IT IS TO LAUGH

A Book of Games and Stunts

BY
EDNA GEISTER
ADVISOR AND DIRECTOR OF RECREATION
Author of “Ice-Breakers,” “The Ice-Breaker
Herself,” etc.

THE WOMANS PRESS
600 LEXINGTON AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY

Amos R. Wells said, “Recreation is re-creation, or a re-fashioning of the soul in the image of God wherein it was created.”

Real recreation is just that. All through the war every effort was made to fill the leisure time of soldiers and sailors with recreation rather than dissipation, the kind of recreation that made leisure time an asset rather than a liability. Since the war, with the great impetus it gave the movement, recreation work in churches, in communities, in schools, and in almost every kind of social service work, has been put on the same constructive basis, and it is being looked upon not merely as a side issue or as “entertainment,” but rather is respected as one of the most vital forces for a re-fashioning of souls in the image of God wherein they were created.

“It Is to Laugh” was written for the purpose of answering requests of re-creators everywhere, who are in constant need of new material in their recreative work. The games and stunts described do “entertain,” but behind the inevitable resultant hearty, healthy laughter is the re-creation that gives one a new lease on life, that makes one sure that life is good to live, and that helps one to live life joyfully and abundantly. If “It Is to Laugh” may help in accomplishing this, it will have served its purpose.

Many of the ideas for these games are not original[vi] but have come from co-workers in the Y.W.C.A., from members of training classes at the University of Chicago, and from delegates to recreational conferences all over the country, and I wish in this way to express my sincere appreciation of their coöperation, and to thank them for their invaluable assistance in promoting the gospel of re-creation.

Edna Geister.

[viii]

The time set for the party is 8 o’clock, but by 8:15 there are about twenty arrivals instead of the one hundred expected, and they are standing about stiff and formal, politely ready to do anything the program committee asks, so that they may go home feeling virtuous in having done their duty, but dangerously near the attitude of mind that will tempt them, the next time a party is announced, to follow Rebecca’s example of “letting duty go to smash!”—all this unless something happens, and that, right away!

At one time we might have met this situation by putting on a simple little game to keep those twenty guests there until the rest of the crowd came, but it was hardly necessary to make that mistake twice to realize the futility of those tactics. Any game is a flat failure that does not call forth a real social spirit and a real play spirit, but that spirit does not just happen. It must be definitely worked for and created through socializing games, while just “fill-ins till the crowd comes” can utterly ruin the prospects for creating that spirit that makes recreation, re-creation. For example, “The Gathering of the Nuts” invariably brings down the house when it is given its right place in an evening’s[12] program, but presented at the first of the evening when guests are straggling in, one by one, and there is as yet no relaxation and group spirit, it would inevitably be a dismal failure.

Therefore, instead of putting on some casual stunt just to keep guests from leaving, or just to fill in time till the other guests arrive, we have found it far more advisable to have informal group singing around the piano for the first ten or fifteen minutes, and then begin the evening proper, even if there are only some twenty or thirty guests present, with a game that is very definitely a mixer, the one purpose of which is not so much to entertain as to “socialize,” in almost every case the mixer being some big general movement in which there is a lot of fun and nonsense just like there is in the games that follow later, but with this important difference—that every person present is in this first event in some game that pries him loose from the corner he chose on arrival as his abiding place for the evening; a game that gives him an incentive other than a sense of duty for shaking hands vigorously with his fellow guests; a game that makes him feel this party as his own personal responsibility; in short, a game which shows him that he alone counts as nothing, but that he, together with every other guest present, counts for everything.

“Spots” is a splendid example of a mixer that will so thoroughly mix up a group of guests that they never will succeed in getting sorted out again into their original classifications:

Spots.

The leader has chosen seven or eight places in the room as the “spots,” and has a list of them at hand.[13] All of them have been carefully chosen, and she alone knows where they are. Guests are standing about informally when the announcement is made that in about two minutes a whistle will be blown, at which time the couple standing on a certain spot will receive a handsome reward. At the same time however, anyone seen standing alone will be fined. A partner is essential to winning a prize or to make one immune to a fine. Even if a person is standing on the lucky spot at the time the whistle blows, if he is alone he must pay the fine, one cent.

To promote a general moving around, and to add to the spirit of the game, lively march music is played all the time the guests are supposed to be moving, although no definite line of march is encouraged.

Two additional rules insure the success of “Spots.” After the first spot has been found and the prize awarded, the game goes on and another spot in some other part of the room is the lucky one. But no person can have the same partner he had while the first spot was being sought. The same fine of one cent is imposed on any two people who seem to think they have an option on each other.

The same thing is true of location. Anyone found standing in the same place he occupied during the first round, is fined, with much publicity.

The game goes on until the seven or eight spots have been located and the “handsome rewards” given out. All the spots have been chosen with the purpose in mind to get guests absolutely relaxed, thoroughly mixed and free from any stiff formality. That is why a definite line of march would be fatal. Instead, let the first[14] spot be behind the piano; the next on the platform; the next leaning up against a pillar, etc., etc.

To sum up, the rules are as follows:

Four or five so-called “policemen” assist the leader in detecting violators of these rules and much publicity is given the fining of the offenders.

The success of the game depends entirely on the ability of the leader to make her guests feel the great desirability of finding one of those elusive lucky spots. No one knows where they are. All they know is that it behooves them to move, to get a partner, to keep moving, and to keep on getting partners!

Shake Hands!

Now shake hands, everybody, whether you know each other or not. Let’s be sociable. Shake hands!

You have heard that before? And immediately you started in to shake hands with friend and foe and foreigner? Hardly. No real incentive is offered there for shaking hands with people you have never seen before or people you see every day of your life, no incentive other than a sense of duty, and a sense of duty is not what one would call particularly successful in promoting the real spirit of sociability which makes a social evening, or the lack of which, breaks it.

It does seem so inane to ask people to shake hands with each other, and yet, if a leader can once get a group to laugh heartily as a group, if she can give them a sufficiently interesting incentive for grasping the hand[15] of a neighbor with real vim and enthusiasm even if it is for the purpose of saving themselves from dire penalties!—they are won and one for the rest of the evening! But just telling guests to be sociable and to shake hands will not do it.

It is necessary to create a setting and furnish an incentive, and instead of playing on the guest’s sense of duty, to play on their sense of humor.

They are invited to shake hands with each other, but are warned that the only handshake allowed is a vigorous side-to-side swing, and are further cautioned that it is fully as great a crime to be seen using the ordinary handshake as it is to be caught not shaking hands at all; that several “policemen” in the crowd will see to it that these laws are enforced; and finally, that any violator of these laws will certainly repent at leisure and in public.

Some ten policemen are chosen, their number of course depending on the size of the group. At a signal the handshaking begins. The policemen are more than vigilant in discharging their duties, and several culprits who were caught standing about “just looking on”, and some of the ladies who shook hands in a manner not vigorous enough to suit the policemen, are escorted to the platform, there to sit in the public eye till the leader’s whistle stops the frantic, vigorous handshaking, which should be given about five minutes time.

The next game of the evening might well be a hoax, with these culprits used as the victims.

Southpaws.

This is very much like “Shake Hands” in its object and in its rulings. The difference lies in the kind of[16] handshaking permitted. The rule is that the left hand only is to be used in shaking hands. At irregular intervals a whistle is blown and anyone caught not actually shaking the left hand of some other guest at that particular moment is punished in the same way in which culprits in the game “Shake Hands!” are taken care of.

Of course there are policemen, whose one object in life is to catch someone napping, or a bit negligent in the evidence he gives of a very active and left-handed spirit of sociability!

My Virtues!

“Mrs. Kalen, let me present Mr. Black.”

“Mrs. Frummly, have you met Mr. Stewart?” and so on, world without end! This, at a large gathering, the one object of which is to get members of a community to really know each other! And at that, if it were possible for the hosts to see that every guest was introduced to every other guest, would even that do a great deal toward helping members of a community to know each other, other than to have spoken one another’s names? Put a human and socializing element in those introductions, and they will know more about each other than just names, and what’s more, they’ll like each other!

The men form one line and the women another, all of them facing the front of the room. When the music starts the men march down one side of the room to the back, and the women down the other. They meet and take partners as they come in the line of march, coming up the center of the room with their partners. When they reach the front, all couples march to the right, forming a large double circle around the room. The[17] leader then makes an announcement to the effect that in order to make sure that everyone knows all the virtues of his fellow guests, splendid opportunities will be given for the flaunting of those virtues. Partners face each other, shake hands, introduce themselves, and then, with hands on hips, begin telling all the nice things they know about themselves, real or imaginary.

The only difficulty is that they have to do it at the same time, which makes it hard occasionally for one’s partner to hear about all the lovely qualities one possesses or aspires to possess! They are given just a minute for this when another whistle is blown which is a signal for the men only to walk forward until a second whistle stops them. The woman nearest them is their next partner. They shake hands with these new partners, and one’s virtues again become the topic of importance.

This continues for not more than five minutes. That will be enough!

Is it necessary to say that next day, when Mrs. Kalen meets Mr. Black at the bank, that she doesn’t wonder, “Have I ever met that man before?” Rather, it is, “Why, good morning, Mr. Black! Are you still the perfect man you thought yourself last night?”

Prohibited Words.

We have used over and over again the game in which certain words are prohibited, but we used it as a game that had a definite time limit. It has proved far more effective to put a ban on those words for the entire evening. Perhaps these words are “Yes” and “No,” or “You” and “I.” All through the evening those words are forbidden. Anyone heard using them pays[18] a fine to the one who caught him making that social error.

At each offense a fine of one candy or one bean or one of whatever thing is used as the means of exchange, is exacted from the one who made the error. This means of exchange may depend on the season. On Valentine Day it might be little candy hearts in small bags; at Easter, little candy eggs; or at Christmas, tiny bright red candies. However, just plain beans may be used, a small bag being provided in which to carry them.

Perhaps you think that if candy is used, your guests may eat their means of exchange before the evening is half over. Warn them against it. Then, at the end of the evening, just before the last game, ask for a count of their “money,” and as it happens, “To him that hath shall be given.” The richest one is given additional riches in the shape of a box of candy, with the assurance that he need not open it till he gets home! The ten who made the most lapses and consequently have the least money, and those who ate most of their money, are obliged to give up any they still hold and to sit on the platform as the infant class while their brighter and less greedy brothers and sisters march past them, munching their candy!

It is easy enough to remember not to say “Yes” or “No” to anyone, when that is the particular game of the moment, but to have to remember not to use those words through all the nonsense of the evening is a slightly different matter. Another very good phase of this game as a mixer is that it gives a real incentive for people to talk to each other, even if they have never seen one another before—all for the sake of a bean!

[19]

Gossip.

A circle is formed, with from three to six people in the center, their number to be determined by the size of the circle. Guests are warned that it is the object of these people in the center to get out of it, and that the only way they can do it is to get someone else in, in their place; that their method of doing this is very effective, and that it behooves every last one of them to learn the name and occupation of his neighbor on either side, together with one juicy bit of gossip concerning him.

At a signal from the leader, each one of the people in the center turns around, snaps his fingers at some person who did not expect it, and asks this victim to instantly give all the required information about both of his neighbors. If he fails, into the center he goes, changing places with the person who caught him napping.

The neighbor is supposed to offer the juicy bit of gossip himself, but sometimes his imagination fails him, or his egotism overcomes him, and it is up to the victim pointed at to use his own imagination. Therefore it is not unusual to have the following information shouted out by an excited victim who fears a place in the center: “My right-hand neighbor’s name is The Minister; his occupation is ministering and he has been in jail four times!”

All the others in the center have been asking for information at the same time and after a minute or two the leader calls out, “Change your neighbors!” and everyone is to find a new set of neighbors for himself. A great deal of publicity and a place in the center is[20] promised anyone who does not get into a new neighborhood!

This game is played not more than five minutes, for with such an incentive all guests will know each other intimately long before five minutes are over!

It Pays to Advertise.

As each guest comes in the door he is given a slip of paper on which is written a number. When all the guests have arrived the leader asks all “tens” to congregate at the piano, while “threes” get together in one corner, “fives” in another, etc., etc. As the different groups assemble the leader goes rapidly from one group to another, and reading from her list, assigns each group some advertisement which they are to dramatize. A few impromptu properties such as a shrunken sweater, candles, newspapers, and crackers, are available.

After the four or five minutes allowed for preparation, each group in turn dramatizes the advertisement assigned it, and must continue action until the audience guesses correctly what advertisement is being represented. To avoid the situation which often develops when such a contest is on, an announcement is made to the effect that there is to be no guessing until the actors have completed their stunt. Then if there is no correct guess, the dramatization must begin again and continue until it is made so realistic that the audience guesses what it is in self-defense, or else gives up in dismay!

The following suggestions may be helpful:

1. Ivory Soap. “It Floats.” Members of the group go flitting about the stage as though they were walking[21] on air, waving their arms and in general acting in ethereal fashion.

2. Eversharp. Riddles which have been prepared beforehand are put to a class by the teacher. The class having been thoroughly drilled in the answers, respond with a snap and a brilliancy that amazes the audience!

3. Uneeda Biscuit. Let them pantomime exhaustion, plainly showing by their actions that they are starved. A doctor rushes in, makes them stick out their tongues, (which they do with artistic effect), sing up the scale, blow up their cheeks, holding them that way indefinitely, close one eye, etc. In short, he carefully diagnoses the case, after which he swells up with pride at having found what the trouble was. He dashes to his bag, takes out a box of crackers, and makes each patient eat one, whereupon they all hop around, exhibiting marvelous life and enthusiasm, apparently cured for life.

4. Blue Jay Corn Plaster. The men of the group take the part of the blue jays, blue because of aching corns which they indicate by a mournful expression and painful hobbling around. The “jay” element is taken care of by tousled hair and disheveled clothing. They give evidence of considerable pain, which evidence grows louder and louder until the women of the group come dashing in as nurses, with handkerchiefs or pieces of white cloth bound about their heads. They inquire in pantomime about the cause of such evident trouble and having learned it, bind up the entire foot of the patient, thereby making life again worth living for the “Blue Jays.”

5. Whistle. It speaks for itself.

6. Bon Ami. The men come running in with smudges on their faces, followed in great haste by the ladies,[22] who are very evidently trying to catch them. Finally they succeed and holding their victims firmly by the shoulders, with handkerchiefs as instruments of torture they pantomime a vigorous face-scrubbing, polishing the face as they would a window. When they have finished, they view the results with much satisfaction, while their victims pantomime the discomfort they undoubtedly feel.

7. Pears’ Soap. All the members of a group are “paired” off and either wander about in pairs or busily wash each others’ faces, always in pairs.

8. Colgate’s Toothpaste. “Lies flat on the brush.” A man appears, throws a hairbrush on the floor and lies down “flat upon it.”

9. Wool Soap. A large lady whose arms are sticking through the sleeves of a white sweater many sizes too small for her, looks tragically at the result of her not having used Wool Soap, while the rest of the group go into spasms of mirth at the picture she presents.

10. Fiske Tires. “Time to Retire.” All the members of this group file stumblingly across the stage, each one carrying a candle and yawning, and looking so irresistibly sleepy that everyone in the audience yawns just to look at them!

With some groups it will not be necessary to provide advertisements, and it will be sufficient to announce that each group is to think of its own and that a prize will be given to the most original stunt, but with the average group it is very helpful to have either a list of advertisements at hand, together with properties, or to be sure that in each group there is someone who can be depended upon to take the initiative for that group in putting on a really effective stunt. I speak from experience!

[23]

Limited Conversation.

Perhaps you are responsible for the “socializing” of a very large group, most of the guests being strangers to each other, and you wish to break the ice and to get guests into the spirit that makes for easy and truly social conversation.

To announce certain topics of conversation and ask that everyone talk on just those topics with one’s neighbors in such a group as has just been described, often has an effect that is more tongue-tieing than socializing in its effect, and a human kink must be put into the plan to make it really effective in getting your guests into the relaxed and jovial spirit that does wonders with a group, however large or “strange.”

A list of topics for conversation is made out as usual, but a ruling is added that makes conversation on these topics far more difficult and therefore far more interesting than just plain conversation which is very evidently for the purpose of “mixing up” a strange group. That ruling might be that every statement must be the very opposite of what one really thinks about the question of the moment. For example, the question may be, “Do you believe in Woman Suffrage?” According to the ruling, no matter how thoroughly a man despises the thought of Woman Suffrage, he is obliged to vehemently defend it, and no matter how ardent a suffragette his immediate neighbor may be, she is to scorn it with every breath.

