The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-08

HAMILTON VS.. NARRAGANSETT.
The Hamilton club of Philadelphia
sent it's championship four, Messrs.
Remak, Work, Ballard and Mogridge,
to Providence yesterday to fight for the
A. w. L. trophy. This is the team that
won the Hamilton trophy at Brooklyn.
There had been some talk on the part
of n or two members of the team
about retiring from active play, but the
sentiment of the club SO strongly op-
posed this, that the old players have
consented to represent the club, at
least for a short time longer.
WHAT is THE LEAD.
We published in the Globe Of Oct.
%, a deal played In the Hamilton-St.
Paul match at Manhattan Beach, in
which the principal point of interest was
the correct original lead from the fol
lowing hand: Spades, J, Z, 5, A; hearts,
@, ], 6; clubs, A, 9, 4; diamonds, A, 10,
Z. We expressed a decided preference
for a trump lead, and invited the whist
editor of the Telegraph to give his opin-
ion as to the best lead from the and.
Mr.. Work publishes his opinion in the
Telegraph Of Oct. 81, and we take pleas
ure in giving our readers the benefit Of
his views. The T~elegraph's article is
as follows:
OUR IDEAS.
Mr.. Bunn's comment upon the play
las Is always the case with his writ
ings) shows great ability, and on every
point except the original lead we art
in most thorough accord with his views,
n believe them unanswerable.
The South hand is certainly a most
difficult n from which to pick a lead
and we will with great pleasure accept
Mr.. Bunn's suggestion and use it IL
our first leading contest" There cal
be no question that a strong argument
can be advanced for opening each one
Of the four suits, but before taking up
the question of the lead in his parti-
cular hand we want to say a word on
a general principal. One Of the few
points Of play upon which The Tele-
graph is compelled to differ from Mr..
Bum is the opening of a hand con-
tanning four trumps and three short
plain suits"
Mr.. Bum, we understand, advocates
always opening the trump, while we
believe in only doing so when the com
position Of the hand demands a trump
lead. The fac that it is the only
four-card suit" does not make q lead
from 1t obligatory from our stand
point, as we believe a long-suiter who
Is willing to occasionally, when occa-
sion demands, open g. short suit
strengthens his game thereby, while
the "middle-of-the-road" player who
never deviates from his principles is
the man who, by his tenacity in stick
Ing, In all cases to what is in the main
winning play, gives the short-suit
theorists ground for argument. In
these days, when the rule to Invariably
open five trumps is more honored in
the breach than the observance, we
cannot see that n i~nvariable prin-
ctple should be applied when the hand
only contains four. We think, there
fore, that whether the trump should
be opened Is a question to be decided
by the strength of the hand, not by the
fact that trump Is the only long suit.
In the cas- Of the hand cited by
Mr. Bum, its composition. as a whole,
presents to u mind a very close
choice between two leads, viz, hearts
queen. and spades four. Almost any
factor, such as state Of the score,
knowledge of how opponent would be
apt to open the hand, ETC., would carry
our selection. Without reference TO
such factors, however, the order Of our
choice would be:
Hearts-Queen
Spades-Four.
ClubS-FOur.
Diamonds-Seven,
We would give the preference TO the
heart over the trump because we con-
slider 1t more conservative play. The
trump suit Is opened at q disadvan-
tage, there being a grave probability
that such an opening may kill an
honor in our partners hand. After
the trumps are out you have nothing
to establish, and here is the case where
the old doctrine Of two adversaries to
one partner comes into play. With
longer trumps o a afford to AXE
this chance, as the probability is, after
eXhausting all other trumps you will
still have sufficient to stop an adverse
long suit from being made. OF course
the face cards In this hand make the
chance of doing this in the present
instance quite good. and for that rea-
son we consider the choice close, but
believe the heart would in the lone
run prove a winner. We would pick
the club before the diamond. AS the
ace, tan In the latter utt La more