WHISKY RING 



WHISTLER 



25, 1794, President Washington ordered 15,000 

 militia sent to Pittsburgh, under "Light-Horse 

 Harry" Lee, who was at that time governor of 

 Virginia. The insurrection was quelled with- 

 out difficulty. Several hundred prisoners were 

 taken, two of whom were convicted of treason. 

 Later they were pardoned by Washington. 



WHISKY RING, an association, composed 

 chiefly of whisky manufacturers and internal 

 revenue officers, which had as its object the en- 

 richment of its members at the expense of the 

 national government. First formed in Saint 

 Louis, it spread to many of the large cities of 

 the country, and came to exercise a decided in- 

 fluence in national politics. Means were found 

 to compel almost every distiller to contribute 

 to the funds of the "ring," and this was then 

 distributed among the officials according to a 

 regular schedule. Some of these were high in 

 the government service, the chief clerk in the 

 Treasury Department and O. E. Babcock, Presi- 

 dent Grant's private secretary, being implicated. 



The Treasury Department could not long re- 

 main blind to the fact that the revenues from 

 distilled liquors were falling off to the extent 

 of millions of dollars. Many attempts were 

 made to locate the leakage, but without suc- 

 cess, for the thieves were promptly notified by 

 their confederates in the Treasury Department. 

 Finally, after the frauds had gone on for 

 years, Benjamin H. Bristow, Secretary of the 

 Treasury, succeeded in 1875 in collecting suffi- 

 cient .evidence to proceed against the law- 

 breakers, and several hundred indictments 

 resulted. Most of the guilty persons were con- 

 victed, but the leaders were nearly all par- 

 doned before they had served out their terms. 

 Babcock was acquitted because of lack of evi- 

 dence. The President did not escape censure 

 by reason of the affair, because it seemed that 

 he had not supported Bristow in his efforts to 

 punish the evildoers and had allowed himself 

 to be unduly influenced by those who had 

 not the best interests of the administration at 

 heart. 



WHIST, a game of cards played with a full 

 pack of fifty-two cards, four persons generally 

 playing, two against two. The cards are shuf- 

 fled and cut, and the dealer gives to each 

 player thirteen cards one at a time, begin- 

 ning with the player on his left and ending 

 with himself. The last card is turned up for 

 trumps, giving a particular value to whatever 

 Miit it may be. The cards rank from the ace 

 down, king, queen and jack coming next, the 

 other cards bearing the value of the pips, or 



spots. The player next to the dealer, on the 

 left, commences the game by leading or play- 

 ing a card face up on the table, the other play- 

 ers following in order from left to right. The 

 four cards played constitute a trick. 



The object of the game is to take as many 

 of the tricks as possible. Players must follow 

 -suit when they can do so. Having no card of 

 the suit led, a player may discard a card of 

 another suit, which gives him no chance to win 

 the trick, or he may take it by playing a trump, 

 a trump being beaten only by a higher trump. 

 When all four have played, the winner, the 

 player of the highest card, leads another card 

 from his own hand for the next trick; the win- 

 ner of the next trick does the same, and so on 

 till thirteen tricks have been played. Each 

 side counts one for every trick taken, above 

 the number of six. 



The ace, king, queen and jack are called 

 honors, and the side that holds three of these 

 cards scores 2; if holding 4 honors they score 

 4 points. If each side holds 2 honors they are 

 said to be "divided," and neither side scores 

 honors. In long whist a game is 10 points; in 

 short whist 5 points. It is only in long whist 

 that honors are counted. 



Progressive Whist, a popular game pla; 

 with the same number of cards and players as 

 ordinary whist. Any number of tables may be 

 arranged, four sitting at each. Play starts at 

 a given signal and stops at a certain time limit, 

 also by signal. The two that have taken 

 most tricks at each table when the signal is 

 given move up to the next table; no two hand- 

 are played against the same opponents or with 

 the same partner. The game continues in tin- 

 way for the time agreed upon. Each pla 

 has the number of tricks won marked on a 

 card. The winner of the greatest number of 

 tricks receives a prise, and a "consolation" 

 prize is given to the winner of the lowest num- 

 ber of tricks. F.ST.A. 



Consult Cavendish's Principle* of Whltt, Stat* </ 

 and Explained; Foster's Complete Hoylc. 



WHISTLER, hwis'ler, JAMBS ABBOTT Mc- 

 NEILL (1834-1903), America's moat original art- , 

 ist, and an interesting personality in the art 

 of the nineteenth century. He gained distinc- 

 tion in many fields etching, pastel, oil paint- 

 ing and water color and he was unquestionably 

 one of the world's greatest masters of color 

 values. His philosophy of art was essentially 

 modern, and to a certain extent his work repre- 

 sents the culmination of modern theories, yet h 

 was always intensely individual. Though h: 



