Solitaire (card game)

“ But two cards remained to be played; they lay face downward upon the table. If the upper one were the queen of spades, the packets would be completed in their proper order and the solitaire would be made; if it were the knave of hearts, the game would again be lost. Slowly—oh, so slowly—Indiman turned the first card. ”

“ As a game for one player there is no superior to Solitaire. Apparently easy and simple, it is really intricate and scientific. Governed by a well-defined principle, chance forms no element of its practice. Like Chess and Draughts, it is entirely a mental and demonstrable game, full of variety, and affording ample scope, in its almost endless combinations, for the display of thought and ingenuity. ”

“ Then a solitaire is valuable; and he may choose, from the solitaires at cards, a kind which shall suit his taste and his needs; since the different solitaires in cards vary greatly, in the amount of thought and of skill required to play them.
The severely intellectual game of chess offers also a numerous set of solitaires. Every chess-column in a newspaper furnishes problems of greater or less difficulty. A diagram gives the position of a few pieces toward the close of a supposed game; and the party to be victor is required to checkmate, in a specified number of moves. ”

“ If able to do so, he throws the pair out into the middle of the table; but if he cannot do so, he places it among his own, and, following the example of the dealer, offers his own cards in the same way to his left-hand neighbour, that he also may take any card he likes. Thus the game goes on until all the cards are paired, excepting, of course, one card, which is the companion to the banished queen. The unfortunate individual in whose hand the solitary card is left is surely destined to be either an old maid or a bachelor. ”

“ Go to the cards, and see existence woven madly in black and crimson—The life they present knows nothing of boredom, for no card in all the pack stands for such a thing—Go read the cards! As for myself, I have but one confession to make: I dare not play at cards now, for they are fraught with such significance to me that I could not trifle with them in a mere game. I cannot rid them of their meanings, and while others are thinking of nothing but winning tricks, I see myself, and my unconscious colleagues, playing havoc with the destinies of dark ladies and fair men. ”

“ Women, wine, fame, the table, — even ambition, sate now and then; but every turn of the card and cast of the dice keeps the gamester alive: besides, one can game ten times longer than one can do any thing else. I was very fond of it when young, that is to say, of hazard, for I hate all card games, — even faro. ”

“ Thus, a gambler by temperament, he never touched a card, feeling, as he himself said, that his position did not allow him to "risk the necessary in view of the superfluous." Yet he would pass entire nights before a card-table, watching with feverish anxiety the rapid changes of the game. The anecdote of Count St. Germain's three cards had struck his imagination, and he did nothing but think of it all that night.
"If," he said to himself next day as he was walking along the streets of St. Petersburg, "if she would only tell me her secret—if she would only name the three winning cards! ”

“ For solitaire is a social game that soon loses its zest if there be not some devoted friend or relative sitting by and simulating that pleasurable absorption in the performance which you yourself only wish that you could feel. ”

“ As the possessor of the old maid card is, at the end, the loser of the game, each one who gets it does all in her power to induce the next player to take it. As the cards get fewer and fewer the excitement grows and grows. ”

“ No matter how often the game is played (provided the cards are re-shuffled) the unexpected always happens, and it is usually so absurd as to be quite too much for a room all ready for laughter. The number of blanks in the story should be equal to the number of cards, and in order that the story may run on smoothly it is well for the next player always to glance at his top card just before his turn, so as to bring it out readily and naturally. The following story, which makes provision for nearly fifty cards, should be found serviceable until a better and more personal one is written. ”

“ Now the last eight cards are down, and the game is suddenly seen to be lost. One small other shuffle might have won it; if that tray of spades had fallen one place to the right or left, the thing would now be easy; if it were a deuce or a four, the thing were easy. One spot on the card has brought ruin. The game has foiled us with its own peculiar cleverness.
But then, we learn to expect failure; and, most important of all, we learn to succeed while failing. We learn to see our cards fall wretchedly without a tremor. ”

“ PERNICIOUS NATURE OF CARD PLAYING. Card playing is a game of chance, and because it is a game of chance it has its tricks. It encourages tricks; its devotees measure their success at the table by their ability through devious and dark ways to win. It creates a spirit of cunning and devises hidden and secret means, and cheating at cards is almost synonymous with playing at cards. ”

“ Others, with good cards, pretend to be in a bad temper, and frown; whilst, with bad cards, they appear gay and anxious to begin to play.
* * * * *
It sometimes happens that a player, at the end of a game, is puzzled which of the two last cards he is to throw down. One of them may save the vole, but he is not sure which. Instead of playing according to the proverb, which says qui garde à carreau n'est pas capot, he holds down his hand, so that his adversary may see both cards, and fixes his eyes upon those of his vis-à-vis, which very naturally, are bent on the card which is against himself. ”

“ The person playing a stop always leads next.
At any time during the game, should an ace, king, queen, knave of trumps, pope, matrimony, or intrigue be played, the owner of any of these cards is entitled to receive all the counters in the corresponding compartments of the board. The player who first announces himself to be without cards is the winner of the game, receiving, therefore, all the stakes in that compartment of the board, and also from the rest of the players a counter for each card they may still have in hand. ”

“ Speaking of card players, observe the gaze of anguish on the outpost. He dashes ahead, grabs two facing seats and sits in one with a face contorted with anxiety for fear that the others will be too late to join him. As soon as a card game is started there are always a half dozen other men who watch it, following every play with painful scrutiny. It seems that watching other people play cards is the most absorbing amusement known to the commuter. ”

