Position of Armies at end of Blue s third move.] [Illustration: Fig. 7--Battle of Hook s Farm. Red s Left Wing attempting to join the Main Body.] Figure 1 shows the country of the battlefield put out; on the right is the church, on the left (near the centre of the plate) is the farm. In the hollow between the two is a small outbuilding. Directly behind the farm in the line of vision is another outbuilding. This is more distinctly seen in other photographs. Behind, the chalk back line is clear. Red has won the toss, both for the choice of a side and, after making that choice, for first move, and his force is already put out upon the back line.
_=MUGGINS, OR ALL FIVES.=_ This is a game for two, three, or four players. The object is to make the two ends of the line some multiple of five, and for every five so made the player scores five points toward game, which is usually 100 up. If only one point is scored for each five, 20 or 21 may be game. Each player draws seven bones, and the highest double sets, each person afterward playing in turn. If double five is the first set it counts 10. The 5-0 played to this would count 10 for the second player, because one end of the line being 10 and the other 0, the total value of the two ends is still 10. Double blank played to this would count 10 more. If 5-6 is now played on one end, and 0-4 on the other, the count will be 10 again, as shown on the diagram. The figures show the order in which the dominoes were played.
The two remaining suits are known as _=Plain Suits=_ for that deal. The cards having been dealt, and the trump turned, each player carefully sorts and counts his cards, to see that he has the correct number, thirteen. A player having more or less than his right proportion should at once claim a misdeal; for if he plays with a defective hand he cannot win anything that deal, but must stand his proportion of all losses incurred, besides paying a forfeit of four red counters to the pool. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ In Boston, each player has an opportunity to announce that he is willing to undertake to win a certain number of tricks, if allowed the privilege of naming the trump suit; or to lose a certain number, there being no trumps. In either case, he proposes to play single-handed against the three other players. The player proposing the undertaking which is most difficult of accomplishment is said to _=over-call=_ the others, and must be allowed to try. If he is successful, he wins the pool, and is paid a certain number of counters by each of his adversaries. If he fails, he must double the amount in the pool, and pay to each of the other players a certain number of counters. _=ANNOUNCEMENTS.
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. When a spinning-top showed signs of exhaustion, and the taking it up might kill it, and it was not very far from the down-lying top, its owner would gently push it with his finger, so as to make it touch the other top, and so avoid putting it into the other s place. This was called kissing, and was not allowed by some players. When one player succeeded in sending the top into the Gully, he took it up and fixed it by its peg into a post, mortar of a wall, or the best place where it could be tolerably steady.
The children in the fortress reply, the four first verses being thus sung alternately. The soldiers then go to the King singing the fifth verse (fig. 3), the remaining verses being thus sung alternately. One of the soldiers then goes to the fortress and endeavours by throwing herself on the clasped hands of the children forming the fortress to break down the guard (fig. 4). All the soldiers try to do this, one after the other; finally the King comes, who breaks down the guard. The whole troop of soldiers then burst through the parted arms (fig. 5). [Illustration: Fig. 1.
If there was no end to your capital, and no betting limit to the game, this would be an easy way to make money; but all banking games have studied these systems, and have so arranged matters that they can extend their heartiest welcome to those who play them. In the first place, by simply doubling up you are giving the bank the best of it, because you are not getting the proper odds. If you double up five times you are betting 16 to 1; but the odds against five successive events are 31 to 1, as we have already seen, and the bank should pay you 31 instead of 16. You should not only double, but add the original amount of the stake each time, betting 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, and so on. If you do this, you will win the amount of your original stake for every bet you make, instead of only for every time you win. This looks well, but as a matter of fact doubling up is only another way of borrowing small sums which will have to be paid back in one large sum when you can probably least afford it. Suppose the game is Faro, the chips five dollars a stack, and the limit on cases twenty-five dollars. The limit on cases will then be 400 chips. If eight successive events go against your “system,” which they will do about once in 255 times, your next bet will be beyond the limit, and the banker will not accept it. At Monte Carlo the smallest bet is a dollar, and the limit is $2,400.
