VINGT-ET-UN.
Any number of persons can play, making up a pool for the winner. A single die is used, and each player in turn throws as often as he pleases. The object is to get as near twenty-one as possible without passing it, and it is usually considered best to stand at 18, but to throw again at 17. If a player goes beyond 21, he is out of it. The one getting nearest 21 takes the pool; ties divide it.
CENTENNIAL.
Two persons or sides play with three dice. The object of the game is to secure pips on the dice, or multiples of pips, which will make the figures from 1 to 12 in numerical order, and afterward the numbers from 12 to 1 again. The first side to accomplish this wins the game. There must be an ace in the first throw or nothing counts; that obtained, any following numbers may be made singly, or by adding two or more together. Suppose the first throw is 4, 2, 1. The 1 and 2 will make 1, 2 and 3. Then the 4, 1, 2 will make 4, 5, 6 and 7. Each side continues to throw until it fails to score, when the box must be passed to the adversary. If a combination is overlooked by one side, the other may count it if it continues the sequence on their side.
HELP YOUR NEIGHBOUR.
Six persons play, with three dice, and five points is Game. Each player has a number, from 1 to 6, and is provided with five counters, and the first to get rid of them wins. Each player in rotation has one throw, and no matter what he throws, the player whose number appears on the upper face of any die thrown counts one point toward game. If No. 2 should throw a four and two sixes, for instance, he would count nothing himself, but No. 4 would count 1, and No. 6 would count 2 points toward game.
PASSE DIX.
Any player can be the banker for the first round, and he holds his position as long as he wins. When he loses, he passes the box to the player on his left hand. He has three dice, which he throws in one cast, after the players have made their bets. If he gets ten or more, he wins. If he gets less than ten, he loses. His advantage lies in winning when he gets ten exactly; because that gives him nine throws that win for him out of the sixteen possible with three dice.
SHUFFLE BOARD.
Shuffle Board is played on a table 30 feet long and 20 inches wide, with a gutter running all round it. The board is sprinkled with very fine sand. Four weights are used by each side, marked A and B to distinguish them. These weights are of iron or brass, 2½ inches in diameter, and ½ inch thick. Five inches from each end of the board and parallel with it is the deuce line.
The object of the game is to push the weights from one end of the board to the other, each side playing one weight alternately until all four weights on each side are played. All pieces over the deuce line count 2, but if a piece hangs over the end of the board it is a ship, and counts 3. If there are no ships or deuces, the weight lying nearest to the deuce line counts one point. Only one ship or deuce can be counted in each round, so that only one side can score. The ship that overhangs the most, or the deuce nearest the edge, counts. Twenty-one points is game. The sides play from each end alternately.
On ship board, the pieces are wooden disks, six inches in diameter, marked with oughts and crosses. These are pushed along the deck with long sticks that have enlarged and flattened ends to fit the pieces. The object is to get each piece to settle fairly and squarely within the borders of some one of a number of spaces which are chalked out on a diagram about 10 feet by 6, which is about 30 feet from the player. These spaces are numbered from 1 to 10, and some of them are marked “minus.” Each side has four shots with four separate pieces. Fifty points is game.