With a heavy hand, play first on one end and then on the other, to prevent any chance of blocking the game when the number of spots would count against you. A good hand is that having the greatest variety of numbers, as 6-3, 5-4, 2-1, 4-3, 1-0, 2-0, 0-0, and with it one can generally play every time, while a bad hand would be 6-6, 5-5, 6-2, 6-4, 2-2, 2-1, 1-1, and of course the very worst would be to hold all the doubles; but that would hardly occur in an actual game.
As an example of how doubles should be played, suppose your hand consisted of 5-5, 2-2, 3-2, 2-4, 1-0, 5-0, 6-2, it would be better in every way to play the 5-5, since your other double can be forced either by the 3-2, 2-4, or 6-2.
All Fives, or Muggins, is and should be played similar to the one above, save that the great object is to make the spots at both ends amount to five, or any number divisible by five without a remainder. If one plays 5-5 at the start, he counts ten. If 0-0 is played first, the 0-5 would count five to the player; then if 5-5 be played it counts ten, and 0-0 played on 0-5 counts five also. If 6-6 is at one end and 4-4 is played at the other, twenty is counted to the game, since twelve and eight make twenty. In this game he who can play 5-5 has the lead; and failing in that, he who holds 0-5, then 2-3; and failing in all, he who holds the highest card. The game should be fifty or one hundred points, and the winner counts all the spots in his adversary's hand at the close, adding them to his score, or, in case of a block, adds the difference between the lesser and the greater hand.
The Drawing game is played like the Double Sixes, save that when a player is blocked he must draw another card, and continue to do so until he can play. He who plays out first, or, in case of the game being blocked, he who has the smallest number of spots wins. This game really requires the most skill, since a player must remember all the cards, and try to form some idea of what remains in the pool and what his adversary holds. It is quite common to unite this game with All Fives, thus making a longer game of the former.
The Matadore game has more of the element of chance in it than any other. Each player draws three cards, and he who holds the highest plays first. After that the next player can only go when his domino, added to the one previously played, will make seven. Those cards having just seven spots on them, and the double blank, are called matadores, and may be played at any time, regardless of spots. There are, of course, but four matadores—6-1, 5-2, 4-3, 0-0. If one cannot play, he must draw until he can, or until but two are left, when no more can be taken. The number of points in this game may be made from twenty to a hundred, as the players decide.
[WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY.]
'Tis splendid to live so grandly
That, long after you are gone,
The things you did are remembered,
And recounted under the sun;
To live so bravely and purely
That a nation stops on its way,
And once a year, with banner and drum,
Keeps its thought of your natal day.
'Tis splendid to have a record
So white and free from stain
That, held to the light, it shows no blot,
Though tested and tried amain;
That age to age forever
Repeats its story of love,
And your birthday lives in a nation's heart,
All other days above.
And this is Washington's glory,
A steadfast soul and true,
Who stood for his country's honor
When his country's days were few.
And now when its days are many,
And its flag of stars is flung
To the breeze in defiant challenge,
His name is on every tongue.
Yes, it's splendid to live so bravely,
To be so great and strong.
That your memory is ever a tocsin
To rally the foes of the wrong;
To live so proudly and purely
That your people pause in their way,
And year by year, with banner and drum,
Keep the thought of your natal day.
Margaret E. Sangster.