9. FIRST SYSTEM. [Illustration: No. 8. +-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+ | . | | .
_=The Lead=_ is a disadvantage unless you have something to declare, or there is a brisque in the trick, or you can get home the Ten of a plain suit. The Tens are of no value in plain suits except as brisques, for they enter into no combination with other cards except in Penchant, Cinq-cents, and Rubicon. If the trick is of no value, or you have nothing important to declare, get rid of your small cards, and lead them when you do not want to retain the lead. The lead is sometimes necessary to prevent your adversary from declaring, especially toward the end of the hand. If you have led a brisque and won the trick, it is better to lead another brisque in the same suit than to change. Aces are better leads than Kings or Queens, for the court cards can be married, and you may never get 100 Aces. Kings are better leads than Queens, especially if the Queens are spades. Jacks are better than either, but the Jack of diamonds should be kept as long as possible. If you have to decide between two combinations, one of which you must sacrifice, lead that which is of the smallest value, or the least likely to be restored. For instance: If your adversary has shown one or two Kings, but no Ace, and you have three of each, you are more likely to get 100 Aces than 80 Kings.
The best original plain-suit lead is one in which you are moderately long, but have small cards enough to be safe, and from which you can lead intermediate cards which probably will not win the first trick. A very little experience at Hearts will convince any one that it is best, in plain suits, to play out the high cards first. This agrees with the theory of probabilities; for while the odds are 22 to 1 against your getting a heart on the first round of a plain suit of which you have 4 cards, the odds are only 2 to 1 against it on the second round, and on the third they are 5⅛ to 1 in favour of it. Accordingly, on the first round most players put up their highest card of the suit led, no matter what their position with regard to the leader; but in so doing, they often run needless risks. The object in Sweepstake Hearts is to take none, and the most successful players will be found to be those who play consistently with the greatest odds in their favour for taking none. Suppose that you hold such a suit as A 10 9 7 4 2. This is a safe suit; because it is very improbable that you can be compelled to take a trick in it. The best lead from such a suit is the 10 or 9. If the suit is led by any other player, the same card should be played, unless you are fourth hand, and have no objection to the lead. This avoids the risk, however slight, of getting a heart on the first round, which would be entailed by playing the ace.
] Forby has, _Morris_, an ancient game, in very common modern use. In Shakespeare it is called nine men s _morris_, from its being played with nine men, as they were then, and still are called. We call it simply _morris_. Probably it took the name from a fancied resemblance to a dance, in the motions of the men. Dr. Johnson professes that he knew no more of it than that it was some rustic game. Another commentator speaks of it as common among shepherds boys in some parts of Warwickshire. It cannot well be more common there than here, and it is not particularly rustic. Shepherds boys and other clowns play it on the green turf, or on the bare ground; cutting or scratching the lines, on the one or the other. In either case it is soon filled up with mud in wet weather.
_=CAYENNE.=_ After the cards are all dealt, the player to the left of the dealer cuts the still pack, which is shuffled and presented to him by the dealer’s partner, and the top card of the portion left on the table is turned up for Cayenne. This card is not a trump, but is simply to determine the rank of the suits. _=STAKES.=_ In Cayenne the stake is a unit, so much a point. The largest number of points possible to win on a rubber is 24, and the smallest, 1. The result of the rubber may be a tie, which we consider a defect in any game. In settling at the end of the rubber it is usual for the losers to pay their right-hand adversaries. _=MAKING THE TRUMP.=_ The trump suit must be named by the dealer or his partner, after they have examined their cards.
It is also a very ancient Irish game, and Mr. Kinahan says: Many places are called after it: such as, Killahurla, the hurlers church; Gortnahurla, the field of the hurlers; Greenanahurla, the sunny place of the hurlers; this, however, is now generally corrupted into hurling-green. The hurling-green where the famous match was played by the people of Wexford against those of Cather (now divided into the counties of Carlow and Wicklow), and where the former got the name of yellow bellies, from the colour of the scarfs they wore round their waist, is a sunny flat on the western side of North Wicklow Gap, on the road from Gorey to Trinnahely. There are also many other different names that record the game. --_Folk-lore Journal_, ii. 266. See Bandy, Camp, Football, Hockey, Hood, Shinty. Hurly-burly An undescribed boys game. In it the following rhyme is used-- Hurly-burly, trumpy trace, The cow stands in the market-place; Some goes far, and some goes near, Where shall this poor sinner steer? --Patterson s _Antrim and Down Glossary_. For a similar rhyme see Hot Cockles.
Dead wood must be removed. Any pins knocked down through dead wood remaining on the alley cannot be placed to the credit of the player. Ten innings constitute a game. The maximum is 150. THE NEWPORT GAME. THE PINS ARE SET UP THE SAME AS FOR THE GAME OF AMERICAN TEN PINS. Three balls (not exceeding 6 inches in size) are allowed in each inning. Ten frames constitute a game. The object of the game is to bowl down an exact number of pins from 1 to 10, but not necessarily in routine order. The player who, in ten innings, scores the least number of winning innings is the loser.
