elsewhere and try, with more success, other and more appropriate pursuits.

What then are the qualities of a perfect partner at whist? I will enumerate some of them. Coolness. Yes, he must be cool. If he becomes flurried and nervous, his faculties will pass from him. He will omit to notice the

my dear A—, from the first syllable | spiration does not burn within him, his of his patronymic — who played at the energies are but wasted. Let him go Portland, but emigrated to New Zealand nearly fifty years ago when that colony was in its infancy. This treatise originally appeared in 1851, and had reached a third impression in 1858. The volumes by Campbell-Walker (5th edition in 1878), Thomas Brittain of Manchester (I regret that my investigations at the British Museum lead to the call of his right hand opponent, and conclusion that no copy of his volume slaughter his partner by leading up to on "Whist; How to Play and How to it. He will not have observed whether Win, being the Result of Sixty Years' his partner in returning a lead has Play," is housed within its walls), and shown the possession of three or four Colonel Drayson (5th edition in 1892), cards in a suit. He will go from blunwhose skill in play is chiefly shown at der to blunder, until the rubber ends Southsea, are all known to contain much in hopeless failure. Coolness is indeed from which the student can profit, the great desideratum at whist. We though their popularity with the gen- cannot expect every one to show the eral public falls short of the success self-possession of Charles X. or of Lord which has been extended to others. Sligo. When the revolution broke out The writings by Dr. Pole should be read in Paris, the king was in his palace, and re-read. The little treatise by Clay and the members of his family sent reis the vade mecum of many a whist-peated and frantic messages to him. player, and there are scores of English "His Majesty was playing whist! He performers who boast that they know was every inch a Bourbon. That rubits pages by heart. The works of Cav-ber will remain among the sublimest endish have done much to revolutionize examples of stately decorum in all the the game of whist. They are to be history of royal houses." The other found in every club card-room where example comes near to that of the whist prevails, and in the last three Bourbon monarch. Lord Sligo was decades hardly a year has passed away staying at one of his houses in a mounwithout the appearance of a new edi- tainous district of Ireland, when the tion. To Clay and Cavendish, next to news arrived that his best known resiHoyle, every whist-player owes a peren- dence, Westport House, was on fire.. nial debt of gratitude. It was in the depth of winter, and the snow was lying deep on the ground. Having ascertained that the fire was raging with such intensity that his presence would be of but little use, he resumed, with only a moment's break, the game of whist at which he had been playing. A similar instance of

You are right, my dear A—, in saying that treatises on whist are of little use, indeed sometimes of positive disadvantage, if they are not studied with intelligence. I have known in my time a few professors of the game who boasted of playing by the rules of Clay, yet dishonored his memory in every self-possession occurs to my memory. moment which they spent at the cardtable. To many of these gentlemen who claim to know his treatise by heart may be applied his own epigram on the peer with whom he once played double dummy all the way from Cannes to Paris. "To play against him is murder, to play as his partner is suicide." Of the whist-player, as of the poet, it may be said nascitur non fit. If the in

It was that of a Quaker, called Fox, who lived at Falmouth, and it is mentioned in Southey's "Espriella.' His house was on fire; he found that no effort could save it, so without any attempt to preserve it, he "went upon the nearest hill and made a drawing of the conflagration, an admirable instance of English phlegm."

Equanimity of temper. -We must

learn to bear misfortune with resigna- can you be dreaming about? You have the ace in your hand, and you suffer the adversary's king to pass.' A glance at the lady soon showed that any explanation of her misconduct was impossible. She had been seized with a stroke of "apoplexy, which put an end to both her and the rubber."

tion and victory without excessive exaltation. The man who breaks out into a passion of fury at his partner over some real or fancied fault, will not be long in finding, if his partner is not a first-rate player, that his explosion of anger has only made things worse. If his partner in cards is a lady, he may have to endure the misfortune that befell Braxfield, the old Scotch judge. The feelings of this delightful product of sweetness and light in the northern Athens so far overcame him on one occasion when playing with a lady, that he burst out with a string of oaths against her, for which he was obliged to apologize. This he did with considerable naïveté, as he frankly admitted that he had momentarily mistaken the lady for his wife.

