GIFT OF 
 
 SEELEY W. MUDD 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER 
 
 DR.JOHNR. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTOR! 
 
 to the 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH
 
 
 
 y^t**^^ -^^- 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF WHIST
 
 -^^^ N • X 
 
 ^ «.
 
 THE 
 
 Evolution of Whist 
 
 A STUDY OF THE PROGRESSIVE CHANGES 
 
 WHICH THE GAME HAS PASSED 
 
 THROUGH FROM ITS ORIGIN 
 
 TO THE PRESENT TIME 
 
 WILLIAM POLE, F.R.S. 
 
 MUS. DOC. OXON. 
 
 KNIGHT COMMANDER OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE ORDER OF 
 THE RISING SUN 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 'THE THEORY OF THE MODERN SCIENTIFIC GAME OF WHIST,' 
 
 "the PHILOSOPHY OF WHIST," ETC., ETC. 
 
 HONORARY MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN WHIST LEAGUE 
 
 > , J > J 
 
 NEW YORK 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 AND LONDON 
 
 1895 
 
 91855
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 TROW DIRECTORY 
 
 PRINTINQ AND BOOKBINOINQ COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK
 
 
 To Henry Jones, Esq. 
 
 My dear Jones : 
 
 In my endeavour to trace out the Evolution of 
 Whist, I have found one name prominently be- 
 fore me in every stage ; — that of '^ Cavendish.'' 
 
 It is he who, by his industrious investigations^ 
 has enligJitened lis as to the fashioning of its em- 
 bryonic elements, in the distant and obscure past, 
 zvhile it had only a vague existence. 
 
 It is he zvJio has pointed out how it flashed 
 upon society at its birth, and for a long period 
 dazzled the intellect and fashion of Europe. 
 
 It was he who, in its maturity, took the chief 
 part in defining and proclaiming its great powers. 
 
 And it is he who, largely by his ozvn efforts, 
 has invested its old age zvith new attractions, 
 and spread them over a nezv world. 
 
 '' Cavendish " dedicated his work to the most 
 eminent W J list personage then living ; I hope 
 you will not think me too presumptuous in doing 
 tJie same. 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 William Pole.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 It is with some diffidence that I have com- 
 plied with a request, from several quarters, 
 that I would write further about Whist. 
 The latest progress in the game has taken 
 the form of very elaborate detail in the prac- 
 tical Rules ; and I have always preferred to 
 leave this branch of the subject in the hands 
 ^ of more experienced players, confining my 
 ^ own province to considerations of a wider 
 H range and more general character. 
 
 I have, however, been glad to know that 
 M this latter course has not been without util- 
 ^H ity ; and I venture to think that, in the com- 
 ^ plicated maze of practical instruction now 
 offered to students, it may be salutar}^ to' in- 
 terpose some more comprehensive views. 
 And I believe that such an object may be 
 most usefully attained by a careful scientific 
 study of the whole history of the game; not 
 as a mere curious collection of dry facts and 
 dates, but for the purpose of tracing out the 
 principles and motives which have deter- 
 mined and guided its progressive changes.
 
 Vlll PREFACE 
 
 The influence of a philosophical study of 
 History on the judgment of current events 
 is now well established in literature, and 
 there seems no reason why it should not be 
 applicable here. The progress of Whist 
 proves to be a clear case of gradual Evolu- 
 tion, which has never yet been thoroughly 
 examined, and this is a want I have endea- 
 voured to supply. 
 
 It is impossible to write on historical mat- 
 ters without copious references, and I have 
 to make many grateful acknowledgments of 
 help in this direction. In the first place I 
 have to thank Mr. Murray for liberally allow- 
 ing me to incorporate in these pages, so far 
 as I desired, the article written by me for the 
 Quarterly Rcvieiv of January, 1871, the object 
 of that article being somewhat akin to my 
 present one, though on a more limited scale. 
 Messrs. De la Rue, also, have been good 
 enough to give me free permission to make 
 extracts from the excellent works published 
 by them. 
 
 Then I have to make a special acknowledg- 
 ment to the Whist authorities in the United 
 States of America. The position which 
 modern Whist has taken there is so remark- 
 able, that 1 have thought it right to devote a 
 large space to its description and considera- 
 tion, and in doing this I have had the kindest
 
 PREFACE IX 
 
 aid from the Officers of the American Whist 
 League. And further, the Editor and the 
 proprietors of their official organ, the Mil- 
 waukee Whist Journal, have liberally sanc- 
 tioned my making free use of any matter 
 therein contained, without which, indeed, my 
 work would have been impossible. 
 
 And lastly, I must express my special in- 
 debtedness to my old friend '' Cavendish," 
 not only for the references to his valuable 
 works, which will be found throughout this 
 volume, but for personal assistance in its 
 preparation, to an extent which I cannot at- 
 tempt to specify. 
 
 W. P. 
 
 London, January, 1895.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The love of gaming appears a natural instinct in man ; 
 but he has impressed upon it the stamp of his 
 great mental powers i 
 
 Whist is a remarkable example of this ennobling in- 
 fluence, and hence its great intellectual attrac- 
 tiveness, 2 
 
 It is become both a Science and an Art, and each of 
 
 these requires special study, 3 
 
 The immense variety which has been developed in it, 
 
 out of the most simple means 3 
 
 Even to such an extent as to give rise to different 
 kinds of game, all based on one elementary 
 skeleton form, 4 
 
 These varieties have been brought about in regular 
 
 sequence, by a gradual process of evolution, . 5 
 
 It is possible to trace distinct stages of progress, ap- 
 proximately identified with particular varieties of 
 game, 6 
 
 But the later forms, though generally more advanced 
 in their character, have not superseded the earlier 
 ones, and need not do so, 7 
 
 Parallel cases in the biological world, 7 
 
 The object of this book is to trace the gradual Evolu- 
 tion of Whist, and to discuss the aspects which 
 it has presented in the different stages of its pro- 
 gress, 8
 
 Xll CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 This progress may be approximately divided into four 
 Eras. As is generally the case, they overlap, or 
 run to a certain extent into each other ; but they 
 may each be broadly characterized by a particular 
 form of game, 9 
 
 These four Eras, and their corresponding varieties of 
 game, will occupy the Four Parts into which the 
 present work is divided, 10 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE PRIMITIVE ERA, 
 
 A.D. 1500 TO 1730. 
 
 Chapter I, 
 
 Early History. 
 
 Whist is of English origin, 13 
 
 The game of " Triumph," quoted by Latimer, ... 14 
 
 " Gammer Gurton's Needle," 15 
 
 Shakespeare, 16 
 
 '• Ruff and Honours," 17 
 
 "Whisk." Taylor, 18 
 
 "Whist." Cotton, Pope, Johnson, 19 
 
 " Swabbers," 22 
 
 Tricks of Sharpers, 23 
 
 Low Character of the Game, 24 
 
 Thomson's " Seasons," 25 
 
 Ombre and Quadrille 26 
 
 Chapter H. 
 
 The Primitive Game. 
 
 Whist was then played by the lower class of people, . 27 
 The kind of game may be identified by wide-spread 
 
 traditions still extant, 27
 
 CONTENTS Xlll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Description of the essence or skeleton of Whist, which 
 
 runs unchanged through all forms, 28 
 
 Object of the play, 29 
 
 The means by which this object was attained in the 
 
 Primitive Game, 29 
 
 Tricks made by high or master cards ; or by trump- 
 ing, 29 
 
 Some slight consideration given to the partner; re- 
 turning his lead, 30 
 
 Avoidance of leading trumps, 31 
 
 Opportunities for skill, 31 
 
 This game still largely played, 32 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE ERA OF HOYLE, 
 A.D. 1730 TO i860. 
 
 Chapter III. 
 History. Hoyle, Payne, and Matthews. 
 
 The Crown Coffee-house Whist Party, 35 
 
 Edmond Hoyle, 36 
 
 His antecedents and education, 36 
 
 His long study of the game, 36 
 
 He resolves to teach it professionally, 37 
 
 Records of this ; the Rambler ; the Gentleman s 
 
 Magazine, 37 
 
 Notes given to his pupils, 37 
 
 Afterwards published in a book, 38 
 
 Its great success. Remarkable effect produced on 
 
 Society, 39 
 
 The Humours of Whist, a satire, 39 
 
 A remarkable " coup," 40
 
 XIV CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Whist admitted at Court, and acknowledged as one of 
 
 the Royal amusements 42 
 
 Whist at the Universities, 42 
 
 Death of Hoyle, 43 
 
 Late discoveries of contemporary references to Hoyle 
 
 and his work, 43 
 
 Byron and Homer, 44 
 
 Hoyle's successors, 44 
 
 Payne and his Maxims, 44 
 
 Whist at Bath, 45 
 
 Matthe\YS's Advice to the Young Whist Player, . . 46 
 Alexander Thomson's Epic Poem, " Whist," in twelve 
 
 Cantos. Its pretensions to scholarship, ... 47 
 Whist in France. Louis XV,, Josephine, and Marie 
 
 Louise. The " thinking game," 48 
 
 Talleyrand and his mot, 48 
 
 Deschapelles and his Traite du Whiste, 48 
 
 Whist in Austria. Metternich, 49 
 
 Whist in the London Clubs, 49 
 
 Introduction of " Short Whist." Its true explanation 
 
 and object. Playing to the score, 49 
 
 Honour Scores, 50 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 The Hoyle Game. 
 
 Improved modes of considering the Game, New 
 Rules given out by the Crown Coffee-house 
 party, 52 
 
 New and more intellectual views of the objects, and 
 
 the modes of attaining them, 53 
 
 Different treatment of master cards, 53 
 
 More attention to the relative positions of the cards in 
 
 the four hands, 53
 
 CONTENTS XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The long-suit system, 54 
 
 New ideas about the use of trumps, and the process 
 
 of trumping, 54 
 
 Hoyle's probable mode of illustrating his views, . . 54 
 Inferences as to the hands from the " fall of the 
 
 cards," 55 
 
 Hoyle's manner of teaching, by personal instruction 
 
 and examples of play, 56 
 
 Notes or memoranda given to his pupils, which have 
 
 been preserved in his published book, .... 56 
 Description of the book and its chief contents ; its 
 
 merits and defects, 57 
 
 Modern editions of it, 61 
 
 Payne's Maxims. Their laudable object ; their im- 
 proved arrangement and great utility, .... 62 
 
 Some examples of them, 62 
 
 Matthews's Treatise. Its general arrangement, and 
 
 improved views, 63 
 
 His classification of the processes in the play, ... 64 
 His acute perception of the qualities necessary to 
 
 make a good player, 65 
 
 Examples of his teaching, 66 
 
 Attention given by Hoyle and Matthews to the calcu- 
 lation of probabilities as affecting Whist play, . 66 
 
 Hoyle's separate book on the subject, 67 
 
 Resulting nature of the Game of Whist as left by 
 
 these three authorities 67 
 
 Its great merits, as compared with the Primitive 
 
 Game, in an intellectual point of view, .... 68 
 
 Importance attached to personal skill, 68 
 
 Reasons why, in spite of all subsequent improvements, 
 the game of Hoyle must always exist, and remain 
 to a certain extent popular, 68
 
 XVI CONTENTS 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA, 
 FROM i860 ONWARDS. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 History. Cavendish and Clay. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 General nature of this stage of the Evolution, ... 73 
 Higher interest in the game, produced by the intro- 
 duction of Short Whist, ......... 74 
 
 Whist in the London Clubs. Gradual improve- 
 ments, . , 74 
 
 The " Little Whist School " formed at Cambridge and 
 
 continued in London, 75 
 
 Their earnest, scientific, and practical study of the 
 
 game, 75 
 
 The " Portland " Club. James Clay, 75 
 
 Accidental inducement to the publication of some of 
 the results of the studies of the Little School, by 
 
 one of their members, TJ 
 
 " Cavendish " on Whist, 78 
 
 " Treatise on Short Whist " by James Clay, .,..']% 
 Great importance of the improvements described in 
 these two works, as the result of years of earnest 
 
 study, by powerful minds, 79 
 
 Further step in the Evolution made by the consolida- 
 tion of these improvements into a general Sys- 
 tem, 80 
 
 The main feature of this being the combination of the 
 
 hands of the two partners 80 
 
 *' The Theory of Whist," 80 
 
 Attention revived to the calculation of Probabilities, as 
 an important element in the structure of the im- 
 proved Game, 81
 
 CONTENTS XVll 
 
 FACE 
 
 Embodiment of this in " The Philosophy of Whist," . 8i 
 The principle of the combination of the hands not 
 
 new, having been treated of previously, .... 82 
 
 In France by the General Baron de Vautre, .... 82 
 And in Austria by the Ritter Ludwig von Coeckel- 
 
 bergle-Diitzele, 83 
 
 Notices of these two works, 83 
 
 Reasons why the idea did not spread, 86 
 
 Whist in high literature : Eraser s Magazine and the 
 
 Quarterly Revieiu 87 
 
 Amendment and consolidation of the Laws of Whist, 
 
 under the direction of Mr. J. L. Baldwin, ... 87 
 
 The American Laws, 89 
 
 Chapter VL 
 
 The Philosophical Game. 
 
 This is based on the Game of Hoyle, but has the ad- 
 vantage of systematic consolidation and reduction 
 to Philosophical principles, 90. 
 
 Fitndamental Princz'ples, and General View of their 
 Application. 
 
 Its great feature consists in the more perfect cultiva- 
 tion of the relations between the two partners, . 91 
 
 This was brought about by the London Club players 
 
 and the Little W' hist School 92 
 
 With a view to its application each partner must adopt 
 
 the same general treatment of his hand, ... 92 
 
 The long-suit system, 92 
 
 Management of trumps. Leading them. Ruffing and 
 
 forcing, 93 
 
 Play of plain suits 95
 
 XVlll CONTENTS 
 
 TAGE 
 
 The consideration of Probabilities. Their calculation ; 
 its necessity and utility. Early attention to this 
 subject by Hoyle and Matthews. More efficient 
 
 modern cultivation, 95 
 
 The first plain suit lead. Which suit and which card, 97 
 Duty of your partner. Return of your suit, .... 99 
 
 Play of second and third hands 100 
 
 The discard, 100 
 
 Coinninnicatio7t between the Partners. 
 
 Great importance of this subject, 100 
 
 Ethical principles ; " Paley's Moral Philosophy," , . loi 
 Great improvements effected in this stage of the Evo- 
 lution, , 103 
 
 The chief source of information is by inferences from 
 the cards played, as determined by the established 
 rules of expediency adopted in playing them, . . 103 
 
 Examples, 103 
 
 Inferences from the play of useless or indifferent cards. 
 
 Caution required in playing them, 104 
 
 The play of Sequences. Its great importance from their 
 frequent recurrence. Their imperfect treatment in 
 former times. Hoyle, Payne, and Matthews, . .105 
 Establishment, in this form of game, of more perfect 
 
 rules. " Ccelebs " and " Cavendish," .... 106 
 
 Return of the partner's lead, 108 
 
 Erratic play, 108 
 
 The Philosophical Game in its Educational Aspects. 
 
 Facility with which it lends itself to instruction, . .109 
 Difficulties of teaching and learning the simple Hoyle 
 
 game, no 
 
 Contrast with the Philosophical Game, on account of 
 
 its systematic form, iii
 
 CONTEXTS XIX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Enormous increase in the cultivation of Whist since 
 
 the Philosophical form has been established, . . 1 1 1 
 
 Plan of teaching : postponing complicated details and 
 beginning with the most simple elementary rules. 
 Example, 112 
 
 Further progress then becomes easy, 114 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 Modern Signalling. The Germ. 
 
 Although the Philosophical Game may be considered 
 generally as the most perfect Structural form of 
 Whist, the principle of Evolution has still been at 
 work on the minor details 117 
 
 And the changes consequent thereon have attracted 
 
 much attention, particularly in America, . . .117 
 
 They have had reference chiefly to the further im- 
 provement of the Communications between the 
 Partners, 118 
 
 And although they have only lately assumed great 
 prominence, the Germ of them has existed for 
 many years, 118 
 
 During the Evolution of the Philosophical Game, there 
 was introduced a contrivance called the " Signal 
 for Trumps," ng 
 
 Description of it by Clay, and history of its introduc- 
 
 tion, 
 
 119 
 
 Its mention by Cselebs, 120 
 
 Its original name of the " Blue Peter," alluding to its 
 new character as a 54'-;/^:/, i2]
 
 XX CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 It gave rise to some objections and to much discus- 
 sion. But it has now been almost universally ac- 
 cepted and has become an integral part of the 
 English Modern Game, 122 
 
 But as bearing on the Evolution of Whist it is 
 desirable to examine its theoretical nature more 
 closely, 123 
 
 Explanations by Clay and " Cavendish," 124 
 
 It is made clear by them that the signal consists in a 
 novel and conventional extension of an old and 
 natural mode of play to new circumstances, . .126 
 
 And this small element of novelty has served as a 
 ger?n, from the development of which the latter- 
 day stage of progress has largely sprung, . . .127 
 
 The Signal for Trumps is perfectly fair, involving only 
 a slight extension of the ethical conditions, which 
 is universally agreed to 128 
 
 And, although some players in an early period thought 
 it a disadvantage, it has many features which ap- 
 pear advantageous in the large extension of the 
 game now prevailing, 129 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 Developments. 
 
 The first important modern " Whist Development " 
 was the " Penultimate " lead from a suit of five 
 cards, 132 
 
 History of its introduction, 132 
 
 Its origin in the protective play of intermediate se- 
 quences ; and its extension to five cards gen- 
 erally 132 
 
 This was followed by a proposal from General Dray- 
 son to lead the antepenult imatc from six cards, . 133
 
 CONTENTS XXI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The next step in the progress came from America, . 133 
 Previous spread of Whist in the United States, . . .134 
 Mr. Nicholas Browse Trist of New Orleans. His 
 communications to the Field and with " Caven- 
 dish " on Whist matters, 135 
 
 His proposal to number the card led from the top of 
 the hand, instead of from the bottom ; so leading 
 the ''fourth best " in all cases where a small card 
 
 is required, 135 
 
 The real import of this apparently only nominal change, 1 36 
 This lead given the name of the " American Lead," . 137 
 Further developments suggested by Mr. Trist, . . .137 
 By taking advantage of possible variations in the lead 
 
 of " indifferent cards," 137 
 
 Such variations were already in use for trick-making 
 purposes in certain cases, and it was proposed to 
 extend the plan to other cases for the purpose of 
 
 giving information, 138 
 
 Reasonings in this sense — Consultations with " Caven- 
 dish," and final establishment of the complete sys- 
 tem of " American Leads," 138 
 
 Publication of Cavendish's work on " Whist Develop- 
 ments," 139 
 
 The three maxims of American Leads, 140 
 
 Further developments by the same author, . . . .140 
 T\iQ. Echo of the Trump Call ; and the 5/^(5-<?r//^, . .141 
 Arrangements for " unblocking," to allow of the free 
 
 " bringing in " of a long suit, 141 
 
 Revisions and alterations of the old formulas for lead- 
 ing high cards, for the purpose of communicating 
 information. Suits headed by honours in se- 
 quence, etc., etc 143 
 
 Consequent large increase of the conventional rules 
 
 for leads, 143
 
 XXll CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 General aspects of Cavendish's work on these develop- 
 ments, 144 
 
 His views in regard to the " Conversation of the 
 
 Game," 145 
 
 Influence of these developments on the general de- 
 tails of Whist play, 148 
 
 The results arrived at are not yet final, for the pro- 
 gress of Evolution is still going on, 149 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 
 Whist in America. 
 
 The improvements referred to in this stage of Evolu- 
 tion have been received with remarkable earnest- 
 ness and enthusiasm in the United States of 
 America, where indeed they have modelled the 
 standard form of game, .........150 
 
 Whist Customs, Scoring, etc. 
 
 Forms of scoring differ from those in England, . .151 
 Honours are not usually counted at all ; the score is 
 
 made by tricks only, 153 
 
 Practice in social Clubs, single games of 5 points, . .153 
 Practice in Whist Clubs, games of 7 points. Straight 
 
 Whist, 154 
 
 In the Whist Club it is not usual to play for money 
 
 stakes, the play being for the love of the game 
 
 alone, 154 
 
 Di (plica te Wh ist. 
 
 This is the most usual form of game in Whist matches, 
 
 trials of skill, etc., 155 
 
 It is a revival, with extensions and improvements, of a 
 plan originated by the Little Whist School, in
 
 CONTENTS XXlll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 which the comparative skill of the players may be 
 tested, by systematic duplication of the play, 
 
 with reversals of the hands, 155 
 
 Description of the various modifications of the system, 157 
 Opinion of " Cavendish" on the American forms of 
 
 play, 160 
 
 The American Whist League. 
 
 Proposal for a Whist Tournament in 1890, which led 
 
 to the formation of the body having this name, . 161 
 
 Constitution and duties of the League, 161 
 
 Establishment of a revised Code of Laws, . . . .162 
 
 Annual Congresses, 163 
 
 Arrangements for Whist Matches and Tournaments. 
 
 The " Hamilton Whist Trophy," 165 
 
 Professional Teaching of Whist. 
 
 Revival of this, which had been neglected since the 
 days of Hoyle, 166 
 
 The principal teachers are ladies : Miss Kate Wheel- 
 
 ock, Mrs. Jenks, and many others, 167 
 
 Good lady Whist-players abound in the United States, 
 
 and hold their place in the public matches, . .167 
 
 Ainerica7i Whist Literature, 
 
 Establishment of a monthly journal called " Whist," 
 as the official organ of the Whist League, and as 
 a periodical exclusively devoted to the interests of 
 
 the Game, 168 
 
 Its success, usefulness, and popularity, 169 
 
 Publication of works on Whist, chiefly devoted to the 
 explanation of the latest improvements in the 
 game, 169
 
 XXIV CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foster's " Whist Manual " and " Self-playing Cards ; " 
 
 " Duplicate Whist and Whist Strategy," . . . 169 
 Fisher Ames, " Practical Guide to Whist," .... 169 
 
 C. E. Coffin, " The Gist of Whist," 170 
 
 C. D. P. Hamilton, " Modern Scientific Whist," a very 
 elaborate work, profusely illustrated with dia- 
 grams, etc. Extracts therefrom 172 
 
 Popularity of Whist in America. 
 
 Evidences of this are abundant, showing not only the 
 w^ide extent of Whist play, but the earnestness 
 and enthusiasm manifested about it, and the gen- 
 eral prevalence of high skill in the players, . . .171 
 
 Difficulties and Disputes. 
 
 But the American experience with the Latter-Day 
 
 Whist has not been altogether smooth, . . . .175 
 
 Difficulties and disputes have arisen as to the extended 
 use of signals of an arbitrary character between 
 the partners, 176 
 
 There has been a tendency to increase the number 
 of such signals, with less consideration and 
 caution than have been bestowed on them by the 
 accepted authorities, 176 
 
 And, what is more serious, a right has been asserted, 
 in contriving new signals, to keep them secret be- 
 tween the partners, and concealed from the table 
 generally, 177 
 
 This subject was brought before the public in a letter 
 to the " Whist" Journal in July, 1891, and gave 
 rise to long discussions therein, which extended 
 to May, 1894, and in which many eminent Whist 
 authorities and Whist players both in America 
 and in England joined, 177
 
 CONTENTS XXV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Extracts from this correspondence, showing the nat- 
 ure of the most important opinions brought for- 
 ward, 1 80 
 
 Remarks on the dispute and on the question gener- 
 ally, 184 
 
 The ethical view of the proposals made, 185 
 
 The probable effect they would have on the game, . 192 
 Doubts as to the advisability of an indefinite and in- 
 discriminate multiplication of arbitrary signals, . 193 
 Discrimination between the different kinds of signals 
 
 used, 193 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 Restatement of the general views as to the Evolution 
 of Whist, and as to the nature of its different 
 stages, 199 
 
 Permanence of the different kinds of game, .... 200 
 
 The Primitive Ga/iie — Reasons why it will always 
 
 find votaries and players, 200 
 
 But it is not to be recommended for earnest study, . 201 
 
 The Hoyle G^zwe'— Reasons which make this form of 
 game acceptable to many able players, to the ex- 
 clusion of other forms, 201 
 
 But as this game is really embodied in the following 
 stage, which is so much more teachable, it ought 
 not to be chosen for the commencement of Whist 
 study, 203 
 
 The Philosophical Game, — This is the form of game 
 to which the attention of students should be 
 most prominently directed, 204 
 
 Study of principles first, and then of published ex- 
 amples, introductory to your own practice, which 
 will enable you in time to pass for a j'^ //;/«' player, 205
 
 XXVI CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Beyond this will come the exercise of your own per- 
 sonal skill and mental powers, manifested in 
 observation, inference, memory, promptness of 
 action, soundness in judgment, and possibly 
 brilliancy of invention, by which you may become 
 2ijine player, 206 
 
 Errors are unavoidable ; classification and judgment 
 
 of them, 210 
 
 When high skill cannot be commanded, a good know- 
 ledge of systematic principles may always be 
 attained, and will always be useful 211 
 
 The Latter-Day Iviprovements — Although this latest 
 and most elaborate phase of Whist Evolution has 
 been taken up so enthusiastically in America, it 
 has not yet become fully popular in England, .212 
 
 But there is abundant evidence that its development 
 has been watched with much interest and with 
 some favour, many of its earlier elements having 
 passed into common use, 213 
 
 Speculative reasons for the hesitation ; the national 
 
 conservative feeling, 213 
 
 The difficulty of acquirement of the elaborate new 
 
 rules, 214 
 
 The way in which the increased preponderance of skill 
 
 may affect the present system of money stakes, . 214 
 
 The deterrent effect of the difficulties that have lately 
 
 arisen in America ; and so on, 215 
 
 Suggestions for the more general cultivation of the 
 
 new introductions, 215
 
 CONTENTS XXVll 
 
 APENDICES. 
 A. 
 
 Some Model Whist Hands of Early Date. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1743. From the " Humours of Whist," containing 
 
 a r^/^/, by Hoyle, 219 
 
 1755. From " The Connoisseur," 224 
 
 1 791. From "Whist," an Epic Poem in twelve Cantos, 229 
 
 B. 
 
 Constitution of the American Whist League, . . . 226 
 
 C. 
 
 The American Laws of Whist, 246 
 
 D. 
 
 1. Description of the Match for the Hamilton Whist 
 
 Trophy; by Duplicate Whist, 257 
 
 2. Personal Match, by Duplicate Whist, between nine 
 
 ladies and nine gentlemen, 263
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF WHIST 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 '' It has been found hard," said Dr. John- 
 son, '' to describe man by an adequate defini-. 
 tion." The term " reasoning animal," is ob- 
 jected to because so many of his race do not 
 reason, while so many of his *' poor earth- 
 born companions " do. In default of more 
 refined psychological distinctions, reference 
 has been made to certain habits which ap- 
 pear to have spontaneously developed them- 
 selves in his nature. Thus he has been called 
 a cooking animal ; a laughing animal ; a 
 clothes-wearing animal ; a tool-making ani- 
 mal ; and, more recently, a gambling animal. 
 
 There is nothing very striking in these defi- 
 nitions, and many more might be discovered 
 with a little ingenuity ; but it is remarkable 
 how man has contrived to impress upon all 
 such innate habits the stamp of his high in- 
 tellectual powers. Cooking, for example, 
 has been exalted by the " Physiologic du 
 Gout " and *' The Original " into an aesthetic
 
 2 THE EVOLUTION OF WHIST 
 
 study ; merriment and wisdom are prover- 
 bially connected ; the " Sartor Resartus " will 
 illustrate the philosophy of clothes; the pow- 
 ers of intellect devoted to tools during the 
 last century have revolutionized the w^orld ; 
 and in regard to the last and least promising 
 of our list, even the gambling propensity has 
 been elevated by the invention and general 
 adoption of games combining chance and 
 skill, in which the excitement of hazard is 
 tempered by the more wholesome interest of 
 the intellectual exercise. Such games have 
 varied much from time to time, and, as civil- 
 ization has advanced, have gradually im- 
 proved in character and attractiveness, till 
 they have culminated in the noble game of 
 'Whist, which, as now practised, after nearly 
 three centuries of elaboration, stands unri- 
 valled at the head of all in-door recreations. 
 
 It has now become a favourite amusement 
 in all ranks of society, and especially with 
 persons of great intelligence and ability. It 
 is differentiated from all other card games 
 by the demands it makes on the intel- 
 lectual powers, and the opportunity it gives 
 for high mental skill ; indeed a great man 
 once said that in choosing a Prime Min- 
 ister, his Whist playing would offer a suffi- 
 cient test of his competency. But Whist 
 is not exclusively a stud}- for great minds ;
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 it is so catholic in its nature that ordi- 
 nary intellects can find pleasure in its prac- 
 tice. In social circles it is becoming con- 
 stantly better known, and its value better 
 appreciated, although the general style of 
 play is not always so intellectual as it might 
 be. 
 
 Whist is both a Science and an Art. It is a 
 Science, because its foundations are laid on 
 truly scientific principles ; on the mathemati- 
 cal laws of probabilities, and on strictly 
 scientific reasoning directing their applica- 
 tion. It is an Art, because it requires educa- 
 tion, practice, judgment, and skill, in the 
 actual conduct of the play. In this, as in 
 many other intellectual pursuits, it is only by 
 a combination of the two that eminence can 
 be obtained. Hence, both must be learned : 
 the science, to enable the student to under- 
 stand the principles on which he has to pro- 
 ceed ; and the art, to direct him how to carry 
 these principles into effect to the best advan- 
 tage. 
 
 The most astonishing feature of Whist is 
 the immense variety that may arise out of 
 a very simple elementary structure. It is 
 really one of the simplest card games known, 
 consisting merely in '^ making tricks " ac- 
 cording to certain conditions which a child
 
 4 THE EVOLUTION OF WHIST 
 
 may learn in a few minutes. And yet how 
 to do this in the most advantageous way is a 
 problem that has occupied the most powerful 
 minds for centuries. And it is not only that 
 the mode of procedure is subject to almost 
 infinite variations of individual volition, but 
 there have been, from time to time, while 
 still adhering to the same elementary skeleton 
 of game, remarkable varieties, not onl}^ in the 
 details but in the general forms. Different 
 modes of procedure have been laid down, 
 and different sets of rules have been recom- 
 mended for the guidance of players, all var}'- 
 ing so much as to constitute what may be 
 described as different phases of the game, 
 each having peculiarities of its own, worthy 
 of attention and stud3^ 
 
 This great variety of complex structures, 
 built on one underlying skeleton, cannot fail 
 to remind us of similar productions in the 
 world of nature, where we may often find 
 some great general fundamental feature, 
 such, for example, as the vertebrate prin- 
 ciple, extending through a multitude of ani- 
 mate forms all largely differing from each 
 other. And when this idea is once enter- 
 tained it suggests further analogies. Cannot 
 we also see, in the history of Whist, traces of 
 that wonderful element. Evolution, which 
 modern discoverers have proved to be the
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 great source of progressive change in all 
 organic nature? 
 
 We certainly can, for it is impossible to 
 study carefully the history of the game with- 
 out perceiving that its varieties have, for the 
 most part, not been arbitrary changes. They 
 have clearly, in conformity with this univer- 
 sal law, resulted from a gradual progress, or 
 development, in the intellectual character of 
 the game, and in the complexity of its vary- 
 ing forms. In the earliest stage it was a very 
 simple matter, easily understood and easily 
 practised ; then, as its capabilities began to 
 be discovered, more advanced varieties came 
 in, and these became more and more com- 
 plex, adapted to more and more intellectual 
 skill, until at last they have culminated in the 
 present elaborate development, which is one 
 of the most striking features of the time, if 
 only on account of the enthusiasm with which 
 it is cultivated by the highest class of players. 
 
 Now this view of the gradual development 
 of Whist, from its earliest inception to its 
 present elaborate form, deserves more care- 
 ful attention than it has yet received. Its 
 true interest consists, not merely in lists of 
 dry facts and dates, but rather in the con- 
 sideration of the nature and import of the 
 changes that have taken place ; and this point
 
 6 THE EVOLUTION OF WHIST 
 
 bas received but little study or description. 
 The reason for this neglect is the general as- 
 sumption that any advance or improvement 
 justifies the oblivion of what has gone be- 
 fore. Any proficient who has made himself 
 master of an improved style of game is ac- 
 customed to despise as useless and uninter- 
 esting the earlier forms. Charles Lamb, for 
 example, pla3'ing the Hoyle game of Mrs. 
 Battle, characterized the more primitive 
 practice as " sick Whist," and a little later we 
 find the " modern scientific " experts despis- 
 ing the antiquated game of Charles Lamb. 
 And such has been the progress of AVhist 
 Evolution in the last two decades that a mem- 
 ber of the present American League would 
 look down even on the fine playing of Des- 
 chapelles or Clay. 
 
 We are arriving, now, at a degree of elabo- 
 ration which gives us pause. The improved 
 game has been taken up, as we shall see 
 hereafter, earnestly and enthusiastically by 
 numbers of connoiseurs, of high intellectual 
 ability, Avho have devoted themselves to its 
 cultivation ; but whatever its merits may be, 
 it would be too much to assume that it forms 
 the only kind of game which will be or ought 
 to be played. Clay has remarked very per- 
 tinently, that an increased call upon the skill 
 required limits considerably the number of
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 players, and it would be a reproach on the 
 merits of Whist, and on the universality of 
 its pleasure-giving power, if its practice were 
 confined to the comparatively small public 
 who could master its more modern intricacies 
 and complications. It is desirable, therefore, 
 to consider our position ; and we believe our 
 policy should lie, not (as some would have it) 
 in discouraging the march of Evolution, or in 
 depreciating the value of its results ; but in 
 contesting the exclusiveness with which the 
 idea of it is associated. 
 
 In the great evolutionary systems of nat- 
 ure the production of higher forms does not 
 necessitate the extinction of the antecedent 
 ones. Many still live and flourish contem- 
 poraneously with their advanced progeny. 
 Although man may have been evolved from 
 some Simian ancestor^ and may be vastly su- 
 perior to him, yet they may both exist to- 
 gether, and each will find for himself a suitable 
 place in the w^orld. And so with Whist, with- 
 out doubting the reality of the advance, or the 
 intellectual superiority of the higher inven- 
 tions, it does not follow that they need abol- 
 ish the preceding lower ones, or that they 
 ought to do so. 
 
 Indeed, the question has settled itself. As 
 a matter of fact, in the present day an enor- 
 mous number of persons, who take pleasure in
 
 8 THE EVOLUTION OF WHIST 
 
 pla3'ing Whist, still adopt actually its most 
 primitive forms. And why should they not, 
 if they find such forms the most suitable for 
 them ? The amiable lady who begins by 
 playing out her aces, or the pleasant club 
 member who leads his lowest card from five, 
 ought not to be upbraided for bad play. All 
 that should be said is that they play varieties 
 of the game differing from that recommended 
 in "Cavendish's" latest editions. We may 
 take it for granted that, whatever may be the 
 exclusive notions of the select Whist aristoc- 
 racy, there will always be a large democratic 
 body who will please themselves as to what 
 sort of game they play. And we may, there- 
 fore, as well meet this inevitable fact boldly. 
 
 These considerations suggest a new object 
 for an Essay upon Whist. The usual aim of 
 a Whist book is to describe a particular kind 
 of game, which its author believes is the only 
 true one ; to lay down its principles, and to 
 give the reader practical directions how to 
 carry them out in his play. This is not the 
 object aimed at here. We propose to take 
 a broader survey of Whist in general, to in- 
 vestigate its history, and to trace its grad- 
 ual development, showing the different as- 
 pects it has presented, and the different 
 ways it has been treated from time to time.
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 In this way, while observing the process of 
 Evolution, by which, under the constant effort 
 of powerful minds it has reached its present 
 advanced stage, we shall not lose sight of the 
 nature of its intermediate forms. 
 
 The steps or phases of progress in Whist 
 structure will of course be most naturally in- 
 dicated by the varieties of game prevalent at 
 different times. The definitions of these, and 
 the determination of their history and com- 
 parative age, are not always easy ; for, as in 
 all cases of evolutionary development, we 
 find the various stages run into one another. 
 Looking, however, broadly at the facts of his- 
 tory we may clearly identify four great va- 
 rieties, prevailing at moderately well-defined 
 times, and it is proposed to treat of these in 
 four divisions of the present work. 
 
 We may first notice the primitive stage of 
 Whist, occupying a long era from the origin 
 of the game to the date immediately preced- 
 ing Hoyle ; and we may characterize the 
 simple structure that prevailed during this 
 era as The Primitive Game. 
 
 The next stage begins at the date when 
 Whist was raised into a really intellectual 
 pastime under the master mind of Hoyle, 
 who was well followed in the same path by 
 Payne and Matthews. We have, therefore, 
 the opportunity of showing how The Game
 
 lO THE EVOLUTION OF WHIST 
 
 OF HOYLE differed from its antecedent form. 
 The era of this game, unchanged, lasted for 
 more than a century. 
 
 In process of time, however, the game of 
 Hoyle was, by the further study of many 
 clever experts, represented chiefly by " Cav- 
 endish " and James Clay, consolidated into a 
 more settled and definite system, on a strict- 
 ly logical and philosophical basis, forming 
 what is termed The Philosophical Game. 
 
 The era of this last-named form extends to 
 the present time, for the game remains, essen- 
 tially, in its leading principles the same. 
 But it has been subject in recent years to 
 development in its details, so remarkable as 
 to have attracted largely the attention of 
 high-class Whist players, particularly in the 
 United States of America. This develop- 
 ment must therefore be considered as an im- 
 portant step in the Evolution of Whist, and 
 will be treated of in our Part IV.
 
 PART I 
 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 A.D. 1500 TO 1730
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 EARLY HISTORY 
 
 In this chapter it is proposed to give a 
 brief notice of the chief facts known as to 
 the origin and early history of Whist, lead- 
 ing to what we have designated as the Prim- 
 itive Game. ' 
 
 Whist is of English origin, but its early his- 
 tory is involved in some obscurity. It is not 
 to be supposed that a game of this high char- 
 acter should have sprung at once perfect into 
 being ; it has been formed by gradual devel- 
 opment from elements previously existing. 
 When these began to assume shapes akin to 
 what we know now, the ^' fittest " of them 
 "survived " and became, in process of time, 
 moulded into the present forms. 
 
 As early as the beginning of the sixteenth 
 
 1 The information we possess as to the early history of Whist is 
 chiefly due to the investigations of " Cavendish." The historical 
 notices contained in this and some following chapters are taken 
 largely (with some later corrections) from an article, by the author 
 of the present work, in the Quarterly Review of January, 1871, the 
 use of which has been kindly sanctioned by the publishers of that 
 periodical.
 
 14 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 century a card game was in common use in 
 England, of which both the name and the 
 chief feature enter prominently into the 
 structure of Whist. This was called t7'iumpJi 
 — corrupted into triunp — and the essence of 
 it was the predominance of one particular 
 suit, called the triumph, or trump-suit, over 
 all the others. A work published in Italy in 
 1526 speaks of a game called Trionfi, which 
 is also mentioned by Rabelais as La Tri- 
 omphe, among the games played by Gargan- 
 tua ; but this, which resembled Ecarte, must 
 not be confounded with the English game. 
 The latter was, in all probability, distinctly 
 of English origin, and was popular in good 
 society, as we find a reference to it in a quar- 
 ter where it would hardly be looked for ; 
 namely, in a sermon preached by Latimer 
 at Cambridge, the Sunday before Christmas, 
 1529. He mentions the game under its cor- 
 rupted as well as its original appellation, and 
 clearly alludes to its characteristic feature, 
 as the following extracts will show : 
 
 " And where you are wont to celebrate Christmas in 
 playing at cards, I intend, by God s grace, to deal unto 
 you Christ's Cards, wherein you shall perceive Christ's 
 Rule. The game that we play at shall be called the 
 Triumph, which, if it be well played at, he that dealeth 
 shall win ; the Players shall likewise win ; and the standers 
 and lookers upon shall do the same.
 
 EARLY HISTORY I 5 
 
 '* You must mark also that the Triumph must apply to 
 fetch home unto him all the other cards, whatever suit they 
 be of. 
 
 " Then further, we must say to ourselves, What re- 
 quireth Christ of a Christian man ? Now turn up your 
 Trump, your Heart (Hearts is Trump, as I said before), 
 and cast your Trump, your Heart, on this card." 
 
 Other references to this game are found at 
 a later period ; we need only mention two. 
 In " Gammer Gurton's Needle," one of the 
 earliest pieces performed in England under 
 the name of a comedy, and written by Bishop 
 Still, soon after the middle of the sixteenth 
 century, occurs this passage : 
 
 ''Chat. — What, Diccon? come nere, ye be no stranger ; 
 We be set fast at trump, man, hard by the fyre. 
 Thou shalt set on the King, if thou come a little 
 nyer. 
 
 Come hither, Dol ; Dol, sit downe and play this 
 game. 
 
 And as thou sawest me do, see thou do even the 
 same ; 
 
 There is five trumps besides the queene, the hind- 
 most thou shalt find her ; 
 
 Take hede of Sim Glover's wife, she hath an eie 
 behind her." 
 
 Another reference is by Shakespeare. In 
 ''Antony and Cleopatra," Act IV., Scene 12, 
 
 Antony says (folio, 1623) :
 
 l6 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 " My good Knaue Eros, now thy captaine is 
 Euen such a body ; Heere I am Anthony, 
 Yet cannot hold this visible shape (my Knaue) 
 I made those warres for Egypt, and the Oueene, 
 Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine, 
 Which whil'st it was mine, had annext untoo't 
 A Million moe, (now lost,) shee Eros has 
 Packt Cards with Caesar, and false plaid my Glory 
 Vnto an Enemies triumph." 
 
 This passage has been the subject of several 
 comments ; but the repeated allusions to card- 
 playing leave no doubt as to the reference in 
 the last word. 
 
 About the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century the game of Trump had acquired in 
 England another name, which is also pre- 
 served in Whist ; i.e., Ruff. There is no in- 
 formation how this word came to be used ; 
 we only, know that the two terms were sy- 
 nonymous, as Cotgrave, in his French and 
 English Dictionary, i6i i, explains the French 
 word triompJic to mean "the card game called 
 ruffe, or trump;" and Nares, in his Glossary, 
 says ruff meant a trump card, cJiarta doniin- 
 atrix. 
 