I tried to recall her looks. Thinking about them, they really added up to no more than hysterical sniffles, not enough to eat, and the pathetic evidence that there hadn t been any money for orthodonture. Fatten her up, straighten her teeth and--Talk about _religious_ rationalization! I snapped out of it. Maybe she could call the turn of dice. But I d be damned if she could call the turn of people. Let her try _me_. I sat up on the parapet, swinging to put my feet on the gravel of the root. So tonight you found the husband God s been going to give you? I asked. Yes, she said softly. And I m the one? Yes! Not that again! I growled, grabbing her thin shoulders and shaking her.
| -- | | 17.| -- |..... anything. | -- | | 18.| -- | -- | -- | | 19.| -- |For a pretty lass.
A good player, after sorting his hand, carefully estimates its possibilities. The hand may be such that it is evidently impossible to avoid taking some hearts. The player must then decide whether he will play to give each of the others hearts, or will take them all himself. If he succeeds in either object he has a chance to win back his money in the ensuing Jack. In deciding on his chances to get clear without taking a single heart, the player must first consider the advisability of beginning with a heart, or with a plain suit. If hearts, he should know the probability of the heart he leads not winning the trick; if a plain suit, he should know the probability of the suit going round one or more times without hearts being discarded on it, especially if he intends to lead high cards. These chances must then be balanced one against the other and the more favourable selected. _=LEADING HEARTS ORIGINALLY.=_ When your hearts are so small as to be absolutely safe, such as the 7 5 3 2, it might be supposed that the best play would be to lead them at once, in order to get a large number of hearts out of your way. But with such cards it is usually much better play, unless you have a very dangerous hand in plain suits, to reserve these small hearts until you have a more definite idea, from the fall of the cards, to whom you are giving them.
Strutt (_Sports_, p. 381) says Hunt the Hare is the same game as Hunt the Fox. In this game one boy is permitted to run out, and having law given to him--that is, being permitted to go to a certain distance from his comrades before they pursue him--their object is to take him, if possible, before he can return home. See Hare and Hounds. Hunt the Slipper [Music] --Lancashire (Mrs. Harley). All the players but one sit on the floor in a circle with their legs crossed (Turkish fashion), one acting as Chief, all pretending to work at making or mending shoes. The other player brings a slipper to the Chief Cobbler, and desires it to be mended, saying-- Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe, Get it done by half-past two. The child walks away, and returns in a few moments and asks whether the shoe is ready. The Cobbler says, Not quite; call again in an hour s time, or makes any other excuse which occurs to him.
As it is considered an advantage to be ahead on the first deal, most players prefer a forward game on the opening hand. _=Playing Off.=_ In this it is best to play cards on which it is unlikely that your adversary can score. Lead Aces, Twos and Threes, which cannot be made into fifteens. Do not pair his cards unless you have a card which will make you a double pair royal, (without passing 31,) if he should make a pair royal on you. Do not play close cards which he may turn into sequences. Never play a card which will allow the adversary to make a double score, such as a pair and a fifteen, or a sequence and a fifteen at the same time. Such as the following are all bad plays: 9 on 3; 7 on A; 6 on 3, 4, or 5; 5 on 5; 4 on 7; 3 on 9; A on 7. All these expose you to the immediate rejoinder of a double count. Of course, if you have the card to make a pair royal in return, that is another matter, and is playing on, not playing off.
Your chance of improving your hand is a little better than one in five. The opener of the jack pot has exactly the same chance, and if both of you draw cards a hundred times under those circumstances, he will beat you in the long run, to say nothing of the other players who may come in and beat both of you. It is therefore evident that in backing tens against openers, it is four to one against your beating the openers to begin with, and if you do beat them the odds are still against your winning the pot. If there were five players, and the jack pots were all equal in amount, you would have to win one pot out of five to make your investment pay. Can you make this average when your original pair will not beat openers? There are three principles with regard to the draw that should never be lost sight of: (1) An average go-in hand is a hand which will win its proportion of the pools, according to the number playing, taking all improvements and opposition into account. This can be demonstrated to be a pair of tens. (2) The draw is much more valuable to a weak hand than to a strong one, and weak hands will improve in much greater proportion than strong ones will. For instance: The chances for a player to improve by drawing to a pair of Queens are one in three and a half. He may make two pairs, or triplets, or a full hand, or four of a kind. The chances of improvement for a player drawing to two pairs, say Eights up, are only one in thirteen.