After a minute or two the next topic is announced. It might be “What do you like best?” and everyone is to pick upon the thing he most dislikes and eulogize it to the best of his ability. That same ruling applies to all the six or seven topics announced, and to say the[24] least, startling statements are the result, to say nothing of the hilarity that is inevitable over a conversation with the Baptist minister’s wife who vows that picking potato bugs is her favorite pastime!

This group is a large one, so no effort is made to pair guests off with partners but topics are announced, together with the ruling that one’s immediate neighbors are one’s partners, and that guards will patrol the room to see that no one talks on any subject but the one announced, to see that everyone is talking, and that the limitation imposed is very strictly observed. To make sure that they talk to more than one person the guests are asked to change their immediate neighborhoods between topics. The breaking of any of these rules calls for a forfeit.

If one is entertaining a small group in a home, a progressive system of partners is arranged, by which guests progress from one partner to another. Each one is given a card on which a number is written, ladies holding even numbers and men, odd. On the men’s cards in addition, is written their conversation program, namely, the numbers of the partners they are to have for the different topics of conversation, and it is their business to hunt up each new partner as the signal for the change is given. For example, Mr. Hunt is No. 5. His program reads: 6, 8, 2, 12, 4, 10. That means that for the first topic his partner is to be No. 6 and that when the game starts he is to hunt her up and talk earnestly with her on the first topic. A bell is rung after about two minutes and he must hunt up No. 8 and talk with her about the second topic, and so he progresses from one partner to another until he has talked with his last partner on the last topic.

[25]Another limitation which may be applied to conversation is that all statements must contain one’s own initials. The question may be, “What is your favorite sport?” Mr. Graham’s initials are S. M. G. so his favorite sport is obliged to be, “Selling moldy groceries!”

Still another limitation maybe that all remarks be untruths. A further limitation, and a painful one, but one which is particularly good for a small crowd, is that all statements must be made in rhyme, no matter how inevitably abominable the rhyming may be!

Topics may include any possible subject, from current events to modes of dress. The following list is typical:

A period of two or three minutes is given for each conversation. The whole affair should last not longer than from fifteen to twenty minutes. You will find that that will be plenty long enough! Imagine a period not longer than that for a conversation on the above topics, carried on in rhyme!

The following are the answers given by the principal of the High School at a church party in a Middle West town:

Holidays.

The question as to their birthmonths is asked of the guests, and they are grouped together accordingly, the Januarys over behind the piano, the Junes at the rear entrance, etc., etc. Each group is then asked to dramatize a holiday of the month it represents. No properties have been made available as this is to be distinctly an impromptu affair. They are all given about ten minutes for preparation, and then they are called on, one by one, to do their stunts. They are not called by name however, but by “location.” For example, the first group called on might be the one in the bay window, and the next, the one in the dining room.

When each group has finished its stunt, and only then, the audience is to guess what holiday they represent, and if the guesses are incorrect, the stunt must be repeated.

The following list of holidays has been found to work to good advantage.

Bag Handshake.

Each guest is given a paper bag which is to be put on his right hand. He is to shake hands with everyone in sight, the bag being an indicator of how zealous he has been in his efforts! As soon as it is worn out he may rest in peace, but not until then.

The Little Theater.

The plan of “Holidays” is used over and over with different “motives.” One of them is musical. The words of a song like “Yankee Doodle” are written out on separate slips which are numbered alike. They might all be numbered. “1.” The second song might be “Dixie,” and its words are similarly written out on slips and numbered “2.” Each guest is given a number and is asked to find all others who have the same number. When everyone has found his or her group they are to have just a very few minutes in which to practice their song. When the time is up the leader calls out each group in turn and asks them to sing their song, at the same time putting enough dramatic action into their performance to really get the motive of the[28] song across! The group which the judges agree on as best gets a bag of peanuts.

Dressing Up.

There is nothing like “dressing up” to make a crowd relax and laugh. Therefore, with a large group of guests, most of them strangers to one another, use caps and bells for as successful a mixer as you could desire. Fancy paper caps can be bought very inexpensively when bought in quantity, and the same is true of tiny bells. Each guest is provided with a little bell which has a string attached by which to hang it around his neck, and also one of these foolish paper caps. They are all asked to put on both bells and caps and to keep them on all evening.

A crowd of guests thusly adorned looks foolish enough to furnish entertainment for a long, long time!

Circle Handshake.

It is good psychology to have a genuine mixer at the end of the evening as well as at the beginning. After the last game, the guests form a circle. The leader asks the one standing nearest the door to shake hands with his right-hand neighbor, and then to continue shaking hands all the way around the circle, telling each one “Good-night” until he has gone completely around, after which he drops out of the circle. At the same time however, all the others are beginning to do the same thing. He had no sooner finished shaking hands with his right-hand neighbor and gone on to the next one and then on to the next, than this same right-hand neighbor began doing the same thing, shaking the hand of his neighbor to the right, and so on around the circle.[29] Each one does the same thing, that is, after No. 2 has passed No. 3, No. 3 starts immediately to shake hands around the circle, and as soon as he passes No. 4, No. 4 does the same thing.

In this way it is inevitable that everyone shakes hands with everyone else and bids them all “Good-night.”

[30]

Games for Small Groups.

Altruism.

Each one is asked to write out a stunt that any ordinary person could do. These stunts are collected, mixed up and then passed around, although nothing has been said about this having been planned! Each person is then requested to do the stunt written out on the slip of paper given him, whether he can or not!

Cruelty.

In this game each one is asked to write out a stunt that he would hate to have to do himself. When these stunts are all written out, an announcement is made to the effect that, in turn, they will all please perform the stunts they so kindly thought of.

Noise.

Each guest is asked to choose the part of some very well-known barnyard animal. The leader is to read a story she has written which is all about barnyard animals and which makes frequent mention of all of them. As she mentions each different animal, the noise it makes is to be imitated by the one who chose that particular animal. But whenever she speaks of the donkey everyone in the room is to imitate the donkey to the best of his ability and at the top of his lungs!

[32]

The Toyshop.

The entire group is supposed to have been on a shopping expedition on which toys only were purchased. They are not to tell what they bought but when called on, each one is to imitate the sound and action of her toy, and is to continue doing so until the name of the toy is guessed.

Smile!

Guests are either sitting or standing in two lines facing each other. The hostess, who holds a boy’s cap in her hand, tells one side that the inside of the cap is the signal for them to act, and the other side that the top of the cap is their signal. She stands between the rows and throws the cap up into the air. If it lands on the floor bottom side up, the side which has the inside of the cap for a signal must immediately go into roars of laughter, or they may giggle, simper, tee-hee, or show mirth in any way in their efforts to make the other side smile even the least little bit. Anyone who does smile at all goes over to the side of the enemy in disgrace.

The hostess acts as timekeeper and after a few seconds she throws the cap into the air again, and if it lands right side up the other group becomes hilarious and puts forth every effort to gain new members. After about three minutes of this, the hostess announces that each side will have one more turn (she manages to throw the cap so that will happen), that a count will be taken at the end of that time, and that the side which gained the most new members gets almost all of the refreshments, and the other side almost none of them!

[33]

And I.

Choose three people who are quickwitted. The first of the three goes around the circle quietly giving everyone a name; the second, an action; and the last one a place. When each guest has been told a name, an action, and a place, the hostess begins the fairy tale by making a sentence of the three things told her, adding however “and I” to the name given her. For example, she has been given the following. “Grandmother,” “Cracking the whip,” “Baptist Church.” Her sentence would be “Grandmother and I were cracking the whip in the Baptist Church!” The one to her right then takes up the tale. Her assignment was: “Hired man,” “Getting a permanent wave,” “In the shade of the old apple tree.” Her sentence is, “The hired man and I were getting a permanent wave in the shade of the old apple tree.”

So it continues around the circle, and a weirder set of experiences never occurred!

Impromptu Artists.

Pass around pencils and paper. Assign a “model” to each artist, in every case having model and artist across from each other if possible. This arrangement makes every guest both an artist and a model. At a signal they begin their artistry and are given three minutes in which to draw portraits of the models assigned. All artists must put their names on their pictures, but models’ names are omitted. The pictures are collected at the end of three minutes, are shuffled and again passed around.

Each guest must decide who he thinks was the model for the picture he holds. He writes that person’s name[34] on the picture and when all have done that, the pictures are given to the suspected models. Violence has been committed with less cause! Occasionally someone picks a wrong model! That is why, at a signal from the hostess each one in turn turns over his picture and reads aloud the name of the artist as well as the name written on the portrait, and the artist is compelled to tell who his model was, regardless of what the picture looks like.

That is a good time to break up the party!

Excuse Me!

A question is put to the group as a whole: “Why weren’t you at the meeting last night?” In two minutes each one is to be ready to give his excuse, and the only requirement is that the excuse is to be put in terms of one’s own initials, and to be preceded by “Because I was——”

For example, one guest’s initials are “C. F. B.” When asked why she wasn’t at the meeting last night she glibly replied, “Because I was curling Father’s beard!”

Invitations.

Guests are standing about informally. The topic of conversation is, “Why I want you to come to call!” Each girl is asked to choose a man whom she will invite to call on her. Sue Lawson chooses Ned Parsons, and she is to urge him to accept her invitation to call but she will have to give him a mighty good reason for wanting him. He is to accept and is to tell her why he is so glad to come. In both cases one’s partner’s initials are of importance, for the reason one gives is[35] to be based on them. Miss Lawson tells Mr. Parsons that he just must come to call because he “needs protection,” and he tells her that he will be glad to because she is “so lovely!”

Three minutes are given for invitations and their acceptances at the end of which time the leader starts calling for a report. “Ted Frazer, who invited you to call?”

“Gertrude Field. She said she wanted me to call because I was ‘turrible funny,’” whereupon the leader calls upon Gertrude Field to ask why Mr. Frazer wanted to accept her invitation. She replies, “To get a ‘good feed’!”

Elastic Spelling.

Let the host start spelling a word by giving the first letter. For example, he may have in mind the word “kitchen.” He says “K,” and the one to his left who is to give the next letter is thinking of “kill” so he says “I,” while the next one who is thinking of “kimono” says “M,” each one trying not to give a letter that will complete a word. The penalty for completing a word is to become a third of a goat. At the second offence the penalty is to become two-thirds of a goat, and at the third, a whole goat. A whole goat is compelled to “Baa, baa” at his turn instead of giving a letter. There are always more “Baa-ers” than one would anticipate, for even though you had in mind the word “kidnap,” when at your turn you added the letter “d” to “k—i—,” k—i—d spells kid, at least in the English language, so you go on record as part of a goat.

There is always somebody who will take a chance and give “any old letter,” just so he won’t finish a word.[36] Each player has the privilege of challenging three separate times. When challenged, a player is obliged to tell the word he had in mind, which sometimes he had not! A player cannot be challenged after the next player has given his letter.

It is not only the English language that is stretched in this indoor pastime. Minds and imaginations stretch to the bursting point in a way that gives one a new respect for one’s capacity for laughter.

Twentieth Century Blind Man’s Buff.

Instead of just one being blindfolded, all but one are blinded, and it is the business of the game to catch this lucky one. He is not as lucky as it might appear, however. He has a little bell hanging around his neck on a cord, and to say the least, it advertises his whereabouts. He cannot leave the room, must keep moving, and cannot silence the bell in any way. At that, in the average room he can elude his pursuers for a few minutes at least, if he is nimble at all, for you know how utterly helpless one is when blindfolded (and how very graceful!).

As soon as the bell man is caught he is blindfolded and the one who caught him is “it.” The game is a hilarious success for about four or five minutes, but do not let it run on any longer than that or people will be getting uncomfortable and taking off their blindfolders and “Just watching this time, thank you!”

Are you wondering how in the world you could ever get enough large size handkerchiefs to blindfold a whole party? Don’t wonder. Instead, make blindfolders out of strips of gauze long enough to go around one’s head. Just about where the eyes would come put[37] pads of absorbent cotton, using adhesive tape to hold them in place. These blindfolders are very inexpensive and far more hygienic than the usual handkerchief, and it isn’t half as easy to peek through them either!

Employment Bureau.

Guests are divided into two equal groups lined up against opposite walls of the room. One side is designated as the first to ask for employment. They go into secret session to decide on some trade. When ready, they advance to the middle of the room where the other group is standing in a line waiting for them. The first group says, “We want a job.” The others ask, “What can you do?” Then the first group begins to act out its trade in pantomime. For example, they have decided to be veterinarians. Some act as horses and cows while the others act as the doctors who examine their teeth, their tongues, look at their heels, make them run, etc., etc. As soon as their opponents call out “Veterinarians!” they break and run for their side of the room. Any of them who are tagged before they reach the wall go to the ranks of the enemy.

The other side then has its turn, and after about ten minutes of this, announce that the next act will be the last, and that a count will be taken to see which side lost and which won the most members. The winners get a double share of refreshments!

Automobile.

All of the guests but one are given chairs, and they are seated informally about the room. The one who has no chair is the assembler. To every other player is given the name of some part of an automobile, a list[38] of which names has been prepared beforehand to avoid the uninteresting delay that is inevitable when a hostess has to stop to think of names to assign people. For example, there are the radiator, the clutch, the steering wheel, gears, speedometer, tonneau, brakes, all the different parts of an automobile which are easy enough to think of when one is at leisure and can sit down with pencil and paper and work out such a list, but a slightly different proposition when one is before a group of guests who are waiting.

That list is given to the assembler and he begins his story of a trip to the country one Sunday, a trip which was a series of mishaps. He tells how he prepared for the trip, bringing in the names of the various parts, and as he calls out the various parts they “assemble” in a line directly in back of him, with hands on the shoulders of the one in front of them. The story goes on, all about the accidents and hard luck of the day, how he stripped his gears, etc., etc., until all of the parts are assembled in line behind the assembler, when the automobile starts running around the room, at first slowly, but getting faster and faster until all of a sudden the leader stops abruptly, calls out “Honk! honk!”—at which time it is the immediate business of life to break ranks and get a chair. There is a mad scramble for chairs, successful for all but one.

This unfortunate is the assembler for the next time. Everyone is given a different part and the game goes on as before. At the end every effort is made to make this assembler, who was too slow to get a chair the first time, just as unsuccessful this time. At any rate, the one who doesn’t get a chair is the assembler for the next and last run, and if it has been possible to keep some[39] person from getting a chair two successive times he is obliged to pay the corner forfeit, which compels him to cry in one corner, laugh in the next, dance in the next, and sing Home Sweet Home in the last.

Be Definite!

The hostess calls out the following words and expressions, assigning one to every guest in turn, and immediately each one must give his definition of the word or expression given him. The fun in this venture (and the fun may be endless!) lies in the word given out. For example, “Goatee.” Everybody knows what a goatee is, but mighty few can give an intelligent definition of it. Almost invariably the answer will be “Oh, you know. Something that—something that—well, you know—” and then will come the downward stroking of the chin! But no pantomiming is allowed, although you have said nothing about it. Anyone who pantomimes is punished by being given an extra word, the second, much harder than the first. The following may be included:

Help!

Get a piece of cardboard about the size of the back of a tablet. Tell the one at your right that he is to[40] take that cardboard exactly as you give it to him and in exactly the same place, and that he will then give it to his neighbor in the same way. Put the short side between your nose and lip, holding it there until your neighbor takes it from you, not with his hands, but between his nose and lip. Even the handsomest person in the room is a caricature when he screws down his nose and stretches up his lip in his efforts to hold the cardboard there until his pugnosed neighbor can overcome his unholy laughter long enough to get his features in the right shape to take it.

It is a good plan to start three or four cards at different places in the circle.

Human Adjectives.

Divide the group into two equal sides. A leader is chosen for each group.

Each side is to decide upon some noun that has just as many letters in it as the team has members. Every member is assigned a letter. He is to decide on some adjective beginning with that letter, and he will “act out” that adjective for the edification of the members of the other team who are acting as audience for the time being. It is the business of the audience to guess what adjective is being dramatized. As soon as they hit upon the right adjective, they take its first letter as the first letter in the noun the team is dramatizing. Then the next human adjective takes his turn and so on until all the letters of the noun have been dramatized.

