A NEW PERIL

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1932, Page 15

A NEW PERIL

CONTRACT'S ADpED WOE

It is generally assumed that cards wars invented to amuse an idiot, Charles VI. of Prance; and this fact :s eaten, quoted by indifferent players who hava-been' called to- account by their, partners over their bad play—a negative form, of excuse in my humble opinion, says a writer in a London paper.

As! much and more has been written in! the past about Whist as is- now written about. Bridge. Endless, apparently, Were the.txeatfses and. maxims and. advice—in every conceivable language—for playing this gamo; while> in 1791, a gentleman named Thomson produced a poem entitled "Waist" in twelve cantoat No. one has yet, I fancy, been inspired to write an epic poem on the subject of Auction or Contract.

rule. Ho even went so far as to bandy words at a well-known, club with a distinguished foreign diplomat, whose face, it must bo admitted, was rather like, a swarthy sheep's. .When the latter did not respond to the General's expostulations concerning his play, "Bully" shouted: 'What's the good of sitting there saying nothing, like a Southdown tup munching turnips?"

• Another card-game, tiro-handed, which has lately .become popular is Chinese 6-pack Beziqua. This has quito superseded the older game played with two or four packs. The origin of the word "hezique" is rather curious coming from the" Spanish "hesico," a little kiss; presumably an. illusion ,to the meeting of the queen of spades and the knave of diamonds, the most important feature of the game. If Auction ■ Bridge was too cause of people getting pernickety -when playing Contract has made them far worse. There are so many schools of thought as, to what declarations should be made and the various- ebnvcaitions to bo agreed upon that the results, to put it mildlyy are confusing and; very often unfortunate. ■ "'S -:v.■'■'-■.'. ■ '••,';.'...'.' ... [

"Whist," says Charles: Cotton, isVso caned"''from'the silence that,is'to' be observed ■'during- the plsyJ'jl and- he candidly; adds: ' 'He that can by craft overlook his' adversary's 'game hath, a greatadvantage"! ■; ,/..; ,; Just before; the .South' African- fWar, Bridge of the old-fashioned type, be^ gan to'worm its way into the cardrooms of .clubs;,, messes, and private houses, and. "Whist, thet oldest four-' handed game known (its pratotypa Trionfi is mentioned as early a* 1526), was relegated to villages, where it eontinucs to exist precariously, nourished, by "whist-drives." Then came the original Auction Bridge, -which fionrished until, a fewyears later, some bright individual invented what he called "Royal Auction," And spades-, hitherto the Cinderella, among the suitSj was suddenly promoted" to supreme power amongthem, though the rating force to which all suits bowed was still "No Trump*."1 "Whist Is, a comparatively ' peaceful game, but directly Bridge made its appearance t players started to squabble. The late General Sir Lawrence OHphant, known to his frionda as "Bullyi" 'was no i exception, to this

A large section of society nowadays seems to have* gone mad about Bridge, they think and talk of nothing else. One wonders if they ever find time to read. a book of any description. Pospibly it is one of the results of the formation of so many mixed card clubs in ' London; nowadays that at dinner parties one cn> seldom hears anything but Bridge and gossip, and any tendency to impersonal, let alone intellectual, conversation is nipped in the bud. Altorcstion over cards is unfortunate in clubs, but in private houses it is lamentable; and it is largely for this reason that I maintain that tho old arid generally known, form of Bridge is s more peaceful »fter-dinner game than the modern Contract, albeit the latter, as a card game, is tho moro scientific—when, tho . planters , really know how to, play it.