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| The Collected Letters of REH |
Roses laughed in her pretty
hair,
Shading her eyes from the
sun’s rude stare
A little hand was prettily
raised,
Nor ever enough might it be
praised.
Five little fingers, soft
and white,
A dimple, a sheer kiss of
delight.
But, miss, a hand that I
held in mine,
Some nights ago was e’en
more fine.
A hand that I must grant
more praise,
Three aces and a pair of
treys.
But
poker wasn’t the only game in town for REH and his friends. Tucked away in the last two pages of REH’s
semi-autobiographical book, Post Oaks and
Sand Roughs (PO&SR) is a poem
that pays tribute to another card game:
The Seven-Up Ballad
Carl
Macon was a kollege kid of far and wide renown,
Also a
champ at seven-up and the wildest sot in town.
And in
a way there came a day of high and lofty fame
For
title of the eating house was the prize for a game.
Carl
gave a yell and dealt the cards unto the other chumps
And
they all whooped with joyous glee when diamonds turned up trumps.
“High,
jack and game is here, begad!” Pink bellered with a scowl;
“You
lie, you sot! You have it not!” Carl answered with a yowl.
Pink led the ace of trumps full soon, and “There,” said he,
“is high!”
Carl followed suit, it was a trey, with a tough light in his
eye.
Then Pink led out the queen of trumps and gave an ugly
frown;
Carl snickered with unholy glee and laid a four spot down.
Pink
swore full long and loud and rough and led the deuce of clubs;
Carl
caught it with a king and said, “You’re all a lot of dubs.”
He led
an ace and caught a king, “Here’s a game for me, egad!”
For
many an ace and many a face the wicked scoundrel had.
And
then an argument arose and loud was their abuse
And
Pink got into lead again with a nine upon a deuce.
Then
Pink laid down the diamond king and feinted with his right,
“Egad,
that jack of yours will go, if it takes the rest of the night.”
Carl
drank four pints of beer or so and at his hand he glanced —
He
flung his cards at Stupid’s head and in his rage he danced
Then
with a curse that would, egad, clean freeze a camel’s humps,
Beside
the king that Pink had led he put the jack of trumps.
“Hold
on! Begad!” somebody said, “That king’s been led, by damn!”
“Too
late, too late!” the sot replied, “It is, it was, it am!”
Then
long and loud the battle raged until the evening meal,
They
punched each other in the nose and bit each other’s heel.
The
battle lasted all that night; at last the field was clear,
And
Pink had high and jack and game and Carl was drunk on beer.
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| Howard Payne |
"September 1926 found Robert back at Howard Payne, taking bookkeeping from the same nice old man who had taught him shorthand and stenography two years prior. It was evident from the start that Robert had little interest in taking the course, as he quickly ignored his studies in favor of spending time with his friends and writing.
Robert and Lindsey were reunited again in Brownwood at the Powell boarding house and they killed many an afternoon watching movies, going to see prizefights and boxing and exercising."
But movies, boxing and exercising weren’t REH’s
only interests according to Steve Costigan, REH’s alter ego. In PO&SR
(p. 124) he writes about himself,
"Never a reckless spender, always something of the miser, his money was nevertheless beginning to run low. His mother was paying his board for him, and Steve was neglecting his school work and spending most of his time going to picture shows and engaging in seven-up games with the genial and careless boarding house gang."
Earlier in the same book (p. 112), REH explains
more about his involvement with the card game,
“Now abideth high, low, jack, and game; and the greatest of these is high,” droned Steve Costigan, leading a king. “Yea, though I speak with the voice of trumps and of jacks, and have queens to move mountains, yet have not high, I am as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, full of kings and aces, signifin’ game.”
“Say, you bastards,” said
Ad on this occasion, “we want them cards.”
“Go to hell! Came the
prompt and ready chorus. “Go buy yourself a pack if you want any.”
“Lead, sot!” this last to
Henric, who riffled his cards with an unsteady hand and dealt with a wandering
eye.
“Shut up!” came the
hiccuppy retort. “I can whip any son of
a bitch here.”
Raucous and mocking guffaws
jeered him down.
This fun is interrupted by Clive [Clyde
Smith]. Steve leaves the game and does
not mention Seven-Up again. Nor does it appear in any of his writings. Although
obscure now, Seven-Up was a variant of a very old card game called All Fours
which has quite a long history.
