The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1897-01-07
HOWELL ON WHIST.
A Revolution In the Game and How 1t
Came About.

A revolution is OH foot in the whist
world. At the head of the tablished gov
eminent Cavendish stands. His disciples
call him master. Hamilton, Ames, Coffin,
Work, Street-theSe are but apostles and
missionaries. Their books are to the mas
ters as volume of sermons is to the Holy
Scriptures themselves The comparison is
not irreyerent. To the mass of whist play
ers Cayendish is, in fact, a religion.
But their faith is disturbed. The "short
suit heresy'' gains adherents every day.
Foster and Howell are the chief sedition-
lists.
1t is the belief of the advocates Of the
new whist that it has come to stay; that
it is not heresy, but a gossip; that while
it is now compelled to accept the narrow
designation of 'tthe short suit game it
will speedily earn the right to be known
simply as whist, without qualification or
question.
What is there in the royal game that
gives such Zest to the allegiance of it's sub
jects? In some respects it is the simplest
of card games. And yet men study it as
they study science and art, write articles
and books about it, until it's photography
is astonishingly great; talk about it, dis
cuss, argue, wax warm; teach it to classes
of pupils, as other professors teach music
and the modern languages, and still never
exhaust nor even fathom its possibilities.
All the players have to do at whist is to
get as many tricks as they can out of their
hands, but how to do this is the question.
The raw recruit picks up his hand and
guosses what to lead. If he does any rea-
sonine at all, it is sure to be crude, unprin
cipled and wrong. The choice of the best
nd wit w q o.
far from easy. 1t requires comprehen
sion of the principles of the game, some
knowledge of probabilities and mutual
understanding between partners. Whist is
partnership game. The original leader
should do what seems to be best for his
hand and at the same time should show
his partner, SO far as he can by single
card what the possibilities of his hand
are, how far he can be of service to partner
and how far he expects partners assist
ance.
Let us plunge in medals res. Suppose
I have this hand dealt to me: Hearts
(trump)-K, @, 10; clubs-A, j, 9, 3; dia-
monds-Q, z, 5, 2; spades-8, 6. The deal
en- has turned the of hearts. What shall
be the original lead from the given hand9
Shall start the trumps? No. because
there is not much plain suit strength in
the hand, and one suit-the spades-is
quite defenseless And the clubs-shall
lead from them? No, because with the
tenace-A, J-at the head of the suit,
am more likely to win two tricks with the
ace and jack if some one else leads it than
if lead it myself. The diamonds? No,
because the very best can do with them
is to win trick with the queen, and
must wait for that And, finally, the
spades9 Yes. will lead the of spades,
because it's loss cannot injure my hand,
and this suit, being my weakest, is prob
ably partners strongest. He will under
stand that the is the best spade have;
that have only two or three of them and
may ruff the suit soon; that my other suits
are not very strong, and in order to get
the most out of them we must do some
careful maneuvering If his spades are
strong, help him by the lead. If his
spades are weak, it is just as well for US
both to know about this weakness early.
The hand is an example from actual prac-
tice. 1t was played thus (hearts turned
by West, North leads to the first trick tho
winning card in each trick is underlined,
and the one under it is led next):