 But contemporaneously with this the game 
 itself had also unders^one, in Eno^land, some 
 modifications which caused it to differ ma- 
 terially from the original type, and among 
 them was the attachment of certain advan-
 
 EARLY HISTORY 1/ 
 
 tages, or " honours," to the four highest cards 
 of the trump suit. This was probably of 
 itself an ancient invention, for we find a 
 game called '' Les Honeurs " in Rabelais's 
 list ; but whether the honours were imported 
 into Trump or Ruff, and so gave the game a 
 new character, or whether they Avere an 
 original part of the game, we have not evi- 
 dence enough to decide. At any rate, the 
 game was called '' Ruff and Honours." 
 
 It was played with a pack of fifty-two 
 cards, the ace ranking the highest. There 
 were four players, two being partners 
 against the other two, and each received 
 twelve cards ; the remaining four were left 
 as a " stock " on the table, and the top one 
 was turned up to determine the trump suit. 
 The player who happened to hold the ace 
 of trumps had the privilege of taking the 
 '' stock," in exchange for four cards of his 
 own, an operation called ritffing. The score 
 was nine, and the party that won most tricks 
 were " most forward to win the set." Three 
 honours in the joint hands were reckoned 
 equivalent to two tricks, and four honours to 
 four. This came very near Whist, and was, 
 in fact, Whist in an imperfect form. 
 
 The further changes in the constitution of 
 the game, and the radical alteration of the 
 
 2
 
 l8 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 name, appear to have taken place early in 
 the seventeenth centur}-. The first form of 
 the new designation was Whisk, a word which 
 occurs in " Taylor's Motto," by Taylor, the 
 water poet, published in 1621. Speaking of 
 the prodigal, he says : 
 
 " He flings his money free with carelessnesse, 
 At novum, mumchance, mischance (chuse ye which) 
 At one-and-thirty, or at poore-and-rich, 
 Ruffe, slam, trump, nody, whisk, hole, sant, new cut." 
 
 The origin of the word is obscure ; but it 
 has been suggested that it was used as a 
 synonym for ruff, in ridicule of the affecta- 
 tions of the gallants who played at the game. 
 The article of dress in fashion under the lat- 
 ter name at the time is descrbed as — 
 
 " Great and monsterous, made either of cambric, holland, 
 lawne, or els of some other the finest cloth that can be got 
 for money, whereof some is a quarter of a yard deepe, yea, 
 some more, hanging over their shoulder points, instead of 
 a vaile. But if yEolus with his blasts, or Neptune with 
 his storms, chaunce to hit upon the crazie barke of their 
 bruised ruffles, then they goeth flip-flap in the winde, like 
 ragges that flew abroad, lying on their shoulders like the 
 disheclout of a slut." 
 
 This sort of thing might well be ridiculed 
 as a Whisk, which not onlv meant " a small
 
 EARLY HISTORY IQ 
 
 besom or brush," but also referred to an ar- 
 ticle of dress : 
 
 " Their wrinkled necks were covered o'er 
 With whisks of lawn, by granniims wore 
 In base contempt of bishops' sleeves." 
 
 Thirty or forty years after Taylor's men- 
 tion of the word as applied to the game, it 
 had become changed to the present form, the 
 earliest known use of which is quoted by 
 Johnson from the second part of " Hudibras " 
 (spurious), published in 1663 : 
 
 " But what was this ? A game of Whist 
 Unto our Plowden-Canonist." 
 
 In the opinion of the best modern etymol- 
 ogists the original spelling of " Whisk " or 
 " Whist " is of no consequence as regards 
 the derivation of the word ; the latest view 
 of the highest authorities is that it is of imi- 
 tative origin, and means " silence," a view 
 which also prevailed in earlier times, as will 
 be seen further on. 
 
 In 1674 we find a published description 
 of the game in a curious book, by Charles 
 Cotton, the poet, entitled, " The Compleat 
 Gamester, or Instructions how to play at 
 Billiards, Trucks, Bowls, and Chess, to- 
 gether with all manner of usual and most
 
 20 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 gentle Games, either on Cards or Dice." In 
 this book a chapter is devoted to " English 
 Ruff-and-Honours and Whist," and it con- 
 tains the following passage : 
 
 " Ruff and honours {alias slamm) and Whist are games 
 so commonly known in England, in all parts thereof, that 
 every child almost of eight years old hath a competent 
 knowledge in that recreation." 
 
 After describing ruff and honours, the au- 
 thor says : '' Whist is a game not much dif- 
 fering from this." Each player still had 
 twelve cards ; but instead of leaving an un- 
 known stock on the table, the four deuces 
 were discarded from the pack before deal- 
 ing. The abolition of the unknown " stock " 
 was a great step in advance, as it enabled 
 the players to calculate Avith more certainty 
 the contents of each other's hands. The 
 score was still nine, tricks and honours 
 counting as before. 
 
 Cotton says the game '' is called Whist 
 from the silence that is to be observed in the 
 play." This meaning is warranted by the 
 custom of the time. The word, although 
 treated as a verb, adjective, or participle, by 
 Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, and others, is 
 defined by Skinner (167 1), one of the best 
 authorities, as interjectio silentimn imperans ; 
 and so it was commonly used. In an old
 
 EARLY HISTORY 21 
 
 play, written by Decker in 1604, we find the 
 example : 
 
 " Whist ! Whist ! my master ! " 
 
 Cotton's derivation of the present name 
 has been supported by Johnson and Nares, 
 and has always been most commonly re- 
 ceived ; but it must not be forgotten that the 
 word Whisk continued in use, along with the 
 other name, for a century after Cotton wrote. 
 Pope, in his epistle to Mrs. Teresa Blount, 
 1715, says: 
 
 " Some squire perhaps, you take delight to rack, 
 Whose game is Whisk, whose treat a toast in sack." 
 
 Dr. Johnson defines Whist as " A game at 
 cards, requiring close attention and silence ; 
 vulgarly pronounced Whisk.'' And he points 
 out the many ways in which the word Whist 
 is used, conveying the sense above given. 
 
 The Hon. Daines Harrington, writing as 
 late as 1786 on games at cards, uses the word 
 Whisk without any qualification. 
 
 It is possible that, when the game took its 
 complete form, the more intellectual char- 
 acter it assumed demanded greater care and 
 closer attention to the play ; this was incom- 
 patible with noise in the room, or with con- 
 versation between the players ; and hence 
 the word " Whist ! " may have been used in
 
 22 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 its interjectional form to insist on the neces- 
 sary silence ; and from the similarity of this 
 to the term already in use, the modification in 
 the last letter may have taken its rise. It is 
 worthy of remark that in a fashionable book 
 on Ombre, published in Berlin in 17 14, the 
 writer, who had probably never heard of the 
 English game, says: " Pour bien jouer I'om- 
 bre, il faut du silence et de la tranquillite." 
 
 But whatever may be the views held in 
 this country as to the origin of the name of 
 our national card-game, it is only fair to our 
 ingenious neighbours across the Channel to 
 give their explanation, which we find in a 
 French work on Whist : 
 
 " At a time when French was the current language in 
 England, the people had become so infatuated with one 
 of their games at cards that it was prohibited after a cer- 
 tain hour. But parties met clandestinely to practise it ; 
 and when the question, ' Voulez-vous jouer ? ' was an- 
 swered by ' Oui ! ' the master of the room added the in- 
 terjection, ' St ! ' to impose silence. This occurred so 
 often that ' Oui-st,' became at length the current appella- 
 tion of the game ! " 
 
 With these names there came to be asso- 
 ciated another of a very strange character ; 
 namely, " swabbers " or " swobbers." Field- 
 ing, for example, in the account of Jonathan 
 Wild's detention in the spunging-house in 
 London, in 1682, says : '' Whisk and swab-
 
 EARLY HISTORY 23 
 
 bers was the game then in the chief vogue." 
 Swift, in his " Essay on the Fates of Clergy- 
 men," ridicules Archbishop Tenison, who 
 was said to be a dull man, for misunder- 
 standing the term. He relates a known 
 story of a clergyman who was recommended 
 to the Archbishop for preferment, when his 
 Grace said : '' He had heard that the clergy- 
 man used to play at Wkist and sivobbcrs ; that 
 as to playing now and then a sober game at 
 Whist for pastime, it might be pardoned, but 
 he could not digest those wicked swobbers." 
 " It was with some pains," added the Dean, 
 '' that my Lord Somers could undeceive 
 him." Johnson quotes the pretended speech 
 of the Archbishop, and defines swabbers as 
 '' four privileged cards, which are only inci- 
 dentally used for betting at Whist." The 
 additional term was of limited application, 
 and soon went out of use. 
 
 It is curious that although the precursors 
 of Whist had enjoyed favour in high places, 
 yet Whist itself in its infancy was chiefly 
 played in low society, where cheats and sharp- 
 ers assembled. A considerable part of Cot- 
 ton's chapter is devoted to a warning against 
 the tricks and frauds of these gentry. He 
 alludes to the '' arts used in dealino-," and 
 shows how, by ingenious devices, '' cunning
 
 24 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 fellows about this city may not only know all 
 the cards by their backs, but may turn up 
 honours for themselves, and avoid doing so 
 for their adversaries." The following pas- 
 sage gives some significant hints : 
 
 " He that can by craft overlook his adversaries' game hath 
 a great advantage, for by that means he may partly know 
 what to play securely. There is a way to discover to their 
 partners what honours they have ; as by the wink of one 
 eye, or putting one finger on the nose or table, it signifies 
 one honour ; shutting both the eyes, two ; placing three 
 fingers or four on the table, three or four honours." 
 
 In a republication of Cotton's Avork by 
 Seymour, in 1734, these cautions are ampli- 
 fied, showing that Whist still retained the 
 same low character. The editor says : '' As 
 Whisk (he uses the old appellation) is a tav- 
 ern game, the sharpers generall}' take care to 
 push about the bottle before the game be- 
 gins." A special chapter is given to '' Piping 
 at Whisk," and as this is an accomplishment 
 not generally known at the modern Clubs, 
 the following extract may be interesting : 
 
 " By piping I mean when one of the company that does 
 not play (which frequently happens) sits down in a con- 
 venient place to smoke a pipe and so look on, pretending 
 to amuse himself that way. Now the disposing of his fingers 
 on the pipe, whilst smoking, discovers the principal cards 
 that are in the person's hand he overlooks, which was 
 always esteemed a sufficient advantage to win a game.
 
 EARLY HISTORY 25 
 
 This may also be done by another way, i.e., by common 
 conversation. ' Indeed,' signifies diamonds ; ' truly,' hearts ; 
 ' upon my word,' clubs ; ' I assure you,' spades." 
 
 It is only fair to add that with the bane the 
 editor supplies also the antidote. He says : 
 " For zvJiich reasons all nice gamesters play be- 
 hind curtains.'' 
 
 A book called " Annals of Gaming," of 
 about the same date, says : '' There are sev- 
 eral other barefaced practices made use of, 
 such as looking over hands, changing cards 
 under the table, and often from off the table ; 
 but these are generally made use of by 
 women, who, when detected, laugh it off, 
 without any sense of shame or dishonour." 
 
 There is other evidence of the low charac- 
 ter of Whist. Fielding and Pope, as we have 
 seen, both speak of it disparagingly, and 
 Thomson, in his ''Autumn" (1730), describes 
 how, after a heavy hunt dinner, 
 
 " Whist awhile 
 Walks his dull round beneath a cloud of smoke, 
 Wreath'd fragrant from the pipe." 
 
 This being, he adds, one of the " puling idle- 
 nesses " introduced to cheat the thirsty mo- 
 ments until the party do something more 
 noble, i.e. : 
 
 " Close in firm circle, and set, ardent, in 
 For serious drinking."
 
 26 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 In the early part of the eighteenth century 
 there was a mania for card-playing in all 
 parts of Europe, and in all classes of so- 
 ciety ; but in the best circles Whist was un- 
 known, or at least ignored. Gentlemen in 
 their gaming coteries practised Piquet (a fine 
 and verj^ old game, said to have been invent- 
 ed in France in the fifteenth century) ; and in 
 ladies' society the most fashionable amuse- 
 ment was Ombre, immortalized by Pope's 
 ''Rape of the Lock" (1712) in a manner 
 strongly contrasted with his disparaging 
 mention of Whist a year or two later. 
 
 There was also a curious and very meritori- 
 ous adaptation of Ombre for four players, 
 called Quadrille. This was fashionable, and 
 much played ; it formed a kind of intermedi- 
 ate between Ombre and Whist, and it was 
 probably a favourite game at the time when 
 Whist suddenly sprang into notoriety.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE PRIMITIVE GAME 
 
 The above history brings us to the begin- 
 ning of the eighteenth century, and as Whist, 
 although not then a fashionable game, must 
 have been a good deal played by the com- 
 mon class of people, one may be curious to 
 know Avhat the pla}^ was like. Unfortunate- 
 ly there is no direct information about this, 
 but we may find, even at the present day, 
 a species of game in existence, of a very sim- 
 ple kind, which has been clearly derived 
 from oral traditions widely spread, and 
 doubtless of great antiquity. There is there- 
 fore reason to believe that this form of game 
 must represent the handing - down of the 
 rudest practice in the infancy of Whist. We 
 have paid some attention to it, and find it 
 still played largely in domestic circles. It 
 is founded on the most primitive ideas of 
 Avhat should be done, as can easily be shown. 
 
 The essence of the game of Whist, which 
 runs unchanged through all its varieties of
 
 28 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 form, is exceedingly simple. There are four 
 players, sitting round a table in positions 
 which the Americans conveniently describe 
 as North, South, East, and West; North and 
 South forming a partnership against a similar 
 partnership of East and West. We may 
 then quote a description of the play from 
 Brand e's " Dictionary of Science, Literature 
 and Art : " 
 
 " The cards are dealt round, thirteen to each player, the 
 last, or bottom one, belonging to the dealer, being turned 
 tip or shewn ; the suit to which this belongs is then 
 called the trump suit, and takes preference of all the others 
 (this being the oldest or ' triumph ' feature of the game). 
 The others are called ' plain suits.' 
 
 " The player to the left of the dealer then plays a card, to 
 which the other players in succession must follow suit, 
 i.e., play cards of the same suit, if they have them. These 
 four cards constitute a trick, which is won by the person 
 who plays the highest card, and is picked up by the winner 
 or his partner. The winner of this then leads, or com- 
 mences a new trick, and so on till the whole thirteen are 
 played. 
 
 " When a player cannot follow suit, i.e., has no card of 
 the suit led, he may, if a plain suit is led, either play a 
 trump, which wins the trick by the precedence of the suit, 
 or may discard a card of some other suit." 
 
 The partnership couple who win most 
 tricks have the advantage, which may be 
 '' scored " in several different ways, accord- 
 ing to the custom or agreement prevalent
 
 THE PRIMITIVE GAME 29 
 
 among the players. According to the sys- 
 tem most common in England, all tricks 
 above six count towards "game," a fortui- 
 tous addition being made for the accidental 
 possession of " honours." 
 
 The whole object of the play, therefore, is 
 to win tricks, and this may obviously be 
 done in two Avays ; either 
 
 1. By the predominance of high cards in 
 the suit led, or 
 
 2, By trumping. 
 
 Suppose, now, a person to come fresh to 
 the game, not having considered its intri- 
 cacies at all. His first impulse will be to di- 
 rect his attention to the chance of making 
 tricks by high cards; and when he looks at 
 his hand he will notice what high cards he 
 has in it. If he holds an ace, for example, he 
 will be tempted to lead it when he has the 
 lead, or to play it when the suit is led by 
 some one else, and so endeavour to secure a 
 trick with it as early as possible. And simi- 
 larly if he holds the king, when the ace has 
 already been played. And if he holds several 
 such *' master cards," he will play them out 
 successively when he gets the chance. 
 
 If, having nothing of this simple kind to 
 do, he holds a king, the ace of the suit being
 
 30 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 Still unplayed, he will probably be tempted 
 to lead a small card of that suit, in the hope 
 that it may somehow bring out the ace, and 
 so make his king good. Or, if he has the 
 queen, he may attempt the same policy, bui 
 with less hopefulness. 
 
 But he will also not be unmindful of the 
 other method of making tricks, namely, by 
 trumping. If, therefore, as sometimes hap- 
 pens, he is originally short of one plain suit, 
 he will watch for that suit being led, and will 
 gladly put a small trump upon it. And if he 
 happens to have a tolerably large number of 
 trumps, he will be the more ready to seize 
 upon, what appears to him, this profitable 
 manner of using them. 
 
 If, as is more frequently the case, he holds 
 one card onl}^ of a plain suit (called a " single- 
 ton "), he may, when he gets the lead, lead 
 that card out, in the hope that he may be 
 able to trump the suit when it comes round 
 again. 
 
 He will also acquire, either b}' his own in- 
 tuition or b}^ some vague kind of tradition or 
 instruction, the idea that he has some con- 
 sideration to give to his partner, whose in- 
 terests are bound up with his own ; and that 
 this consideration is manifested by " return- 
 ing his partner s Icad^ This principle will 
 be suggested to him by his own play. For
 
 THE PRIMITIVE GAME 3 1 
 
 example, if he leads from a king, and succeeds 
 thereby in bringing the ace out, he will be 
 glad for his partner to return that suit to 
 him that he may make his king. Or, if he 
 leads a singleton, he will wish his partner 
 to return that suit for him to trump. Thus 
 the mutual return of the lead becomes a 
 great feature of this primitive game, and 
 may often save the player from the dis- 
 agreeable necessity of scheming, in the dark, 
 a new lead of his own. 
 
 He will also, in accordance with the '' trump- 
 ing" principle, carefully abstain from leading 
 trumps, so checking the power of his partner 
 to make tricks by their use. 
 
 Beyond the above-mentioned simple ex- 
 pedients, the player of this game has no idea 
 of value in his cards generally, and he is 
 consequently quite careless in the play of 
 such as are not wanted for immediate trick- 
 making. He will naturally ''follow suit" 
 when required, but is not particular which, 
 of several low cards, he may use for the pur- 
 pose. All these minor matters are a blank to 
 him. 
 
 But it must not be supposed, from the 
 simplicity of these rules, that no skill is re- 
 quired in the play. The player has to watch 
 for and to recollect the fall of the highest 
 cards of a suit, that he may know when he
 
 32 THE PRIMITIVE ERA 
 
 is left Avith the best of it, and may play it 
 accordingly. He has also to recollect his 
 partner's lead, and particularl}^ to mark 
 when he is short of a suit, so as to lose no 
 opportunity of leading it for him. 
 
 Primitive and unpretentious as this sort 
 of game is, it is played by enormous num- 
 bers of domestic players, who find incidents 
 enough in it to amuse them for hours to- 
 gether. And though many of them would 
 doubtless be able to learn and to enjoy a 
 more intellectual form, there is no reason 
 why it should be thrust upon them, or why 
 they should be calumniated for adhering to 
 their innocent form of entertainment. It is 
 probable that they follow fairl}^ the general 
 mode of play in the infancy of the game.
 
 PART II 
 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 A.D. 1730 TO i860
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 HISTORY 
 HOYLE, PAYNE, AND MATTHE\VS 
 
 It has been necessary to show, in our First 
 Chapter, the low state of Whist in its primi- 
 tive stage, both in social rank and in style 
 of play, in order to bring out more promi- 
 nently the fact of its sudden elevation to 
 fame and honour, and the great merit of the 
 man to whom this elevation was due. 
 
 About 1730 the ''ordinaries," where gam- 
 bling had been long carried on to an enormous 
 extent, and with the most scandalous abuses, 
 began to be superseded by the more intellect- 
 ual meetings at taverns and coffee-houses, 
 which figure so prominently in the literary 
 annals of the last centur3\ It happened that 
 a party of gentlemen who frequented the 
 Crown Coffee-house in Bedford Row, and of 
 whom the first Lord Folkestone was one, 
 had become acquainted with the game, and, 
 in defiance of its bad reputation, tried it at 
 their meetings. They soon found out it had
 
 36 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 merits. They studied it carefully, and ar- 
 rived, for the first time, at some principles 
 of play. 
 
 The wa}^ having been thus prepared, there 
 was wanting a man of genius who would 
 further work out the elements of the game, 
 and mould it into a permanent form. This 
 man appeared in the person of Edmond 
 HOVLE. There is very little trustworthy in- 
 formation as to his antecedents. He was 
 born, according to the best account that ex- 
 ists, about 1679. It is said he studied as a 
 barrister, and he styles himself in his first 
 book " a gentleman." It is clear he was a 
 man of good education, and moved in good 
 society. Possibly he was one of the party 
 Avho met at the Crown. 
 
 It appears that he had noticed the game at 
 an early period, when it was quite in its low 
 estate. He studied i ..ell, and saw that it 
 had great capabilities, but that it was much 
 debased by the use uiade of it by sharpers 
 for cheating inexperienced players out of 
 their money. He believed it was in his 
 power to guard the public against these 
 unprincipled practices, as well as to excite 
 a more legitimate interest in the game, by 
 spreading a better knowledge of the prin- 
 ciples on which it should be played. To at- 
 tain these objects, therefore, he resolved to
 
 HISTORY. — HOYLE, PAYNE, MATTHEWS 3/ 
 
 tcacJi it professionally, in the same wa}^ that 
 a master would teach music, or di"awing, or 
 fencing-, or any other accomplishment. 
 
 His spirited attempt excited much atten- 
 tion, and we find several notices of it on rec- 
 ord. In the Rambler oi May 8, 1750, a lady 
 writes : 
 
 "As for play, I do think I may indulge in that, now I 
 am my own mistress. Papa made me drudge at Whist 
 till I was tired of it ; and far from wanting a head, Mr. 
 Hoyle, when he had not given me above forty lessons, 
 said I was one of his best scholars." 
 
 In the Gentleman s Magazine of February, 
 1755, a writer, professing to give the auto- 
 biography of a fashionable physician, says : — 
 
 " Hoyle tutored me in several games at cards, and under 
 the name of guarding me from being cheated, insensibly 
 gave me a taste for sharping." 
 
 In the course of his instruction Mr. Hoyle 
 gave to his pupils some manuscript notes 
 which he had drawn up containing rules and 
 directions for their guidance. The novelty 
 and great value of these rules and direc- 
 tions were soon discovered, and as the fame 
 of his instruction spread, surreptitious copies 
 began to get into circulation ; when Mr. 
 Hoyle, to secure his copyright, had them 
 printed and published, and thus arose the 
 
 91855
 
 38 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 famous work which has immortalized his 
 name. 
 
 We shall give some particulars as to this 
 book in the next chapter. There is only one 
 copy known to exist of the first edition, which 
 is in the Bodleian Library. It has a long 
 title, beginning as follows : 
 
 " A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, containing the 
 Laws of the Game, and also some Rules whereby a Be- 
 ginner may, with due attention to them, attain to the Play- 
 ing it well." 
 
 The date upon it is 1742. 
 
 The book had a great and rapid success ; it 
 went through several editions very quickl}^, 
 and it seems to have been again pirated, as 
 the author found it necessary to certify every 
 genuine copy by attaching his autograph 
 signature, of which the following, taken from 
 the thirteenth edition, is a fac-simile. 
 
 At this time changes had been made, in- 
 creasing the winning score to ten, and using 
 the whole pack, thus allotting thirteen cards 
 to each player. This latter improvement
 
 HISTORY. — HOYLE, PAYNE, MATTHEWS 39 
 
 gave the first introduction of the odd trick, 
 an element now of such great interest ; and, 
 taken all together, the game, as Hoyle pre- 
 sents it, is precisely the form of Long Whist 
 ever since played. 
 
 The effect of Hoyle's promulgation of the 
 game in its improved form was very prompt, 
 as we learn from a clever and amusing bro- 
 chure that appeared in 1743, called 
 
 " The Humours of Whist, a dramatic Satire, as acted 
 every day at White's and other Coffee-houses and As- 
 semblies." 
 
 It is a short comedy, the principal characters 
 being Professor Whiston (Hoyle), who gives 
 lessons in the game ; Sir Calculation Puzzle, 
 an enthusiastic player who muddles his head 
 with Hoyle's calculations, and always loses ; 
 pupils, sharpers, and their dupes. The ob- 
 ject is chiefly to ridicule the pretensions of 
 Hoyle and the enthusiasm of his followers, 
 and to show that skill and calculation are of 
 no avail against bad luck or premeditated 
 fraud. The work was reprinted ten years 
 later, but it is scarce, and it will be useful to 
 give a few extracts that throw light on the 
 circumstances attending the first introduction 
 of the new rules. 
 
 It would appear that Hoyle had spent a 
 considerable time in the study of the game ;
 
 40 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 and the prologue to the '' Humours of 
 Whist " says : 
 
 " Who will believe that man could e'er exist, 
 Who spent near half an age in studying whist ? 
 Grew grey with calculation, labour hard, 
 As if life's business center'd in a card ? 
 That such there is, let me to those appeal 
 Who with such liberal hands reward his zeal. 
 Lo ! Whist becomes a science, and our peers 
 Deign to turn schoolboys in their riper years." 
 
 Sir Calculation Puzzle gives some amusing 
 explanations of his losses. In one case he 
 says : 
 
 " That certainly was the most out of the way bite [swin- 
 dle] ever heard of. Upon the pinch of the game, when 
 he must infallibly have lost it. the dog ate the losing card, 
 by which means we dealt again, and faith he won the 
 game." 
 
 Again, he describes a curious ending of a 
 game : 
 
 " W^e were nine all. The adversary had 3 and we 
 4 tricks. All the trumps were out. I had Queen and 
 two small clubs, with the lead. Let me see ; it was about 
 222 and 3 halves to — gad, I forget how many — that my 
 partner had the ace and King ; ay, that he had not both of 
 them, 17 to 2 ; and that he had not one, or both, or neither, 
 some 25 to 32. So I, according to the judgment of the 
 game, led a club ; my partner takes it with the King. Then 
 it was exactly 481 for us to 222 for them. He returns the 
 same suit, and I win it with my Queen, and return it again ;
 
 HISTORY. — riOYLE, PAYNE, MATTHEWS 4 1 
 
 but the devil take that Lurchum, by passing his ace twice, 
 he took the trick, and having- two more clubs and a thir- 
 teenth card,^ egad, all was over." 
 
 The praise of Hoyle's book by its support- 
 ers is unbounded. They say: 
 
 " There never was so excellent a book printed. I'm quite 
 in raptures with it. I will eat with it, sleep with it, go to 
 Parliament with it, go to church with it. I pronounce it 
 the gospel of Whist-players. I want words to express the 
 author, and can look on him in no other light than as a 
 second Newton. I have joined twelve companies in the 
 Mall, and eleven of them were talking of it. It's the sub- 
 ject of all conversation, and has had the honour to be in- 
 troduced into the Cabinet." 
 
 The wits, however, did not neglect to poke 
 fun at the Professor : 
 
 " Bean. Ha ! ha ! ha I I shall dye ! Yonder is Lord 
 Finesse and Sir George Tenace, two first-rate players ; 
 they have been most lavishly beat by a couple of 'pren- 
 tices. Ha ! ha ! ha ! They came slap four by honours 
 upon them almost every deal. 
 
 " Lord Rally. I find. Professor, your book does not 
 teach how to beat four by honours ! Ha ! ha ! ha ! 
 
 " Professor (aside). Curse them ; I'd rather have given 
 a thousand pounds than this should have happened. It 
 strikes at the reputation of my Treatise. 
 
 " Lord Rally. In my opinion there is still something 
 
 1 An artifice probaljly taught by Hoyle, See further remarks 
 on this matter in Appendix A.
 
 42 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 wanting to compleat the system of Whist ; and that is a 
 Dissertation on the Lucky Chair ! {Ctvnpaiiy laieg/i) 
 
 " Pi'ofessor. Ha ! ha ! ha ! Your Lordship's hint is ex- 
 cellent. I'm obliged to you for it." 
 
 In spite of all this banter, however, Whist 
 continued to advance rapidly in public fa- 
 vour, and about ten years later it arrived at 
 its culmination in fashion by being received 
 at court and formally acknowledged as one 
 of the royal amusements.^ 
 
 In 1758 it had become a fit recreation for 
 University men, as in No. 33 of the Tatlcr the 
 senior fellow of a college at Cambridge rep- 
 resents himself and his party as "sitting late 
 at Whist in the evening." 
 
 Hoyle, fortunately, lived to see and to en- 
 joy the success of his labours ; but in the fif- 
 teenth edition of his book the well-known 
 signature v/as for the first time not given 
 with his own hand, but was impressed from 
 a Avood block, and in the seventeenth edition 
 it was announced that '' JNIr. Hoyle was 
 
 1 The evidence of this is curious. In 1720 there had been pub- 
 lished a little book called the " Court Gamester," said on the title- 
 page to be "written for the use of the young princesses," the 
 daughters of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II. It had 
 also a second part called the City Gamester, containing less polite 
 games, used east of Temple Bar. Whist was included in the lat- 
 ter category up to the seventh edition, but in the next, dated 1754, 
 it was honoured by being transferred to the " Court/' or palace 
 division.
 
 HISTORY. — HOYLE, PAYNE, MATTHEWS 43 
 
 dead." The great man departed this life at 
 the ripe age of ninety, in August, 1769.^ 
 
 1 Later researches by " Cavendish " have unearthed many con- 
 temporary references to Hoyle and his work, which show the re- 
 markable popularity that he, and the game of Whist, as taught by 
 him, attained. 
 
 The first edition of his book, though it bears the date 1743, was 
 entered at Stationers' Hall, November, 1742, and there is every 
 reason to believe that five editions had appeared before the end 
 of 1743. 
 
 It is mentioned in a letter from Horace Walpole to Sir Horace 
 Mann, dated April 4, 1743. He says : 
 
 " I really don't know why I am so dry ; mine used to be the 
 pen of a ready writer, but Whist seems to have stretched its lead- 
 en wand over me, too, who have nothing to do with it. I am try- 
 ing to set the noble game of Bilboquet against it, and composing 
 a grammar in opposition to Mr. Hoyle's. You will some day or 
 other see an advertisement in the papers to tell you where it may 
 be bought, and that ladies may be waited on by the author at 
 their houses, to receive any further directions." 
 
 Bilboquet is a form of "cup and ball," said to be a favourite 
 amusement with literary men (See Guy de Maupassant^ " Bel- 
 Ami "). Walpole's last paragraph is clearly in ridicule of some 
 similar announcements by Hoyle. 
 
 The popularity of his Whist teaching among ladies is referred 
 to as early as 1743 or 1744, in a Ladies' Journal, and in 1750 
 there is published a long (probably fictitious) letter from a lady 
 to Hoyle. 
 
 In 1748 Whist parties of fashionable people at Bath are de- 
 scribed, and in 1752 Hoyle's name is enshrined in a " Hymn to 
 Fashion." In 1753 he is called "the great Mr. Hoyle," and in 
 1754 his "philosophic pen" is alluded to, attention being called 
 to his known ability for probability calculations. About that time 
 the popular enthusiasm seems to have been at its height, as we 
 find Hoyle and Whist frequently mentioned by poets and other 
 writers as of considerable public interest. 
 
 In 1755, however, the venerable master, then about seventy-six 
 years of age, is spoken of as giving up personal teaching, and it 
 was suggested that a " school for Whist " should be formed. His
 
 44 'l^HE ERA OF HOVLE 
 
 Byron's oft-quoted parallel, 
 
 " Troy owes to Homer what Whist owes to Hoyle," 
 
 hardly does justice to our author, for he was 
 far more than the historian of Whist ; he 
 may essentially be considered its founder. 
 
 Hoyle had two excellent successors in the 
 same epoch, Payne and Matthews, who car- 
 ried on his work very intelligently and suc- 
 cessfully. 
 
 Immediately after Hoyle's death, i.e., about 
 1770, there appeared a little book entitled : 
 
 " Maxims for playing the Game of Whist, with all nec- 
 essary Calculations ; and the Laws of the Game. Lon- 
 don. Printed for T. Payne & Son, next the Mews Gate, 
 St. Martin's." 
 
 No author's name w^as given, but the writer 
 was a William Payne, and the book has 
 always gone by the name of " Payne's Max- 
 ims." The author said, in his Preface : 
 
 book remained, but personal instruction was never revived till it 
 was adopted by the Americans a few years ago. 
 
 In 1769 the newspapers give accounts of Hoyle's death as of a 
 well-known public character. A writer shortly afterwards quotes 
 from the Parish Register of Marylebone, " Edmund [sic) Hoyle, 
 buried August the 23d, 1769 : Autlior of a well-known 'J reatise on 
 the Game of Whist ; " and adds, " He was ninety years of age at 
 the time of his decease." This is, perhaps, the best statement 
 of his age, but some accounts make him older. Unfortunately, 
 neither the Register nor the tombstone can now be found. 
 
 The data in this note are for the most part new, and are given 
 by " Cavendish's " kind permission.
 
 HISTORY.— HOYLE, PAYNE, MATTHEWS 45 
 
 " The game of whist is so happily compounded betwixt 
 chance and skill, that it is generally esteemed the most 
 curious and entertaining of the cards, and is therefore be- 
 come a favourite pastime to persons of the first conse- 
 quence and the most distinguished abilities. 
 
 " The great variety of hands and critical cases, arising 
 from such a number of cards, renders the game so nice 
 and difficult, that much time and practice has heretofore 
 been necessary to the obtaining a tolerable degree of 
 knowledge in it. 
 
 " The following maxims were begun by way of memo- 
 randums for private use, and are published with a design 
 to instruct beginners, to assist the moderate proficient, 
 and, in general, to put the players more upon equality by 
 disclosing the secrets of the game," 
 
 Payne's book has the advantage of being 
 well arranged. He introduced a series of 
 classified Maxims for the general guidance 
 of the student, some of which were new and 
 original, and foreshadowed a more modern 
 phase of the game. 
 
 " Payne's Maxims " were incorporated into 
 the so-called '' improved " editions of Hoyle, 
 published after the great master's death. 
 
 After Whist had come well into vogue, one 
 of the chief seats of its practice was the city 
 of Bath, where card games had been much 
 encouraged generally ; and during the half 
 century after Hoyle's work appeared, the 
 constant practice of Whist there, by clever
 
 46 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 players, had i-esulted in many improvements 
 in detail. These were put on record in a lit- 
 tle work on the subject, which was published 
 in Bath in 1804, under the foUow^ing elaborate 
 title : 
 
 " Advice to the young Whist Player : containing most 
 of the Maxims of the old School, with the Author's Ob- 
 ser\'ations on those he thinks erroneous ; with several new 
 ones, exemplified by apposite cases ; and a method of ac- 
 quiring a knowledge of the principles on which they are 
 grounded ; pointed out to the inexperienced whist player. 
 By an Amateur." 
 
 The author's name was attached in subse- 
 quent editions as " Thomas Matthews, Esq." ' 
 He says in one place : 
 
 " It may not be unnecessary^ to inform the reader that 
 most of Hoyle's maxims were collected during what may 
 be called the infancy of Whist ; and that he himself, so far 
 from being able to teach the game, was not fit to sit down 
 even with the third-rate players of the present day." 
 
 This is hard on the father of the game, 
 and lacks confirmation ; but still, iNIatthews's 
 book is an excellent one, much of which is 
 worthy of attentive stud3\ 
 
 About this date, so popular had the game 
 of Whist become, that it was made to form 
 
 1 In one edition, much circulated, the name was spelt " Ma- 
 thews," an error that has, in consequence, become very common.
 
 HISTORY.— HOYLE, PAYNE, MATTHEWS 47 
 
 the subject of an elaborate Epic poem. This 
 appeared in 1791, and was entitled : 
 
 " Whist : a Poem in twelve Cantos." 
 
 The author was a Scotch gentleman named 
 Alexander Thomson ; and his book, which 
 went through two editions, shewed much 
 learning by quotations from or references to 
 authors in almost every language, dead or 
 living, and of almost every age, from the Pa- 
 triarchs to the eighteenth century. After a 
 proper invocation, it gives a mythical account 
 of the introduction of playing-cards and the 
 invention of the game ; then versifies the laws 
 and rules, describes the play of a hand,' philos- 
 ophizes on the character and merits of the 
 game, and winds up with a rhapsody as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " Nor do I yet despair to see the day 
 When hostile armies, rang'd in neat array, 
 Instead of fighting, shall engage in play. 
 When peaceful whist the quarrel shall decide, 
 And Christian blood be spilt on neither side. 
 Then pleas no more shall wait the tardy laws, 
 But one odd trick at once conclude the cause. 
 (Tho' some will say that this is nothing new, 
 For here there have been long odd tricks enow !) 
 Then Britain still, to all the world's surprise, 
 In this great science shall progressive rise, 
 Till ages hence, when all of each degree 
 Shall play the game as well as Hoyle or me ! " 
 
 J See Appendix A, where the hand is given.
 
 48 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 The knowledge of Whist was circulated at 
 an early period among intellectual coteries 
 on the continent by translations of Hoyle. 
 It took good root in France ; it was played 
 by Louis XV., and under the first empire it 
 was a favourite game of Josephine and Marie 
 Louise, and Napoleon played it much at St. 
 Helena. After the Restoration it was taken 
 up more enthusiastically. " The nobles," says 
 a French writer, " had gone to England to 
 learn to think, and they brought back the 
 thinking game with them." It was said that 
 any one engaged at this game had " I'air 
 gentleman et diplomate." 
 
 Talleyrand was a great player; he spent 
 at it in his latter years many hours every 
 day, and the 7;/ot ascribed to him, '' Vous ne 
 savez paz le whiste, jeune homme? Quelle 
 triste viellesse vous vous preparez ! " is a 
 standing quotation in all Whist books. 
 Charles X. was playing Whist at St. Cloud 
 on July 29, 1830, when the tricolour was 
 waving on the Tuileries, and he had lost his 
 throne. 
 
 In 1839 appeared a " Traite du Whiste," by 
 M. Deschapelles, whom Clay called " the 
 finest Whist player beyond any comparison 
 the world had ever seen." Much was to be 
 expected from such a quarter, but the pub- 
 lication was but a fragment of a larger work
 
 HISTORY.— HOYLE, PAYNE, MATTHEWS 49 
 
 that never appeared, and it was devoted 
 principally to the laws of the game. The 
 author said little about the play ; but treated 
 the subject in a manner highly spiritucl. He 
 reasoned on immensity and eternity ; on met- 
 aphysical necessity and trial by jury ; he in- 
 voked the sun of Joshua and the star of the 
 Magi ; he investigated the electric affinities 
 of the players ; and illustrated a hand by 
 analytical geometry. He died at Paris in 
 
 1847. 
 
 Whist was also much cultivated in Aus- 
 tria, as is shown by the well-known fact 
 that the great Prince Metternich, the prime 
 minister of that empire during nearly the first 
 half of the present century, was a passionate 
 enthusiast for the game. 
 
 Meanwhile, after the publication of Mat- 
 thews's work, Whist went steadily on, not 
 only in Bath (so long as the fashion of the 
 gay city of Bladud lasted) but also in Lon- 
 don, w^here it was taken up by the choice so- 
 cieties meeting in the best clubs. 
 
 During the early part of the present cen- 
 tury an important change took place, namely, 
 the introduction of SJiort Whist, by altering 
 the winning score from ten to five. The 
 change is said to have originated in an acci- 
 dent ; Lord Peterborough having one night
 
 so THE ERA OF HOVLE 
 
 lost a large sum of money, the friends with 
 whom he was playing proposed to give him 
 the revancJie at five points instead of ten, in 
 order to afford him a quicker chance of re- 
 covering his loss. The new plan was found 
 so lively that it soon became popular, and ul- 
 timately superseded Long Whist altogether 
 in the best circles. 
 
 The reason of this preference is not dif- 
 ficult to discover. All good pla3-ers must 
 have found out how the interest increased to- 
 wards the close of the Long game, when the 
 parties Avere pretty even, and when it became 
 necessary to pa}^ stricter attention to the 
 score in order to regulate the play. Now to 
 cause this state of things to recur more fre- 
 quently, it would be sufficient to play, as it 
 were, the latter half of the game without the 
 former, i.e., to coimncnce zvith both parties at 
 the seore of five, for this is the true sense of 
 the alteration. 
 
 This mode of viewing it accounts for no 
 change being made in the value of the hon- 
 ours. Some persons think the scoring of 
 these should have been halved, and no doubt 
 this would have given more effect to skill in 
 play ; indeed, for this object the Americans 
 have abolished the honour-scores altogether. 
 But to the generality of English players such 
 a change would have rendered the game less
 
 HISTORY.— HOYLE, PAYNE, MATTHEWS 5 1 
 
 interesting. It must not be forgotten that 
 the element of chance is often considered one 
 of the attractive features of Whist, by good 
 players as well as by mediocre ones ; and to 
 diminish its influence might, in many cir- 
 cles, endanger the popularity of the game. 
 
 The Short form gradually increased in fa- 
 vour, and by the middle of the century the 
 old "Long Whist" became practically ex- 
 tinct, or at least only survived in spheres far 
 removed from the metropolitan centre.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE HOYLE GAME 
 
 The evidence of the earliest attempt to im- 
 prove the game is given by the Hon. Daines 
 Harrington, writing in 1786 {Archceologia, Vol. 
 Vin.) on the information of a gentleman then 
 86 years of age. He says : 
 
 " Whisk seems never to have been played upon principles 
 till about 50 years ago [1736J, when it was much studied 
 by a set of gentlemen who frequented the Crown Coffee 
 House in Bedford Row. Before that time it was chiefly 
 confined to the servants' hall, with All-fours and Put. 
 
 " They laid down the following rules : To play from the 
 strongest suit ; To study your partner's /land as muck as 
 your own ; Never to force your partner unnecessarily ; 
 and To attend to the score.'' 
 
 These precepts show a considerable ad- 
 vance beyond the Primitive Game. 
 
 It is not improbable that Hoyle was one 
 of the party, and that these rules may have 
 been the first indications of his own great 
 improvements. All Ave know is, that his 
 book, embodying and amplifying the above- 
 mentioned precepts, first appeared a few
 
 THE HOYLE GAME 53 
 
 years after the date mentioned ; and Ave 
 know, further, that this book made such an 
 impression on the public as to give them 
 the idea that he was introducing a new 
 game. The object of the play remained 
 the same, namely, to make tricks; but the 
 modes of doing so were much varied and ex- 
 tended. The primitive plan laid stress on 
 two modes : first, by the natural predomi- 
 nance of master-cards (which it was accord- 
 ingly considered advisable to play out earl}^), 
 and secondly, by trumping. The new game 
 opened more far-seeing views. 
 
