Whether or not Triomphe borrowed this feature from Spoil Five or Maw, it is now impossible to say. Whatever its origin, Euchre has always been the most respectable member of the family, and the game of all others that has best served the card-playing interest in social life. Spoil Five probably comes next in point of respectability; but Écarté has often fallen into evil hands, and the very name is in some places regarded as synonymous for gambling. The same is true of Napoleon, but in less degree. Euchre, unlike the other members of the family, is not essentially a gambling game, but belongs rather to the intellectual group of card games; a position which we hope it may long maintain. EUCHRE. _=CARDS.=_ Euchre is played with what is commonly known as the piquet pack, 32 cards, all below the 7 being deleted. In plain suits the cards rank as at Whist; but in the trump suit the Jack is the best, and it is called the _=Right Bower=_. The Jack of the same colour as the trump suit, red or black, is the second-best trump, and it is called the _=Left Bower=_; so that if clubs were trumps the rank of the nine cards in the trump suit would be as follows:-- [Illustration: 🃛 🂫 🃑 🃞 🃝 🃚 🃙 🃘 🃗 ] The rank of the cards in the other suits would be:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂮 🂭 🂪 🂩 🂨 🂧 🂱 🂾 🂽 🂻 🂺 🂹 🂸 🂷 🃁 🃎 🃍 🃋 🃊 🃉 🃈 🃇 ] When the _=Joker=_, or blank card is used, it is always the best trump, ranking above the right bower.
It is possible from these circumstances that the game descends from an old custom of encircling the tree as an act of worship, and the allusion to the rags bears at least a curious relationship to tree worship. If this conclusion is correct, the particular form of the game preserved by Mr. Addy may be the parent form of all games in which the act of winding is indicated. There is more reason for this when we consider how easy the notion of clock-winding would creep in after the old veneration for the sacred alder tree had ceased to exist. [Illustration] See Bulliheisle, Wind up the Bush Faggot, Wind up the Watch. Ezzeka Old Ezzeka did one day stand Upon a barrel top; The bung flew out, and all at once It went off with a pop. --Dronfield (S. O. Addy). This game is usually played in a house or schoolroom, by boys and girls.
| -- | -- |Mother, is it true? | | | | |What shall I do? | |27.| -- | -- | -- | |28.| -- | -- | -- | |29.| -- | -- | -- | |30.| -- | -- | -- | |31.| -- | -- | -- | |32.| -- | -- | -- | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ |No.| Madeley. | Oxfordshire. | Sheffield.