CARD GAMES.
There is no knowing exactly when card-playing first made its appearance, or who introduced it. Long before Whist, Cribbage, or Piquet was heard of the natives of India and China amused themselves for many a long hour in card-playing. Though probably they did not restrict themselves to any particular rule or method, still, the enjoyment they derived from the game was, doubtless, quite equal to any that we have now. The old tale, that has so often been repeated, that Whist was invented purposely to entertain, during his moments of sanity, an English sovereign who had lost his reason, may or may not be true. All we really know is, that for more than two hundred years our grandmothers and grandfathers have spent many a happy hour at the card-table, sipping their toddy and playing their rubbers in really good earnest. As far as we are concerned, the toddy sipping may be with safety dispensed with, but not the earnestness; for with cards, almost more than any other amusement, it is utterly useless to play in a half-hearted sort of manner.
Everything, for the time, must be forgotten but the game, and into that the whole energy must be thrown. As all good players know, triflers are to be dreaded far more than inexperienced players. The latter, by practice, strict attention, the exercise of judgment, observation, and memory may soon become skilful players, while the former will never willingly be chosen as partners by good Whist players. It is said that good old Sir Roger de Coverley sent a messenger round every Christmas time with a pack of cards to all the cottagers on his estate, and if accompanied, as no doubt they were, with something useful and substantial, nothing could have been much more acceptable.