The pack is increased to thirty-two cards by the addition of the Sevens and Eights. After the cards are cut by the pone, the dealer gives three to each player on the first round, then two, and then three again, turning up the last card for the trump. In Germany the dealer first gives two cards to his partner, then two to his left hand adversary, then two to his right hand adversary, and finally two to himself. This is continued for four rounds, so that each player receives eight cards, and the last is turned up for the trump. The turned-up trump belongs to the dealer, and cannot be exchanged.
In this form of the game the players must not only follow suit, but must win the trick if they can, and must trump and over-trump if possible. A player is even obliged to win his partner’s trick. Owing to this rule, a player with good plain suit cards will usually attempt to exhaust the trumps as rapidly as possible.
The counting cards are the same as in Sixty-six, and the winner of the last trick counts 10. As there is no stock, there is no closing; and as marriages are not counted in America, the 66 points must be made on cards alone.
The scores for schneider and schwartz are the same as in Sixty-six, and seven points is game. There are 130 points made in every deal, so if one side gets more than 66 and less than 100, their adversaries must be out of schneider, and the winners count one. More than 100, but less than 130 is schneider, and counts two. If the winners take every trick, making 130 points, they score three. Sometimes an extra point is scored for winning the Ten of trumps: but such a count is quite foreign to the game.
NATIONAL GAMES.
There are certain games of cards which do not seem to belong to any particular family, but stand apart from other games, and have been played since their first invention with only trifling variations, giving rise to no offshoots bearing other names. These are usually the most popular games with the middle and lower classes in the countries in which they are found, and may be considered as distinctly national in character. Games that become popular with the masses always last longer than others, and the rules governing them are much better understood, and more firmly established. In the course of a century the English aristocracy have run the gamut of Quadrille, Ombre, Whist, Écarté, Bézique, Piquet, Rubicon, and Bridge; while the middle classes have stuck steadily to Cribbage for nearly two hundred years.
Six of these popular games are strikingly typical of the national character, both in their construction, and in the manner of playing them. These are: Skat in Germany; Cribbage in England; Piquet in France; Conquian in Mexico; Calabrasella in Italy; and Cassino in America. All these are excellent games, and have deservedly survived much more pretentious rivals.
With the exception of Skat, little is known of the exact origin of any of these games, although most of them may be traced by their resemblance to more ancient forms. Skat is the most modern, and to-day the most popular, many persons thinking it superior to Whist. The game seems to have originated among the farmers of Thuringia, a province of Saxony, and was probably a variation of the Wendish game of Schapskopf. The first mention of Skat that we can find is in an article in the “Osterländer Blättern,” in 1818. Thirty years later Professor Hempel of Altenburg published the rules and principles of the game under the title: “Das Skatspiel, von J.F.L.H.” It is said that he learned the game from a friend, who had been taught it by a Wendish coachman in his employ. The game spread rapidly, and soon became popular all over Germany, but with many minor variations in the details of play. To settle these, a Skat congress was finally held in Altenburg in 1886. This was succeeded by others in Leipzic and Dresden, and the result of these meetings has been to weed out all the minor differences in play, and to settle upon a universal code of laws for the game, which is called Reichs-Skat.