VOGUE

New York City, New York, U.S.A.

February 1917

(Page 49, 98)

THE PIRATICAL SWEEP OF PIRATE BRIDGE.

As Bridge Calmed the Conflicts of Whist, and Auction

Reformed Bridge, So Does Pirate Bridge Drop a Mantle

of Peace on the Contentions of Auction

Somewhere, back in that part of the world’s history which is usually referred to as “antiquity,” when playing cards were made with a stencil plate and their use was restricted to those people who had been properly introduced at court, some ingenious person evolved the game of swabbers, which was played with forty-eight cards.

Tradition tells us that some years later the Evil One added the deuce of spades to the pack, and put the three other twos with it to conceal his villainy. It was then that one of the greatest breeders of anger and broken friendships that the world has known was born, and in the year of grace 1674 was christened whist by the priest of the card-playing world of that day, Richard Cotton.

THE FIRST GREAT REFORMER

In spite of all efforts to eliminate the defects that led to such eternal bickerings between partners, this disturber of domestic peace reached its climax under the name of duplicate, when it suddenly gave way to the first great reformer, bridge, which was introduced to America by H. I. Barbey, in 1893, as a cure for the fundamental defect of whist, which was that the turned trump did not always suit the dealer’s hand. In bridge he could make the trump to suit himself. If his opponents did not think it a wise selection they could double. They had just as good a chance to go game as the dealer, in any case.

Then, out of the silence and meditation of a hill station in India came an Englishman with the brilliant suggestion that every one at the table should have something to say about that trump, and that those who had not the nerve to risk something for the privilege should have no chance to win the game. As a result of that suggestion we got auction, the second great reformer.

In 1916 another traveler from India, Aleister Crowley, went a step further and demanded the right of each player at the table not only to name the trump, but to pick the partner best fitted to play it, and the third great reformer takes the center of the stage, under the name of Pirate Bridge.

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