You may lose if you like, but you cannot win; faro banks are not run that way. ROUGE ET NOIR, OR TRENTE-ET-QUARANTE. The banker and his assistant, called the croupier, sit opposite each other at the sides of a long table, on each end of which are two large diamonds, one red and the other black, separated by a square space and a triangle. Any number of persons can play against the bank, placing their bets on the colour they select, red or black. Six packs of fifty-two cards each are shuffled together and used as one, the dealer taking a convenient number in his hand for each deal. The players having made their bets, and cut the cards, the dealer turns one card face upward on the table in front of him, at the same time announcing the colour he deals for, which is always for _=black first=_. The dealer continues to turn up cards one by one, announcing their total pip value each time, until he reaches or passes 31. Court cards and Tens count 10 each, the ace and all others for their face value. Having reached or passed 31 for black, the _=red=_ is dealt for in the same manner, and whichever colour most closely approaches 31, wins. Suppose 35 was dealt for black, and 38 for red; black would win.
And when they were up they were up, And when they were down they were down, And when they were half-way up the hill They were neither up nor down. --Sheffield (S. O. Addy). A ring of chairs is formed, and the players sit on them. A piece of string long enough to go round the inner circumference of the chairs is procured. A small ring is put upon the string, the ends of which are then tied. Then one of the players gets up from his chair and stands in the centre. The players sitting on the chairs take the string into their hands and pass the ring round from one to another, singing the lines. If the person standing in the centre can find out in whose hand the ring is, he sits down, and his place is taken by the one who had the ring.
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=_ Most players imagine this to be a very difficult shot, but it is extremely simple if the principle of the direction of the cue and the effect of the pinch are kept in view. If we place the three balls in a straight line, about four inches apart, we have the simplest form of the massé. To find the exact spot at which the cue ball must be struck, join the centres of the cue and object balls by an imaginary line A-B. At right angles to this will be a line A-E, and no matter which side of the ball B you wish to massé upon, your cue must strike the ball A somewhere on the line A-E. Suppose you wish to massé to the left, as shown in the diagram. The pinch must be made on the ball about a quarter from the top, the cue being pointed in the direction in which you want the ball to go, which will be to the extreme edge of B, on the line C-D. The cue must be held at an angle of about 70 degrees. A firm but light blow with a well chalked cue will pinch your ball toward E; but the direction of the cue will propel it toward D. If the cue has been held at the right angle, and you have not struck too hard, the ball will feel the effect of these two forces equally, which will make it move toward a point half way between D and E, which will be F. The retrograde motion being stronger than the propulsion of the pinch, will gradually overcome it, and the ball will return toward G.
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(_b_) Hairry = rob, Bossie = a wooden bowl, commonly used for making the leaven in baking oat-cakes, and for making brose. This is a very general game amongst schoolboys. Half-Hammer The game of Hop-step-and-jump, Norfolk. This game is played in the west of Sussex, but not in the east. It is played thus by two or more boys. Each boy in his turn stands first on one leg and makes a hop, then strides or steps, and lastly, putting both feet together, jumps. The boy who covers the most ground is the victor.--Halliwell s _Dictionary_. Han -and-Hail A game common in Dumfries, thus described by Jamieson. Two goals called hails, or dules, are fixed on at about a distance of four hundred yards.
The next day is occupied by the Boggons going round the villages singing as waits, and they are regaled with hot furmenty; from some they get coppers given them, and from others a small measure of wheat. The day after that they assume the character of Plough-bullocks, and at a certain part of Westwood-side they smoke the Fool --that is, straw is brought by those who like, and piled in a heap, a rope being tied or slung over the branches of the tree next to the pile of straw; the other end of the rope is fastened round the waist of the Fool, and he is drawn up and fire is put to the straw, the Fool being swung to and fro through the smoke until he is well-nigh choked, after which he goes round and collects whatever the spectators choose to give him. The sport is then at an end till the next year. The land left by Lady Mowbray was forty acres, which are known by the name of Hoodlands, and the Boggons dresses and the Hood are made from its proceeds. In the contiguous parish of Epworth a similar game is played under the same name, but with some variations. The Hood is not here carried away from the field, but to certain goals, against which it is struck three times and then declared free. This is called wyking the Hood, which is afterwards thrown up again for a fresh game.--_Notes and Queries_, 6th series, vii. 148. See Football, Hockey.
. . and then they fall to daunce about it like as the heathen people did. . . . I have heard it credibly reported (and that _viva voce_) by men of great grauitie and reputation, that of fortie, threescore or a hundred maides going to the wood ouer night, there haue scaresly the third part of them returned home againe undefiled. Herrick s _Hesperides_ also describes the festival, and the custom of courting and marriage at the same time. The tune sung to this game appears to be the same in every version. END OF VOL.
34. Any one, during the play of a trick and before the cards have been touched for the purpose of gathering them together, may demand that the players draw their cards. 35. If any one, prior to his partner playing, calls attention in any manner to the trick or to the score, the adversary last to play to the trick may require the offender’s partner to play his highest or lowest of the suit led or, if he has none, to trump or not to trump the trick. 36. If any player says “I can win the rest,” “The rest are ours,” “We have the game,” or words to that effect, his partner’s cards must be laid upon the table and are liable to be called. 37. When a trick has been turned and quitted, it must not again be seen until after the hand has been played. A violation of this law subjects the offender’s side to the same penalty as in case of a lead out of turn. In _=Boston=_, _=Cayenne=_, and _=Solo Whist=_, it is still the custom to permit looking at the last trick, except in Misères.