Note 58 — LECTURE XIII. —— DETERIORATION OF WHIST, ITS CAUSES AND CURE. ——
Reading edition
“The game is not the simple straightforward game it was, it is more erratic and more difficult.”
“Whist is more and more, and year by year, a game of brag, a game for gambling, a game in which we have to study the idiosyncrasies of the players as well as the cards themselves. We have to deduce from imperfect data, and when our inference is wrong we have a great chance of a scolding from an infuriated partner.”
“Modern whist in a nutshell—signs and signals and a short supply of brains.”—Westminster Papers.
“We are by no means peculiar in the opinion that signals and the so-called developments are destroying whist.”—Cornhill Magazine.
“Whist, as a game, is in a fair way of being ruined.”—Knowledge.
[59] “Let players, if they wish to play a decent game, and avoid a mischievous and annoying practice, give up the privilege accorded by Law 91.”—Home Whist.