North American Tiddlywinks Association

NATwA founded • 27 February 1966


  • Book title • THE YOUNG FOLKS’ CYCLOPÆDIA OF GAMES AND SPORTS
  • Format • bound book
  • Authors • John Denison Champlin Jr. and Arthur Elmore Bostwick
  • Publisher • Henry Holt and Company, New York
  • Publication date • 1890
  • Dated • 7 November 1890 in the Preface
  • Library of Congress catalog number • GV11.C43
  • Pages • 725–726

TIDDLEDY WINKS. A game played by any number of persons, singly or as partners, on a table covered with a thick cloth. Each player is provided with a set of six small counters and one large one, all of the same color, the different players having different colored sets. A little basket or cup, generally of ivory of celluloid, is placed in the centre of the table, and each player ranges his small counters in front of him in a line about eight inches from it. The object of the game is to snap each of the smaller counters, by pressing on its edge with the larger one, so as to make it jump into the basket, and he wins who first gets all his counters in. The players take turns, but he who is successful in snapping a counter into the basket has the privilege of playing until he fails. After a player has played out all his counters from the starting line, he can play, when his turn comes, any of his counters wherever it may lie; but he is not allowed to touch any of his adversary’s counters, and if any of his own be covered, and no other be available, he must wait until his adversary has uncovered one before he can play. A player may not intentionally cover any of his opponents’ counters. If a counter fall [sic, should be falls] off the table, it must be replaced one inch from the edge where it fell off. Partners sit opposite each other, and may play each other’s counters after they have left the starting line.

Variations. The game may be played with several variations by marking, around the basket on the cloth with French chalk, a ring about four inches in diameter.

  1. Any counter falling within this ring is to be considered dead, the winner being he who gets most counters into the basket.
  2. Any counter falling within the ring must be returned to its place in the starting line, and played out by the player at his next turn.
  3. If a counter fall [sic, should be falls] within the ring, the next or any other player during that round, is at liberty, if he choose [sic, should be chooses], to play it (instead of his own) to any part of the table he may consider best for himself. If it be not played thus, the player to whom it belongs can play with it at his next turn in the usual way.
  4. Mark on the cloth any figure, such as a circle, a square, etc., and divide it into numbered segments or parts. Several games may be played with these, the counters scoring according to the number of the part they fall in.

Tiddledy Winks may be played also as a PROGRESSIVE GAME, on any number of tables.

  • Book title • THE YOUNG FOLKS’ CYCLOPÆDIA OF GAMES AND SPORTS
  • Format • bound book
  • Authors • John Denison Champlin Jr. and Arthur Elmore Bostwick
  • Publisher • Henry Holt and Company, New York
  • Publication date • 1890
  • Dated • 7 November 1890 in the Preface
  • Library of Congress catalog number • GV11.C43
  • Pages • 556 to 557

PROGRESSIVE GAMES, games played by any number of sets of people at once, where the winners of each game move to a different table. The games commonly played are EUCHRE, WHIST, HEARTS, and ANGLING, but others may be substi­tuted. The tables are numbered, and it is decided who shall sit at each of them usually by passing around numbered cards, which also serve as score-cards. Partners can be decided on at each table by cutting the cards, but it is usual to have the score-cards decorated in pairs, and those players having the same device on their cards play together. All begin to play on the stroke of a bell on table No. 1. When the players at that table have finished one game, the bell is struck again, and all playing ceases. Those players who are ahead at each table when the bell sounds, have their score-cards marked usually by sticking on them a small gilt paper star or by punch­ing a hole in them; the losers’ cards are marked by a star or figure of some other shape or color, or left unmarked. The winners now move to the next table, those at table 4, for instance, going to table 3, and those at table 3 to table 2; while those at the head table go down to the last. Playing then begins again, and so the game proceeds till some hour agreed upon beforehand. A prize is usually given by the lady of the house to the player who has the largest number of winner’s stars. Sometimes there are several prizes, and often a “booby prize” is given to the one getting most of the loser’s stars or marks. There may be one or more tables called “booby tables,” the losers at which receive a special mark, and he who has most of them is given the booby prize. Just after the winners change tables, they may also change partners with those whom they find at the new table, or the same partners may be kept; but whichever is done, all should follow the same rule through­out the evening. Sometimes, in­stead of the winners moving up, the losers move down, in which case the game is called  Drive.” Some­times the winners move up till the head, or “King” table is reached, and at this table the losers move down to the lowest or “Booby” table. The only games suited to progressive playing are those that are short, so that a great number of changes can be made in an evening. They must also be such that it is easy to tell which side is ahead at any time, for when the players at the first table finish and strike the bell, those at the other tables are usually in the midst of a game. For these reasons, Euchre is one of the best games to play in this way, the form called Railroad Euchre being gener­ally preferred.