Evening star., 1933-03-19

that sculpture Is lost art"
says Max Beerbohm, and Of
course this dictum must be
taken with a grain of salt and
few remonstrances from Gutzon Borglum
and 10 Davidson, but when it comes to
pinochle, you can take it from me without q
grain of salt that the good old game of auction
pinochle, played with either three or four
. players and from one to six kiboitzers, is fast
being replaced in the homes of the garment
manufacturers by contract
I am informed by the manufacturers Of play
ing cards that the demand for pnochle decks
began to fall long before the late bull market
did, and while there may be a great many
vintage decks-pdnochle decks laid down in
1926 and 1927-stin in circulation, the de-
mand now As for bridge decks, with a card
containing the new rules for scoring in the
game of contract. Pinochle is passing, and
what is more, the decline and fall of pinochle
is having a most adverse effect on the delica-
lessen and cigar trade. Let me explain.
In arranging a private pinochle game, the
unwritten law called for two pinochle decks
a box of poker chips for scoring, one pound of
sliced tongue, a few turkey sandwiches, rye
bread, ten cents worth of dill pickles and q
box of 10-cent cigars, because auction pinochle
with three or four players is what would call
a hungry game.
1t has been said by Guttmann, the bus boy
of the Cafe Imperial on Second avenue, and
other such wise observers in the gradual change
of the modes and folkways, that the war
caused the decline of pincchle There grew
up during this period cult of hatred against
our opponents, and in auction pnochle you
did not sufficiently hate your opponents, nor
did you grow vitriolc toward your partner
when he made a mistake In fact you felt
almost grateful to partner who made mis-
take and thus gave you an opportunity to dis
play your powers Of satirical denunciation.
IN contract bridge, however, it is not con-
sidered etiquette to spread yourself in an
Grafton. Some husbands, who don't like their
wives anyway, find immense satisfaction in the
venomous feeling they work up when their
wives overbid or underbid Even technical
terms of warfare are used in contract such
as the word vulnerable. There is no such
thing as being vulnerable in auction pinochle
Either your opponent plays the hand like a
strohSchneider, which means tailor Of straw
one ninth of man of straw for it takes
nine tailors to make a manor else your
opponent plays 1t like a schlemiel like
doppus. defy any general to find in hand
book Of tactics the terms strohschneider
schlemiel or doppus
As for the same words schlemiel and doppus
they both mean extremely clumsy person.
Thus it has been said in explanation that a
a
doppus has dropped; but none of these terms
is fighting word. It merely calls for argument
such as when a man tries to refute the ac-
cusation of playing hand like a strohschneider
by saying: Gould smell it that you held the
ace, ten, king and two other trumps? What
am I? A bloodhound?"
This of course evokes the riposte: But why
didn't you play your lone ace of clubs? What
did you expect to do with it? Pickle it?" It
must be remembered, in considering the telling
effect of this swift repartee, that there are
two aces of every suit, and if player finds
himself with only one of those aces in his hand
and no other cards of that suit to back it up,
he Is under the painful necessity of losing it
to anybody who plays the other ace first.
situation of this sort causes sensation in
court. and the Hbbitzers and other players
usually cluck their tongues and wag their heads
from side to side. They also look at one
another, spreading the right hand in an elo-
quent gesture, as much as to say: what can
you do with a feeble minded person like that?"
In fact any auction pinochle player who was
caught mapping with lone ace in his hand,
during the heyday of auction pinochle, might
Just as well have been caught by q credit man
while drinking champagne out Of a lady's Slip
per- as far as his reputation for mercantile
prudence was concerned. But no venom ex-
listed in the minds of his fellow players They
condemned him loudly: they gloated over him
and, in fact behaved themselves in the natural
fashion which Is not expected or wanted of
contract players. Let US take, for instance. q
similar situation In q game of contract. Your
partner, we will say for example, has stolen the
bid from you by disregarding all the world
wisdom of Lenz or Culbertson, and has begun
the playing out Of . four-spade bid which
he or she proceeds to ruin while you, as dummy
sit and watch the debacie.
Can you for one moment interrupt the play
by ciapping your hand to your head rolling
your eyes tragically and exclamng "Oo-eeee!"