New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-11-08
POKER TALK.
A GAME OF SKILL.


fering IN evidence army-sword which rs the
short stiff, pointed gladus of the Romans; and
the American bowie-knife Is the same tool modl-
Ted to meet the daily wants Of civil society,"" In
me Armory of the Tower of London. the attendant
ised 10 show euriOusly complicated and many
,arrelled pistol. and he was wont to remark that
The American, Colonel Colt, examined that there
,istol very carefully, sir" and taat % not long
.fter he went and invented Colts revolver, SIR"
10 II is always; the steamboat, and the turrct-
hip the sewing machine and the moving machine,
he telegraph and tne telephone ali the inventions
sherein an American may pride himself, are
blamed by others even the revolver OF Colone
Cot was invented by Queen Elizabeth, and the
Arkansas tOoth-pck is no more than the Roman
Toad-sword. SO 1t is especially with All
,ames the Canadian lacrosse may nave
ONE from the Indians but the more national
baseball Is but the British ToundeTs-an lIled ana
eautliied 1t is true Oae may assert as an Ill con-
IovertIble axiom that no game is ever invented
he human mind nowadays at least Is uneqnaI 10
he making of "a new game; one new game Is always
iyolyed from some other and older game aud never
rom the inner consciousness of man. Even those
nghly characteristic products of American lnge
unity. facie euchre and fascinating poker, are not
ruly American inventions; they are at most out
kilfu modlfcatioas or adaptations of earlier
# the revolver and the bowie knife when you
"trip the American Eagle of both euchre and
poker, YOU leave him naked indeed; but the uuih
must prevail
The pedigree of poker may be set forth with
little more certainty than can declare the an
estry of euchre Mr.. Jones not quite as sound on
,oker as he is on whist-sees its origin in game
which the Italians of the fifteenth century called
] frusso. During the next hundred years TINS
lad matured into prmiera, which was known ID
spain as prinero and TO Master Francis Rabelals
u France as la prime. Ii was closely akin to two
ther games which tire French called lie mesl6 and
'ambigu, and to third which the English knew
IS gleek and the French as lie glic-ct Fillons
.Baade de bonnie doctrine ceux de mauyaise
yie":
"Ciaigne an Berlan. CHE aux DULLES,
on sen va tout, or oscOut-Z:
Tout su tavorne ct aux files"
II crossed the Channel to England. where 1t
passed under a host of aliases, as might have been
sxpeeted from q game of such doubtful antece-
tents 1t was played prime, as prilnero. as
tleek and as post-and-pa OF course these games
nav have differed not a little i'll detail but the
vital principle vas identical IN all AiusionS TO
Them are abundant in the Eiizabethan dramatists.
In course OF years primero seems , have passed
AWAY and gleek to have gone out of fashion, but
that i've cards is as much played IN Ireland as
all.fours Is ia Kent and pos-andp is in the West
of England Possibly it was from the West of
England that post-and-pair went further "out
West in America and suffered a seachance IN the
Journey and became brag. Now, poker is the child
of brag, as brag the child of post-and-palr
Poker Originally PLAYED in America may be de-
serbed as developed brag. though in some respects
it throws back 10 the parent games, post-and-
pair pamb;gu and primero." 50 Mr.. Jones tells u.s.
speaking one having authority in the latest
edition of the 3" Encyclopedia Britannica But of
p,ker there are or rather, there were, many nds;
and the first 20 develop straight poker. From
poker cane draw-2oker just as short-whIst
came from long whist; and when one says poker
nowadays he means thereby the more mo lern
and scientific game Of draw-poker. just as
when he says whist he means the
modern and scientific game of short
whist 1t was toward the end of the last century
that Short Whist started and overthrow the
Long Dynasty" 20 we are told by Major A, whose
book on the subject has been edited by Professor
p; but If was not until after the battle of Water
90 that the younger game finally vanquished the
lder. Many years later was it when draw-poker
MCGEE ed in supplantug straight-poker Mr.. JEFF
erson Davis, some time Presdento of the late " Con-
ederate States of America" when charged with
being too fond of the fascinating game while he
was an officer of the United States Army AZ Prairie
iu Chen in 1884, made answer and testified that
araw-poker had not been then introduced So far
rs may declare the insufficient evidence now
presented draw-pOker came to the front early IN
the forties and was spread abroad during the war
with Mexico and generally accepted the true
game of poker before the day when god was most
unexpectedly discovered IN the California which
Mexico had ceded to the United States at the sign
an overwhelming rush of the vigorous youth of
America
As one OF the brightest Jewels in Brtann as
s the Iuventiug or rather the perfecting OF whist
10 the development of poker is one of the chief
Elories of Columbia. The ancestry of poker has
been declared above, and 1t may be well,
therefore. to note that the lOrd1y whist
was once knows the humble swobbers.
The new whist, having reached the high
sst point of perfection has been fixed and estab-
hshed nv the final cOdhcatiOn OF its laws. he new
poker has not vet found it's John Lorraine Baldwin
10 draw mp its laws with the needful concIseness
and certainty. 1t cannot be asserted hat the laws
Of poker lie hid in night, hike those Of Nature
fore Newton and of whist before Mr.. B1ldwIn-Bo
use MIR Haywards happy hRure-but they are in-
voved in darkness and III doubt. AT present poker
may be sand to be governed by the common law,
ignorance whereof excuseth no man. Local usagos
vary contradictory ober dictd of demonstrated
tudges abound; and more than one Important point
rema ms undecided for want Of a written text of
tire law and Of authorized tribunal. he u
premacy OF the light flush has got itself slowly
acknow ged at last. Whether not straigbts
beat thTees is still mooted point, the better epin-
ion is that they do aud II is 80 held III the proposed
code drawn up bv the learned American resi-
dent at the Court OF st. James There are those
who do not recognize straIghts at all aud there
are others who admit the Mississippi obtrusou
of blaxes. The accspted order OF tho hands
at poker was SGT forth few years ago by the
American comic paper Puck IN mneucnIc table
of great international utility. The man Of genius
who drew il up aware that every RngliShman
knew the proper precedence of the various orders
of the nobility and gentry. aud that every Amcr-
can knew the relative values of the various poker
hands II viii be therefore that while his in
yention indicates to the COckney the hierarchy Of
the hands at poker IL provides the Yankee with a
table Of precedence for use in Great Britain and her