THE HISTORY
OF SEVEN-UP
In an opening paragraph describing
the game, The Complete Book of Card Games
(2001) states, “All Fours was mentioned in Charles Cotton’s Compleat Gamester in 1674 as being ‘much
played in Kent.’ It became popular in
the United States, where it acquired other names such as Seven-Up, High-low
Jack or Old Sledge.” According to Hoyle (August 1996)
describes All Fours further,
This old English game, based on scoring for ‘high, low,
jack, and the game,’ spawned a large family of American games – Seven-Up,
(because 7 points win), Old Sledge, High-Low-Jack, Pitch, Setback, Cinch,
Pedro, and others. For at least a
hundred years, from the late 1700’s to the Civil War era and the rise of Poker,
it was the favorite of the American gamester.
By the time REH and his friends were
playing Seven-Up in 1926, it was about 250 years old and had been in America
for over 100 years. To better understand
why REH and his friends were spending so much time “engaging in seven-up
games,” we need to know how the game is played.
GAME RULES
The rules in Hoyle’s Rules of Games (2001), According
to Hoyle (August 1996), and that of the U. S. Playing Card website (scroll down to the Seven-Up rules), seem to be the closest match to the game outlined in REH’s
poem. All of them basically agree that a
regular 52-card deck is used. Rankings
for the suits are: ace highest point and two lowest. The game can be played with two or three
players, each for himself, or four players in partnership. Each player draws a card and high card deals
the first time. After that it goes in
clockwise rotation. If it is a
partnership game, the two highest cards are partners.
The Deal
Each player is dealt six cards,
three at a time clockwise from the dealer.
The next card is dealt face up on top the face down deck. This is the trump suit. If there are more than two players, no one
except the dealer and the first person to the dealer’s left (eldest player) may
look at their cards until the trump suit is accepted by the eldest player and
the dealer. The eldest player has the
option to accept the trump suit by saying “I stand” or refusing it by saying “I
beg.”
If the eldest player begs, it goes
to the dealer who can accept or reject the trump suit. If the trump suit is
taken, the eldest player scores one point for the “gift.” If the trump suit is refused, three more
cards are dealt to each player with another card turned up. If it’s the same suit, it must be discarded
and another three cards dealt to each hand until a new suit is turned up, which
then becomes trump. If a jack is the
turned up card for the new suit, the dealer scores one point. If the deck is exhausted before the new suit
is turned up, it must be reshuffled and dealt again. When trump has been determined, the other
players may look at their hands. If the
players are holding more than six cards, they must reduce their hands to six by
discarding the excess cards and placing them face down.
After the new suit has been
selected, any player may call “Bunch” and if all the players agree, the cards
are reshuffled and dealt again.
The dealer is bound to refuse “The
Gift” when the eldest player has reached six points and begs.
The Object of the Game
There are at the most, four points in each dealt game: High,
Low, Jack and Game. The points are
always scored in the given order: High, Low, Jack, Game. The object is to win points in tricks. A trick is defined as points won as the
result of one round of cards played.
- High, the highest trump in play, scored by player winning it in a trick
- Low, the lowest trump in play, scored by player to whom it was dealt regardless of who wins it in play
- Jack, the jack of trumps, scored by player who wins it in a trick
- Game, the player who won the most points in tricks. The card count:
Each
10 is 10 points
Each
ace is 4 points
Each
king is 3 points
Each
queen is 2 points
Each
jack is 1 point
The point received as a result of “The Gift” (if this occurs
during the selection of trump.)
If there is only one trump card in play, it scores two
points as both high and low card and three points if it is a jack. The one
point for high score is not given if there is a tie.
Some of the rules suggest that each player be given 7
counters (chips) at the beginning of the first round. A counter is thrown into the pot whenever a
point is scored. Whoever gets rid of all
the chips first is the winner.
The Play
The eldest player opens the game by laying down a card in
any suit. The next person may follow
suit if able to do so on a non-trump lead, or may choose to play a trump
card. If unable to follow suit or play
trump, any card, trump or nontrump, may be played. The highest card played in suit or trump
takes the trick and leads the next card.
When all six cards are played, the points are added up. If no one has reached seven points, another
game is dealt and games continue until one person or team has scored seven
points. If more than one person reaches
seven in the same game, the points are counted in order: high, low, jack and
game. Whoever reaches seven first is the
winner.
