The button stands for 500 points, each blue counter for 100, the red for 50, and the white ones for 10 each. At the beginning of the game the counters are placed on the left of the player, and are passed from left to right as the points accrue, exchanging smaller denominations for higher when necessary. Many persons find it more convenient to peg the game on a pull-up cribbage board, starting at 21, counting each peg as 10 points, and going twice round to the game hole. _=STAKES.=_ Bézique is played for so much a game, 1,000 points up; or for so much a point, the score of the loser being deducted from that of the winner. When a partie of five games is agreed upon, it is usual to have an extra stake upon the odd game, and when three games have been won by the same player, the partie is at an end. It is usual to count it a double game if the loser has not reached 500 points. _=PLAYERS.=_ Bézique is played by two persons, one of whom is known as the _=dealer=_, and the other as the _=pone=_. They cut for choice of seats and deal, the player cutting the highest card having the first choice, and electing whether or not to deal himself.
First the players taw up to a hole; if both get in, they repeat the process until one is left out, say B.; then A. counts 10. Should both fail, the nearest goes first. He may now lay his taw about the hole or fire at the other, on hitting which he counts another 10. He now goes for the hole again, and failing, lies where he happens to stop. If he misses, B. from his present position tries to get into the hole, and failing, lies still; but if he reaches the hole, he counts 10, and proceeds as A. had done. The one who first gets the 100 (or other number) now goes in for his pizings, which performance takes place thus:--The loser, so far, is lying about, and the winner goes back to drakes, and again tries to lodge in the hole; and if he succeeds, the game is up.
| -- | | 28.|Born for your sake. | | 29.| -- | | 30.| -- | | 31.| -- | | 32.| -- | | 33.| -- | | 34.| -- | | 35.|Bells shall ring, cats| | |shall sing.
I hadn t let it miss three beats. Even as I carried her from the casino, I lifted the main coronary muscle and started a ragged pumping, maybe forty beats a minute. Once in the smaller room I began artificial respiration with my mouth. The sawbones was there in three minutes. I guided the tip of his hypodermic into a vein in her right arm, the one that still had blood coursing through it. He depressed the piston, pumping the antidote into her bloodstream. Little by little I let up on the clamp on her wounded left arm, dribbling the poisoned blood into her system, so that the antidote could react with it gradually. She stayed unconscious. Then I felt it. Her heart muscle tugged back at my lift.
If Dummy remains with one or two small cards of a suit that has been led, and you have the best, play it on the second round. Dummy’s play is evidently for the ruff, and if the declarer has not the second best, your partner has. If you have King, and only one or two small cards, Dummy leading Queen from Q 10 x x, play your King. You cannot save yourself; but you may make the 9 good in partner’s hand. If you have three or more small cards, do not play the King, for either partner or the declarer must be short in the suit. So if Dummy leads Jack from J 10 and others, play the King with a short suit. If partner has Queen you establish it; if not, you cannot make a trick in the suit. With short suits it is usually best to cover an honour with an honour; but with several small cards, such as K x x x, Dummy leading a singleton Queen, you should pass. With K 10 x, Dummy having J and others, play honour on honour; small card on small card, whichever Dummy leads. It is often important for the second hand to cover with what is called an _=imperfect fourchette=_.
Any one can deal. The player to the left of the dealer starts the game by taking from his hand any three cards he pleases and laying them on the table in front of him face down. He then announces, “These are three jacks,” or anything he likes to call them, there being no obligation to tell the truth about it, so the cards might actually be a six four and a deuce. Each player in turn to the left can doubt the statement that the cards are three jacks, or he can pass. If any player in his proper turn says, “I doubt it,” the three cards are at once turned face up. If the statement is not correct, the three cards are at once taken back into the player’s hand, together with all the cards lying face down in the centre of the table at the time. Should the statement turn out to be true, the player who doubted it must take the three jacks and all the cards on the table. That settled, the next player to the left lays out three cards and announces that they are three of a kind of something or other, each player to the left passing or doubting it. If no one questions the correctness of a statement, no explanation is given by the player who laid out the cards. He simply pushes them to the centre of the table with the others, face down.