As an illustration, a team takes the noun “stone.” There are five members in the group and five letters in the word. The first actor has “s” for his letter. He chooses “silly” for his adjective, and he acts as[41] silly as he possibly can and continues to do so until someone in the audience calls out the correct guess, “You’re acting silly!” The audience has the first letter to the word, “s.” Next comes “t.” The adjective chosen was “tired.” Then “o”—ornery; next “n”—noisy; and last “e”—empty. Taking the first letters of these adjectives in turn, the audience has the word “stone.”

Then the opposing team acts out adjectives describing the first letters of its noun, and so they take turn about, and if real snap and enthusiasm are put into the acting out of the adjectives this can be the game of the evening as far as genuine and sideach-y fun is concerned. Can’t you just see the minister of the Baptist Church acting “ornery,” pushing people about, twitching Beacon Jones’ nose, pulling Susie’s hair and in general, making himself an unmitigated nuisance and showing up a truly ornery disposition?

It is surprising always to find how many people enjoy acting ornery, and noisy, and silly, and all the other forbidden adjectives!

Parlor Slapjack.

Guests are standing in a circle, hands outstretched behind them. The one who is “It” walks around the outside of the circle, suddenly slaps an outstretched hand and, without stopping an instant, continues to walk around the circle in the direction he was going. The one whose hand was slapped immediately starts walking in the opposite direction, the objective for both walkers being the place that was just vacated. It belongs to the one who reaches it first, while the other becomes[42] “It.” They are to walk only. No running is allowed.

But—certain rites must be performed before either one may take the place in the circle. “It” and the one whose hand was slapped are bound to meet on their way round the circle. When they do, “It” does whatever he wishes in the way of a stunt, and the other must imitate exactly before they may continue their race for the empty place. The following stunts are very good because of their esthetic value:

Boast!

All guests are seated and are roughly divided into two groups. A representative is chosen from each side. Each one is to proclaim the merits of the members of his group. The only drawback is that they are to do it at the same time. Impartial judges are chosen, and they are to base their judgment on delivery, continuity of thought, and last, but most important, on truth! The speakers face the audience, and at a signal, start to speak at the same time, each one trying his best to drown out the other.

It goes without saying that it is a comparatively simple matter to speak intelligently and logically, and at the same time to speak as loudly as you can, especially when a rival is doing all these things at the same time.

[43]

A Mixup.

Two slips of paper are given each one, together with the request that a perfectly good question be written on one, and a perfectly good answer to it on the other. All questions and answers are gathered, the questions in one box and the answers in another. They are thoroughly mixed and then passed around, each one taking both a question and an answer. They are called on in turn to read their slips, and some of them are slips to be sure! At one party one of the men drew, “What did you do last Saturday?” and the answer was, “A permanent wave, a henna rinse, and a facial!”

Flattery.

Each guest writes his initials on the top of a piece of paper. These papers are collected, mixed up, and then passed around again. Players are to use the initials on their slips in writing out the most unctuous words of flattery they can think of about the owner of the initials, every word they use, however, having to start with the initials on the paper. The results are startling!

The papers are again collected and at refreshment time are passed out to their rightful owners to be read aloud.

Amateur Vaudeville.

The names of very well-known popular songs are written out on separate slips of paper. One of these slips is pinned on each guest as he comes in. Instead of greeting each other as usual, they are to shake hands with everyone and without saying a word in greeting, are to sing the song with which they are labelled. Anyone[44] who is caught talking instead of singing his song is required to sing it alone before the group.

May the leader have mercy on her guests and not keep up this gentle game of greeting for more than four or five minutes!

Progressive Nonsense.

Tables are arranged as for any progressive game, the winning two advancing to the next table. Guests are in couples, two couples to a table. At table No. 1 the ladies are to compete in doing a sum in arithmetic, while the men’s contest centers around three buttons which are to be sewed on a piece of cloth.

At table No. 2 the ladies darn a sock with their left hands, while the men compete in paring one large potato apiece.

At table No. 3 the men write out a recipe for mince pie, while the ladies write a fifty-word essay on politics, which they must read aloud to the judges.

At table No. 4 the ladies tie their partners ties, the hostess acting as judge, while the men darn socks.

Further competitions may center about the following events:

[45]Almost any of these events may serve as separate contests, rather than as events in a progressive game.

Trades.

Each one chooses a trade for himself, the action of which he is to pantomime when the person who has been sent out of the room is called back in. This person is to guess what trades are being represented, and the first one whose trade she guesses correctly is the one to go out the next time.

At the entrance of this one, who has been outside the room, all begin pantomiming their trades at the same time. No one is to tell anyone else what trade he has chosen so that the same trade can be used over and over until it is guessed.

Transitions.

A very good quiet game for small groups is one in which transitions between words are made. For example, let the word “ship” be the starting word. From ship we wish to evolve the word “boat,” changing only one letter at a time. The transition might be as follows: Ship, shop, shot, soot, boot, boat.

Other very simple ones are the transitions between man and boy, boot and shoe, bed and cot, hog and pig, fun and joy, dry and wet.

Initials.

Each guest is given a sheet of paper and a pencil. He is to answer the questions written out on the paper, using only such words in his answers as begin with his initials. After about five minutes the papers are collected,[46] mixed up and passed around again, and each one in turn is to read the paper he holds.

The questions run as follows:

Typical answers are:

Stunts.

The group is divided into two sides. Both sides take a few minutes to see what resources they have in the way of stunts. They then throw up a coin to see which side is to perform first. The side which wins, that is, does not have to perform until the other side has given its stunt, starts to count slowly, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5,” and so on up to ten. If some member of the other side has[47] not started to give a stunt by the time they count to ten, one point is gained by the counting side. If someone has started to perform however, they are to stop counting the minute the stunt begins.

Then their turn to put on a stunt comes, and the other side starts to count to ten. If they fail to have a stunt ready before “ten,” they lose a point to the other side.

There is always an intermission of one minute after a stunt has been completed, to give the opposite side that long to get a stunt ready. The stunts may include any possible kind of entertainment, from doing an esthetic dance to “speaking a piece” or a funny story. After ten minutes of this, the side that has the most points gets the most refreshments.

Games for Large Groups.

The Changeable Grand March.

There is nothing more valuable than the Grand March for a group of guests who don’t know each other and who have very little in common (as yet!). Just the ordinary Grand March will not do at all. It must be a grand Grand March, one which will thaw out every particle of ice, one which will cause the kind of laughter that creates that wonderful feeling of fellowship and friendliness. With that feeling once created you have nothing to fear for the success of your evening.

Guests are lined up in two lines, men in one, ladies in the other. There is something so blessedly impersonal about the Grand March in which no one, however bashful and embarrassed, is an individual but rather just a part of a long line, that you can almost invariably get every person present to “step into line.”[48] Don’t make the mistake then of asking them to take partners. Rather, have the men march to the right and girls to the left, meet at the back of the room and come marching up the middle of the room with partners. That saves endless embarrassment and confusion.

The fun is on! Ladies take their partner’s arm, and the leading couple starts the line of march around the room. They are to start it with a walk, but suddenly the whistle will blow, and without stopping, they are to change their method of locomotion to the one called out by the leader. For example, they are walking along quietly and peacefully when the leader’s whistle blows and she calls out “Hippity-hop,” and they all hippity-hop. Next comes the order, “Fly like birds!” and away they all go, waving their arms like birds flying, and running on tiptoe. Then reverse and walk; walk forward on tiptoes.

Other directions may include orders to walk with eyes shut; reverse and limp every other step; walk and clap hands; stoop every other step; toe out; on heels; on one foot; get a new partner any place; walk and sing any song that no one else is singing; toe in; walk backwards taking large steps; forward and hum; whirl arms in circles; swim; keep feet together and hop like a toad; flap arms to the side and crow like a rooster; bend forward and swing heads from side to side; clap hands, first over head, and then behind back; whistle whether you can or not, and so on, changing the directions quickly and unexpectedly and in a good-natured way demanding immediate and accurate response. You’ll never get it.

It is not wise to continue this for longer than three or four minutes, or to give more than eight or nine[49] changes. Your group will agree with you that that will be quite enough!

The Treasure Hunt Grand March.

Hide peanuts or small favors or covered candies in every conceivable spot. Guests are lined up with partners as if for a Grand March. The line of march is around the room without coming up the middle. When the music begins leaders start marching. Suddenly the director’s whistle sounds as the signal that the hunt is on. They break ranks and scramble to find the hidden peanuts. Two whistles sound sharply, the signal to discontinue the search at once, find your partner and get into the line of march, which is straggly and uneven at best, but it makes no difference as long as everyone is in it and no one is hunting peanuts. The music and marching continue until another single whistle proclaims an open season for peanuts, the last one.

At the double whistle they continue their marching as before except that the leaders bring the line down the center, and all halt while the director finds out who didn’t get any peanuts and who got the most.

The winner is called out, stationed in front of the line, and they are all obliged to pass by him and give him all their peanuts. They do this with weeping and wailing until they hear your announcement at the end that as a punishment for his greediness he in turn is to give up all his peanuts to the unfortunates who didn’t get any!

The Harmonious Hunt.

Are you looking for the kind of game that leaves guests exhausted with that comfortable exhaustion that comes from helpless laughter?

[50]Divide your group into teams, each team having a captain and an individual team call. Calls may be braying like a donkey; mooing like a cow; cock-a-doodle-doo-ing; whistling; cat-calling; meowing; barking; quacking; baa-ing; gobble-gobbling; or imitating sounds of instruments like the drum, rubba-dubb-dubb; the piccolo, tweedle-deedle-dee; the trombone, boom-boom-boom; the triangle, knick-knock-knock; the mandolin, plank-plank-plank; the cymbal, zum-zum-zum; the accordion, yea-yea-yea, in each case pantomiming the action as well as imitating the sound. The action for the accordion inflicts real punishment on its imitators. Arms are bent upward and elbows are thrust out sideways and drawn in rapidly. This is particularly good for stout people.

Each team is assigned one of these calls and must use only that way of calling to the team captain. Peanuts or candy or favors are hidden in every conceivable spot. When the signal is given the hunt is on. No one, however, except a captain, is allowed to touch a peanut. That is the reason for the call. As soon as a person finds a peanut he stands beside it and sends out an S. O. S. for his captain, using his team call as the signal for help. The captain answers each call by running to the spot and picking up the peanut. After a definite length of time the closing signal is given and the hunt is over. Each captain counts his find, and the losing teams must give up all their peanuts to be divided equally among the winners in spite of inevitable protests.

This game may be used for either indoor or out-of-door parties.

[51]

The Inverted Spell-Down.

The formation for this game is two lines facing, partners side by side, twenty-six in each line. Two sets of alphabet letters, one set red and the other black, are given out, one to each line. In playing this with a small group where there are not enough guests to have twenty-six in each line, two or even three letters may be given to one person, those holding “unpopular” consonants like X. Y. Z. Q., etc., being given the extra letters. The leader calls out words, necessarily easy ones, and those from each group holding the letters making up that word must run to the appointed place and form the word, each one holding his letter high and facing the judges. The only rule to be observed in the spelling is that each word be spelled backwards. For example, kitty is not spelt k-i-t-t-y, but y-t-t-i-k! If a letter is used twice in a word the one holding that letter must go first to one place and then to the other. For example, in excel, e takes his place before x and then runs over to the place between c and l. In case of a double letter the letter is simply jiggled back and forth.

The place to stand in spelling a word should be chosen with the audience in mind. If the two lines are standing lengthwise in the room those forming a word should be at one end of the room and the judges and any audience at the other. In that way everyone can see. Those holding red letters when forming their words stand close to the red side, while those holding black letters stand close to the black. In this way one avoids having one color standing in front of the other.

The judges decide which side forms the word first[52] and the score is kept and announced before each new word.

The time limit is left to the leader who tries within a reasonable time to run up a tie score, when, of course, interest is at its highest point. Then the announcement that the next point is the deciding one naturally creates a real tension which is hardly relieved when the leader calls out something like Mississippi or Pennsylvania for the last word!

Street and Alley.

Use a march to get your guests into lines, eight abreast, with enough room between the lines for passing. Lines must be straight. At a whistle from the leader each one is to make a quick quarter turn to the right, immediately joining hands with his new neighbors. Another whistle means another quarter turn to the right again joining hands with neighbors at once. Each whistle calls for a turn to the right and a joining of hands with one’s new neighbors. It is a good plan to let them practice the response to the whistle before the game itself begins.

When ready to begin, the lines face the front of the room. A policeman and a thief are chosen, a man for the policeman and a woman for the thief. The thief is given a very short start, and at a signal the policeman starts after her, chasing her in and out of the passageways or “streets” made by the lines of guests. Suddenly the whistle blows. Everyone takes a quick turn to the right, and new passageways or “alleys” are formed, with the policeman still doing his best to catch the elusive thief. Neither policeman or thief is allowed to break through a line or dodge under it.

[53]The leader watches the chase very closely and blows his whistle at very short intervals, changing streets to alleys and alleys to streets, in some cases to help the thief escape and in others to help the policeman catch her. A good part of the fun of the game depends on the leader’s blowing her whistle at critical moments. When a thief is caught, the leader, who had already in her mind chosen a new policeman and thief, names these victims and they change places with the first policeman and thief.

Men almost always run faster than women, so it is a good plan to choose stout policemen and lively thieves.

Games for Either Large or Small Groups.

Musical Ruth and Jacob.

This is particularly for a group of guests who could in no sense be called musical. The guests are standing in a circle with a man and a girl in the center. If the group is large, have them crowd in to make the circle space smaller so that it will not make Jacob’s work too difficult. The game is played like the old-fashioned “Ruth and Jacob,” both of them being blindfolded, it being the task of Jacob to catch Ruth. Instead of calling “Ruth,” however, Jacob sings up the scale, whether he can or not, and Ruth answers by singing down the scale, both of them using “Loo” instead of do-re-mi.

The game is infinitely more ridiculous if neither one can sing, and if the leader has created the right atmosphere, even though a man protests, “I just can’t sing,” he will usually finish up by making a noble effort to do it anyhow!

When Jacob catches Ruth, the leader, who has in the[54] meantime been looking over the circle, immediately announces the next two victims and almost invariably public opinion will be with her to such an extent that they step forth, willy-nilly.

Mimic.

If there are more than fifteen or twenty guests, choose about six men and six girls to form the circle. Even “Mimic” becomes monotonous in a large circle. Those forming the circle are seated, men beside their partners, the leader taking the part of one of the girls. She begins the action by doing something to the man at her right who in turn must mimic her action exactly to the girl to his right, and so the action goes all around the circle till it comes back to the leader who starts a new one. This may continue for about four or five rounds, and can be made the best game of the evening if the leader has planned sufficiently diabolical actions. For example, her first might be to do a funny step in front of him, at the time tra-la-la-la-ing in a high key. Her right-hand neighbor must imitate her to the very best of his ability. Her next action might be to sing up the scale to the highest note she can reach; next, she might cry as realistically as possible; and then laugh as musically as she can!

Shun the Circle.

Guests form a large circle, the men on the right side of their partners, all of them faced for marching. Four or more circles about four feet in diameter have been roughly drawn in chalk on the floor. The distance between them depends on the size of the circle formed by[55] the group. When the music starts, everyone begins to march around in circle formation with the one rule that everyone must walk straight across each of the small circles described on the floor. Suddenly the leader’s whistle blows, the music stops, all movement halts, and anyone caught in any of the small circles is discarded. If the leader has a watchful eye she can blow the whistle at a bad time and make it mighty uncomfortable for some couple, just poised, to take the first step into one of the circles, or another couple just on the outer edge of the danger zone. The precarious balancing in either case is choice!

This continues at the leader’s discretion. Almost never is it advisable to carry it through till the last couple is caught.

Friendliness.

Men are in one line, girls in another. It is the object of the girls to be so friendly that the men, who are perfect glooms, cannot help smiling. The girls may laugh or giggle or smirk or make faces in their efforts to break the gloom that seems to be holding the men. Any man who forgets his manliness to the extent of smiling, even the least little bit, goes over to the side of the ladies. At the end of the three-minute time limit, all the men whose gloom has not been broken and who confidently wait for the prize they think forthcoming, are fined ten cents for being killjoys.

Another friendly effort is the revised version of the popular song “Smiles.” At first it is sung correctly, but the next time the word “smile” is omitted, and in its place, each singer smiles his sweetest possible smile at his neighbor. It is painful!

