The San Francisco call., 1897-07-25
The Seventh Whist Congress at
Put-In-Bau.

The founder OF the American Whist League,
Eugene S Elliott, in little chat we had with
him in Put-in-Bay, made this statement,
which we think will explain why the Ameri-
can Whist League NEE tings have such charm
and why people gather from all quarters OF
the globe:
"The members of the whist league do not
meet for reasons of charity, but they are
philanthropist is they are engaged in promot-
ing q movement for the happiness OF their
kind. They have not assem- bled patriots,
but they are engaged in fostering an organi-
zation that may be of the highest service to
their country; for the time may come when
America will need its best brains and its best
muscle, and all of both; and through the
mental athletics which the whist league has
been organized to promote the future may ex-
pect q heritage of mentality which, If such
crisis comes, may be Of infinite Importance
The whist men know these things. but they
spend no time in thinking about it; they are
men of action; they are the men who run af-
fairs in America, and who will continue to run
them until brains are OF 10 more use; but their
immediate purpose is to have an outing, pep
pered with plenty of fun, and the indications
are that they will not be disappointed"
BATTLE OF THE WHIST GIANTS
The opening contest of the congress was for
associations OF the A. W. L. The beautiful
trophy was presented by the city of Brook
lyn, and is the most vslus BILE trophy played
for al these meetings 1t was won by the New
York Associa ton, beating the Atlantic and
the New England. This trophy was first
played for at Brooklyn last year and New
England carried it away.
THE HAMILTON TROPHY CONTEST
Was the feature of the meeting. Sixteen
clubs entered and each club played match
against every other club, and the two clubs
having the highest number OF matches TO
their credit entered the finals. Philadelphia
and Chicago were the lucky ones. Philadel-
phia won by twelve tricks. The American
Whist League trophy was won by the Toledo
Whist Club, as was also the Minneapolis
trophy for pairs.
TRIsT CLUB PRIZES.
The next important contest on the pro-
gramme was for the prizes prese nted by the
Trist Duplicate Whist Club of this City. Those
beautiful prizes were four GOLD and silver
whist card sets, on the top of each an out
spread whist hand, an exact reproduction of
the cards in colored enamel inside OF each was
delicately engraved:
"First progressive match for fours, seventh
American whist congress. Presented by the
Trist Duplicate Whist Club"
Thirty-one clubs were represented in this
contest each with team of four, and each
club played match against every other club
and 1t resulted in victory for the Buffalo
Whist Club, winning 201a matches.
Eight other minor contests took place, all of
them short and snappy, and gave great
satisfaction.
NEW METHOD OF SCORING.
One of the features of the congress was the
introduction into the American Whist League
of the Pacific Coast Whist Associa tion's
method of scoring At BROOKLYN last year no
score was announced inside of twelve hours
after the completion OF a match, and i'll one OF
the contests-the A. w. Lit was over thirty
six hours before the score was announced.
The first con test that took place at Putin
Bay was the Brooklyn trophy contest, and the
Official score was put on the bulletin board in
exactly eleven minutes after the match ended.
In the next contest, where thirty-one Clubs
entered, the official score was posted in four
teen minutes after the contest ended. This
was revelation to the whist-players of the
league. We have several other innova tions in
whist way that We will introduce to the
| league when the congress is held in San Fran
cisco in 1899.