148. He says: Against May Day, Whitsonday, or other time, euery Parishe, Towne and Village assemble themselves together, bothe men women and children, olde and yong, . . . and either goyng all together or diuidyng themselues into companies, they goe some to the Woodes and groves where they spend all the night in plesant pastimes; and in the morning they return bringing with them birch and branches of trees to deck their assemblies withall . . . and then they fall to daunce about it like as the heathen people did. . .
523). II. Barbara, Barbara, dressed in black, Silver buttons all up your back. Allee-go-shee, allee-go-shee, Turn the bridle over me. --Shepscombe, Gloucestershire (Miss Mendham). III. All-i-go-shee, alligoshee, Turn the bridle over my knee. My little man is gone to sea, When he comes back he ll marry me. --Warwickshire (Northall s _Folk Rhymes_, p. 394).
A _=greek=_ who possessed sufficient skill to do this without detection would be very foolish to waste his talents at the whist table; for, however large the stakes, the percentage in his favour would be very small. When whist is played with only one pack, a very skillful shuffler may gather the cards without disturbing the tricks, and, by giving them a single _=intricate=_ shuffle, then drawing the middle of the pack from between the ends and giving another single intricate shuffle, he may occasionally succeed in dealing himself and his partner a very strong hand in trumps, no matter how the cards are cut, so that they are not shuffled again. A hand dealt in this manner is framed on the walls of the Columbus, Ohio, Whist Club; eleven trumps having been dealt to the partner, and the twelfth turned up. In this case the shuffling dexterity was the result of fifteen years’ practice, and was employed simply for amusement, the dealer never betting on any game, and making no concealment of his methods. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ Although whist is a game of very simple construction, the immense variety of combinations which it affords renders it very complicated in actual practice; there being probably no game in which there is so much diversity of opinion as to the best play, even with the same cards, and under similar conditions. It has been repeatedly remarked that in all the published hands at whist which have been played in duplicate, or even four times over, with the same cards, no two have been alike. It would be useless to formulate rules intended to cover every case that might arise, because the conditions are frequently too complicated to allow the average human intellect to select the exact rule which would apply. All that can be done to assist the beginner is to state certain general principles which are well recognised as fundamental, and to leave the rest to experience and practice at the whist table. _=GENERAL PRINCIPLES.
Henceforth the battle moves swiftly to complete the disaster of Red. Shaken and demoralised, that unfortunate general is now only for retreat. His next move, of which I have no picture, is to retreat the infantry he has so wantonly exposed back to the shelter of the church, to withdraw the wreckage of his right into the cover of the cottage, and--one last gleam of enterprise--to throw forward his left gun into a position commanding Blue s right. [Illustration: Fig. 8--Battle of Hook s Farm. The Red Army suffers Heavy Loss.] [Illustration: Fig. 9--Battle of Hook s Farm. Complete Victory of the Blue Army.] Blue then pounds Red s right with his gun to the right of the farm and kills three men.
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But I don’t find these qualities reflected in the lives of chess-players. They are just as fallible and foolish as other folks who don’t know a rook from a pawn. But even if it were a form of mental discipline, which I doubt, I should still object to it on the ground of its fatal fascination. Chess is a kind of mental alcohol. It inebriates the man who plays it constantly. He lives in a chess atmosphere, and his dreams are of gambits and the end of games. I have known many an able man ruined by chess. The game has charmed him, and, as a consequence, he has given up everything to the charmer. No, unless a man has supreme self-control, it is better that he should not learn to play chess. I have never allowed my children to learn it, for I have seen too much of its evil results.
When he has seated himself on the shawl, up jumps the King and Queen, and down goes the messenger on the floor.--Bottesford and Anderly (Lincolnshire), and Nottinghamshire (Miss M. Peacock). (_b_) This is virtually the same game as Ambassador, described by Grose as played by sailors on some inexperienced fellow or landsman. Between the two chairs is placed a pail of water, into which the victim falls. Cashhornie A game played with clubs by two opposite parties of boys, the aim of each party being to drive a ball into a hole belonging to their antagonists, while the latter strain every nerve to prevent this.--Jamieson. Castles A game at marbles. Each boy makes a small pyramid of three as a base, and one on the top. The players aim at these from a distant stroke with balsers, winning such of the castles as they may in turn knock down (Lowsley s _Glossary of Berkshire Words_).
