The age-herald., 1901-03-31
THE AMERICAN WOMAN ASA WHIST
 PLAYER DISCUSSED BY AN EXPERT

cause she may be personally attractive, but she must be known clever player whose knowledge of whist Is based upon the system of leads known as American Leads
 "The principle underllng these leads as 1t is now simplided is known in the whist world as the 'Cavendish,' the author being Mir. Henry Jones of London. We do not offer prizes in our club. but have what is known as the high score pin, which is won by the most successful player"
 When asked of the wane of duplicate whist, Mrs. Holmes said that the best whist authorities in this country no longer regarded duplicate" as a good whist game. The very fact that in the reversing of the boards gave one the ad- vantage of knowing the hands" made 1t almost an imposslbili1y to play a scien- tihc game, for recalling where certain tricks had been last tempted one to play irregularly if a trick could be gained thereby. So that duplicate whist was hardly q test of an expert whist player, and could not be a satisfactory game to students of whist any more than could the old-fashoned game of whist where everything depended upon luck content the lover of whist today
 In the modern game played by the clubs in the East, the boards are passed from one table to the other, thereby prevent ing a player from having any advantage. In speaking of the tournaments Mrs. Holmes said that the representatives from each club were seated at the tables east to west and north to south, and this gave an opportunity for the challenged party to be tested by each player.
 Mrs Holmes referred to the beautiful al of ha et Aa sociation, of which her club is a mem Der. This association includes the whist clubs in New York city and those with in radius of a few hundred miles of the i city The tournaments are very notable events in the whist world, and the tro- | phies are very proudly won by the for tunate players.
 The event of the year for whist players l is the Congress of the National Whist League, which meets this year in New l York. To these congresses the American clubs send their strongest players, there being several trophies offered, notably the championship for the best woman whist player in America.
 For the approaching tournament Mrs. Holmes Is one of the four women selected as the strongest players to represent her club, which enters for the team contest. That she has already enjoyed the dis ttnction of winning several trophies and now being selected as one of the repre- sentatives of her club at the National Whist League indicates how thoroughly she has mastered the principles of the most beautiful of games, and emphasizes too, the dignity of whist when the bright est and cleverest women of the day en- joy a study of its principles
 While Mrs Holmes was in Birmingham among those with whom she played whist were those two experts, Mrs. Algernon Nelson and MT. Wilson Brown of Shef field, the fourth player that evening being MT. Holmes.
 With the beauty and dignity of this first of games' it seems unfortunate that it should ever be confused with the game known as bridge whist" and which, as Mrs. Holmes explained, Is pure ly gambling game. A recent movement however, denouncing bridge whist tends to emphasie the distinctive position held by modern scientific whist as played by the most representative classes in this country and abroad. Whist is the draw ing room game of England.