“ Thus the game goes on until one of the players is left without cards, who retires as out. The rest of the players proceed in the same way until another is out, then another, and so on, until at last two players only are left to end the struggle. ”

“ This treatise on Solitaire, a pastime which is steadily gaining in popularity, embraces a number of new and original Games, and all the Games of Patience at present in favor with the most experienced players. Each game is carefully and lucidly described, with the distinctive rules to be observed and hints as to the best means of success in play. The Tableaux furnish efficient aid in rendering the disposition of the cards necessary to each game plain and easily comprehensible. ”

“ Still, in cases where unclaimed stakes are left on from one round to another it is quite a common thing to terminate the game by dealing round the cards, face upwards, and giving to the holders of the various cards or combinations the pools corresponding to them, thus making a clear board. ”

“ The cards are dealt, face downwards, equally to as many as wish to join in the game. The first player begins by putting down the first card. If it be a one, two, three, or anything but a court card, he continues putting down one after another, until at last he turns up a court card. If this turn-up be a king, his neighbour must pay to him three cards, if a queen two cards, and if a knave one card. When the payment is made, the first player takes up the whole of the cards that have been laid down, and puts them underneath those in his hand. ”

“ The cards are then played, each card, excepting a nine or an inferior one, counting one.
The elder hand having played the first card, the dealer before answering the card must count his own game, point, sequence, quatorze, or carte-blanche, if he has it, and, after reckoning them altogether, he takes the first trick if he can with the same suit; if he cannot do so his opponent has the trick.
When the tricks are equal they do not count. The winner of the last trick counts two. ”

“ In dealing, you may not play a card from any row until that row is complete. After dealing each row, pause and examine the tableau, playing and marrying all suitable cards, and refilling vacancies, both in the rivers and helps, with cards from the pack. In filling up vacancies in the rivers, those in the uppermost rows must first be refilled.
After the entire pack is exhausted, the skill of the player will be required. The four packets of help cards may now be increased to eight. ”

“ The success of the game entirely depends on the skill of the player in arranging cards on the promenade. It is advantageous to place cards in sequence, and of the same suit, on the packets of the promenade (although it is not required, see Rule II) , as they are then ready to be played on the foundations; but the greatest care is required to avoid placing two ascending or two descending sequences of the same suit on any packet, as one of the two would necessarily be useless, cards not being transferable from one packet to another. ”

“ The cards are shuffled and dealt round, four each, and the game is for each player to complete a set of four. You do not, as in [Pg 80] "Old Maid," select one from the cards that are offered, face downward, but each player hands whatever card he likes to the next player, who is bound to accept it. Directly a player has a set of four complete he lays the cards on the table, either very stealthily or with a bang, whichever he likes. ”

“ The second card follows the first instantly, and all thus are kept busy with hand and tongue without a moment's delay or rest, as the name of each card follows its predecessor at once, and the confusion that is made causes shouts of laughter as the game goes merrily on, until the company feel well acquainted, and are ready to join with spirit in some harder game. ”

“ If at any point in the game one of the players while still holding a card cannot match at either end, he or she must draw cards, one by one, from the heap on the table, until it is possible to match, but one card must always be left in the heap.
The game ceases when one player has disposed of all his or her cards, or when the game is shut (i.e., there are no more cards available that will match seeing that they have all been used) or when neither player can "go" and there is only one card left in the heap. ”

“ If you watch every card and keep your mind concentrated on the game and you have luck, it comes out. If you start wool-gathering in the earlier stages you'll just miss putting up the right card, and you'll be stuck with the deuce of hearts that should have gone up, lying snug and useless at the bottom of the pack. ”

“ LONG WHIST. Among all card games Whist is unequalled, and although no more than four players can join in one game, a whole roomful of people may easily play at the same time by simply dividing themselves into so many quartettes, a pack of cards being provided for each set of players. ”

“ It provided an hour of amusement. After that he discovered he always won; the board was too simple—he had memorized the exact sequence of moves to win the game every time. The remaining game was a complicated three-dimensional chess set. This he discarded even sooner. He couldn't win at all.
He fell back on a deck of cards and tried to play solitaire but the cards were too slick and their weight wouldn't hold them down anymore. He would manage to arrange them in neat rows and then accidentally jar them and they would go skitting off through the cabin. ”

“ Prizes are offered for the best player. As a Catholic priest told me after he had won a small sum with cards. Said he: "We just put up a few dollars, you know, to lend devotions to the game." So prizes are offered in the social gambling "to lend devotions to the game." It is under such circumstances as these that young men and young women receive their first lessons in card-playing. A passion for card-playing is called forth, developed, and must be satisfied, even though it takes one in low places among vile associates. "A Christian gentleman came from England to this country. ”

“ Card-playing is usually associated with smoking and drinking, and it is indulged in to excess, so that instead of being what it should be - a recreation, it is rather a dissipation - a strain on the mind, a tension on the nerves, a depressor of vitality. An hour of simple card-playing, when no stakes are involved, amid home surroundings, may be unobjectionable; but, when the players sit for many consecutive hours over a game of cards, smoking and drinking, and inhaling the vitiated atmosphere of a crowded room, how can that be a refreshment to the mind and the body? ”

“ It really seemed like a private game, with all of the players masked.
I watched one more hand, as much to see how the details were carried on silently, as for any other reason, for I knew the game. It was what is colloquially known as “seven-card pique,” though it bears no relation whatever to piquet, being a corruption of ordinary stud poker. Two cards were dealt around first, face down. Then the next card was turned face up for each player. The highest card had the privilege of betting or checking the bet. The next man to the left then could bet, drop, raise or simply check. ”