 In the first place, although due advantage 
 was taken of master-cards, it did not recom- 
 mend that they should be played out early, 
 except in special cases, as benefit might often 
 result from keeping them back for a time. 
 
 Hoyle pointed out that trick-making de- 
 pended much more on the relative positions 
 of the cards in the four hands, than on the 
 high cards in one hand alone ; and that, if the 
 results of the play of a hand were carefully 
 examined, it would be found that the majority 
 of tricks were made by means that could not 
 be foreseen at the beginning by any single 
 player. Hence, he showed that by taking 
 advantage of \\\q position of the cards lying in 
 the various hands, or by other skilful contri- 
 vances, tricks might be made by cards of lower
 
 54 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 value, even while higher cards of the suit 
 were still in the opponents' possession. 
 
 He also explained how tricks might be 
 made by a number of small cards of a long 
 suit, so entailing the exclusion of tricks in 
 other good suits held by the adversaries. 
 This " long-suit system " was destined to be 
 of immense import in the structure of later 
 forms of the game. 
 
 He further introduced novel ideas about 
 trumping. He proved that to obtain tricks 
 in this way was not always the best use that 
 could be made of the powerful cards of the 
 trump suit. In many cases they might pre- 
 ferably be used to disarm the adversaries, 
 and by that means to obtain secondary ad- 
 vantages in trick-making by other suits of 
 less apparent power. 
 
 It resulted from all these novelties, that 
 whereas the efforts of play in the Primitive 
 Game were very simple, dictated only by the 
 most obvious condition of the player's own 
 hand, the new game introduced more com- 
 plex considerations regarding tJie other hands 
 also, and the advantages that might be taken 
 of the positions of the cards in them. 
 
 It may be conceived that Hoyle, in in- 
 structing a pupil, might lay down on the 
 table a set of four hands exposed face up- 
 wards, one of the four being appropriated to
 
 THE HUYLE GAME 55 
 
 the learner. He would first call attention to 
 the few tricks which that player might make 
 from his own hand, according to the primi- 
 tive mode of play, and he would then contrast 
 this result with what might be obtained by 
 the new system. 
 
 He would go on, probably, to inform his 
 pupil by what means information as to the 
 other hands might be obtained. He would 
 show how inferences might be drawn from 
 the cards played, explaining that every card 
 falling from the hand either of a partner or 
 of an opponent might, if properly interpreted, 
 afford some indication as to the cards re- 
 maining in the player's hand ; and thus he 
 would impress upon the learner the great 
 lesson of watching '' the fall of the cards," 
 and endeavouring to regulate his own play 
 according to the indications shown. 
 
 This new element of directing attention to 
 the contents of the other hands, instead of 
 confining it to the player's hand only, may 
 probably be considered to be the most sali- 
 ent point of Hoyle's improvement in Whist, 
 and has ever since held a most prominent po- 
 sition in Whist science. 
 
 It is interesting to consider the manner in 
 which the great man carried out his teach- 
 ing. The improvement above-mentioned in
 
 56 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 the Structure of the game necessitated rules 
 and expedients in great complexity, in conse- 
 quence of the almost infinite variety of the 
 distribution of the cards in the different 
 hands ; and this fact almost precluded his 
 directions from being expressed in any gen- 
 eral formulae. Hence, the professional teach- 
 ing of the game, which Hoyle boldly under- 
 took, became a very formidable thing. 
 
 He was a clever man, and no doubt thought 
 well out the mode of conveying his instruc- 
 tions ; and he decided that it could better 
 be given personally, than by writings. By 
 this means, adopting the educational system 
 known as '' object lessons," he could give pref- 
 erence to example over precept, and could 
 show practical illustrations of the various 
 novel points he had introduced, rather than 
 offer verbal statements of them. It would be 
 intensely interesting if we could get any au- 
 thentic descriptions of his lessons, but none 
 such have been preserved. 
 
 Fortunately, however, we have some sort 
 of indication of his system of procedure. He 
 found that his pupils had (very naturally) 
 a difficult}- in recollecting the specific di- 
 rections he gave them ; and to aid their 
 memory he wrote out a series of notes or 
 memoranda. These, as we have already 
 stated [Ante page 37), were ultimately print-
 
 THE HOYLE GAME 5/ 
 
 ed, and so they have come down to our 
 day. 
 
 We may give some little account of the 
 book thus presented to us, which contains all 
 that we know, from his own hand, of the sys- 
 tem adopted in his teaching-. 
 
 The books now sold as '' Hoyle's Games" 
 have been so " improved " (as the title page 
 states) that we cannot take them as giving 
 much representation of what we have here 
 to describe ; but we have been favoured by 
 *' Cavendish," with the loan of a rare copy of 
 the real work, published in 1746, and authen- 
 ticated by Hoyle's autograph signature, from 
 which we may give a few data. 
 
 It is a duodecimo, 6^ inches by 4, of 80 
 pages, and the full title is as follows : 
 
 A Short Treatise on the Game of WHIST, contain- 
 ing the Laws of the Game, and also some Rules, where- 
 by a beginner may, with due attention to them, attain to 
 the Playing it well. 
 
 Calculations for those who will bet the odds on any 
 points of the score of the game then playing and depend- 
 ing. 
 
 Cases stated, to show what may be effected, by a very 
 good Player, in critical Parts of the Game. 
 
 References to Cases, viz., at the end of the rule 
 you are directed how to find them. 
 
 Calculations directing with moral certainty how to
 
 58 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 play well any hand or game by showing the chances of 
 your Partner's having i, 2, or 3 certain cards. 
 With variety of Cases added in the Appendix. 
 
 By Edmond Hoyle, Gent. 
 
 With great additions to the Laws of the Game, and an 
 Explanation of the Calculations which are necessary to be 
 understood by those who would play it well. 
 
 And also, never before published, a Dictionary for 
 Whist which resolves almost all the critical cases that 
 may happen at the Game. 
 
 To which is added : 
 
 An Artificial Memory, or an easy method of assist- 
 ing the memory of those that play at the game of Whist. 
 
 And several Cases not hitherto published. 
 
 London. 
 
 Printed for T, Osborne at Gray's Inn ; T. Hillyard at 
 York ; M. Bryson at Newcastle ; and T. Leake at Bath. 
 MDCCXLVL 
 
 Price One Shilling. 
 
 At the back of the Title Page is a warning 
 against piracies, after which comes the fol- 
 lowing Address. 
 
 To the Reader. 
 
 The author of the following Treatise has thought proper 
 to give the Publick Notice that he has reduced the price 
 of it, that it may not be worth any person's while to pur- 
 chase the Pirated Editions which have already been ob- 
 truded on the World ; as likewise all those Piratical Edi- 
 tions are extremely incorrect ; and that he will not under-
 
 THE HOYLE GAME $9 
 
 take to explain any case but in such copies as have been 
 set forth by himself, or that are Authorized as Revised 
 and Corrected under his own hand. 
 
 (Here follows the autograph signature.) 
 
 Edaiond Hoyle. 
 
 Another notice contains the following- little 
 matter of business. 
 
 He has also framed an Artificial Memory which does 
 not take off your attention from your game ; and if re- 
 quired, he is ready to communicate it upon payment of 
 one guinea. And also he will explain any cases in the 
 book, upon payment of one guinea more. 
 
 Then follow some preliminary calculations 
 " necessary to be understood by those who 
 are to read the Treatise " — and some com- 
 putations " for laying of your money ; " — after 
 which the real book begins with a statement 
 of the Laius. These are twenty-four in num- 
 ber, but they differ materially from those in 
 the modern editions.^ 
 
 1 The modern copies contain preliminary matter of the "im- 
 prover's " own, followed by " Twenty-four short Rules for Learn- 
 ers," taken from a little book published at Bath in 1793, called 
 " Hoyle abridged, or Short Rules for Short Memories at the 
 Game of Whist, adapted either for the head or pocket. By Bob 
 Short." Hoyle's more important teaching matter is essentially 
 reproduced, but with considerable alterations of the wording, 
 mostly quite arbitrary and unnecessary. The division into chap- 
 ters is also abandoned, which makes the book appear still more 
 confused and unmethodical.
 
 60 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 The teaching part of the book, which then 
 follows, is divided into fifteen chapters. The 
 first consists of " Some General Rules to be 
 observed by Beginners ; " these are thirty- 
 seven in number, the last seventeen directing 
 the most advisable trump leads from various 
 combinations in the hand ; and Chapter II. 
 adds eight " particular cases," in which a 
 trump lead is advisable. The eleven follow- 
 ing chapters consist almost entirely of exam- 
 ples of special cases or situations, in which cer- 
 tain advantageous modes of play are shown 
 and explained. In Chapter XIV. are given 
 further explanations concerning the play of 
 sequences, etc., which Avere desired " by some 
 purchasers of the Treatise in Manuscript, dis- 
 posed of last winter," to which are made two 
 additions. First, " A Dictionary [Catechism] 
 for Whist, which resolves almost all the crit- 
 ical cases that may happen at that game," by 
 way of Question and Answer. For example : 
 
 Ones. How to play [lead] sequences when trumps? 
 
 A/is. You are to begin with the highest of them. 
 
 Qi/cs. How to play sequences when they are not 
 trumps ? 
 
 A;is. If you have five in number you are to begin with 
 the lowest ; if three or four in number always play the 
 highest. 
 
 Ques. When ought you to make tricks early ? 
 
 Apis. When you are weak in trumps.
 
 THE HOYLE GAME 6 1 
 
 The second addition is '' An explanation, 
 for the use of beginners, of Terms or Tech- 
 nical Words." 
 
 Chapter XV. contains the " Artificial Mem- 
 ory," being rules for sorting and placing the 
 cards in your hand, so as to remind 3^ou of 
 the trump suit ; the turn-up card ; the best 
 or second-best cards remaining of a suit ; 
 your partner's first lead, and so on. And 
 some Additional Cases form the Conclusion. 
 
 The book fulh^ confirms the tradition, that 
 Hoyle's mode of teaching was by exam- 
 ples rather than by principles ; and one 
 can clearly see that it has been put together 
 piecemeal at different times, to serve as 
 memoranda, to aid the pupils in recollecting 
 the advice and suggestions personally given 
 them. In this way it has happened that the 
 teaching contained in the book seems dis- 
 jointed and unsystematic. But it would be a 
 great mistake to undervalue the author's 
 work on this account; for the great popu- 
 larity and success of his teaching form the 
 best testimony to its efficiency. 
 
 In the volume we have been quoting from 
 there are also bound up other Treatises by 
 Hoyle, of about the same date, on the games 
 of Quadrille, Piquet, Chess, and Backgam- 
 mon; and these have been also included, 
 with much other matter, in the imperfect
 
 62 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 compilations now sold as '' Hoyle's Games." 
 It is a marvel, considering the immense pop- 
 ularity of Whist, and the transcendent merit 
 of Hoyle's Avork in regard to it, that no 
 good republication of his book has ever been 
 produced. Even now, with all the modern 
 Whist literature before us, one would think 
 that such a republication, not altered or ''im- 
 proved," but intelligently annotated, would 
 be an acceptable thing to earnest students of 
 the game. 
 
 Hoyle's book was followed, as we have 
 said, by the '' Maxims " of Payne. The object 
 of these was very laudable ; the author saw 
 the want of arrangement in Hoyle's book, 
 and he was the first to do two very impor- 
 tant things, namel}^, in the first place, to 
 arrange the Rules or Maxims under their 
 proper heads — as " Leader," " Second Hand," 
 '' Leading Trumps," and so on ; and, secondly, 
 to add to each rule a statement of its reason 
 or justification, which was printed in different 
 type. 
 
 A few examples will show the nature and 
 merits of Paj^ne's work. 
 
 LEADER. 
 
 " Begin with the suit of which you have most in number. 
 For when the trumps are out you will probably make 
 several tricks in it.
 
 THE HOYLE GAME 6^ 
 
 " Sequences are always eligible leads. As supporting 
 your partner without i7ijuring your ow7i hand. 
 
 " Having- King, Knave and ten, lead the ten. For if your 
 partner holds the Ace you have a good chance to make 
 three tricks whether he passes the teii or ?tot. 
 
 SECOND HAND. 
 
 " Having Ace, Queen and small cards, play a small one. 
 For upon the return of the suit you will probably inake 
 two tricks. 
 
 " Having Queen, ten, and small ones, play a small one. 
 For your partner has an equal chance to wi?i. 
 
 THIRD HAND. 
 
 " Having Ace and Knave, play the Ace and return the 
 Knave. /;/ order to strengthen your partner s ha?id. 
 
 LEADING TRUMPS. 
 
 " Lead trumps from a strong hand, but never from a weak 
 one. By which means you zvill secure your good cards 
 from being trumped. 
 
 PLAYING FOR THE ODD TRICK. 
 
 " Be cautious of trumping out {^i.c., drawing the trumps] 
 notwithstanding you have a good hand. For since you 
 want the odd trick only, it would be absurd to play a 
 great game.'' 
 
 The Book of Matthews, who followed 
 Hoyle and Payne, marks a considerable fur- 
 ther advance. The new game had then 
 been much played, for the author begins by 
 saying : 
 
 " It is a fact of general notoriety, that notwithstanding 
 the numerous theories published, and the almost universal
 
 64 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 practice of a science, where profit and amusement may be 
 combined, a capital Whist player is scarcely ever, and 
 even what may be termed a good one, but rarely met 
 with." 
 
 The book shows much careful thought, 
 particularly in regard to elementary knowl- 
 edge. It defines Whist as "a game of Calcu- 
 lation, Observation, and Position or Tenace^ 
 
 Calculation, he says, teaches you to plan 
 your game, and lead originally to advan- 
 tage ; and some simple examples are given 
 to show how the calculation of probabilities 
 may guide early leads while the other hands 
 are unknown. 
 
 After a few leads have taken place this is 
 nearly superseded by Observation, as the au- 
 thor points out that good players, who ob- 
 serve and note well the fall of the cards, may, 
 before half the tricks are played, become '' as 
 Avell acquainted with the material ones re- 
 maining in each other's hands as if they had 
 seen them." 
 
 These two elements, he savs, " may be 
 called the foundation of the game, and are so 
 merely mechanical, that any one possessed 
 of a tolerable memory may attain them." 
 
 After which, continues the author, comes 
 the more difficult science of Position, or the 
 art of using the two former to advantage ; 
 without which it is self-evident, they are of
 
 THE HOYLE GAME 6$ 
 
 no use. Attentive study and practice will, 
 in some degree, ensure success ; but genius 
 must be added before the whole finesse of 
 the game can be acquired. However, " Est 
 qiiiddam prodirc tcnus, si non datur nltray '' It 
 is something to advance to a certain point, if 
 you cannot go farther." 
 
 This opinion, at such an early time, of the 
 necessity of special mental gifts to make a 
 first-rate player, is very noteworthy; and 
 shows a remarkable insight into the nature 
 of Whist. It is more applicable now than it 
 was then, as the game has become more in- 
 tricate. 
 
 The body of Matthews's book consists of 
 " Directions and Maxims for beginners." 
 These are one hundred and nine in num- 
 ber, and are heterogeneously disposed, with- 
 out any sub-headings ; a defect which dimin- 
 ishes their usefulness, and increases the dif- 
 ficulty of profiting by them. They are, how- 
 ever, generally, very good ; some have been 
 altered or abolished by the subsequent 
 march of Evolution, but most of them are as 
 applicable to the modern form of game, as 
 to the one they belong to. There are among 
 them some rather elaborate examples of sit- 
 uations, like those given by Hoyle. 
 
 We may quote a few of the Maxims to give 
 an idea of their general nature. 
 5
 
 66 THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 " Study all written maxims with the cards placed before 
 you, in the situations mentioned ; abstract directions puz- 
 zle much oftener than they assist the beginner. 
 
 " Never lead a card without a reason, though a wrong 
 one ; it is better than accustoming yourself to play at ran- 
 dom. 
 
 " The more plainly you demonstrate your hand to your 
 partner the better. Be particularly cautious not to deceive 
 him in his or your own leads [suits]. 
 
 " Be as careful of what you throw away as what you 
 lead. 
 
 " Never ruff an uncertain card, if strong, or omit doing 
 so if w^eak in trumps. 
 
 " When with a very strong suit, you lead trumps in hope 
 your partner may command them, shew your suit first. 
 
 "If you win your partner's lead with the queen (unless 
 in trumps) do not return it ; it is evident the ace or king lies 
 behind him. 
 
 " Should your partner refuse to trump a certain winning 
 card, try to get the lead as soon as you can, and play out 
 trumps immediately. 
 
 " If weak in trumps, keep guard on your adversaries' 
 suits. If strong, throw away from them. 
 
 " Finesses are generally right in trumps, or, if strong in 
 trumps, in other suits ; otherwise they are not to be risked 
 but with caution." ' 
 
 In describing this form of game we must 
 not omit to notice the attention which Hoyie 
 paid to the Calculations of Probabilities, as af- 
 
 1 In an article on "Whist " by the author of this work, pub- 
 lished in "The Handbook of Games," by Messrs. George Bell 
 & Sons, 1891, he has endeavoured to make prominent the great 
 merits of Hoyle, Payne, and Matthews, particularly the former, 
 in developing this stage of Whist.
 
 THE HOYLE GAME 6/ 
 
 fecting the rules of play. He laid stress on 
 them in his book in many places, as dictating 
 the modes of action, and gave, in his treatise, 
 a series of calculations and their results. 
 The frequent allusions to the subject in 
 contemporary publications (see, for example, 
 the extract from the '' Humours of Whist," 
 on page 40), show that it was included in 
 his teaching. 
 
 Indeed, such was his earnestness about it 
 that he wrote a separate book entitled 
 
 " An Essay towards making the Doctrine of Chances 
 easy to those who understand vulgar Arithmetic." 
 
 The problems for Whist contained in this 
 book are, however, but few and simple, and 
 it is probable that he found the subject too 
 abstruse for his pupils generally. 
 
 Matthews, also, mentioned the calculation 
 of Probabilities as useful in guiding early 
 leads, but he did not follow out the subject 
 in detail ; and it would appear that this ele- 
 ment of Whist afterwards became neglected, 
 till it \vas revived man}^ years later in the 
 Philosophical Game. 
 
 The legacy left to us by Hoyle and his 
 two successors presents the great essential 
 features of THE Game of Whist as played 
 ever since, subject only, in later stages of the
 
 6S THE ERA OF HOYLE 
 
 Evolution, to the more perfect definition and 
 establishment of its fundamental principles, 
 and to certain improvements in detail conse- 
 quent thereon. 
 
 This game gives great scope to personal 
 skill, which indeed is its main characteristic 
 and its chief requirement, as it depends chief- 
 ly on personal skill for its successful prac- 
 tice. It embodies no enunciation of any gen- 
 eral system of play, or of any fundamental 
 guiding principles ; attention is directed to 
 a great varietj' of isolated occurrences that 
 may be met with, and advice is given as to 
 Avhat should or may be done in each case ; 
 so that the player, keeping these examples in 
 mind, may use his own discretion in their 
 application when analogous cases arise. And 
 by frequent practice the power becomes ma- 
 tured of dealing successfully, and often bril- 
 liantly, with the many chance combinations 
 that may present themselves in the course of 
 play. 
 
 For this reason, the Hoyle game has al- 
 ways been peculiarly acceptable to intelli- 
 gent and clever players, as giving them an 
 opportunity of exercising their powers and 
 of profiting by them. 
 
 It may be said to have prevailed in the 
 best Whist circles unchanged for more than 
 a centurv after its introduction. And al-
 
 THE HOYLE GAME 69 
 
 though, in later years, the progress of Whist 
 Evolution has led to the advances which we 
 shall have immediately to mention, it still re- 
 tains a large hold on Whist players, and is 
 played probably more than any of the later 
 developments.
 
 PART III 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 From a.d. i860 Onwards
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 HISTORY 
 " CAVENDISH " AND CLAY 
 
 The next great step in the Evolution of 
 Whist consisted of the more modern scientific 
 determination and consolidation of the Hoyle 
 game; the establishment of its theoretical 
 principles, and some alterations in the details 
 of its practical structure consequent thereon. 
 This was effected between i860 and 1870, i.e., 
 about a century and a quarter after Hoyle's 
 introduction of it; and we mark therein a 
 distinct stage of progress, as establishing for 
 the first time a positive theoretical basis for 
 the mode of play. 
 
 Hitherto the directions promulgated by 
 authors and teachers were disjointed and 
 desultory; they gave large license to the 
 player, depending almost entirely on his per- 
 sonal skill for their efficiency ; and, moreover, 
 they were difficult to learn by the uninitiated. 
 The new improvement, by establishing a def- 
 inite foundation for the superstructure of
 
 74 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 play, brought Whist into an intelligible sys- 
 tem, easy both to teach and to learn, and 
 therefore tended to spread the knowledge of 
 it over a much wider popular held. 
 
 It will be desirable to explain how this 
 change came about. We have in the last chap- 
 ter traced the history of Whist to the early 
 part of this century, when Short Whist was 
 introduced. This change involved no material 
 alteration of the modes of play, except per- 
 haps a more careful attention to the state of 
 " the score ; " but it induced a more lively in- 
 terest in the game generally, which led ulti- 
 mately to considerable advances in its char- 
 acter. It became more played by persons of 
 high intellect ; and hence by the constant 
 practice of adepts in the highest club circles 
 there gradually arose many improvements in 
 detail. 
 
 But nothing had been done to reduce these 
 to a systematic form, or to make them gener- 
 ally known. The secrets of these improve- 
 ments, so far as they differed from the pre- 
 cepts of Hoyle, Payne, and Matthews, were 
 confined to small coteries of the best club 
 players. Fortunately, however, for the pub- 
 lic interest in Whist, a circumstance hap- 
 pened somewhat similar to that which gave 
 rise to the first development of the game by
 
 HISTORY. — ''cavendish" and clay 75 
 
 Hoyle. About 1850 a knot of young- men at 
 Cambridge, of considerable ability, who had 
 at first taken up Whist for amusement, found 
 it offer such a field for intellectual study, that 
 they continued its practice systematically, 
 with a view to its more complete scien- 
 tific investigation. After leaving the Uni- 
 versity a few years later they continued to 
 meet in London, with some additions to their 
 number, among whom was a brother of one 
 of the original body, Mr. Henry Jones, then 
 a medical student at St. Bartholomew's Hos- 
 pital. 
 
 This Little Whist School set to work to 
 study Whist in good earnest. When four of 
 them met, they used to play every hand 
 through to the end for the sake of informa- 
 tion, and also for the purpose of making cal- 
 culations on the results. They wrote down 
 the particulars of all interesting hands, and 
 fully discussed them among themselves. 
 
 They had, however, great advantages in 
 a constant access to the principal members of 
 the Portland Club, which had long been the 
 great centre of Whist. They obtained from 
 that body the results of their most advanced 
 experience ; and any points of difficulty were 
 written down and submitted to the late James 
 Clay, M.P., a member of the club, who was 
 then acknowledged as the first Whist player
 
 'jG THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 in Europe. The little body held together 
 for some years, during which they investi- 
 gated fully all the points of practice that the 
 club players had arrived at, trying great 
 numbers of experiments in the most scientific 
 way, as their University knowledge dictated ; 
 and they arrived at many trustworthy con- 
 clusions. 
 
 A great mass of information was thus 
 gained, all the more valuable for the reason 
 that it had been acquired by systematic ex- 
 periment and philosophical deduction, in- 
 stead of by inferences (often fallacious and 
 always open to disturbing causes) from the 
 results of play. All this information was 
 carefully recorded and tabulated, but there 
 was, at the time, no intention of publish- 
 ing it.^ 
 
 About i860 the members ceased to meet ; 
 but fortunately the manuscripts in which the 
 information was recorded, and which Avere 
 somewhat voluminous, were preserved by 
 Mr. Henry Jones. 
 
 Still no one thought of making any of these 
 valuable data known ; and the papers might 
 
 1 Further particulars as to this part of the history will be found 
 in " Harper's Monthly Magazine," New York, March, 1891 ; also 
 in the " Whist " Journal, Milwaukee, October, 1893. Many of 
 the results of the " Little Whist School " are mentioned and com- 
 mented on in " The Philosophy of Whist. "
 
 HISTORY. — " CAVENDISH " AND CLAY TJ 
 
 never have seen the light again had it not 
 been for an accident, in which the author of 
 the present work was concerned. He had 
 occasion to write an article entitled " Games 
 at Cards for the Coming Winter," for Mac- 
 inillans Magazine, published in December, 
 1861, the object being to describe the three 
 games of Piquet, Quadrille, and Bezique (the 
 latter being then unknown in this country). 
 In writing these descriptions he found it con- 
 venient to illustrate them by a plan which 
 had often been adopted for chess, but (as he 
 then believed) never for card games ; namely, 
 by giving examples of games, or portions of 
 games, with explanatory remarks,^ and as he 
 had found reason to think that the same plan 
 would be useful for Whist, he added a note as 
 follows : 
 
 " It would be a great boon if some good authority would 
 publish a set of Model Games at Whist, with explanatory 
 remarks, such as are found so useful in Chess, for exam- 
 ple." 
 
 This note having caught the eye of Mr. 
 Henry Jones, he wrote to the author, commu- 
 nicating the fact of his possessing the store 
 of notes of the Little School, from which he 
 conceived some such model games might be 
 prepared. This led to many communications 
 
 ^ See Appendix A.
 
 78 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 and discussions, the result of which was 
 that Mr. Jones was induced to publish, about 
 the middle of 1862, a little book with the fol- 
 lowing title : 
 
 " The Principles of Whist stated and explained, and the 
 Practice illustrated on an Original System, by means of 
 Hands played completely through. By ' Cavendish,' 
 London, Banks Brothers, 20 Piccadilly." 
 
 This book contained an exposition of the 
 chief points of improvement which had been 
 brought out since Matthews, and the novelty 
 of the illustrations soon gave it a consider- 
 able reputation. 
 
 Two years afterwards appeared another 
 most valuable work. Mr. Clay had been 
 much interested in the discussions on Whist 
 which had been carried on for some years, 
 with very frequent reference to him ; and he 
 took advantage of a publication by Mr. J. 
 Loraine Baldwin, promulgating the new 
 Code of Laws, to append to it '' A Treatise 
 on Short Whist." This was a most able dis- 
 sertation on the more refined points of the 
 best modern play, by one of the very best 
 modern players. 
 
 These two works now made public the 
 chief improvements which had resulted from
 
 HISTORY. — " CAVENDISH " AND CLAY 79 
 
 the scientific investigations, and the long 
 practice, of the greatest minds that, since 
 Deschapelles, had been brought to bear on 
 the subject, and they embodied most admira- 
 ble, ingenious, and authoritative modes of 
 
 play. 
 
 But still there was something wanting. 
 " Cavendish," in addition to the examples 
 which formed the chief raison d'etre of his 
 book, had, in order to avoid repetition, 
 erected some of the instructions into " prin- 
 ciples," to which he referred as occasion re- 
 quired ; and he also added a few elementary 
 reasons for each line of play. But still the 
 directions were isolated and heterogeneous ; 
 there was no general cohesion ; no pervad- 
 ing element ; no binding thread running 
 through the whole. 
 
 Here the author of the present work had 
 the good fortune to be of some use again. 
 He had had the privilege of much communi- 
 tion with '' Cavendish," had followed with 
 great interest the revelations of this author 
 and Mr. Clay, and had been much impressed 
 by the developments made to Hoyle's game. 
 And the ensemble of the whole joint body of 
 rules and directions seemed to him so con- 
 sistent and logical, that his scientific training 
 led him to speculate whether it might not be 
 possible to ti"ace therein a deeper-lying ori-
 
 80 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 gin than even the originators of the new 
 rules had suspected. They had been led to 
 certain modes of play by acute observation 
 and long experience ; but it did not occur to 
 them that they had been insensibly deriving 
 these results from a fundamental principle of 
 action. 
 
 The author, therefore, studied carefully 
 the whole programme of the play, particu- 
 larly the more modern introductions and va- 
 riations, and he found that these gave un- 
 deniable evidence of a tendency towards a 
 single great principle ; namely, tJie more pei^- 
 fect cult hat ion than formerly of the relations 
 betzveen the partners, so as to effect as far as 
 possible a eomhination of the Jiands, under the 
 joint efforts of the partners to aid each other 
 in the most effectual way. 
 
 Under the impression that the publication 
 of this discovery would not only be interests 
 ing to accomplished Whist players, but would 
 be more especially useful as an aid to Whist 
 education, he wrote an Essay '' On the Theory 
 of the Modern Scientific Game of Whist. By 
 a Fellow of the Royal Society." It was first 
 published in December, 1864, as accompany- 
 ing a new edition of an old work, but it was 
 republished separately by Messrs. Longman 
 with the author's name, in February, 1870, 
 and the enormous circulation it has since had
 
 HISTORY. — " CAVENDISH " AND CLAY 8 1 
 
 (partly in England but much more in Amer- 
 ica), may probably be held to justify its men- 
 tion here. 
 
 About 1869 the same writer was induced 
 (on suggestions given him by '' Cavendish " 
 and by his old friend Mr. G. P. Bidder, the 
 well-known calculator), to turn his attention 
 to the Calculation of Probabilities as affecting 
 Whist and other card games. This subject 
 had been studied (see pp. (^(), 6^) by Hoyle and 
 Matthews ; but had been since quite neglect- 
 ed. He wrote many articles in the Field, and 
 finding them remarkably confirmatory of the 
 ideas he had previously made known as to 
 the scientific foundation of the modern form 
 of the game, he afterward published them in 
 a work entitled '' The Philosophy of Whist. 
 An Essay on the Scientific and Intellectual 
 aspects of the Modern Game." (De la Rue & 
 Co. 1883.) 
 
 It is right, however, to say that the idea of 
 the great advantage of the combination of 
 the hands of the two partners was not alto- 
 gether new. 
 
 The first time such an idea was broached 
 was in a little book by a French Noble- 
 man, published in Paris, with the following 
 title : 
 
 6
 
 82 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 " Genie du Whist, meconnu jusqu'a present, quoique 
 joue avec une espece de fureur par toute I'Eui ope. Avec 
 ses explications, et des maximes certaines pour gagner. 
 Par le General Baron de Vautre. 
 Paris. Ledoyers, Libraire, Palais Royal, 31, Galerie 
 d'Orleans." 
 
 The copy we have is the fourth edition, 
 1847. It does not state when the book orig- 
 inally appeared, but we find it quoted as a 
 work well known in 1843. The Author says 
 in his Preface: 
 
 " The genius of whist has been misunderstood even by 
 its inventor, who has established nothing beyond the laws 
 and the course of play {les 7'eglcs et la marc/ie) ; and the 
 numerous commentators who have written on the game 
 have added nothing, because they have not thoroughly 
 appreciated it." 
 
 " A constant experience of more than twenty years, the 
 results of which have been noted down consecutively 
 month by month, has led the author to publish his maxims, 
 which change the old ideas and the old method now prac- 
 tised." 
 
 " The clear explanations which the author of this little 
 book presents, and the rules which he lays down, will give 
 the certainty of winning every month, without exception, 
 to the player who will learn how to practise them." 
 
 " T/ie author teaches the mode of playing with twenty- 
 six ca7'ds (as he expresses it), and not with thirteen, like 
 all the rest of the world." 
 
 We do not know what influence this publi- 
 cation may have had in France ; but we find 
 that there were published, about 1854, a set
 
 HISTORY.—'' CAVENDISH " AND CLAY 83 
 
 of Whist Rules in verse, entitled, Principes 
 gene'raux dtt Jeit de WJiist. The second of 
 these is as follows : 
 
 " Montrez au partenaire en quoi vous etes fort, 
 Et mariez vos jeux d'un mutuel accord." 
 
 This would at any rate give us to believe 
 that the idea in question was a matter of pop- 
 ular knowledge. And as these lines are said 
 to have been written by '' Un General d'Ar- 
 tillerie," it is quite possible that the two com- 
 positions may have proceeded from the same 
 hand. 
 
 But the idea seems not to have been con- 
 fined to France ; it spread to more distant 
 parts of Europe, for it was taken up in Vi- 
 enna ; and we find it repeated with much im- 
 provement and elaboration in a work entitled 
 
 " Das rationelle Whist ; oder das Whist-spiel mit alien 
 seinen Abarten, vollstandig aus einem Princip nach der 
 philosophischen und der mathematischen Wahrschein- 
 lichkeit entwickelt und erhartet. 
 
 " Nebst einem leicht fasslichen philosophischen Versuch 
 iiber die mathematische Wahrscheinlichkeit dieses Spiels. 
 
 " Vom Ritter Ludwig von Coeckelbergle - Diitzele. 
 Wien, 1843." 
 
 This is a most remarkable book, and may 
 be pronounced a very high class work on the
 
 84 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 game, in an intellectual point of view. The 
 motto, taken from Schiller : 
 
 " Den lauten Markt mag Momus unterhalten 
 Ein edler Sinn liebt ediere Gestalten," 
 
 and an exhortation introduced elsewhere, 
 
 " Que le Whist soit un jeii, et non pas un jouet," 
 
 show the author's high estimation of the 
 game. And a quotation from Virgil, 
 
 " Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas," 
 
 explains his thorough capability of describ- 
 ing it. 
 
 He lays great stress on the advantage of 
 combining the hands of the two partners, 
 and he devotes one long chapter expressly 
 to what he calls Verstdndigiingsspicl ; i.e., the 
 system of mutual understanding established 
 between the partners by their play. 
 
 The following passage, taken from this 
 chapter, gives a clear idea of the great mod- 
 ern principle we are now describing : 
 
 " In order to make the best and most advantageous use 
 of vour own as well as of your partner's hand, you must 
 endeavour to find out what his cards are, and to afford 
 him similar information as to your own. Both these ob- 
 jects are effected by what is called the la7igiiage of ihe 
 cards {Kartensprache), or the art of signalling {Signal- 
 kimst). The cards selected to be played serve, by their
 
 HISTORY. — " CAVENDISH " AND CLAY 85 
 
 relative values, as telegraphic signs, by which the two 
 partners carry on a reciprocal communication, and convey 
 indications as to what cards they hold, as well as sugges- 
 tions of their respective views and wishes. By this means 
 they are enabled to give better support to each other, to 
 calculate more easily the chances of the game, and to 
 anticipate more correctly the effect of any particular play. 
 " The conduct of your hand should be as clear as pos- 
 sible towards your partner, but towards the adversary 
 it may be equivocal and deceptive. The former course 
 should be usually followed, especially when the chief di- 
 rection of the play lies with yourself or your partner ; the 
 deceptive practice should only be resorted to when the 
 adversaries have the command, or when it is obvious that 
 your partner is thoroughly weak, and that your informa- 
 tion can be of no use to him. In general, however, false 
 indications, which of course mislead your partner as well 
 as the adversaries, should be used very sparingly; the 
 most advantageous system is to approach as nearly as 
 possible to the ever-honest dummy, who deceives nobody, 
 and yet in the long run proves the best player." 
 
 The writer of this work was an Austrian 
 nobleman, of a family eminent for their liter- 
 ary ability. The brother, Ritter Charles 
 Coeckelberghle-DUtzele, wrote a celebrated 
 ** History of the Austrian Empire," in five 
 volumes, which was published by the same 
 firm as the Whist book ; namely, C. Ger- 
 old's Sohn. It is believed the brothers 
 wxre both Government officials, and as this 
 period included the mostactiv^e period of life 
 of Prince Metternich, who was notoriously
 
 86 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 an enthusiastic Whist player, the book before 
 us may be supposed to be the outcome of 
 the highest intelligence in that great capital.^ 
 
 But these promulgations of the idea of co- 
 operation produced no lasting result, and 
 were soon forgotten. The reason of this is 
 now obvious. In order to carr}^ the idea out 
 into practice it was necessary to overhaul 
 the whole body of rules ; to inquire hoAV they 
 bore on the proposed plan, and if they were 
 unfavourable, to see whether and how they 
 could be altered to correspond with it, with- 
 out detriment to their original object. This 
 was really the work done by the refined club 
 plaj^ers, and the clever Little Whist School, 
 in the time of the elaboration of the system 
 we are now describing, and its result was 
 what we have already told. 
 
 The new form of game soon began to at- 
 tract the attention of the intellectual public, 
 as was manifested especially by extended dis- 
 cussions of the subject in some of the best 
 critical periodicals. 
 
 In April, 1869, there appeared in Erasers 
 Magazine a long and excellent article " On 
 Whist and Whist Players " by one of the 
 
 1 It is right to say that this book only became known to the au- 
 thor in 1870 when he was writing the article in the Quarterly Re- 
 view.
 
 HISTORY.—" CAVENDISH " AND CLAY 8/ 
 
 most eminent literary men of the day, Abra- 
 ham Hayward, who spoke highly of the new 
 improvements ; and shortly afterwards the 
 author of the present book was engaged to 
 write a full description of the Modern Game 
 for the Quarterly Reviezu, in performing which 
 duty he had the kind advice and assistance 
 of " Cavendish " and Mr. Clay. The article, 
 entitled '' Modern Whist," appeared in the 
 number for January, 1871, and, by the con- 
 sent of the publisher, has been used freely in 
 the present work. 
 
 THE LAWS. 
 
 About the middle of the century a step 
 was taken of great importance, namely, the 
 amendment and public establishment of the 
 Laws of Whist. This was due to the energy 
 of a well-known club player, Mr. John Loraine 
 Baldwin. He suggested to the Hon. George 
 Anson (one of the most accomplished Whist 
 players of the da}^) that as the supremacy of 
 Short Whist had become an acknowledged 
 fact, a revision and reformation of the laws 
 would confer a great boon on Whist players 
 generally. 
 
 Hoyle had originally laid down a set of 
 laws, which, considering the time and cir- 
 cumstances, were very sagacious and very
 
 88 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 creditable to him ; and these had been per- 
 petuated, with certain slight modifications, 
 in 1760 by the members of White's and Saun- 
 ders's chocolate houses. At a later date, 
 Deschapelles added an elaborate treatise on 
 the principles which should guide Whist 
 legislation. But there was no satisfactory 
 authorized code, and the consequence was 
 that disputes and doubtful points were con- 
 stantly occurring, which had to be referred 
 to the most esteemed playei's for decision. 
 Mr. Baldwin and his friend, although fully 
 aware that a more satisfactory and authori- 
 tative code was required, were also conscious 
 that, in persuading the Whist world to adopt 
 any innovation on old rules, they must en- 
 counter a certain amount of difficulty and 
 trouble, with a xery uncertain chance of suc- 
 cess. 
 
 In subsequent years, having witnessed 
 many questionable cases which, despite the 
 existence of Hoyle and other authors, were 
 invariably referred to the Whist players of 
 the day, Mr. Baldwin determined to make an 
 effort, and appeal to some of the London 
 clubs for their assistance and support. This 
 w^as willingly granted, and in Ma}', 1863, 
 one of the chief Whist clubs, the Arlingto7i 
 (since called the Turf) Club, appointed a 
 committee of nine gentlemen, with the late
 
 HISTORY. — " CAVENDISH " AND CLAY 89 
 
 Mr. Clay, as chairman, to co-operate with ^Ir. 
 Baldwin in the matter. 
 
 The committee having prepared a code, 
 sent it to the other most important Whist 
 club, the Portland, A committee of that club, 
 presided over by the late Mr. H. D. Jones, 
 carefully considered the rules, and offered 
 certain suggestions, which were agreed to by 
 the other body ; and on April 30, 1864, the 
 code was formally adopted by the ArlingLon 
 Club, on a resolution signed by the Duke of 
 Beaufort, the chairman. 
 
 The code was immediately published as 
 " The Laws of Short Whist, edited by 
 J. L. Baldwin;" and was dedicated, by per- 
 mission, to His Royal Highness the Prince 
 of Wales. It was at once adopted by the 
 principal clubs, and has ever since been the 
 standard authority on Whist law in England. 
 
 But the details are not perfect, as cases of 
 doubt often arise ; and a few years ago, when 
 the American Whist League was established 
 for regulating the Whist play in the United 
 States, they recognized the imperfections of 
 the English code, and devoted much atten- 
 tion to the preparation of revised Laws suit- 
 able to their mode of playing the game. See 
 Appendix C.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME 
 
 It is now necessary to give some descrip- 
 tion of the game which formed this stage of 
 the Evolution of Whist, and which may be 
 said to have been first published to the world 
 between i860 and 1870. 
 
 The basis of it was, as has been stated, the 
 Game of Hoyle ; and it contained all the good 
 features of the latter ; but it had the advan- 
 tage over it of a systematic consolidation and 
 reduction to philosophical principles, and 
 of some general improvements consequent 
 thereon. 
 
 It is not our business here to repeat the 
 detailed rules of play, for which the well- 
 known text-books of the time must be re- 
 ferred to ; it must suffice to explain the chief 
 principles involved, and to give a general idea 
 how they were applied. And in this we may 
 be guided by the contemporary account in 
 the Quarterly Revieiv of 1871, which was pre- 
 pared for a similar purpose.
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME 9I 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES, AND GENERAL VIEW 
 OF THEIR APPLICATION. 
 
 The great feature of this form of the game 
 consists in the more perfect cultivation, than 
 formerly, of the relations existing between 
 the two players who are in partnership with 
 each other. As these players have a com- 
 munity of interests, it is evidently desirable 
 that they should act in conjunction. If the 
 two hands could be put together and played 
 as one, great advantage would clearly result ; 
 for not only would the strong points of each 
 still preserve their full value, but special 
 benefits would arise from the combination ; 
 just as the junction and co-operation of two 
 divisions of an army would give more power- 
 ful results than could be obtained by their 
 divided action. The form of game we are 
 now describing has for its essence the more 
 full and perfect use of this principle. When 
 you look at your hand you must consider it, 
 not as an individual entity, but as a part of a 
 combination, to the joint interests of which 
 your whole play must conduce. 
 
