"TWO-UP."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8456, 5 June 1907, Page 5

"TWO-UP."

AN ANCIENT GAME,

MODERN DEVELOPMENTS. '"Two-up" has come into such prominence lately that a peep into the past of the game is justifiable, says the Post. "Two-up" is not a modern invention. It is really an old friend, pitch and toss, under a new name. Fifty .or sixty years ago pioneers in New* Zealand played pitch and toss with a couple of pennies in much the same style as the one adopted by their two-up descendants to-day. All over the English-speaking world "two-up" has a vogue. A visitor from Australia says that this game has greater popularity there than even in New Zealand. In shearing sheds, in slaughter yards, or cab ranks, men are for ever tossing two pennies with the bit of wood known as the "kip." , ,

It is only during J:he past ten years that "two-up" has come into any great prominence in New Zealand, and the large increase in the number of players is ascribed to the growing prosperity of the count 7. The people have more money for gambling''purposes, and the simplid;y of "two-up" appeals to the masses. A small piece of board, which costs nothing, and two pennies are all that are required for a school.

A few years ago Hagley Park, Christchurch, the sitq of the Exhibition, was a favourite rallying place for two-uppers. On Sunday afternoons numbers of youths and men used to congregate there and gamble, and by an elaborate system of scouts they managed to escape trouble for a long time, but in the end they were routed by the subtlety of detectives, and ; changed their habitat. They began to play in a Bection adjoining the Theatre Royal, and there a "school" was surprised one night by the police. The pupils fled, leaving about £4 10s in the ring. This money was never claimed. It was displayed in the Canterbury Industrial Exhibition half a dozen years ago, and was afterwards paid into the public account.

In Wellington some time back "two uppers" were wont to congregate in Kelburne, in the region ,of the Botanical Gardens, and also at the back of the plantations on Mount Victoria, but the march of progess has compelled them to take to darker quarters. In Dunedin, too, the penny tossers had a fondness for open-air assemblies till a raid by detectives the other day discouraged them. In city and country alike "two-up' has many votaries. This pastime is especially popular along the North Island Main Trunk railway line. On a recent Sunday afternoon a traveller noticed £6O in one ring up there, and other authentic reports go to show that many of the workers are inclined to try to increase their shillings by pitching two pennies. The other day a Post reporter asked a police officer whether he considered that sharpers went up the line to prey upon the toilers. "Lots of men along the line can take down the spielers," was the reply. Two-up seems to appeal to gamblers because they consider that it gives them a straight, even chance on eacli toss. Each player has a right to cry 'I barr" if he thinks that the coins have not been properly spun, and he may also take his turn at the kip. There are tricks in this trade, of course. Recently the writer saw a kip with a slit filed neatly in one side for the reception of a doubleheaded penny. This instrument was found by the police on a man who had no doubt used it to victimise greenhorns. Palming ordinary sleight-of-hand, is also practised for the confusion of simpletons.

CABLE NEWS.

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright «