Solitaire
a game played by one person on a board indented with 33 or 37 hemispherical hollows, with an equal number of balls. One ball is removed from the board, and the empty hollow thus left enables pieces to be captured singly as in draughts. The object of the player is to take all the pieces except one without moving diagonally or over more than two spaces at a time. The game SOLOMON may also be played with ordinary playing cards, the object being to so combine the cards that similar denominations may be grouped. There are many variations, some of them extremely intricate.
SOLOMON (Hebrew, Shelomoh, the Prince of Peace), son of David, King of Israel, by Bathsheba, formerly the wife of Uriah, was appointed by David to be his successor in pr preference to his elder brothers. By his remarkable judicial decisions and his completion of the political institutions of David Solomon gained the respect and admiration of his people; while by the building of the temple, which gave to the Hebrew worship a magnificence it had not hitherto possessed, he bound the nation more strongly to his throne. The wealth of Solomon, accumulated by a prudent use of the treasures inherited from his father; by successful commerce; by a careful administration of the royal revenues; and by an increase of taxes, enabled him to meet the expenses of erecting the temple, building palaces, cities, and fortifications, and of supporting the extravagance of a luxurious court. Fortune long seemed to favor this great king; and Israel, in the fulness of its prosperity, scarcely perceived that he was continually becoming more despotic. Contrary to the laws of Moses, admitted foreign women to his harem; and from love of them he was weak enough in his old age to permit the free practice of their idolatrous worship and even to take part in it himself. Toward the close of his reign troubles arose in consequence of these delinquencies, and the growing discontent, coming to a head after his death, resulted in the division of the kingdom, which his feeble son Rehoboam could not prevent. The 40 years' reign of Solomon is still celebrated among the Jews, for its splendor and its happy tranquillity, as one of the brightest periods of their history. The writings attributed to Solomon are "The Book of Proverbs," "Ecclesiastes," and the "Song of Solomon," with the apocryphal book the "Wisdom of Solomon"; but modern criticism has decided that only a portion of the "Book of Proverbs" can be referred to Solomon. he