 It might be supposed that as the partner- 
 ship was so obvious, the combination of the 
 hands would be a natural consequence (and 
 indeed a distinct notion of it was given by
 
 92 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 the Crown Coffee House students), but it 
 was onh' by the earnest study of the Club 
 players and of the Little School, after a cen- 
 tury and a quarter's existence of the simple 
 Hoyle Game, that the combination principle 
 became fully established and applied. It was 
 then found that many of the former rules, 
 though properly adapted for a single hand, 
 did not lend themselyes thoroughly to the 
 combination ; and the chief object that occu- 
 pied the improyers was to examine them 
 completely, and so to treat them as to make 
 the combination the foundation of the system, 
 instead of a mere accident of play. 
 
 We haye next to see how this great prin- 
 ciple is made applicable. In the first place, 
 in order that the combination ma}^ be prop- 
 erly effected, it is requisite that each partner 
 should adopt the same general principle of 
 treating his hand ; for there are several dif- 
 ferent modes of trick-making, according to 
 which a player may regulate the general de- 
 sign of his play. These haye all been subject 
 to full and careful discussion, and it is clearly 
 demonstrable that the only sj^stem which 
 adapts itself fayourably to the combination 
 of the hands, is that of endeayouring to make 
 tricks by '' establishing " and " bringing in " 
 a lono; suit. This was one of the deyices well
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME 93 
 
 known in Hoyle's Game, but was only subor- 
 dinate in general play, whereas now it takes 
 the most prominent position. 
 
 It is easy to trace how all the more impor- 
 tant rules of the modern game arise out of 
 this principle. Take for instance the manage- 
 ment of trumps, which was, under the old 
 forms, a great stumbling-block to ill-educated 
 players. It is obvious that the chief obstacle 
 to making long suits is their being ruffed, 
 and that the advantage will be with that 
 party who, having predominant numerical 
 strength in trumps, can succeed in drawing 
 those of the adversaries. Five trumps are 
 generally sufficient for the purpose ; and 
 hence the rule, that if you hold this number, 
 or more, you should lead them. Three or 
 four leads will usually disarm both opponents, 
 and you will still have one or more left to 
 bring in your own or your partner's long suit, 
 and to stop those of the enemy. So impor- 
 tant is the trump lead on this ground that 
 the old-fashioned objection to " lead up to an 
 honour " as well as the direction to " lead 
 through an honour," both vanish under the 
 Philosophical system. Either is right if you 
 are strong in trumps ; neither if otherwise. 
 
 If you hold only four trumps the case is 
 much changed by your smaller preponder- 
 ance ; and the calculation of probabilities
 
 94 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 shows a much diminished chance of a success- 
 ful result. It is usually recommended that 
 you should not lead trumps from four with- 
 out having a plain suit established, either by 
 yourself or your partner. 
 
 With three trumps or less, which is nu- 
 merical weakness, a trump lead at the begin- 
 ning of the hand is seldom justifiable. The 
 normal application of trumps when weak is 
 to use them on the old plan for ruffing, if they 
 escape being drawn by the adversary. 
 
 It is imperative that your trump lead be 
 returned by your partner the first oppor- 
 tunity. Hesitation in this is inexcusable, as 
 endangering the great benefit your own 
 strength would confer on the combined 
 hands. 
 
 Several minor rules in regard to trumps 
 are deducible from the same principles. For 
 example, it is very disadvantageous for a 
 strong trump hand to be forced to ruff, which 
 wastes its strength unworthily. Hence you 
 must avoid forcing your partner if, being 
 weak yourself, you have reason to suspect he 
 may be strong. But you should force a 
 strong adverse trump hand whenever you 
 can. Again, if you are second player to a 
 trick which it is possible your partner may 
 win, and have none of the suit yourself, the 
 new principles teach you to ruff fearlessly if
 
 THE THILOSOPHICAL GAME 95 
 
 weak in trumps, but to pass the trick if 
 strong. In the former case your trumps are 
 useless for their higher object ; in the latter 
 they are too valuable to risk losing unneces- 
 sarily. 
 
 When we come to the play of plain suits 
 we must call to our guidance another matter 
 Avhich has formed an essential element in the 
 Philosophical Game, namely, the considera- 
 tion of Probability. At the beginning of the 
 hand you know nothing of your partner's 
 cards, and your earliest lead must be guided, 
 not only by the cards you hold, but by what 
 will most probably benefit the combination with 
 your partner, and will at the same time also 
 be the least likely to favour your opponents. 
 
 Hoyle had penetration enough to see this, 
 and he made considerable use of the laws of 
 probability in his teaching. Matthews also 
 alluded to them, as has been stated on page 
 (yj. The Vienna book mentioned in chapter 
 V. contained a fair essay on the subject; but 
 no earnest attention was given to it in this 
 country until it was taken up b}^ the author of 
 the present work, who in 1883 published a 
 Treatise I with the view of reviving it. The 
 
 ' " The Philosophy of Whist,"' De hi Rue & Co. It was in 
 this book that the term " Philosophical Game " was first applied to 
 the form of Whist here treated of.
 
 96 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 following short extracts may illustrate the 
 views there taken. 
 
 " It may, perhaps, be thought that the existence of the 
 element of chance to such a large extent in Whist tends 
 to lower its intellectual character, as compared with other 
 games, such as Chess, which engage only mental skill. 
 Elaborate comparisons have been made of the interest 
 offered in the two cases, respectively, but the nature of 
 the mental occupation is very different, and, so far as one 
 can judge by experience and observation, no such inferi- 
 ority exists. The element of chance, so far from standing 
 in the way of intellectual exercise, is what chiefly gives 
 the opportunity for it. It can be amply shewn that the 
 calculations, provisions, and speculations arising out of the 
 many uncertainties occurring in Whist play, furnish the 
 most important objects for scientific investigation, as well 
 as the best inducements for the application of personal 
 judgment and skill. 
 
 "In reality it is the happy combination of chance and 
 skill that makes the game so generally attractive and 
 popular. The influence of chance on the scoring is of 
 two kinds — partly absolute and partly dependent on the 
 play. In the case of honours the simple possession of 
 certain cards counts directly towards game, but the result 
 of a favourable chance distribution of cards for trick- 
 making is largely dependent on the management of them. 
 It is very common for high cards to be lost, and it is one 
 of the chief efforts of good players to make low cards 
 win. 
 
 " At the commencement of a hand the player is in the 
 difficult position that he is in entire ignorance of what 
 would be really the most advantageous thing for him to 
 do. But if he is a wise man he will not act at random. 
 Although he cannot foresee what is the best thing to be
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME 9/ 
 
 done, he may at least, by careful consideration, form a 
 judgment of what may probably be the most likely course 
 to be beneficial to himself and his partner, and the least 
 likely to turn to the advantage of the adversaries. This 
 invocation of probability as a guide in obscure parts of 
 the play is what formed the great merit of Hoyle's teach- 
 ing at the very birth of intelligent Whist, and it is what 
 now distinguishes the educated systematic player from 
 the untaught beginner, or the more presumptuous (but not 
 less ignorant) pretender who glories in playing accord- 
 ing to his own fancy." ^ 
 
 The treatise here quoted from shows how 
 admirably the calculation of probabilities fits 
 in with the combined form of game ; almost 
 all the rules, arrived at practically by the im- 
 provers, being shown to be consistent with 
 the doctrine of chances, as determined by 
 philosophical reasoning. It is unnecessary 
 here to go further into this matter ; but it is 
 a very desirable study for all who would 
 really understand the principles of modern 
 Whist play. 
 
 To return to the management of plain suits. 
 The most important step is your first plain 
 suit lead ; and here the doctrine of probabil- 
 ities has fully established the system, as al- 
 ready stated, of leading from the longest suit, 
 which fulfils all the most favourable condi- 
 tions. It is a lead which, even in ignorance 
 
 ' Ibid., pages 3, 4, 11, 12. 
 7
 
 98 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 of the partner's cards, may be reasonably ex- 
 pected to benefit the combined hands and 
 not to favour the adversaries ; and it serves 
 to give the most direct and useful informa- 
 tion to the partner as to the cards held by 
 the leader. 
 
 The question wJiicli card of your long suit 
 you should first lead has also been fully in- 
 vestigated. As a general principle it is ex- 
 pedient to begin with a small card, which 
 gives your partner the chance of making the 
 first trick, and enables you to keep the com- 
 plete command at a later period. But when 
 you hold several high cards this principle is 
 subject to modification by the possibility of 
 the suit being trumped, and by some other 
 contingencies, and therefore certain definite 
 leads were determined for particular com- 
 binations, of which the following were the 
 most useful. 
 
 FIRST LEADS FROM A LONG PLAIN SUIT 
 
 {according to the Philosophical Game 1870). 
 
 HOLDING. 
 
 LEAD. 
 
 Ace and King, 
 
 King. 
 
 King and Queen, 
 
 King. 
 
 Ace, Queen, Knave, 
 
 Ace then Queen 
 
 Queen, Knave, ten, 
 
 Queen. 
 
 King. Knave, ten, 
 
 fen.
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME 99 
 
 All these were dictated by special motives, 
 founded on the general principles of this form 
 of game. 
 
 The combined system further defines the 
 duty of your partner in helping you in regard 
 to your long suit. In addition to showing you 
 his own, it is his duty to return yours, but 
 much depends upon what card he plays. In 
 the first place he must get rid of the com- 
 mand, by playing out the master cards if he 
 holds them ; for it is essential that you retain 
 the superiority. Then, secondly, he must 
 adopt what is called " strengthening play," 
 by sacrificing his high cards in the suit to 
 strengthen you. Suppose, for example, he 
 had originally ace, knave, and four, and has 
 won your first lead with the ace ; he must 
 return the knave and not the four. The re- 
 sult of this is to raise the effective rank of any 
 lower cards you hold in the suit, and to aid 
 in getting higher ones out of the way, so as 
 to hasten your obtaining the complete com- 
 mand. 
 
 So much for the lead and the return of it. 
 But the system affects also the other players. 
 In the older game, for example, the second 
 player might often feel at liberty to put on a 
 high card ; but by the newer doctrine he is 
 bound generall}^ to i)lay his lowest, and to re- 
 tain high cards which may, later on, block
 
 100 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 the leader's suit, and so prevent its establish- 
 ment. 
 
 The tliird hand, under this system, is for- 
 bidden to do what he might often have legit- 
 imately done before, namely finesse (except 
 with ace and queen) to his partner's original 
 lead ; as the high cards are wanted out of 
 the wa}'. 
 
 The system also guides the discard, which 
 should usually be made from short or weak 
 suits, not from long ones. The cards of the 
 former are of little use, while those of the 
 latter may be very valuable, even to the 
 smallest you have. 
 
 COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE PARTNERS. 
 
 We must now notice, at sonie length, what 
 is probably the most important element in 
 this form of game, namely, the modes of com- 
 munication between the partners. For if the 
 two hands are to be combined and plaj-ed as 
 one, it is evident that the partners must use 
 every legal means of gaining information as 
 to the contents of each other's hands. Indeed, 
 we have said that the attainment of this was 
 the great object aimed at in the elaboration 
 of the game. 
 
 In the ordinary form of Whist, each player 
 is supposed to be quite ignorant of what (bar-
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME lOI 
 
 ring the turn-up-card) the three other hands 
 contain ; and ever since the days of Hoyle it 
 has been one of the chief objects of the skill 
 and intelligence of the player to discover 
 anything he can as to their contents. But it 
 must be specially his desire to get information 
 as to his partner's hand, as on that he has to 
 found his advantageous system of play. And 
 hence there is every inducement for the part- 
 ners to give one another as much information 
 as they can, consistently with an honourable 
 adherence to the ethical constitution of the 
 game. 
 
 We gain some information on this latter 
 point in a work of the highest authority, 
 namely, " Paley's Moral Philosophy," pub- 
 lished in 1785, some sixteen years after the 
 death of Hoyle. The author devotes Chap- 
 ter VIII. to what he calls ''Contracts of 
 Hazard," meaning " gaming and insurance." 
 He says : 
 
 " The proper restriction is that neither side have an ad- 
 vantage, by means of which the other is not aware, for 
 this is an advantage taken without being given. If I sit 
 down to a game at Whist, and have an advantage over the 
 adversary by means of a better memory, closer attention, 
 or a superior knowledge of the rules and chances of the 
 game, the advantage is fair. 
 
 " But if I gain an advantage by packing the cards, 
 glancing my eye into the adversaries' hands, or by con-
 
 102 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 certed signals with my partner, it is a dishonest advantage, 
 because it depends upon means which the adversary never 
 suspects that I make use of." 
 
 We may take it for granted, therefore, as 
 admitted among honest plaj^ers, that no one 
 should have any means of knowing what his 
 partner holds except by means equally avail- 
 able to the whole table. 
 
 When the Club players and the Little 
 Whist School were evolving the Philosophi- 
 cal Game they found, on examination, that the 
 various means formerl}^ available for gather- 
 ing information in this way were capable of 
 much improvement. They therefore care- 
 fully revised all the rules of play with the 
 double view : not only that they should best 
 favour the trick-making powers of the com- 
 bination, but also that they should convey 
 the maximum of positive information possible 
 to the partner. 
 
 The result, as displa^'ed in the Philosophi- 
 cal Game, has been a marvel of constructive 
 skill ; and it will be interesting to show by 
 what means the desired purpose has been 
 carried out, or in other words, how the in- 
 formation as to the hands is transmitted by 
 the cards played. 
 
 The chief source is by each partner's per- 
 fect acquaintance with the ordinary rules of
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME 103 
 
 play, as prompted by general expediency. 
 Every well-established rule for the play of a 
 card implies some combination which renders 
 that play desirable ; and consequently, when 
 I see my partner's card I, trusting to his 
 having been guided by the rule, can see, in 
 my mind's eye, the existence of that probable 
 combination in his hand. 
 
 The manner of *' drawing inferences " in 
 this way from the cards played, has been so 
 often explained, and Tables of Inferences 
 are given in so many Whist books, that it 
 is needless to enlarge upon these matters 
 here. It will suffice to quote a few exam- 
 ples.^ 
 
 Take your partner's first lead, and see what 
 are some of the probable messages conveyed 
 to you by this one card. 
 
 If he leads a trump, he tells you he is strong in trumps, 
 and wants them drawn. 
 
 If he leads a plain suit, he tells you he is not very strong 
 in trumps, but that the suit lead is the best in his hand ; 
 that he holds four or more cards in it, and wants to 
 establish it and bring it in. 
 
 If his first lead in it is the King, he tells you he has 
 either Ace or Queen also, perhaps both. 
 
 If it is the Ace followed by the Queen he tells you he 
 has the Knave also. 
 
 If it is the Queen, you infer he holds also the Knave 
 and ten. 
 
 1 Extracted from " The Philosophy of Whist," page 60.
 
 104 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 If it is the ten, you infer he has most probably the King 
 and Knave. 
 
 If it is a small card, he tells you he has none of the com- 
 binations which would require him to lead a high one. 
 
 Or suppose your partner is returning 3^our 
 suit. In this he is acting on information 
 given by you. You will see what his mode 
 of play probably tells you. 
 
 If he does not lead out the master card he tells you he 
 does not hold it ; and if not in your own hand, you there- 
 fore know it is against you. 
 
 If he leads any card, afterwards dropping a lower one, 
 he tells you he hae then no more of the suit. 
 
 If he leads any card, and afterwards drops a higher one, 
 he tells you he has still another left. 
 
 And so on through multitudes of other 
 cases. By your knowledge of the motives 
 which have guided the play of the card, the 
 card itself reveals the facts implied in such 
 motives. 
 
 But independentl}^ of inferences of this 
 kind, the system of the Philosophical Game 
 takes cognizance of minor points and pas- 
 sive operations, prescribing greater care and 
 strictness in what were thought, formed}', 
 unimportant matters. 
 
 For example, a player would, in the prim- 
 itive time, pay little attention to the man- 
 a2:ement of small or useless cards. Mat-
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME 105 
 
 thews endeavoured to correct this fault. He 
 said : 
 
 " Be as careful of what you throw away as what you lead ; 
 it is often of bad consequence to put down a tray with a 
 deuce in your hand." 
 
 And he goes on to show that by such care- 
 lessness you deceive your partner, destroy 
 his confidence in you, and prevent him from 
 playing his game properly. 
 
 And if this carefulness was considered 
 necessary in the former era, how much more 
 so must it be in the Philosophical Game, 
 where the communication between the part- 
 ners is the essential principle in its structure. 
 If a card is to be thrown away it must be the 
 lowest card possible ; it will tell your partner 
 you have not a lower one properly available, 
 and so may help him to count your hand. 
 
 If the two lowest cards of the suit you 
 throw away from are in sequence, say the six 
 and the five, you must not suppose, that be- 
 cause they are of equal value to you it is a 
 matter of indifference which you play, you 
 must strictly adhere to the rule and throw 
 away the five, to prevent your partner from 
 drawing a wrong inference. 
 
 This example leads to a consideration of 
 the pla}' of Sequences ; generally a matter of
 
 I06 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 great importance in giving information. 
 The cards of a sequence in the same hand 
 are called " indifferent cards," because in the 
 matter of trick-winning they are of equal 
 value. But it is not at all indifferent how 
 they should be played; 
 
 Hoyle said : " Sequences are eligible leads, 
 of which play the highest card ; " for an 
 obvious reason, namely, to prevent your part- 
 ner from putting on the next highest. And 
 this, subject to special exceptions, has re- 
 mained the general rule. 
 
 The play of sequences, when not leading, 
 was not well defined in the early days of 
 Whist. Hoyle scarcely mentions it. Payne, 
 in several Maxims, directs that the lowest 
 card should be pla3"ed second hand, but does 
 not lay stress on it as a general rule. jNIat- 
 thews was the first person to see the great 
 importance of care in this particular, and he 
 brings it specially forward in his Preface as 
 an example of right teaching. He says: 
 
 " When the beginner reads, that with two or more of a 
 sequence to his partner's lead (as King and Queen) he 
 should put on the lowest, he does so, or not, generally 
 without thinking it material. But after he is made to com- 
 prehend that his Queen's passing demonstrates to his part- 
 ner that the King cannot be in his left hand adversary's 
 hand, or the Knave in his, and the consequent advantages 
 to him in playing his suit (whereas if he puts on the King
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME lOJ 
 
 it leaves him in ignorance as to the Queen and Knave), 
 he w^ill never after err in those cases, and will also know 
 how to profit by similar correctness in his future partners." 
 
 In Matthews's Maxim 52, he further says: 
 
 " When your partner leads, win with the lowest of a 
 sequence, to demonstrate your strength in his suit." 
 
 We have here, therefore, a positive rule, 
 formed on the principle of uniformity, like 
 the play of small cards. It is indifferent, so 
 far as trick-making is concerned, which card 
 of the sequence I take the trick with ; but 
 since in other cases I should win with the 
 lowest card possible, I follow the same prin- 
 ciple here, in order that my partner may 
 draw the same inference, namely, that I have 
 no card capable of winning the trick lower 
 than the one I play. 
 
 When the Philosophical Game came in, 
 the mode of playing sequences, from its con- 
 stant recurrence in almost every hand, be- 
 came of much greater importance, and Mat- 
 thews's rule was accordingly laid down more 
 emphatically. In '' The Laws and Practice 
 of Whist," by " Cselebs," published in 1851, 
 the author said : 
 
 " It being an axiom to lead the highest of a sequence, but 
 to follow suit with the lowest, it follows that a player does 
 not hold the next inferior card to that with which he fol- 
 lows suit."
 
 I08 THE PHILOSOPtnCAL ERA 
 
 And " Cavendish," in his first edition, makes 
 a separate heading '' Win with the lowest of 
 a sequence." And so the rule has always 
 prevailed. 
 
 There is another case of indifferent cards 
 somewhat analogous to the play of se- 
 quences. Payne (Maxim 8 of general Rules) 
 said : 
 
 "In returning your partner's lead play the best you 
 have, when you held but three originally." 
 
 This is clearl}' with the object of strength- 
 ening the partner in his strong suit (see page 
 99). But suppose after winning my part- 
 ner's lead with the Ace, I have left two in- 
 different cards, the eight and the seven, which 
 ought I to return him ? Clearly the eight, in 
 order to preserve the uniform application of 
 the rule by which I profess to be guided. 
 
 There are occasionally cases of erratic or 
 abnormal play, devised on the spur of the 
 moment, for the special information of the 
 partner on some particular point. Examples 
 of these are as old as Hoyle and Matthews, 
 but as the}' form no part of any regular sys- 
 tem of play they do not require further no- 
 tice here. The communications above de- 
 scribed constitute the ordinarv sources of in- 
 formation between the partners, and it will 
 be seen how simple and efficient they are.
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME IO9 
 
 And if due attention is paid to the cards 
 played, and the proper logical inferences are 
 drawn therefrom, it is astonishing what an 
 insight an observant player may obtain into 
 the hand of his partner. Clay meant this 
 when he said, '' Whist is a language, and 
 every card played is an intelligible sen- 
 tence." The first chapter of his excellent 
 Treatise is devoted entirely to explaining it, 
 and indeed the sentiment appears again and 
 again throughout the volume. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME IN ITS EDUCATIONAL 
 ASPECTS. 
 
 Returning now to the Philosophical Game 
 as a whole, its description cannot fail, we 
 should think, to impress the reader with the 
 high intellectual place it occupies in Whist 
 Evolution. It is not likely to be dethroned, 
 for, after a quarter of a century's experience, 
 the only alterations have been more studious 
 attention to detail, and improvements conse- 
 quent thereon; so that this game must, so 
 far as Ave yet know, ahvays continue to be 
 learned as the foundation for more advanced 
 play. 
 
 And we may in conclusion pomt out that 
 one of the greatest merits in this form of the 
 game is the facility with which it lends itself
 
 no THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 to instruction. The simple Hoyle game was 
 a most difficult thing both to teach and to 
 learn. The great master did not profess to 
 teach it by book ; he knew well how difficult 
 this would be ; his aim was to teach it per- 
 sonally, and his book was originally only a 
 number of notes or memoranda to enable his 
 pupils to treasure up his oral explanations. 
 For this reason it is not possible for a learner 
 to gather from the volume any sort of sys- 
 tematic understanding of the game. All he 
 finds is an assemblage of maxims, rules, and 
 examples of situations, which will be useful 
 enough in isolated circumstances, but which 
 give him no grasp of any general line of 
 conduct, and which he will have trouble to 
 recollect when they require to be applied. 
 
 Payne and Matthews certainly much im- 
 proved the arrangement ; but still, after all, 
 the instruction derived from the three was 
 but a mass of good material, which did not 
 assume the form of a structure. 
 
 The improved game, as it is now pub- 
 lished in categorical description, presents 
 a totally different appearance. Continuing 
 the metaphor, we may say that the student 
 will find that there is first laid a wide and 
 firm foundation on which the whole struc- 
 ture rests ; and over that we ma}^ trace, 
 even in its minutest details, a general con-
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME III 
 
 sistent and intelligible design, in conformity 
 with which the whole building, fitly framed 
 together, grows into a magnificent temple 
 of usefulness and beauty. 
 
 And this is eminently teachable. We can 
 first give the student a clear general idea of 
 what he has to do, and then can explain to 
 him step by step how he is to set about it; 
 how to begin, and how to proceed; what 
 help to ask for and what to afford ; what 
 precautions to take, what dangers to look 
 for, and what perils to avoid ; how to make 
 the most of good fortune and how to palli- 
 ate adversity. And then, with such a prep- 
 aration as this, he will be far better able 
 to appreciate and to utilize the precepts and 
 maxims of the great teachers who went be- 
 fore. 
 
 In this way the high-class game, which 
 formerly from its intricacy and difficulty 
 was confined to persons of superior mental 
 power, has become accessible to almost any- 
 one of ordinary education and moderate in- 
 telligence. This is no fiction. It is matter 
 of common knowledge that since the publi- 
 cation of the descriptions of this game it 
 has been learned and played by thousands 
 where probably only tens would have learned 
 the game of Hoyle, and perhaps would have 
 played it indifferently after all. And it is
 
 112 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 also a very remarkable fact that while the 
 Hoyle game was proverbially considered 
 only appropriate to the vicillcsse oi humanity, 
 it is now a favorite study of vigorous youth. 
 Young ladies now play it with pleasure, and 
 there is a case on record of a little girl, un- 
 der seven years of age, who, having been 
 properly taught, could go through the for- 
 malities of the modern game with tolerable 
 correctness, and made a very fair partner to 
 an older player. 
 
 The plan of teaching, according to these 
 views, Avould be as follows : The student 
 should be recommended, in the first instance, 
 not to trouble himself with the elaborations 
 of advanced play ; they are for his seniors, 
 and will only puzzle him. He should first be 
 instructed in the general theoretical design 
 of the game, and then should be shown some 
 application of its principles in the simplest 
 possible form. He must, of course, be told 
 that such brief rules admit of many excep- 
 tions, variations, and amplifications, which 
 he will learn hereafter ; but, in the meantime, 
 they may give him a general idea of the most 
 important points to be attended to. 
 
 Take, for example, such a little batch as 
 the following (slightly modified from a set in 
 the Quarterly Revieif) :
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME II 3 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL GAME OF WHIST. 
 A FEW SHORT MEMORANDA FOR BEGINNERS, 
 
 " I. Lead from your most numerous suit. 
 
 2. Begin with a low card, unless you hold certain speci- 
 fied combinations of high cards which dictate specific 
 leads. 
 
 3. If your partner has shown you his long suit, recollect 
 that he will wish also to see yours ; but whether you 
 should lead it before returning his, will be a matter for 
 experience and judgment. 
 
 4. In returnmg your partner's suit, if you have only two 
 left, return the highest ; if more the lowest. 
 
 5. But in any position, if you hold the best card, play it 
 the second round. 
 
 6. Second-hand, generally play your lowest. 
 
 7. Holding five trumps, lead them ; or if your partner 
 has led trumps, return them as early as possible. 
 
 8. Do not trump a doubtful trick second-hand if you 
 hold more than three trumps ; with three or less trump 
 fearlessly. 
 
 9. Do not force your partner if you hold less than four 
 trumps yourself ; but force a strong adverse trump hand 
 whenever you can. 
 
 10. Discard from your weakest suit. 
 
 11. If not leading, always play the lowest of a se- 
 quence. 
 
 12. Be very accurate in the play of even your smallest 
 cards." 
 
 Such rules as these may be easily com- 
 mitted by the student to memory, and will 
 serve to guide his earliest practice. Objec-
 
 114 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ERA 
 
 tions have often been made to the imperfec- 
 tions of such rules, but experience has shown 
 that thev have served to sfive a sfood start to 
 multitudes of persons who have afterwards 
 become accomplished players. And not only 
 'that, but they have induced multitudes of 
 other persons to like and play the game, 
 who without them would not have learned it 
 at all. 
 
 After a little practice in this initiatory 
 way, the earnest student may be inducted 
 into further practical details ; and as he goes 
 on he will come in contact with abundance 
 of special situations and difficulties that re- 
 quire his study. Information on such points 
 formed the staple teaching of the Hoyle 
 Game, and the Philosophical Game has in 
 no wise superseded it, but has rather in- 
 creased the facility of its application. Such 
 matters are treated of fully in many good 
 Whist-teaching books, and do not require 
 further notice here.
 
 PART IV 
 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 MODERN SIGNALLING 
 THE GERM 
 
 It might have been thought that in the 
 Philosophical Game, Whist had arrived at 
 about the most perfect state it was capable 
 of ; and speaking generally, this would seem 
 true. For, as regards the main structure, 
 there has been nothing to alter, and it re- 
 mains, and probably must long remain, the 
 standard Whist Game. 
 
 But, nevertheless, the principle of Evolu- 
 tion has still been at work, not on the main 
 form, but on the details. For, during the last 
 few years, there has been a gradual intro- 
 duction of a subordinate development which, 
 although still only in a state of transition, has 
 attracted so much attention, and has obtained 
 so many earnest adherents, that it demands a 
 conspicuous place in our record of progress. 
 It had partly its origin in America, and has 
 been taken up so warmly among high-class 
 Whist circles in the United States, that it has
 
 Il8 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 become the chief feature in the Whist of that 
 countr}*. 
 
 The alterations have reference entirely to 
 the further improvement of the communica- 
 tions between the partners, which we have 
 pointed out as so prominent and so impor- 
 tant in the structure of the Philosophical 
 Game. Adepts had found these improved 
 communications so powerful in Whist play, 
 that they endeavoured to carry them further, 
 and their efforts have led to results of a very 
 extended character. 
 
 It was only about the year 1885 that these 
 developments began to attract general notice, 
 but the germ of them had existed for a long 
 time previously. And it is no uncommon 
 thing in the history of evolutionary pro- 
 cesses, that a variation may originate and 
 continue in a minor stage of existence long 
 before it propagates itself sufficiently to give 
 rise to a new species noticed by the world. 
 
 To explain this intelligibly we must take up 
 again the subject of communication between 
 the partners, where we left it in Chapter VI. 
 We there described the most obvious and 
 general modes of conveying information ; but 
 during the efforts that were being made at the 
 London Clubs to improve the game, a new 
 contrivance arose, of such importance as to
 
 MODERN SIGNALLING. — THE GERM IIQ 
 
 command the earnest attention of all Whist 
 players. It was called the Signal for Trumps. 
 
 Under the Philosophical System, then in 
 process of incubation, it was found that a 
 prompt lead of trumps was often of great 
 importance. An expert might see from his 
 own hand, and from the fall of the cards, that 
 such a lead would benefit the joint hands 
 considerably, but he might not have an early 
 power of getting the lead himself, and he 
 would think it most desirable if he could, by 
 any legal means, get his partner to lead them 
 for him. The desire at last led to the accom- 
 plishment, and the '' Signal for Trumps " 
 came in. 
 
 Clay describes it as follows : 
 
 "It consists in throwing away a7t iinnecessarily high 
 card. Thus, if you have the deuce and three of a suit 
 of which two rounds are played, by playing the three to 
 the first round and the deuce to the second, you have sig- 
 nified to your partner your wish that he should lead a 
 trump as soon as he gets the lead. The same with any 
 other higher card played unnecessarily before a lower." ' 
 
 He further states (writing about 1864), that 
 this signal was first introduced some thirty 
 years before at Graham's Club,^ which was 
 
 1 A Treatise on Short Wjiist, by James Clay. De la Rue's 
 edition, page 109. 
 
 2 In "Whist," Vol. III., p. 156, Cavendish mentions a curious 
 custom, in the Old Long Whist, of a certain intentional irrcgu-
 
 I20 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 then the greatest of Card Ckibs, but was dis- 
 solved soon afterwards. Its invention is said 
 to have been due to a fine player of that time, 
 Lord Henry Bentinck. He had designed or 
 noticed some contrivances with high cards, 
 adopted with the object of getting trumps 
 led ; and, being very particular himself in the 
 use of small cards, it occurred to him that by 
 analogous means, an arrangement of the play 
 of small cards might be made, which should 
 communicate to the partner a similar desire 
 for a trump lead. 
 
 The first published m.ention of it appears to 
 be in a little book, dated 185 1, called "The 
 Laws and Practice of Whist, by Cselebs, 
 M.A.," the author being the late Mr. E. A. 
 Carlyon, a good player and a member of the 
 Portland Club, to the members of which his 
 book was dedicated. On page 62, he says : 
 
 " Generally, wherever a higher card is seen to fall, pas- 
 sively, i.e., without a substantive object, before a lower, 
 exhaustion of the suit may be expected ; and the insignifi- 
 
 larity in "Calling Honours," which was understood to be a re- 
 quest for the partner to lead trumps, as mentioned by Hoyle, 
 Mathews, and a writer in 1821, Admiral Burney. The latter 
 says : " This I apprehend to be an intrusion on the plainness and 
 integrity of Whist, but having been allowed and generally prac- 
 tised it now stands, and is to be received as part of the game." 
 This contrivance can hardly be received as anticipating the mod- 
 ern Signal for Trumps, though it may be fairly quoted as a prece- 
 dent for the common acceptance of the latter, when " allowed and 
 generally practised."
 
 MODERN SIGNALLING.— THE GERM 121 
 
 cance of the cards only renders the presumption more 
 forcible ; hence, if you drop the tray before the deuce, it 
 should be a moral certitude that you have no more of the 
 suit. Many persons adopt another theory with regard to 
 playing the higher card first ; viz., that it is an intimation 
 of wishing trumps to be led. The existence of two such 
 diametrically opposite theories sufficiently proves the ne- 
 cessity of attending to these jninuticB." 
 
 In the third edition of his book, however, 
 dated January, 1858, Caelebs speaks much 
 more positively about the signal, thus (page 
 
 22) : 
 
 " Whenever a superior card is tinnecessarily played be- 
 fore an inferior ; e.g., the tray before deuce, it is the strong- 
 est indication of the player wishing for trumps. 
 
 " This Signal, metaphorically termed the Blue Peter, is 
 in diametrical antagonism to the theory of the old school ; 
 when playing the higher card first, indicated exhaustion of 
 the suit and a wish to ruff." 
 
 The comparison of these two passages fur- 
 nishes an important historical fact. As the 
 author must have been well acquainted with 
 the Portland Club, then the headquarters of 
 Whist, it is clear that in 1851 the device was 
 not in general use there, but that before 1858 
 it had become an acknowledged rule of play. 
 Indeed, the author, in the Preface to the later 
 edition, seems to pride himself on his '' orig- 
 inal " description of the '' modern artifice." 
 
 The '' metaphorical " name given to it, lik-
 
 122 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 ening it to a '' Signal " hoisted on ship-board, 
 appears to imply that it was then considered 
 a new device in whist-playing. At any rate, 
 we are justified by this evidence in believing 
 that, in 1858, it had become fully accepted in 
 the chief London clubs. 
 
 A few years afterwards it passed under the 
 hands of the '* Little Whist School," and ap- 
 pears also to have been received by them 
 Avithout question. ''Cavendish," who in 1862 
 founded his work largely on their proceed- 
 ings, described it briefly without hesitation 
 as an understood part of the game. 
 
 When, however, it became more known 
 outside there was much hesitation in accept- 
 ing it. Many players in good circles ob- 
 jected to it, and the French generally con- 
 sidered it unjustifiable. Accordingly, when 
 Clay published his excellent treatise in 1864, 
 he thought it worth while to devote an en- 
 tire chapter to its consideration and justifica- 
 tion. It was discussed occasionally for some 
 time afterwards, and the objections to it were 
 often repeated, but they gradually died away, 
 and may be said now to have almost entirely 
 subsided. The " signal " has been found at- 
 tractive to the great mass of players ; it has 
 been approved, adopted, and recommended 
 by the best authorities ; nobody doubts its 
 importance and efficiency ; and whatever may
 
 MODERN SIGNALLING.— THE GERM I 23 
 
 be its speculative merits, we now have it be- 
 fore us practically as an established integral 
 part of the modern game as played in Eng- 
 land and in America. 
 
 We have therefore no intention of raising 
 here any question about its legality, or fair- 
 ness, or utility ; all those points have been 
 settled by general consent. But as wc are 
 now trying to make a scientific investigation 
 as to the Evolution of Whist, and as, without 
 doubt, the signal for trumps has been one of 
 the most powerful factors in the modern 
 stages of this Evolution, it is desirable to 
 notice the explanations which have been of- 
 fered of its theoretical nature. And as Clay 
 is the authority who has given us the best 
 and most copious remarks upon it, we may 
 turn to them for our chief information. 
 
 After alluding to the objections made to it, 
 he gives an ingenious explanation of its or- 
 igin, with the view of showing that the sig- 
 nal, or what is equivalent to it, would arise in 
 the course of natural play, he says : 
 
 *' You have, let us suppose, a very strong hand in trumps, 
 a strong suit, and two weak suits, say a queen and a small 
 card in one, a knave and a small card in the other. Your 
 adversary leads the king of one of your weak suits. You 
 throw your queen in order to induce him to lead a trump 
 for the protection of his suit, or to induce him at least to 
 change his lead. He docs not, however, fall into your
 
 124 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 trap, but plays his ace, and you play a small card. Your 
 other weak suit is then probably led and you follow the 
 same tactics, but to no purpose. You have to deal with 
 a shrewd adversary. Your partner gets the lead in the 
 third round of one of those suits. How should he reason ? 
 He should see at once, and, if a good player, he would 
 see at once, that you had endeavoured in vain to tempt 
 your adversaries to lead trumps, and he should do for you 
 that from which they had wisely abstained. 
 
 " Again it is, let us say, your partner's lead. He has 
 two ace king suits, and plays his two kings in order to 
 shew you his strength. To each you throw a high card. 
 He reasons thus : My partner's hand is all, or nearly all, 
 trumps and the fourth suit. If it is not, he wishes me to 
 think so and thereby to induce me to lead him a trump." 
 — (Clay on Short Whist, pp. i lo-i 1 1.) 
 
 Now we must go a step further. Assum- 
 ing this sort of thing to have been often 
 done, it occurred to Lord Henry Bentinck 
 that, as a signal for trumps was so much 
 wanted, it Avould be easy to make the con- 
 trivance more general, and apply it to smaller 
 cards; so that playing, unnecessaril}^ and ir- 
 regularl}^, a higher card before a lower one, 
 in any case, would serve for a call for trumps 
 to be led. 
 
 Clav, in explanation of this, says, after re- 
 ferring to the cases which anticipated it (p. 
 in): 
 
 " This method of play being as old as Whist itself, it was 
 certain, sooner or later, to be reduced to the conventional 
 sign, good in the lowest cards as well as in the highest."
 
 MODERN SIGNALLING.— THE GERM 125 
 
 Here, therefore, he clearly points to the 
 real element of novelty, that is, the " reduc- 
 tion to a conventional sigfn, gfood in the low- 
 est cards as well as in the highest." And he 
 considers this process so natural that he is 
 reported to have stated in conversation, that 
 '' if a tribe of savages were taught Whist, he 
 believed they would arrive at the signal in 
 course of time by their own intuition." 
 
 " Cavendish " has also described the case 
 in a very striking manner, and his description 
 is so terse and so excellent that we give it 
 entire. He says (21st Ed., page 143): 
 
 " It is a common artifice, if you wish a trump to be led, 
 to drop a high card to the adversary's lead, to induce him 
 to believe that you will trump it next round, whereupon 
 the leader will very likely change the suit and perhaps 
 lead trumps. Thus, if he leads King (from Ace, King and 
 others) and you hold Queen and one other, it is evident 
 that you cannot make the Queen. If you throw the Queen 
 to his King, he may lead a trump to prevent you trumping 
 his ace; but if he goes on with the suit and you drop 
 your small card, it may fairly be inferred that you have 
 been endeavouring to get him to lead a trump. Your 
 partner should now take the hint, and, if he gets the lead, 
 lead trumps ; for if you want them led it is of little con- 
 sequence from whom the lead comes, 
 
 " By a conventional extension of this system to lower 
 cards it is understood that, whenever you throw away an 
 im7iecessarily high card, it is a sign (after the smaller card 
 drops) that you want trumps led. This is called askhig 
 for trumps, or calliuiJ^ for i rumps ^
 
 126 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 This puts it most clearly. It explains that 
 the signal as a whole is not a novel invention, 
 but that the novelty consists simply in a con- 
 ventional extension of a natural mode of play 
 to new circumstances. 
 
 For instance, in returned leads, it can be 
 easily proved that with a high card and a 
 low card in hand, it is advantageous to return 
 the high one. With two low cards it might 
 seem to the primitive player indifferent which 
 he returned. But now, this convention is un- 
 derstood by all Whist players to be *' good in 
 the lowest cards as well as in the highest." 
 This is similar in principle to the extended 
 convention known as the call for trumps, and 
 is much earlier. 
 
 But we have chosen our illustration from 
 the trump call, because this would appear to 
 be the earliest use of it which had assumed 
 any great importance in Whist history ; and 
 we may, therefore, in our theoretical reason- 
 ing, fairly connect all conventional extensions 
 with this signal. 
 
 Judging a posteriori it appears difficult to 
 find any reason for the great opposition 
 which was raised to the device on its first gen- 
 eral publication, except on the ground of this 
 little germ of novelty in its structure. It is 
 a very small thing indeed ; but it is sufficient 
 to enable a player to make an important com-
 
 MODERN SIGNALLING. — THE GERM 12/ 
 
 munication to his partner which previously 
 he could not do; and this is the great element 
 in the importance it has assumed. 
 
 In the great Evolution of nature there ap- 
 pears to have been a day when, among the 
 multifarious combinations of the inert chemi- 
 cal elements, an infinitesimal spark mysteri- 
 ously entered, which gave one of them a new 
 molecular form, and so introduced the great 
 and marvellous phenomena of universal life 
 throughout the world. And in the Cosmos of 
 Whist, a spark as infinitesimal may have 
 dropped, in a London club, into the seething 
 mass of Whist study, and have ultimately 
 produced the wonderful combinations of the 
 modern American game. 
 
 And why need there be any hesitation in 
 admitting that the signal contains a novel 
 feature ? Why should not novelties be intro- 
 duced into Whist ? Do not such introduc- 
 tions form indeed an essential part of the Evo- 
 lution we are now considering? Thei'e have 
 been changes and improvements enough 
 since the invention of Whist, and why should 
 not this be favourably received, if it is fair, 
 and if it is found to add general interest to 
 the game ? 
 
 As to its fairness there can be no question. 
 Clay, a most equitable and honourable-minded 
 authority, declares it is " open to no objection
 
 128 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 on the score of unfairness." And this will be 
 quite clear according to Paley 's test, as quoted 
 on page loi, seeing that the means by which 
 the information is conve3^ed is open to the 
 Avhole table. The explanation of the novelty 
 it contains, i.e., the conventional extension to 
 the smaller cards, is become an acknowledged 
 integral part of modern Whist instruction, 
 and all modern players are bound to know it, 
 or to suffer from their ignorance, as they 
 would from ignorance of any other modern 
 Whist rule of play. 
 
 The other question, as to the effect of the 
 trump signal on the game, is not so easily 
 answered. Clay says, after declaring its fair- 
 ness : 
 
 " Whether or not it is an improvement of the game is 
 quite another question, but one which it is scarce worth 
 while to argue here, as the practice exists, and cannot, to 
 my thinking, be put an end to. At least it has simpli- 
 fied the game to the indifferent player and greatly dimin- 
 ished the advantage of skill. The time for leading trumps 
 used to be the point, of all others, demanding the greatest 
 judgment. Now, almost as often as not, the tyro knows 
 whether his partner wishes trumps to be played. So much 
 is this the case that a player of great reputation, who claims 
 such credit as is due to the inventor of the signal, has often 
 said that he bitterly regrets his ingenuity, which has de- 
 prived him of one half the advantage which he derived 
 from his superior play. This practice, however, is estab- 
 lished in England, and sooner or later it will travel." — 
 
 (P. 112.)
 