Irregularities
There must be a new deal by the same dealer if a card is
exposed during the deal, or if the deck is not shuffled or cut. If the card is exposed through no fault of
the player, it may be buried in the deck and a new card dealt after all the
other players have received their cards.
If a player does not follow suit (or trump) when able, it is
called a Revoke. The player may correct the error before the lead of the next
trick. In that case, all cards played after the revoke are withdrawn. If the error is not caught, the player’s Game
score is reduced by two points if a jack is in play and by one if not. In two-handed games, the opponent of the
offender may just add the points to his or her own score.
THE POEM
Looking at the first stanza of the poem, the first line
mentions Carl Macon, who according to the Index in PO&SR, was the real name
of the fictional character, Henric Matson.
REH describes Carl as “the wildest sot in town.” The Oxford Dictionary (1991) defines “sot” as
“an habitual drunkard.” This stanza also
mentions that the stake in this game was “For title of the eating house was the
prize for a game.” An online definition
describes an “eating house” as a house where cooked provisions are sold, to be
eaten on the premises, thus the title holder would be the champion of the
boarding house or restaurant.
In the next stanza of the poem, we find out there are more
than two players: “Carl gave a yell and dealt the cards unto the other chumps.”
PS&SR mentions there were four “main fiends” of the game. In this particular game, there were
apparently at least three and possibly, four players, although there is nothing
to indicate partnership playing.
In this same stanza, Carl’s opponent, Pink (nickname for REH's friend Lindsey Tyson), is introduced. When the game starts, REH tells us which suit
is trump, “And they all whooped with joyous glee when diamonds turned up
trumps.” Pink looks at his hand and
immediately declares that high, jack and game are his. He must be the eldest player since he leads
with the ace of diamonds (high) and picks up the trey of diamonds from
Carl. The trey is the lowest trump card
so far. If the two isn’t dealt to
anyone, this gives Carl a point because the point goes to the person who
received it in the deal, not to whomever picked up the trick. But Pink is after the jack of diamonds so he
plays diamond queen next and Carl plays the four of diamonds.
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| Lindsey Tyson, "Pink" |
Then long
and loud the battle raged until the evening meal,
They
punched each other in the nose and bit each other’s heel.
The battle
lasted all that night; at last the field was clear,
The last line of the poem says that “Pink got high, jack and
game” so either Carl didn’t have as many “aces and faces” as indicated earlier
or they were playing with partners which enabled Pink to get enough tricks to
pick up the one point for game. The low
point probably went to Carl for the trey of diamonds.
The poem ends with the words, “and Carl got drunk.” Since
REH has already described Carl as a “sot,” it sounds as if everybody had a good
time!
THE GAME’S AFOOT
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| REH, "Steve" |
Steve mentions that the boardinghouse gang has turned to poker
(PO&SR’s, pp. 124-25), so it is unknown whether REH played Seven-Up after
he left Brownwood
or whenever he returned there for visits.
I couldn’t find another mention of the game in Rusty Burke’s and Mark
Finn’s biographies or in The Collected Letters of Robert E Howard, Vol 1. It appears that all we have is what’s written
in PO&SR and the poem “The Seven-Up Ballad.”
It’s been over eighty years since those games were played by
REH and his friends. During that time
the Seven-Up game has become almost forgotten in America and another piece of our
history is fading into obscurity. But,
to those of us who are REH fans, the game still has meaning. For however long he played Seven-Up, it
brought REH enjoyment and it was of some importance to him during that phase of
his life.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Barbara Barrett has been an enthusiastic and dedicated Robert E. Howard fan since 2006. Shortly after watching The Whole Wide World, she began reading REH and through his stories she discovered his extraordinary ability with words, images and strongly written characters. Eventually Barbara found her way from Howard’s poetic prose to his poetry and subsequently compiled and edited The Wordbook: An Index Guide to the Poetry of Robert E. Howard, which won the the 2009 REH Foundation Atlantean Award.
She has won three other REH awards for her work on Howard and she has contributed articles to REH: Two Gun Raconteur, Black Gate, and others. She has been a member of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association since 2008 and her ongoing REH column "Word of the Week" has appeared weekly in various venues since 2010. This is her first guest appearance at On An Underwood No. 5
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