_=Counters.=_ One white and four red counters are necessary. The white counter is passed to the left from player to player in turn, to indicate the position of the next deal. The red counters are placed in front of the maker of the trump and his partners, to distinguish them from their opponents. Markers are not used, the score being kept on a sheet of paper. The score is usually kept by a person who is not playing, in order that none of those in the game may know how the various scores stand. Should an outsider not be available for scoring, there are two methods: One is for one player to keep the score for the whole table, who must inform any player of the state of the score if asked to do so. The other is to have a dish of counters on the table, each player being given the number he wins from time to time. These should be placed in some covered receptacle, so that they cannot be counted by their owner, and no other player will know how many he has. As it is very seldom that a successful bid is less than five, and never less than four, counters marked as being worth 4, 5, 6 and 7 each will answer every purpose, and will pay every bid made.
With a long suit, headed by a single honour, weak trumps, and no cards of re-entry, they prefer selecting a strengthening card for the original lead, hoping it may be of some assistance to partner by affording a successful finesse. It is claimed that it is better for a person, especially with a strong hand, to play with the knowledge that his partner is weak, than under the impression that he may be strong. Such an opening lead should warn the Third Hand to finesse deeply, to hold any tenaces he may have, and to let nothing pass him which might be too much for his weak partner to attend to. This is a very difficult game to play well, and is seldom resorted to except by the most expert. _=Deschapelles Coups.=_ It often happens that after the adverse trumps are exhausted, a player will find himself with the lead, but unable to give his partner a card of his established suit. In such cases the best course is to sacrifice the King or Queen of any suit of which he has not the Ace, in the hope that it may force the best of the suit, and leave partner with a card of re-entry. For instance: The leader has established the Club suit; his partner has exhausted the trumps, Hearts; and having no Clubs, leads the King of Spades from K x x x. If the holder of the Club suit has Spade Queen, and the King forces the Ace, the Club suit will be brought in. If he has not the Queen, the Clubs are probably hopeless.
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It s a damn shame, sending a sweet little thing like you whirling around in the coldness of nothing to hunt for Rats that are bigger and deadlier than all of us put together. You didn t ask for this kind of fight, did you? For answer, she licked his hand, purred, tickled his cheek with her long fluffy tail, turned around and faced him, golden eyes shining. 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.
Patterson). IV. I came to see Jenny jo, Jenny jo, Jenny jo, I came to see Jenny jo, is she within? Jenny jo s washing clothes, washing clothes, washing clothes, Jenny jo s washing clothes, and ye can t see her to-day. Oh but I m sorry, I m sorry, I m sorry, Oh but I m sorry, I can t see her to-day. Farewell ladies, O ladies, O ladies, Farewell ladies, and gentlemen too. [Then the same verses are repeated for-- (1) starching clothes, (2) smoothing clothes, (3) dead, the four lines above being repeated after each, and the verses proceed with--] What shall we dress her in, dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in? Shall it be black? Black for the sweeps, the sweeps, the sweeps, Black for the sweeps, and that shall not do. What shall we dress her in, dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in? Shall it be blue? Blue for the sailors, sailors, sailors, Blue for the sailors, and that shall not do. What shall we dress her in, dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in? Shall it be red? Red for the soldiers, soldiers, soldiers, Red for the soldiers, and that shall not do. What shall we dress her in, dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in? Shall it be orange? Orange for the Orange-men, Orange-men, Orange-men, Orange for the Orange-men, and that shall not do. What shall we dress her in, dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in? Shall it be white? White for the corpse, the corpse, the corpse, White for the corpse, and that will just do.
Such a habit exposes them to the common artifice of the dealer’s turning it down for a euchre. A dealer holding a bower and three cards of the next suit, will often turn it down, and trust to the eldest hand making it next, which will give the dealer four trumps instead of two. The eldest hand should be on his guard against this when the dealer’s side has 3 scored. The dealer’s partner, on the other hand, should cross the suit almost as invariably as the eldest hand should make it next; for if his partner cannot take up the trump, and the eldest hand cannot make it next, their hands must be weak, and if it is passed to the pone, he will probably turn out to have a lone hand. The best chance is to cross the suit, unless the player has three certain tricks in his own hand by making it next, such as five trumps to the ace, or four trumps and a plain-suit ace. With such cards he should play alone. The pone should never make the trump unless he has three certain tricks, and is willing to play a lone hand. If the dealer turns it down, and both the eldest hand and the dealer’s partner pass a second time, there must be a nigger in the woodpile somewhere. _=LEADING.=_ The general principle of leading is to make tricks while you can.