 MODERN SIGNALLING. — THE GERM 1 29 
 
 But even if Clay's disparaging remark be 
 true when applied to plaj-ers of quite the 
 highest grade, it is unquestionable that the 
 signal has vastly increased the interest of 
 the game to the multitudes — the hundreds of 
 thousands of more moderate 'players — and 
 has, among that class, raised the character of 
 the pla}^ It has not only done good to those 
 who profit by it, but has also improved the 
 play generally by requiring more attention 
 to be paid to the fall of the cards, particu- 
 larly of small ones. Formerly, many people, 
 who were observant enough of honours 
 and high cards generally, let their attention 
 slacken in regard to twos, threes, fours, fives^ 
 etc. 
 
 Nowadays this will not do ; if, when a 
 man throws away a three his partner fails 
 to recollect that, some few tricks before, he 
 threw away a five of the same suit, the said 
 partner must expect a somewhat severe re- 
 buke for having, perhaps, by his carelessness 
 lost the game. Or, if one of the adversaries 
 is guilty of the same want of perception, he 
 may lose an opportunity of forcing the call- 
 ing hand, or of enabling his partner to make 
 a little trump before it is drawn, so perhaps 
 saving the game. 
 
 Then the trump signal makes the players 
 themselves more careful about the play of 
 9
 
 I30 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEIVIENTS 
 
 small cards. For example, a player who 
 sorts the cards of each suit according to 
 their rank, may happen to misplace a five 
 and a four, and in consequence to play 
 them unintentionally in the wrong order. 
 In the olden time this would not do much 
 harm, but now an observant partner, hold- 
 ing three trumps, would at once lead out 
 his best, to what he deemed a call, and pos- 
 sibly the whole play of the hand might be 
 ruined. The fear of this sort of thing is a 
 w^holesome check. 
 
 On this ground — nam.ely, by stimulating 
 the attention of the more moderate class of 
 players — the trump signal undoubtedly gives 
 greater interest to the game. It increases 
 the number of things which have to be ob- 
 served, and it opens out opportunities for 
 skilful play which did not exist before. It is 
 true that it often expedites the course of 
 powerful hands, which carry all before them, 
 and give no chance for opposition ; but in 
 the more evenly balanced distributions it 
 often produces interesting situations, where 
 the combatants may fairly contest their pow- 
 ers. 
 
 We have hitherto referred to the signal for 
 trumps only in its original simple form ; but 
 its chief importance, in the Evolution of
 
 MODERN SIGNALLING.— THE GERM 131 
 
 Whist, consists in the fact that the novelty 
 it involves, minute though it be, has formed 
 TJie Germ, which, like the grain of mustard- 
 seed, has developed to large dimensions. 
 This development we have now to con- 
 sider.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 The first of the new Wfiist Developments 
 was made by '' Cavendish," in what was called 
 the " Penultimate " lead from a suit of five 
 cards. It arose in a curious indirect way, 
 of which its author has given an interesting 
 account/ and which it will be instructive 
 briefly to describe here. 
 
 When working with the Little School, find- 
 ing the lead of the ten adopted from King, 
 Knave, ten and small ones (to protect the suit 
 in case the partner should be very weak) he 
 proposed, on the same grounds, to lead the 
 lowest of any intermediate sequence of three 
 cards. This was objected to by Clay, as he 
 feared that such leads might be mistaken for 
 leads from weak suits. Respect for the great 
 authority checked discussion, but " Caven- 
 dish " often afterwards tried the plan in 
 playing with friends, and gradually discov- 
 ered that by its means the leader, when a 
 smaller card was afterwards played, could 
 
 1 '' Whist" Journal, January, 1894, page 116.
 
 DEVELOPMENTS 133 
 
 always be credited with at least five cards of 
 the suit. This suggested the idea that lead- 
 ing the lowest but one, /;/ any case, ivoiild have 
 the same effect. The plan was communicated 
 in pamphlet form to various clubs, and Clay 
 withdrew his demurrer. It graduall}' spread ; 
 about 1872 it was incorporated in " Caven- 
 dish's " book, and it has since been largely 
 accepted as a useful device in giving infor- 
 mation. 
 
 The author has fully explained its theoreti- 
 cal character. The penultimate was natu- 
 rally led from such a combination as King, 
 10, 9, 8, and 2, as a matter of trickmaking ex- 
 pediency, to protect the suit, and it then in- 
 dicated five cards. When it was led from, 
 say King, 10, 9, 3, and 2, it also indicated five 
 cards, by a conventional extension, of the 
 same nature as that of the trump-signal. 
 
 The "■ Penultimate lead " was destined to 
 have an important sequel. In 1879 Colonel 
 (now General) Dray son, in his excellent "Art 
 of Practical Whist," extended it by recom- 
 mending that the holding of six cards should 
 be intimated in a corresponding manner, by 
 leading the antepenultimate, a suggestion which 
 seemed a fair addition to the original one. 
 
 About 1883, the process of development re- 
 ceived an unexpected reinforcement from 
 the other side of the Atlantic : and as Ameri-
 
 13-4- LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 ca has since taken such an important share in 
 regard to these Latter-Day Improvements, it 
 is desirable now to speak of the proceedings 
 somewhat fully. 
 
 We may take it for granted that the old 
 Hoyle game, during its long exclusive pos- 
 session of the Whist field, had spread into 
 the Western World ; and when it became 
 improved into the Philosophical form, the 
 acute Americans were by no means sluggish 
 in appreciating the improvements. The 
 work of the present author, describing its 
 general nature and advantages, was (unfort- 
 unately without any advantage to him) mul- 
 tiplied and distributed over the Western 
 Hemisphere to an extent quite unprecedent- 
 ed for a book of the kind ; while with those 
 who went seriously in for improvement, 
 " Cavendish " and Clay became also house- 
 hold words. 
 
 Among the earnest students of the modern 
 Whist, had been a Mr. Nicholas Browse 
 Trist, of New Orleans. He was of an emi- 
 nent family, and had received a high-class 
 education. He had entered into correspond- 
 ence with " Cavendish," and had discussed 
 many interesting points of Whist practice 
 with him, frequently writing in the Field on 
 the subject.
 
 DEVELOPMENTS 1 35 
 
 In 1883, Mr. Trist, studying the leads 
 above mentioned, conceived the bright idea 
 that instead of counting the distance of the 
 card led from the bottom of the suit, it would 
 be m.ore convenient to count it from the top. 
 So that, if the intimation were given to the 
 partner beforehand that the first small card 
 led, in long suits, Avould be the fourth from 
 the top, or as it is now called, t\\Q fourth best, 
 it would comprise the old lead of the lowest 
 from four, the '' Cavendish " penultimate from 
 five, and Drayson's antepenultimate from six, 
 all in one rule. 
 
 This was communicated to '' Cavendish " in 
 a letter, and shown to the author of the pres- 
 ent work, who fully concurring in the ele- 
 gance of the simplification, remarked that it 
 seemed to have been, as inventors say, " in 
 the air " for some time, and might be consid- 
 ered to be now fully established, as a princi- 
 ple of play. 
 
 Of course it may be said (as was said at the 
 time) that for the four, five, and six suits, this 
 proposal was only a change of name, offering 
 nothing new. But really the change of name 
 meant a great deal, because it involved a new 
 mode of considering the lead as information 
 to the partner. Hitherto he had only esti- 
 mated the number of cards held, by the in- 
 dications of the low cards observed ; but now
 
 136 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 his attention was called to the value of the 
 high cards, as revealed by the fact that the 
 leader must hold exactly tJircc cards, neither 
 more nor less, of higher value than the one 
 led. 
 
 An example will make this clear. Sup- 
 pose I hold King, Knave, nine, eight, and 
 two, and I lead the eight. Considering the 
 eight as "^ penidtiniate lead, my partner, when 
 I drop the two, will know I had five cards 
 originally. But considering it as the lead of 
 the '* fourth best," he may gain much more 
 valuable information. Suppose he himself 
 holds Queen, ten, and a small one, and that 
 when he plays the Queen it is taken by the 
 Ace. Then, when he considers that I must 
 hold three cards higher than the eight, and 
 that Ace, Queen, and ten are not among 
 them, he knows, on the completion of this 
 very first round, just as positively as if he 
 looked over my hand, that I hold the King, 
 Knave, and nine. This seems very obvious 
 and simple, but no one before Mr. Trist ap- 
 pears to have thought of it, although the lead 
 is precisely the same as practised before, 
 either with four, five, or (on Drayson's prin- 
 ciple) with six cards. 
 
 The convention is justified as follows: For 
 the trick-making effect a low card only is 
 wanted ; and the leader might be expected, in
 
 DEVELOPMENTS 1 37 
 
 default of any other understanding, to lead 
 the lowest he has. But in the majority of 
 cases, as four is the most frequent number of 
 a long suit, this would be the fourth best ; 
 and by a conventional extension this is, for 
 the purpose of giving information, made the 
 general rule, all cards below the fourth best 
 being ignored, just as if they were not in the 
 leader's hand. 
 
 This idea, from its simplicity and useful- 
 ness, soon became popular, and in honour to 
 Mr. Trist it has been universally known by 
 the name of an '' American Lead." 
 
 Mr. Trist, however, about the same time 
 did something more, as he contributed an 
 important convention of another kind. He 
 had noticed the advantageous use that had 
 been made of variations in the play of " in- 
 different high cards," i.e., cards of equal value 
 for trick-making purposes ; and he proposed 
 to carry this further. The cases were many 
 where a player had to lead one card of a se- 
 quence, and Mr. Trist reasoned that accord- 
 ing to the new privilege, the leader might, 
 by choosing different cards for the purpose, 
 convey by convention distinct items of infor- 
 mation for each card. 
 
 In settling how this should be arranged, 
 he ingeniously took advantage of some or-
 
 138 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 dinary expedients which had ah-eady pre- 
 vailed for trick-making purposes. There had 
 been a rule established in the earliest times 
 by Hoyle, that, supposing the leader of a 
 plain suit to hold King, Queen, and Knave, 
 if he held only three or four cards of the 
 suit altogether, he should lead the King ; 
 but that if he held five or more he should 
 lead the Knave ; the object of this being to 
 induce his partner to put on the Ace, if 
 he had it single-guarded, to get it out of the 
 leader's way. 
 
 There had also a rule been made specially 
 by " Cavendish " for the Philosophical Game, 
 of somewhat similar character. If the leader 
 held Ace, Queen, and Knave, he would lead 
 first the Ace, and then the Queen or the 
 Knave ; but here he had a choice which of 
 these two '' indifferent cards" he should lead. 
 If he held originally not more than four 
 cards, he should lead the Queen, but if he 
 held five or more, he should lead the Knave, 
 not for any informing purpose, but w^ith the 
 view of inducing his partner to put on the 
 King if he held it with two others originally, 
 and so avoid blocking the suit. 
 
 Now, Mr. Trist reasoned thus, " Here are 
 two cases where it has been settled that dif- 
 ferences are made in the card led, for the pur- 
 pose of obtaining different results conducive
 
 DEVELOPMENTS 1 39 
 
 to trick-making- ; wh}^ should not these dif- 
 ferences be utilized also for giving the part- 
 ner information? It happens that in each 
 case the lead of a lower card accompanies the 
 holding of a larger number of the suit, and the 
 lead of a higher card accompanies a smaller 
 number of the suit. Why cannot we, under 
 the new conventionally extended system of 
 giving information, make it understood that 
 in all cases of the leading of indifferent high 
 cards, whether the general policy of trick- 
 making dictates it or not, the same rule shall 
 apply ? He consulted " Cavendish," Avho 
 warmly approved of the suggestion, and this 
 at once was registered and widely adopted 
 as another item of American Leads. 
 
 They were taken up energetically by '' Cav- 
 endish " about the middle of 1884; he wrote 
 much about them in the Field, and a special 
 article in Macmillans Magazine for January, 
 1886. He also gave several illustrated lec- 
 tures on them to Whist coteries, and he pub- 
 lished in 1885 a work called '' Whist Develop- 
 ments"^ (dedicated to Mr. Trist), in which 
 the American Leads formed the chief topic. 
 He described them very fully and laid down 
 three maxims by which they were defined, as 
 follows : 
 
 1 " Whist Developments. American Leads and the Unblock- 
 ing Game." De la Rue & Co. 1885.
 
 140 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 1. When you open a suit with a Low Card, 
 lead 3' our Fourth Best. 
 
 2. On quitting the head of your suit, lead 
 your Original Fourth Best} 
 
 3. With two high indifferent cards lead 
 the higher ii you opened a suit of four ; the 
 lower if you opened 3. suit of five. 
 
 The promulgation of these leads gave rise 
 to some controversy ; but the principles 
 made way among the more earnest Whist 
 circles, and they were incorporated, in 1886, 
 in the sixteenth edition of " Cavendish's " 
 work, as established rules of practice. 
 
 " Cavendish " was indefatisrable in brinofinpf 
 into use the new system of improved com- 
 munications. He introduced a fresh one af- 
 fecting, in an important wa}^ the management 
 of trumps. When a player resolves to lead 
 them it becomes ver}^ desirable for him to 
 know to what extent his partner is able to 
 support him. This may be seen to some 
 extent by the card he returns ; but in the 
 thirst for information in the present day it 
 cannot be waited for; it is wanted at once. 
 Suppose, therefore, I either lead trumps or 
 call for them : the moment my partner sees 
 
 1 This maxim afterwards underwent discussion, for many years, 
 and " Cavendish " now prefers to say, lead the. fourth best remain- 
 ing in your hand.
 
 DEVELOPMENTS HI 
 
 this, if he happens to hold more than three he 
 also calls for trumps, which is to be under- 
 stood to communicate that fact to me. This 
 is called The Echo of the Trump Call. Of 
 course if I do not see an echo I understand 
 he holds only three or less. This was pub- 
 lished by '' Cavendish " in 1874, and a " sub- 
 echo " has since been arranged to show when 
 the exact number held is three. 
 
 Another novelty that occupied the attention 
 of ''Cavendish" had reference to the effec- 
 tual '' bringing in' of a long suit, which, it will 
 be recollected (see page 92) was one of the 
 fundamental features of the Philosophical 
 Game. This desirable result was of course 
 often frustrated by the opponents, whose 
 business it was to endeavour to do so ; but it 
 was sometimes also frustrated by the partner, 
 whose business should have been to help in- 
 stead of to obstruct the desired end. 
 
 Suppose, for example, that when I am try- 
 ing to bring in my long suit, my partner may 
 hold a high card in it, together with some 
 small ones ; it may not unfrequently chance, 
 if care is not used, that after he has got rid 
 of his small cards, his high one may stand in 
 my way, and stop my continuous lead. This 
 is called " blocking my suit," and " Caven- 
 dish's" proposal was to enable my partner to
 
 142 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 avoid getting me into this clifficult}^ He ac- 
 cordingly devised, by a masterly process of 
 reasoning, a way by which, if my partner 
 used ordinary care, he could see beforehand 
 when his high card would be likely to be ob- 
 structive, and might get rid of it in time. 
 This he called *' unblocking ; " and the pro- 
 cess by which it was effected, the '* Unblock- 
 ing Game." It was published in his '' Whist 
 Developments," 1885. It depended almost 
 entirely on the indications given, by the 
 American leads, as to the number of cards 
 held. Indeed the endeavour to show this, 
 and so to enable an observer to " count his 
 partner's hand," appears to have been the 
 chief object in these contrivances generally. 
 
 " Cavendish " devised the following short 
 rule for unblocking purposes. When 3^our 
 partner leads originally either iVce, Queen, 
 Knave, ten, or nine (not the King), and you 
 hold exactly four cards of the suit, retain your 
 lowest card on the first and second rounds. 
 This is a simple general rule, of the applica- 
 tion of which the following is an example. 
 The first lead is a Queen ; second hand plays 
 King ; the third hand knows that, according 
 to modern practice, the lead was from Queen, 
 Knave, ten, and probably four or more in 
 suit. The third hand holds nine, eight, 
 seven, and two, of the suit. He should retain
 
 DEVELOPMENTS 143 
 
 the two and play the seven. On the second 
 round the original leader's ten is Avon by the 
 opponent's Ace. The original third hand 
 should play the eight, still retaining the two. 
 It is now obvious that if the original lead was 
 from four cards (or even three) no harm is 
 done, as the two can be played on the third 
 round, if thought expedient. But if the orig- 
 inal lead was from five or more cards (as may 
 be determined by the fall of the cards on the 
 first and second rounds) the third hand can 
 now unblock by playing the nine to his part- 
 ner's Knave. Had he retained the nine and 
 the eight, he must block any long cards his 
 partner may hold. For further details the 
 book must be referred to. 
 
 Most of the results of Whist study in this 
 period were in the shape of new additions to 
 the ordinary rules. But in some cases this 
 study led to revisions and alterations of the 
 old time-honoured formulae, and of the sim- 
 plest and most obvious leads. For example, 
 in an original lead from a long suit contain- 
 ing Ace and King, the orthodox practice was 
 to play out the King first, and then the Ace, 
 for reasons well considered and well known. 
 But, in 1888, '' Cavendish " proposed to adhere 
 to this only for a suit of four ; if it was longer, 
 this fact was to be intimated to the partner
 
 144 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 by beginning with the Ace, and following 
 with the King. Similarly, the old orthodox 
 habit for a long suit headed by King and 
 Queen, was to begin with the King ; but this 
 also was now confined to suits of four only ; 
 for longer suits the new prescription was to 
 begin with the Queen. 
 
 These are only examples : for in the ad- 
 vanced study of leads, the fact became evi- 
 dent that, by a previous understanding, other 
 leads formerly prescribed might be changed 
 advantageously, so as to afford more informa- 
 tion. The new list of leads in the 21st Edi- 
 tion of "Cavendish," 1893, contains some 
 sixty rules, occupying seven pages ! 
 
 The particulars stated above only give an 
 idea of the general nature of the novelties in- 
 troduced during this period ; for, the admis- 
 sion of extensions of principle being allowed, 
 many advantageous cases of their application 
 were discovered. It is only just, however, 
 to their chief author, " Cavendish," to say that 
 he always seems to have taken great pains, 
 before introducing and publishing new in- 
 ventions of the kind, to investigate thorough- 
 ly their nature and working, and to discuss 
 candidly their advantages and disadvantages, 
 so as to establish not onl}^ their correctness 
 in principle but their usefulness in applica- 
 tion. He would submit them to good judges,
 
 DEVELOrMENTS 145 
 
 and in the first instance offer them tentatively 
 to the Whist world, by inserting them in an 
 Appendix ; and he would only admit them 
 into the body of his work, after he had se- 
 cured the assent, to them, of persons on 
 whose judgment and experience he appears 
 to have relied. 
 
 He has also taken the trouble to give, at 
 some length, arguments in defence of the 
 new introductions, and general statements of 
 his views on Whist conventions and signals 
 generally. And as this involves the mention 
 of points confessedly obscure, on Avhich there 
 is not only much want of knowledge among 
 practical Whist players, but some difference 
 of opinion among educated experts, it is only 
 justice to so high an authority to quote 
 some of his most important passages. (21st 
 Edition, Chapter on " The Conversation of 
 the Game.") 
 
 " The instructed player frequently selects one card in 
 preference to another with the sole object of affording in- 
 formation. When the principle is carried thus far the play 
 becomes purely conventional. For example, you naturally 
 win a trick as cheaply as possible : if fourth hand you 
 could win with a ten you would not waste an Ace. But 
 suppose you hold Knave and ten, which card should then 
 be played ? The Knave and ten in one hand are of equal 
 value, and therefore to win with the Knave would be no 
 unnecessary sacrifice of strength. Nevertheless you ex-
 
 146 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 tend to such cases the rule of winning as cheaply as pos- 
 sible, and you play the ten for the mere purpose of con- 
 veying information. This is a simple instance of pure 
 convention. Again, the system of returning the higher of 
 two losing cards when they are both small cards, is purely 
 conventional. 
 
 " To take another case : after two rounds of your four- 
 card suit you are left with two losing cards, say the six 
 and the seven, and you, having the lead, are about to 
 continue the suit ; you should lead the six, not the seven, 
 in accordance with the rule that you lead the lowest 
 card of a suit, except with commanding strength. This 
 being the convention, if you lead the seven your partner 
 will infer that you cannot hold the six, and will suppose 
 that you led from a three-card suit in consequence of ex- 
 ceptional circumstances ; if he is a good player he will 
 miscount all the hands, probably to your mutual discom- 
 fiture. 
 
 " Whist conventions, it will be observed, are in accord- 
 ance with, and are suggested by, principle. Indeed all 
 the established conventions of the game are so chosen as 
 to harmonize with play that would naturally be adopted 
 independently of convention. The aggregation of the rec- 
 ognized rules of play, including the established conven- 
 tions, constitutes what in practice is called the Conversa- 
 tion of the Game of Whist. 
 
 " A most valuable mode of conveying very precise in- 
 formation of strength is within the reach of those who 
 adopt the mode of leading advised at pp. 75-83 [The 
 Analysis of Leads in Detail]. As some of these leads 
 have been questioned it may be stated that, in the opinion 
 of the Author, they are advantageous when played by part- 
 ners comprehending them, and that they form a system in 
 harmony with established principles.
 
 DEVELOPMENTS 147 
 
 " With regard to this system as applied to leading a 
 high card of your strong suit after a high card, no one 
 disputes the advantage of leading Ace, then Queen, from 
 Ace, Queen, Knave and one small card, and of leading Ace, 
 then Knave from Ace, Queen, Knave and more than one 
 small card. In the case of the four-card suit you select 
 the higher card to tell your partner not to play the King, as 
 you have not sufficient numerical power to defend the suit 
 single-handed. In the case of a suit of more than four 
 cards you select the lower card, that your partner may not 
 retain the command of your suit, and may play the King, 
 should he happen to have held King and tw^o small ones 
 originally. For a similar reason it is obvious that with 
 Queen, Knave, ten, and one small card, you should follow 
 Queen with Knave ; with Queen, Knave, ten, and more 
 than one small card you should follow Queen with ten. 
 
 " Now here is a germ of a principle of play. Holding 
 two high indifferent cards and only four of your suit, your 
 second lead is the higher card ; holding more than four, 
 your second lead is the lower card. For the sake of uni- 
 formity you should pursue the same plan in all cases 
 where, after your first lead, you remain with two high in- 
 different cards. 
 
 " With regard to the system as applied to opening your 
 strong suit with a low card, those who have already adopted 
 the penultimate lead from suits of five cards will have no 
 difficulty in again discovering the germ of a principle of 
 play. The fourth best card of your suit is led from suits 
 of four cards and from suits of five cards. 
 
 " You have only to apply the same rule to suits of more 
 than five cards and to lead your fourth best card. You 
 then pursue a uniform practice, and at the same time con- 
 vey information which may be very useful. 
 
 "As an illustration, take this suit: Queen, ten. nine.
 
 148 LATTER- DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 eight. You lead the eight. Now, suppose 3'our suit to be 
 Queen, ten, nine, eight, three ; you still lead the eight. Now 
 add one more card. Your suit is Queen, ten, nine, eight, 
 three, two. You should still lead the eight. No doubt a 
 careful player would lead the eight, as a card of protection, 
 even if systematic leads had never been thought of. With 
 lower cards, such as Queen, nine, eight, seven, three, two, 
 it is possible a careful player might lead the seven, and 
 with still lower cards where is he to stop ? The knot is 
 cut by the very simple and uniform rule of leading the 
 fourth best, without reference to the possibility of its being 
 a card of protection. 
 
 " The more the system of leading, developed at pp. 
 
 The result of the long-continued efforts of 
 ** Cavendish " and his American coadjutor, 
 Mr. Trist, may be seen in the later editions of 
 the work here quoted from, which present 
 examples of energy, industry, and ingenuity 
 in resfard to the s^ame which have never been 
 equalled or approached since the time of 
 Hoyle. 
 
 For it must be explained that these altera- 
 tions, in their later features, have been of 
 such a nature as to influence materially the 
 general details of play, and to suggest con- 
 comitant changes in views and proceedings in- 
 directly connected with them, so as to utilize 
 in the best manner the advantages of the new 
 provisions. And to such an extent does this
 
 DEVELOPMENTS 1 49 
 
 reach that, although the main principles of 
 the Philosophical Game are still adhered to, 
 the modes of applying them become much 
 changed. 
 
 There is also no doubt that the study of 
 these changes, in the hands of the masters of 
 the art, have led to the more thorough in- 
 vestigation of scientific play generally, inde- 
 pendent of the signalling, as may be seen b}^ 
 many late discussions and articles in the 
 American " Whist " journal and in the Eng- 
 lish FiM: 
 
 And, moreover, all this labour, great as it 
 has been, has not yet approached finality, as 
 we shall see hereafter that the march of Evo- 
 lution has not yet been stayed. 
 
 1 Notice in particular some mathematical articles of very high 
 class in the Field of 1893 and 1894, by Mr. Whiteld and a writer 
 signing himself C. H. P. C. It is right to say that the "card" 
 department of this journal, under the editorship of " Cavendish," 
 has been the great repository of Whist intelligence and discussion 
 ever since the game acquired any literary interest.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 
 
 It will be easily understood from the fore- 
 going- chapters that the latest phase of Whist 
 Evolution, which we are now treating of, con- 
 sists of the previous Philosophical Game, ex- 
 tended by a large augmentation of the pow- 
 ers of communication between the partners, 
 and by many inferences and improvements 
 of play, consequent upon and arising out of 
 them. By these extensions the two players 
 are brought much nearer than before to the 
 ideal condition of knowing each other's hands ; 
 and so of playing the joint combination to 
 the best possible advantage. 
 
 The new system has not, as a whole, been 
 yet adopted largely in England ; but to make 
 amends, it has been received with remarkable 
 earnestness and enthusiasm in the United 
 States of America, where it may indeed be 
 said to have become the standard form of 
 game. And as there are many points con- 
 nected with its reception and practice there 
 which are novel and interesting, and are quite
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA I 51 
 
 worthy of the attention of Whist players gen- 
 erally, it is proposed to devote this chapter 
 to their description. 
 
 WHIST CUSTOiMS ; SCORING, ETC. 
 
 In the first place something may be said 
 about the American Whist customs, which 
 differ in some respects from those in Eng- 
 land, particularly as regards scoring. 
 
 In the original English Whist of Hoyle the 
 winning score for each game was ten. Ev- 
 ery trick above six counted one, the posses- 
 sion of three honours counted two ; and four 
 honours counted four. This was called Long 
 Whist ; and sometimes, when the honours ran 
 even, a game might be spun out for a long 
 time, and the longer it took the less gain was 
 made by the winners. 
 
 There is no denying that the in-born pro- 
 pensities of the genus homo as a gambling ani- 
 mal appeared in the game of Whist as well 
 as in many other gentlemanly amusements : 
 the long game was found too slow to allow 
 the free circulation of mone}^ and it was cut 
 in two, producing Short Whist, as described 
 on page 49. Many Whist enthusiasts pro- 
 tested against the undue preponderance of 
 luck caused by the full retention of the value 
 of the honours with a score of only five (allow-
 
 152 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 ing more than double the winning score to 
 be made in one fine hand), but in vain ; the ex- 
 citement of the turns of fortune was preferred 
 to the milder stimulant of skill in play, and 
 Short Whist has been found unassailable in 
 the public Whist circles in England. ^ 
 
 Now without shewing our American Cousin 
 
 1 Some curious ideas prevail even among the best players, as 
 to luck at Whist. The most powerful intellect, the most profound 
 science, is not proof against superstition ; and it is curious to see 
 how fastidious even the best players will be about the choice 
 of seats, or cards, or counters, or about other things which 
 can have as little influence on their fortunes as the changes of 
 the moon. Some will insist on being the first to touch a black 
 deuce turned up ; some attach good omens to the hinges of the 
 table ; some think it advantageous to sit north and south ; and 
 so on. 
 
 One cannot believe that any other than a born fool (and he 
 could not be a Whist player) seriously believes such things are 
 of any real importance, and the persons doing them are often 
 unmercifully bantered for their folly ; but still they persevere, 
 and it has often been a great puzzle how such an anomaly can be 
 explained. We believe the explanation lies in a simple applica- 
 tion of experience in chance results. Toss up a penny a great 
 number of times and record the results ; you will find that you 
 do not get heads and tails alternately, but that there is an almost 
 constant tendency to produce runs on one particular chance ; 
 you will often find heads or tails repeated 3, 4, 5, or more 
 times running. Now, as the tossing of a penny is an analogous 
 case to the winning or losing of a rubber at Whist (which is very 
 nearly an even chance) people lay hold of the salient fact of the 
 tendency to a run, and apply it to this case. They argue that 
 as the head, after coming once, may be repeated several times, 
 so the seats or cards which have won once may win several times 
 running. Of course the reasoning is fallacious, as the reasoners 
 know full well, but it is their only justification, and as the prac- 
 tices are very harmless, and are indeed expressly provided for 
 by the laws, one need not be angry with them.
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 53 
 
 the slightest disrespect, it is allowable to say 
 that the inhabitants of his hemisphere have 
 not been usually considered insensible to the 
 attractiveness of the fickle goddess : — and 
 one would have thought that when such a 
 glorious mode of wooing her was made avail- 
 able to him, as that offered by the noble in- 
 vention of Short Whist with full honours, he 
 would have embraced it gladly. But by one 
 of those odd inconsistencies which occasion- 
 ally seize nations as well as individuals, the 
 Americans, almost with one accord, have 
 cried out against the luck in the Short Game, 
 and sought means to increase the power of 
 the element of play, by declining to count 
 the honours and making the score by tricks 
 only. 
 
 We learn 1 that in the ordinary American 
 social clubs, where Whist is not the chief ob- 
 ject, but is merely an accidental recreation, 
 it is customary to play, not rubbers, but single 
 games, in which five is the winning score. 
 The points are gained by tricks only, hon- 
 ours not counting at all. The stakes vary 
 from one or two to five dollars per game ; 
 and when five points are scored by either 
 party the game is w^on, no allow^ance being 
 
 1 " Cavendish," after his return from the States, gave a general 
 description of American Whist in the Field of December 9 and 16, 
 
 1893.
 
 154 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 made for any points that have been scored 
 on the opposite side. Thus when I and my 
 partner have scored, say four, if the other 
 party make five, our four are entirel}' lost, 
 doing us no good at all. 
 
 In the Whist Clubs proper, however, es- 
 tablished for Whist onl\^ (and generally 
 known as League Clubs), a different form of 
 scoring is used. In this, also, honours do 
 not count, the only score is by tricks, each 
 trick above six counting one point. Single 
 games are played, the winning score being 
 seven ; the value of the game is determined by 
 deducting the losers' score from seven. The 
 reason for choosing the number seven is that 
 this is the maximum which can be obtained 
 in one hand. In these clubs, although money 
 stakes are not forbidden, it is unusual to play 
 for money, as the Executive of the League 
 wish that the play should be for the love of 
 the game alone. 
 
 Whist played in either of the above modes 
 is called " Straight Whist." 
 
 It will be obvious that this mode of scoring, 
 by tricks only, eliminates a large portion of 
 the luck, reducing it, in fact, to the varia- 
 tions in the trick-making capabilities of the 
 hands, and leaving to the players the oppor- 
 tunity of exercising their skill in making the 
 most of such hands as the}^ receive.
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 55 
 
 DUPLICATE WHIST. 
 
 But the Americans were not satisfied with 
 this ; so earnest was their wish to magnify 
 the importance of skill that they resolved, if 
 possible, to introduce tests which would tend 
 to eliminate luck altogether. For this pur- 
 pose they reverted to a plan which had been 
 used for the same purpose at a very early 
 period. We have mentioned in Chapter V. 
 a " Little School " of Whist students who 
 endeavoured to get out some accurate Whist 
 data. The " value of skill " was one of these, 
 and they contrived a mode of experiment, 
 which was described by Mr. Henry Jones, 
 one of their number, in a letter to BclTs Life, 
 March 6, 1857, "^^^^ signed '' Experto Crede." 
 This was the first conti-ibution to Whist 
 literature ever written by an author after- 
 wards so famous, and as the idea was in- 
 genious and useful, we may give a few ex- 
 tracts from it.^ He says : 
 
 The scheme, besides possessing the greatest simplicity, 
 almost entirely eliminates luck. ... In each of two 
 separate apartments a Whist table is formed, each table 
 being composed of two good players against two confess- 
 edly inferior ones. A hand is played at one table ; the 
 same cards are then conveyed to the other table and the 
 
 1 It has been reprinted entire in the Milwaukee /r/^/j/ Journal, 
 May, 1893.
 
 156 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 hand is played over again, tlie inferior players now having 
 the cards which the good players held, the order of the 
 hands of course being preserved. The difference in the 
 scores will manifestly be twice the advantage due to play 
 in that hand. 
 
 It is necessary, however, to bear in mind that chance is 
 not altogether eliminated, inasmuch as bad play might, 
 and frequently does succeed ; again some hands offer a 
 greater scope than others for the exercise of talent. Still 
 all that portion of luck (by far the largest) arising from 
 good and bad cards is, by this method, done away with. 
 
 This contrivance was further described in 
 the '' Philosophy of Whist," 1883. A few years 
 afterwards it was again brought forward in the 
 Field, and appears to have been seized upon by 
 the American players. But it was changed in 
 its plan. In the original there were two pairs 
 of good and two pairs of inferior players, the 
 object being only to find the difference be- 
 tween good and inferior play generally. But 
 in the American game the object has corre- 
 sponded more nearly with ''matches" or com- 
 petitions at chess, cricket, lawn tennis, etc., 
 its object being to test the comparative skill 
 of players against each other. 
 
 The arrangements for this purpose are in- 
 genious and complicated, and have been the 
 subject of much study. ^ The principle of 
 
 1 The most usual arrangement has been excellently described 
 in "Cavendish's" article already alluded to. Mr. R. F. Foster 
 has also treated of the subject at considerable length.
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 57 
 
 the original invention is applied by causing 
 any hand for four persons to be pla3'ed in 
 " duplicate," or " replayed " (or, as the Ameri- 
 cans call it, *' overplayed "), with changes in 
 the players ; after which, according to suit- 
 able arrangements, and by proper scoring, 
 the comparative skill of the different play- 
 ers may be estimated by the results ob- 
 tained. 
 
 This may be carried out in several differ- 
 ent ways. For example, two clubs may be 
 matched against each other, each bringing to 
 the contest a large number of chosen players. 
 Many such matches have been, and continue 
 to be played in America; and an example of 
 one of the most celebrated is given in Ap- 
 pendix D to this work. 
 
 But a more usual arrangement is to match 
 a smaller number of players, called a '' team," 
 against another team of an equal number. 
 The following sketch description of the 
 simplest elements of such an arrangement 
 may probably suffice to give an idea how 
 it is managed. 
 
 Say that a team of four players, A B C D, 
 which we will call the " New York team," 
 are to play against a '' Brooklyn team," W X 
 Y Z. 
 
 Two tables are formed. At the first table 
 A and B play against W and X ; at the other
 
 158 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 table C and D play against Y and Z. A hand 
 is played at the first table, and we will say 
 that A B mark seven tricks and W X six 
 tricks. 
 
 The same hand is then taken to the other 
 table to be " overplayed " or " duplicated," 
 when the cards previously held by the New 
 York players, A B, are given to the Brook- 
 lyn players, Y Z, and those previously played 
 by the Brooklyns, W X, are given to the 
 New Yorkers, C D. Suppose that here C D 
 make seven tricks and Y Z make six tricks ; 
 then on the sum of the two playings 
 
 The New York team make . . . 14 tricks. 
 The Brooklyn team make . . . 12 -tricks. 
 
 If the players were of equal strength we 
 might expect that each team would make 
 thirteen, so that the result shows the New 
 York team to be the stronger, as regards 
 the play of that hand. 
 
 This single experiment would be of little 
 value, by reason of many interposing ele- 
 ments, but the effect of these may be largely 
 diminished by multiplying the hands played 
 and overpla3^ed. The proper scoring and 
 final combination of the whole would thus 
 give a fair comparative idea of the respec- 
 tive degrees of skill exerted by the two 
 teams in question.
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 59 
 
 It is on these principles that the competi- 
 tive matches and tournaments are now car- 
 ried on: and indeed the duplicate game is be- 
 coming so much approved in the American 
 League Clubs as almost to be their Standard 
 Whist form. And when the play of the 
 hands is fully and accurately recorded (as is 
 now frequently done), the record gives excel- 
 lent data for study as to the effect of differ- 
 ent modes of play. 
 
 Mr. Foster has carried the principle of 
 duplication farther by making it applicable 
 to play on a smaller scale, say in domestic 
 circles. Suppose for example there are four 
 players of a family; one pair of them, A B, 
 playing in partnership, may agree to match 
 themselves against the other pair, Y Z, in 
 the following way : 
 
 A hand is played by A B against Y Z, and 
 the number of tricks on each side are noted. 
 The cards are then carefully put aside, and 
 on a future sitting, when it may be assumed 
 that the players have ceased to remember 
 anything material about the hands, the same 
 cards are taken again by the same four per- 
 sons but reversing the holders — i.e., Y Z are 
 now given the cards which A B had before. 
 A comparison of the results of many hands 
 so played will give an indication of the 
 comparative skill ; provided, of course, that
 
 l6o LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 a good memory does not vitiate them, on 
 which doubts may arise.^ 
 
 By other arrangements the skill of single 
 individuals may be compared, but this pro- 
 cess involves some complicated provisions, 
 for which Mr. Foster's book may be referred 
 to. 
 
 " Cavendish " has expressed the opinion 
 that, although duplicate Whist is the most 
 suitable for playing in matches or tourna- 
 ments, it involves a great strain on the play- 
 ers, under which Whist loses its significance 
 as a pastime and becomes a toil. He thinks 
 that on the whole the " Straight Whist " of 
 seven up without honours, is the most per- 
 fect mode of scoring for intellectual players 
 that has yet been devised. But the English 
 Short Whist with full honours will probably 
 long remain a favourite in its own country. 
 
 THE AMERICAN WHIST LEAGUE. 
 
 The Philosophical Game of Whist having 
 been originally so well received in America, 
 it may easily be understood that the subse- 
 quent participation of an American authority, 
 Mr. Trist, in its latest development, gave it a 
 further patriotic interest ; and as the improve- 
 
 1 Apparatus for this experiment is sold by Messrs. Mudie, sta- 
 tioners, in Coventry Street, Piccadilly.
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA l6l 
 
 ments became chronicled in the later edi- 
 tions of *' Cavendish," they continued to add 
 to the popularity of the advanced views. 
 
 Many Whist clubs were formed in various 
 parts of the States, and the modes of encour- 
 aging the study and improvement of personal 
 skill were so successful, that in 1890, a pro- 
 posal was made to get up, in imitation of the 
 habit in other games of skill, a Whist Toiii'na- 
 vicnt ; where the members of the clubs might 
 meet together and compete for prizes. 
 
 The proposal was well received by clubs 
 throughout the country ; but, in the dis- 
 cussions that followed, it soon became evi- 
 dent that the prevailing opinion among 
 American Whist players favoured the idea 
 of holding a Whist Congress to consider this 
 and other questions. Accordingly invita- 
 tions were sent out to the various clubs to at- 
 tend a congress to be held for four days in 
 April, 1 89 1, in Milwaukee (where a good 
 Whist club had been established since 1875), 
 " for the purpose of organizing an associa- 
 tion of American Whist Clubs ; of formulat- 
 ing and adopting a code of rules and regula- 
 tions suitable to the American game ; of 
 discussing and, if practicable, of adopting and 
 promulgating a declaration of principles as 
 to methods of play ; and of instituting a 
 match or series of matches, to be played un- 
 II
 
 1 62 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 der such rules as the Congress may pre- 
 scribe." 
 
 The Congress was held, and it resulted in 
 the organization of a permanent body called 
 The American Whist League. It was to con- 
 sist of an association of local Whist clubs, 
 representatives of which were to meet in 
 congress in different towns once every 
 year. The President chosen for the first 
 Congress was Mr. Eugene S. Elliott, a 
 gentleman identified with the local Whist 
 society, and thirty-six clubs sent in their ad- 
 hesion. 
 
 The first work was to settle the Constitu- 
 tion of the League and to formulate a Code 
 of Laws suited to the American game. The 
 mode of scoring was also determined on. 
 Matches were then arranged and playing 
 took place on the several days, the records 
 being afterwards published in the Official 
 Report. 
 
 At this Congress Mr. Henry Jones ("Cav- 
 endish ") and Mr. N. B. Trist, of New Or- 
 leans, were elected honorary members of the 
 League. 
 
 The Congress attracted wide attention. 
 The immediate result was to stimulate the 
 interest in Whist throughout the States, and 
 many social organizations, that had been 
 gradually drifting away from the knowledge
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 63 
 
 and practice of the game, began its study 
 again, while the number of new clubs formed 
 was legion. 
 
 The Second Congress of the League was 
 held at New York for a week in July, 1892. 
 It comprised forty-eight clubs, delegates of 
 which attended; in all, 310 persons. The 
 playing of matches was pursued on a lar- 
 ger scale and under more explicit and for- 
 mal regulations than before, and prizes and 
 trophies were competed for. 
 
 The laws were again revised and im- 
 proved. 
 
 The Third Congress was held at Chicago 
 from the 19th to 23d June, 1893. It brought 
 together more prominent players than either 
 of the former ones, and demonstrated a ma- 
 terial advance in the methods of playing. 
 The work consisted mostly in perfecting 
 what the two former Congresses had begun, 
 including a further revision of the Laws. We 
 give a copy hereafter, as they differ ma- 
 terially in some points from the authorized 
 English Code. Mr. Henr}- Jones and Mr. 
 Trist were present and received special hon- 
 ours. General Drayson and Dr. Pole were 
 elected honorary members. Twenty -three 
 States were represented in the League by 
 clubs in fifty cities. A lady delegate at- 
 tended on this occasion for the first time, and
 
 l64 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 acted as assistant secretary. The matches 
 played were esteemed very good. 
 
 Mr. Jones, on this visit to America, took 
 the opportunity of making a tour of some 
 months through the United States, during 
 which he was hospitably received by the best 
 Whist clubs and players, and much benefit 
 resulted from the intercommunication. 
 