[56]

A Chinese Spell-Down.

The idea is like that of a regular spelling-match with two sides competing, except that words must be spelled backwards. The time given each person to reverse his spelling and think the word backwards is decidedly limited, according to the leader, who makes a pretense of timing each one. Instead of discarding those whose tongues and brains could not reverse, a score is kept of each error, and the score announced as each new word is given out. This will create a healthy competition, and if the leader will hint that the winning side will be favored at refreshment time such a hint usually acts as a powerful mental stimulant.

The time limit is left to the leader who tries within a reasonable time to run up a tie score, when, of course, interest is at its highest point. Then the announcement that the next point is the deciding one naturally creates a real tension which is hardly relieved when the leader announces the word “Hippopotamus!”

Dodge!

All guests are in a circle. Count off by twos. All No. 1’s go into the center of the circle. Three or more beanbags are passed out to No. 2’s who form the circle. At a signal they start to toss the bags at the ones who are in the center, no one being allowed to leave his place to get a better aim. It is the big business of life for those in the center to avoid the beanbags tossed at them, for anyone who is hit must get out of the center and take his former place in the circle. If a beanbag is caught it does not count as a hit.

When all No. 1’s have been hit, No. 2’s go into the center and take their turn acting as targets, while No. 1’s[57] aim at them with the beanbags. When they have all been driven out of the circle, the last No. 1 and the last No. 2 to be hit by a beanbag go into the center and become targets. The one who stays in the longest without getting hit gets a prize, a bean.

Extry!

Ask your guests to line up in two lines, men in one and girls in the other, to march down opposite sides of the room to the back, meet their partners there and come marching up the center. As they pass the leader and her assistant, each one is handed a newspaper and a small strip of pins, after which they are to march to the back of the room. When everyone has been supplied with newspapers and pins the leader announces that partners will help each other make costumes out of the papers, and that the only requirement is that all costumes must definitely represent some character of history, or fiction, or popular interest, or be patterned after the mode of dress in some country.

Sounds impossible? You will find that there will be at least fifteen Hawaiians, eight Santa Clauses, nine babies, five Mary Pickfords with newspapery curly hair, seven Topsys and eleven Charlie Chaplins! Several pairs of scissors are available, and the hats from the cloakroom may be used. A period of twenty minutes is given for dress-making, which means working at top speed. At the end of that time there is a Grand March past the judges, and after everyone has passed the reviewing stand, the line is halted at the back of the room. Then the first couple is announced by the leader, “Punch and Judy,” and they walk slowly up the room[58] past the judges. The second couple is then announced, as is each couple, with not too great an interval between couples so that monotony may be avoided. Prizes are given the most hideous, the most beautiful, the best made and the poorest made costumes, judges being careful to choose the costume made by some well-known, good-natured person for this last prize. The prizes, which are presented with much ceremony, range from a paper of pins to a week-old newspaper.

The Hunting Ground.

If tables the size of an ordinary kitchen table are procurable, and are placed end to end, they make an admirable hunting ground. However, chairs can be used if they are arranged so that they cover about the same space that the tables would, the seats turned in. A man and a girl are placed at diagonally opposite corners of this territory, both are blindfolded, and at a signal must begin to go around this unknown country, their only guide being the table on which they must keep their hands. It is the business of the man to catch the girl, whose aim in life, however, is to frustrate his plans. As both are holding on to the edges of the tables, feeling their way around it, and both are moving as quietly as possible in order to hear any movement of the other, it is inevitable that the girl in her stealthy efforts to evade her pursuer will eventually walk straight into his groping hands! When she is caught another man and a girl are chosen, with perhaps one more couple to follow them. If the audience is given strict orders to keep absolutely quiet and to refrain from all laughter, it makes for a ridiculous situation!

[59]

Laughter!

Does it seem stupid to exact forfeits of people who were unfortunate in a game that demanded skill or speed or ingenuity? That all depends on the forfeit. Four or five men, who are the left-overs in a game which provides the chance to get a partner, can be made to pay a forfeit that is a real one! These left-overs are lined up in a row facing all the other guests. They are told that they are to be given a chance to vindicate themselves in a try-out of a particular talent. The first test is as to the musical quality of each one’s laugh. Each in turn laughs for the audience in as musical a tone as he can muster up. The audience votes for the best. Next, each in turn must laugh as long as he can without taking a breath. The next test is for shrillness; the next for the heartiest laugh, and the last for the most contagious laugh!

The Quizz.

Some five or six people are chosen for the class which is to be quizzed. The teacher has her back to the guests, and her class faces them. She has prepared a list of questions which she puts to different members of her class, pointing to one of them at a time. All other guests are to act as judges, and as a question is answered they call out either “Right” or “Wrong.” The faction that shouts the loudest gets a verdict. A scorekeeper keeps a bogus score of points made by each member of the class, and at the end the prize is given to the one who made the poorest showing, although all through the quizz much ado is made about how close the score is between different members of the class.

[60]The questions in the quizz can be on any subject under the sun, and the more impossible the better, for every member of the class must give some answer to the question put to him. “I don’t know” is not allowed under any circumstances. The following set of questions is typical:

Hear! Hear!

This may be used as a penalty, but it is always wise to choose your victim with care. This victim is asked to stand before the other guests and then told to make a speech on some subject in which you are sure both he and the audience are very much interested. But—he is to take the opposition. For example, if he is a staunch Republican and most of the guests are Republican in sympathy ask him to say the harshest things he can think of about the Republican party. Or if he happens to be the Baptist minister, ask him to denounce the church; or if he is a man who is constantly boring his friends with tales of the wondrous deeds of his children, ask him to speak on “The Despair of My Life, My Children.”

The speaker is to pause after each statement, and everyone present must applaud loudly and call out “Hear! hear!” Anyone who neglects this little ceremony is in danger. The leader acts as monitor and announces that anyone whose applause is found to be unsatisfactory is liable to be the next one to be asked to make a speech. Here again the leader uses her judgment[61] and cuts off the speaker just at the right time, calling for anyone she chooses as the next speaker, disregarding his assurance that he clapped hard!

With some groups it is mighty successful to use more personal subjects. For example, at a Methodist church party a man might be asked to speak on “Why the Baptist women are so much better looking than our Methodist women,” and the unfortunate Methodist ladies who would like to tar and feather him must clap their hands loudly and call out “Hear! hear!” In spite of their wrath, most of them remember to applaud, but Miss Brownleigh in the front row is laughing so hard, and is so busy shaking her fist at the speaker that she forgets all about her obligations and up on the platform she goes as the next speaker!

Scramble.

Ask everyone to bring his chair nearer to the center, to make a circle. Remove four or five chairs, the number depending on the size of the group, asking their previous tenants to come to the center of the circle. When the march time music begins, everyone must get up and start marching around to the right, those who are without chairs joining the line of march, no one touching a chair till the leader’s whistle blows and the music stops. Then it is up to everyone to get a chair or go into the middle of the circle. This is continued for four or five rounds.

Then the leader asks them to hippity-hop instead of march, at the leader’s whistle scrambling for a chair as usual. After three or four rounds of hippity-hopping they are to walk backwards instead, and for the last few rounds, they are to hop on one foot, and woe be[62] unto those who are left in the middle at the end! Warn them of this, promising dire punishment, just before the last round, and you will have the funniest situation of the evening.

While big group games, which take in everyone, are splendid in promoting sociability and group spirit, nevertheless it is unwise to keep guests going at too strenuous a pace. The first result is a dropping out of participants and the next a growing lack of interest, which finally develops into an irritability that plays havoc with any spirit of play. On the other hand, it is almost as bad to ask guests to “just sit” and rest, thereby letting all the interest a leader has awakened die an early and natural death. Instead, it has proved very effective to have races, contests, stunts and trick games at this time, events that will keep up interest, but which will need only a few participants. The following chapter on “Races” was written for that purpose, to provide those very necessary fill-ins.

Kiddy Kar Race.

The course should be about thirty feet in length. The biggest men present are chosen for drivers, and there are two drivers for each team.

The Kiddy Kars are lined up at the starting point, with driver No. 1 sitting on the car, all set to go. At the whistle they are off, the cars propelled in the usual and only possible fashion! They travel to the goal about thirty feet away and return, immediately turning over their cars to the other member of the team, driver[64] No. 2, who starts off without waiting for any signal, to run the same course. The one who is first to return to the starting place wins the race for his team.

The possibilities of a Kiddy Kar made for a five-year-old, but propelled by a forty-five-year-old are almost unbelievable.

The Reducer.

Eight men are chosen to run this race, four in each line, one behind the other. The first one in each line has a barrel hoop bound about with cloth so that no ragged edges are left to penetrate the reducee. At a signal from the leader the first man of each line runs up to the goal line, which is across the middle of the room, puts the hoop above his head and quickly draws it down over his shoulders to the floor, steps out of it, picks it up, runs back and gives it to the next runner, he himself going to the end of the line. The second runner does the same thing and so does the third, and then the fourth runner who first gets through the hoop and back to his place wins the race for his team.

No matter how stout the men of a group are, it always seems possible for them to get through their hoops. At innumerable social events I have looked for a fat guest to get jammed in his hoop, but as yet I have been disappointed.

Hippity-Hop Potato Race.

There are four couples in this effort, for effort it is. They form two teams, two couples in each team, one couple standing behind the other. Both the man and the lady of the first couple in each team are given a teaspoon with a large potato in it. At a signal from the[65] leader these two first couples hurry down the room to the goal line, and return to give the spoons and the potatoes to the second couples of their teams.

There are two regulations, however, which make it not so easy as it might appear. Every lady takes her partner’s arm and keeps it through the entire race. Under no condition is she to let go. If a contestant should drop his potato, his partner must still keep his arm while he stoops to pick it up. The other regulation is that instead of running or walking to the goal they are to hop on one foot all the way.

Partnership Relay.

Six or eight couples are placed in groups of two couples each, one couple standing behind the other, the entire group about twenty feet from a goal line. The girls take their partners’ arms and retain possession throughout each event despite the inevitable protest at lagging. At a signal, each first couple walks to the goal line, carrying out directions given before each event of the relay; then hurries back and touches off the second couple. Events might be as follows:

1. Each man carries a glass full of water. At the goal he hands it to the girl who must drink it all before they can rush back to the starting point.

2. Together they clap hands and sing Yankee Doodle as they walk to the goal and back.

3. Each man has a cracker. At the goal he gives it to his partner, who must eat it, and is not allowed to start back until she can whistle.

4. At the goal line the man sings up the scale and waits for the girl to sing down the scale before they can go back.

[66]5. While they are hurrying to the goal line the leader may blow her whistle at any time, which is the signal for them to turn completely around once, and then continue their course. Because their arms are locked and because they always have different ideas about the right way to turn, complications arise!

Balloons.

Choose four teams, with two on each team. Each couple is given a toy balloon, the kind that is blown up by the leader beforehand, with a rubber band attached to keep the air in. At a signal from the leader partners link arms and, with their free hands, start batting the balloons down the length of the room and return, using the open hand in batting.

No matter what happens to the balloon they are to keep their arms linked. A balloon is so very dependable in its actions that it is a simple matter for two people of different minds to make it take a straight and narrow path!

Stepping Stones.

Two couples compete against each other. The man of each couple is given two folded newspapers, one for each hand. At the signal for starting he quickly puts one of the papers down and the lady steps on it with her right foot. He then puts down the other paper a little distance ahead, and she steps on it with her left foot. He puts the first paper as far forward as he thinks she can step, and she puts her right foot on it. Then the left, the right, etc., etc., the object being to reach the goal, some thirty feet away, before the other couple can reach it, the only rule being that the lady[67] must walk on newspapers only, which her partner places for her.

Said partners are always too ambitious in setting out the papers, and it takes considerable stepping to bridge the gaps.

Helpless Eating.

Each contestant is given a large cracker. She is to place it in her mouth, put her hands behind her, and at a signal, start to eat the cracker with no help from her hands. The one who whistles first after eating her cracker gets a good big prize.

Air!

Contestants are lined up facing the crowd. If they can whistle it is infinitely funnier to use the whistling contest. If they cannot whistle let them sing a high note. In either case, at a signal, they start to whistle or sing, and the one who can hold her note the longest without taking another breath gets a toy balloon as a prize.

Lemon!

Contestants are provided with a lemon and a lead pencil. They are to roll the lemon with the lead pencil at least fifty feet and return. The one who gets his lemon back first gets the lemon.

Nose Power.

A piece of wrapping paper about two yards long is placed before each contestant. A penny is placed on one end of it. Each contestant kneels down before his penny, and at a signal starts to push the penny down[68] the paper, using, not his hands, but his nose as the motive power. The one who first gets his penny down the length of the paper gets all the pennies, and our sympathy.

The Variety Store.

Guests line up in two equal lines, men in one, women in another, all of them facing the center. On a little table at the head of each line there is a choice collection of objects which are awkward to handle, the objects on the two tables being exactly alike of course. The leader is standing at one of the tables, with an assistant at the other. When the lines are ready these two leaders begin passing objects down the line. As they reach the end of the line they are put on the floor. When all of them have been passed the lines quickly turn around and face the other way, and begin passing the things back again, to see which line can first get all of them back on the table.

The fun in this race lies in the nature of the objects chosen. The following list has been used to good (or evil) advantage:

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The Elusive Goal.

There are two men and one girl to each team, the men being the horses and the girl their driver. The horses stand side by side, their “inside” hands joined. The driver stands behind them, and their “outside” hands are held by her as reins. It is emphasized that no matter what happens they are to keep each other’s hands. All the teams are lined up at the starting line, with the horses facing the goal. All contestants are then blindfolded, horses and drivers alike. They are all turned completely around three times, and at a signal they start running to the goal, fifty feet away. They need not return to the starting point. It would be quite useless to ask them to do so. Try to realize the difficulties of three people bound together, all of them blindfolded, all of them hurrying, and all of them having different ideas as to the place to which to hurry.

Capable Women.

Each man contestant is asked to choose the most capable looking lady present. The ladies chosen line up at one end of an open space and the men at the other. At a signal the men are asked to take off their neckties, run over to their partners, hand them the ties, and ask them to put them back on again just as they were, with no assistance from the men themselves. As soon as the ties are on the men rush back to the starting point, and the one who arrives first with the best tied tie gets one ice-cream cone, which he must share with his capable partner.

Second Childhood.

The two contestants are seated in chairs facing each other, all the others in a circle around them. Each[70] contestant has a baby’s bottle, half full of milk. The necessary apparatus caps the bottle. One “apparatus,” however, has a large hole punched in it. At a signal they start in to drink the milk in approved fashion, to see which of the two can first empty his bottle. The one who has the tampered-with apparatus will probably be successful, and will certainly express great surprise at the ease which he revives a lost art.

The Lamplighter.

Two gallon jars, two candles, and any number of matches are necessary. The two contestants represent opposite factions in the group. Each one is given a jar, the candle and several matches, is told to sit on the jar with the right heel on the ground and the left heel resting on the right toe. He is to hold the candle in one hand, a match in the other, and is to light the candle without changing the position of the feet.

Before you scoff at them for being so slow, try it yourself.

Feathers.

Contestants are lined up at the starting line, each one provided with a plate on which there has been placed a handful of feathers kept in place by a saucer. At a signal they take the saucer off the feathers and start walking as fast as they dare the length of the course, some fifty feet, and return. Anyone who loses a feather must stop to pick it up and put it back on the plate.

A draughty hall is always a favorable setting for the feather race. Even on calm days, however, it is not an unheard of thing for someone on the sidelines, who is near a plate of feathers, to exhale rather strenuously.

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Whoops!

Each contestant is provided with a large hoop and a small stick. The goal is pointed out to them, the goal being a chair about fifty feet away from the starting point. They are to roll their hoops up to and around the chair and back. Stout ladies should be used for contestants.

Eating under Difficulties.

Two apples are placed on newspapers at opposite sides of a chair. The two contestants get down on their knees, put their hands behind them, and at a signal start eating the apples without any help from their hands to see which can first eat the entire apple.

It really can be done!

The Circus.

Again use four teams with two contestants on a team. There are several events in this race, so a score is kept of each event.

Events are as follows:

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The two members of each team go through each event as partners, arms linked whenever possible.

Far Far Away!

Four courses are laid out by means of white strings which are placed on the floor the full length of the course. Each of the four contestants is given a pair of opera glasses. At a signal he puts the large end to his eyes and starts down the course.