Apart from signalling, trump strength may often be inferred, especially from player’s passing doubtful tricks, forcing their partners, etc. _=Trump Suit Leads.=_ When trumps are not led for the purpose of exhausting them immediately, but simply as the longest suit, the fourth-best may be led from the following:-- [Illustration: 🂱 🂾 🂷 🂶 🂴 | 🃎 🃍 🃆 🃅 🂡 🂨 🂧 🂤 🂢 | 🃞 🃛 🃚 🃖 ] If the Ten accompanies the King and Queen, in the third combination, it is best to adhere to the usual lead of the King. In leading trumps from combinations containing a winning sequence, such as the following:-- [Illustration: 🂱 🂾 🂽 🂻 🂷 | 🃁 🃎 🃍 🃄 🃃 ] many players begin with the lowest of the winning cards, continuing with the next above it. _=Speculative Trump Leads.=_ The whist player will often find himself with a single good suit, a card of re-entry, and few trumps. Certain conditions of the score may prompt him to make a speculative trump lead from such a hand. If his trumps are high, such as A K x, he may safely begin by leading them; but if they are weak, and he is depending largely on his partner’s possible strength, he should show his suit first by leading it once. _=Over-trumping=_ is generally regarded as bad policy when a player has a good suit, and sufficient trump strength to justify him in hoping to do something with it. The refusal to over-trump, unless the trump played is a high one, should be regarded by the partner as a call.
The trump is not turned up, but the suit is named by the dealer or his partner, after they have examined their cards. In order properly to understand the considerations which guide them in making the trump, one should first be familiar with the values attached to the tricks when certain suits are trumps. The first six tricks taken by one side do not count; but each trick above that number counts toward game according to the following table:-- When Spades are trumps, each trick counts 2 points. ” Clubs ” ” ” ” ” 4 ” ” Diamonds ” ” ” ” ” 6 ” ” Hearts ” ” ” ” ” 8 ” ” there is no trump, ” ” ” 12 ” Better to understand the importance of this variation in value, it should be noticed that the game is 30 points; so that if two partners won 3 by cards with no trump, or 4 by cards with hearts for trumps, they would win the game in one deal. On the other hand, if either of the black suits were trumps, they could not lose the game, even if a slam were made against them. It will thus be evident that two considerations influence the player whose privilege it is to make the trump: First, to win as much as possible, if he has the cards to do it. Second, to save himself, if he is weak; or the game, if it is in danger. As a general proposition, it may be said that his decision will be indicated by the colour of the trump he names. If it is red, he is strong, and plays to win; if it is black, he is taking to the woods. A further element may enter into his calculations, the state of the score.
After all the players have made what bets they wish, outsiders may place bets on the result if they choose to do so. Either the players or the gallery may bet on either side of the table, which is divided down the middle by a line dividing it into two parts, right and left; hence the name, Baccara a deux tableaux. A person wishing to bet on both sides at once places his money _=à cheval=_; that is, across the line. If one side wins and the other loses, a bet placed in this manner is a stand-off; if both sides lose, the bet is lost, and if both win the bet is won. A common form of dishonesty at Baccara, and one for which a distinguished Englishman was recently tried, is to place a stake very close to the line, and if it is seen that the side on which it is placed has probably lost, to push the stake onto the line, so that it may be saved if the other side wins. The Englishman in question worked this little game on the Prince of Wales for some time before he was detected. When the banker loses, he pays the players in their order, right and left alternately, beginning with those who hold cards, until his capital is exhausted. Any further bets are disregarded. If any player bets on the opposite side of the table to that on which he is seated, his bet is not paid until all five of the players on that side have been settled with, because such a bet is regarded as that of an outsider, not belonging to that side of the table. If the player actually holding cards is not the one nearest the banker, he is still the first one to be paid, and then those beyond him in order.
