Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/622

 593 WHIST also required by the act of March 29, 1869, to be paid by distillers. These various taxes and charges aggregated nearly 70 cts. per gallon. The special and per diem taxes were abolished by the act of 1872, and thereafter the store- keepers' wages and gangers' fees were paid by the government The number of gallons pro- duced during the year ending June 80, 1875, was reported at 60,930,425; but the amount manufactured was doubtless much greater. According to the commissioner of internal revenue, the fluctuation in the actual annual production has been comparatively small, but the amount reported has varied greatly with the change of the rate of tax. Thus in 1868, when the rate was $2 a gallon, the tax collect- ed amounted to less than $19,000,000; while in 1869, when the rate had been reduced to 50 cts., the income increased to $45,071,230, and in the following year to $55,606,094. In 1875 it was $52,081,991. The above figures embrace all distilled spirits, whether from grain or fruit, of which whiskey constitutes much the largest part, though there is no means of determining the exact proportion. The states producing the largest amounts of spirits are Illinois, the production of which in 1875 was returned at $14,111,398; Ohio, $9,958,116; Kentucky, $7,002,786; Indiana, $3,954,340; New York, $3,237,570 ; and Pennsylvania, $1,894,282. In the same year the exports of spirits distilled from grain amounted to 130,460 gallons, valued at $140,519. WHIST, a game played by four persons with a full pack of 52 cards. The game is traced to that of triumph or trump, which was known in the early part of the 16th century, but was first clearly described by Edmund Hoyle in his " Short Treatise on the Game of Whist" in 1743. For nearly 120 years the literature of whist is directly traceable to this first treatise of Hoyle, though as early as 1792 there appeared in the " Sporting Magazine " an article on whist which embodies in no small degree, in a short concise set of rules, the re- sults of the more abstruse learning of the great writers on whist of this century, beginning with Deschapelles. Rule 29 of the article in the " Sporting Magazine " might be made the primary rule of all treatises upon this noble game; for without being mindful of this rule, all labor spent in learning its science is vanity, and a constant observance of it is necessary to secure that intellectual diversion which it af- fords in a higher degree than any other game in which chance is an element yet known to man. The rule is a short one : " Keep your temper!" In 1839 M. Deschapelles published his Traite du whist, by far the most important work on the subject up to that time. But the first great step toward the consolidation of the rules and development of the modern game is to be. found in the "Laws and Prin- ciples of Whist," by Cavendish (1862), and speedily followed by the works of James Clay and William Pole, and "The Laws of Short Whist," edited by J. L. Baldwin. The game of whist as described by Hoyle, and as played for over 200 years, in which the four honors were counted, and which consisted of ten points, is now practically obsolete. The uni- versal game in London, Paris, Vienna, -Ham- burg, and New York is that described by the modern writers above mentioned, and short whist is now supreme; but while in most European circles the honors are still counted, they are generally excluded from the Ameri- can game, which thus becomes more one of skill. Whether this is a wise change may well be doubted, as in all whist circles the difficulty is to equalize the chances, which as between a good and bad player are very great, and perhaps the element of mere chance should, wherever possible, be retained. A new principle has Jat- terly obtained, and is now almost universal in the best London whist circles. This is the " sig- nal for trumps," or the playing of the highest of two indifferent cards, to show your partner that you are strong in trumps and desire him to lead them. Hitherto the efforts of all writers on the subject, and the object of many of the most important rules of the game, have been to prevent the possibility of any sign, signal, or expression, by which one partner could communicate to another the condition of his hand or his wish for a particular suit. So rigid was the rule in this respect, that it has been one of the highest offences to show by the manner of the play either that the card played is the best, or that the player is not satisfied with the lead. Yet under the aus- pices of Cavendish, supported by the more modern authorities, and by the acknowledged chiefs among the whist players of England, this conventional signal is not only authorized, but is commanded. On the other hand, it is expressly forbidden on the continent, and is not generally acknowledged out of London. The opponents of this signal have generally placed their objections upon grounds that are not tenable. It is not unfair, because it is ad- mitted as a conventional rule, and is less ob- jectionable than a signal to your partner by your finger or foot, because it is seen by your adversaries, who may gain as much informa- tion as your partner. But it is because it in- creases the power of good players over poor ones, already too great from the very nature of the game, and because there seems to be no greater reason for introducing this particular signal as to trumps than there is for extending it to an unlimited number of cases, until an expert player shall bo enabled to determine all the most important features of his partner's hand as well as if it was before him, and be- cause the innovation strikes at the very root of all whist philosophy, and at one blow, doubtless soon to be followed by others in the same direction, destroys the logic which for two centuries has been the alpha and omega of the game, that good players and lovers of this noble pursuit, " the instructor of youth