The Anaconda standard., 1895-05-26
EVOLUTION OF WHIST.

! The Dynamiter, lis as wide as the
world: tbs an accomplishment like
| breathing" Yet such a statement is
/ far more true now than it was when
it was written. for the last few years
| have seen both a notable technical de-
| velopment Of the game. and an amaz-
I ing increase i'm the number OF people
who play it, Among indoor games IL
now ranks absolutely supreme. II has
distanced all its competitors among
card games. and chess is too esoteric.
/ too solemn and too slow to enable IL
! 20 rival whist as poular amusement.
/ There are few villages large enough TO
! be dignified with a post office which
do not boast of a whist club. while in
large communities one may find So
cieties of every grade to fit his skill,
from free and easy mixed gatherings.
where they play pretty much any card
that comes to hand and stop now and
then to ask what trumps are. to COM
panies OF thoroughbred gamesters who
know every card in every hand before
play has fairly begun. The game has
been peculiarly fortunate i'm never hav-
| ing had an eclipse since the time when
/ II was elevated from the servants
hall, and yet II is obvious that II is
now having a greater boom" than IL
has ever before enjoyed. and that it
is becoming fashionable I'm circles that
never before took seriously to cards.
1t is a noteworthy fact that for the
greater part OF this modern develop
ment OF the game America is respon-
sible. and 1t is no less remarkable that
no one is more ready TO acknowledge
the fact that Englishmen. as as strik-
ingly shown in the new book by one of
the most distinguished of whist au-
thorities. William Pole a fellow of the
Royal society. and author of THE The
ory of ,he Modern Scientific Game of
Whist" etc. In his new work. enti-
Ind E-xn of
mans. Green & Coz, he quotes with APP
proval the opinions OF the famous En-
glish expert, Henry James C'Caven-
dish') after his visit to this country.
to the effect that:
Nothing surprised him more during
his visit than the widespread popularity
of the game of which. and the zeal
with which it's devotees studied its the
I ory and practice. And not only were
the numbers of players enormous and
increasing. but the general proficiency
of play was most remarkable. He has
repeatedly declared that there is no
sort of comparison to be made between
the European and American players
the latter possess a general quallty
b OF excellence which is almost unknown
here-on which at any rate ii has been
the habit to attribute only to excep-
| tional persons like Deschapelles, ap-
pearing once in an age
And Mr.. Pole adds on his own ac-
count that while accomplished lady
whist players are so rare in England.
i'm America they abound" 1t is only
natural that with such general interest
/ i'm the game, coupled with such in
Ventive talent as Americans have
shown in whatever fields of enterprise
have engaged their interest, we should
find some notable improvements or at
least developments i'm the method of
play. and indeed. Mr.. Pole reckons the
/ american leads" to be so important
a feature in the game that he assigns
| them q place by themselves as a
luton of the game. They may be said
I to mark a new era of whist.
To appreciate the importance of this
/ new mode of play, which is really only
about ten years old, ii is necessary TO
sketch briefly Mr.. Poles entertaining
history of the game 1t was about 1890
/ that a party of gentlemen at the
/ Crown coffee house in Bedford, row,
| London. became acquainted with whist,
or whisk as ii was then known, which
had up to that time been played only
in low society and was a gambling
game, as undeveloped as all-fours. In
/ defiance Of its bad reputation they gave
/ il trial. and il soon became one of
/ the most popular of games. At first
/ there was no organized mode of play,
| and each person played his own hand,
/ Just as thousands of excellent people
! do with great enjoymene at the pres
ent day, trying to make every card
take a trick and allowing the partner
] to do the same. This may be called the
/ primitive or idyllic stage of whist, and
in some respects it had the advantage
of modern complex modes, for there
was no one to harrow the soul of the
/ inexpert by that dreadful word bum
/ blepuppy." This was the game that
| Mrs. Battle played and which gave
/ Charles Lamb such annoyance.
There is no telling how long the
| primitive game of whist might have
| held its own if 1t had not been for the
arrival of a genius. Edmond Hoyle,
London barrister. who was born about
/ 1879, and who seems not To have been
so overburdened with professional du-
/ ties as To have no time left for amuse-
ments. He instantly saw the possibil-
/ ities~of the game. and the fact that
/ much less depended on the high cards
4 i'm one hand alone than on the rela-
/ tive positions of the cards in the four
/ hands He introduced the calculus Of
/ probabilities and evolved a mode of
/ play which required much study and
/ gave much room for unlimited intellec-
/ tual skill. So complicated was his
/ game that he found ii necessary To inn
part IL by professional teaching, which
was an entire innovation in the his
+ tory of cards.
! For a century and quarter the
Hoyle game which represented the Sec
ond stage of evolution, held its own.
Then IL was supplanted, about 1865.
by the philosophical game" invented
by the little whist school," a group of
Cambridge men. of whom "Cavendish"
and James Clay. NJ. p, were the lead
ers. This school made the combination
of the hands the foundation of the sys-
TEN, and worked out the doctrine of
probability into n simple and readily
learned form. To some extent, also,
communication between the partners
was established by the signal for
trumps. This game proved so much
better adapted for common use that
it's immediate result was an enormous
increase I'm the number Of players. es-
pecially in America. and within 20
years this country had developed the
game into n new and fourth stage
The American leads. chiefly invented
by y. h. Trist Of New Orleans. which
arc now in everyday use even among
F players who do not pretend Ia be eN-
pert. really amount To a telegraphic
a gs-