144, it is stated:-- The game of hurling consisted in throwing or hurling a ball of wood about three inches in diameter, and covered with plated silver, sometimes gilt. On the ball was frequently a Cornish motto allusive to the game, and signifying that fair play was best. Success depended on catching the ball dexterously when dealt, and conveying it away through all the opposition of the adverse party, or, if that was impossible, to throw it into the hands of a partner, who, in his turn, was to exert his utmost efforts to convey it to his own goal, which was often three or four miles distant from that of his adversaries. T. Durfey s _Collin s Walk through London_, 1690, p. 192, says: Hurling is an ancient sport us d to this day in the countys of Cornwall and Devon, when once a year the hardy young fellows of each county meet; and a cork ball thinly plated with silver being thrown up between em, they run, bustle, and fight for it, to the witty dislocating of many a shrew d neck, or for the sport of telling how bravely their arms or legs came to be broke, when they got home. It is fully described by Carew in his _Survey of Cornwall_, 1602, p. 73. It is also a very ancient Irish game, and Mr. Kinahan says: Many places are called after it: such as, Killahurla, the hurlers church; Gortnahurla, the field of the hurlers; Greenanahurla, the sunny place of the hurlers; this, however, is now generally corrupted into hurling-green.
At strokes his face he suits the action to the words, and then thumps with his stick on the ground at the beginning of the last line. The object of all the players is to make Buff smile while going through this absurdity, and if he does he must pay a forfeit. Another version is for one child to be blindfolded, and stand in the middle of a ring of children, holding a long wand in his hand. The ring dance round to a tune and sing a chorus [which is not given by the writer]. They then stop. Buff extends his wand, and the person to whom it happens to be pointed must step out of the circle to hold the end in his hand. Buff then interrogates the holder of the wand by grunting three times, and is answered in like manner. Buff then guesses who is the holder of the wand. If he guesses rightly, the holder of the stick becomes Buff, and he joins the ring (_Winter Evening s Amusements_, p. 6).
” If not satisfied, he may discard one or both of his cards, and receive others from the top of the pack. In either case he places two white counters in the pool for his ante. All having decided to stand or to draw, the remainder of the pack, exclusive of the discards, is reshuffled and cut; each player is then given two more cards, one at a time, and face down. Each in turn examines his four cards, and if satisfied he says: “I play;” if not, he says: “I pass.” If all pass, the dealer has the choice of two things: He may gather the cards and deal again, each player putting another counter into the pool, or he may put up two white counters himself, and compel the players to retain the cards dealt them, the dealer keeping his also. Any person announcing to play may put up as many counters as he pleases within the betting limit. If no person will stay with him, he takes back his raise, leaving the antes, and is paid two counters by the last player who refuses. If two or more declare to play they can either meet the amount offered by the first player, or raise him. If any player declines to meet a raise, he must abandon his hand. If no one will call the last raise, the player making it takes the pool, and then shows his hand, and demands payment from each of the other players for whatever combination he holds.
No player is allowed to bid more than fourteen. If he will not bid, he must say: “I pass.” A bid having been regularly made, any following player must bid higher or pass. There are no second bids. A bid once made can neither be amended nor withdrawn. _=Irregular Bids.=_ If any player bids before the eldest hand has bid or passed, both the player in error and his partner lose their right to bid; but the side not in error must bid to decide which of them shall name the trump. If the eldest hand has decided, and the pone bids without waiting for the dealer’s partner, the pone loses his bid, and the dealer may bid before his partner. If the dealer bids without waiting for his partner, both lose their bids; but the pone may overbid the eldest hand. If the dealer’s partner has bid, and the dealer bids without waiting for the pone, the dealer loses his bid.
At the head table the newly arrived pair remain as partners; but at the booby table the players who have just arrived from the head table divide. All being seated, they cut for the deal, and play is resumed until the next bell tap. _=Ties.=_ In case of ties in points at any table when the bell taps, those having won the most tricks on the next hand are declared the winners. If that is also a tie, the ladies cut to decide it, the lowest cut going up. In cutting, the ace is low, and the jack ranks below the Queen. _=Prizes.=_ Six prizes are usually provided for large companies. The lady and gentleman having the largest number of gold stars taking the first prizes; the largest number of red stars winning the second prizes; and the largest number of green stars the booby prizes. One player cannot win two prizes.