If you think it a simple matter, try it.

The Count.

Contestants are lined up facing the other guests, and are told to take a long breath and hold it. At a signal they are to start to count aloud, all of them starting at the same time, and not to stop until they simply cannot count another count without taking another breath. The one who proves that she has the greatest lung capacity gets a toy whistle.

Fruit Bearers.

On the goal line, which should be the full length of the room from the starting line, are laid as many oranges as there are contestants. At the signal, each contestant, supplied with a common brass pin, runs to the goal line, spears an orange with her pin and runs back to the goal line, all of which looks very simple in print! Try spearing a heavy orange with a pin, without any help from your free hand!

Eggshell Race.

The contents of eggs are blown out, and each contestant is given an eggshell and a fan. It is his business to fan the eggshell to the goal and back to the starting point, and do it in less time than anyone else can do it.

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Cut It.

Long lengths of heavy wrapping paper are procured, and one length is stretched out before each team of cutters, there being four on a team. The first one of each team is given a pair of scissors. At the signal all those holding scissors start to cut down the length of the paper, being careful not to cut too wide a strip, as each cutter should have a fourth of the width of the piece of paper. When they get to the other end and have cut their strip they run back and give their scissors to No. 2 of their team. No. 2 repeats their performance as do No. 3 and No. 4. Of course, the object is to see which No. 4 can first cut his way down the length of the paper.

It makes a very much better game if the lengths of paper are stretched out for the cutters, for the paper cuts much faster and wild mistakes are far more probable.

The Blindfolded Race.

There is nothing more exciting in this race than the mere fact that all runners are blindfolded. They get set on the starting line, are shown the goal, blindfolded, turned around three times, and then told to “Go.” Where they go is another matter!

The Ball Game.

Each contestant is given a rubber ball and a common pin. He is to roll the ball to the goal and return, the pin and nothing else being the motive power.

The Rainy Day.

Two little women and two big men make a team, and there can be four or five teams. The first lady of each[74] team is supplied with an umbrella, and if you have been careful to get one that sticks a bit in going up—well!

The lady is to carry the umbrella. At a signal she and her partner start walking to the other end of the room, where the lady opens the umbrella, takes the man’s arm, and, keeping the umbrella over his head all the way, leads him back to the goal line, where she closes the umbrella and gives it to the lady of the other couple making up the team. This lady and her partner go through the same performance, and the couple which first returns to the goal line and gets its stubborn umbrella closed, wins the race for its team.

The Torches.

Each contestant is given a lighted candle. He is to put this in his mouth, and when the signal for starting is given, is to run as fast as he dares to the goal and return. If his candle goes out, however, he must return to the starting point to have it relighted. Contestants in this race do look so queerish!

The relay plan may be used to good effect.

Beans.

Beans are worth their weight in gold when one considers their fun-making capacity. There are several ways of carrying beans in a race. One of the most hazardous of these is to have contestants carry them between a pair of match sticks. Knitting needles are even more hazardous. Knives, too, are hardly the easiest thing in the world on which to carry several beans, especially when one is in a tearing hurry. Still another way is to carry as many beans as possible on the back of the left hand.

[75]Whatever the means of carrying the beans from one place to another, in each case there should be three on a team, each team supplied with a pan of beans, all the pans containing the same number, this number varying with the utensil used. When match sticks or knitting needles are used, there should be no more than five or six beans to a pan, but there may be thirty or forty when the hand or knives are used.

Across the room from each team is an empty pan. At the signal for starting, the first one of each team starts carrying as many beans as he can manage across the room to the empty pan. He drops them into the pan and hurries back for more. When he has carried the last bean across the room, he runs back to give his knitting needle or knife or whatever it may be to the second one of his team, and this contestant is to run over to the full pan and start bringing the beans back to the empty pan in the same fashion in which they went across the room the first time. When he in turn has carried them all over he gives his implement to the third and last member of the team who is to finish the race by carrying all the beans back across the room once more. The team that first succeeds in getting all its beans across the room three times wins the race and all the beans.

Heavy, Heavy Hangs Over Thy Head.

Contestants are lined up against the rear wall in couples with two couples to each team, one couple standing in front of the other. Both members of the first couple of each team are given beanbags which they place on their heads. At a signal from the leader, all these first couples with beanbags on their heads run to[76] the other end of the room and back and give their beanbags to the second couples of their teams, whereupon these second couples put the beanbags on their heads and run the same course. The couple first reaching home wins the race.

It sounds easy. There is one technicality however that adds to the troubles of the runners. Partners must run with arms linked, and if a beanbag falls, they must stoop for it with arms still linked. That is so easy when one of the stoopers has a beanbag on his head!

Plato said, “One can discover more about a person in an hour’s play with him than is possible in a year’s conversation with him.”

We found out the real truth of that in our war work with soldiers and sailors, and we are continuing to see its truth in our recreation work in communities all over this country. It is a real revelation to a church to see how splendid an example of good sportsmanship the minister sets when he is absolutely duped in a trick game that sent the others into gales of good-natured laughter, with him, not at him, and yet comes through it laughing as heartily as anyone, and sincerely glad for the huge enjoyment the game created!

Trick games are invaluable not only for developing the finest kind of sportsmanship in victims and onlookers alike, however, but they are invaluable too as “fillers-in” for awkward pauses in an evening’s program. That is their forte, to bridge over awkward pauses, to keep interest high, to call forth hearty laughter and best of all, to create the finest kind of spirit in a social gathering.

Wrong!

Tell your guests that there are three words in the English language which are particularly difficult to spell, and that a person who can spell them correctly[78] can spell almost any word. Ask some individual to spell the word “receive.” He spells it correctly and you compliment him and then ask him to spell “believe.” He does spell it right, but you shake your head and laughingly say, “Wrong”! Say nothing more than that but repeat it several times at his insisting that he spelled “believe” correctly. Usually the next step is, “Well let’s start over again because I know I spelled those words correctly!” If the request is not forthcoming, make the suggestion yourself and start all over with “receive,” and after “believe” again shake your head and look shocked beyond words at the ignorance evidenced, and say “Wrong!”

If you are not fatally injured by this time, suggest again that you start from the beginning, and again after “believe” say “Wrong,” with a shocked look. Eventually your victim will arrive and spell “W-r-o-n-g!”

Palmistry.

This is always done by some very attractive girl. She will guarantee to read the palm of any man present, and leave it to the crowd if all she reads in his palm is not in accordance with what they know of him. Some well-known and popular man is chosen as the subject, and with the rest of the guests silent so that everything she says may be heard, she begins reading his palm. Her conversation may run as follows: “Now this is your head line, and it shows that you have a great many possibilities which you are not developing. Your heart line over here is woefully cracked. I’m not going into detail there! Your life line is firm and unbroken and it shows almost no ill health, but it does show an early and painful death because this line right here (pointing[79] to any other line) shows that you are an awful flirt and let young ladies hold your hand right out in public!”

Of What Are Matches Made?

This is best for a small group. Arrange four squares of matches on a table or a book. Ask your guests to take away four matches, and rearrange three, thus writing out the name of the thing of which matches are made. Invariably they will try to spell “Wood” and they have a real task ahead of them. What matches are really made of is “love,” which is very easy to spell in the required way!

Crystal Gazing.

Choose a guest who is fairly dignified but ready to appreciate a joke even though the joke be on him. Tell him that to read his thoughts is really a simple matter if he will look into quiet waters and do just what you tell him to do. Be perfectly serious in all that you say, for if you act as though it is going to be something funny, you scare off the bravest guest ever entertained.

Take two glasses of water, full to the brim. You take a sip out of one and ask him to take one from the other. Then slowly move the glasses around in a circular motion two or three times. Ask your victim to kneel and to place both hands on the floor with fingers spread out to enable him to hold the glasses securely without spilling any water. Put a glass on each hand, very emphatically stating that for either you or him to spill even one drop of water is against the spirit of the proceeding. Make a real point of this, for subjects are always scared to death that you are going to throw[80] water on them, and I can’t say that I’d appreciate that little bit of humor myself.

After the glasses are safely placed on his hands your conversation should run something like this: “Wait till that water quiets down and then look very intently into the glass on your right hand, the one out of which you drank. Then make a wish, a real one, not about something silly like the weather, but a wish that could come true before the end of the year. Don’t tell us what your wish is but tell us when you have made it, and almost at once I can tell you what your wish was and whether it will come true or not.”

That is the correct time for you to go to another and healthier part of the room. “Well, I’ve made my wish,” comes almost at once. Your reply is an indifferent, “Oh that’s all right. That doesn’t make any difference!” and you pay no more attention to his protests until the other guests have had their fill of the hilarious laughter that is inevitable at his ridiculous plight, whereupon you tell him that he is wishing you would take the water off his hands, and that his wish will come true!

Paralysis.

This can be the funniest thing imaginable. Choose someone who is not liable to look very deeply into the hidden meaning of your explanations. Tell him that if he will do exactly as you ask, you can hypnotize him so that it will be physically impossible for him to get up alone. Let me give you a skull and crossbones warning to put your emphasis on “alone,” and not on “up.”

You and your victim are seated facing each other, but make a great point of the fact that you don’t have[81] to touch him to hypnotize him. Ask him to look straight into your eyes and try to get into the spirit of the thing. He is to do everything you do and in the same way. That always seems to make victims feel that if you can do it without bodily injury, they too stand a good chance of coming out of it alive!

The process of hypnotism is on. Make the most ridiculous motions you can think of, accompanied by the most ridiculous noises, all the time looking intently at your subject. For example, sing up the scale (a process which many of us would make a ridiculous noise!) at the same time twiddling your fingers on top of your head as though the fingers were paper ribbons fluttering in the breezes. Your subject imitates you. Rub your hands together as though they were cymbals, while you buzz like a bee. The victim cymbalizes and buzzes. Five or six of these hypnotizing motions, conscientiously imitated, generally have the effect of paralyzing the audience with no further effort on your part, while the victim begins to “feel queer already!” Just about then you give one last intent look, one last hypnotizing motion, and tell him in a sepulchral tone that now it will be absolutely impossible for him to get up alone.

He experiments, putting out first one foot and then the other, and finally stands up triumphantly and crows, “Well I guess you didn’t hypnotize me! I stood up alone!” “Oh no you didn’t,” comes the answer, “I got up with you. You didn’t get up alone!”

Owa Tagoo Siam!

Tell your guests that the Siamese national slogan is very intricate and that only really intelligent people can[82] learn it, but that you have a way of teaching it so that even the simplest person can grasp it immediately. Ask them to repeat what you say. “Owa!” with emphasis on the o; “Tagoo!” with emphasis on the goo; “Siam!” Then ask them to repeat, running all three words together. They will have to do it over and over with much help and encouragement from you before they appreciate the full meaning of your scornful “Well I should say you are!”

Finally they arrive. Each one is exclaiming “Oh what a goose I am!”

Abbreviations.

Ask some dignified man to put the tip of his forefinger under his chin. While he holds it there ask him to tell the assembled multitude the abbreviation for quart. He will look the part when he says “Q-t,” which you’ll all agree sounds like “Cutie.”

Later on get some other guest to point his forefinger at his head and show how well educated he is by immediately giving the abbreviation for mountain “M-t.” certainly sounds like “empty” though it would hardly be right for any of the other guests to thus describe the victim’s head!

Under the Table.

Let the host make a wager with one of his men guests that he cannot get under the dining table or some small sidetable and stay there while his host knocks three times on the table. “Why that would take just a second! Surely I can!” He gets under the table and his host knocks once and twice and then knocks no more but proceeds to lead his guests out of the room, leaving[83] his betting friend either to pay up, or wait indefinitely under the table for the third knock!

Impossible!

“Would you like to see something that has never been seen before and that will never be seen again?”

“Impossible!”

Whereupon you pick up an English walnut or any kind of nut, crack it, take out the kernel and ask if it has ever been seen before; then eat it and ask if it will ever be seen again!

The Lost Sheep.

This is to follow some vocal selection that gained enough applause to justify an encore. Immediately following the announcement that the next number is to be a little ballad entitled “The Lost Sheep,” the accompanist begins an elaborate accompaniment with an introduction that is unusually long. At the correct moment she crashes out a loud chord and signals to the singer to begin. The singer takes a deep breath, holds it as long as she can, and then gives forth one heart-rending “Baa!”, the song of the lost sheep.

The Gathering of the Nuts.

It is announced that an impromptu farce will be staged, with guests taking the various parts. As the different guests are assigned parts they are in turn called to the stage and told where and how to stand. If a large group is present, from fifteen to twenty actors are used; if a small group, all of them may take part. A list of the various rôles has been made out, and the announcer begins calling out characters with the name[84] of the guest who is to take each part. The following cast is used to good advantage:

1. Two footlights, who sit at the front of the stage, upright when the footlights are on, but with faces to floor when off.

2. Curtain. A large man who stands at the middle back. When curtain goes up, arms are outstretched.

3. Scenery. Two girls who stand in right and left corners at the back of the stage with fingertips on top of their heads.

4. The Table. Two short men who, facing each other, bend over till the tops of their heads come together forming an ideal tabletop.

5. The Davenport. Two men who kneel facing each other with hands joined as near the floor as possible.

6. The Lamp. A tall girl with a very fixed radiant smile.

7. The Clock. A girl who moves her head from side to side, saying automatically, “Tick, tock, tick, tock!”

8. Exits. Two people standing at each door with joined hands held high to form a passageway.

9. The Heroine. A tall stout girl who stares dreamily at one of the light fixtures.

10. Her Mother, who stares adoringly at her.

11. Her Father. A picture of righteous wrath.

12. The Hero. A small meek man on his knees at the feet of the heroine.

13. The Villain. Arms crossed, sneer, air of defiance. Much showing teeth and twirling of mustache.

After they are all in their right places with instructions as to how to look and act, footlights go on, curtain goes up, and the announcer breaks in hurriedly, “Oh! I forgot to tell you the name of this play! It is ‘The[85] Gathering of the Nuts!’”, whereupon she makes a hasty exit!

The Band.

Guests are told that the object of the game is for each one to pantomime the action of the instrument assigned him, in such a realistic way that the others cannot help but guess what it is. Each performer is to continue his pantomiming until the audience makes the correct guess. The hostess then asks the first performer to step into another room with her so that she can tell him what his instrument is, and help him with the action of it. She assigns him something easy like a cornet, telling him at the same time however that his part is really a blind to keep the group from getting suspicious about any hoax. He goes back into the room, pantomimes the action of a cornet, and immediately the audience guesses “Cornet,” and probably thinks “Oh what a stupid game!”

The hostess carefully picks her next performer, takes him into the next room, and tells him his part. He is to play the accordion, and, according to rule, is to keep it up until the audience makes a correct guess as to his instrument. In the meantime, the man who played the cornet is carrying out the instructions given him by his hostess, and is telling the group that the next man will play an accordion, but that they are all to profess great ignorance and to guess everything under the sun but an accordion—a piano, a piccolo, drum, flute, violin, trombone, anything but an accordion. Inevitably the impatient question will come from the performer, “Well! What is it that I’m playing?” and the group will sweetly answer, “The part of the goat!”

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Whistle!

The group is told that a whistle will be blown behind the back of whoever is chosen to go into the center, and that he, because of a magic coat he has put on, has clairvoyant power and can immediately turn around and tell who did it. If he should by some mishap make an error, he may try again and he can without question guess who did it the second time.

Mr. Victim goes into the center and the magic coat is put across his shoulders. Great care must be used however so that he cannot possibly see that the whistle, which is a very light one, is hanging on a short cord pinned securely on the back of the coat just between the shoulders. The sleeves are tied in front and the coat is bunched across his back so that plenty of thickness is arranged for in order that he may not feel the whistle as he turns around rapidly. Other guests crowd in on him very closely so that the whistle can be reached easily and can be blown by any one of the onlookers without the victim’s feeling the tug.

When the leader says that all is ready, someone back of him blows an earsplitting blast on the whistle. Immediately everyone puts his hands behind him. Mr. Victim turns around at once and accuses the guiltiest looking one of holding the whistle. The guilty looking party holds up his hands and shows that he has no whistle and vows that he did not pass it to anyone else. Only one guess as to who did it is allowed in each case and the one accused is to hold up his hands at once, to prove his innocence or guilt.

