Review of Reviews, 20/2/06. 



Leading Articles. 



187 



IS A CLEVER CARD-PLAYER ALSO A CLEVER 

 PERSON? 



Writing in the Monthly Review on " Brains and 

 Bridge," Mr. Basil Tozer gives the opinions of 

 various people, whose ideas on such a subject might 

 be expected to be of some consequence, as to 

 whether aptitude for card-playing means high gene- 

 ral intelligence. He says that he raised the ques- 

 tion himself at a house-party, and in less than ten 

 minutes a controversy had arisen almost as fierce as 

 if some vital point concerning politics or religion 

 had been broached. It must be admitted that, when 

 the votes Aye or Xo are examined, the Ayes have 

 it. But then the Ayes are obviously less impartial 

 than the Noes. 



Mr. F. G. Aflalo replies emphatically " Xo," but 

 qualifies his statement bv saying that it is merely a 

 personal opinion, and that he is not a card-player. 

 ,; If proof is desired," he says, " let anyone take a 

 bridge-girl in to dinner and hang on her conversa- 

 tion." Mr. Aflalo appears to write out of the fulness 

 of his heart, and his portrait of a presumably typical 

 bridge-girl is one of the most unflattering female 

 presentments I ever remember. 



Five bridge enthusiasts answer emphatically that 

 to be a bad card-player argues a man, if not a fool, 

 at least something akin to one. Their letters, how- 

 ever, can scarcely be called judicial or impartial in 

 tone. 



Dr. Macnamara, M.P., and two other Ms. P., 

 whose names are withheld, all answer in the nega- 

 tive — reasoned and qualified statements of opinion, 

 however. " Intelligence for playing at cards is a 

 branch of intelligence peculiarly its own. and my 

 experience is that cleverness at cards, at chess, and 

 at figures go generally hand-in-hand," says one — 

 probably the most widely-accepted opinion. Another 

 authority, however, maintains that " taking card- 

 players collectively, their general intelligence is quite 

 above the average." Mr. J. H. Yoxall, M.P., thinks 

 a clever card-player possesses usually more than 

 average intellectuality ; and a professor of memory 

 says —what is undoubtedly true — that the reason so 

 many intelligent men and women play cards so 

 badly is that they do not take enough interest in 

 them to give them the needful amount of concen- 

 trated attention. The really tine bridge-player, on 

 his or her own confession, becomes so absorbed in 

 the game as to be oblivious of all else. Mr. Basil 

 Tozer himself sums up as follows: — 



The fact remains, however, that accurate and close 

 thinking and reasoning of any kind exercise the mind in 

 the same sort of way that calisthenics develop the muscles 

 of the body. Consequently the conclusion to be arrived 

 at. after weighing; carefully the pro* and com contained in 

 the foregoing expressions of opinion, would seem to be 

 that, though a natural aptitude for card-playing may not 

 necessarily denote the possession of natural general intel- 

 ligence in any high degree, yet a careful, methodical and 

 judicious course of training in the art of playing games 

 of cards such as whist and bridge, that require brain- 

 power and thought-concentration, is bound to strengthen 

 the intellectual powers of any man or woman of average 

 ability, and thus presently lead to a direct increase in 

 his or her share of general or ordinary intelligence. 



AMERICAN MORALITY ON ITS TRIAL. 



An Anglo-American, writing in Blachvood's Maga- 

 zine on this subject, a propos of the recent Life 

 Insurance scandals, says that the historian of the 

 McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations will have 

 an unprecedentedly difficult task owing to the mys- 

 teries of modern finance that he will have to un- 

 ravel. Without denying or excusing " graft " and 

 '•' Doodling," the writer says that it is but an infini- 

 tesimal fraction of the American public that even 

 gets a chance to plunder its neighbours ; and, what 

 is more important, it is but an infinitesimal fraction 

 in his opinion that would take such a chance, if they 

 had it. 



The mass of the American people are certainly as honest 

 as those of any other country. They have quite as high 

 a moral standard as our own, an"d are equally successful 

 in living up to it. 



Moreover, even if the 70 per cent, of Americans 

 living outside the great cities desired to eat bread 

 other than that of honest industry, " the American 

 woman is there to brace them up. - ' For the much- 

 abused, severely-criticised American woman is. says 

 the writer, now, as always, a great moral power. So 

 long as she holds her present position in her own 

 household and in society, American morals are safe. 

 There are many varieties of good women in the 

 world, he says, but the good American woman appa- 

 rently excelleth them all. From " Anglo-Ameri- 

 can's " description of her it would seem that she is a 

 twentieth century edition of Solomon's Virtuous 

 Woman. 



So far as the 83,000,000 of American people are 

 concerned, then, the recent scandals may be con- 

 sidered abnormal. The whole American press has 

 pilloried the dishonest millionaires. 



We phlegmatic Britons can hardly realise either the 

 audacity of the millionaire " boodlers " or the vehemence 

 of the popular indignation that has so suddenly over- 

 whelmed them. Both are, however, characteristically 

 American. 



Manx breaches have been made even in citadels 

 of corruption like Tammany Hall ; and altogether, 

 according to this writer, boodling and grafting of all 

 kinds have received a severe blow. But the most 

 serious danger of all, the one really most concerning 

 level-headed Americans, still remains-- the influence 

 of excessive wealth on the moral and material well- 

 being of the community. The November elections, 

 however, proved that the American people were 

 firmly resolved to resisl the tyranny of the corrup- 

 tionists and vindicate the honour of their American 

 citizenship. "The cormorant millionaire gang," 

 however, still remain, typified by Mr. Edward Har- 

 riman. one of the disgraced directors of the Fquit- 

 able Life Assurance. Even the cormorant mil- 

 lionaire, however, " the darkest stain on American 

 morals," the writer thinks may crumple up like the 

 political bosses, the lobbyists and the "grafters." 

 But that is clearly not y< t. 