_ A kind of play that children use when they hop on one leg, called Fox to thy hole. Cambridge Dict. MDCXCIII.-- _Ascol._ A kind of play wherein boys hopping on one leg beat one another with gloves or pieces of leather, and is called Fox to thy hole. Coles, 7th ed. 1711.-- _Ascol._ The play called Fox to the hole.--_Empus.
When this is done, the children all dance round and sing the other lines. (_d_) The analysis of the game-rhymes is on pp. 178-181. The most constant formulæ of this game-rhyme are shown by this analysis to be Nos. 1, 6, 7, 13, 15, 18, 23, and the variants, though important, are not sufficient to detract from the significance of the normal version. It is evidently a funeral game. The green gravel and the green grass indicate the locality of the scene; green, as applied to gravel, may mean freshly disturbed, just as green grave means a freshly made grave. The tenant of the new grave is the well-loved lady of a disconsolate lover, and probably the incidents of washing and dressing the corpse, and putting an inscription on the place where it is laid, are indicated by Nos. 13 and 15. The dirge, or singing to the dead, is indicated by Nos.
When a cribbage board is not at hand, the game may be kept by ruling a sheet of paper into ten divisions, and marking them with the figures 1 to 0 on each side: +---------------------------------------+ | 0 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | +---------------------------------------+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | +---------------------------------------+ Each player being provided with two coins, one silver and one copper, (or different sizes,) the copper coin can be advanced from point to point to count units, and the silver coin will mark the tens. _=PLAYERS.=_ Cribbage is distinctly a game for two players, although three may play, each for himself, or four, two being partners against the other two. When two play, one is known as the _=dealer=_, and the other as the non-dealer, or the _=pone=_. _=CUTTING.=_ The players cut for the choice of seats, and for the first deal. The lowest cut has the choice, and deals the first hand. The Ace is low. If a player exposes more than one card he must cut again. Ties are also decided by cutting again.
The best informed make it a rule never to play Poker with strangers, because they realize that it is impossible for any but a professional gambler to know half the tricks employed by the poker sharp. It is a notorious fact that even the shrewdest gamblers are continually being taken in by others more expert than themselves. What chance then has the honest card player? There are black sheep in all flocks, and it may be well to give a few hints to those who are in the habit of playing in mixed companies. Never play with a man who looks attentively at the faces of the cards as he gathers them for his deal; or who stands the pack on edge, with the faces of the cards towards him, and evens up the bunch by picking out certain cards, apparently because they are sticking up. Any pack can be straightened by pushing the cards down with the hand. The man who lifts them up is more than probably a cheat. Never play with a man who looks intently at the pack and shuffles the cards slowly. If he is not locating the cards for the ensuing deal he is wasting time, and should be hurried a little. Never play with a person who leaves the cut portion of the pack on the table, and deals off the other part. In small parties this is a very common way of working what is known as _=the top stock=_.
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V EXTENSIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS OF LITTLE WAR Now that battle of Hook s Farm is, as I have explained, a simplification of the game, set out entirely to illustrate the method of playing; there is scarcely a battle that will not prove more elaborate (and eventful) than this little encounter. If a number of players and a sufficiently large room can be got, there is no reason why armies of many hundreds of soldiers should not fight over many square yards of model country. So long as each player has about a hundred men and three guns there is no need to lengthen the duration of a game on that account. But it is too laborious and confusing for a single player to handle more than that number of men. Moreover, on a big floor with an extensive country it is possible to begin moving with moves double or treble the length here specified, and to come down to moves of the ordinary lengths when the troops are within fifteen or twelve or ten feet of each other. To players with the time and space available I would suggest using a quite large country, beginning with treble moves, and, with the exception of a select number of cavalry scouts, keeping the soldiers in their boxes with the lids on, and moving the boxes as units. (This boxing idea is a new one, and affords a very good substitute for the curtain; I have tried it twice for games in the open air where the curtain was not available.) Neither side would, of course, know what the other had in its boxes; they might be packed regiments or a mere skeleton force. Each side would advance on the other by double or treble moves behind a screen of cavalry scouts, until a scout was within ten feet of a box on the opposite side. Then the contents of that particular box would have to be disclosed and the men stood out.