Bluffing Games Up Jenkins
( Bluffing, Command and Response, Guessing, Marble Coin Pebble and Jack, Mystery, Team Wars and Battle )This is one of the most popular current games among young people being usually played to the accompaniment of much laughter and intense interest. It consists in the guessing by opposing parties of the hand under which a coin is hidden.
The players are divided into two parties. Each party has a captain each player being captain in turn during successive rounds of the game. The players gather around a table one party on one side and the others opposite. A coin usually a quarter is passed from hand to hand under the table by one of the parties in an endeavor to conceal from the opponents which individual holds it. The leader of the opposite party then calls “Up Jenkins ” when all of the hands of his opponents are brought from under the table and held up with palms outward toward the guessing party fingers closed down tightly over the palms the quarter being hidden in one of the hands. The opponents may look at the hands from their side of the table in this way as long as they choose. The leader then commands “Down Jenkins ” when the hands are slammed down simultaneously flat on the table palms downward. This is done with enough noise to disguise the clink of the coin striking the table. The object of the game is for the opponents (those not having the coin) to guess under which hand the coin is laid each hand supposed not to have it being ordered off the table. The captain of the guessing party who alone may give these orders (though his players may assist him with suggestions) calls for the lifting of one specified hand at a time. The player named must lift the hand indicated and that hand is thereafter to be taken from the table.
If the guessing party can be successful in thus eliminating all of the empty hands so that the coin is left under the last hand they are considered to have won and the coin passes to them for the next round. If the coin be disclosed before the last hand be reached the side holding it adds to its score the hands remaining on the table that were not ordered off. The side wins which has the highest score when the play stops the time limits being indefinite.