 The Fourth Congress was held in Phila- 
 delphia from the 226. to the 26th of May, 
 1894. There were then represented, as at- 
 tached to the League, ninety-five Whist clubs, 
 with a membership of upwards of 14,000 per- 
 sons. These clubs were situated in sixty-four 
 cities and towns, belonging to twenty-three 
 States and the District of Columbia. The 
 Mayor of Philadelphia presided, and in his 
 opening speech amused his audience by an- 
 nouncing that " the Philadelphia police had 
 been specially provided with copies of 
 ' Cavendish,' and were instructed to settle 
 all disputes in accordance with recognized 
 American leads." The number of players 
 who actually attended and took part in the 
 proceedings was about 400.^ 
 
 1 Among these was a gentleman of good position, a Mr. Henry 
 K. Dillard, who was totally blind. He lost his sight by disease 
 about thirteen or fourteen years ago, but, having been fond 
 of Whist, he perfected arrangements by which he could con- 
 tinue his practice. He uses cards pricked by stencil in such 
 a way that by his delicate touch he is able to distinguish them
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 16$ 
 
 The matches played at this Congress ap- 
 pear to have excited more than usual inter- 
 est. The League was well received by the 
 city ; all the leading clubs, and many other 
 public institutions, were thrown open to the 
 visitors, and much private hospitality was 
 shown. 
 
 The next Congress was fixed to be at Min- 
 neapolis in 1895. 
 
 The playing of " Matches," or " Whist 
 Tournaments," is such a novelty, and at the 
 same time is such a striking illustration of 
 the enthusiasm with which the game is taken 
 up in the United States, that we publish, in 
 the Appendix, an account, taken from the 
 VVJiist Journal of August, 1892, of one of the 
 most important, viz., for the Hamilton Whist 
 Trophy, at the Congress held in that year. 
 The account will also illustrate the nature 
 and application of the duplicate system of 
 play. 
 
 rapidly and correctly, and all that he then requires is that each 
 of the other players shall name the card he plays. The sten- 
 cil marks are so slight as not to interfere with the fair use of 
 the cards by the other players ; but, obviously, an ordinary pack 
 might be used by his simply getting his own cards changed by 
 some bystander, for marked ones of the same pattern. He is 
 already more than an average player, and is said to hold his own 
 with any. Many of the leading delegates played with him, and 
 were unanimous in their expressions of astonishment at the cor- 
 rectness of his game and the rapidity with which he played.
 
 l66 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 PROFESSIONAL TEACHING OF WHIST. 
 
 Another evidence of the earnestness of the 
 Americans in the game has been the fact 
 that they have revived and encouraged pro- 
 fessional tcacJiing, in the manner practised by 
 Hoyle. 
 
 Nothing had been done since his day ; but 
 in 1 8/ I, when the author of the present work 
 had occasion to describe the Philosophical 
 System he inserted the following note {Quar- 
 terly Review, page 69) : 
 
 Why cannot Whist be taught professionally, like chess 
 and billiards ? Hoyle set the example, at a guinea a les- 
 son, and there is now much more scope for instruction 
 than there was in his day, from the game being reduced 
 to so much more systematic and teachable a form. 
 
 It is quite as practicable as the teaching of 
 drawing or music, or any ordinary accom- 
 plishment, and the Americans have made the 
 experiment with great success. 
 
 It is curious that the teaching began among 
 the fair sex. About 1886 a little circle of la- 
 dies, prominent in the Society of Milwaukee 
 (a city often distinguished in Whist matters), 
 despairing of solving for themselves the mys- 
 teries of" Cavendish," sought aid from others 
 of their sex who had been more fortunate.
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 6/ 
 
 And this led to regular paid instruction. The 
 pioneers in the venture were a Miss Kate 
 Wheelock, of Milwaukee, and a Miss Gardi- 
 ner, of Boston. The first-named lady has since 
 earned a very wide reputation. Her classes 
 in one season numbered nearly 150 mem- 
 bers, and she has received so many applica- 
 tions from various towns that she has been 
 obliged to make periodical tours to satisfy 
 them. She has turned out many distin- 
 guished pupils, and is known by the name of 
 the " Whist Queen." A Mrs. M. Jenks is also 
 a celebrated teacher, who has advocated 
 Whist-teaching in schools ; and many others 
 are so engaged. Some of these ladies have 
 visited London, and have given a high im- 
 pression of their abilities. The terms charged 
 by the best teachers are two dollars per les- 
 son for each person in a class of four, and 
 the income of one teacher is given at the rate 
 of $150 (;^3o) per week. Many classes are 
 said to exist in every large town, and the 
 pupils often belong to the best society. 
 
 It is noteworthy that while accomplished 
 lady Whist players are so rare in England, 
 in America they abound ; they take part in 
 the League matches and are said to hold their 
 own among the best club members. There 
 can be no doubt that since the game has 
 been reduced to more systematic principles
 
 1 68 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 it has become more liked by the fair sex. In- 
 deed, the attainment of this was one of the 
 advantages early claimed for the Philosophi- 
 cal Game. 
 
 In speaking of Whist instruction we must 
 not omit the mention of Mr. R. F. Foster, 
 of Baltimore, who has not only been a high- 
 ly successful teacher, but has contrived an 
 ingenious arrangement of '^ Self - Playing 
 Cards " to aid in the study. 
 
 AMERICAN WHIST LITERATURE. 
 
 It was natural, as Whist had become so 
 popular in the States, that it should be taken 
 up by the Press. There had for some time 
 been " Whist Columns " in the newspapers, 
 but after the first Congress it Avas thought 
 desirable to start a special organ for it. Ac- 
 cordingly in June, 1891, there was published 
 in Milwaukee the first number of a handsome 
 large quarto periodical entitled : Whist, a 
 Monthly Journal devoted to the inter- 
 ests OF THE Game. x\nd on the occasion of 
 the Second Congress this was adopted as the 
 accredited orsfan of the American Whist 
 League. It has appeared regularl}^ since, and 
 contains matter of much interest; — notices of 
 the Congress proceedings ; essays on all kinds 
 of topics affecting the game ; contributions
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 169 
 
 and letters from Whist writers, and Whist 
 players; portraits and biographies; examples 
 of hands and interesting situations ; discus- 
 sions of difficult and controverted points ; 
 club news and announcements; and gener- 
 ally a monthly repository of Whist jottings. 
 The advantage of such a journal in keeping 
 up the interest in the game is highly appre- 
 ciated, and the author of the present work 
 has to acknowledge much information, and 
 many extracts from it, in regard to Whist in 
 America.^ The journal is ably conducted by 
 Mr. Cassius M. Paine, a well-known Whist 
 player in Milwaukee. 
 
 But the Americans, not to be behind-hand 
 in the literature of Whist, have also produced 
 more serious and lengthy writings upon it. 
 Passing over some earlier and smaller pub- 
 lications, the first of any pretension was a 
 "Whist Manual " published in 1890, by Mr. 
 Foster, adapted to his system of instruc- 
 tion. He has since written another work 
 containing a full description of Duplicate 
 Whist and an essay on '' Whist Strategy." 
 
 In the same year appeared, " A Practical 
 Guide to Whist, by the latest Scientific 
 Methods. By Fisher Ames." New York, 
 
 » The " Whist " Journal will be found at the British Museum, 
 and may be subscribed for at Messrs. Mudies', 15 Coventry 
 Street, Piccadilly.
 
 I/O LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 Scribner's Sons (Second edition, 1891). This 
 is a handy little book of only about one 
 hundred pages. It begins with the follow- 
 ing sentence : 
 
 The Theory of Modern Scientific Whist and the argu- 
 ments upon which it is based, are now so generally well 
 known and understood that no re-statement of them is 
 deemed necessary here. 
 
 In accordance with this notice the book 
 only professes '' to give the rules and direc- 
 tions for play in the various contingencies of 
 a hand, according to the best authorities." 
 And this it does very fairly, adopting the 
 American Leads which ''' having recently been 
 greatly developed and improved by Trist, 
 '' Cavendish," and others into a complete, 
 simple, and harmonious system, have entirely 
 revolutionized the game." 
 
 In 1894 appeared another pretty little book 
 by Mr. Charles E. Coffin, '' The Gist of Whist," 
 containing useful information, theoretical and 
 practical, in a compact form. 
 
 But the great American work, which must 
 be hereafter regarded as the jie^a jSi^Xlov of 
 Whist, Avas published about the middle of 
 1894. It is entitled 
 
 Modern Scientific Whist. The Principles of the Mod- 
 ern Game Analyzed and Extended. Illustrated by over
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA I?! 
 
 sixty critical endings and annotated games, from actual 
 play. By C. D. P. Hamilton. New York : Brentano. 
 
 The author belongs to the Pioneer Club, 
 in Pennsylvania, and is well known as one of 
 the leading experts in the American Whist 
 world : his work amply shows his acquaint- 
 ance with the modern American form of 
 game. 
 
 It is indeed a '' big book," being a large oc- 
 tavo volume, 8 inches long, 6 inches wide, 
 and ij inches thick, weighing above 2 lbs. 
 There are 609 pages, of a size taking about 
 360 words of type: there are 32 chapters, 19 
 elaborate tables, and 84 " Pertinent Maxims." 
 And it is illustrated by about 470 diagrams, 
 many of them containing 20, 30, or 40 cards 
 each, all placed in proper positions for study. 
 
 The author, like Mr. Fisher Ames, takes 
 all the previous knowledge about Whist for 
 granted. He begins at once with " The first 
 hand or lead," and although he speaks in his 
 title of '' scientific " Whist, and of " analyzing 
 principles," his book seems to be simply an 
 enormous budget of instructions for the prac- 
 tical details of play. He adopts, of course, 
 all the new latter-day modes of communica- 
 tion between the partners, but he largely ex- 
 tends the system ; he follows up the influence 
 this has on the general play of all the hands,
 
 1/2 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 and shows how great this influence has been. 
 Indeed, he says (pp. 70, 160), " The new order 
 of American leads has revolutionized the 
 game and rendered obsolete to a great extent 
 the text-books of the day." 
 
 He points out in several places the magni- 
 tude of the task a learner has before him 
 who would desire to become a proficient in 
 the new American game. For example : 
 
 In the play of a single hand at Whist there are so many 
 things to note and so many inferences to draw that few 
 players ever become very proficient. Most people who 
 play Whist seem to prefer to rest satisfied with an informal 
 introduction, as it were, to the cards, and never get upon 
 intimate terms with them. (Pp. 24, 25.) 
 
 The correct management of trumps is by far the most 
 difficult thing in Whist strateg\% and few players ever be- 
 come proficient in this regard. (P. 247.) 
 
 Such conditions as these and hundreds of others enter 
 into the matter of finesse in trumps and either modify it or 
 render finessing out of the question. The varieties of fi- 
 nesse are infinite. (Pp. 259, 336.) 
 
 You cannot lay down unvarying rules applicable to the 
 finer points of Whist. There are thousands of fine points 
 — the delicate touches — that the books may never reach — 
 the really splendid things you must learn from practice 
 with fine players. (P. 378.) 
 
 To what extent this most elaborate book 
 may serve the purpose of teaching Whist niay 
 probably be better understood in America 
 than in England. It would appear to bring
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1/3 
 
 the mode of instruction back to something 
 like the form adopted by Hojle (see ante, 
 pages 56 and foUowing), whose teaching con- 
 sisted almost entirely of- similar specific direc- 
 tions for practical play. 
 
 It is a sign of the uncertainty and want of 
 finality that still prevails in the Latter-Day 
 Game, that although Mr. Hamilton's book is 
 founded on the same system that is explained 
 in the latest editions of '' Cavendish," yet 
 there are many points on which the two au- 
 thorities do not agree, as may be seen by the 
 review of the book in the Field of May 26, 
 1894. However, the book is very interest- 
 ing, as showing not only the astonishing 
 change which the new improvements have 
 wrought in the game, but the remarkable 
 earnestness with which they appear to be 
 studied in the New World. 
 
 POPULARITY OF WHIST IN AMERICA. 
 
 We hardly, however, need this confirma- 
 tion of the extraordinary hold that the game 
 has taken among the higher educated classes 
 in that country. 
 
 In 1892, an article in the '' Whist " Journal 
 contained the following passages : 
 
 Those whose bent leads them to the more serious and 
 careful consideration of things see in the game, with its
 
 174 LATTKR-DAV IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 ever-changing possibilities, an opportunity for an almost 
 unlimited exercise of the best faculties. Thus it is that 
 in the smallest hamlet wherein the game has acquired a 
 foothold its devotees will be found to consist of the re- 
 presentative citizens of the locality. The interest in the 
 game is spreading on all sides, and the general press, 
 during the winter season, chronicles daily the organiza- 
 tion of some new Whist club, the giving of Whist enter- 
 tainments, the details of matches and Whist doings in 
 general. From all sides in this progressive age of a pro- 
 gressive country comes the undisputed evidence that the 
 greatest of all card games shares in the general advance. 
 
 A later article, 1893, says: 
 
 It is a fact that immediately after the First Whist Con- 
 gress Whist experienced a remarkable revival, which has 
 spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It has almost 
 entirely supplanted trivial games like Euchre, and has 
 taken its place in the homes of the people, and is there to 
 stay. Everywhere Whist is being played, and generally 
 is being played fairly well. As a consequence of this 
 wide-spread interest there has been an increased demand 
 for anything and everything that will instruct in the proper 
 methods of the game.* 
 
 The very existence of the Whist League is 
 of itself proof of this, and its continual in- 
 crease shows the permanence of the impres- 
 sion. In the First Congress it numbered 36 
 clubs, and in the Fourth this number had in- 
 creased to 95 , with a membership of upwards 
 of 14,000 persons. 
 
 i " Whist" Journal, Vol. III., p. 6i.
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 75 
 
 Cavendish," who spent some months in 
 at the Congress and among the Whist 
 Clubs in various cities, has remarked that 
 nothing surprised him more during his visit 
 than the wide-spread popularity of the game 
 of Whist, and the zeal with which its devotees 
 studied its theory and practice. And not 
 only were the numbers of players enormous 
 and increasing, but the general proficiency in 
 play was most remarkable. He has repeat- 
 edly declared that there is no sort of com- 
 parison to be made between the European 
 and the American players — the latter posses- 
 sing a general quality of excellence which is 
 almost unknown here — or which, at any rate, 
 it has been the habit to attribute only to 
 exceptional persons like Deschapelles, ap- 
 pearing once in an age. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND DISPUTES. 
 
 But the American experience with the new 
 Latter Day Whist has not been altogether 
 smooth ; for within the last year or two some 
 difficulties have arisen of such a nature as con- 
 siderably to disturb the course of Whist play 
 in the States, and to excite much general at- 
 tention. 
 
 These difficulties have had chiefly to do 
 with what we have described as the peculiar
 
 176 LATTER-DAY IMPROVExMENTS 
 
 feature of the latter phase of improvement, 
 namely, the extension of the means of com- 
 munication between the partners. Attention 
 had been strongly directed to the American 
 leads and other new developments of signal- 
 ling, as described in Chapter VIII. ; and some 
 players, finding the invention of signals so 
 easy, and their use so advantageous to them- 
 selves, appear to have asked, '' Why should 
 the formation of them be monopolised by 
 ' Cavendish,' or by Trist, or by anybody ? 
 Why cannot we make them ourselves for our 
 own use ? What need have we for anj^body's 
 leave to make them or to use them?" And 
 no doubt this desire has been fostered by 
 opinions, somewhat freely expressed by 
 Whist authorities, that the extension and 
 multiplication of such signals has been of 
 advantage to the game, and has given im- 
 pulse to its popularity. 
 
 At any rate, whatever may have been the 
 motives, it is a fact that there has been, for 
 some time past, a tendenc}' manifested to 
 increase the number of such signals, although 
 the inventors and introducers of the new 
 ones have not usually taken example by 
 '' Cavendish " and Trist, in either the study and 
 consideration given to them, or the caution in 
 propounding and using them. These writers 
 took pride in showing that the original
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 7/ 
 
 American leads and other developments, al- 
 though they involved slight elements of 
 novelty, were still legitimately derived by 
 analogy from pi'ocesses of long standing (in 
 the same manner as their prototype, the sig- 
 nal for trumps), and that they therefore had, 
 to this extent, an antecedent justification. 
 
 But their followers appear soon to have 
 thrown this kind of consideration overboard, 
 and signals began to multiply guided by no 
 sort of principle ; so that any item of arbi- 
 trary information was proposed to be com- 
 municated to the partner by any equally 
 arbitrary contrivance in the play, at the mere 
 pleasure of the inventor. The evil went on 
 increasing, and began to draw other and 
 worse evils in its train, until at length it was 
 formally brought under public notice. 
 
 In the journal " Whist," Vol. L, page 28, 
 July, 1 89 1, there appeared a letter headed, 
 '' A Question in Ethics," in which the writer 
 stated that two gentlemen whom he met as 
 opponents " had a system of play " on which 
 he desired an opinion. They had ''an under- 
 standing between themselves which they 
 neither specially concealed nor specially 
 mentioned," extending apparently to several 
 new modes of signalling. These players 
 " claimed that any agreement they might 
 make, which might be expressed by play- 
 12
 
 178 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 ing the cards openly above the table, was 
 proper." 
 
 The Editor, in publishing this letter, in- 
 vited the expression of opinion on the point 
 in his journal, and the invitation led to a cor- 
 respondence which has become notable in the 
 history of modern Whist. Between July, 
 1 891, and April, 1892, eleven communications 
 appeared,^ mostly from well-known players. 
 The last one defended " the practice of pri- 
 vate card - signals between partners " ; and 
 added, " Partners who practice such systems 
 being upright gentlemen, of course think it 
 right ; and I doubt not that numberless 
 others, who have never thought of the matter 
 before, will, on due reflection, arrive at the 
 same conclusion." 
 
 This letter appears to have stopped the 
 discussion for some time. At the next Whist 
 Congress, held in Chicago in June, 1893, no 
 notice appears to have been publicly taken of 
 the matter ; but we may suppose it to have 
 been privately thought and talked of, and, at 
 anv rate, the discussion was revived in the 
 " Whist " journal. In the number for Decem- 
 ber, 1893 (Vol. III., p. 108), the President of 
 the American Whist League, Mr. Eugene S. 
 Elliott, published a letter inviting further ex- 
 pression of opinion, and explaining his own 
 
 1 See "Whist," Vol. I., pages 28, 3S< 3^, 39. 76, loi, 102. 167.
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 79 
 
 view, which was, '' that while every club 
 should be privileged, in the League matches, 
 to use such conventionalities as it deems 
 proper, notice should be given to the other 
 contestants when such convention is an in- 
 novation on established methods." The Ed- 
 itor of ''Whist," Mr. Cassius M. Paine, wrote 
 " A Counter View," but still inviting thor- 
 ough discussion. 
 
 These renewed invitations brought thirty- 
 seven more letters, from nearly all the lead- 
 ing Whist men of America, and from some 
 English authorities.^ About three-fourths of 
 these unhesitatingly condemned the prac- 
 tice : some strongly deprecated it as unfair, 
 while others merely disapproved of it as be- 
 ing useless and of no advantage. To show 
 that the matter was really of practical im- 
 portance, many letters testified to the actual 
 existence and increase of the practice.^ And 
 comparing these revelations with others 
 (see article in ''Whist," Vol. II., p. ii8, on 
 " Whist Partnerships and Exclusivcness "), 
 to the effect that a custom was getting into 
 vogue of what were called " rigid partner- 
 ships," where " two men have the privilege 
 
 'See " Whist," Vol. III., pp. io8, 109, 132, 141, 15610 158, 166 
 to 173, 185, 192, 201 to 203. 
 
 2See letters in " Whist, "" Vol. III., from Mr. Tormey, p. 133; 
 Mr. Stevens, ibid.; Mr. Le Roy Smith, p. 134 ; Mr. Work, p. 135 ; 
 Mr. Gurley, p. 138 ; Mr. Richards, p. 140.
 
 I80 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 of pla^nng all the time with each other," and 
 " can adopt any system of play they want to," 
 the matter became more serious. 
 
 Among the American objectors to the new 
 proposal were Mr. Elliott, the President; 
 Mr. Schwarz, the Secretary, and many of 
 the Executive Committee of the American 
 Whist League ; Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Fisher 
 Ames, and Mr. Coffin, authors of the Whist 
 books already mentioned ; and Mr. Foster, 
 the Whist Teacher. Amonor the EnHish- 
 men on the same side were *' Cavendish," 
 Mr. Matthias Boyce {" Mogul "), and Dr. J. 
 J. P. Hewby (" Pembridge "). '' Cavendish " 
 called to mind his own practice when he was 
 introducing the " penultimate " lead. He 
 had said in his description : 
 
 My partner and I refrained from leading from inter- 
 mediate sequences, as we considered that mode of leading 
 would amount to a private signal and would not be fair 
 to opponents not acquainted with it. . . . As others 
 dropped in we were obliged in honour to explain the 
 method we were adopting, leaving them to play it or not, 
 as they pleased. This was, of course, to avoid a charge 
 of unfairness owing to a private system of leading. 
 
 Among the supporters of the secret signals 
 were some good and well-known names; 
 and in justice to them it is worth while to 
 extract a few passages showing the argu-
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA l8l 
 
 ments by which their proposition was sup- 
 ported. 
 
 Mr. Fenollosa, its principal advocate (Vol. 
 I., p. 167), after explaining that a player may 
 play any card he pleases, so long as he con- 
 forms to the elementary construction of the 
 game, continues. 
 
 But, say the objectors, the card must not carry with it 
 any secret meaning of which the adversaries are ignorant. 
 Why may it not ? On what ground my adversaries can 
 claim the right to know the meaning of each card that I 
 play, I cannot conceive ! As well expect a chess-player 
 to say to his antagonist, " My dear Sir, will you kindly tell 
 me your reasons for making your last move, so that I may 
 know how to act ? " Do not my partner and myself at a 
 hand of whist constitute a unit, a single opposing force 
 directed against the adverse unit with the intention of try- 
 ing to outwit it by every legitimate means, that is, by 
 any means furnished solely by the cards as they lawfully 
 fall ? And have we not the same right to arrange our 
 plans of attack before the game that the chess-player has 
 to patiently study an opening in private, hoping that he 
 may discover moves which his opponent will not success- 
 fully parry at the board ? 
 
 [If our opponents do this] they are not indulging in secret 
 acts hidden from us ; the acts and the circumstances are 
 patent to all at the end of the hand. It is only the mo- 
 tives that have been kept secret. It is this entire absence 
 of secret or unlawful dc-cd that marks the difference be- 
 tween these " unfair collusions " and the loading of dice, 
 to which one of your correspondents compared them. 
 
 If " a code for informatory play " is the only method 
 of uprooting the evil, it will have to be accepted as a
 
 1 82 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 necessary one, for Whist players as a body will never 
 consent to the degradation of such abject servitude. And 
 if they did, they would be sounding the death-knell of the 
 art : for the impossibility of its further development would 
 quickly destroy that keen interest in it which is at present 
 manifested by its votaries. 
 
 In a later article (Vol. III., pp. 137-8) he 
 said : 
 
 The indignation so freely expressed by many against 
 private conventions is based on a most absurd fallacy, 
 namely, that a player has any claim whatever on his ad- 
 versary's play, so far as getting information from it is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 . . . If I have a lead that I think will secure tricks 
 and know will inform my partner, why am I not to make 
 it? 
 
 And in another letter, pp. 190, 191, he 
 said : 
 
 If we could inform our partner and at the same 
 time deceive our adversaries, would we not consider 
 Whist to have reached the ideal stage of development ? 
 This disposes of the objection on the score of secrecy. 
 Nobody will claim that the previous preparation away 
 from the Whist table is the bugbear, since the studying 
 of any Whist maxim in the books would be open to the 
 same objection. And if neither in the secrecy nor in 
 the forehandedness, wherein does the wrong lie ? . . . 
 The common-sense view of the matter is that my card 
 may legitimately convey to my partner any information 
 that his knowledge of my methods admits of, provided 
 that the information could as well be imparted if my card 
 were laid upon the table by one of Clay's " Machines."
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA I83 
 
 Mr. Work, p. 136, said: 
 
 A team that uses such private conventions (provided, 
 of course, that they are useful ones, and cleverly devised) 
 has an immense advantage over a team of equal strength 
 that merely plays the game of Whist as it is written in the 
 books. ... If a man, or a combination of men, have 
 the ability to devise a new system of leads or plays which 
 increases their trick-taking ability, why should they not be 
 allowed to benefit by the inventive powers of their brains, 
 without being compelled either to disclose their invention 
 to the whole world or else abandon it .-' In no similar 
 game, nor in fact in any of the more earnest pursuits of life, 
 is this doctrine followed. [Examples of football, cricket, 
 patent rights, etc., are given.] ... I believe, therefore, 
 that it w^ould be wise for the American Whist League to 
 officially declare that all private conventions (that consist, 
 of course, merely of plays and combinations) shall be con- 
 sidered legitimate. I believe this, because to pursue the 
 opposite course with practical benefit at present, seems im- 
 possible, and, even if possible, to be contrary to the best 
 interests of the game. 
 
 In the May number of 1894, as the meet- 
 ing of the Whist Congress was coming on, 
 Mr. Elliott and the Editor intimated the 
 closure of the discussion, and the latter dep- 
 recated any legislation on the matter. He 
 said : 
 
 I think we must keep natural rights in mind and so 
 avoid encroachments on personal liberty. ... I 
 believe that those who indulge in private conventional- 
 ities wear fools' caps ; but I also believe that their eman-
 
 1 84 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 cipation should be voluntary and not coercive. They can 
 be brought into the fold much quicker by experiment and 
 persuasion than they can be by persecution. 
 
 This and other circumstances led to some 
 expectation that the subject would be taken 
 up and dealt formally with by the Whist 
 League, which was soon about to meet 
 at Philadelphia. The Congress took place, 
 but there is no record that the subject was 
 mentioned officially. It must have been 
 in the minds of many influential members, 
 and it is probable that if any measure had 
 been proposed there would have been a 
 large preponderance of opinion against the 
 secret system. But the League had, no 
 doubt, good grounds for their inaction, and it 
 was believed that, after such a thorough pub- 
 lic discussion, the wide discountenance given 
 to the new proposal would check its prac- 
 tice.^ 
 
 But this remarkable outburst of zeal for 
 the further Evolution of Whist ought not 
 to be allowed to pass without some observa- 
 tions, particularly as it was supported by a 
 very respectable minority of American play- 
 ers. And it may be well to consider the pro- 
 
 1 The publicity of this discussion, and the attention it com- 
 manded, were entirely due to the " Whist " journal, and formed 
 an excellent example of the utility of such a periodical.
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 85 
 
 posal, first as regards its ethical features, and 
 afterwards as affecting the Avorking char- 
 acter of the game generally. 
 
 The ethical matter is not difficult to deal 
 with if properly approached. It should be 
 recollected that the choice of ethical rules 
 must be always a voluntary matter among 
 those playing a game, and that any coterie 
 of players are free to sanction and adopt, in 
 their own circle, any rules they like. The 
 difficulty here seems to be that the advocates 
 wished to thrust the proposed secret signal- 
 ling into the ordinary Whist circles as some- 
 thing consistent with the ethical ideas at 
 present prevailing in them. These ideas 
 have never been strictly formulated, but it is 
 not difficult to gather them from history. 
 They have been subject to Evolution, like 
 Whist itself. 
 
 The essential difficulty to be met in the 
 game of Whist always has been, and is still, 
 ^he fact of all the cards except the player's 
 own (and the turn-up when he is not the 
 dealer) being concealed from him. There 
 are two games called dummy and double-dum- 
 my, where some or all of them are exposed, 
 but these are not Whist, in the sense we are 
 considering it here. 
 
 In the Primitive Game this difficulty was 
 simply ignored. The player considered his
 
 1 86 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 own hand alone, and did the best he could 
 with it. 
 
 In the following- era, however, the ideas 
 were changed. Hoyle soon saw the influ- 
 ence that the concealed cards had on the art 
 of trick-making; he taught the policy of con- 
 sidering them, though they could not be 
 seen ; and he showed the possibility of in- 
 ferring, to some extent, w^hat any hand con- 
 tained, by the cards which fell from that 
 hand in the course of play. This was the 
 great lesson of attention to the '' fall of the 
 cards " which we have described as being 
 one of the most salient features of his in- 
 struction. 
 
 Matthews made a step further by insisting 
 on the special importance and advantage of 
 the two partners endeavouring to facilitate 
 the legitimate intercommunication of knowl- 
 edge as to their hands. But it is quite clear 
 that there was a stringent ethical view pre- 
 vailing as to the nature of this intercommuni- 
 cation. It is on record that before Hoyle's 
 active intervention, it had been discovered 
 that if a player knew, even to a small extent, 
 what cards his partner held, he could make 
 useful application of his knowledge ; persons 
 were not wanting who invented secret and 
 surreptitious modes of communication be- 
 tw^een the two, and these became practised
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 187 
 
 to such an extent as to bring the game into 
 well-merited disrepute. It was one of the 
 most earnest objects of Hoyle to correct 
 these abuses, and we may take it as an estab- 
 lished ethical principle at that time (sup- 
 ported indeed by the Moral Philosophy of 
 Paley) that no player should get any infor- 
 mation, as to the concealed hands, beyond 
 what the whole table could get by legitimate 
 inference from the '' fall of the cards." 
 
 It was only in the Philosophical Game that 
 the communications between the partners 
 assumed their full importance, and were 
 properly provided for ; and it is desirable 
 here to refer briefly to our former descrip- 
 tion of how this was done. The general sys- 
 tem of play having been settled, by practice 
 and experiment, rules were carefully drawn 
 up, having for their chief object the promo- 
 tion of trick-making and successful play gen- 
 erally ; and for the sake of the information 
 element, directions were further devised for 
 the careful, uniform, and consistent play of 
 small or indifferent cards, to which no im- 
 mediate trick-making motive applied. 
 
 But in order that these carefully devised 
 rules should properly facilitate the communi- 
 cation of information, it was of course neces- 
 sary that both partners should know them 
 and use them, and this led to a nmtiial under-
 
 I 88 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 Standing between good players that the rules 
 should be generally followed ; in pursuance 
 of which understanding any player could 
 rely that certain inferences might be drawn 
 from his partner's play. Thus, for example, 
 it was a mutual understanding that the play- 
 er's first plain-suit lead should be his best 
 one ; that he should play, when not leading, 
 the lowest of a sequence ; that he should re- 
 turn the higher of two cards remaining ; and 
 so on. 
 
 Thus, although the rule was the basis and 
 guide of the communication, yet the mutual 
 understanding was the necessary means of 
 its conveyance ; and it will be evident that 
 neither in the rules, nor in the mutual under- 
 standing to use them, was there anything to 
 contravene, in the slightest degree, the ethi- 
 cal stipulation above referred to. 
 
 Then came another step in the Evolution, 
 which took place during the development of 
 the Philosophical Game. It appeared to the 
 club players that it might be useful to widen 
 a little the scope of the mutual understand- 
 ing, to make it include a conventional exten- 
 sion, to new circumstances, of a previous nat- 
 ural mode of play. Cases had frequently 
 occurred where the unnecessary playing of 
 a high card before a lower one naturally in- 
 timated a desire on the part of the player to
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 1 89 
 
 get trumps led ; and this gave rise to a prop- 
 osition that a similar mode of play in any 
 case should, according to the mutual under- 
 standing, be interpreted in the same Avay. 
 This widening of the mutual understanding 
 was at first objected to, but was ultimately 
 approved and adopted — and thus there be- 
 came established a novel form of communi- 
 cation, which Avas characterized as a *' Sig- 
 nal ; " the artifice in question being first called 
 jocosely the '' Blue Peter," and afterwards, 
 more soberly, the " Signal for Trumps." 
 The principle applied in this change formed 
 a germ from which have sprung almost all 
 the developments in the Latter-Day Whist. 
 
 This step in the Evolution involved a 
 slight ethical relaxation, as it enabled the 
 player to give some kinds of information 
 which he could not legally give before ; and 
 this was, no doubt, the cause of the objec- 
 tions made to it. But, after full discussion 
 and long experience, the change was ap- 
 proved and admitted, as a legitimate condi- 
 tion of the game. 
 
 It has, however, had the effect of stimu- 
 lating the proposal of a further step in ad- 
 vance. It would seem to be the idea of 
 many players that the *' mutual understand- 
 ing " should be widened still more, so as to 
 sanction the communication of any arbitrary
 
 IQO LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 k)ioivlcdg€ luhatever, by any arbitrary signal 
 (which can be contrived in the play of cards), 
 without reference to any principle or anal- 
 ogy of any kind. This idea has been de- 
 fended by Clay's remark (p. no), "It is fair 
 to give to your partner any intimation which 
 could be given if the cards were placed on 
 the table each exactly in the same manner as 
 the others by a machine." But the context 
 clearly shows that these intimations were in- 
 tended to be only inferences from acknowl- 
 edged rules, and not mere arbitrary items of 
 information dictated at the will of the player. 
 
 It is difficult to say to what extent this last- 
 named kind of signalling is in use, or how far 
 it may have received the sanction of Whist 
 players ; but there appears no justification 
 for assuming that such an ethical latitude 
 has yet received general approval. 
 
 Now we have here three fairly well defined 
 stages of the application of the " mutual un- 
 derstanding " to the communication of in- 
 formation between the partners. 
 
 The first is absolutely simple, nothing be- 
 ing done beyond agreeing to give attention 
 to certain rules of normal play, designed 
 either directly to promote trick-making, or 
 to ensure regularity and uniformity. 
 
 The second stage involves what is called, 
 " signalling ; " it implies that something
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA I91 
 
 special and abnormal is to be communicated 
 to the partner ; but this is of a nature arising 
 analogically out of normal play, and is com- 
 municated by corresponding modes, publicly 
 known and agreed to. 
 
 The third, or doubtful stage, is an extension 
 of the second to devices of an entirely arbi- 
 trary character. 
 
 But there is now this most important fact 
 to be observ^ed, that throughout all these 
 phases of the Evolution, even in the last 
 named, the mutual understanding has been 
 general with all the players. We fail entirely 
 to find any case, till now, where it has been 
 even proposed to limit it to a secret under- 
 standing between two partners only, of which 
 the other two players are ignorant and have 
 no means of acquiring knowledge. Such an 
 arrangement must be considered as an entire 
 contravention or infraction of Paley's funda- 
 mental ethical principle, that neither party 
 should have a surreptitious advantage over 
 the other ; and it therefore can only be 
 properly used in a club or circle which has 
 specially admitted such a relaxation of the 
 ethical standard. 
 
 The supporters of the proposition for se- 
 cret signalling lay great stress on their inti- 
 mations being communicated by the order of 
 play of the cards, which they say is visible
 
 192 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 to everybody ; but as the ethical irregularity 
 really lies in the use of a communication be- 
 tween A and B which is purposely concealed 
 from X and Y, the manner in which this is 
 given cannot affect its essential character. 
 
 The arguments urged in favour of the secret 
 signalling merely amount to an assertion 
 that, so long as the partners adhere to the 
 elementary structure, they have a right to 
 take any measures they please to try to 
 win. But the advocates forget that an essen- 
 tial and fundamental feature of the game 
 has always been the difficulty caused by the 
 concealment of the cards. The means of 
 overcoming this difficulty have consisted in 
 skilful inferences from what is seen ; and 
 though, in the most modern developments 
 this has been aided by the signal system, such 
 aid has been only given by public knowledge 
 and approval. To introduce, therefore, new^ 
 and secret aids, becomes a further change 
 in the fundamental conditions of Whist, for 
 wdiich, as in the earlier forms of signalling, the 
 consent of all the players should be obtained. 
 
 But assuming the proposed secrecy to be 
 abandoned, it is worth w-hile to consider how 
 the character of the game w^ould be likely to 
 be affected by a large and indefinite multipli- 
 cation of signals. A perusal of the corre-
 
 WHIST IN AMERICA 193 
 
 spondence in the " Whist Journal " shows a 
 very general opinion that this would be an ad- 
 vantage to the progress of the game, and that 
 consequently the unlimited invention of them 
 should be encouraged, provided that they 
 are made known. But here comes the diffi- 
 culty ; if they are to be created wholesale 
 and indiscriminately, /^<92£/ are they to be made 
 known? how are the great mass of players 
 to be instructed about them ? And would 
 not this difficulty probably lead, in time, to a 
 selection of such as were found to be most 
 generally conducive to the interests of the 
 game ; and to some authoritative exclusive 
 recommendation of them ? 
 
 It would seem desirable that, now that 
 " Signalling " at Whist has become so com- 
 mon, some greater attention should be paid 
 to the different kinds of signal that may be 
 used ; and that some distinction should be 
 drawn between them. It is odd how few of 
 the writers who took part in the discussion 
 appeared to notice this point. The Ameri- 
 cans, taking hold of the fact of the " mutual 
 understanding " necessary to communicate 
 information between the partners, include 
 under the name of " Conventionalities " ^ all 
 sorts of information, making no distinction 
 between an inference drawn from the normal 
 
 J See Definition in Hamilton's Book. 
 13
 
 194 LATTER-DAY IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 play of a card for ordinary general expe- 
 diency, and an arbitrary interpretation of 
 it, which only acquires meaning by special 
 compact between the partners. They for- 
 get that while the former is as old as Hoyle, 
 and is an essential element of Whist play, the 
 latter is of quite recent introduction ; and 
 that while the former is a fixed thing, of 
 limited logical necessity, the latter has a ten- 
 dency, under Whist enthusiasm, to extend its 
 range and to encroach in its character, to 
 any degree. 
 
 It is to this tendency that the whole of 
 the present difficulty is due ; and it confirms 
 the ideal remedy of some check being given 
 to the indefinite multiplication of arbitrary 
 signals. 
 
 It is curious to contrast the present strong 
 opinion in favour of the multiplication of 
 signals with that quoted in page 128 as given 
 at the time of the first introduction of the 
 signal for trumps. We are there told that 
 the inventor often said that " he bitterly re- 
 gretted his ingenuity, which had deprived 
 him of one-half of the advantage which he de- 
 rived from his superior play." Here are two 
 opinions diametrically opposed. Do these 
 signals encourage or discourage fine play ? 
 
 The question is worth study. Suppose 
 some of the best players in America (and
 
 WIIIST IN AMERICA I95 
 
 " Cavendish " says they are the best in the 
 world) were to try for a month the experi- 
 ment of playing Whist as it was played be- 
 fore the Trump signal was introduced, taking 
 care not to allow any communication from 
 one partner to the other, except by the 
 strictest and most natural interpretation of 
 the normal fall of the cards. Would they 
 find any diminished opportunity for the ex- 
 ercise of their skill ? 
 
 If such a cacoetlies for signalling as now pre- 
 vails should continue to spread, its logical out- 
 come would be for each player to hand over 
 his cards for his partner to look at before the 
 play begins. This would be quite admissible 
 if agreed to by all parties, but it would be a 
 new game, and certainly no improvement on 
 the one we are accustomed to.
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 Let us now, in conclusion, sum up what 
 we have been considering in regard to the 
 Evolution of Whist, and endeavour to make 
 some practical suggestions in regard thereto. 
 
 We have found that the game arose from 
 small beginnings, some three centuries ago, 
 and has gradually developed into a struc- 
 ture of great intellectual interest. The 
 process of Evolution has been very gradual, 
 brought about by the influence of earnest 
 and powerful minds ; but as commonly hap- 
 pens, it has at different epochs taken definite 
 forms, which were, for the time being, of 
 some duration, and have to a certain extent 
 remained still in existence. 
 
 We have noticed four steps or stages mark- 
 ing the progress, and producing four varie- 
 ties of game, all really Whist, but Whist in 
 different degrees of development. And the 
 great aim of our work in this investigation has 
 been to consider the nature of these, and to 
 show that they are each of sufficiently definite 
 structure to justify their separate existence.
 
 200 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 The later forms have, indeed, grown out of 
 the earlier ones, but have not necessarily ex- 
 tinguished or abolished them. The admirers 
 of any late step are perfectly justified in 
 showing its superiority to the one before it, 
 but there is room enough in the world for 
 both to continue to exist side by side. 
 
 We, therefore, admit of the possibility, and 
 indeed of the expediency, of all these forms 
 remaining in existence and in use by the 
 players who prefer them. 
 
 They often run into each other, as do gen- 
 era and species in the animal and vegetable 
 world, and accordingly there are players 
 who will mix two of the varieties. For in- 
 stance, a player of the Primitive Game may 
 have acquired some of Hoyle's maxims ; or a 
 Hoyle player will have learned some of the 
 Philosophical principles ; or a Philosophical 
 Game player may adopt some of the latter- 
 day improvements. These are natural varia- 
 tions, rather proving the rule than forming 
 exceptions. 
 
 We notice, as the first stage, the simple 
 structure which we have called the Primitive 
 Game ; the earliest practical expression of 
 the elementary form. 
 
 This is as wide apart from the latter-day 
 structure as are the poles asunder; but still it
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 201 
 
 is really a form of Whist, and there are mul- 
 titudes of persons at the present moment 
 who practise it and enjoy it. And why 
 should they not? We may tell them that 
 more intellectual forms may be found ; but if 
 they lack either the capacity or inclination 
 to learn them, it is their affair and not ours. 
 
 The persons who play this kind of game 
 have been induced to adopt it probably by 
 association with some of their friends, and as 
 requiring the minimum of exertion to learn ; 
 they being in fact frightened by hearing of 
 the difficulties and complications of the 
 higher forms. And no doubt these induce- 
 ments will continue to operate ; so that, not- 
 withstanding all the improvements that have 
 been made and may continue to be made, this 
 form of game will continue in existence, and 
 may find many amiable votaries in domestic 
 life. 
 
 But, of course, in addressing students who 
 are really desirous to take up Whist as an 
 intellectual exercise, we cannot recommend 
 them to begin with this form of game, sim- 
 ply because we can direct them to much bet- 
 ter and more satisfactory objects for their 
 study. 
 