Any player winning a pool is entitled to 25 red counters at the most. It will often happen that several such pools will accumulate, and each must be played for in its turn. At the end of the game any counters remaining in the pool or pools must be divided among the players. _=PLAYERS.=_ Boston is played by four persons. If more than four candidates offer for play, five or six may form a table; if there are more than six, the selection of the table must be made by cutting, as at Whist. _=CUTTING.=_ The four persons who shall play the first game are determined by cutting, and they again cut for the deal, with the choice of seats and cards. The player drawing the lowest card deals, and chooses his seat; the next lower card sits on his left, and so on, until all are seated. Twelve deals is a game, at the end of which the players cut to decide which shall go out, as at Whist.
(II) A cavalry-man may be moved two feet or any less distance at each move. (III) A gun is in action if there are at least four men of its own side within six inches of it. If there are not at least four men within that distance, it can neither be moved nor fired. (IV) If a gun is in action it can either be moved or fired at each move, but not both. If it is fired, it may fire as many as four shots in each move. It may be swung round on its axis (the middle point of its wheel axle) to take aim, provided the Country about it permits; it may be elevated or depressed, and the soldiers about it may, at the discretion of the firer, be made to lie down in their places to facilitate its handling. Moreover, soldiers who have got in front of the fire of their own guns may lie down while the guns fire over them. At the end of the move the gun must be left without altering its elevation and pointing in the direction of the last shot. And after firing, two men must be placed exactly at the end of the trail of the gun, one on either side in a line directly behind the wheels. So much for firing.
But if he goes better, he adds to the amount staked by the player on his right any further sum he sees fit, within the limit of two blues. Each player in turn has the same privilege, the age having the last say. Suppose five play, and that A has the age. B has straddled, and all but the dealer have made good the ante and drawn cards. There are sixteen white counters in the pool, B’s straddle having made the ante four instead of two. Suppose B bets a red counter, and C then throws down his hand. D _=sees=_ B, by putting up a red counter; and he then _=raises=_ him, by putting up two blues, increasing his bet as much as the limit will allow him. The age must now abandon his hand or put up one red and two blues to call D, without knowing what B proposes to do. Let us suppose he sees D, and raises another two blues. B must now retire, or put up four blues to call A, without knowing what D will do.
Booman [Music] --Norfolk. Dill doule for Booman, Booman is dead and gone, Left his wife all alone, and all his children. Where shall we bury him? Carry him to London; By his grandfather s grave grows a green onion. Dig his grave wide and deep, strow it with flowers; Toll the bell, toll the bell, twenty-four hours. --Norfolk, 1825-30 (J. Doe). (_b_) One boy lies down and personates Booman. Other boys form a ring round him, joining hands and alternately raising and lowering them, to imitate bell-pulling, while the girls who play sit down and weep. The boys sing the first verse. The girls seek for daisies or any wild flowers, and join in the singing of the second verse, while the boys raise the prostrate Booman and carry him about.
_=ALL THREES.=_ Muggins is sometimes played by making the object to get multiples of three at the ends, instead of multiples of five. Otherwise the game is the same as All Fives. There are several _=card games=_ with dominoes, but they are little used, and hardly worth description in a work of this kind. DICE. Dice are probably the oldest gambling instruments in the world. Chatto thinks that man acquired the passion for gambling as soon as he could distinguish odd from even, or a short straw from a shorter. Simple gambling instruments were probably very early articles of manufacture, and Chatto says that it is not unlikely that after a simple dinner of mutton some enterprising gamester may have taken the small bones from between the shank and the foot, and after burning spots in them to distinguish one from the other, put them into _a_ cow’s horn and shaken them up, afterward rolling them upon the ground. From some such beginning Astragali was developed, a game which Dr. Thomas Hyde thinks was known at the time of the Deluge.
Jinkie. Jock and Jock s Man. Jockie Blind-man. Joggle along. Johnny Rover. Jolly Fishermen. Jolly Hooper. Jolly Miller. Jolly Rover. Jolly Sailors.
