Evening star., 1939-08-06

Ah AiOVAA6 Vic uCFCiOpIIiCAlt Ol UIlC
game Of contract, whose followers
are said to number upwards of IL
million persons in the United States
alone. it is interesting to observe
that this year marks the bi-centen-
nial of whist, which is the great
granddaddy of the present pastime.
1t was just 200 years ago that Ed
mund Hoyle, London barrister,
after much experimentation and
study devised and played the first
game of what he called whist. The
place was the Crown Coffee House
in Bedford row, London. In the
British capital during the 1730s,
before and after, there were nu-
merous coffee houses. Today they
might be called night clubs in a
comparison of popularity, but their
methods of entertainment were
somewhat different. Some of them
were we'll appointed and fashion,
able, while others were less pre-
tentious, so that they catered to all
classes of London society.
In practically all of them gam
bling prevailed. There was very lit
tie card playing in England dur
ing the days of the commonwealth
and the reign of the Puritans, but
after the death of Oliver Crom-
we'll, when Charles II came to the
throne, there was a resumption Of
gayeties, and gambling was very
much in vogue. Primo" and
'gleeke" were then very popular at
court and among the members of
the nobility. There was also a game
called "piquet," which had been
imported from France This was re-
garded as gentleman's game.
With the coming of the Spanish
princess who became Queen to
Charles II the Spanish game Of
"I'hombre" was introduced. The
Spanish were great gamblers, and
the Queens favorite game was ia
ken up by the women as we'll as
by the men of the higher classes
of English society. "Quadrille" was
also game that many people
played at this time.
In the coffee house gambling
places there were two games
played, each having some similarity
to the other, from which Hoyle
developed his game of whist. One
was called ruff and honours" and
the other "whisk and swabbers." !"
The former was variation of what
had been trump" with the honors
added. A distinctive feature of
"whisk and swabbers" (spelled
w-h-i-s-k and not w-h-i-s-t) was
that 1t designated four cards which
appear to have had highest rank in
the game because when they were
played they won over all others.
They were the cleaners of the
deck in this respect, and this SUI
periority seems to have been re-
sponsible for giving the name Of
"swabbers." Sailors who wash down
the deck of a vessel were called
swabbers. Hence the name of
"whisk and swabbers." The swab-
ber cards were the ace and knave
of clubs and the ace and deuce of
trumps. Their rank in this way
seems to have been entirely arbi-
trary, as no reason is assigned for it.
AS for the word 'whisk" as a
name for card game, there is much
obscurity regarding its origin. A
possible explanation is afforded by
an old time writer named Chitto.
His explanation is that the word
whist is a substitute for the word
ruff in ruff and honors." In
those good old gambling days whist
and ruff were articles of dress and
mean practically the same thing,
whisk being primarily a Welsh word.
There was much cheating at cards
in the gambling houses and the
biggest cheaters were the best
players.
Hoyle, who used to frequent the
coffee houses, became convinced
that better and more scientific
game could be produced. He brought
to his aid Lord Falkstone, a men,
Der of the nobility, and together
they worked out the game of what
was subsequently called whist. Ruff
and honors" was played with 48
cards. the deuces being eliminated.
Hoyle restored the lowly two spots
and made a deck of 50 cards, pro-