 Then we make a great step to the Game of 
 Hoyle, and there are also multitudes of per-
 
 202 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 sons who practise this, and find it give good 
 scope for their intellectual powers. We 
 might say to them, " Look at the more ad- 
 vanced step, the Philosophical Game ; you 
 will find that it contains all that is good in the 
 Hoyle Game, but that instead of depending 
 so much on the volition of the player, it is 
 reduced to a system, so as to make its prin- 
 ciples understood and practised by a larger 
 circle." But the Hoyle player will probably 
 answer, '' It may be so, but I do not like or 
 want your improvement. I decline to sub- 
 mit my play to the tyranny of systematic 
 rules and principles, or to the fancies of my 
 partner. I prefer the freedom of acting as 
 my own judgment may direct me; I do not 
 approve your combined action, I can take 
 care of myself; I shall play what 1 think prop- 
 er, and my partner may do the same. Take 
 your philosophy to the women and the tyros 
 for whom you wrote it, and do not bring it to 
 me." 
 
 A player of this school glories in never 
 having looked into a book, and despises book 
 knowledge; he objects to system altogether, 
 arguing that the play should be dictated by 
 personal judgment alone. He will often lead 
 from short suits — or will lead trumps when 
 weak ; or abstain from leading them when 
 strong ; or will refuse to return his partner's
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 203 
 
 lead in them ; or in fact, will do anything 
 that he thinks may best suit his own hand. 
 
 These persons, though they do not adopt 
 the most approved system, are not to be 
 considered bad players. They often show 
 careful attention, practice, and natural ability ; 
 they are very observant, recollect and cal- 
 culate well, draw shrewd inferences as to 
 how the cards lie, and generally are adepts 
 in all the accidental features of good play. 
 They take pride in their own skill, which 
 they object to make subservient to the will 
 of a partner inferior to themselves. 
 
 The proper thing to say of a player of this 
 school is that he does not play the same game 
 as that of ''Cavendish" and Clay; he plays 
 the earlier one of Hoyle. And why should he 
 not, if that suits his character and tastes 
 better than the newer one ? 
 
 Many persons who are attached to this 
 form of game refuse to acknowledge the 
 value of any subsequent changes, holding the 
 opinion that personal skill will give every 
 further advantage possible. Indeed it is not 
 unusual to find Whist writers of the present 
 day, having good claims to consideration, 
 who advocate and recommend what would 
 be essentially a return to the Hoyle game. 
 
 But, although this game may captivate 
 the attention of certain classes of people,
 
 204 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 and so remain in flourishing estate, if any 
 one wishes to learn Whist ab initio, we can- 
 not now recommend him to begin by study- 
 ing Hoyle or Payne or Matthews ; not from 
 any objection to these admirable works, but 
 simply because the march of Evolution has 
 put within his reach educational methods of 
 an easier character. 
 
 At the next grade, the PhilosopJiical Game, 
 we arrive at the culminating point of the de- 
 velopment, so far as the general structure is 
 concerned. It embodies the highest idea of 
 the game ; and though it has been followed 
 by another evolutionary stage, the latter re- 
 fers rather to improvements in detail than to 
 changes of general structure. 
 
 And it is to the Philosophical form of game 
 that the attention of students must be earliest 
 and most earnestly directed, for two reasons 
 — first, because it is the most teachable form, 
 depending so much on easily acquired prin- 
 ciples ; and, secondly, because all matters of 
 detail, whether in the preceding or succeed- 
 ing forms, can be better acquired and appre- 
 ciated after the fundamental principles have 
 become familiar. 
 
 At this point, therefore, we may offer a 
 few words of advice to those who are anxious 
 to learn Whist, beginning on this basis.
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 205 
 
 First, then, we may say to the student, you 
 must be convinced that you have something 
 to study, and that practice alone, in your un- 
 taught state, will never make you a first-rate 
 player. The great feature of the Philosophi- 
 cal Game is that it is founded on sound logi- 
 cal general principles, with which, as a mat- 
 ter of theory, you must make yourself well 
 acquainted. You will study the general 
 nature of the combined system, and learn how 
 this is made to bear on all the course of play ; 
 and if you approach the subject with a docile 
 disposition, you will be surprised to find how 
 easy this knowledge is to acquire. The sup- 
 posed difficulties only arise from its clashing 
 with preconceived notions. Some few ex- 
 planations embody its main features, and 
 when their spirit is once impressed on the 
 mind, the great portion of the preliminary 
 learning is done. 
 
 When you have become thoroughly famil- 
 iar with the nature of the system on which 
 the game is founded, you will be in a position 
 to learn how it is carried out in practice, and 
 this at first may be well accomplished by 
 studying model hands and examples, of which 
 you will find plenty in '' Cavendish's " several 
 books; in the '' Self - Playing Hands," pub- 
 lished by Mr. Foster; in the " Whist" Jour- 
 nal, and elsewhere. These will bring you in
 
 206 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 contact with the accidents of play, and with the 
 peculiarities of different situations. Sound 
 practical works such as Drayson's " Practical 
 Whist " will help you, and you may look 
 back with advantage at the instructions of 
 the older authorities, Hoyle and Matthews. 
 In this way you will find the field opening- 
 for your personal practice, which you can 
 then intelligently follow. 
 
 This course of education will give you 
 a command of the right principles to ad- 
 here to. It will teach you generally how 
 your own hand should be played so as to 
 gain the best advantage from it ; how you 
 may give the best assistance to your partner 
 in the process of playing his hand ; how to 
 weaken and obstruct your adversaries ; and 
 how best to meet their hostile manifes- 
 tations. And when you have become tho- 
 roughly acquainted with all this you will be 
 what is called a sound player. Good players 
 will know they can depend upon your inti- 
 mations, and will therefore esteem you as a 
 good and eligible partner ; and you may ac- 
 cordingly mix with confidence in good Whist 
 circles. 
 
 But this is not all that is to be desired ; 
 there is something of importance beyond. 
 It is not enough to have a sound knowledge 
 of the system, and of its general application,
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 20/ 
 
 but you must be prepared to encounter all 
 the continually varying events that turn up 
 in play and to meet them in the most advan- 
 tageous way. And here come into requisition 
 your own personal and individual mental 
 powers ; your acuteness of observation ; your 
 readiness in drawing logical inferences ; your 
 power of memory; your promptness m de- 
 cision of action; and your soundness in 
 judgment. All this is comprised in what is 
 known as personal skill ; the large possession 
 of which (always in addition to soundness in 
 the knowledge of system) will constitute a 
 fine player— a true master in Whist. 
 
 Let us look at these requisites a little. 
 First, Observation. You must, if you are to 
 be perfect in this, observe, in the first place, 
 the cards your partner plays, and next those 
 that the opponents play. The secret of this 
 is, absolutely perfect attention. '' Cavendish, m 
 his talks with the Americans explaining his 
 mode of play, laid the greatest stress on this. 
 He said: " If my partners first lead to me is 
 the five of spades, my attention is so strongly 
 rivetted to that fact, that if anybody were to 
 tell me the house was on fire it would not 
 drive the five of spades out of my mind." 
 And so, the attention must be fixed, more or 
 less strongly, on every card your partner 
 plays, and on every card the adversaries
 
 208 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 play. It is true that all those cards are not 
 of equal import, but they ought all to be ob- 
 served, that you may judge what they imply. 
 It is clear that in order to accomplish this, 
 even in a moderate degree, your mind must 
 be free, and fixed only on your game ; if 
 your thoughts are worried or occupied by 
 outside subjects, this element of skill is quite 
 unattainable. 
 
 Then as to the inferences, it is supposed 
 you are, by your knowledge of system, ca- 
 pable of drawing these ; but in practice it 
 must be done promptly ; indeed, the advice 
 is, " draw your inferences at the time the card 
 is played," and let your mind be impressed, 
 not only with the card played, but with what 
 it implies. 
 
 The next requisite is memory. This is the 
 bugbear of beginners. In the Primitive Game, 
 if a player holds a King, his chief effort is 
 to remember the fall of the Ace when it 
 occurs ; and so he thinks that a more compli- 
 cated game must consist in a multiplication 
 of such efforts of memory. But it has often 
 been pointed out that if any fact in play 
 has been duly observed, the memory can hard- 
 ly fail to record it ; so that what is thought 
 to be want of memory is really only want 
 of due observation. In the early forms of 
 game there were only a few facts to be no-
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 209 
 
 ticed ; in the modern game, properly speak- 
 ing, every card played ought to be observed 
 and remembered. But since this is an almost 
 superhuman effort, the plan is recommended 
 that you confine at first your special atten- 
 tion to some of the most important things, 
 such as the trump suit, the high cards of 
 your own chief suit, your partner's suit, his 
 discards, and so on, graduall}- increasing the 
 range of observation as your experience in- 
 creases. And you will find that the problem 
 before you really consists, not in remember- 
 ing certain isolated facts, as the beginners 
 suppose, but in the power of marshalling a 
 number of different inferences together, con- 
 veniently for reference, and ready for use at 
 the instant when they are required. 
 
 We now come to the two last features of 
 skill : viz., promptness of decision and sound- 
 ness of judgment, and these are qualities of 
 quite a different character; for a player may 
 have in his mind a store of inferences from 
 what is past, but on a sudden call to play, 
 toward the end of a hand, he may find him- 
 self in a difficulty. The time is past for the 
 application of rules, which generally only 
 apply to the early part of a hand ; he must 
 now be guided only by what the " fall of the 
 cards " has revealed ; and he not only has 
 to judge what is best to be done, but has 
 14
 
 210 SUMMxVRY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 to do it instantly, as he cannot keep the ta- 
 ble waiting while he considers. Truly, this 
 is a high demand on a man's ability ; and it 
 is a thing which cannot be taught. All that 
 can be recommended to the student is that 
 (in addition to frequent practice with the 
 best players he can find) he should make him- 
 self familiar with good published hands, and 
 so provide himself with a store of examples 
 ready for application when required. 
 
 In all these points your progress will be 
 gradual, and you must not be discouraged 
 by finding that you often make mistakes. 
 And it is useful to observe that there are 
 several kinds of errors which (though scold- 
 ing partners never bear this in mind) differ 
 much in their importance. 
 
 You may commit infractions of the book 
 rules, such as by leading wrongly, playing 
 false cards, not returning trumps, forcing 
 your partner improperly, and so on. These 
 are errors of form, which are culpable and 
 ought to be reproved. 
 
 Or you may play badly and wrongly in 
 many ways from neglecting to take advan- 
 tage of the fall of the cards. These are er- 
 rors of observation or memory, which should 
 be viewed more leniently. 
 
 Or, having duly observed, you may play 
 disadvantageously by some error of Judg-
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 211 
 
 inent, which is still more excusable. Even 
 good players are liable to such errors, and it 
 has been said of Whist players, as Napoleon 
 said of his generals, " Those are the best who 
 make the fewest blunders." Clay sometimes 
 declared that he won more by his adversa- 
 ries' mistakes than by his own skill. ^ 
 
 Now looking over these elements of per- 
 sonal skill, and considering the immense 
 amount of intellectual action they imply, w^e 
 cannot but admit the applicability to our 
 present circumstances of the sage remark 
 made by Matthews nearly a century ago ; 
 that though '' attentive study and practice 
 will, in some degree, ensure success, yet ge- 
 nius must be added before the whole finesse 
 of the game can be acquired," i.e., before the 
 master strokes of skill can be added that con- 
 stitute ?i fine player. Even in this age, when 
 so many well-cultivated minds are engaged, 
 very few such players are found. We may 
 truly apply the adage of Horace : 
 
 Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum, 
 
 It is not given to every man to attain to first-rate dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 The powers required are not at every 
 man's command ; they require special natural 
 
 1 See Philosophy of Whist, pp. 84, 85.
 
 212 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 mental gifts, without which no amount of 
 teaching, or study, or practice, will produce 
 them. 
 
 But after all there is the great consolation 
 that these high mental requirements only ap- 
 ply to the Whist element of personal skill in 
 its higher grades. The other and the more 
 important element, i.e.^ the knowledge of sys- 
 tem, has no such limitations. Any person of 
 ordinary intelligence may, by study and prac- 
 tice, master this branch of the subject, and 
 become a .y^2/;z<3^ player. And, no doubt, with 
 the same modicum of mental power, he may 
 also advance a certain degree in the more 
 difficult paths ; so that although he may not 
 take the first rank, he may still earn the char- 
 acter of quite a good Whist player, and an 
 especially desirable partner. 
 
 We now come, finally, to the latest phase 
 of Whist Evolution, The Latter-day Improve- 
 inents, consisting substantially of the Philo- 
 sophical Game, but with the addition of 
 many complex additions of minute detail. 
 We have shown, as due to our American 
 cousins, with what energy and enthusiasm 
 the latter-day Whist has been taken up in 
 their country, and we have only here to 
 make some remarks on its position on this 
 side of the Atlantic.
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 213 
 
 There can be no doubt that the gradual 
 progress of this phase of the Evolution has 
 been viewed with much interest, and with 
 some favour, in this country, as is proved 
 by the wide acceptance of many of the earlier 
 changes. The lead of the penultimate from 
 five, for example, soon took root, and has 
 now become very general. The extension to 
 the more complete American Leads, is also 
 now tolerably well known. The echo of the 
 trump call too, and the systems of unblock- 
 ing, are often played. These things seem to 
 show a leaning, among English Whist play- 
 ers, towards more extended communications 
 which, when they become better known and 
 more fully acknowledged, may probably be 
 admitted into English Whist in good circles. 
 
 Although, however, we know that many 
 good players have studied and approved the 
 new forms generally, it cannot yet be said 
 that they have become so popular as to im- 
 ply the full reception of the whole system. 
 '* Cavendish," in his reported conversations 
 while in America, has attributed this chiefly 
 to the national British conservative feeling, 
 and probably this may have some retarding 
 influence. But there are other elements 
 which should not be lost sight of. 
 
 In the first place, the slow progress of the 
 Latter-day Improvements in this country
 
 214 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 may be due partly to the difficulty of their 
 acquirement. When the Trump signal was 
 introduced, the great players complained that 
 it made Whist too easy. But this cannot be 
 said of its scqiielcE. " Cavendish " himself said 
 ("Whist Developments," p. 2): 
 
 No doubt moderate players may lack the quick percep- 
 tion which would enable them to take advantage of the 
 American rules [and a fortiori of the many since added] 
 . . . Whether the student will ever be able to profit 
 by the application of such rules must depend on his apti- 
 tude for the game. 
 
 And a glance at the nevv^est description of 
 the latter-day Whist, namely, Mr. Hamil- 
 ton's book (see ante, pp. 170 to 173), in which 
 the details are extended far beyond " Caven- 
 dish's " limits, must still further tend to dis- 
 courage its study, except by those who bring 
 to it the American zeal and enthusiasm. 
 
 And there is another consideration pecu- 
 liar to England, namely, that here Whist is 
 ahva3'S played for money ; for the zeal which 
 has led the x\mericans, in their great Whist 
 festivals, to abolish stakes and to play for the 
 mere love of the game, has not yet spread 
 to this side of the ocean. Heretofore, w4th 
 Hoyle's or the Philosophical Game, the differ- 
 ence between the results of mediocre and of 
 accomplished skill (tempered as it has been
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 215 
 
 by the large preponderance of luck at Short 
 Whist with full honours), has been so mod- 
 erate that the players would not hesitate to 
 risk it for the excitement of the chance 
 events. But with the new game, the pre- 
 ponderance of skill, under the new facilities 
 of communication, might become so largely 
 augmented as considerably to modify this 
 aspect of the play. 
 
 Then the example of the American experi- 
 ence has not been altogether encouraging. 
 The remarkable proceedings which have 
 lately attracted attention, involving proposals 
 to introduce serious changes in the ethical 
 conditions of the game of Whist, have not 
 been lost on careful observers here ; and in the 
 face of the differences of opinion revealed 
 thereby, the new developments can hardly be 
 expected to make so much way here as the 
 merits of their invention would deserve. 
 
 In the meantime, however, it is probable 
 that as the really meritorious improvements 
 become more known, they will be gradually 
 taken advantage of by those who care to 
 learn them. And even now, there can be no 
 reason why players, who are sufficiently en- 
 thusiastic about Whist improvements, might 
 not form small coteries of their own where 
 the new system might be tried after the 
 iVmerican model, without interfering with the
 
 2l6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 existing club practices and rules. This would 
 give the opportunity of thoroughly testing 
 the system, and at the same time of endea- 
 vouring to apply to it any safeguards which 
 it might be found to require.
 
 APPENDICES
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 SOME MODEL WHIST HANDS OF 
 EARLY DATE* 
 
 (Arranged by " Cavendish " and inserted by his permission.) 
 
 i\T the time the author of this work wrote, 
 in 1861, suggesting the use of Model Games 
 or portions of Games, for instruction in 
 Whist, he was not aware of any previous 
 examples of them. But later investigations 
 (chiefly due to the inquiries of *' Cavendish") 
 have revealed some early specimens which 
 are very interesting, both on historical and 
 technical grounds. 
 
 Example No. i. 
 
 The first one comes essentially from Hoyle 
 himself. It is given in the extract from the 
 '^ Humours of Whist," quoted in Chapter III., 
 page 40, and published the very year of the 
 
 *See remark in Chap. V., page 77.
 
 220 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 date of Hoyle's first book, 1743. It is an ex- 
 ample of the latter portion of a hand, in which 
 the game is won by a brilliant coup, in all 
 probability devised and taught by him. It 
 comprises the last six tricks only, but " Caven- 
 dish " has ingeniously added the earlier por- 
 tion, and the whole is described, with anno- 
 tations, in an elegant little work called 
 '' Musical Whist with Living Cards " (De la 
 Rue, 1891). 
 
 The complete deal is as follows: 
 
 spades. lo, 9, 3. 
 Hearts, 6, 4, 3, 2. 
 Clubs, Kg., 10. 
 Diamonds, Q., 10, 7, 6. 
 
 Spades, Kg., Q., 
 
 
 
 Shuffle) 
 A 
 
 
 Spades^ 5, 4, 2. 
 
 Kn., 6. 
 
 iz- 
 
 
 
 Hearts, 10, 8, 7. 
 
 Hearts, Kn., 9. 
 Clubs, Q.,9, 2. 
 
 Calcul 
 zzle. ) 
 Dealer 
 
 
 Y 
 
 Clubs, Kg., 5, 3 
 Diam., 9, 8, 3, 2 
 
 Diam., A, Kn., 5, 
 
 ^f^~~^ 
 
 
 
 
 4. 
 
 'in 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 "" (Lurchum) 
 
 
 
 Spades, A., 8, 7. 
 Hearts, A., Kg., Q., 5. 
 Clubs, A., 8, 7, 6, 4. 
 Diam., Kg. 
 
 Spades trumps. The 6 turned up. 
 
 Score, 9- all (equivalent to 4-all at Short Whist or 6-all when the 
 game is played seven up, as at the American League ClubsJ.
 
 appendix a 221 
 
 The Play. 
 
 The asterisk marks the winner of the trick. 
 
 Trick I. 
 
 A 6 of D. 
 
 Y 2 
 
 B Kg. - 
 
 *Z A. " 
 
 Trick 2. 
 Z Kg.of Sp. 
 
 A 3 '' 
 
 Y 2 
 
 *B A - 
 
 Trick 3. 
 
 *B Ke. of H. 
 
 Z 9 
 
 A 2 
 
 Y 7 
 
 Trick 4. 
 
 *B Q.of H. 
 
 Z Kn. - 
 
 A 3 
 
 Y 8 - 
 
 ^&'
 
 222 APPENDIX A 
 
 Trick 5. 
 
 B A.of H. 
 
 *Z 6of Sp. 
 
 A 4of H. 
 
 Y 10 " 
 
 Note.— When you are not strong enough to lead a 
 trump, you are weak enough to force the adversary. Clay, 
 " Short Whist." A valuable maxim. 
 
 Trick 6. 
 
 *Z Kg. of Sp. 
 
 A 9 
 
 Y 4 
 
 B 7 
 
 Trick 7. 
 
 *Z Kg. of Sp. 
 
 A 10 
 
 Y 5 
 
 B... 8 
 
 (Now begins the part described in the " Humours of 
 Whist.") 
 
 Trick 8. 
 
 Z..... 2of CI. 
 
 A ID '' 
 
 *Y Kg.- 
 
 B 4 - 
 
 Note. — Lurchum's play is very good. He allows Y to 
 win with the Kg. of Clubs that his partner may be led up 
 to.
 
 APPENDIX A 223 
 
 Trick 9. 
 
 Y..... 5 of CI. 
 
 B 6 '' 
 
 *Z Q. - 
 
 A Kn." 
 
 Trick 10. 
 
 Z 9 of CI. 
 
 A 7 of D. 
 
 Y 3 of CI. 
 
 ^B A. " 
 
 Note. — Sir Calculation's play is very bad. At trick 9 he 
 should finesse the 9 of Clubs. Not having done so, he 
 should see that the Ace of Clubs is being held up against 
 him, and at trick 10 should lead the 4 of Diamonds. If 
 Sir Calculation finesses the Club at trick 9, then comes 
 Shuffle's turn to play a good coup. Having won with the 
 Knave of Clubs at trick 9, he should lead the 6 of Hearts 
 at trick 10 and next the 7 of Diamonds (not the Queen). 
 
 After this B takes the other three tricks 
 with the two Clubs and the Heart, thus win- 
 ning- the odd trick and the game. 
 
 It will be noticed that in the extract where 
 the hand is described there are some calcula- 
 tions of odds given, which look like burlesque ; 
 but " Cavendish " points out that they are 
 really to be found in Hoyle, though not exact- 
 ly as travestied.
 
 224 appendix a 
 
 Example No. 2. 
 
 Twelve years afterwards, but still in 
 Hoyle's time, there was published, in a liter- 
 ary journal called TJic Connoisseur, for March 
 20, 1755, a description of a complete game; 
 and though the cards are not given, enough 
 is said to enable a skilful and experienced 
 reader to discover how they must lie ; and 
 '' Cavendish " has again successfully under- 
 taken the task. 
 
 The article in which the description is 
 found is written b}^ Colman and Thornton, its 
 subject being Hoyle's Whist generally : and 
 it contains a burlesque proposal that as Hoyle 
 was then giving up personal teaching, a 
 school should be formed where young ladies 
 of quality might be instructed in the arts and 
 mysteries of Whist play. The writer saj^s : 
 
 The science of Whist is more complex then even algebra 
 or the mathematics ; the logarithms of Napier are not so 
 hard to be understood as many of Hoyle's cases and prop- 
 ositions ; as an instance of which take the following most 
 obvious and easy one : 
 
 Then comes the following passage, the ex- 
 planatory notes in brackets being added by 
 " Cavendish," to aid the description. The 
 game is at the usual '' Long Whist," ten up.
 
 APPENDIX A 225 
 
 A and B are partners against C and D. A and B have 
 scored 3 and want to save their lurch {i.e., want 2 tricks 
 to score five, which would prevent C and D scoring a 
 double game] C and D are at " short can-ye " [i.e. score of 
 8 which enables them to " call honours "] and consequently 
 both sides play for two tricks. 
 
 C has the deal and turns up the Knave of Hearts. C 
 " asks," his partner, who refuses {i.e., C having two hon- 
 ours asks his partner if he has one } which would win the 
 game without playing : but D has none]. B has the lead 
 and runs his strong suit, Spades, two rounds, with Ace and 
 King. A [has none and] discards his weakest suit, Dia- 
 monds. Then B forces his partner. 
 
 A leads a strong Club, which B refuses [having none]. 
 A forces B, who, by leading Spades plays into A's hand, 
 {i.e., gives A the lead] who returns a Club and so they get 
 to a saw between them. 
 
 After this A leads [a trump] through C's honours 
 [which he knows C holds by the call] B finesses the 10, 
 and plays a Spade, which A trumps. 
 
 Now B, by laying behind C's King and Knave of trumps 
 [which B knows by the call are there], makes the tenace 
 with Ace and Queen, and A having the long trump brings 
 in his thirteenth Club. 
 
 Consequently A and B get a slam against their adver- 
 saries C and D, and score a single game towards the 
 rubber. 
 
 '' Cavendish " points out that there is some 
 mistake in the last paragraph but one, but 
 the general interpretation of the hand is quite 
 clear, and he has furnished the following 
 statement of it. It is a peculiar hand, for it 
 is interesting to note that each player has 
 15
 
 226 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 only three suits, and that to no trick do all 
 the players follow suit. 
 
 It would rather seem from the wording of 
 the article that the hand emanated from 
 Hoyle himself, a nd this is quite possible, 
 though not proved. It is at any rate ingen- 
 iously chosen, to show the skilful advantage 
 taken of the position of the cards. 
 
 The deal, as settled by '' Cavendish," is as 
 follows : 
 
 Hearts, 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. 
 Clubs, A., Kg., Q., 7, 4. 
 Diam., 4, 2. 
 Spades, None. 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 Hearts^ None. 
 
 
 
 Hearts, Kg., Kn.,2. 
 
 Clubs, Kn., 9, 6, 2. 
 
 D 
 
 C 
 
 Clubs, 10, 8, 5, 3, 
 
 Diam., A., Kg., Q., 
 
 
 (dealer) 
 
 Diam., None. 
 
 Kn., 10, 9, 8. 
 
 
 
 Spades, Q., Kn., 8 
 
 Spades, 3. 
 
 
 (leader) 
 B 
 
 7. 5. 4. 
 
 Hearts, A., Q., 10, 8. 
 
 Clubs, None. 
 
 Diam., 6, 5, 3. 
 
 Spades, A., Kg., 10, 9, 6, 2, 
 
 Hearts trumps — Knave turned up. 
 
 Score (Long Whist), A, B, 3— C, D, 8. 
 
 C (according to the Long Whist Rule) asks his partner, ''Can 
 you one? " B therefore knows that King and Knave are in C"s 
 hand.
 
 APPENDIX A 227 
 
 The following is the play, annotated by 
 '' Cavendish " : 
 
 Trick I. 
 
 *B A. of Sp. 
 
 D 3 ^' 
 
 A 2 of D. 
 
 C 4 of Sp, 
 
 Trick 2. 
 
 ^B Kg.of Sp. 
 
 D 7of D. 
 
 A 4of D. 
 
 C 5 of Sp. 
 
 Note. — D has no trump. 
 
 Trick 3. 
 
 B.. 2 of Sp. 
 
 D 8of D. 
 
 -^A 3of H. 
 
 C 7of Sp. 
 
 Trick 4. 
 *A A. of CI. 
 
 C 3 '^ 
 
 B 3 of D. 
 
 D 2 of CI. 
 
 Note. — A should lead a trump. B should not return 
 it. but force again.
 
 228 APPENDIX A 
 
 Trick 5. 
 
 *A Kg. of CI. 
 
 C 5 
 
 B 5 of D. 
 
 D 6of CL 
 
 Trick 6. 
 
 *A Q. of CL 
 
 C 8 
 
 B 6 of D. 
 
 D 9of CL 
 
 Trick 7. 
 
 A 4of CL 
 
 C 10 " 
 
 *B..., 8 of H. 
 
 D Kn. of CL 
 
 Trick 8. 
 
 B 6 of Sp. 
 
 D .....9of D. 
 
 *A 4 of H. 
 
 C 8 of Sp. 
 
 Trick 9. 
 
 A 5of H. 
 
 C 2 " 
 
 *B 10 '' 
 
 D loof D. 
 
 Note. — Probably the coup intended by the author ; but 
 it is obvious that B must play 10 of Hearts and not re- 
 turn the trump, as he can count all the hands.
 
 APPENDIX A 229 
 
 Trick 10. 
 
 B Q. of Sp. 
 
 D Kn. of D. 
 
 *A 6of H. 
 
 C Kn. of Sp. 
 
 Trick II. 
 
 *A 7 of CI. 
 
 C Q. of Sp. 
 
 B 10 '' 
 
 D Q. of D. 
 
 Note. — The author says A " brings in " his 13th Club. 
 He wins with it if C refuses the force. If C trumps, B 
 overtrumps and (Trick 12) leads 10 of Sp. with the same 
 result. 
 
 Trick 12. 
 
 A Q. of H. 
 
 C Kg. " 
 
 *B A. - 
 
 D Kg. of D. 
 
 Trick 13. 
 
 B makes Q. of H. 
 
 Thus A B win 7 by cards and score a single. 
 
 Example No. 3. 
 
 A third model Whist hand was published 
 in 1 79 1, two years after Hoyle's death, in an
 
 230 APPENDIX A 
 
 Epic poem, " Whist," by Alexander Thom- 
 son, mentioned in Chapter III. of this work, 
 p. 47. This hand embodies a little story, as 
 follows : 
 
 Pusillo, before demanding the hand of Sini- 
 Imda, desires to ascertain whether she can 
 keep her temper at cards. The opportunity 
 presents itself at Whist, when Smilinda and 
 he are partners against Aunt Rebecca and 
 Squire Booby. In order to try his lady-love, 
 Pusillo purposely omits to trump an oppo- 
 nent's winning card, thereby losing the 
 •game. The effect of this is explained here- 
 after. 
 
 The play of the cards, as it would be seen 
 by a bystander, is given in vei'se, of which 
 the following is a specimen : 
 
 " The Squire leads clubs, and Aunt Rebecca's queen 
 Retires in triumph from the level green ; 
 But when she tried the suit another round, 
 Fate was not then so favourable found ; 
 For scarce had Booby's king displayed his face 
 'Ere seized and butchered by Pusillo's ace." 
 
 The cards in each hand have to be made out 
 from such data, and '' Cavendish " has done 
 this, publishing the whole hand, with annota- 
 tions, in the work " Musical Whist," already 
 mentioned. His remarks show that the play 
 was not of a high order.
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 231 
 
 The deal was as follows : 
 
 Diamonds, A., 10, 3, 2. 
 Spades, Q. , 7. 3- 
 Hearts, 5, 3. 
 Clubs, Kg., 9, 8, 2. 
 
 (Young Booby.) 
 A 
 
 3 ? 2 
 
 a p cS 
 
 If} -^ ~- 
 
 B 
 
 (Aunt Rebecca.) 
 
 Diamojtds, Kn., 4, 
 
 3- 
 
 Spades, 8, 4. 
 Hearts, Kg., 9, 8, 
 
 6 
 Clubs, A., Kn., 
 
 10, 3- 
 
 Diamonds, Q. , Kn. 
 
 9, 7- 
 Spades, Kg., 5, 2. 
 Hearts, Kn. , 10, 4, 
 
 2. 
 Clubs, 6, 4. 
 
 Diamonds, 8, 5. 
 Spades, A., Kn., 10. 9, 6. 
 Hearts, A., Q.. 7- 
 Clubs, Q., 7. 5- 
 
 Diamonds trumps— 9 turned up. 
 Score (Long Whist), 9-all. 
 
 Trick I. 
 A 2 of CI. 
 
 x'y.. 3 '' 
 
 ^B Q. '' 
 
 Z 4 ^' 
 
 B. 
 Z. 
 A 
 
 TVzV/^ 2. 
 
 7 of CI. 
 6 " 
 
 .A " 
 
 Note.— Aunt Rebecca's return of the Club, after win- 
 ning with the Queen, is bad. She should have opened the 
 Spade suit. But good play is not expected from her, as
 
 232 APPENDIX A 
 
 she onl)^ sat down to " make the other pair," i.e., to make 
 up the rubber. Young Booby justifies his name ; he should 
 have passed the 7 of Clubs keeping the King guarded. 
 
 Trick 3. 
 
 *Y Kn. of CI. 
 
 B 5 
 
 Z 2 
 
 A 8 
 
 Trick 4. 
 
 *Y 10 of CI. 
 
 B 5 of D. 
 
 Z 7 '^ 
 
 A 9 of CI. 
 
 Note. — It is doubtful whether Pusillo should lead to 
 force his partner here ; but perhaps his play may be de- 
 fended by the state of the score. 
 
 Trick 5. 
 
 Y Kg. of H. 
 
 ^B A. 
 
 Z 2 
 
 A 3 
 
 Trick 6. 
 *B Q. of H. 
 
 Z 4 '' 
 
 A 5 
 
 Y 6 - 
 
 Note. — Aunt Rebecca will not lead from her strong 
 suit of Spades. She returns the opponents' suit. Her 
 play is, of course, bad.
 
 APPENDIX A 233 
 
 Trick 7. 
 
 B 7ofH. 
 
 Z 10 " 
 
 *A 2 of D. 
 
 Y 8of H. 
 
 Trick 8. 
 
 A 3 of Sp. 
 
 Y 4 " 
 
 ^B A. ^' 
 
 Z 5 " 
 
 Trick 9. 
 
 B 6 of Sp. 
 
 *Z Kg." 
 
 A 7 
 
 Y 8 
 
 Trick 10. 
 
 Z 9 of D. 
 
 A 3 '' 
 
 *Y Kg." 
 
 B 8 " 
 
 Note. — Smilinda's best lead is probably Q. of D. 
 
 Trick II. 
 
 Y 6of D. 
 
 B 9 of Sp. 
 
 Z Kn.ofD. 
 
 *A A.
 
 234 APPENDIX A ] 
 
 Trick 12. I 
 
 A Q.ofSp. i 
 
 Y 9 of H. : 
 
 B lo of Sp. 
 
 *Z Q. of D. 1 
 
 i 
 Note. — Pusillo's play in not trumping the winning 
 
 Spade is inexcusable. The poet explains it thus : i 
 
 I 
 
 " And now a lady rais'd to full command, \ 
 
 The queen of spades, appear'd from Booby's hand. I 
 
 With but two spades Pusillo's hand begun ; 
 
 And four of trumps might now the trick have won, > 
 
 And had he so inclined, his chance was sure, I 
 This trick to conquer and the game secure. 
 
 But thoughts of different hue his mind engross i 
 
 His am'rous heart contemns the rubber's loss ; ; 
 
 With wilful error slips the trump to play, \ 
 
 And throws at one rash stroke their all away." | 
 
 Of course, Pusillo's conduct in playing 
 badly on purpose, cannot be defended ; even 
 if the stakes were ** love " his scheme was 
 contemptible. 
 
 Trick 13. 
 
 Z Kn. of H. 
 
 *A 10 of D. 
 
 Y 4 '' 
 
 B Kn. of Sp. 
 
 Y, Z lose the odd trick and the game.
 
 APPENDIX A 235 
 
 The subsequent proceedings are best told 
 in the following quotation : 
 
 " And when the falling cards the veil withdrew 
 Which hid the grossness of his fault from view, 
 The gentle creature could endure no more, 
 She started up, she stamp'd, she raged, she swore ; 
 Proclaim'd her wrong and threw the cards away. 
 Nor longer in his presence deign'd to stay." 
 
 She repented, and wrote to him, beseech- 
 ing him : 
 
 " For sweet pity's sake 
 No longer to resent her rude mistake." 
 
 But he was inexorable, replying : 
 
 ■' When cards and dice are banished from the land, 
 Pusillo then will ask Smilinda's hand." 
 
 The annotator adds : 
 
 "And suppose Pusillo had trumped the 
 Queen of Spades and that Pusillo and Smi- 
 linda had married. What with Pusillo's 
 meanness and Smilinda's temper, is it likely 
 that the union would have turned out hap- 
 pily ? Perhaps it was better as it was ! "
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN 
 WHIST LEAGUE. 
 
 AS REVISED AND ADOPTED BY THE FOURTH AMERI- 
 CAN WHIST CONGRESS, HELD AT PHILADEL- 
 PHIA, MAY 22 TO 26, 1894. 
 
 (Reprinted, by permission, from the Official Proceedings.) 
 
 Article I. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 Section i. This organization shall be 
 known as the "American Whist League." 
 
 Article II. 
 
 MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 Section i. The following clubs shall con- 
 stitute the charter membership of said 
 League ; viz. : 
 
 (Here follows a list of twenty-five clubs.) 
 
 Sec. 2. All members of said League must 
 assent to this Constitution, and adopt as their
 
 APPENDIX B 237 
 
 Standard the Code of Laws promulgated by 
 said League ; provided, however, that League 
 clubs may adopt any rule requiring or per- 
 mitting methods of scoring or of forming the 
 table different from those prescribed in said 
 laws. 
 
 Sec. 3. Any organized Whist Club, or 
 other club at which the play of Whist is a 
 prominent feature, may, with the approval 
 of the Executive Committee, hereinafter pro- 
 vided for, become a member of said League 
 on complying with the provisions of the pre- 
 ceding section. 
 
 Sec. 4. Every club belonging to said 
 League shall pay to the Treasurer, herein- 
 after provided for, an annual fee of Ten Dol- 
 lars. 
 
 Sec. 5. Individual Whist players may be 
 admitted as Associate Members by vote of 
 the Executive Committee, hereinafter pro- 
 vided for ; — each associate member shall pay 
 to the Treasurer, hereinafter provided for, an 
 annual fee of Two Dollars. Associate mem- 
 bers shall have the rights of delegates at An- 
 nual Meetings so far only as to permit them 
 to speak, make motions, serve on committees, 
 participate in contests for individuals, and in 
 all deliberations of said League. 
 
 Sec. 6. Individual Whist players, on nom- 
 
 ation by the Executive Committee, may be
 
 238 APPENDIX B 
 
 made Honorary Members of said League by 
 the unanimous vote of any meeting of said 
 League. Such members shall not be liable 
 for any fee, nor shall they be eligible to 
 office or privileged to vote at any meeting of 
 said League unless they are members of a 
 club belonging to said League, 
 
 Sec. 7. If the annual fee of any member 
 or associate member remains unpaid for one 
 year, subsequent to any meeting of said 
 League, the Executive Committee, herein- 
 after provided for, shall have power to sus- 
 pend such member, after having given thirty 
 days' notice of their intention. Such mem- 
 ber is subject to expulsion at the next meet- 
 ing of said League by a two-thirds vote of the 
 members present. 
 
 Article IIL 
 general officers. 
 
 Section i. The General Officers of the 
 League shall consist of a President, a Vice- 
 President, a Treasurer, a Recording Secre- 
 tary, and a Corresponding Secretary. 
 
 Sec. 2. The General Officers shall be elect- 
 ed at the Annual Congresses hereinafter pro- 
 vided for, and shall hold office for one year, 
 and until their successors are elected.
 
 APPENDIX B 239 
 
 Sec. 3. Vacancies occurring- in the list of 
 General Officers during- any interim between 
 Congresses, may be filled by the Executive 
 Committee until the next Annual Congress. 
 
 Sec. 4. The President shall preside at all 
 meetings of the League and of the Executive 
 Committee, and shall be ex officio a member 
 of all committees. At the end of his term of 
 office he shall become ex officio a member of 
 the Executive Committee and shall remain a 
 member thereof as long as he shall continue 
 an active member of a club belonging to the 
 League. 
 
 Sec. 5. The Vice-President shall perform 
 the duties of the President in the absence of 
 the President. 
 
 Sec. 6. The Treasurer shall have charge 
 of all funds of the League, subject to the 
 direction of the Executive Committee. 
 
 Sec. 7. The Recording Secretary shall 
 keep full records of all meetings of the 
 League and of the Executive Committee, 
 and shall perform such other duties as the 
 Executive Committee shall, from time to 
 time, direct. 
 
 Sec. 8. The Corresponding Secretary shall 
 have charge of all correspondence between 
 the Executive Committee and members of 
 the League ; shall preserve copies of all offi- 
 cial letters he writes, and all correspondence
 
 240 APPENDIX B 
 
 he receives, and shall perform such other 
 duties as the Executive Committee shall 
 from time to time direct. 
 
 Article IV. 
 
 DIRECTORS. 
 
 Section i. There shall be elected by the 
 League as hereinafter set forth, a Board of 
 Directors which shall not be less than twelve 
 in number, which number may at any time 
 be increased by an}' multiple of three. 
 
 Sec. 2. The Directors chosen at the Annual 
 Congress of 1894, shall, at the first meeting 
 of the Executive Committee after such elec- 
 tion, be divided by lot into three classes ; of 
 whom the first class shall hold ofhce until 
 the election of Directors at the Annual Con- 
 gress of 1895 ; the second class shall hold 
 office until such election at the Annual Con- 
 gress of 1896, and the third class shall hold 
 office until such election at the Annual Con- 
 gress of 1897. 
 
 Sec. 3. The Directors chosen at each Con- 
 gress, subsequent to that of 1894, shall hold 
 office until the election of Directors at the 
 Congress of the third 3'ear, subsequent to 
 their election, except in case of Directors 
 elected to fill a vacancy, and also except as
 
 APPENDIX B 241 
 
 hereinafter provided in case of an increase in 
 the membership of the Board. 
 
 Sec. 4. In case a vacancy occurs in the 
 Board of Directors, the Executive Committee 
 may fill the same until the next Annual Con- 
 gress, at which time a Director shall be 
 chosen for the balance of the unexpired term, 
 if any. 
 
 Sec. 5. In case the number of the Board of 
 Directors shall be increased at any Annual 
 Congress, the additional Directors shall be 
 divided into three classes to serve for one, 
 two, and three years, respectively, so that the 
 three classes of Directors shall be maintained 
 of equal numbers. 
 
 Article V. 
 Executive Committee. 
 
 Section i. The General Officers, the 
 Board of Directors, and such Ex-Presidents 
 as continue to be active members of clubs 
 belonging to the League, shall together con- 
 stitute an Executive Committee, or Board of 
 Government. 
 
 Sec. 2. The Executive Committee shall 
 have full control and management of the 
 business of the League, and the title to all 
 League property is hereby vested in them.
 
 242 APPENDIX B 
 
 They shall be subject, however, at all times 
 to the will of the League as expressed by a 
 vote of any Congress or meeting of the 
 League. 
 
 Sec. 3. Five members of the Executive 
 Committee shall constitute a quorum for the 
 transaction of business. 
 
 Article VL 
 meetings of the league. 
 
 Section i. There shall be held annually, 
 at such time and place as the Executive 
 Committee shall appoint, a meeting of the 
 League, to be known as an American Whist 
 Congress. 
 
 Sec. 2. At all such Congresses, each club 
 belonging to the League shall be entitled to 
 send as many delegates as it desires; but 
 each delegation shall be entitled to but one 
 vote, which shall be cast by a majority of the 
 delegation present at the time when the vote 
 is taken. No club shall be entitled to send 
 any person as a delegate who is not a mem- 
 ber of such club, and no person shall repre- 
 sent more than one club. 
 
 Sec. 3. At any Congress or other meeting 
 of the League a vote shall be taken b}^ clubs 
 at the request of the delegations represent- 
 ing any three clubs.
 
 APPENDIX B 243 
 
 Article VII. 
 
 AMENDiMENTS. 
 
