The Mena weekly star., 1918-05-23
1Coniinued from last week.

1 snc4, t week tts ing fo teach rmt
 of the oamies how to play poker. but
 becau I won ihiriy-five francs they
 declared | that they didn't "fawncyH the
 game.
 Tommy plays few card games the general run never heard of poker. GU.
 chre, seven up, or pinochle. They have
 game similar to pinochle called
 "Royal Bezique," but few know how to
 play it.
 Generally there are two decks of
 cards in a section, and in a short time
 they are io dog-eared and greasy. you
 can hardly tell the ace of spades from the ace of hearts. The owners of these decks sometimes eondescend to lend them after much coaxing.
 So you see, Mir. Atkins has his fun mixed in with his hardshlps and, con
 uary 10 popular belief, the rank and
 file of the British army in the trenches
 is one big happy family. Now in Vir- \ ginia, at school, l was fed on old Me < Guffy's primary reader, which gave me an opinion of an Englishman about equal to TIC Minute Mans backed up by Sim Feiners. But l found Tom my to be the best of mates and gen. tleman through and through. He never thinks of knocking his officers. If one makes costly mistake and Tommy pays with his blood, there is no gen eral condemnation of the officer. He is just pitied. It is exactly the same as It was with the Light Brigade at
 Balaclava, to say nothing of Gallipoli,
 Neuve Chapelle and Loos. Personally
 I remember little incident where
 twenty of us were sent on a trench
 raid, only two of us returning. but I
 will tell this story later on.
 said it was big happy family, and
 so 1t is, but as in all happy families,
 there are servants, so In the British
 army there are also servants, officers
 servants, or 70. S." as they are termed.
 In the American army the common name for them is dog robbers From a controversy in the English papers,
 Winston Churchill made the state ment, as far as l can remember, that the officers servants in the British forces totaled nearly two hundred thousand. He claimed that this re- moved two hundred thousand excep-
 The two most popular games are Grown and Anchor" and House"
 The paraphernalia used in Grown and Anchor consists of piece of can vas two feet by three feet. This is divided into six equal squares. In these squares are painted a club, diamond, heart, spade, crown, and an anchor, one device to a square. There are three dice used, each dice marked the same as the canvas. The banker sets up his gambling outfit in the corner of q billet and starts bally-hooing until crowd of Tommies gathers around; then the game starts.
 The Tommies place bets on the squares, the crown or anchor being played the most. The banker then Tolls his three dice and collects or pays out as the case may be. If you play the crown and one shows up on the olce, you get even money. if two show up' you receive two to one, and if three, three to one. If the crown does not ap- pear and you have bet on 1t, you lose, and so on. The percentage for the banker Is large if every square is plSyed' but if the crowd is partial to, say two squares, he has to trust to 'uck. The banker generally wins.
 The game of House" is very popular also, It takes two men to run 1t. This game consists of numerous squares of cardboard containing three rows of plumbers, five numbers to row. The plumbers run from one to ninety. Each Eeard has different combination. The French "estamlnets" in the vil- Ea.ages are open from eleven in the morn S'hg until one in the afternoon in ac- 4eofdanee with army orders.
 4 Atter dinner the Tommies congre- gate at these places to drink French . Ueer at a penny glass and play "House.r
 AS soon as the estaminet is sufi- v,ehtly crowded the proprietors of the
 mousse game get busy and. as they term 1t, form school" This consists " going around and selling cards at iranc each. If they have ten in the ssehooi' the packers of the game de- suuct two francs for their trouble and ue winner gets eight francs.
 lhen the game starts. Each buyer piaces his card before him on the ta- pie' nrst breaking up matches into fif- teen pieces.
 one Of the packers of the game has
 small cloth bag in which are ninety | .aruooard squares, each with a num- .oer printed thereon, from one to nine | EV' lie raps on the table and cries | put: Eyes down, my lucky lads"
 All noise ceases and every one is att 'tention.
 me croupier places his hand in the | 'pag and draws forth a numbered | sQuare and immediately calls out the lnainoer The man who owns the card | s"ih that particular number on it, lsosers the square with match. The | |vne who covers the fifteen numbers on | |lns card first shouts House" The 'V'ner packer immediately comes over |'o nm and verifies the card by calling | eut the numbers thereon to the man "ih the bag. As each number Is eaned he picks 1t out of the ones p.cked from the bag and says, Right" - tne count is right he shouts, House sorrect, pay the lucky gentleman, and |seu nm a card for the next school"