Sooner or later the unfortunate in the center discovers who has been holding the whistle all the time, and that[87] is the strategic time for everyone to go into the other room!

The Prison Guard.

For a small group only. Make a square representing a prison on a piece of paper, not joining the lines at the corners however. Let “P” represent a prisoner in the center of the square. At three of the corners let “G” represent guards. The story is that the prisoner escaped in spite of the guards, that there was a guard at this, and this, and this gate, pointing with your pencil to the three gates at which are stationed guards. Ask how in the world he could have escaped.

Invariably someone answers, “Why he could have gone through this gate,” and puts the tip of his finger on the unguarded gate. Your pencil is resting carelessly on the paper. At the crucial moment you hold it poised and when the answer comes and the finger points to the unguarded gate, your pencil comes into action with a swift rap across the knuckles as you exclaim in surprise, “Oh no! I am guarding that gate!”

Magic Writing.

The magic writer sends his confederate out of the room while the group decides on some short active verb. On his return the magician will write out this word in magic writing, whereupon the confederate will immediately go through the action of the verb decided upon.

That verb may be “dance.” When the confederate comes into the room the magician must be careful to say nothing that is not connected with his magic writing, or he will confuse his confederate. The first thing he says is, “Don’t get excited.” He then makes a great[88] many fantastic motions on the floor with an umbrella, suddenly tapping hard, just once. Then he remarks, “Now be careful,” and after a very short pause, “Come on and try it,” and finishes with more flourishes of the umbrella and two distinct taps. Immediately the confederate, without saying a word, starts to dance.

It is a simple matter—when one knows how. The flourishes and the fantastic motions mean nothing, but all conversation and the taps mean a great deal. The first letter of each sentence gives the necessary consonant, and the taps give the vowels. For example, the first letter of the first sentence was “d.” Next came one tap, the first vowel “a,” then, “n,” then “c,” and then two taps for “e” the second vowel, and there you have “d-a-n-c-e.” The vowels come in their usual order of course, a, e, i, o, u, with one tap for a, two taps for e, three taps for i, etc., etc.

Discourage any other than short verbs. Imagine living through “palpitate!”

Hee Haw!

The group is told that at a signal, each one is to imitate the call of the animal assigned him, to see which one can do it the most realistically and still be heard above the others. Assistants go about, supposedly assigning the names of animals, but in reality whispering to everyone to make no sound at all. Only one person is told to really imitate the call of an animal. That is a victim who is to represent a donkey. When the signal comes, he “Hee Haw’s!” at the top of his lungs, blithely unconscious of the fact that he is alone in his efforts. That state of bliss does not last long!

[89]

Willie.

The leader holds her left hand in front of her, fingers spread out. With her right forefinger she traces her way along the inside of the fingers of her left hand. To illustrate, she starts at the tip of the thumb, comes down, and up to the tip of the forefinger, down it and up the second finger, and so on through all the fingers. She then starts at the thumb and does the same thing again. From the very first she has been saying, “Willie, Willie, Willie, Willie, little Willie, Willie, Willie!” in the most pitiful tone she can muster up, and in rhythm with her finger movements. She then quietly folds her hands and says “Now you do it.”

It looks so simple that it isn’t even funny until two or three people try it and make utter failures of it. Because she scowled when she did it, they scowl, thinking that that is the trick; because she used a pitiful tone, they use one; and they imitate her finger movements exactly, while she criticizes them for not getting the little finger just right. Finally someone arrives. It is the quiet folding of the hands at the end that is all-important.

Wonderful Vision.

The leader may claim that it is a perfectly simple matter for him to see through any amount of covering over his eyes. To test his vision, he chooses five or six testers if the group is large, but if there are not more than ten present they may all be included. They form a circle around his chair, first covering up his eyes so that he cannot possibly see. He then asks them to start moving slowly around him, each one doing something that no one else is doing. One may hop on one foot,[90] another clap his hands, another do facial gymnastics, fly, walk backwards, anything that no one else is doing, but each one must go through some action or the thought wave is broken and the wonderful vision impaired. One person is designated to suddenly stop all action after a minute or two of moving around, by clapping his hands and calling out, “Now! Exactly what is each one of us doing?” and the leader promises on his word of honor that in spite of the heavy covering over his eyes he can without a moment’s hesitation tell what every last person in the moving circle was doing at that identical moment.

The circle begins moving slowly around, each one in it going through some definite movement, and each one wondering, probably, how in the world the blindfolded leader will be able to tell that the Methodist minister is wiggling his ears, and that Mrs. Newly Rich is doing an esthetic dance. Suddenly a halt is called by the one chosen to do it. He claps his hands briskly and says, “Now tell us what we were doing at the moment I clapped my hands.”

The leader throws off the covering, looks intently at the group and then says with great satisfaction, “Each one of you was making a goose of himself!”

The Elastic Ring.

A guest with a large head is chosen as the one on whom to experiment. The hostess holds up a lady’s ring and assures her guests that if she, while facing this guest, holds the ring in just the right position she can easily poke her guest’s head right through it without hurting him in the least. It sounds incredible but her friend of the large head stands obediently before her, she twists[91] and turns the ring to get just the right position, finally succeeds, and giving a sigh of satisfaction, proceeds to poke his head through the ring by putting her finger through the ring and poking his head!

Rabbit.

The leader shows great enthusiasm in asking her guests if they know that “awfully funny new game ‘Rabbit.’” If a small group, all may join in; if a large one, only a select few have the privilege. They form a circle, kneel on the right knee, each one putting the first finger of the right hand on the floor. When they are all set the leader asks again as if to make sure, “Really don’t you know how to play ‘Rabbit’?” and again they assure her that they do not.

“Neither do I,” she remarks regretfully.

Rubber!

The leader has a rubber band at the base of the first two fingers of her left hand which is closed. She opens the hand suddenly and throws the rubber in such a way that it jumps clear across to the base of the third and fourth fingers of the same hand. Impossible? Not a bit, but only clever people can do it, or at least so the guests are told.

The rubber band is put at the base of the first two fingers. All four fingers are then folded over and the rubber is stretched a bit so that it may cover all four tips. When the fingers are stretched out straight it is inevitable that the rubber band jump to the base of the third and fourth fingers.

The Unbreakable Match.

A man’s handkerchief is opened up and waved about to show how free it is from any trickery. A match is[92] put in the exact center of the handkerchief which is then carefully folded up. Complete silence is asked for in order that all may hear the leader break the match. They listen carefully and admit that they hear the distinct crack of the match as it is broken. The leader shakes out the handkerchief and the match is shown, unbroken.

She repeats the performance, and each time all will admit that they heard her break the match. There are always many theories advanced as to how she does it—by cracking her finger-nails together, etc., etc., and there is always somebody who wants to see the handkerchief. Instead of showing it, however, she shakes it freely and tells them that that ought to satisfy anybody.

Just between us, there is a match pushed far into the hem at all four corners. Each time she is supposed to be cracking the match in the center of the handkerchief, she is very careful to crack one of the corner matches instead!

Leterfly.

Leterfly and Salaam are quite evidently not for exactly formal dress affairs! Leterfly is especially good for Poverty Parties and the like, and is best adapted to a small group. Guests are told that one by one they will be introduced to the Fly Family. The leader chooses four assistants, and the rest of the guests are taken aside some place where they cannot see the presentations. The assistants are lined up like a receiving line as the Fly Family, and as the guests come in, one at a time, they are presented to each member of the family. The first one is the butterfly, next the firefly, then the dragonfly, and lastly leterfly, who does what[93] her name implies and lets fly about ten drops of cold water from a thimble which she has held concealed at her side.

Salaam.

His Majesty, the King of Timbuktu, is seated on his throne at one end of the room with a page close at hand. Four or five people have been asked to leave the room and to come in one at a time as called, in order to be presented to His Majesty. The first one is called in, brought before the king, told to bow deeply before him three times, each time saying, “I pledge allegiance to my king.” He is told too, that the deeper his bow, the greater his favor with the king. He bows once, then again, and then a third time. His allegiance gets a bit chilled however during the third bow, for the page has provided the king with a small piece of ice, which is gently but firmly applied to the back of the neck during the third bow.

Hypnotism.

Much care is evidenced in the selecting of a subject for hypnotism. It is hardly necessary to say that a confederate is in the group. The hypnotist goes about touching different people’s temples to see whether they are the right kind for hypnotism. He finally discovers a good subject, his confederate of course. The subject is sent out of the room while the group decides on something they want him to do when hypnotized. Perhaps they want him to sing. He is seated on a chair facing the audience and the hypnotist begins to rub his forehead slowly. The movements are slow and well defined, that is, the fingers are lifted after each move across the forehead. The subject soon loses consciousness and as[94] the movements continue, seems to get more and more under the spell of the hypnotist. Finally with a shaking of his fingers the hypnotist stops and there is absolute silence for just a moment, in order to keep the subject under the spell. Suddenly he begins singing in a high squeaky voice, “Wait till the Sun Shines Nellie!”

If the subject has any relatives present they will almost surely beg that he be taken out of his trance. The obliging hypnotist presses his fingers twice into the temples of the subject who shudders, sighs, and wakes up wondering what it is all about!

Frankly, it is not easy to do unless both subject and hypnotist are very alert and wideawake. If they are, however, it is a comparatively simple process to hypnotize a confederate into doing anything the audience wants him to do. We assume that they want him to sing. The hypnotist begins rubbing his forehead and carefully rubs nineteen times, for “s,” the first letter in sing, is the nineteenth letter of the alphabet. He carefully lifts his fingers at the end of each movement. After the nineteenth rub he presses hard into both temples to show that the letter is completed. Waiting just a second, he begins again and rubs nine times for “i,” the ninth letter of the alphabet, pressing the temples at the end. The next time he rubs fourteen times for “n,” and the last time only seven times for “g,” at the end of which he shakes his fingers vigorously as a signal that the word is completed.

It will make it more interesting for all concerned if the hypnotist asks the audience to choose verbs of three or four letters. His explanation is that simple action is very easy to get over even to a new subject, while long and complicated action takes practice. The real[95] reason is that it is fairly easy for a subject to get the words “cry,” or “dance” or “sleep” or “jump,” while “hippity-hop” would be almost impossible and too long drawn out to be interesting.

If a hypnotist can get a confederate who will get thoroughly into the spirit of the thing and sigh, shudder, go into a trance, or act completely exhausted, while the hypnotist himself makes a serious thing out of it, a group can be completely deceived as to the genuineness of the performance.

Eny.

This is particularly good for a table game or in any situation where there is no room for moving around. Announce that there is a word in the English language that ends in “eny,” pronounced like “any.” It is necessary to put just one letter at the beginning to make it a very common and much used word. Suggest that they begin with “a” putting every letter of the alphabet in turn before “eny” till the proper letter is found. The usual process is this: “A-eny, b-eny, c-eny, d-eny, f-eny, g-eny, h-eny,” and so on through the entire alphabet until an impatient “Why there isn’t a single letter that will do it,” calls forth your positive assurance that there is a letter that will do it.

If they simply cannot get it, ask them to change the accent. Finally they will arrive. “D-eny” is a perfectly good word.

“T.”

Guests are sitting about informally when the hostess turns to her right-hand neighbor, Mrs. Brown, and says, “I simply can’t abide ‘t’ but I like onions. What do[96] you like, Mrs. Brown?” and Mrs. Brown, who knows the game, answers, “I don’t like ‘t’ but I like cabbage,” and turns to the next one who is in the dark as to what they are talking about, and asks her what she likes. She replies, “Well, I don’t like tea but I love soda water,” but laughter greets her and she is told that she certainly cannot join their secret organization. Her right-hand neighbor then tells what she likes, and so it goes around the circle, all the uninitiated trying valiantly to get in on this secret understanding that seems to be so funny. Before it has gone around the circle once, however, someone gets it. She is not allowed to tell, but when her turn comes in the second round she gives evidence as to whether she is right or not. She might say perhaps, “I don’t like ‘t’ but I do like pickles!” and she is declared an initiated member.

It is very simple. If you wish to belong to the “Anti-T” band your taste must run to food that has no “t” in it, like pickles, soup, etc., etc. but not like potatoes, turnips or ketchup!

Self Praise.

The hostess makes a remark to the effect that “This group is mighty good-looking,” accompanying the remark with a very prim, set smile, and then asks the one at her right to repeat it exactly as she gave it. The neighbor gives what she considers an exact duplication of the remark and the smile, but she is told that she isn’t even warm, so the next one tries it and so it goes around the circle, with some of them utter failures and others very successful. This continues until most of them have arrived.

Many of them put the greatest emphasis on the smile,[97] thinking that that is the important factor, which of course is just exactly what you wanted them to think, for half the fun of the game is caused by the utterly hopeless smiles that are forthcoming. The successful ones however have noticed that each time before you made a remark you cleared your throat. Easy, isn’t it, when you know how?

No Fair!

Two of the men are blindfolded and are asked to sit in the middle of the circle on the floor, facing each other with knees touching. Each one is given a swatter, made of newspapers folded together. At a signal, the smaller one of the two is told to call out to the other “Where are you?” and the big one is to answer “Right here,” and then without moving his knees he may dodge in any way he can to avoid the sweep of the swatter that his opponent aims in the direction of the “Right here.” He may be successful in his dodging, but then again, he may not, and he gets a “swat” that calls for revenge, so he takes his turn, and calls out, “Where are you?”, and the small one answers, “Right here” and immediately dodges as best he can the avenging swatter that is swatting in his direction. They take turns at this for a few moments and then the small one, to whom the leader has whispered a few words when he was blindfolding him, slips down the blindfolder and gets in several good dodges and several good swats before his opponent gets suspicious that all is not well!

Mr. Bumps.

The leader invites her guests to watch very closely the ceremony she will go through in honor of her friend[98] Mr. Bumps, and tells them that an opportunity will be given to imitate the ceremony.

She sits at a table with a glass of water before her and with all simplicity begins her ceremony. Holding the glass between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand she takes a sip of water and says, “I drink to Mr. Bumps,” puts the glass down, taps on top of the table with her right forefinger, does the same with her left forefinger, repeats the finger tapping performance under the edge of the table, taps the floor with her right foot, then her left foot, and finally, bows her head once.

The second part of the ceremony is exactly like the first except that everything is done twice and the glass is held between the thumb and two fingers instead of just one finger. Two drinks are taken; the toast, “I drink to Mr. Bumps twice,” is given; the right forefinger and the left forefinger tap twice on top of the table and twice under the edge of the table; the right foot and then the left foot tap on the floor; and the head is bowed twice.

The third and last part of the ceremony too is just like the first, except that everything is done three times, and the glass is held between the thumb and three fingers, and the toast is, “I drink to Mr. Bumps for the third and last time.”

A cordial invitation to do likewise is then issued. While the explanation as given here may sound rather complicated, the performance really looks extremely simple, and in the average group there will be several who are sure they can do it. I have never yet seen a person do it absolutely correctly with the first effort, and it usually takes several efforts to master this apparently very simple procedure. Every applicant is given just[99] one chance in the first round and at his first mistake he is supplanted by a new applicant. When they have all been given a chance (and incidentally all have failed) they are all urged to try again and each successive time it becomes easier but only one mistake is allowed in each trial.

You may look skeptical at the statement that real head-work is essential. My only answer is, “Try it!”

I Hypnotize You!

If the group is large, some five or six guests are asked to sit in a circle in front of the audience. If there are not more than ten guests present, let them all form a circle, seated, with a person who will make a good victim next to the leader. A good victim is not always only a good sport. He is inevitably that, but in addition, a leader who chooses her subjects wisely will choose one who will not readily see the hoax. In this case the victim is entirely unconscious of the important part he is to play.

The leader tells the group that certain very simple movements of the hands across the forehead of a subject can hypnotize that subject in almost no time, and without actually hypnotizing her subject she will demonstrate on her neighbor, so that they may all see the principle of the thing and practice on their neighbors before the real hypnotizing begins. Subjects in each case should be right-hand neighbors. Assuring her right-hand neighbor in all seriousness that she is only going through the motions of hypnotizing, without really accomplishing anything, she begins demonstrating on him. Her hands are lying folded in her lap. Her first request is very important, but she is very casual as she asks[100] her victim to close his eyes, as she wishes to make certain movements over the closed eyes. As soon as his eyes are closed she makes several soft, gentle movements directly around and over his eyes, making much of the point that she is only demonstrating and not actually hypnotizing. When she has done the thing to her own satisfaction, she folds her hands again and tells him to open his eyes, while he, together with the rest of the group, is to practice these movements preparatory to some actual hypnotizing.

