Discarding.

In the proper game you discard from a weak or short suit, which gives a good partner a positive indication in what direction your strength lies. The rule is considered so essential by good players that they will even unguard a king or a queen for the sake of adhering to it.

With a bad partner this is of course useless, and you must study your own hand alone. If the cards of the weak suit are worthless, it may often still be advantageous to preserve your long suit; but on no account should you risk losing a good card, which might be of much use in the play of the hand. It may even be advantageous sometimes to throw away from your long suit, particularly if it contains a tenace, with the object of deceiving the adversaries, and getting it led up to.

These remarks, though necessarily in complete and indefinite, will give some idea of the manner in which the play of a hand should be modified by the fact of having a bad partner; and probably their chief value should be in leading the student to avoid a blind and unreasoning adoption of fixed rules, but rather to cultivate a constant habit of reasoning as he plays, and of considering less the rules themselves than the principles they are founded on. If the

player can always bear in mind the reason why, in the ordinary game, he ought to do a certain thing, he will have but little difficulty in appreciating the cases, as they arise, when this reason fails, and when, consequently, the established rule no longer applies. Such cases must constantly occur in playing with an unsystematic partner; and the ability promptly and skilfully to deal with them, is one of the great characteristics of a fine player. And although it is very customary for those who know and appreciate the correct game to dislike sitting opposite to incapable, uneducated, or obstinate partners, and to consider themselves somewhat in the light of martyrs when they are obliged to do so, yet there can be no doubt that, from the opportunities such cases afford for variety of practice, they may, by careful observation and earnest study, be made conducive, in no mean degree, to improvement in the game.

APPENDIX C.

RHYMING RULES, MNEMONIC MAXIMS, AND POCKET PRECEPTS.

BEING SHORT MEMORANDA OF IMPORTANT POINTS.

ΤΟ ΒΕ ΚΕΡΤ IN MIND BY THOSE WHO WOULD PRACTICE THE MODERN SCIENTIFIC GAME OF WHIST.*

If you the modern game of Whist would know,
From this great principle its precepts flow:
Treat your own hand as in your partner's joined,
And play, not one alone, but both combined.

Your first lead makes your partner understand
What is the chief component of your hand ;
And hence there is necessity the strongest
That your first lead be from your suit that's longest.

In this, with ace and king, lead king, then ace;
With king and queen, king also has first place;
With ace, queen, knave, lead ace and then the queen;
With ace, four small ones, ace should first be seen;
With queen, knave, ten, you let the queen precede;
In other cases, you the lowest lead.

* The rules embodied in these versicles were first published in prose (printed on a card, ontitled 'Pocket Precepts') by the Author of this work, in March 1864. The idea of the rhyming form here adopted is taken from an old French composition of the same kind.

Ere you return your friend's your own suit play;
But trumps you must return without delay.

When you return your partner's lead, take pains
To lead him back the best your hand contains,
If you received not more than three at first;
If you had more, you may return the worst.

But if you hold the master card, you're bound
In most cases to play it second round.

Whene'er you want a lead, 'tis seldom wrong
To lead up to the weak, or through the strong.

If second hand, your lowest should be played,
Unless you mean 'trump signal' to be made;
Or if you've king and queen, or ace and king,
Then one of these will be the proper thing.

Mind well the rules for trumps, you'll often need them;

WHEN YOU HOLD FIVE, 'TIS ALWAYS RIGHT TO LEAD

THEM;

Or if the lead won't come in time to you,
Then signal to your partner so to do.

Watch also for your partner's trump request,
To which, with less than four, play out your best.

To lead through honors turned up is bad play,
Unless you want the trump suit cleared away.

When, second hand, a doubtful trick you see,
Don't trump it if you hold more trumps than three;
But having three or less, trump fearlessly.

When weak in trumps yourself, don't force your friend;
But always force the adverse strong trump hand.

For sequences, stern custom has decreed
The lowest you must play, if you don't lead.
When you discard, weak suits you ought to chooso,
For strong ones are too valuable to lose.