The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-03-19
Professor Proctor Talks of Whist

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The first doctrine l would inculcate,
then, as to whist, is this: Play whist
often, DALI if you can, but waste no
time over it; play it in such way that
it interests by calling forth the exercise
of skill. A little of such whist goes a
long way in relaxing the mind and Civ
ing pleasure to the player. l have wiped
the cob webs out of my mind after six
or seven hours of application at difficult
geometrical work by an hours good
whist. That means a saving of time
for work, and an oiling of the mental
machinery by which the next work will
be done with less friction But / have
also sat down seeking rest from whist,
and because the play was not whist at
all [ have risen unrefreshed after two or
three hours of meaningless play, or play
at cross-purposeS.
Whist is so easily learned, however.
that there is no excuse for the prevalent
bad play. Inmy own case, after years
of the other game, which 1 played for
want of knowing better, learned to
play the real game in few weeks. Of
course, nothing but steady practice for
much longer time than this will make
a good player; but no amount of
practice at Bumblepuppy will turn the
player of that game into whist PLAYER.
Let US turn now to the principles and
practice of real whist The worst fault
characterizing the play of nine out ten
of those who imagine they play whist
is the habit of playing only the thirteen
cards originally held. The skillful play
er of his own hand is of all partners.
says the greatest whist player the world
has ever known-the most detestable.
Deschapelles words are strong, but they
are well deserved. q believe some Of
these brilliantly bad players would
rather lose two by tricks, if they had
made all the tricks of their side, than
win two if their partner had taken the
lions share.) Now to play your part
ner's cards as well as your own, you
must know what those cards are. To
do this you must watch his play and he
must play according to the established
principles of the game. 1t follows,
since you are his partner, that you must
principles. But players of this type
often boast that they know no rules of
play, and apart from such Boosting,
every one who has ever PLAYED with
them knows that their play defies all
! rule. Others claim to know the princi-
pies of play, but are guilty all the same
of whist enormities of the deepest dive
and they can never see how their false
play affects the result. To give an ex-
ample in passing. 1t is well-known
rule at whist Chat is well known to
players) that if after one round of a
suit led by partner you have more
than two left, you return the lowest,
but the highest if you have two only;
my partner in such case returns the
lowest and Immediately place (mental-
ly) two more of the suits in his hand;
infer that he and between us have
command of the suit, and after extract
ing trumps l lead the suit with conf
dence; but it appears my partner knew
nothing about that little rule belonging
to the A B G of the game); he had only
two cards of the suit and one of the OPP
ponents has a card more than had
counted on. Ny suit is, in fact, not
established at all; when l lead 1t l find
the enemy with the command, they
bring in their long suit and make three
or four by cards, where perhaps the odd
trick would have been ours but for this
pitfall dug by friend.-Richard a.
Pr0cfOr