Should one of the players be able to strike the tin while the keeper is absent, that player calls out, Hide again. They can then all hide until the same keeper discovers them again.--Beddgelert (Mrs. Williams). See New Squat. Mouse and the Cobbler One girl stands up and personates a mother, another pretends to be a mouse, and crouches behind a chair in a corner. The mother says to another player-- Go and get your father s shirt. This player goes to the chair to look for the shirt, and is tickled or touched by the one hiding. She rushes back and calls out-- Mother, there s a mouse. Go and get your father s coat.
Bone-yard, the stock at dominoes. Book, the first six tricks taken by either side at Whist which do not count toward game. Both Ends against the Middle, a system of trimming cards for dealing a brace game of Faro. Brace Game, a conspiracy between the dealer and the case-keeper at Faro, so that cards improperly taken from the dealing box shall be properly marked by the case-keeper. Break. In Billiards, a succession of counting shots made by one player, usually called a “run” in America. In Ten Pins, a break is a failure to make either a strike or a spare. Break Even, a system of playing Faro, betting each card to win or lose an even number of times. Brelan, F., three cards of the same denomination.
At the Knickerbocker Whist Club, New York, which is still famous for its compass games, they play a minimum of 24 trays, or get as near that number as possible. If there are 14 tables, they play two deals at each. If there are only 10 tables, they play 30 trays. All the N & S players sit still, and at the end of each round, two or three deals as the case may be, all the E & W players move up one table, 2 going to 1, 3 to 2, etc. Each pair keeps its own score card, on which is put down the number of the tray, the number of the pair played against, which is always the number of the table at which they started; one of the pairs remaining there being No. 3 N & S, the other moving away, being No. 3 E & W. Each pair adds up its score card at the end, and puts down the total number of tricks they have won. The names of the players having been previously written on the blackboard, their scores are put down opposite their names, each side, N & S and E & W, is then added up in order to find the average, and all scores above average are plus, while all below average are minus. The following is an example of the averaging of a game in which five tables took part, playing 30 deals:-- N & S E & W a 201 -6 f 189 +6 b 204 -3 g 186 +3 c 211 +4 h 179 -4 d 207 = j 183 = e 212 +5 k 178 -5 --------------- --------------- 5 |1035 5 |915 +---- +--- Aver.
He wins the number of marbles denoted by the figure above the opening through which his marble passes. If he misses a hole, his marble is lost to the owner of the Bridgeboard.--Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy). [The owner or keeper of the Bridgeboard presumably pays those boys who succeed in winning marbles.] See Nine Holes. Broken-down Tradesmen A boys game, undescribed.--Patterson s _Antrim and Down Glossary_. Brother Ebenezer Ebenezer is sent out of the room, and the remainder choose one of themselves. Two children act in concert, it being understood that the last person speaking when Ebenezer goes out of the room is the person to be chosen. The medium left in the room causes the others to think of this person without letting them know that they are not choosing of their own free will.
X. When the trees are uncovered, Isabellow, for me. Last night when we parted She was nigh broken-hearted, Isabellow, Isabellow, Isabellow, for me. Your hand, love, your hand, love, Then give me your hand, love, Take a sweet kiss from me. --Winterton, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire (Miss Peacock). XI. Isabella, Isabella, Isabella, Farewell! Last night when we parted I left you broken-hearted, And down by the river you saw your young man. In the stream, love, in the stream, love, In the stream, love, Farewell! Go to church, love, go to church, love, Go to church, love, Farewell. In the ring, love, in the ring, love, In the ring, love, Farewell! --Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire (Miss Youngman). XII.