Mr. Victim cannot understand the very unreasonable mirth of the other members of the circle, who have all they can do to keep upright as they make a pretense of practicing on each other. He finally gets suspicious however, and goes to a mirror. What he sees there leaves no doubt in his mind as to what they were finding so extremely funny!

The leader’s hands, which were folded so innocently in her lap, had previously been generously coated with lampblack, all of which had transferred itself to his face!

Magic Photography.

This is for a small group of guests who know each other fairly well. The photographer boasts that he can take an impression of a person’s face on the back of a spoon, and make it so real that another person who has been out of the room can almost immediately tell whose picture was taken.

In the face of the scoffing, he sends someone (of course his confederate) out of the room, and sets about taking the picture of one of the guests on the back of a spoon. He rubs the spoon over the entire face, pressing into the[101] depressions at either side of the nose and being sure to get the mold of the chin. He then calls in the one who was out of the room, shows him the spoon and asks, “What beauty is it?” At once comes the answer, “Winona Beal,” and he is right. He goes out again and when he has been called in the second time, the photographer says, showing him the spoon, “Go ahead!” and the answer is, “It is Gertrude Addams,” and again he is right.

The solution is this: The first two words of the photographer’s statement have as their first letters the initials of the one photographed. “What beauty is it?” gave the initials “W” and “B” and “Go ahead” gave “G” and “A.”

In games of this kind, instead of endeavoring to find out the trick used, there is the inevitable someone who says, “Let me go out.” It has proved wise to let one of these inevitables go out of the room, telling him when he comes back that you are not sure that he will be quick enough to get the resemblance on the spoon, thereby putting the burden of proof on him. Sure enough, he fails, and almost always your group will ask that the one who was first sent out of the room be sent again, for no trick that does not work is interesting.

It is another matter when someone thinks he has discovered your trick. Instead of telling the group what he thinks it is, you ask him to leave the room in place of your confederate and when he gets back and tells correctly whose picture is on the spoon, it is much to the delight of the crowd. As each one of them discovers the trick and is allowed to try out his discovery, one by one they guess it, and nothing puts a crowd into a[102] better humor than to have guessed a trick which looked hard!

The Pain.

There may in this very large world still be one or even two people who have not heard of the way to hypnotize a person so that he will inevitably feel a pain (pane). The hypnotist makes several passes before the eyes of the subject, stares at him fixedly, presses his hands on the temple of the subject, leads him to a window, raps his hand very lightly on the glass, holds his fingers there, and then inquires solicitously, and yet triumphantly, “You feel a pane now, don’t you?”

The subject, who feels absolutely no discomfort or pain, says so freely, but he is corrected by the hypnotist who assures him that he certainly is feeling pane!

Teapot.

This game centers about words that have two meanings like “can.” It is used to best advantage with a small informal group. The leader starts it by saying “I teapot teapot peaches when I teapot get them,” and the neighbor to her right is to take up the conversation if she can think of the word in the place of which teapot was used. She guesses correctly so she says, “Most teapots are made of tin, but I teapot show you a teapot made of glass.” Her right-hand neighbor has not the slightest inkling of what word they are thinking about, so she is obliged to pass, and so it goes around the circle, anyone who passes being obliged to pay a forfeit. When each one has had a turn and it comes back to the leader she tells what word she had in mind, “can.”

Then she starts another one, this one perhaps, “see,”[103] and as before, she omits the word “see” and uses “teapot” instead. For example, “I did teapot the teapot when a fearful storm was up, and I am sure that I shall never again teapot such a raging teapot.”

Sometimes the leader will call upon someone else to start a new word, and in each case, anyone who is unable to “catch on” pays a forfeit.

Magic Numbers.

Children love easy trick games which they may try out on each other. One of the easiest and simplest of these is one in which someone, a confederate of course, is sent out of the room while the others decide on some number under ten. Perhaps they decide on six. The outsider is called in and the leader remarks to him, “Fire Away,” and immediately he says, “You decided on six.”

The next time when they chose four for their number, the leader said to his confederate, “Do you think you can get it from looking at me?” and of course the confederate said, “Easily. It is four.”

The first letter of any remark the leader makes tells the confederate what number has been decided upon. In “Fire away,” the first letter was “f,” which is the sixth letter of the alphabet. Therefore, six was the number chosen. In “Do you think” etc., etc., “d,” the fourth letter of the alphabet, gives the number four.

Red, White and Blue.

This is one of the most irritating and fascinating puzzles ever put to an informal group. While the confederate is out of the room the leader asks the guests to decide on any object in the room. The confederate[104] is called in and after naming several wrong articles in the room, asking each time if that is the one chosen, the leader names the right one and instantly the answer is made, “That is the thing you chose.” Immediately someone says, “Oh, it is just like ‘Black Magic’ except that you name a red object just before the right one.”

The leader smiles and answers, “All right. Just watch this next time,” and next time the right object certainly was not preceded by an object that was red, nor was it the next time. As it happened, however, when the leader pointed out wrong objects and finally the right one the next time, the right one was preceded by something red and every last guest noticed it and spoke of it, but they could not say that the trick was that the right object was always preceded by something red, for that was not true.

The system used is indeed very much like “Black Magic” in which the object decided upon is always preceded by an object that is black, but in this case the right object is preceded by objects that are red, white and blue, in turn. The first time it follows a red object, next a white one, and then a blue one. Then the series begins all over again, first a red object to precede it, then a white one, and then a blue one and so on till finally some bright mind recognizes the familiar combination!

This chapter is headed “Picnics” but a great many of the events included may be used to good advantage in the gymnasium, as well as out-of-doors.

Races.

The Horse Races.

It certainly is fun to play baseball on horseback, but it is a great deal funnier to race on horseback, unless—your horse falls down!

Each runner sits on a horse, and at a signal from the starter the horses start running for the goal, some fifty feet away. All the runner has to do is to “sit tight” and, if possible, keep his horse from going down flat, for it surely is not the horse who gets the worst of that possible episode! They must return to the starting point, and if the relay plan is used, touch off the next horse and his rider, who must run the same course.

The Baby Carriage Contest.

If possible get two or three obsolete baby carriages, each carriage to be manned by a boy and a man. The boy is the rider of course, but if it is possible to find a man small enough to ride in the carriage without totally demolishing it, substitute this small man for the[106] boy, for nothing looks funnier than a grown up man scrunched down into a baby carriage, with his feet dangling overboard!

The race is just like any other race, to a goal and return, except that it is harder to look at without hurting one’s self!

The Rollers.

“Whoops” under “Races” may be used at a picnic for a woman’s race. Another race, run on the same principle, uses automobile tires as the thing to be rolled by hand, men, of course, being contestants.

Hardboiled eggs too, make wonderful “rollers,” and should be rolled to the goal and return by means of lead pencils or hairpins.

The Sack Race.

Just the plain old-fashioned sack race, in which contestants have both legs in a sack and must run to the goal and return, thus impeded. Excitement is added if the relay plan is used, whereby each runner must, on returning to the starting point, take off his sack and give it to the other runner of his team! When one is in a hurry that is a very easy thing to do!

The New Era.

Men only are allowed to enter as contestants, and each is given a lady’s skirt which he must put on and wear throughout the race. Men are so graceful anyhow!

The Sticks.

Runners are given sawed-off broomsticks which they are to put under their bent knees. They are to keep[107] them there while they race, inch by inch, to the goal and back. The course should be a short one.

The Squatters Race.

Runners bend knees, squat on heels, and with hands on hips, go to the goal and return at a whirlwind pace—maybe! What is more, nothing is said to them about the way they will undoubtedly feel the next morning! One should be merciful and make this course, too, a short one.

Bang!

Each contestant is given five common paper bags. At the signal for starting they are to blow up these bags one by one, exploding each one as it is filled with air. The one who first blows up and explodes all his bags gets a toy balloon.

The Water Bearers.

Each runner is given a glass which is full to the brim of water. All he has to do is to hop on one foot to the goal and return, carrying the water all the way! The prize offered for this race should be a generous one!

The Greased Pole and Pig.

A picnic would hardly be a picnic unless a greased pole is counted “among those present.” The pole is just exactly what it sounds like, a greased pole, and at the top of it is a tiny flag which must be captured and brought down by the victorious climber who gets a very real prize. He deserves it!

A cousin game to that which entails climbing a greased pole, is one which offers any and everyone the privilege[108] of catching a greased pig. If no fence is available a barrier is made with strips of canvas, strong strips and high strips! The pig, which has been made as slippery as any pig can be made, is turned loose in this inclosure and the chase is on. The one who catches the pig keeps him—and welcome!

It might be fitting to suggest that contestants in either event be offered the temporary use of overalls!

The Picnic Blues.

Anxious mothers have been justified in worrying when they saw Johnny and Henry gobbling down pie in wholesale and extremely hurried fashion, in a blueberry pie-eating contest. They know what will happen that night at 3 a.m.! It is not the blueberries that give her anxious moments either! Neither is it the contest. It is the heavenly blue smeared all over the countenance of Johnny and Henry, in every place a blueberry can find a foothold! That blue will be just as heavenly and smear just as well when its source is a thick blue sauce made of blueberries, and it is put into pie tins for the same contest.

The Subway.

Boys are lined up in columns, six or seven in each column, with feet spread apart. At a signal from the leader, the last one of each column gets down on his hands and knees and crawls through the natural “subway” to the front. As soon as he gets there he stands up in front of the column and calls “All set!” whereupon the last one of the column hurries through the subway, doing the same thing when he reaches the front. When the one who was originally the first of the column[109] finally gets his turn and crawls through to his original place the race is over, and of course, all honor and glory and a prize to the team that can first get its original leader back to his place!

Two in One Race.

Boys are arranged in couples. The two forming each couple stand back to back with arms interlocked. One of them stands facing the goal. When all of the couples are so arranged, a signal is given and they start running to the goal, about twenty-five feet away, and return.

Two fat boys linked together and racing in this way make a sight worth going miles to see!

Leap Frog.

The boys are divided into two teams, each team forming a circle, everyone down on all fours. At a signal, a designated leader in each circle starts leapfrogging his way around the circle. When he has leaped ever the last one he gets down again on all fours and slaps the one in front of him who starts to leapfrog around the circle. When he has gone all the way around, he too squats down, slaps the one in front of him and he starts his little journey. The circle whose last leapfrogger first reaches his former place gets the prize.

The Human Wheelbarrow.

There are two on a team in this Wheelbarrow Race but there is no wheelbarrow. One member of the team is a boy and the other a man. The boy is the wheelbarrow, and the man the driver. The boy gets down on his hands and knees, the driver takes hold of his feet, and when the signal to start comes, lifts the feet[110] off the ground so that the boy is walking on his hands alone.

The course, about twenty-five feet in length, should be on a grassy plot. Let a driver’s sense of humor get the best of him, as it usually does, and the wheelbarrow goes flat on his face!

The Penalty.

The usual three-legged race is put on with only two teams competing. Just before they start to run, tell them that the losers will be made to get down on all fours, the winners placed on their backs and that they will be forced to carry the victors the full length of the course, with all “accidental” tipping positively forbidden!

Housewives’ Race.

A large space is cleared with the onlookers forming a very close circle around it. Contestants are all women of not less than twenty-five years of age. A chicken is turned loose in this open space and the woman who catches it may have it. None of the onlookers may help her beyond seeing to it that the chicken does not get outside the circle.

You and I know that the chicken’s freedom is not in such very grave danger!

Obstacle Race.

The course is not longer than fifty yards, and a line of obstacles is set out for each one of the three teams, two men or boys in each team.

Runners No. 1 start the race. They are to:

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They then hurry back to touch off No. 2 of their team, who must go through the same performance. There is one rule that is strictly enforced. That is that the singing must be done clearly and distinctly and as musically as possible!

Lobster Race.

Any number of men or boys may enter as contestants. At a given signal runners turn around, get down on all fours on the starting line, and speed to the goal and return, going backwards and on all fours all the way. It is remarkable, the great similarity to lobsters out for a stroll!

Hippity-hop.

Girls are pitted against the men. The girls stand in one line and the men in another, the first one in each line being about fifteen feet away from a tree directly in front of that line. At a signal the first girl and the first man start hippity-hopping, each one up to and around his tree and back to his line, touching the hand of the next runner who immediately starts to hippity-hop over the same course, while those who ran first go to the end of the line. When the second runner gets back, he touches the hand of the third one, and he too hippity-hops to the tree and back, each one going at once to the end of the line when he has finished. This goes on till everyone has hopped and members of the[112] team whose last runner first touches the first runner’s hand win the game and a dish of ice cream.

I have never yet seen a group of girls who couldn’t out-hippity-hop any group of men!

The Bottle Race.

Six empty bottles are necessary for this race, milk bottles, Coca-Cola bottles, almost any kind will do, but it is preferable to have bottles that tip easily. Contestants are divided into two lines. A rope has been laid on the ground about twenty feet in front of these lines and six bottles have been placed there, three for each line. At a signal, the first one of each team runs up to the rope, picks up his three bottles which are lying on the ground, places them upright and runs back to touch the hands of the next runner, who starts at once for the goal, knocks the three bottles down, and hurries back to touch off the next runner. He in turn stands the bottles up again, while the next runner knocks them down, and so on. If a bottle falls down the runner must go back to stand it up again before he can touch the the next runner. Each runner, when he has finished and has touched off the next runner, goes to the end of the line. The side whose last runner first touches the first runner’s hand wins the race.

Masculine Vanity Race.

Contestants run the length of the course, about fifty feet, take off their caps, shoes, coats, and ties, put them on the ground, run to the starting point, back to their clothes, put them on, and then race back to the starting line. The one who arrives first, fully clothed, gets a little vanity mirror as a reward!

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Cradle Roll.

It is always possible to get certain wholesome hard candies wrapped in bright colored papers, preferably red. All Cradle Rollers are gathered into a small open space and it is left to their mothers to tell them that real, honest-to-goodness candy will be tossed up in the air and that they are to scramble for it, and that the one who gets the most will get a big red balloon! It is perfectly all right for mothers to accompany the scramblers as long as the children themselves pick up the candy.

Kindergartners.

At a signal each youthful contestant is to run over to the balloon man to get a balloon. As each one is given his balloon he begins blowing it up and the one who blows the biggest balloon in the shortest time gets a bag of peanuts.

You know what happens to fat Jimmy Pond! He blows like a north wind, determined that his balloon shall be the largest. It is—for one second, and then it pops!

Niagara Falls.

Two in each team, one of them provided with a glass of water, the glass full to the brim, and balanced on his head. At a signal from the leader, No. 1 of each team, with the water on his head, walks as rapidly as he dares to the goal, about fifteen feet away, and returns to give the glass to No. 2 of his team who does the same thing, trying of course to be the first one to return to the starting point.

[114]His glass however must still be at least half full of water if he hopes to win the prize. Some water spills. We hope for that! But no one is allowed to spill more than half of it without going back for a fresh supply. Anyone who drops a glass and spills all his water, goes back to the starting point, is loaned a towel, given another glassful of water, and is started out again on his perilous journey!

Wheelbarrow Race.

Four on each team, two drivers and two passengers. Wheelbarrows are all set at the starting point with passengers No. 1 sitting in them and drivers No. 1 all ready to go. At the signal they are off to the goal and return, the drivers dumping their passengers without ceremony, and turning their wheelbarrows over to drivers No. 2, who hustle their passengers into the wheelbarrows and repeat the performance. It is always surprising to note how many men have forgotten how to propel a wheelbarrow, and even more surprising to see how few people can ride in one easily and comfortably!

Picnic Games.

Couple Baseball.

There are eighteen on a team, nine men and nine boys. The diamond is very small, not more than eighteen feet across, and preferably very grassy. The game is played exactly like Indoor Baseball except that every player is riding a “horse.” The boys are the riders and the men the horses. Horses are down on all fours with riders astride their backs.

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The pitcher, who is perched on his horse, begins pitching and the boy up to bat, who is sitting with difficulty on a fat horse, makes a hit out toward center field. Immediately his horse starts for first base, while center field on his horse goes on a mad chase after the ball. No player is allowed to leave his horse voluntarily. There are times, however, when it is involuntary. For some unknown reason, horses hurrying from one base to another or chasing a ball, find humor in the situation and a prone position for both rider and horse is the inevitable result!