B knows that if he wins the Ten of trumps, B and C can make only 59 points, because A will save his trump Ace. A, having failed to reach 61, loses a spade Solo without one; twice 11, or 22 points, which was the game he must have won to be as good as the offer of 18 which he refused. _=A GRAND.=_ B bids; both Vorhand and Hinterhand pass, and B announces a Grand, with the following cards:-- [Illustration: 🃛 🂫 🂻 🃑 🃁 🃊 🃎 🂡 🂭 🂩 ] The play is given in the margin. In a Grand the four Jacks are the only trumps. A has the first play, and as he leads through the player, he begins with his long suit, of which he knows that the Ace alone is out, and it may be in the skat. If the player has the Ace, C will probably trump it. If the player has not the Ace, it is just possible that he will not trump the Ten. C, leading up to the player, opens his short weak suit. At trick 3, C knows that A must have the Ten of hearts, or he would not fatten with the Ace.
Bicky. Biddy-base. Biggly. Billet. Billy-base. Bingo. Bird-apprentice. Birds, Beasts, and Fishes. Bittle-battle. Bitty-base.
| -- | -- | -- | | 39.| -- | -- | -- | | 40.| -- | -- | -- | | 41.| -- | -- | -- | | 42.| -- | -- | -- | | 43.| -- | -- | -- | | 44.| -- | -- | -- | | 45.| -- | -- | -- | | 46.| -- | -- | -- | +----+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +----+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | No.| Lincolnshire, |Sussex, Hurstmonceux.
II. to IX. inclusive. There are excellent articles on the Laws in Vols. III. and VI., and on discards in Vol. VII. IMPERIAL, OR PIQUET WITH A TRUMP. Impérial differs from Piquet in some minor details, although the leading principle is the same.
R. S. Baker, who records this, says a Wellingborough lady sent him the tune and words, and told him the game was more like a country dance than anything else, being a sort of dancing Follow My Leader. Gully A sink, or, failing that, a particular stone in the pavement was the Gully. Some boy chosen by lot, or one who volunteered in order to start the game, laid his top on the ground at some distance from the Gully. The first player then spun his top, pegging at the recumbent top, so as to draw it towards the Gully. If he missed the top, he stooped down and took up his own top by pushing his hand against it in such a manner that the space between his first and second finger caught against the peg and forced the top into the palm of his hand. He then had a go at the recumbent top (I forget what this was called), and sent his own top against it so as to push it towards the Gully. If he missed, he tried again and again, until his own top could spin no longer. If he did not hit the top with his own while it was spinning, his top had to be laid down and the other one taken up, and its owner took his turn at pegging.
In an old Court masque of James I. s time, performed at the marriage ceremony of Philip Herbert and Lady Susan (MS. in the writer s possession), it is directed that, at the conclusion of the performance, after supper the company dance a round dance. This was dancing the bride to bed. William Chappell (_Notes and Queries_, ii. 442) says, I have a tune called A round dance to dance the bride to bed. It dates from about 1630, or earlier, and resembles that of The Hunt is up. Dancing was considered so essential at weddings (according to Grose) that if in a family the youngest daughter should chance to be married before her elder sisters, they must dance at her wedding without shoes. May not the custom of throwing of old and worn-out shoes after the bride have arisen from the practice of dancing? The danced-out shoes may have been the ones used. It is curious that the cushion is used in the marriage ceremonies of the Brahmins.
If there are only three players, one suit must be deleted from the pack, or the 2, 3, and 4 of each suit must be thrown out. _=CUTTING.=_ The table being formed, the players draw from an outspread for the deal, and choice of seats and cards. The player drawing the lowest card deals the first hand, and it is usual for him to dictate to the other players what seats they shall occupy with relation to himself. Ties are decided in the same manner as at Whist. _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ The four players at Solo Whist are usually distinguished by the letters A B Y Z. [Illustration: Y +-----+ | | A | | B | | +-----+ Z ] Z is the dealer, and A is known as the _=eldest hand=_. The position of the players does not imply any partnership; for, as we shall see presently, any player may have any one of the others for a partner, without any change taking place in their positions at the table. The players having once taken their seats are not allowed to change them without the consent of all the others at the table.
Lahure. [Dummy.] x Whist, and its Masters, by R.F. Foster. * Whist, A monthly journal; pub. Milwaukee, Wis., U.S.A.