Courage. This is one of the most important requisites for a whist-player. He must not hesitate to finesse with boldness, yes, even with apparent recklessness, if the game is going against him, and it can only be saved in that way. The finesse must, of course, be exercised with judgment, and, above all, he must be zealously on his guard, lest a practice which, when successful, is delightful above every other pleasure, should get the mastery over him. I have known players, naturally of great If his colleague in misfortune is mas- skill, become so addicted to the vice of culine, he may be treated in another finessing as to throw away many games way, possibly as Colley Cibber pun- which otherwise must have been won ished the old general. They were by them. On the other hand, I have playing cards one night at Tom's cof-known men of considerable skill in the fee-house in Russell Street, Covent game lay down the rule that a finesse Garden, one of the few houses in Lon- should never be tried in the second don which were only open to subscrib-round of a plain suit. The habit of ers. As the cards were dealt to the playful Colley, "he took up every one in turn, and expressed his disappointment at every indifferent one." As the game went on, he did not follow suit, whereupon the testy old general cried out, "What, have you not a spade, Mr. Cibber?" The poet-laureate, nothing abashed, looked at his cards and answered, "Oh, yes, a thousand," a reply which drew forth a very short and peevish comment from the general. Colley, who was a very cool customer, and was besides "shockingly addicted to swearing," as the narrative says, retorted with "Don't be angry, general, for damme I can play ten times worse if I like." A worse fate than even either of these may befall the quarrelsome player. Let him take warning by an incident which happened in the spring of 1789. A "fattish" lady - the epithet is not mine was playing at cards at an assembly. Her partner screamed out, "Dear me, madam, what are you doing? What

On such a point

one man seems to me as vicious as the
rule of the other. It is impossible, in
the game of whist, to establish an un-
varying rule, one which shall never be
changed, as to the times and opportuni-
ties for finessing.
each player must trust to his own judg-
ment, and it may safely be predicted
that the sanguine player will risk his
luck on such a die more frequently than
the man who is by temperament of a
despondent disposition. The man who
lacks courage, who goes around Lon-
don, passing from club to club with the
piteous cry that four by honors have
been persistently against him for years,
and that he loses hundreds a year,
stands out in my mind as one of the
greatest bores of the card-room. For
myself I would rather not play at all
than sit down with a man who has
made up his mind before he begins that
he is sure of losing.

There are several other classes of players that rank among the horrors of club-life. Take, first, the man who

He puts

passes his whole time at the whist-table | worry than in anything else.
in a state of hesitation. He looks at all
the cards in his hand, examines them,
and rejects one by one, and then with
the plunge of despair plays the wrong
one. This is not his solitary vice. His
anxiety lest partner or opponent should
have called and he not have noticed it,
fills every one else with distress. In
the hope of aiding his imperfect facul-
ties he perpetually demands to see the
last trick. This, ninety-nine times out
of a hundred, only adds to his confu-
sion, and leaves him in a worse state of
bewilderment.

his trump card in the middle of the
table, shuffles out of turn, pitches his
cards before him in such a manner that
they fall face downwards on the table,
and spreads his tricks over such an ex-
panse of space that the sixth is all but
tumbling over the side of the table into
the lap of his right hand opponent.
These are but a few of the thousand
and one annoyances that he daily com-
mits.

Look, for a change, at the man who only plays for his own hand. His vision is limited to thirteen cards only, and his perception takes no note of those with his partner. He plays an isolated, a selfish game, never seems to understand the knack of combining his own with his partner's cards, and at the close of the hand, although he often plays the thirteen cards in his own possession with great skill, defeat usually attends him.

Enter the card-room of any of the London clubs, and you will certainly find there a performer who is overcome by another and almost equally terrible vice. His failing is that of playing false cards. This, too, when crowned with success for a false card will sometimes save and sometimes make a rubber- comes home to the human heart with superlative delight. But the man who tries it once, and finds it end in good fortune, falls a victim to the practice. He forgets that if a false card deceives his opponents it as often as not deludes his partner. The taint of uncertainty hangs around him. His partner is always beset with doubt, he never knows the cards which are comprehended in the ambiguous hand of his cunning colleague. They play at cross-purposes, and their progress is as slow as that of a pair-oar, in which each sitter keeps separate time for himself.

