It will be apparent to any of my long-term readers that in my many years of existence upon this mortal sphere I have acquired any number of divertissements, residing in the realms of semi-usual (crossword puzzle solving, diorama construction, amateur box kit enthusiasm) and esoteric (the practice of sexual magick, the collecting of taxidermy involving rare and extinct creatures, summoning lesser elohim). It will interest more than a few, I dare say, that amongst many of my idle fancies lay those that involve games of chance with one or more companions. Whilst some of the games I fain indulge in are to this day somewhat still commonplace enough to warrant no explanation, it has become clear to me that many of fancies have fallen by the wayside over my many years of existence, so to speak. Thus I have decided to turn to a selection of brief excerpts from Hoyle's beloved Rules of Games for services of piquing the interests of you, my dear readers, in but a few of the delights to be beheld from such a simple recipe of a deck of cards and but a handful of friends.
Napoleon: In one of the most ancient and universal families of card games, originally called the "Triumph" family, each player holds five cards and the primary object is to win 3 out of 5 tricks.
Seven-up: There is a large family of games in which the object is to win "high, low, jack and game." Almost surely this principle originated in England in the ancient game All Fours. Brought to America in Colonial times, this game developed into Seven Up, also called Old Sledge or High Low Jack.
Fan Tan: There is a Chinese gambling game called Fan Tan, based on guessing the number of beans in a pot.
Oh Hell (called Oh Pshaw or Blackout in family journals): made its appearance in New York card clubs in the late 1930s. It was said to have come from England, but nothing more is known of its origin. It is one of the best round games for sheer relaxation, yet it is comparable to Hearts in its opportunity for skillful play.
Panguingue: a game for six to nine players, is the survivor in the direct line of Conquian, the ancestor of all the Rummy Games. In the western United States, many commercial clubs flourish, devoted principally to furnishing their habitues with "Pan" games.
Klaberjass: means "jack of clubs"-originally the highest trump card in Central European card games. This popular two hand development, popular also in France as Belotte, was immortalized in American picaresque literature by Damon Runyon and is known by various names and spellings: Clob, Clobber, Clabber, Klab, Klabber, etc-sometimes even by the name Kalabrias, which actually is a different game, played in Hungary.
Skat: was developed prior to 1818 in Altenburg, Germany, out of two pre-existing games, Tarok, and Schafkopf. The rules of Skat were codified at a congress of more than a thousand players at Altenburg in 1886. German immigrants brought the game to the United States and an American Skat League was founded at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1898.
Thank you for perusing this list today. If by chance, your curiosity has been engaged, may-haps you would enjoy composing a letter to my amanuensis about your possible interests in learning some of these varied games of skill and chance. I have vain fancies of starting a local Skat league, and the More the Merrier, as is often said.
