Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-18
THE WANING OF BRIDGE WHIST

Card Games Have Their Day-Facts
In the History Of Draw Poker and
Euchre-Changes in Taste.
From the New York Sun.
Unless all signs fall. there will be new
candidate for public favor in the line Of
card games this winter. and that is skat.
The word Is a German abbreviation of an
Italian term in taroc. and is pronounced
with the long a." as If 1t were spelled
'skaht."
Any one who has watched the history of
cards must have remarked the curious reg
ularity with which the favorites come and
CO. In 1896. when whist was at the height
Of its fame. and the annual congress Of the
American Whist League brought together
$50 delegates at the Oriental Hotel from
all parts Of the United States, and even
from England. a writer in the Sun de-
clared that the day was not far distant
when bridge would supersede all other
forms of whist. About seven years ago the
Sun announced that bridge was the COM
ing game although it was still unknown
outside a. few Of the leading clubs, and not
a single text book on the game had been
published.
There was a time when euchre was the
national game in America and whist was
very little played. When poker was at the
height of its popularity among fashionable
people and there were flfty-six women's
poker clubs meeting in a single uptown
hotel In New York. the idea that any game
could ever take It's place. especially such q
simple game as whist, was laughed at.
What game was there. people asked, that
could touch poker?
But the game came. and it was straight
whist. without honors. Years before duplt-
cate was heard of whist was the fashion
able, craze in society. When duplicate came.
in 1891. 1t knocked out whist, q game
which Is now obsolete.
Ten years ago forty-two papers in the
United States were devoting from two to
four columns a week to duplicate whist
news and notes. Every one said that no
game could ever take the place Of dupli-
cate. and the few who had ever heard of
bridge condemned 1t as simply a gambling
proposition. which would do for an occa-
sfonaI variation from the real game. like
piquant or klondike.
Euchre is still a popular game. 1t is true.
but not with the people who demand
greater opportunities for intellectual RI
valry than such simple game affords.
Euchre has dropped into the second class
and Is now a round game, like pinochle.
Poker Is still popular, but only as gam
bling proposition and behind closed doors.
1t was never a game which could be used
for social or charitable purposes In large
gatherings.
Popularity Of Whist.
OF the forty-two papers that published
whist columns ten years ago but two re-
main, and although the game still -four
ishes among the clubs that belong to the
whist league it Is seen only on regular club
nights. Before and after the compass game
and at all other times the play is bridge.
~ ~Ixvv tno md
ments, but whist has practically disap-
peared from the social world. and one Is
never asked to dinner with whist after
ward; the game is always bridge.
Bridge Is unquestionably the present Ia
vorite and in spite Of all that has been
written and preached against 1t caro- play
ers seem to be bridge mad. The same ex-
travagant assertions Of undyfng popularity
are today put forward in favor of bridge
that were heard years ago about euchre
and poker and whist and duplicate.
One continually hears the assertion that
there cannot be a better game and that
nothing can ever take its place. They said
precisely the same things about duplicate
ten years ago. May it not be possible that
they are equally in error about bridgeF
People love change. and caro- players
new, but the standards which have been
set by such games as whist and bridge
have educated people up to demanding
games which offer the fullest opportunl,
ties for the exercise of the intellect. and
II may safely be said that no game Will
ever be widely popular in this country In
which the mental enjoyment derived from
the play of the cards Is not more OF an
object than the mere winning or losing OF
the game itself.
Games of this high class are not in
vented in day, and no absolutely new
game has ever become the fashion. 1t
may be comparatively unknown, but 1t
must be matured. 1t is only the finished
product that can ever be a favorite In the
first set.
been old. The origin of euchre is lost in
the mists of antiquity. 1t looks like
variation of the oldest known game of
cards. spoil five.
Poker came to America at the- time of
the introduction Of the draw made it
popular.
Whist was 200 years old when America
took it up and had had its rage in Eng
played in Europe for fifty years at least
before New York ever heard of 1t, and
1t was known in England as far back as
1870.
The fact that a game Is already known
or has been played for years is no reason
why 1t should not step into the front rank
and become the fashion. 1t is not the In
trinsic merit of game that makes it
popular favorite, but some fortuitous COM
bination of circumstances that brings 1t
to the notice Of people that have influence
and following In Such matters.
Skat an Old Game.
The favorite at court is never newborn
baby. but some one that Is picked out from
the throng that always surrounds the
throne. Every game has its day. and
there may be games now but little known
which will be all the rage in the years to
come.
Some Of these games with possibilities
could be named. but the visible cloud upon
the card-playing horizon now is skat No
bigger than q mans hand perhaps, but
full of portent for the future.
It Is not q new game. and 1t is not by any
means unknown. There are 10000 skat
players in this country today, with q we'll
organized league, which has held annual
congresses since 1898. At the last meeting,
held in Buffalo In July. more than two
thousand players assembled from all parts
Of the country, and they had automo-
biles for prizes in the tournament.
But people will never give up bridge for
skat." say the bridge enthusiasts.
That Is what they said few years ago
about giving up. whist for bridge. Those
who have hand on the pulse of the card