Being a Few Hints How to Play the Game.
Whist is a well known game with cards. It requires close attention and
silence. Some people learn to play whist in fifteen minutes, but their
partners generally wear a worried look. There are other people who never
learn to play the game, but, unfortunately for humanity, they never
fully realize this fact. Their partners soon discover it, however, but
politeness forbids them making the discovery known to the wide, wide
world.
The following series of "Don'ts" may help you to understand some of the
intricacies of the delightful game of whist. If they do not help you the
only thing to do is to try pinochle:--
Don't get up and dance a serpentine dance every time you take a trick.
It is in very bad taste, unless you are a good dancer, and even then
your opponents may feel deeply chagrined.
Don't smile sweetly your partner and inform him in a few well-chosen
words that you have seven trumps in your hand. Your opponents may hear
you, and scowl darkly at you.
Don't fail to call the attention of your opponent to the fact that he or
she hasn't followed suit, being very careful to select a loud and
resonant tone of voice for the occasion. This compels your opponent to
look carefully through his or her cards and fervently wish that you had
sense enough to mind your own business.
Don't ask what's trumps more than eighteen times during one hand. The
limit used to be twenty-six times, but the best authorities on whist now
say eighteen.
Don't have a conniption fit every time you lose a trick. Conniption fits
are very bad form, and they delay the game.
Don't get excited and climb up on the table when the game is close. It
shows a want of refinement and breeding to climb up on the table,
especially if you are in a strange house.
Don't whistle softly while waiting for somebody to play. Whistling is
not in good taste. Go and perform on the piano. It has a much better
effect, particularly if your selection is something lively, like "El
Capitan" or "The Maiden's Prayer."
Don't talk politics while playing whist. Either whist or politics will
suffer if you do. Statisticians claim that 34,647,932 times out of
34,647,933 it is whist that suffers.
Don't, when drawing a trick towards you, pause in the act to smile
disdainfully upon your opponents. They may not admire a spectacular
arrangement of your features, and if they happen to be in a bad humor
your facial expression may be ruined for life.
Don't labor under the erroneous impression that your opponents have no
right to trump your ace if they can. Neither is it considered elegant or
refined to hit them carelessly across the forehead with the bric-a-brac
for so doing.
Don't make an earnest endeavor to split the table asunder when playing a
winning card. People may think you are eccentric if you try to make
kindling wood of the table every time you lay down an honor.
Don't lead the three of clubs in mistake for the ace of trumps, and then
get mad and jump seventeen feet in the air because you are not permitted
to pull it back. It isn't good form to jump seventeen feet in the air.
Besides, you might fall and hurt yourself and the neighborhood.
Don't hesitate to inquire what was led when there is but one card on the
table. It shows that you are taking a deep interest in the game, and it
makes the other players admire your elocutionary powers.
Don't fail to dispute the count after every hand has been played. It
draws attention to the fact that you are anxious to win. It also draws
uncomplimentary remarks from your opponents and sometimes occasions the
use of a club.
Don't fall off the chair in horrified dismay when your opponent puts
your ace to sleep with a little trump. Trumps were invented for that
purpose, and horrified dismay is not becoming to every style of beauty.