The Sky Hi Club was typical. The outside was all hand-hewn logs. The inside had a low, rough-beamed ceiling, and a sure-enough genuine wood floor. The planks were random-width, tree nailed to the joists. Even the help was dressed up like a lot of cow-pokes, whatever cow-pokes were. This ersatz ranch-house was owned by two completely unlovelies. Peno Rose, who had used his political leverage to get me on the job, I had known since he d been a policy number runner on the lower East Side. His partner, Simonetti, was something else, but somehow I wasn t looking forward to meeting him any more than I was to seeing Rose again. I guess it s the filth within these croupier types that makes them surround themselves with the aseptic immaculacy of iridium and glass. Their office was in a penthouse perched on the slanting roof shakes of the casino.
If the bidder makes any points in excess of the number bid, he scores them. The first player to get rid of his seven white counters wins the pool, and takes down all the red counters it contains. The white counters are then redistributed, and the players cut for the first deal of the new game. If two players can count out on the same deal, and one of them is the bidder, he wins the pool if he has made good his bid. If neither of the ties is the bidder, the points count out in their regular order, High first, then Low, then Jack, and finally Game. For instance: Seven are playing. A sells to B, who bids two. B and C have each two to go. B pitches a trump of which C has both High and Low; but if B makes Jack and Game he wins the pool, because he bid only two points, and made them. This is generally expressed by the rule: _=bidder goes out first=_.
In the Redhill version, Holy Gabriel kneels in the middle of the circle. He acts as leader, and always had the fiddle as his instrument, though he now usually plays the pianoforte as his first instrument. The other children choose any instrument they like. Holy Gabriel pretends to play the fiddle, and all the other children play their own instruments until Holy Gabriel changes his to one of theirs, when that one must immediately begin to play the fiddle, and continue until Holy Gabriel takes another instrument or returns to the fiddle. This is done in vigorous pantomime. In the Luton variant the children sit in a semicircle, the Drummer faces them. He plays the drum; all the other children play on any other instrument they like. If the other players do not at once change their instrument, or neglect to sing the lines, a forfeit is demanded. (_c_) Mr. Hardy says some sing this game, Follow my game an holy man.
Having drawn his card, even if he has not looked at it, he cannot score any declaration until he wins another trick. The combinations and their values are as follows:-- CLASS A King and Queen of any plain suit, _=Marriage=_ 20 King and Queen of trumps, _=Royal Marriage=_ 40 Sequence of five highest trumps, _=Sequence=_ 250 CLASS B. Spade Queen and diamond Jack, _=Bézique=_ 40 Two spade Queens and diamond Jacks, _=Double Bézique=_ 500 CLASS C. Any _=four Aces=_ 100 Any _=four Kings=_ 80 Any _=four Queens=_ 60 Any _=four Jacks=_ 40 The four court cards in class C may be all of different suits, or any two of them may be of the same suit. A great many misunderstandings arise with respect to the manner and order of making declarations, most of which may be avoided by remembering the following rules: The player making the declaration must have won the previous trick, and must make his announcement before drawing his card from the stock. When the stock is exhausted, so that there is no card to be drawn, no announcement can be made. Only one declaration can be scored at a time, so that a trick must be won for every announcement made, or the combination cannot be scored. This does not prevent a player from making two or more announcements at the same time, but he can score only one of them. A player cannot make a lower declaration with cards which form part of a higher one already made in the same class. For instance: Marriages and sequences belong to the same class.
| -- | -- | -- | | 22.| -- | -- | -- | | 23.| -- |All sorts of colours | -- | | | |lying by his side. | | |[8.]|We ll all go roving. | -- | -- | | 24.| -- | -- |You shall have a young| | | | |man. | | 25.| -- | -- | -- | | 26.|I ll take [ ] for my|Take [ ] for my | -- | | |bride.
_=STAKES.=_ Piquet is played for so much a game of 100 points; but if the loser has not reached 50 points he is lurched, and loses a double game. _=DEALING.=_ The cards shuffled, they are presented to the pone to be cut, and at least two cards must be left in each packet. Twelve cards are dealt to each player, either two or three at a time; but whichever method is first selected must be maintained throughout the game. In England the cards are always dealt by twos. No trump is turned. The remaining eight cards are placed face downward on the table, the five top cards being laid crosswise on the three at the bottom. These eight cards are called the _=talon=_ or stock. Each player deals in turn.
