CURIOUS STORIES OF WHIST.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIX, Issue 3007, 19 December 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

CURIOUS STORIES OF WHIST.

FAVOURITE GAME OF CELEBRITIES. Lord Sligo was at, a card table when the news was brought to linn that lua magnificent residence was on tire, lie stopped only a moment 1-) ascertain whether or not his presence cnuld be of ma'crial service on the scene -of the conflagration. Finding that it would not,-ho calmly took up thu hand which had been dealt him while he was talking with the messenger, and resumed play. A case where a single game of whist was responsible for a good deal was that in which O. H. Drummond, of the famousCharing Cross banking house of London, lost £20,000- at a single sitting 1 5- Beau Brum'uel. When his loss became know nto Drummond’s partners they decided that a gambler was an undesirable associate in abusiness requiring for prosperity tilu confidence of the public in its managers; They therefore forced him to retire.

What is known as a Yarborough hand in whist is one in which there is no card above a nine spot. Tho name given to (his hand is derived from a curtain Lord Yarborough, who used to offer tho attractive but very safe wager of £I,OOO to XT that a hand'of this sort would not be dealt, lie may have worked out thu chances or he may not, but tho fact is, such a hand occurs only once in 1827 rounds. It is said that Yarborough won his wager many thousand times. At the Union Club of Boulogne seme years ago tho dealer dealt the twenty six red cards to himself and partner, and all the black cards to their opponents, When wo come to realise that the odds against such a round of hands are eight billion to one, we must admit this was a very remarkable deal.

Metternicb, tho Austrian statesman, owed to a single game of whist the greatest sorrow of Ids life. One evening, while he was engaged in his favourite game, an express arrived with despatches from Galicia. Ho placed the papo-s on tho mantelpiece, and went on playing all that night and far into tho morning. When tho party broke up he was horrified to. learn that upon his immediate reply to the despatches depended tho fate of twothousand innocent persona. Mad Metlernioh loved whist less passsionatoly, history had never recorded the infamous Galician massacre. —Loudon Tit Bits.