To play the game of whist with moderate skill is a certain passport to social life. The skilled card-player is ordinarily possessed of keen intelligence and of varied knowledge. In most cases he is distinguished in a second walk in life, as well as in his acquaintance with the devil's books. A bond of union binds together all the frequenters of a card-room who play with average ability. Wherever his varied course may lead the whist-player, he meets with friends and associates. His warmest welcome will often be found around the tables in the card-room of the club, either in England or abroad, Among card-players feelings of the warmest friendship are always generated, and acts of kindly courtesy, often extended to assistance in business life, are constantly being performed.

66

The incident narrated by Shirley in "A Campaigner at Home " may at first sight present a ludicrous aspect, but beneath the surface lies a deep vein of pathos. An old lady, far advanced in years, was walking one day through a churchyard, when she stopped before three mounds, that formed, as it were, three sides of a square. She seemed to be engaged in inward prayer, for her lips moved, and there was moisture in her eyes. The graves were those of the late doctor and parson of the parish, and of an old East Indian, noted whist-players in their day. "There they are," she remarked placidly, after a long pause, "the auld rubber, just This quartet,

One other specimen, the "slovenly" | waitin' for me to cut in." specimen, I may allude to. He is often in a remote part of Scotia, knew but a player of considerable ability, but he little, possibly had never heard of many, is more successful in keeping partner of the ingenious devices for communiand opponents in a perpetual state of cating knowledge at whist which have

been adopted within the last thirty | ciated in fortune or misfortune, was the years. Their whist, if they possessed late Mr. Robert Wheble of the Portlaud good memories and moderate intelli- and other clubs.. His name was familgence, was probably none the worse for iar to hundreds of card-players in every that. If they did not encumber their rank of life, but such is the mockery of powers of deduction with excessive for- social, fame that his death on one inmalism, it was all the better for the clement Christmas a few years ago was exercise of thought. unnoticed save by a letter from a club The little knot of men who, after | friend in the columns of the Daily several migrations of habitat, used to News. His perception was marvelmeet as members of the Westminster lously acute, his instinct rarely failed Chess Club, in rooms at the Caledonian him. But often and often has he deHotel on the Adelphi Terrace, studied plored the introduction of excessive the game with an intensity of vigor and rules of play into the game of whist, earnestness of purpose which had not which he loved so well. Possibly, as hitherto been displayed in elucidation an old man, he was too imbued with of its mysteries. To their perception affection for the past. Perhaps I, too, may be attributed many of the varia- my dear A- err as laudator temporis tions in practice which have since acti. However that may be, let us all been introduced, and most of us would unite in the hope that whist may never eagerly acknowledge that these novel- cease to flourish within the realms over ties have given a scientific character to which Queen Victoria holds sway, and whist which it previously lacked. that it may afford as much harmless pleasure in the future as it is supplying at present, or has given in the past.

The

L'appétit vient en mangeant. danger now is that the game will be made too abstruse. The mystery of its practice would, if certain writers and players had their way, become more mysterious than ever. Rules are now being propounded for the play of cards which may come, in the ordinary way of life, once in a hundred rubbers. The mind is in danger of being clogged with an infinity of maxims as to the particular cards to be played at a definite juncture. In whist, the exercise of intelligence should have a first place with a fine player, but intelligence will, unless a determined start be made against the invaders, soon be deposed for arbitrary custom. Several of these new modes of play clash with those laid down by older players for several generations together. The lead of ace, followed by king, invariably meant that the leader's holding in that suit was limited to these two cards only. Now it implies the possession of at least five cards in that section. The older players with king, queen, never lead any other card than the king. With the younger school the lead, under certain conditions, is from the queen.

