The herald., 1895-06-17
WITH THE PROCESSION, by HENRY b. FIJI. ,

Chicaeo story more ambitious and cor
siuerabiy more realistic than in his cal
, her BOOK, The Cliff Dwellers, we were lie
TO expect much. Lucy Monroe had wri
| ten in the Critic: IF tt is not III
great American novel, we NAV confident
~ look for that long heralded yolum
from the author of With the Procession.
.ul. novels, too. last week gave lis hi
Two columns Ill Har pers Weekly abou
one oook,on the whole prasing it greatly
aloeit IT was more by telling us how mucl
ne nHed 1t rather than by telling us of it
actnal greatness. These two witness s
whllenot to be utterly discredited. ar
not likely to be very widely corroborate,
oy maturer estlm ates of critics In fact
us not too much to say that Mr.. How
eiIs estimates of novels and novel writers
nave OFTEN been wrong.
| ,.inat is to say. he has essayed t(
olsparage and discredit. everything no,
wlthln his chosen school;of which school
~ IS only fair 10 say that. he Is splen-
uio and successful disciple and exponent.
Mr.. rulers story is told in excellent
Engllsh, is good in technique and faith
Iui IN detail. But it is not great story
nor very near approach to one, meas
ured BY the great stories that have found
zeal place in literature. 1t is cramped
| III plan' 1T Is necessarily narrow in scope,
and might nave all been fully set out in
the local Journals with nearly as satisfac-
Tory results as in pretentious book. In
u ta IL would have been rather fine mat
Ter 1or hrst class Sunday or literary
weekly newspaper at home, because it is
about Chicago and Of Chicago, and will
| ma Its warmest welcome there.
= y =
The Evolution of Whist is a new book
OF SURPRISING general interest to the low
eIs OF the greatest and most popular of
a., card games. The author, William
Poie, fellow OF the ROYAL society. is
well known to the public through his
other works on the subject. This book
Is not intended as manual of the game
OF whist but treatise on the rise and
Development of the game. The author
pays great compliment to the players
OF this country, and says they have
marked new era in the game by
leads practically unknown to English
players, and that good lady whist play
ers abound here, while they are very rare
IN England. Cavendsh found the same
state OF things when he visited this coun-
try, and of his impressions Pole writes:
Nothing surprised him more during
MS visit than the widespread popularity
OF the game OF whist and the zeal with
winch Its devotees studied its theory and
practice. And not only were the nun bers
OF players enormous and increasing, but
the general proficiency of play was most
thai there is no sort of comparison to be
made between the European and the
American players-the latter pos sessing a
general quality of excellence which is al
most unknown here-or which at any rate
1t has been the habit TO attribute only to
exceptional persons like Deschapelles, ap-
pearlng only once in an age
AT hrst-the game having been first
played in England in the early years of
the eighteenth century-whist was
below stairs amusement. being played
in coffee houses and kitchens, any nu M
Der taking hand and each trying tor
tricks on his own account. Gradually it
grew into favor and was adopted by the
gentry. without, however, developing
much until Edmond Hoyle, the London
barrister without business TO annoy hina-
pher says OF him. introduced the calcu-
lus OF probabilities which evolved
mode of play hitherto undreamed Of. Civ
ing room for unlimited intellectual skill"
From tins time dates the club and also
the professional teaching OF the game.
The Hoyle game and methods growing
out of it appear to have held sway till
about thirty years ago, when the
"pbilosophical game" was expounded by
Cavendish and the Cambridge coterie OF
players This school made the combina-
ton of the hands the foundation OF the
system. and worked out the doctrine OF
probability into a simple and readily
learned form. To some extent. also, com
municatlon between the pa rtners was es
tablished by the signal for trumps. This
game proved so much better adapted for
common use that its immediate result
was an enormous incl ease in the mum Der
of players, especially in America, and
within twenty years this country has de-
veloped the game to new and fourth
stage.
Concerning the further development OF
the game in this country, as following
out the beginnings of the Cavendlsh
school, a review OF Poole's book says:
THE American leads. chiefly invented
by n. B. Trst of New Orleans which are
now in everyday use, even among players
who do not pretend to be expert, really
amount to telegraphic code between
| partners, and it is an open question
| whether the effect Is as a whole tor the
good of the game. There can be no doubt
| that it tends to do away with the advant-
| age which eXceptio nal skill used to pos
sess. The effect is somewhat similar to
that of allowing partners to take look
at each Others hands, and there is far
less room for those delicate intuitions
and differences from the fall of the cards
which used to SAVIOR OF genius. What has
been mades language, and there is no
more credit in understanding it than in
having learned French and German
while to the old-time player each game
was a cryptogram, a Babylonian hero
glyph, only to be made out by the siren
| uous application of pure intellect. In
this connection il is worth while to cite
the words of Mr.. Clay, than Nhom there
can be no better authority. He says o!
the signal for trumps:-
1.-the time for leading trumps used tC
be the point of all others demanding he
greatest judgment. Now, almost as Otter
as not, the tyIo knows whether his part
ner wishes trumps to be Iayed. So mucl
is this the case that player OF grea
reputation, who Gains such credit as II
due to the inventor of this sigma, has OF
ten said that he bitterly regrets his in
genuity, which has deprived him OF one
half the advantage which he derived from
his superior play.
ION the other hard, it is to be said 70
this signal and for the other signal
which collectively are called the Amer
can leads, that they have greatly improv
ed the average quality of play, and nav
led ordinary whist payers to carry intel
ligence into their use of the small cards
which were formerly played lndlifeIently
Now it is not possible to relax the atten
ton for a moment, for each card has il
J lesson to impart, and a failure to observ
it would incur deserved reproach fc
} having thrown awavthe game. In regar
to secret signals between partners,a que
ton over which the whist world has bee
rent asunder, Mr.. Pole takes cons ~
alive ground and holds that all meth oc
=. of play should be explained to the Who'll
company.
But the best they ever claimed on o.
half of the game OF whist is that 1T is
no sense, nor can it ever become a gam