 Section i. Propositions to amend the 
 code of Laws or to amend this Constitution, 
 may be made in writing at any meeting of 
 the League, but it shall require a vote of 
 three-fourths of the number present to adopt 
 such amendment. 
 
 Sec. 2. Amendments to the code of law^s 
 shall go into effect sixty days after the ad- 
 journment of the meeting of the League at 
 which they are adopted. 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN 
 WHIST LEAGUE, 1894-95. 
 
 president. 
 
 John M. Walton, 
 
 4205 Chester Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 vice-president. 
 
 Theodore Schwarz, 
 
 6 and 8 Sherman Street, Chicago, 111. 
 
 treasurer. 
 
 Benjamin L. Richards, 
 
 Rock Rapids, Iowa.
 
 244 APPENDIX B 
 
 recording secretary. 
 
 Walter H. Barney, 
 
 Industrial Trust Company Building, Providence, R. I. 
 
 corresponding secretary. 
 
 Robert H. Weems, 
 
 220 Lincoln Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 ex-president. 
 
 Eugene S. Elliott, 
 
 Pabst Building, Milwaukee, Wis. 
 
 DIRECTORS. 
 
 Te7-iii Expires iSgj. 
 
 J. H. Briggs, 
 
 Minneapolis Chess, Checker and Whist Club, 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 H. A. Mandell, 
 40 Buhl Block, Detroit, Mich. 
 
 E. Leroy Smith, 
 619 Broadway, Albany, N. Y. 
 
 P. J. TORMEY, 
 
 220 Sutter Street, San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 Tcr77t Expires i8qb. 
 
 Charles E. Coffin, 
 90 East Market Street, Indianapolis, Ind. 
 
 C. D. P. Hamilton, 
 Easton, Pa. 
 
 A. G. Safford, 
 1416 F Street, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Nicholas B. Trist, 
 162 Common Street, New Orleans, La.
 
 APPENDIX B 245 
 
 Term Expires iSgj. 
 
 George H. Fish, 
 37 Union Square, New York, N, Y. 
 
 B. D. Kribben, 
 Bank of Commerce Building, St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 George W. Morse, 
 28 State Street, Boston. Mass. 
 
 E. H. Shepard, 
 PortJand, Ore.
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 THE AMERICAN LAWS OF WHIST, 
 
 AS REVISED AND ADOPTED BY THE AMERICAN 
 WHIST LEAGUE AT THEIR THIRD CONGRESS, 
 CHICAGO, JUNE, 1893. 
 
 (Reprinted, by permission, from the Official Proceedings of the 
 Congress.) 
 
 THE G A:\IE. 
 
 I. A game consists of seven points, each trick above 
 counting one. Tiie value of the game is determined 
 by deducting the losers' score from seven. 
 
 SIX 
 
 FORMING THE TABLE. 
 
 2. Those first in the room have the preference. If, by 
 reason of two or more arriving at the same time, more 
 than four assemble, the preference among the last comers 
 is determined by cutting, a lower cut giving the preference 
 over all cutting higher. A complete table consists of six ; 
 the four having the preference play. Partners are deter- 
 mined by cutting : the highest two play against the lowest 
 two ; the lowest deals and has the choice of seats and 
 cards. 
 
 3. If two players cut intermediate cards of equal value,
 
 APPENDIX C 247 
 
 they cut again, and the lower of the new cut plays with 
 the original lowest. 
 
 4. If three players cut cards of equal value, they cut 
 again. If the fourth has cut the highest card, the lowest 
 two of the new cut are partners, and the lowest deals. 
 If the fourth has cut the lowest card, he deals, and the 
 highest two of the new cut are partners. 
 
 5. At the end of a game, if there arc more than four 
 belonging to the table, a sufificient number of the players 
 retire to admit those awaiting their turn to play. In de- 
 termining which players remain in, those who have played 
 a less number of consecutive games have the preference 
 over all who have played a greater number ; between two 
 or more who have played an equal number, the preference 
 is determined by cutting, a lower cut giving the preference 
 over all cutting higher. 
 
 6. To entitle one to enter a table, he must declare his 
 intention to do so before any one of the players has cut 
 for the purpose of commencing a new game or of cutting 
 out. 
 
 CUTTING. 
 
 7. In cutting, the ace is the lowest card. All must cut 
 from the same pack. If a player exposes more than one 
 card, he must cut again. Drawing cards from the out- 
 spread pack may be resorted to in place of cutting. 
 
 SHUFFLING. 
 
 8. Before every deal, the cards must be shuffled. 
 When two packs are used, the dealer's partner must col- 
 lect and shuffle the cards for the ensuing deal, and place 
 them at his right hand. In all cases the dealer may shuf- 
 fle last. 
 
 9. A pack must not be shuffled during the play of a 
 hand, nor so as to expose the face of any card.
 
 248 APPENDIX C 
 
 CUTTING TO THE DEALER. 
 
 10. The dealer must present the pack to his right-hand 
 adversary to be cut ; the adversary must take a por- 
 tion from the top of the pack and place it towards the 
 dealer ; at least four cards must be left in each packet ; 
 the dealer must reunite the packets by placing the one not 
 removed in cutting upon the other. 
 
 11. If, in cutting or in reuniting the separate packets, a 
 card is exposed, the pack must be reshuffled by the dealer 
 and cut again ; if there is any confusion of the cards, or 
 doubt as to where the pack was separated, there must be 
 a new cut. 
 
 12. If the dealer reshuffles the pack after it has been 
 properly cut, he loses his deal. 
 
 DEALING. 
 
 13. When the pack has been properly cut and reunited, 
 the dealer must distribute the cards, one at a time to each 
 player in regular rotation, beginning at his left. The last, 
 which is the trump card, must be turned up before the 
 dealer. At the end of the hand, or when the deal is lost, 
 the deal passes to the player next to the dealer on his left, 
 and so on to each in turn. 
 
 14. There must be a new deal by the same dealer : — 
 
 I. If any card except the last is faced in the pack. 
 
 II. If, during the deal or during the play of the hand, 
 the pack is proved incorrect or imperfect ; but any prior 
 score made with that pack shall stand. 
 
 15. If, during the deal, a card is exposed, the side not 
 in fault may demand a new deal, provided neither of that 
 side has touched a card. If a new deal does not take 
 place, the exposed card is not liable to be called. 
 
 16. Anv one dealing out of turn, or with his adversaries'
 
 APPENDIX C 249 
 
 cards, may be stopped before the trump card is turned, after 
 which the deal is vahd, and the cards, if changed, so re- 
 main. 
 
 MISDEALING. 
 
 17. It is a misdeal :— 1 1 • j 
 
 I If the dealer omits to have the pack cut, and his ad- 
 versaries discover the error before the trump card is 
 turned, and before looking at any of their cards. 
 
 II. If he deals a card incorrectly and fails to correct the 
 error before dealing another. 
 
 III. If he counts the cards on the table or m the re- 
 mainder of the pack. 
 
 IV If having a perfect pack, he does not deal to each 
 player the proper number of cards, and the error is dis- 
 covered before all have played to the f^rst trick. 
 
 V. If he looks at the trump card before the deal is com- 
 pleted. , , 
 
 VI. If he places the trump card face downwards upon 
 his own or any other player's cards. ^ , • , 
 
 A misdeal loses the deal, unless during the deal either 
 of the adversaries touches a card or in any other manner 
 interrupts the dealer. 
 
 THE TRUMP CARD, 
 l" 
 
 o The dealer must leave the trump card face upwards 
 uu the table until it is his turn to play to the f^rst trick. If 
 it is left on the table until after the second trick has been 
 turned and quitted, it is liable to be called. After it has 
 been lawfully taken up, it must not be named, and any 
 player naming it is liable to have his highest or his lowest 
 trump called by either adversary. A player may, however. 
 ask what the trump suit is.
 
 250 APPENDIX C 
 
 IRREGULARITIES IN THE HANDS. 
 
 19. If, at any time after all have played to the nrst trick, 
 the pack being perfect, a player is found to have either 
 more or less than his correct number of cards, and his ad- 
 versaries have their right number, the latter, upon the dis- 
 covery of such surplus or deficiency, may consult and shall 
 have the choice : — 
 
 I, To have a new deal ; or 
 
 II. To have the hand played out; in which case the 
 surplus or missing card or cards are not taken into ac- 
 count. 
 
 If either of the adversaries also has more or less than 
 his correct number, there must be a new deal. 
 
 I any player has a surplus card, by reason of an omis- 
 sion to play to a trick, his adversaries can exercise the 
 foregoing privilege only after he has played to the trick 
 following the one in which such omission occurred. 
 
 CARDS LIABLE TO BE CALLED. 
 
 20. The following cards are liable to be called by either 
 adversary : — 
 
 I. Every card faced upon the table otheru'ise than in 
 the regular course of play, but not including a card led out 
 of turn. 
 
 II. Every card thrown with the one led or played to the 
 current trick. The player must indicate the one led or 
 played. 
 
 III. Every card so held by a player that his partner sees 
 any portion of its face. 
 
 IV. All the cards in a hand lowered or shown by a 
 player so that his partner sees more than one card of it. 
 
 V. Every card named by the player holding it.
 
 APPENDIX C 251 
 
 21. All cards liable to be called must be placed and left 
 face upwards on the table. A player must lead or play 
 them when they are called, provided he can do so without 
 revoking. The call may be repeated at each trick until 
 the card is played. A player cannot be prevented from 
 leading or playing a card liable to be called ; if he can get 
 rid of it in the course of play, no penalty remains. 
 
 22. If a player leads a card better than any of his ad- 
 versaries hold of the suit, and then leads one or more 
 other cards without waiting for his partner to play, the 
 latter may be called upon by either adversary to take the 
 first trick, and the other cards thus improperly played are 
 liable to be called ; it makes no difference whether he 
 plays them one after the other or throws them all on the 
 table together ; after the first card is played, the others are 
 liable to be called. 
 
 23. A player having a card liable to be called must not 
 play another until the adversaries have stated whether or 
 not they wish to call the card liable to the penalty. If he 
 plays another card without awaiting the decision of the 
 adversaries, such other card also is liable to be called. 
 
 LEADING OUT OF TURN. 
 
 24. If any player leads out of turn, a suit may be called 
 from him or his partner the first time it is the turn of 
 either of them to lead. The penalty can be enforced only 
 oy the adversary on the right of the player from whom a 
 suit can lawfully be called. 
 
 If a player, so called on to lead a suit, has none of it, 
 or if all have played to the false lead, no penalty can be 
 enforced. If all have not played to the trick, the cards 
 erroneously played to such false lead are not liable to be 
 called, and must be taken back.
 
 252 APPENDIX C 
 
 PLAYING OUT OF TURN. 
 
 25. If the third hand plays before the second, the fourth 
 hand may also play before the second. 
 
 26. If the third hand has not played, and the fourth 
 hand plays before the second, the latter may be called 
 upon by the third hand to play his highest or lowest card 
 of the suit led, or if he has none, to trump or not to trump 
 the trick. 
 
 ABANDONED HANDS. 
 
 27. If all four players throw their cards on the table, 
 face upwards, no further play of that hand is permitted. 
 The result of the hand, as then claimed or admitted, is 
 established, provided that, if a revoke is discovered, the 
 
 revoke penalty attaches. 
 
 REVOKING. 
 
 28. A revoke is a renounce in error, not corrected in 
 time. A player renounces in error, when, holding one or 
 more cards of the suit led, he plays a card of a different 
 suit. 
 
 A renounce in error may be corrected by the player 
 making it, before the trick in which it occurs has been 
 turned and quitted, unless either he or his partner, whether 
 in his right turn or otherwise, has led or played to the fol- 
 lowing trick, or unless his partner has asked whether or 
 not he has any of the suit renounced. 
 
 29. If a plaver corrects his mistake in time to save a 
 revoke, the card improperly played by him is liable to be 
 called ; any player or players, who have played after him, 
 may withdraw their cards and substitute others ; the cards 
 so v/ithdrawn are not liable to be called.
 
 APPENDIX C 253 
 
 30. The penalty for revoking is the transfer of two 
 tricks from the revoking side to their adversaries ; it can 
 be enforced for as many revokes as occur during the 
 hand. The revoking side cannot win the game in that 
 hand ; if both sides revoke, neither can win the game in 
 that hand. 
 
 31. The revoking player and his partner may require the 
 hand, in which the revoke has been made, to be played out, 
 and score all points made by them up to the score of six. 
 
 32. At the end of a hand, the claimants of a revoke 
 may search all the tricks. If the cards have been mixed, 
 the claim may be urged and proved if possible ; but no 
 proof is necessary, and the revoke is established, if, after 
 it has been claimed, the accused player or his partner 
 mixes the cards before they have been examined to the 
 satisfaction of the adversaries. 
 
 33. The revoke can be claimed at any time before the 
 cards have been presented and cut for the following deal, 
 but not thereafter. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 34. Any one, during the play of a trick and before the 
 cards have been touched for the purpose of gathering 
 them together, may demand that the players draw their 
 cards. 
 
 35. If any one, prior to his partner playing, calls atten- 
 tion in any manner to the trick or to the score, the ad- 
 versary last to play to the trick may require the offender's 
 partner to play his highest or lowest of the suit led, or, if 
 he has none, to trump or not to trump the trick. 
 
 36. If any player says " I can win the rest," " The rest 
 are ours," " We have the game," or words to that effect, 
 his partner's cards must be laid upon the table, and are 
 liable to be called.
 
 2 54 APPENDIX C 
 
 37. When a trick has been turned and quitted, it must 
 not again be seen until after the hand has been played. 
 A violation of this law subjects the offender's side to the 
 same penalty as in case of a lead out of turn. 
 
 38. If a player is lawfully called upon to play the high- 
 est or lowest of a suit, or to trump or not to trump a 
 trick, or to lead a suit, and unnecessarily fails to comply, 
 he is liable to the same penalty as if he had revoked. 
 
 39. In all cases where a penalty has been incurred, 
 the offender must await the decision of the adversaries. 
 If either of them, with or without his partner's consent, 
 demands a penalty to which they are entitled, such deci- 
 sion is final. If the wrong adversary demands a penalty, 
 or a wrong penalty is demanded, none can be enforced. 
 
 40. League clubs may adopt any rule requiring or per- 
 mitting methods of scoring or of forming the table, differ- 
 ent from those above prescribed. 
 
 THE ETIQUETTE OF WHIST, 
 
 AS ADOPTED BY THE THIRD AMERICAN WHIST 
 CONGRESS, CHICAGO, JUNE 20-24, 1893. 
 
 The following rules belong to the established Code of 
 Whist Etiquette. They are formulated with a view to 
 discourage and repress certain improprieties of conduct 
 therein pointed out, which are not reached by the laws. 
 The courtesy which marks the intercourse of gentlemen 
 will regulate other more obvious cases. 
 
 I. No conversation should be indulged in during the 
 play except such as is allowed by the laws of the game. 
 
 II. No player should in any manner whatsoever give
 
 APPENDIX C 255 
 
 any intimation as to the state of liis hand or of the game, 
 or of approval or disapproval of a play. 
 
 III. No player should lead until the preceding trick is 
 turned and quitted. 
 
 IV. No player should, after having led a winning card, 
 draw a card from his hand for another lead until his part- 
 ner has played to the current trick. 
 
 V. No player should play a card in any manner so as 
 to call particular attention to it, nor should he demand 
 that the card be placed in order to attract the attention of 
 his partner. 
 
 VI. No player should purposely incur a penalty because 
 he is willing to pay it, nor should he make a second revoke 
 in order to conceal one previously made. 
 
 VII. No player should take advantage of information 
 imparted by his partner through a breach of etiquette. 
 
 VIII. No player should object to referring a disputed 
 question of fact to a bystander, who professes himself un- 
 interested in the result of the game and able to decide the 
 question. 
 
 IX. Bystanders should not in any manner call attention 
 to or give any intimation concerning the play or the state 
 of the game, during the play of a hand. They should not 
 look over the hand of a player without his permission, nor 
 should they walk around the table to look at the different 
 hands. 
 
 It will be seen, by comparing the above 
 Code of Laws with the English one, that 
 they have been much reduced in number, and 
 have at the same time been made more ex- 
 plicit on doubtful points. The scoring is 
 altered (as explained on page 154) giving the
 
 256 APPENDIX C 
 
 " Straight Whist" only. Some of the penal- 
 ties have been slightly changed ; the last 
 turned trick is forbidden to be looked at, and 
 some attempts are made to promote silence 
 during play. The English custom of allow- 
 ing the partner of a renouncing player to 
 ask if he has any more of this suit, has been 
 abolished in America, after much discussion.
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 EXAiMFLES OF MATCHES PLAYED 
 IN DUPLICATE AT AMERICAN 
 WHIST TOURNAMENTS. 
 
 (Extracted, by permission, from the Milwaukee " Whist " Journal, 
 August, 1892.) 
 
 NO. I. 
 
 Match for the Hamilton Whist 
 Trophy, Played at the Second Con- 
 gress OF THE American Whist League. 
 
 Interest in the games of the Congress centred in the 
 great match for the trophy offered to the League by the 
 Hamilton Club of Philadelphia. 
 
 The sub-committee of the Executive Committee, to 
 whom the arrangement of these battles had been referred, 
 had been unable, on account of several various circum- 
 stances, to have a meeting so as to come to any agree- 
 ment before the preliminary meeting of the Executive 
 Committee, held the week prior to the opening session of 
 the Congress, and then when the Executive Committee 
 had decided upon a plan no one was disposed to give it a 
 full indorsement. Under the plan as adopted it was ar- 
 ranged that the clubs entering the contest should be drawn 
 17
 
 258 APPENDIX D 
 
 to play twenty-four hands with some other club, and at 
 the expiration of such play a re-drawing should be had 
 for another match of twenty-four hands. It was provided 
 that the club losing two of such matches should fall out 
 of the contest. It is easy to see that under such rules no 
 adequate decision could be made of the competency and 
 skill of the various contestants, but in the absence of that 
 experience which is the most competent teacher of the 
 exact number of teams that would enter the struggle, it is 
 probable that the plan adopted was as satisfactory as any 
 that could have been devised within the limited time al- 
 lowed. 
 
 At the opening match, although twenty-two teams had 
 signified their intention of entering the contest, only six- 
 teen were actually at hand. The contest opened Tuesday 
 evening, July 19. Teams began dropping out under the 
 rules by the evening of the following day, so that by Fri- 
 day evening the number of contestants was reduced to 
 the Milwaukee, which had not, at that time, lost a match ; 
 to the Hamilton Club, which had lost one match, and the 
 Capital Bicycle Club, which had lost one match. The two 
 latter clubs were drawn to play against each other Friday 
 evening, the Milwaukee Club standing by. The struggle 
 between the Capital Bicycles and the Hamiltons was ex- 
 ceedingly interesting, and the play reflected great credit 
 upon both clubs, but resulted in favor of the Capital Bi- 
 cycles, who were then appointed to play against the Mil- 
 waukee on Saturday morning. 
 
 At the completion of the play of twenty-four hands be- 
 tween these two clubs the score stood tied, whereupon a 
 second match of sixteen hands was arranged, which also 
 tied; this tie was played off in eight hands, resulting 
 favorably to the Capital Bicycles by one point, which club 
 had now lost one match, and under the rules were obliged 
 to enter a second and deciding fight against each other ;
 
 APPENDIX D 259 
 
 but the long- contention and struggle had completely ex- 
 hausted the members of the Milwaukee team, some of 
 whom had begun the fight in poor physical condition and 
 protested against being obliged to enter another the same 
 evening. On the other hand, the Capital Bicycles men 
 were obliged to return to Washington, so that it was im- 
 possible to arrange a meeting the following Monday. 
 Under these circumstances, the two clubs united in a re- 
 quest to the Executive Committee proposing that the de- 
 ciding game be played on the first day of the Third Whist 
 Congress, and giving the custody of the trophy for the 
 first six months to the Capital Club, and for the remainder 
 of the time before the meeting of the Third Congress to 
 the Milwaukee Club. ^ 
 
 Under the circumstances, this was a very fortunate dis- 
 position of the matter ; the two clubs had made a heroic 
 fight and it would have been cruel to have forced the one 
 to have gone into the concluding contest in an exhausted 
 condition after seven hours' continuous play, and equally 
 cruel to force its antagonist into a defeat by reason of in- 
 ability to attend at a deferred time. At present both clubs 
 stand upon an equal footing as regards the trophy, and 
 both have equal interests in it and will be given its cus- 
 tody for a reasonable length of time, and both will be 
 obliged to maintain their rights before the beginning of 
 the Third Congress. The custody of the trophy for the 
 first six months was conceded by the Milwaukee Club to 
 the Capitals voluntarily, for the reason that it was thought 
 that the interest awakened in the game by this match 
 would be directed to the material advantage of the Capital 
 Club, if that club was to be allowed to hold the cup while 
 such interest was at its height. 
 
 The table on the following page gives the record of the 
 clubs participating in the match for the Hamilton Club 
 Trophy :
 
 26o 
 
 APPENDIX D 
 
 CLUBS.* 
 
 < 
 
 6 
 
 i 
 
 u 
 
 s 
 U 
 
 6 
 
 S 
 
 i 
 
 u 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 s 
 c 
 
 a 
 
 
 E 
 9 
 
 
 i'J L 
 
 z ;^ ^ 5 
 
 i 
 
 4 
 
 1 1 
 
 Amrita, Ponghkeepsie, N. Y 
 
 ..'.. 
 
 9 4 
 
 ■;:: 
 
 3^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
 •• 
 
 
 •• 
 
 .. 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Chicago, Chicago 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 o o 
 
 Columbia Athletic,\Vashington, D.C. 
 
 Commonwealth, Worcester, Mass 
 
 Fanwood Philadelphia 
 
 
 .. 
 
 ■■ 
 
 4 
 
 !! 
 
 
 ;• 
 
 
 
 ;| 
 
 
 ■•I' I 
 
 ■• 
 
 9 
 
 
 o o 
 o o 
 
 S 2 
 
 27 4 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 Miiiheim, Philadelphia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S" 
 3 •• 
 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 1; 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 i6 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 27 5 
 
 3 I 
 
 7 2 
 
 4 2 
 
 Narragansett, Providence, R. I 
 
 Providence, Providence, R. 1 
 
 St. Paul, St. Paul, Minn 
 
 
 
 '.'. 
 
 1 
 
 
 I 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 IS 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 II 
 
 17 3 
 
 O 
 
 Wilmington, Wilmington, Del 
 
 11 I 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Games Lost 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 * 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 
 [The details of each item of the foregoing General Table 
 are given in 32 additional elaborate Tables, of which it 
 must suffice to give the two following, as specimens.] 
 
 HAMILTON r5. CARLETON. 
 
 Table I. 
 
 Deals 1-8. 
 vs. 
 
 Deals 9-16. 
 
 Work & Ballard 
 Work & Remak 
 Remak & Ballard 
 
 Remak & Townsend 
 Ballard & Townsend 
 Work & Townsend 
 
 Deals 17-24. 
 
 Table II. 
 
 Deals 1-8. 
 
 vs. 
 
 Deals 9-16. 
 
 vs. 
 
 Deals 17-24. 
 vs. 
 
 Van Vleck & Clement. 
 Bailey & Clement. 
 Bailey & Van Vleck, 
 
 Bailey & Weems. 
 
 Van Vleck & Weems. 
 
 Clement & Weems.
 
 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 D 
 
 
 261 
 
 Tab. I. 
 
 Tab. 2. 
 
 Gain. 
 
 Deal. 
 
 Tab. I. 
 
 Tab. 2. 
 
 Gain. 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 .. I 
 
 I 
 
 10 
 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 . . 2 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 .. 
 
 .• 3---- 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 I 
 
 .. 4 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 . . 
 
 . • 5 • • • • 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 . 6.... 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 . . 
 
 . 7-.-. 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 .. 
 
 . 8.... 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 . . 
 
 .. 9-... 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 .. 
 
 .lO 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 .11 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 .. 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 .12 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 .. 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 
 .13.... 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 
 2 
 
 II 
 
 
 .14.... 
 
 II 
 
 2 
 
 
 6 
 
 lO 
 
 3 •• 
 
 .I5..-- 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 .. 
 
 .16.... 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 .17.... 
 
 S 
 
 6 
 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 I 
 
 .18.... 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 
 .19.... 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 
 .20 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 .21 ... . 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 
 . 22. . . . 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 .23. .. 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 
 .24.... 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 19 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Net gain for Hamilton, 9 tricks. 
 
 MANHEIM l^S. PROVIDENCE. 
 Table I. 
 
 
 Dea/s 1-8. 
 
 Banks & Hawley 
 
 vs. 
 
 
 Deals 9-16. 
 
 Banks & Borda 
 
 vs. 
 
 
 Deals 17-24 
 
 Banks & Newhall 
 
 vs. 
 
 Calder & Bowen. 
 
 Falkenbursr & Bowen. 
 
 Bowen & Morse.
 
 262 
 
 APPENDIX D 
 
 Ncwhall & Borda 
 Newhall & Hawley 
 Hawley &. Borda 
 
 Table II. 
 
 £>ea/s 1-8. 
 vs. 
 
 Deals 9-16. 
 
 Morse & Falkenburg, 
 
 Calder & Morse, 
 
 Deals 17-24. 
 
 vs. Calder & Falkenburg.> 
 
 Tab. I. 
 
 Tab. 2. 
 
 Gain. 
 
 Deal. 
 
 Tab. I. 
 
 Tib. 2. 
 
 Gain. 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 ... I . . . 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 ... 2. . . 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 
 ... 3--- 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 .. 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 
 ... 4... 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 ... 5... 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 I 
 
 ... 6... 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 I 
 
 ... 7 •• 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 II 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 ... 8... 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 
 ... 9--- 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 
 ...10. . . 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 . ..II . . 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 
 . . 12 . . . 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 
 . ..-13. . . 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 
 ...14... 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 
 ...15... 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 
 ...16... 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 •• 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 
 ...17... 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 
 ...18... 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 
 . . .19 . . 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 
 20. . . 
 
 3 
 
 II 
 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 
 . . .21 . . 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 
 . . .22. . . 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 
 ...23... 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 ...24... 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 Net £iain for Providence, 6 tricks.
 
 APPENDIX D 
 
 263 
 
 NO. 2, 
 
 A Personal Match Between Ladies and 
 Gentlemen, Played at a Tourna- 
 ment OF THE BaRABOO WhIST ClUB. 
 
 COPY OF THE SCORE SHEET. 
 
 
 II Id 1 v\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 H. Mould. 
 . H. Mould 
 n. Mould, 
 m. Mould. 
 Grotophors 
 rotophorst. 
 D. Evans. 
 . D. Evans. 
 F. Reiner. 
 . L. Drown 
 P. McFetri 
 . M. Potter. 
 
 H. I-etridg 
 eo. McEetri 
 j7Koch. 
 . B. Potter. 
 
 1 
 
 "c 
 
 ti 
 
 
 wW 
 
 ^2--7^aO^;i^^Sy-^^O^S - 
 
 cS 
 
 
 d i2 
 
 c^ en ^i:|.-E^.« c.^ c.^ dF % 
 
 h 
 
 
 S§ 
 
 SS S2 SS|S^ SS SS SS 
 
 ^S|H 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 .... 
 
 156 1 160 158 
 
 156 
 
 153 I iSS 1 161 
 
 1 
 
 Mrs. E. G. Marriott )" 
 
 159 1258 1571^ 
 
 Mr M H Mould 1 
 
 156 
 
 .... 1561158 
 
 149 
 
 161 j 158 15s 
 
 154 
 
 
 Mrs. M. H. Mould ) 
 
 1247 155% 
 
 Mr. Sim. Mould 1 
 
 152 
 154 
 
 156 .... 
 
 154 155 
 
 157 
 
 157 
 150 
 
 ISO 166 162 
 
 154 
 152 
 
 1254 156^ 
 
 Mr. H. Grotophurst ) 
 
 Mrs. H . Grotophorst f 
 
 Mr R D Evans | 
 
 156 
 
 i 
 144 154 
 
 1219 
 
 152?6 
 
 Mrs R D. Evans f 
 
 159 
 
 163 155 
 
 162 
 156 
 
 159 
 
 153 
 
 160 158 
 164 155 
 
 154 
 
 1262 
 1260 
 
 157^ 
 
 
 151 
 
 162 
 
 
 Miss M .L. Drown ( 
 
 i57>^ 
 
 Mr. E. P. McFetndge 1 
 
 MissK.M. Potter.. \ 
 
 157 
 
 154 
 
 146 
 
 168 
 
 152 
 
 148 
 
 
 163 
 
 155 
 
 1243 
 
 155H 
 
 Mr. W. II. McFetridge ( 
 
 Miss Geo. McFetridge ) 
 
 151 
 
 157 
 
 150 
 
 158 
 
 154 
 
 157 
 
 149 
 
 .... 
 
 150 
 
 1226 1 153H 
 
 Mr. R. J. Koch ^ 
 
 Miss M. B. Potter I 
 
 .5, 
 
 158 
 
 158 
 
 160 
 
 157 
 
 158 
 
 157 
 
 162 
 
 
 1263 
 
 i57;S 
 
 The above play was for a pair of fine French opera 
 glasses presented by Mr. H. M. Acott, the leading light in 
 Whist circles at Baraboo, as prizes for the best records. 
 
 The rules governing the match were that every gentle- 
 man participating must be a member of the club. Each 
 gentleman to choose a lady as a partner and play a sitting 
 against every other couple. As the record shows, the 
 prizes were won by Mr. R. J. Koch and Miss Belle Potter.
 
 INDEX 
 
 America, lo, 117, 134, 150 
 American Leads, 137, 139, 172, 
 
 177, 213 
 American Whist League, 6, 89, 
 
 154, 160, 162, 168, 174, 178, 
 
 183, 184, 236, 246 
 Ames, Fisher, 169, 180 
 Annals of Gaming, 25 
 Anson, Hon. Geo., 87 
 Antepenuhimate, 133 
 Antony and Cleopatra, 15 
 Arbitrary Signals, 190 
 Arlington Club, 88 
 Attention, 207 
 Austria, 49, 85 
 
 Backgammon, 59 
 
 Baldwin, J. Loraine, 78, 87 
 
 Baraboo, 263 
 
 Barrington, Hon. Daines, 21, 52 
 
 Bath, 43, 45, 49 
 
 Battle, Mrs., 6 
 
 Bell's Life^ 155 
 
 Bentinck, Lord H., 120, 124 
 
 Bezique, 77 
 
 Bidder, Geo. P., 81 
 
 Bilboquet, 43 
 
 Bob Short, 59 
 
 Boyce, Matthias, 180 
 
 Blind Player, 164 
 
 Blue Peter, 121, 189 
 
 Brande's Dictionary, 28 
 
 British Museum, 169 
 
 Burney, Admiral, 118 
 Byron, 44 
 
 Caelebs, 107, 120 
 
 Calculation Puzzle, Sir, 39 
 
 Cambridge, 42, 75 
 
 Carlyon, E. A. , 120 
 
 Cavendish, 8, 10, 13, 44, 57, ^^^ 
 78, 79, 81, 87, 108, 123, 125, 
 132, 134, 138 to 140, 143 to 
 149, 153, 156, 160 to 166, 173 
 to 176, 180, 195, 203 to 207, 
 213, 214, 219, 220, 223 
 
 Chance, 81 
 
 Charles X., 48 
 
 Charta dominatrix, 16 
 
 Cheating, 23, 24 
 
 Chess, 59 
 
 Chicago, 163, 246, 256 
 
 Clay, James, 6, 10, 'j^,, 7S, 78, 79, 
 87, 89, 119, 122, 128, 132, 133, 
 134, 190, 203, 211, 222 
 
 Clubs, London, 49 
 
 Clubs, American, 153, 159, 175 
 
 Coeckelbergle - Dutzele, Ritter, 
 83.85 
 
 Coffin, Chas., 170, 180 
 
 Coleman, 224 
 
 Columbia, 164 
 
 Combination of hands, 80, 81 
 
 Communication between part- 
 ners, 100 
 
 Complete Gamester, 19
 
 266 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Congresses, i6i to 165, 168, 174, 
 
 183, 236 to 246, 257 
 Connoisseur, The, 224 
 Conservative feeling, 213 
 Contracts of Hazard, loi 
 Conventional extensions, 125, 
 
 126 
 Conventionalities, 193 
 Conventions, 145 
 Conversation of Whist, 145, 146 
 Cotgrave, 16 
 Cotton, Chas., 19, 21, 24 
 Coup, 220, 228 
 
 Crown Coffee House, 35, 52, 92 
 Curtains, 25 
 Customs, American, 151 
 
 Decision, 209 
 
 Decker, 21 
 
 De la Rue, 95, 220 
 
 Deschapelles, 6, 48, 79, 88, 175 
 
 Difficulties and Disputes, 175 
 
 Dillard, H. K., 164 
 
 Discard, 100 
 
 Drayson, Gen., 133, 136, 163, 
 
 206 
 Duplicate Whist, 155, 164, 169, 
 
 257 
 
 Fall of the Cards, 55, 186 
 
 FenoUosa, W. S., 181 
 
 Fie/d, The, 81, 134, 139, 149, 153, 
 
 156, 175 
 Fielding, 22, 25 
 Fittest, survival of, 13 
 Folkestone, Lord, 35 
 Forcing, 94 
 Foster, R. F., 156, 159, 160, 168, 
 
 169, 180, 205 
 Fourth best, 135, 136 
 France, Whist in, 48 
 Fraser's Magaz'me, 86 
 French derivation of Whist, 22 
 Fundamental principles, 91 
 
 Gambling, 2, 151 
 Games at Cards, tj 
 Gammer Gurton's Needle, 
 Gardiner, Miss, 167 
 General d'Artillerie, 83 
 Genie du W^hist, 82 
 Gentleman s Magazine, 37 
 Germ, 117, 121 
 Gerold's Sohn, 85 
 Graham's Club, 119 
 Gurley, R. A., 179 
 Guy de Maupassant, 43 
 
 15 
 
 Early History, 13 
 Echo, 141, 213 
 Educational aspects, 109 
 EUiott, Eugene S., 162, 178, 180, 
 
 183 
 Erratic play, 108 
 Errors, 210 
 
 Ethics, loi, 128, 177, 183, 215 
 Etiquette of Whist, 254 
 Euchre, 174 
 Evolution, Passim 
 Exclusiveness, 179 
 
 C. D. P., 171, 193, 
 
 Hamilton, 
 
 214 
 Hamilton Whist Trophy, 
 
 257 
 Hand-book of Games, 66 
 Harper s Magazine^ 76 
 Hay ward, Abraham, 87 
 Hazard, loi 
 Hewby, Dr., 180 
 Homer, 44 
 
 Honours, 17, 50. 151, 160 
 Hoyle, Era of, 23 
 
 164,
 
 INDEX 
 
 267 
 
 Hoyle, Book, 37, 57 
 
 Hoyle Game, 52, 93, no, 134, 
 
 200, 219, 224, 226 
 Hoyle, 9, 10, 36, 81, 87, 95, 106, 
 
 108, 138, 148, 166, 173, 186 
 Hudibras, 19 
 Humours of Whist, 39, 219 
 
 Indifferent Cards, 137 
 Inferences, 55, IP3, 208 
 Interjectio, 20 
 
 Jenks, Mrs., 167 
 Johnson, Dr., i, 19, 21, 23 
 Jones, Henry, 75, 76, 77, 155, 
 
 162, 163, 164 
 Jones, H. D., 89 
 Josephine, 48 
 Judgment, 209 
 
 Kartensprache, 84 
 
 Ladies and Hoyle, 43 
 
 Ladies' Match, 263 
 
 Lady Whist players, 112, 167 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 6 
 
 Latimer, 14 
 
 Latter-day Improvements, 117, 
 
 189, 212 
 Laws, 7, 8, 59-87 
 Laws, American, 162, 163, 246 
 Leads, 97, 88, 143, 146 
 Leads, American, see American 
 
 Leads 
 League, American Whist, see 
 
 American 
 Literature, Whist, in America, 
 
 168 
 Little Whist School, 75, 76, 77, 
 
 92, 102, 122, 132, 155 
 Logarithms, 224. 
 
 Long Suit, 54, 92, 141 
 Long Whist, 39, 51, 151, 224 
 Louis XV., 48 
 Luck, effect of, 152 
 Lurchum, 41 
 
 MacmUlan' s Magazine, 77, 139 
 
 Mann, Sir Horace, 43 
 
 Marie Louise, 48 
 
 Marylebone, 44 
 
 Master Cards, 29, 30, 53 
 
 Matches or Tournaments, 156, 
 
 159, 161, 164, 257, 263 
 Matthews, 9, 44, 63, 81, 95, 104, 
 
 107, 108, no, 186, 204 
 Maxims, 42, 171 
 Memoranda, Short, 113 
 Memory, Artificial, 58, 61 
 Memory in Whist Play, 208 
 Metternich, 49, 85 
 Milton, 20 
 Milwaukee, 166 
 Model Games, 79, 219, 224, 229 
 Mogul, 180 
 Money Stakes, 214 
 Mudie, 160, 169 
 Musical Whist, 220, 222, 230 
 Mutual understanding, 190 
 
 Napier, 22 . 
 Napoleon, 48, 211 
 Nares, 16, 21 
 Nature, Evolution in, 5, 7 
 New Orleans, 134 
 New York, 163 
 Novelties in Whist, 127 
 
 Observation, 207 
 Odd trick, 39 
 Ombre, 20, 22 
 Ordinaries, 35
 
 268 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Paine, Cassius, 169, 179 
 Paley, loi, 128, 187, 191 
 Partnership, 30, 80, 91, 118, 179 
 Payne, 9, 44, 62, 106, 108, no, 204 
 Pembridge, 180 
 Penultimate, 132, 133, 136, 147, 
 
 180, 213 
 Personal skill, 207 
 Pertinent Maxims, 171 
 Peterborough, Lord, 49 
 Phases in Whist Evolution, 9 
 Philadelphia, 164, 236 
 Philosophical Era, t^ 
 Philosophical Game, 10, 13, 90, 
 
 138, 141, 149, 160, 166, 168, 
 
 181, 200, 202, 204 
 Philosophy of Whist, 76, 81, 95, 
 
 156 
 Pioneer Club, 171 
 Piping at Whisk, 24 
 Piquet, 26, 59, 77 
 Plain suits, 95, 97 
 Pole, W. , 163 
 Pope, 21, 25, 26 
 Popularity of Whist, 173 
 Portland Club, 75, 89, 120, 121 
 Primitive Game. 9, 27, 200 
 Probabilities, 66. 95 
 Professional Teaching, see 
 
 Teaching 
 
 Quadrille, 26, 59, 77 
 Quarterly Review^ 13, 87, 90, 112, 
 166 
 
 Rabelais, 14 
 
 Rambler^ 37 
 
 Rape of the Lock, 26 
 
 Rationelle Whist, Das, 83 
 
 Returned Leads, 30, 99, 108 
 
 Richard, B. L., 179 
 
 Ruff, 16 
 
 Ruff and Honours, 17, 20 
 
 Rufifing, 17, 94 
 
 Saunders's Coffee House, 88 
 
 Schiller, 84 
 
 School, see Little Whist School 
 
 Schwarz, Theodore, 180 
 
 Scoring, 28, 38, 151, 162 
 
 Second player, 99 
 
 Self-playing Cards, 168, 205 
 
 Sequences, 105 
 
 Seymour, 24 
 
 Shakespeare, 15, 20 
 
 Sharpers, 23 
 
 Short Memoranda, 113 
 
 Short Whist, 49, 74, 157, 160, 
 
 215 
 Signal for Trumps, 119, 194, 195 
 Signals and Signalling, 117, 176, 
 
 189, 191, 193 
 Signalkunst, 84 
 Silence, 19, 20, 21 
 Singleton, 30 
 Skill, 31, 68, 155 
 Skinner, 20 
 Small Cards, 104 
 Smith, Le Roy, 179 
 Sound play, 206 
 Spenser, 20 
 St. Helena, 48 
 Stevens, H. S., 179 
 Still, Bishop, 15 
 Straight Whist, 154, 160 
 Strategy of Whist, 169 
 Students, 204 
 Sub-echo, 141 
 Survival of the fittest, 13 
 Swabbers, 22 
 Swift, 23 
 System, 212
 
 INDEX 
 
 i6g 
 
 Talleyrand, 48 
 Tatler^ 42 
 
 Taylor, Water Poet, 18 
 
 Taylor's Motto, 18 
 
 Teaching Whist, 27^ 55. no. 
 166 
 
 Team, 158 
 
 Tenison, Archbishop, 23 
 
 Theory of Whist, 80 
 
 Third hand, 100 
 
 Thomson, Alexander, 47, 230 
 
 Thomson (Seasons), 25 
 
 Tormey, P. J., 179 
 
 Tournaments, see Matches 
 
 Tricks, 29 
 
 Trist, N. B , 134, 135, 137, 148, 
 162, 163, 176 
 
 Triumph, La Triomphe, Trionfi, 
 i4«, 16 
 
 Trump Echo, 141 
 
 Trump Signal, see Signal 
 
 Trun^ping, 29, 30, 54, see Ruff- 
 ing 
 
 Trumps, management of, 93 
 
 Turf Club, 88 
 
 Unblocking, 141, 142 
 University Whist, 42 
 
 Vautre, Baron de, 82 
 Verse, Whist Rules in, 83 
 
 Verstandigungsspiel, 84 
 Vertebrates, 4 
 Vienna, 83, 95 
 Virgil, 84 
 
 Wales, H. R. H., the Prince of, 
 
 89 
 Walpole, Horace, 43 
 Wheelock, Miss, 167 
 Whisk, 18, 21, 24 
 Whist, a Poem, 47 
 Whist a Science and an Art, 3 
 Whist, essence of, 28 
 Whist, developments, 139, 142, 
 
 214 
 Whist, its great variety, 3 
 " Whist " Journal, 76, 119, 149, 
 
 155, 164, 168, 173, 174, 177, 
 
 178, 179. 193 
 Whist Manual, 169 
 Whist Schools, 86, see Little 
 
 Whist School 
 Whist Queen, 167 
 Whist, sick, 6 
 Whiston, Professor, 39 
 White's, 88 
 Whitfeld, 149 
 Wild, Jonathan, 22 
 Work, M. C, 179, 183 
 
 I Youth, learning Whist i 
 
 m, 112
 
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