One of the finest whist-players with whom it has been my lot to be asso

From The National Review. ROMANCE OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY. OF all "artistic" things, the most inartistic, when one comes to think of it, is a picture-gallery. In great periods of art pictures are painted less for exhibition in a museum than as integral parts of some scheme of domestic adornment, of public magnificence, of religious splendor. Hence, wherever pictures are gathered into a gallery there is sure evidence of a lack of artistic sense on the part either of those who have brought the pictures together or of those who have allowed them to be dispersed.

In a gallery, howsoever well built and scientifically lighted it may be, a picture loses. It is one of a crowd; it is killed perhaps by its more vivid neighbor; it wants appropriate setting; it loses as a nocturne of Chopin when played at a glaring concert instead of in a dim parlor; as a beautiful poem loses when printed cheaply in double columns. In the old times setting was better understood. "In the palmy days," Morelli

says, "art was welcomed everywhere | Filippo Lippi-a "Vision of St. Berin Italy, and had a share in all the con- nard"—is not unlikely to arrest atcerns of man, and in all the events and tention by its curious and no longer festivities of daily life. The nobles intelligible shape. There was excellent took a delight in enriching their pal- reason for that cutting-away of the aces, their country-houses, and the upper corners; the picture was painted chapels in their churches with painting to fit a space of that shape, over the and sculpture, and even required that door of the Palazzo della Signoria at their household furniture should, whilst Florence. "Have you ever considuseful, be graceful and beautiful in ered," Mr. Ruskin asks, "in the early form." history of painting, how important is the history of the frame-maker? It is a matter, I assure you, needing your very best consideration; for the frame was made before the picture. The painted window is much; but the aperture it fills was thought of before it." The spirit of the picture cannot be caught,

Our National Gallery is full of pictures painted in that great period. We may well be thankful, with Mr. Ruskin, that the trustees of the gallery have been able to "save so much from the wreck of English mansions and Italian monasteries," and to "enrich the recreations of our metropolis with graceful its significance cannot be understood, interludes by Perugino and Raphael." unless one remembers the place which After all, however, the pictures were it had to fill. How bizarre, how trivial, painted not to hang in rows on the seems that "Rape of Helen," by Bewalls of a London gallery, but for nozzo Gozzoli, hanging beside "Saints particular persons, places, and occa- a-Praising God" and martyrs in adorasions, far removed from the present tion! As the lid or side panel of a environment of them. Pause, for ex- cassone, or wooden chest, for a boudoir ample, at the entrance of the gallery, or dressing-room, how prettily fanciful and look at the two pictures represent- and dainty it must have been! It was, ing "Heads of Saints," by Domenico no doubt, a commission to the artist for Veneziano. These shattered fragments that purpose. In a similar “key" are of faded panel are not, one thinks, Annibale Carracci's pictures, in room either very beautiful or effective. Do XIII., of Silenus gathering grapes and not let us forget how remote from us Bacchus painting. They originally decwas the purpose for which the artist orated a harpsichord; probably the designed them; how they hung for artist was commissioned by some rich centuries, at street corners in Florence, citizen, even as a few of our rich men telling their message to generations of commission Mr. Burne-Jones or Mr. simple burghers. Or pass into the Alma-Tadema to paint their pianos in room No. IV., and see the earliest our own day. The old Italians, howspecimens of Italian art. There is ever, differed from us in that they something absurd, grotesque, repulsive would not willingly part with their even, in that green and gaunt Madonna treasures at any price. A charming by Cimabue; and a sight-seer in a pic- little story of a picture of Pontormo's ture-gallery may well be pardoned if he (Joseph in Egypt; No. 1131) throws "gaze scorn down from the heights of light on the feeling of the time. The Raffaelhood, on Cimabue's picture." picture was painted for a Florentine It is not the picture's fault that it keeps noble named Borgherini. He was aftersuch grand company. It should be put wards exiled; and the civic authorities back in imagination far into some dim sent a dealer to his house to buy up all apse, where, in ages of simpler faith his works of art, which they wished to and untaught art, the sad Madonna present to the king of France. Borstood in folded robes to receive the gherini's wife, Margherita, roundly prayer at evening of unsophisticated abused the envoy, and sent him away worshippers. Once more: Turn into empty-handed. "Dost thou," she cried, the opposite room. A painting by Fra" vile broker of frippery, miserable