Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/412

LEFT WHIST 352 WHISTLER WHIST, a game of cards, so called from the silence necessary to play it at- tentively and correctly. It was formerly also called whisk. It is played by 4 per- sons, 2 of whom are partners against the other 2. The full pack of 52 cards is used, 13 being dealt one at a time to each player in order, the dealer be- ginning with the player on his left. The last card dealt is turned face up on the table, and is called the tinmp card; the suit to which it belongs has for the hand the privilege of taking or being superior to any card of any other suit. The cards rank in value as follows: Ace (the highest), king, queen, knave, 10, 9, 8, and so on. The game is com- menced by the player on the left hand of the dealer laying one card face up- ward on the table, this being called lead- ing off; the player on his left then plays a card of the same suit (if he has one), and is followed similarly by the player on his left. When all have played, the person who has played the highest card takes up the 4 cards played, these con- stituting what is termed a trick. If a player has no card of the suit led off, he may play one of any other suit. The winner of the first trick then leads off with any card he pleases for the second trick, the winner of which becomes the leader of the third trick, and so on. The score is taken as follows when the hand is played out; the partners who conjointly have won the majority out of the 13 tricks, score one point for every trick over 6. The ace, king, queen, and knave are called honors, and the pai't- ners who hold between them 3 of these cards score 2 points, and if they hold all of them they score 4 points; this is technically known as scoring 2 (or 4) by honors. If each side holds two of these cards, honors are said to be di- vided or easy. In long whist (now be- coming obsolete) 10 points make a game, in short whist only 5 points are re- quired, and in this it is usual to count by tricks alone. A rubber consists of 3 games, and is won by the partners who score 2 of them. If one side wins the first 2 games the third is not played out. There are several modifications of the game, such as solo^ whist, three-handed whist, bridge whist, compass whist, military whist, duplicate whist, etc. WHISTLE FISH, MotelU tridrrhata, the three-bearded rockling. Pennant says the name was applied to the fish because "the Cornish fishermen whistle when desirous of taking this fish, as if by that they facilitate its capture." WHISTLER. JAMES ABBOT MC- NEILL, an American painter; born in Lowell, Mass., in 1834; studied for a time at the United States Military Academy; next went to Paris, worked for two years in the studio of Gleyre, and afterward settled in London. In 1884 he became a member of the Society of British Artists, of which he was president from 1886 to 1889. In France he received a medal (3d class) at the Salon of 1883, a gold medal at the Ex- position of 1889, and was "Hors Con- cours" at the Salon in 1892 ; and he was made Chevalier (1889) and Officer (1891) of the Legion of Honor. In 1889 he was elected a member of the Munich Academy, and received the Cross of the Order of St. Michael; and in 1900 he took the highest prize at the Exposition Universelle, in Paris. In 1859 he began to exhibit in the Royal Academy, showing "Two Etchings from Nature," which were followed in 1860 by five dry-point portraits and etchings of Thames subjects, and an oil picture of a mother and child "At the Piano." He exhibited frequently in the Salon, the Academy, the Grosvenor Gal- lery, the Society of British Artists, and in 1874 and 1892 held exhibitions of his paintings in London. The finest of his oil pictures are "The Artist's Mother — an arrangement in Black and Gray," shown in the Royal Academy of 1872, awarded a gold medal in the Salon of 1884, and purchased for the Luxembourg Gallery in 1891; the "Portrait of Thomas Carlyle," shown in the artist's exhibition of 1874, and pur- chased by the Glasgow Corporation in 1891; and the "Portrait of Miss Alex- ander — Harmony in Gray and Green." In addition to many other portraits, such as those of Senor Sarasate, Miss Rosa Corder, Irving as Philip II., and Lady Archibald Campbell, he produced some fascinating figure subjects and views on the Thames, etc., in oils. He was also a skillful worker in pastels on tinted paper; while as a purely de- corative artist he is known by the "Pea- cock Room," painted in 1877 in Mr. Ley- land's house at Prince's Gate, London, and by the "Music Room," in Seiior Sarasate's residence in Paris. His etch- ings include: "The French Set," (13 subjects, Paris, 1858) ; the "Thames Set" (16 subjects, London, 1871); the "First Venice Set" (12 plates, London, 1880) ; the "Second Venice Set" (26 plates, 1886). Whistler's art is original and individual. On Feb. 11, 1902, the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts awarded him its Gold Medal of Honor. Whistler was one of the greatest paint- ers of the later 19th century. He died in London, England, July 17, 1903.