A NEW PERIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21544, 16 January 1932, Page 15

A NEW PERIL

CONTRACT’S ADDED WOE It is generally assumed that cards were invented to amuse an idiot, Charles VI of France; and this fact is often quoted by indifferent players who have 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 treatises and maxims and advice—in every conceivable language—for playing tbis game; while, in 1791, a gentleman named Thomson produced a poem entitled “Whist” in 12 cantos! No one has yet, I fancy, been inspired to write an epic poem on the subject of auction or contract.

“ Whist,” says Charlea Cotton, ie so called “ from the silence that is to be observed during the play”; and he candidly adds: “He that can by craft overlook his adversary’s game hath a great advantage! ” Just before the South African war, bridge of the old-fashioned type began to worm its way -into the cardrooms of clubs, messes, and private houses, and whist, the oldest four-handed game known (its prototype trionfi is mentioned as early as 1526), was relegated to villages, where it continues to exist precariously, nourished by “whist drives.” Then came the original auction bridge, which flourished until, a few years later, some bright individual invented what he called “Koyal Auction," and spades, hitherto the Cinderella among the suits, was suddenly promoted to supreme power among them, though the ruling force to which all suits bpwed was still “No Trumps.” Whist is a comparatively peaceful game, but directly bridge made its appearance players started to squabble. . The late General Sir Lawrence Oliphant, known to his friends as “ Bully,” was no exception to this rule. He even went so far as to bandy words at a well-known club with a distinguished foreign diplomat, whose face, it must be admitted, was rather like a swarthy sheep’s. When the latter did not respond to the general expostulations concerning his play, “Bully” shouted: “What’s the good of sitting there saying nothing, like a Southdown tup munching turnips? ” - Another card game, two-handed, which has lately become popular, ie Chinese sixpack bezique. This has quite superseded the older game played with two or four packs. The origin of the word bezique is rather curious, coming from the Spanish “besico,” 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 the cause or 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 conventions to be agreed upon that the results, to put it mildly, are confusing and very often unfortunate. 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. Possibly it is one of the results of the formation of so many mixed card clubs in London nowadays' that at dinner parties one eo seldom hears anything but bridge and gossip, and any tendency to impersonal, let alone intellectual,'conversation is nipped in the bud. . Altercation over cards is unfortunate in clubs but in private houses it is lamentable: and it is largely for this reason that I maintain that the old and generally known form of bridge is a more peaceful after-dinner _ game than the modern contract, albeit the latter, ns a card game, is the more scientific —when the players really know how to play it.