.. And in all ages a certain barbaric warfare has been waged with soldiers of tin and lead and wood, with the weapons of the wild, with the catapult, the elastic circular garter, the peashooter, the rubber ball, and such-like appliances--a mere setting up and knocking down of men. Tin murder. The advance of civilisation has swept such rude contests altogether from the playroom. We know them no more.... II THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN LITTLE WARFARE THE beginning of the game of Little War, as we know it, became possible with the invention of the spring breechloader gun.
_=FREEZE OUT.=_ This might be called a variety of table stakes. At the start, each player is supplied with an equal number of counters; but no one is allowed to replenish his stock, or to withdraw or loan any part of it. As soon as any player has lost his capital he is decavé, or _=frozen out=_, and must permanently retire from the game. The other players continue until only one remains, who must of course win everything on the table. This is not a popular form of Poker, because it is sometimes a long time before a player who is frozen out can get into a game again. _=SHOW-DOWN POKER.=_ This is a variety of draw poker, in which each player takes the five cards dealt to him and turns them face up so that all the other players can see them. Each player discards and draws in turn, eldest hand first. As soon as a hand is beaten it is thrown into the deadwood, all the cards drawn being dealt face up.
, to announce, claim, or show any counting combination of cards. Méler, F., to shuffle. Memory Duplicate, playing over the same hands at the same table; the players who held the N and S cards getting the E and W for the overplay. Menage, F., gathering and arranging the cards for the succeeding deal when two packs are used. Milking, taking a card from the bottom and the top of the pack at the same time with the forefinger and thumb. Mischen, G., to shuffle. Misdeal, any failure to distribute the cards properly.
By refusing to lead such suits, and waiting for them to come up to the tenace, the declarer’s high card may be caught and a valuable trick saved. When a good player opens his hand with a trump, right up to the declaration, his partner should lead his best supporting cards boldly up to dummy’s weak suits. _=The Pone’s Leads.=_ When the pone gets into the lead, if he does not return his partner’s suit, he should open his own suits according to the rules already given for all the high-card combinations. If he has no high-card combination, it is usually better for him to lead some card that will beat Dummy than to lead his fourth-best. Suppose he wishes to lead a diamond, in which he holds Q 10 8 4 3; Dummy having the 9 and 6 only. It is better to lead the ten of diamonds than the fourth-best, because if the declarer does not follow with an honour, your partner will not have to sacrifice an honour to keep Dummy from winning the trick with the 9. After the opening lead, when Dummy’s cards are exposed, the knowledge of his cards may change the aspect of the game greatly; but the proper cards to lead to and through Dummy will be better understood in connection with the play against no-trumpers. _=No-trump Leads.=_ The chief difference in the leads against no-trumpers is, that there is no hurry to make your aces and kings, the chief thing being to make some of the smaller cards good for tricks.
|Your true love is |True love is dead. |Her sweetheart is | | |dead. | |dead. | |19.| -- | -- | -- | |20.| -- | -- | -- | |21.| -- | -- | -- | |22.| -- | -- | -- | |23.|He sent letter to turn|He sent letter to turn| -- | | |your head. |your head.
For a moment, they stared at each other, man squatting, cat standing erect on her hind legs, front claws digging into his knee. Human eyes and cat eyes looked across an immensity which no words could meet, but which affection spanned in a single glance. Time to get in, he said. She walked docilely into her spheroid carrier. She climbed in. He saw to it that her miniature pin-set rested firmly and comfortably against the base of her brain. He made sure that her claws were padded so that she could not tear herself in the excitement of battle. Softly he said to her, Ready? For answer, she preened her back as much as her harness would permit and purred softly within the confines of the frame that held her. He slapped down the lid and watched the sealant ooze around the seam. For a few hours, she was welded into her projectile until a workman with a short cutting arc would remove her after she had done her duty.
When three play, the game resembles Cut-throat Euchre, each for himself. When four play, two are partners against the other two, and the partners sit opposite each other. The player on the dealer’s left, or his adversary if only two play, is always spoken of as the eldest or elder hand. The one on the dealer’s right is the pone. _=CUTTING.=_ If there are four players, they cut for partners, deal, and choice of seats. The two lowest are partners against the two highest; the highest cut has the choice of seats, and deals the first hand. When two or three play, they cut for seats and deal. In cutting, the ace is high. Ties cut again; but the new cut decides nothing but the tie.
They must then be left until the end of the move. (3) At the end of the move, if there are men of the side that has just moved in contact with any men of the other side, they constitute a melee. All the men in contact, and any other men within six inches of the men in contact, measuring from any point of their persons, weapons, or horses, are supposed to take part in the melee. At the end of the move the two players examine the melee and dispose of the men concerned according to the following rules:-- Either the numbers taking part in the melee on each side are equal or unequal. (a) If they are equal, all the men on both sides are killed. (b) If they are unequal, then the inferior force is either isolated or (measuring from the points of contact) not isolated. (i) If it is isolated (see (1) above), then as many men become prisoners as the inferior force is less in numbers than the superior force, and the rest kill each a man and are killed. Thus nine against eleven have two taken prisoners, and each side seven men dead. Four of the eleven remain with two prisoners. One may put this in another way by saying that the two forces kill each other off, man for man, until one force is double the other, which is then taken prisoner.
It is needless to say that the second card has been carefully pre-arranged. Any person who fingers the pack longer than necessary in cutting starters, or who cuts sometimes by the edge and sometimes by the side, will bear watching. Marked cards and second dealing are great weapons in a game where so much depends on a knowledge of the adversary’s hand, and on securing good counting cards for yourself. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ In the six-card game the hand is more valuable than the crib, because you know what it contains, whereas the crib is largely speculative. In the five-card game, in which there are only three cards in the hand and four in the crib, it is usual to sacrifice the hand very largely for the possibilities of the crib, because of the much larger scores that can be made with five cards, the starter and four in the crib. _=Baulking.=_ In both games it is the duty of the pone to baulk the dealer’s crib as much as possible, by laying out cards which are very unlikely to be worth anything, either in making fifteens or in filling up sequences. Pairs it is impossible to provide against, and the chance of making a flush is remote, but should be avoided if there is any choice. The best baulk is a King and Nine; tenth cards and Aces are also very good cards to lay out.
Patterson). II. London Bridge is broken, And what shall I do for a token? Give me a pin to stick in my thumb And carry my lady to London. --_Notes and Queries_, 4th series, xii. 479. III. Give me a pin to stick in my chin (? cushion) To carry a lady to London; London Bridge is broken down And I must let my lady down. --Northall s _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 353. (_b_) In this game two children cross hands, grasping each other s wrists and their own as well: they thus form a seat on which a child can sit and be carried about.