A sequence of K Q J 10 9 would be worth 1,500. In the trump suit, and in all the suits when there are no trumps, these coronets are worth double, and each additional card is therefore worth 1,000 more. _=Rubbers.=_ As soon as one side wins two games, that ends the first rubber. The partners then change, without cutting, in such a manner that at the end of three rubbers each player shall have had each of the others for a partner. At the end of the third rubber, the losses and gains are ascertained for each individual, and settled for. _=Laws.=_ The laws that govern the game are almost identical with those for Bridge. PREFERENCE. This is a simplified form of Vint, for three players, with a thirty-two-card pack.
A now leads an intermediate club, and B forces him again. At trick 6, A avoids changing suits. If the long spade suit is opened, and Z returns the diamond 10, A-B will make four tricks less on this hand. _=No. 3.=_ This example of the _=Short-suit Game=_ is from Val Starnes’ Short-Suit Whist. This is sometimes called the Gambit opening. The leader, having no reason to lead trumps, even with five, and not having three honours in his long suit, prefers the gambit opening of the singly guarded queen. Y holds what is called a potential or imperfect fourchette, and covers, in order to make A-B play two honours to get one trick. B also makes a gambit opening by returning a supporting spade.
When these five dominoes have been set, any of the four ends may be played to. Each player in turn must play or say, “go.” The game is decided and settled for as in the ordinary Block Game. _=BERGEN GAME.=_ Two persons play, each of whom draws six bones. The highest double sets, and scores two points for the _=double header=_. Two points are scored by the player making both ends of the line the same. If there is a doublet at one end, and one of the same suit at the other, it is a triple header, and counts three. Fifteen points is game. In addition to the headers, domino counts one.
=_ Two players sit opposite each other. Three, five or seven sit according to their choice. Four sit as at Whist, the partners facing each other. Six, playing in two partnerships, sit alternately, so that no two partners shall be next each other. Six, playing in three partnerships of two each, sit so that two adversaries shall be between each pair of partners. Eight, playing in two sets of four each, or as four pairs of partners, arrange themselves alternately. If we distinguish the partners by the letters A, B, C, D, the diagram will show the arrangement of the tables. [Illustration: B C A B A B +------+ +------+ +------+ | | D| |C B| |A A| |A | | | | | | C| |D A| |B +------+ +------+ +------+ C B B A B A THREE PAIRS. FOUR PAIRS. TWO FOURS.
-+ | ⛂ | . | | . | ⛀ | . | | . | +---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+ | | . | | .
In the Hampshire version, after the line As a bird upon a tree, the two children named pair off like sweethearts while the rest of the verse is being sung. (_c_) The analysis of the game rhymes is as follows:-- +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | | Hants. | Deptford (Kent). | Belfast. | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.|Village life. |Village life. |Hunting life. | | 2.|All the boys happy.
If the game were better known, the author is sure it would become a great favourite, especially with those who are fond of the whist family, because Calabrasella is an excellent training school for the use of cards of re-entry, long suits, and tenace positions in the end game. In the combination of two players against the third its tactics very closely resemble Skat, and many interesting and difficult positions occur in every game. _=Cards.=_ Calabrasella is played with the Spanish pack, forty cards, the 10 9 and 8 of each suit being discarded. The cards rank: 3 2 A K Q J 7 6 5 4, the 3 being the highest, and the 4 the lowest, both in cutting and in play. There are no trumps. _=Markers.=_ The game may be scored by paying and taking in counters, each player being provided with about fifty at the beginning of the game, which are purchased from a banker; but the better way is to keep account of the gains and losses of the single player in each deal, in the manner already described in connection with Skat, balancing the account at the end in the same way. _=Players.=_ Calabrasella is played by three persons, two of whom are partners against the third in each hand.
| -- | -- | -- | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ |No.| Earls Heaton. | Lincolnshire and | Gloucestershire. | | | | Nottinghamshire. | | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.|Draw a bucket of |See saw, a bucket of | -- | | |water. |water. | | | 2.| -- | -- | -- | | 3.| -- | -- | -- | | 4.