THE BRIDGE-FIEND A Book of Consolation for Incurables* «The Ladies Dearly Love Their Heated Little Post-Mortems' IHE BRIDGE- FIEND 1^ A CHEERFUL BOOKFOR BRIDGE- WHISTERS BY ARTHUR LORING BRUCE ^.^^^^^ V « 4 NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1909 %\ (k^^'^ % Copyright, 1908, igog, by Street & Smith Copyright, igog, by Moffat, Yard & Company Published October, igog CI.A251450 TO MISS N. I. OOMEWHERE, lurking In the underbrush ^^ of this sportive volume (and trembling and chattering wath fear lest you should dis- cover Its hiding-place) there is a cruel and murderous sentiment, hateful In the sight of him who vv'^rote It dov^m. I was made to in- timate, by some demon of perversity, perhaps, that an absolutely perfect bridge partner had never -existed. Such creatures — so runs the calumny — are, unhappily, extinct upon our troubled planet: they are purely mythical, like the angels or the minotaurs. For this false- hood I humbly crave your pardon. To you, then, perfect partner—mythical only in so far as you partake of the nature of the angels—I dedicate this little bundle of bridge memories. A. L. B. — FOREWARNING To the confirmed addict a cheerful book on bridge needs no apology. The sixty or sev- enty existing works on the game are so tech- nical, truthful and forbidding that the author hopes to see this carefree volume — because of its levity and partial untruthfulness- hailed by every incurable, as a very present help In case of a double. Its purpose is not to instruct but to distract. Nowhere, for in- stance, in the following pages, will there be found those most spirit-blighting of earthly words, " The penalty for a revoke Is three tricks torn from the screaming and revoking player." I take a certain pride, also, in stat- ing that, for the first time since the inven- tion of the game, that baneful and bitter " Table of Correct Leads " has been black- balled and excluded from a work on bridge. To all bridge players — whether Incipient, chronic, violent or Incurable — this volume ought to bring consolation and relief. With its aid, wild and ferocious partners FOREWARNING may be subdued; cheats may be detected and out-cheated; feminine " bridgers " may be made almost honest, and " post-mortems " en- tirely done away with. A single perusal of its magic pages will infallibly produce — in even the most savage player — a feeling of serenity, gratitude and calm. I feel that my apologies are due my readers for the disjointed character of the work, and for the maturity of some of my anecdotes. My thanks are due to Messrs. Street & Smith by whose disinterested kindness and courtesy I am permitted to reprint as much of the volume as appeared, originally, in the pages of " Ainslee's Magazine." My thanks are also due to my friends, R. F. Foster, C. S. Street and R. G. Badger for many kindnesses and benefits bestowed and to Louis Fancher, who, notwithstanding his bit- ter and unreasonable hatred of the noble game of bridge, finally consented to design for me the cover and frontispiece of this little book. A. L. B. CONTENTS PAGE Forewarning ix First Appearances of the Devastating Plague i Wild Partners I Have Met . I2 A Few Cheering Anecdotes .... 39 The Matter of Gains — and Losses . 54 In Gay Paree 76 Clever Cheats and Cheating .... 94 More or Less Serious — and Historical . 118 The Ladies — Angelic and Otherwise . 142 The Hateful Process of Disgorging . .160 Royal and Aristocratic Bridgers . .169 Tragedies, Surprises and Horrors . .181 A Test Hand — Useful in Discouraging THE Boasters 194 Girls 207 Success With Bad Partners . ,. .218 CONTENTS PAGE Bridge in England . 230 A Tangle of Yarns 249 In Society 264 THE BRIDGE-FIEND CHAPTER I FIRST APPEARANCES OF THE DEVASTATING PLAGUE During the past few years I have been amazed at the spread of bridge in America; not only in the principal cities, but in the smallest villages and towns as well. In the last six months I have seen listed on booksellers' catalogues over sixty books treat- ing of the game. This is a , considerable mass of literature when it is remembered that sixteen years ago the game was unknown in this country or in England. I wonder how many of my readers know anything of the origin of bridge? I may say that I have found it almost impossible to secure correct information about the early history of the game, but, after reading many I THE BRIDGE-FIEND forbiddingly dry treatises on the subject, I lean to the opinion that it originated in Tur- key. Russia and Greece have both claimed it, but I think it more than likely that the Turks were the first people to play it. In Russia it is called " biritch," but just why, nobody seems to know. There is no such word as biritch in the Russian language, so that many are of the opinion that the word is a roundabout corruption of some word in use in Turkey. Just as Persia was, they say, the first home of poker, so, I am disposed to think, was Constantinople the birthplace of bridge — a conclusion which any one who has ever played the game with a lurk will be inclined to share, for the Turks have a really marvel- ous genius for the game. I feel sure that the average Turk has about twenty per cent, more insight into cards and card-games than the average Englishman or American. In Turkey and, indeed, throughout the East, cards are played with a quickness and brilliancy that are rarely met with elsewhere. Americans have always regarded poker as the one game of cards in which lying, joking, 2 FIRST APPEARANCES bluffing and petty deceptions are not only permissible, but amusing. Were we to prac- tice the same tactics in playing bridge, our adversaries would certainly consider us sharp, and, probably, dishonest. Now the Easterners play bridge exactly as we play poker. They study a man's eyes ; the twitch- ing of his hands; his hesitation, and all the little personal signs that might give infor- mation as to the contents of his hand. I have heard many Europeans say that they did not like to play bridge with Easterners because of these trying little peculiarities. I remember a particularly sad case of a Turkish diplomat in Washington who came to this country and played most brilliant bridge. He had, however, a provoking habit of looking you steadily in the eye ; talk- ing, in an exaggerated way, about the value of his hand; studying the way you sorted your cards and being a little too keen about the score and the play of the hand. This gentleman went to Newport, and his system of play roused a good deal of gossip there, until finally he was branded as a cheat, when, as a matter of fact, he was merely playing 3 THE BRIDGE-FIEND bridge as it was universally played in his na- tive land and precisely as we play poker in America. He shortly afterward left Amer- ica and has never appeared here since. It was, I learn, during the year 1894 that bridge was introduced into London by Lord Brougham, who brought the game back with him from an extended foreign tour. Lord Brougham's account of the event Is curious and interesting. Soon after his re- turn to London he went into the Portland Club, which is probably the best-known card- club in the world. The Portland at that time was given over exclusively to old-fash- ioned whist. His lordship sat down to play a friendly rubber and, when It came his turn to deal, forgot to expose the trump. At his next deal he again forgot to turn the last card. His friends, who had known him for years, made a mental memorandum that his lordship was beginning to lose his memory. He explained his carelessness by saying that he had been playing so much " bridge " that he could never remember the exasperating convention of turning the trump. This re- 4 FIRST APPEARANCES mark led to his explaining the game in de- tail to his friends. From this insignificant beginning bridge has spread and spread until it is now the most popular card-game in the world. There Is to-day hardly any *' straight " whist played at the Portland; bridge has entirely replaced It. The Turf was the second Eng- lish club to experiment with the game, and from that time on the fever spread through the English clubs very rapidly. In 1895 the Portland Issued Its famous " Laws of Bridge." This was translated and adopted as the standard guide to the game in most of the cities of Europe and even In Constantinople, the city of Its reputed birth. I believe that there Is good ground for the assertion that America was Introduced to bridge before England, for it Is certain that the late Henry I. Barbey explained the game to his friends at the Whist Club In New York as early as the beginning of 1894, probably a month or two before Lord Brougham ex- plained It at the Portland. 5 THE BRIDGE-FIEND A little later in the year Mr. Barbey had arranged an incomplete little table of rules and conventions of the game, which he pub- lished for private circulation, and, in 1897, the game had so far grown in favor at the Whist Club that it issued the first complete code of bridge laws to be published in this country. The late Henry Jones, popularly known as " Cavendish," who was probably the mas- ter mind of whist in England and who has done more than any one man for that game (with the possible exception of Hoyle) was, at first, bitterly opposed to bridge.