The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-11-24
OBSERVATIONS ON WHIST.
Some Points on Learning the Game-The
Best and Quickest Way.

Some Points on Learning the Game-The
Best and Quickest Way.
In large cities teachers of the game of
whist are enabled at present. such is the
popularity of the game, to earn quite re-
spectacle completeness Mt their calling.
Like dancing masters, they charge a fixed
figure per lesson and agree to give in GER
tain number Of lessons a good working
knowledge of the game. The average Amer
lean, who perhaps in temperament is half
way between the stolid Englishman and the
mercurial Frenchman, wants, when he takes
fancy to thing, to learn ell there is about
it in the quickest possible way, and he
is perfectly willing to pay for it, if
he doesn't happen to be too poor,
so that in America, when any new fad is
sprung" on the people, there is rapidly de-
veloped a number Of experts, and it is Won
derful what proficiency Americans attain at
a new game in a short time. Witness, for in
stance, the roller skating craze, and how
quickly in every town in the country there
arose a local champion. Now, whist is not
exactly fad 1t is more lasting amuse-
ment But as society becomes welded
together. in America the game grows
more popular among that class who are
anxious for intellectual pleasure. The
question which is more often asked me
than any other by noviceS in the game is,
'How soon can | learn It'll" and propose to
answer this question IS well as it can be
answered. In the first place, whist can
never be learned perfectly, and this is one
reason why it is so fascinating There is al
ways something more ahead. 1t is a COM
mon expression III whist text books that al
most any one can, by practice, get up to a
certain point, but beyond that few can go.
This is undoubtedly true, for whist is like
any other art-like music, or painting, or
writing One must first grasp certain num-
Der of facts; must learn them so perfectly
that tho are second nature and then that
subtle something which come call genius
steps in and puts them to the highest use.
What the beginner in whist wants to know
is not how he can become great whist
player-no one can show him that-but how
he can in the shortest time acquire all the
facts so perfectly that he will use them in
voluntarily. A child learns language not
by any process of reasoning, but by memory.
Indeed, the best way for an adult to learn
language is to memorize 50 many words a
day until he gets vocabulary enough to swim
ILL., LIS ID OillJ iucoOAOlA VI IAiCilioA anu
this is the most popular way of learning whist
and apparently the best. The beginner learns
certain rules and then certain more rules,
until by and by he knows them all, and then
whenever he makes play Re runs his men
tai fingers over his mental keyboard until he
comes to the right one, presses itand he plays
the card. OF course, if he has got ordinary
intelligence he can't help but draw certain
conclusions, but the point about this
method of play is that it's parrot
play and nothing else. You begin on
memory and your reason in due course
of time is bound to assert itself. What you
want 20 do is to begin on reason and use
your memory as an aid Learn the theory
of the game first. Learn why you should
play second hand low and third hand high.
Twenty-six cards, divided into two groups
are pitted against twenty-six other cards
divided into two more groups, Read Poles
essay and find out why certain lines of play
are reasonable and logical Think it over
and get the general theory of the game
lodged in your mind. Then go into details,
and this is where your memory comes into
play.
The best and quickest way to learn the
game is to reason ont every rule as you come
to it. Then you will not only know it, but
know why it was made, which is Of most i'm
portance. Ton LANSING.