheet of paper, or on a cribbage board. If each hand is a game in itself, it is settled for immediately, either in counters or in money. _=Players.
When the verses are sung they choose four girls, and then take their places in the ring. The four girls then choose four lads, and so on. At Earls Heaton the children stand against a wall in a line. Another child walks up and down singing the verses, and chooses a partner. He spreads a handkerchief on the ground, and they kneel and kiss. (_c_) The Shipley version is a Kiss in the Ring game. A version sent by the Rev. W. Slater Sykes from Settle, Yorkshire, is almost identical with the Earls Heaton version. Northall (_Folk Rhymes_, p.
_ +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | ♟ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | ♗ | | ♟ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | ♜ | ♟ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | ♚ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | ♙ | ♟ | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | ♔ | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ ] the black King cannot move without going into check from the Pawn or the King; none of the black Pawns can move, and Black cannot move the Rook without putting his own King in check, (from the Bishop,) which is not allowed. _=Perpetual Check.=_ If a piece gives check to the adverse King, and the King moves away, the check may be repeated, and the King must move again, or interpose a piece, or capture the checking piece. If the position is such that no matter how often the King moves or is covered he cannot get out of check, and no matter how much the opposing pieces move they cannot check-mate him, the game is drawn by perpetual check. Diagram No. 11 is an illustration of such a position. [Illustration: _No. 11._ BLACK. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ♚ | ♛ | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ♟ | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ♜ | ♟ | ♕ | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ♔ | | | | | | | ] The only way out of the check is to interpose the Queen, whereupon the white Queen will move diagonally to the edge of the board and check again, forcing the black Queen back where she came from, and drawing the game by perpetual check.
The one last captured becomes King in the next game.--Rev. W. Gregor. See Click. Cock-battler Children, under the title of Cock-battler, often in country walks play with the hoary plantain, which they hold by the tough stem about two inches from the head; each in turn tries to knock off the head of his opponent s flower.--Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 61). In the North, and in Suffolk, it is called Cocks, a puerile game with the tough tufted stems of the ribwort plantain (Brockett s _North Country Words_). Moor (_Suffolk Words_) alludes to the game, and Holloway (_Dictionary of Provincialisms_) says in West Sussex boys play with the heads of rib grass a similar game.
=_ As soon as any player can show down his hand, the game is at an end. He lays out his combinations and pushes them aside. Then he announces the pip value of his deadwood, after discarding a card in place of the one drawn. Suppose he draws the seven of hearts, and lays down the 6 7 8 9 of that suit; J Q K of clubs; discards the king of spades and leaves two deuces and a five for his deadwood. That is nine points. Each of the other players in turn to the left then lays down his hand and pushes aside all combinations held. If the pip value of his deadwood is more than that of the player calling for the show-down, he pays the difference. If any player has less than the caller, then he is the winner, and each one at the table pays him, the caller paying him double as a penalty. In case of ties for low, they divide the losses of the others. POKER GIN.
Poker probabilities, by Alleyne Reynolds, 1901. The Game of Draw Poker, Mathematically Illustrated, by H.T. Winterblossom, 1875. THE EUCHRE FAMILY. This family embraces four of the best known and most popular games in the world, each of which has been considered the national game in its own country: Écarté in France; Napoleon in England; Spoil Five in Ireland; and Euchre in America. It has always been the custom to trace the origin of Euchre to a variety of Triomphe, or French Ruff, probably introduced to America by the French of Louisiana; and to claim Écarté as its cousin, and the French survivor of the parent game. In the opinion of the author, both the game and its name go to show that Euchre is of mixed stock, and probably originated in an attempt to play the ancient Irish game of Spoil Five with a piquet pack. “Euchre” is not a French word, but the meaning of it is identical with “Spoil Five”; both names signifying that the object of the game is to prevent the maker of the trump from getting three tricks. In the one game he is “spoiled;” in the other he is “euchred.