Patience, or Thirteens
Many games of "Patience" can be played as well with numbered cards as with ordinary playing cards. It does not matter much what size they are, but for convenience, in playing on a small table, they may as well be about an inch wide and two inches long, with the number at the top. Thus:—
A "Patience" set consists of four packs of cards each containing four sets of thirteen cards numbered from 1 to 13. These can be made at home perfectly well, and a little bag to hold each pack should also be made. The simplest game is to arrange the four sets in their right order. One player empties her four bags into a basket, shakes them up, and calls them out as she picks them out (at random). The others, who have the cards spread before them, then arrange them in four rows as well as may be, until a 1 is called and there is a chance to begin packing the others upon it. With inexperienced players five rows are sometimes allowed. We do not give other games of "Patience," for two reasons. One is that it is not exactly a children's game, and the other, that it is one of the games which can be properly taught only by personal instruction. Varieties of "Patience" are very numerous, and good books can be had on the subject.
Snap
There can be no real need to describe "Snap," but perhaps it may be useful to have the rules in print here in case of any dispute. A pack of "Snap" cards is dealt round, any number being able to play; and the game begins by the players taking their cards one by one from their hands and in turn laying them face upward on the table before them. If a card is turned up similar to a card already on view on the table, the player who turns it up or the player who owns the similar card cries "Snap," and the cards go to the player who says "Snap" first. As it is sometimes difficult for the players to distinguish which says "Snap" first, it is well to have an umpire. In the case of an undoubted dead-heat the game should go on as if nothing had happened. The player who won the cards gathers up also into his hand all the cards which were before him and continues the game. When a player has transferred all his cards from his hand to the table he waits until his turn comes and then takes them into his hand again. This is a very exciting moment, because, if his top card were snapped, then he would lose everything.
In good "Snap" packs there are several sets of cards which are intentionally made nearly but not absolutely alike, and it is very common to say "Snap" by mistake when one of these turns up. In that case the cards of the player who cried "Snap" are placed in the middle of the table, where they stay until some one turns up a card exactly like the top one and "Snap Centre" is called, when both the centre pack and the pack in front of the turner-up belong to the player who cried "Snap Centre." It may of course be the turner-up himself, but is very likely somebody else, because whereas under ordinary conditions only the owners of similar cards may cry "Snap," when there are cards is the middle too any one may cry "Snap Centre." (In some houses any one may cry "Snap" all through the game, but that is not the best way.)
When a player has lost all his cards he is out of the game until there are cards in the middle again, when an opportunity comes of snap-centring them and getting into play again. The game goes on until one player has all the cards.
Grab
In "Grab," a very rowdy variety of "Snap," a cork is placed in the middle of the table. The rules are the same as in "Snap," except that, instead of saying "Snap," you snatch for the cork; in the case of "Snap Centre," snatching and saying "Centre" too.