The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-03-28
The Fascination of BRIDGE.
| Edgar JepsOn, in The Queen. !


sudden springing up of a new passion
among the nations of the Western
World is a phenomenon of extreme in.
terest. And when one consid ers tn,
pursue it one can hardly reckon the
love of bridge less than passion. The
catholicity of its appeal to the human
heart is indeed remarkable. The vota.
ries of the game of my acquaintance
vary between boys and girls just out OF
their teens and men and women just
out of their seventies. 1t is no uncom-
mon sight to see the young girl and the
patriarch, the lion and the lamb
need scarcely say do not refer to the
table equally absorbed in the chances
of the game. Its appeal is not only to
the sportsman and the idler; the intel
lectuals fall equally under its spell; not,
indeed, in equal numbers, since there
are not so many of them, but with an
equal fervor. l have seen at the same
table a Radical peer, theosophist, a
lady inspector of factories and mere
owner OF house property.
Indeed, the game draws its votaries
with perfect impartiality from the
army, the navy, the church and the
stage, sport, commerce, medicine, law
| and the arts During the course of any
given week l find among partners or
| opponents clergymen, barristers, stock
| brokers', politicians, scientists, army
men, doctors, lawyers, sportsmen,
| actors, fnanciers, their aunts, their
daughters and their wives-the bulk of
them, of the men, that is, very busy
people, doing good work. Moreover, l
see no reason to suppose that the
aunts, wives and daughters neglect
their household duties, since they do
not begin to play before three in the
afternoon.
The strength of the games appeal to
its votaries differs as their characters
differ. To strong characters its appeal
is strong; to weak characters its APP
peal is weaker. l can, fortunately,
make entirely dispassionate observa-
| tions, since, personally, | only play the
game for exercise. When at 2.40 p. m.
feel to need exercise take the train
to town, 60 to one of my clubs and deal.
But | have established the existence
among the bulk of the votaries of the
game of a definite bridge fever. 1t is
not, like an ague, tertian or Guardian,
Duu ululHdl, SeHtldlly ui-utu ldi. IL
attacks those subject to it at about 40
symptoms are a higher temperature
and quickened pulse, followed by
sudden and somewhat alarming nerv-
GUS fdgetiness, and an uncomfortable
sense of something Juggling at the
heartstrings. The proper, indeed the
only, remedy is to hail a hanson and
HE to the bridge table. Should the
subject be on his or her way to Hur-
bingham, or Lords, or the river, or
tennis, or golf, or theatre, the only
thing to do is stop, hail a hanson and
get to bridge. If they persevere in the
alien occupation they had proposed to
themselves, they will only be miserable
for lack of the mental stimulus to
which they have grown used.
| have noticed, indeed among bridge
players, growing and very credltable
Discrimination to waste their energies
on any other amuSement; and l was
much struck by a conversation l heard
the other day between young man
and a maiden:
"I'm going to give up bridge" said
the maiden.
$50 am l." said the young man.
81 spend all my evenings at it, and
never do anything else," said the
maiden.
so do l." said the young man.
81 never get to theatre or dance"
said the maiden.
mo more do l." said the young man.
81 never see half my friends" said
the maiden.
''No more do L. said the young man.
eff this goes on, l shall never get
married." said the maiden.
'No more shall L. said the young
man.
They have not given up bridge. They
must marry one another
Now what is the fascination of the
game? 1t consists chiefly in an ex-
traordinary sustained mental stimula-
that YOU never take up your hand with
out the prospect of holding cards which
may win you the game, and however
bad the cards you do pick up, there is
always the chance that your partner
may save or W n the game. Each trick
that is played, too, may disclose, and
often does disclose, unsupported pos
sibilities and combinations. Conse-
quently throughout the game, from the
moment you pick up your hand to the
turning of the trick, you are kept on
the alert in continuous excitement.
Its fascination, then, rests chiefly on
that variety which is the salt of life,
and another great part of it is the joy
of struggle. Like life itself, bridge is a
battle; you condense into few hours
a succession of exciting fights, and ex-
perience again and again the joys of
the warrior, of the intellectual warrior.
At few other games, too. does one ex-
perience so completely the stern Joy of
the warrior fighting against odds as
when, during a run of bad luck, you
sally forth to fight the uphill fight
against unkind fortune. Few things
bring home to you so thoroughly the
fact that the joy of any struggle is in
the struggle itself, not in the prize.
After all, mental stimulation is what
we all live by. Some people find it in
gardening or watching cricket matches,
others in bridge. 1t is a matter of
temperament.
This is the pure fascination of the
game. But, like all other games, bridge
is open to abuse. There are people
who will not be content with it's proper
fascination, which may be experienced
in full when you are playing for the
most moderate stakes; they must add
to it by gambling, by playing for stakes
higher than they can afford. Now and
again they bring discredit on the game.