Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-04-03
HOWELL 5 WHIST LESSON.
NO Convention Should be Allowed
Which Cannot Readily be Understood.
finesslng in Trumps--R. F. Foster
IN HE Whist Papers Gives an
excellent Example of a Proper
Finesse.


Finesse.
oh saturday, January %, the Ameri-
can Whist Club team of Boston for the
third time defeated the Park Club team
OF Piainfield, N j., for the American
whist league challenge trophy. The
score OF losses, 20 to %, was pretty
heavy on both sides, a circumstance
mat Is explained by the unusually diff
ncult character of the hands. Both
paflles agree that many trying situa-
eions arose, and it was by their su,
peIlof strategy in these instances that
eiie bostonlanS Won Two members
Oh tne American team, Messrs. Ward
ana whitney, are short suffers by in,
ciinatlon and preference, but in this
match they submitted to team disci-
piine and pretty strictly played the
iong suit game, of which their cap
,ain' bouve, is a stanch and able advo-
CATE FOR some reason or other the
sincerity OF their ightladadness,
ana particularly of Wards, seemed to
nave been doubted by the Jerseymen,
VINO on several occasions after pecu-
liar looking plays by Ward, asked the
foxy Bostonian, what did that mean?"
MS question is commoner than it
ought to be in important whist
inatches. Ii player makes an irregu-
lar or obscure play, his adversaries
can size 1t up in one of three ways. In
the nrst place, it may have no special
significance, but be made merely to
perplex the enemy, and in this case
the question, What did that mean
Is obviously idle. 1t may even cost
the asker the loss of some self esteem
IL II be answered by the retort pointed
rather than courteous. In the Ameri-
can-Park game, Ward merely smiled
and replied, "Oh, don't know" which
was as near the truth as it could be
and still be polite and pleasant.
In the second place, the enemy may
suppose the peculiar play made to be
a private convention, but If he intends
SO to imply by his What did that
mean?' he is gratuitiously insulting
his adversaries, because private con-
ventions are known to be illegal and
generally believed to be ungentleman-
ly. In a gentlemen's game it should
body, even by implication or innuen-
DO, OF using private conventions.
But If your peculiar looking play is
neither private convention nor a
mere departure from the routine with
out special significance it must be a
published, known and practiced artifce,
and by asking What did that mean?"
the adversary confesses his ignorance
OF the scientific developments of whist
His query is therefore unworthy of
an expert.
In short, unless there is a flaw in
my reasoning, the What did that
mean?" of the modern whist match
which expression, by the LAY, is by
no means confined to Plainfeld, j.
must be wrong and ought to be abol-
ished. To my mind, the practice is
at once ridiculous and shameful. I'M
agine a foot ball captain after the ad-
verse team had broken through the
line by a trick asking the other cap
tain ''Tell us how you did that?" He
would be laughed at for his pains. 1t
is his business to know enough foot
ball to understand the trick after see
ing it worked and thenceforth to
SudlQ dSodiioL IT, nc SdluS Dbl &
1t appears to me, applies with equal
force to a whist match. What did
that mean?" is a ridiculous admission
OF lack of kno Wedge and perception.
But it is also shameful reflection
on the game if you regard it in a
slightly different light. 1t implies that
the whist of to-day is so saturated with
arbitrary and artificial conventions
that no man, however intelligent and
well posted, can presume to be famil-
lar with them all or to divine their
meaning by any logical process of
perception or inference. Thus viewed,
the what did that mean?" is equiv
aent to saying, you seem to be using
a signal that has no foundation in the
natural order of the game and which
may mean anything you choose, and
which I don't consider legitimate I'M
less you explain it to me- 1t is a
great pity that whist should have
reached the stage of illogical, cut and
dried, annoying conventionality. No
wonder that some authorities claim
that any play which calls forth a
"Wbat did that mean?" from the ad-
yersaries is private convention, pure
ard simple, even if it has been heard
of and practiced before. ] am more
and more inclined every day to be-
lieye that no convention should be
allowed which cannot be understood
without explanation by player of ex-
perience and skill
Many players of the routine school
seem to think that conventionality
Is the GROWING virtue of modern whist
and that nothing is just right unless
Il is conventional One of these play
ers sitting the other day in game
If bridge whist, led queen from king,
ouaen and others, and his partner, de-
nying him the king, went astray and
nv ignorance of the situation lost the
game. After it was all over the rou-
tinjst explained, 1T was straight
nuaan lead. to show five" Five be
bangod,, was the partners response.
81 want to know what you have. not
how many" The partner was right.
Tbase arbitrary number showing con-
.,antions are worse than time wasted
at bridge whist. They are seldom
nsed and when they are very probably
confuse PARTNER. Why2 Because they
80 unnatural. To call queen led
from king queen and others straight
- nutting the cart before the horse.
a. . matter of fact the king is the
on1y straight" lead from this com
hjnation. and the queen IS oiI Oh
whist hieroglyphics and as crooked as
hieroglyphics usually are
am not an enemy OF system at