, says this game is enumerated among other pastimes: At shove-groat, venter-point, or crosse and pile, At leaping o er a Midsummer bone-fier, Or at _the drawing Dun out of the myer_. So in the _Dutchesse of Suffolke_, 1631: Well done, my masters, lends your hands, _Draw Dun out of the ditch_, Draw, pull, helpe all, so, so, well done. [_They pull him out._] They had shoved Bishop Bonner into a well, and were pulling him out. We find this game noticed at least as early as Chaucer s time, in the _Manciple s Prologue_: Then gan our hoste to jape and to play, And sayd, sires, what? _Dun is in the mire._ Nares (_Glossary_) says this game was a rural pastime, in which _Dun_ meant a dun horse, supposed to be stuck in the mire, and sometimes represented by one of the persons who played. Gifford (_Ben Jonson_, vol. vii. p. 283), who remembered having played at the game (doubtless in his native county, Devonshire), thus describes it:-- A log of wood is brought into the midst of the room: this is Dun (the cart horse), and a cry is raised that he is stuck in the mire.
_=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ Experience has shown that it pays to keep certain classes of hand in one section, either left to right or up and down. Many players put all the flushes in the vertical columns, and build the pairs, triplets and fours from right to left. Straights are uncertain quantities unless they are flush also and are seldom played for. Each card has a double value, and it may help to make up two hands of high scoring power, if well placed. The highest possible point value for a tableau would probably be five hands of four of a kind and five straight flushes, four of which would be royal, like this: [Illustration: 🂱 🃑 🃁 🂡 🃉 🂾 🃞 🃎 🂮 🃈 🂽 🃝 🃍 🂭 🃇 🂻 🃛 🃋 🂫 🃆 🂺 🃚 🃊 🂪 🃅 ] The odds against the cards coming from the stock in such order as to make a tableau like this possible would be enormous, but there are many sets of twenty-five cards that can be rearranged so as to make a much higher count than that actually arrived at in the solitaire. The player’s skill consists in anticipating the possibilities that certain cards will be drawn and in so arranging his table that if the hoped for card comes out, the most advantageous place will be found open for it. _=TWO OR MORE PLAYERS.=_ Any number can play this game, the only limitation being the number of packs available and space enough on the table for each one to lay out his own tableau. One player is selected as the “caller” and he shuffles his pack and presents it to be cut.
The winners gain-- I. A treble, or game of three points, when their adversaries have not scored. II. A double, or game of two points, when their adversaries have scored less than three. III. A single, or game of one point, when their adversaries have scored three or four. 9. The winners of the rubber gain two points (commonly called the rubber points), in addition to the value of their games. 10. Should the rubber have consisted of three games, the value of the losers’ game is deducted from the gross number of points gained by their opponents.
If the suit is led a third time it is a doubtful trick, and with four trumps the Second Hand should pass. If the leader shows the exact number of the suit originally led, and then changes to a four-card suit, the adversaries know at least nine of his cards. So obvious is this that it is an almost invariable rule for a player, on quitting his suit, to conceal the length of the second suit led by leading the highest card of a short suit. If it were allowable to exercise some judgment in using these leads, they might not be open to so many objections; but they are worse than useless unless the partner can depend on their being uniformly adopted. _=The Minneapolis Lead.=_ This is another variation in the leads, which is confined to one combination; that of Ace and any four other cards, not including the King. With strength in trumps the fourth-best is led instead of the Ace, the theory being that the Ace is more likely to be valuable on the second or third round of such a suit than on the first, and that the trump strength justifies the finesse of the original lead. With weak trumps the Ace is led. Some players extend this principle to the Second Hand, and play Ace on a small card led, when holding A x x x x with weak trumps. This is open to the objection that it gives up command of the adverse suit too early in the hand; but it saves many a trick.
* * * * * Like any gambling house, the Sky Hi Club was a trap. Peno had tried to kid the public with a classy _decor_. It was a darned good copy of a nineteenth century ranch house. At the gambling tables everything was free--the liquor, the _hors d oeuvres_, the entertainment. Everything, that is, but the gambling and the women. The casino was taking its cut. And the women--or should I be so sure? You paid for your drinks if you stood up to the long mahogany bar. I turned my back to the rattle of cocktail shakers and chink of glasses, one heel hooked over the replica brass rail, and took a long careful look at the crap tables. There was a job for me at one of them. I began to shut out the distractions of sight and sound.