These were three men clad in blue smock frocks, with very long waggon whips, who were accompanied by three men with small bells. They commenced driving the men and boys out of the Newarkes. It was very dangerous sometimes; they would lash the whip in such a manner round the legs of those they were pursuing as to throw them down, which produced laughter and shouting. Some would stop, and turn to the whipper and say, Let s have a pennyworth, and he would guard and parry off the lashes with his shinney stick. When the whipper was successful in lashing him he demanded his penny, and continued lashing until he paid. This was continued until five o clock, then the game terminated. This was suppressed, I believe, in 1847. At that period it was a prevalent idea that it could not be abolished, as it was connected with an old charter. It is believed in the town that this custom was to commemorate the driving out of the Danes from the Newarkes at the time they besieged Leicester.--Leicester (Robert Hazlewood).
This should advise him to keep his clubs. CUT-THROAT EUCHRE. The chief element in the three-handed game is playing to the score. The player with the strong hand must always be kind to the under dog, and partnerships are always formed against the man with the high score. Suppose _=A=_, _=B=_, and _=C=_ are playing, and that _=A=_ has 3 points to his adversaries’ nothing on _=B’s=_ deal. It is to the interest of _=A=_ to euchre _=B=_; but it is to the interest of _=C=_ to let _=B=_ make his point because if _=B=_ is euchred, _=A=_ wins the game. _=B=_ having made his point, _=C=_ deals, and it is then to the interest of _=B=_ to let _=C=_ make his point. Suppose _=C=_ makes a march, 3 points, which puts him on a level with _=A=_. On _=A’s=_ deal it is _=C’s=_ game to euchre him, but _=B=_ must let _=A=_ make his point; so that instead of being opposed by both _=B=_ and _=C=_, as he was a moment ago, _=A=_ finds a friend in _=B=_, and the two who were helping each other to beat _=A=_, are now cutting each other’s throats. On _=B’s=_ deal, _=A=_ does not want to euchre him, for although that would win the game for both _=A=_ and _=C=_, _=A=_, who now has 4 points up, does not wish to divide the pool with _=C=_ while he has such a good chance to win it all himself.
| -- | -- | -- | | 4.|On a dusty, dusty day.| -- | -- | | 5.| -- |So early in the | -- | | | |morning. | | | 6.|Fair maid, pretty |Fair maid, pretty |Please let one of your| | |maid. |maid. |daughters come. | | 7.| -- | -- |Come and dance with | | | | |me.
_=DEALING.=_ The cards are thoroughly shuffled, and presented to the pone to be cut. At least five cards must be left in each packet. The cards are then dealt three at a time for the first round, two for the next, and three for the last, each player receiving eight cards. The seventeenth is then turned up for the trump. If this card is a Seven, the dealer scores 10 points for it at once. The trump card is laid on the table by itself, the remainder of the pack, which is called the _=stock=_ or _=talon=_, is slightly spread, to facilitate the process of drawing cards from it, and to be sure that none of the cards remaining in the undealt portion are exposed. In sixty-four-card Binocle twelve cards are sometimes dealt to each player. _=Misdealing.=_ A misdeal does not lose the deal, but in some cases a new deal is at the option of the adversary.
The burnt out voice of a chanteuse, coming over the PA system from the dining room, tried to remember the sultry insouciance with which it had sung Eadie was a Lady in its youth. Waiters in dude-ranch getups swivel-hipped from table to table like wraithes through the mob of gamblers, trays of free drinks in their hands. This time Pheola didn t have the same greedy grab for the _hors d oeuvres_. She d wrapped herself around a couple pounds of high-quality protein before we had come to the casino. The gamblers were urging the dice with the same old calls, and the stick-men were chanting: Coming out! Five s the point! And _seven_! The dice pass! and all the rest. The ivories had a way to go before they reached us. I gave Pheola a stack of ten-buck chips and let her bet, without making any effort to tip the dice. She still had it. She moved the chips back and forth from Pass to Don t Pass and won at every roll. I could see Fowler Smythe begin to scowl as she let her winnings ride, building up a real stack.