--Hampshire (Holloway s _Dict. of Provincialisms_). A duck and a drake And a penny white cake, And a skew ball. --Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_. Moor (_Suffolk Words and Phrases_) gives the names for the number of times the stone emerges, as (1) a duck; (2) a duck an a drake; if thrice, a duck an a drake an a fi epenny cake; four times is a duck an a drake an a fi epenny cake, an a penny to pah the baker. If more than four, a duck, a duck an a drake, &c., are added. These distinctions are iterated quickly to correspond in time as nearly as may be with the dips of the stone. A flattish stone is evidently the best for this sport. (_b_) This game is also given by Mr.
125. Tak up, tak up my bonny young son, Gar _wash_ him wi the _milk_; Tak up, tak up my fair lady, Gar row her in the _silk_. Green Grow the Leaves (1) [Music] --Earls Heaton (Mr. Hardy). I. Green grow the leaves (or grows the ivy) round the old oak tree, Green grow the leaves round the old oak tree, Green grow the leaves round the old oak tree, As we go marching on. Bless my life I hardly knew you, Bless my life I hardly knew you, Bless my life I hardly knew you, As we go marching on. --Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire (Miss Peacock). II. Green grow the leaves on the old oak tree, I love the boys and the boys love me, As we go marching on.
The player next moving may, if he has taken prisoners, move these prisoners. Prisoners may be sent under escort to the rear or wherever the capturer directs, and one man within six inches of any number of prisoners up to seven can escort these prisoners and go with them. Prisoners are liberated by the death of any escort there may be within six inches of them, but they may not be moved by the player of their own side until the move following that in which the escort is killed. Directly prisoners are taken they are supposed to be disarmed, and if they are liberated they cannot fight until they are rearmed. In order to be rearmed they must return to the back line of their own side. An escort having conducted prisoners to the back line, and so beyond the reach of liberation, may then return into the fighting line. Prisoners once made cannot fight until they have returned to their back line. It follows, therefore, that if after the adjudication of a melee a player moves up more men into touch with the survivors of this first melee, and so constitutes a second melee, any prisoners made in the first melee will not count as combatants in the second melee. Thus if A moves up nineteen men into a melee with thirteen of B s--B having only five in support--A makes six prisoners, kills seven men, and has seven of his own killed. If, now, B can move up fourteen men into melee with A s victorious survivors, which he may be able to do by bringing the five into contact, and getting nine others within six inches of them, no count is made of the six of B s men who are prisoners in the hands of A.
If it is struck on the left, and then goes to a cushion directly in front of it, it will tend to fly off the cushion toward the left, making the angle wider. If a ball spinning to the left goes to a cushion on the left, it will tend to make the angle smaller, and the effect so produced is called _=reverse English=_, which tends to slow the cue ball. THE AMERICAN GAME. In the American game every carrom counts one point, and the number of points that will constitute a game must be agreed upon before play begins. The players string for the lead, the one bringing his ball nearer the head cushion having the choice of balls and of the first shot. The great art in the American game is to keep the balls in front of you, so as to leave yourself a comparatively easy shot. Every time you get the cue ball between the two others you will find yourself in difficulties; but whenever both the balls are in front of the cue ball, there will be some chance to score. When there is a choice of several ways of making a shot, the balls being wide apart, it will usually be found that one of them will bring the balls into better position than the others, and for that reason it is called a _=gathering shot=_. The expert tries to get the balls on the rail by a series of these gathering shots, and if any of the three positions shown in the diagram can be arrived at, a large run may be made by the _=rail nurse=_. When the balls are not left in one of these positions they are said to _=break=_, but there are several positions in which they may be recovered by a kiss or a massé shot.
--Earls Heaton (H. Hardy). One child represents an old woman, and the other players carry on the dialogue with her. At the end of the dialogue the children are chased by the old woman. See Mother, Mother, may I go out to Play, Witch. Letting the Buck out This game was played seventy years ago. A ring being formed, the Buck inside has to break out, and reach his home, crying Home! before he can be caught and surrounded. Afterwards these words were sung-- Circle: Who comes here? Buck: Poor Johnny Lingo. Circle: Don t steal none of my black sheep, Johnny Lingo, For if you do I shall put you in the pinder pin-fold. --Stixwold, Lines.