Why did many whist players initially criticize bridge?

When bridge emerged, many dedicated whist players initially criticized the new game, almost unanimously asserting that whist was more scientific because all four hands remained hidden during play.1

These players viewed the exposure of the dummy hand as a departure from the intellectual rigor of whist, where players had to rely on inference and deduction rather than visible information. However, this criticism proved to be a fallacy. The exposure of the dummy actually provided clarity in thousands of situations that previously required blind guessing in whist, which ultimately stimulated more advanced analysis and skillful play. By the late 1890s, the strategic advantages of bridge led most leading whist players to adopt the new game, eventually causing it to supersede whist as the premier intellectual card game of the Western world.12