Out!

This game must be played within an inclosure. If no rope is available, certain trees may be pointed out as forming the boundary line and anyone going outside the boundaries is out. The game is a great deal of fun when the players number from twenty to forty, and four or five balls are used. The balls should be either very soft Indoor baseballs which have been considerably battered, or the larger Playground ball.

The leader tosses these balls into the center, which is the signal for the game to begin. Those nearest the balls pick them up and throw them at someone. If the people at whom the balls are thrown catch them, all is well, but if they do not, and are hit by the ball, they are out, and must go outside the boundaries. The game continues in this way until all but one have been hit. You can be sure he has had to be pretty agile!

Sad experience will prompt any leader to issue the warning that no one is allowed to aim above the shoulder, and in any case, no swift balls are allowed.

It makes for real humor when Mr. Black sees Miss[116] Carnes aiming a ball at him and he either dodges or catches it, and is crowing in triumph, when along comes a well aimed ball from the rear and hits him smack between the shoulders, and he is out!

Duck on the Rock.

Each of the players, of whom there are from twelve to fifteen, provides himself with a small rock. Players stand in a line about twenty feet back of the duck, the rock belonging to “It.” This duck is placed on a large flat stone. When they are all ready, the signal to throw is given. They take turns throwing at the duck, each one trying to knock it off. No one succeeds however. This means that they must take a stand near their own rocks, and whenever they see the opportunity, snatch up their rocks and run home, home being the line from which they threw. If “It” is able to tag someone who has his rock in his hand, that person becomes the new “It” and his rock becomes the duck.

Immediately they begin throwing at the duck again, and while the first four fail to knock it off and are obliged to stand next to their rocks until they see a chance to run home, the fifth thrower is successful in knocking off the duck, and all those waiting to run home snatch up their rocks and run, for “It” cannot tag anyone while the duck is off the rock, and they may all go home in safety. As soon as he gets his duck back on again, however, he may tag anyone who is touching his rock, or running home with it in his hand.

One rule of this game invariably brings about the funniest and most awkward situations! If a person once touches his rock, thinking he sees a chance to run home, and “It” turns around unexpectedly, thereby[117] making the safe run home a doubtful thing, the player is not allowed to drop his rock but must pick it up and run for all he is worth, even though his chances of getting past “It” are as nothing!

Triple Dodge Ball.

For a group of men and boys at a picnic, there is no game any livelier or more exciting than Triple Dodge Ball. It is played just like the more familiar “Dodge Ball” except that three balls instead of one are used. A large circle is made, players numbering from twenty to sixty. They count off by twos, numbering “1,” “2,” “1,” “2,” all around the circle. All the 1’s go into the center while the 2’s make a rather large circle around them. Three soft basketballs are distributed among the 2’s and at a signal from the leader they start to throw the balls at those in the center, no one being allowed to aim higher than the knees. Anyone who is hit must leave the center and join the circle made by the 2’s. When all of the 1’s have been hit they change places with the 2’s, the 2’s going into the center and the 1’s making the circle.

When all of the 2’s have been hit, the last 1 and the last 2 to leave the circle are called back into the center to decide which of the two sides is the more agile in dodging the ball. A very large circle is made to give them plenty of room. Of course all of the 1’s will make every effort to hit the No. 2 who is in the center and the 2’s will hardly be remiss when it comes to aiming at the No. 1 who is dodging them!

One rule must be enforced. No player is allowed to leave his place in the circle to throw the ball. It is[118] such a temptation to take just a few steps inside the circle to get a better aim!

Family Hide and Go Seek.

A limited area must be defined on the picnic ground. The one who is hiding cannot go outside that area. Only one of a group goes out to hide. After giving him some three or four minutes in which to hide, the rest of the group go after him. They must go out singly, not even two people being allowed to hunt together. The reason for this is soon apparent. As soon as a hunter finds the one who is hiding, instead of setting up an alarm, he hides with him. The next one does the same, and so on, until they have all found the one who was hiding. The last one to find him is given the title “Booby!”

The one who first found the hider is the one who will go out to hide the next time.

Backward Tug of War.

The only difference between this and the ordinary tug of war is that all pullers must face away from the center, the two opposing teams having their backs to each other! You can imagine what that does to the losing side that starts to slip!

Two Deep.

This is played just like the old-fashioned “Three Deep” except that it is only two deep. Guests stand in a single circle, with “It” and the one who is being chased on the outside. The one who is chased runs around the circle and suddenly cuts inside and stands in front of some other player with his back to him. This[119] player is the runner then and he must fly to get away from “It,” who is close on his heels. When he too gets inside and stands with his back to some other player he is safe, but the one in front of whom he stands is the next runner. If he gets caught he becomes “It” and the former “It” gets to safety by standing in front of some unfortunate friend of his.

Follow the Leader.

Anyone who wishes may join the line of march and drop out at any time it is getting too difficult for him, but no one is allowed to rejoin a line after once having dropped out to rest. The leader does the usual stunts of “Follow the Leader.” These stunts may include:

One-Legged Pom Pom Pull Away.

This is played just like the old “Pom Pom Pull Away” except that all players and “It” are compelled to hop on one foot. Players line up on the “home” line, with “It” facing them in an open space some thirty feet in width. At the signal all players must leave home and hop on one foot to the opposite side of the open space. “It” chases them, he too being allowed only one foot. Anyone he tags while in the open space must come to the center with him and help him catch the others.

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The Rooster Fight.

The group is divided into two even sides, each person having an opponent assigned him. At the signal each one starts “fighting” his opponent in the following way: The right hand is put on the hip, and hopping on the right foot, the rooster tries to bump his enemy in such a way that he is compelled to put down his left foot to keep his balance. If he does do that he is out of the game.

When the issue has been decided between all opponents, all the winners are called out, and they are again paired off with opponents. This is repeated until there are only two left to compete for the bumper championship. The one who wins gets a toy rooster.

The Target.

Some thirty to forty men players form two long lines facing each other not more than five feet apart. The one who by the process of “counting out” is chosen to be the first target, is to walk through these lines while the players punish him in various ways! Of course no one is allowed to touch his head or to really strike hard, but many very successful “taps” are possible! However, it is not as one-sided as it might appear. If the target is successful in being able to turn around quickly enough to actually see someone hit him, that someone immediately becomes the new target, and he too must walk up and down the line with head bent until he is able to catch someone in the very act of hitting him.

Poison Ball.

Small circles are formed with not more than fifteen players to a circle, one of the players being in the[121] center. Someone in each circle is given an Indoor baseball and at the starting signal throws it across the circle to another player. If the one in the center catches the ball while it is going through the air the one who threw it becomes “It,” and takes the place in the center. Moreover, if “It” can touch the ball while it is still in some player’s hand, that player becomes “It.”

The one object of the game is to get the ball out of one’s hands before “It” can touch it.

Picnic Stagecoach.

A grassy plot is essential for this boys’ game. It is played very much like “Stagecoach,” in that each player, all of them seated on chairs, is given a part to represent. One may be a wheel, another the brake, another the door, etc., etc. The leader, who is on all fours, tells the story of an eventful ride on the stagecoach and as he calls out the name of the different parts they line up behind him on all fours. Finally all parts are assembled and the stagecoach moves off on its journey around the grassy plot. Suddenly an awful accident occurs and with an awful “Bang!” the whole thing falls apart, and all parts must hurry back to their chairs still on all fours.

It must be remembered that the leader was on all fours at the beginning of the game and had no chair. Therefore there will be someone who will be left without a chair. That person is the next story teller and tells the tale of what happened to the stagecoach, all the players having in the meanwhile changed parts with each other.

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Tag Games.

Sing Tag.

This is one of the funniest tag games that ever left a person breathless from laughing. “It” is chasing some great big fellow and this big fellow cannot run another step, so to save himself from being caught he starts to sing at the top of his lungs and—he is safe! The minute “It” starts to go away, he may stop singing but that is the only way any player can be safe, to loudly sing some song no other player is singing!

Cripple Tag.

“It” must clasp his hands behind him and tag with his shoulder only.

Three in One.

Three players are “It” and must run with arms linked. To catch anyone they must encircle him. The one whom they catch hooks on to the right end of their line and the one on the left end is no longer “It” but goes free. The next one who is caught does the same thing, links arms with the right end of the “It” line and the one on the left end is free. That will make your “Its” change constantly.

If you think it an easy matter to get away from three “Its” just try it!

Ouch!

“It” runs around trying to tag someone in some spot that is remote from a runner’s hand.

He finally tags Jimmy right between the shoulders. Jimmy becomes “It” and must run around with his left[123] hand on the place on which he was tagged, between the shoulders. But Jim gets his revenge because in just about no time he tags Harry on the heel and Harry has to be “It” with his hand on his heel. “It” must always keep his left hand on the place he was tagged. If there are any fat guests present tag them on the toe, and watch them run around with their hands on their toes!

Ankle Tag.

A limited space is advisable with not more than thirty men or boys as contestants. Let trees make a boundary line. No one is allowed to go outside that line. “It” is chasing Mr. Jones, who, wishing to save himself, looks for the nearest ankle as a safety spot. It belongs to Billy Sprowls. Mr. Jones clutches that ankle, thereby making both himself and Billy safe. Jack Knight has Billy’s other ankle and he too is safe. “It” looks for another victim who perhaps makes a noble effort to get an ankle but just as he is about to lay hold on it, the owner of the ankle flees, leaving him in the clutches of the enemy. If he is tagged he becomes “It.” A whistle is blown every time a new “It” is installed, to avoid confusion.

Perhaps “It” thinks that some people are playing safe too long at a stretch, so he may call out “Fruit basket!” and everyone must change his position.

The rules are very simple. They are as follows:

1. Anyone grasping an ankle is safe. So is the owner of the ankle. Any number of people may grasp the same ankle.

2. Anyone not touching an ankle who is tagged, is “It.”

3. A whistle is blown every time a new “It” is put in.

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4. A call of “Fruit basket!” makes it necessary for everyone to change his position.

One of the funniest phases of the game is the inevitable situation in which Mr. Jaeck, fat and forty and funny, makes a flying leap for an ankle, only to have the ankle pass on! You know where it leaves that Mr. Jaeck!

Tail Tag.

All players are arranged in columns, four in each column, the one in front with arms stretched out, while the others have their hands on the shoulders of the one in front of them. At a signal the last one in each group steps out to the front and faces his column. He is “It,” and it is his business to catch the tail, the last one of the column. The column, however, does everything possible to prevent his tagging the tail. The one in front with his arms stretched out widely, leads the defense and the rest of the team just hangs on blindly. The leader must keep his arms stiff while “It” tries every possible means of dodging around those arms in his effort to tag the tail. If he succeeds, the tail becomes “It,” while the former “It” goes to the head of the line, and the chase to tag the new tail is on.

In their frantic protection of their tail, someone of a column may fall down. Tell them all beforehand that that offense is forgivable only if they will jump up at once, whether they can or not!

Backward Tag.

Ralph is “It” and is chasing Bob. Bob wants to save himself so he jumps behind Fred and stands with his back against Fred’s back, which makes both Bob and Fred safe. Ralph immediately goes out to catch Billy,[125] but Billy too, flies to find a neighbor with whom he can stand back to back, for anyone who stands with his back against that of another player is safe. But finally Ralph catches Don before he can get to another boy’s back and Don is “It.”

It is true that as long as a boy stands back to back with another boy, they are both safe, but if “It” thinks they are playing safe too much he just calls out “Fruit Basket” and every boy has to move away from his safety spot and run to find another.

All Fours.

“It” is chasing Walter, and Walter cannot run another step so he flops down on all fours and he is safe. No runner who is on all fours can be tagged but to see to it that he is not so comfortable that he will stay there for the rest of the game, he is not allowed to sit down as he always wants to, but must stay on all fours as long as he wants to play safe.

Kamerad!

To be safe, a boy lies down on his back with arms and legs stretched up in the air. You can be sure that he will not stay there very long, so your game will be a lively one!

Forehead Tag.

To be safe from being tagged, a boy must have his forehead on the ground. There is never any trouble in Forehead Tag of boys playing safe too long!

Horse Tag.

Three boys make a horse, the head, the body, and the tail. The player who is being chased by “It” hooks[126] on to the tail of a horse and calls out loudly “Gallop!” whereupon the head, who really is no longer the head, becomes the runner and must get away before “It” catches him. If he is caught he becomes “It” and the former “It” runs to safety by hooking on a horse’s tail.

Sometimes the head doesn’t hear the call “Gallop” when a runner hooks on to his tail, but he is not excused, for it is up to each head to watch his tail and avoid a runner who wants to hook on if possible. This makes the game far more exciting, for all the horses are dodging the runner who is dodging “It” and wants to catch on to a tail and be safe!

Hop Tag.

All players and “It” must use only one foot in moving around. When they are standing still and resting they may have both feet on the ground, but as soon as they start to move they must use only one foot.

Circle Tag.

Players form a large circle with enough room between each runner so that no one of them can be touched by the one behind him. At the starting signal they begin a slow dog-trot which at a call from the leader develops into a run.

Finally they are given the word “Go” which means that each one may run as fast as he can, and if possible tag the one in front of him, which puts him out of the race.

The circle gets smaller and smaller until finally there are only two runners chasing each other in a circle. It looks exactly like a dog chasing his own tail!

To Find Partners.

Millinery.

All the men line up for marching. The line of march leads through the ladies’ cloakroom, where each man is to take the hat nearest him, put it on, and continue in the march which leads back to the main room. There the men parade up and down the room until each hat and its “occupant” is claimed by some lady.

String Partners. (Small Group.)

A large paper heart is suspended in a doorway. A hole has been pierced in it, large enough to hold half as many strings as there are people present. These strings have been put through the hole just as evenly as possible. When the time for choosing partners has arrived, every man takes hold of a string on one side and every girl takes one on the other. At the signal from the leader they pull down, tearing the heart and straightening out their strings without letting go, to find out who has the other end. That “other end” is of course one’s partner.

Taking a Chance!

The men are blindfolded while the girls all line up in a row. The men are led up one by one to the row of[128] girls and are asked to go down the row, shaking hands with each girl in turn until they come to the girl they want for a partner. They are warned that they cannot go to the end of the row and then come back for another chance, but that if they have not chosen by the time they come to the last girl, this last one will be their partner. Girls are not allowed to indicate in any way who they are. Any girl who does is put at the end of the line.

Proposals. (Small Group.)

Two widths of wrapping paper are pasted together so that they form a curtain. The ladies stand behind this with their left hands stuck through the paper. All means of identification, such as rings, have been removed. The men have been provided with ten cent store rings, no two alike, and as they pass down the line, reviewing the hands, they put the ring on the finger of the lady of their choice. When all the ladies have been presented with rings, the curtain is dropped and the men claim their rings and their partners.

Professions. (Small Group.)

The men have been given cards on which are written the professions each one of them is to pantomime. The ladies have been given cards on which corresponding professions are named, and as soon as each lady recognizes the profession being pantomimed as the one corresponding with hers, she claims her partner.

Sometimes, however, she makes a mistake. She thinks a man is pantomiming the dentist’s profession, whereas in reality he is a piano tuner!

The following professions may be used to good dramatic advantage:

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Rhyming Partners.

Familiar rhymes are cut in two, one side being placed on a plate for the men and the other side on a plate for the ladies. The two plates are passed to the men and ladies respectively, and it is the business of each man to find the lady who has the other half of his rhyme.

When they have all found their partners, before they can have any refreshments, if this is refreshment time, each couple in turn must stand before the others and glibly recite the nursery rhyme found on their cards.

Superlatives. (Small Group.)

In this case it is the girls who must find partners. They are given cards on which are written brief, two-word descriptions of the men who will act as their partners. The descriptions may be similar to those following:

The girls are given their cards, are asked to say nothing about what is on them but to silently look at the men for two full minutes and then to quietly go and claim their partners. In case of any dispute, the leader settles the argument. After all the men have been[130] claimed each girl must give her reason, based on the description on her card, for choosing the partner she did.

The Hunt.

This may make a real game for a group of guests if the place in which they are being entertained is large enough to afford a great many hiding places. Each guest is given a card and he is to follow directions explicitly, for each card will direct him to another card, and so forth, the goal being one’s partner. All cards have been carefully worked out beforehand, to be sure there are no slip-ups, or duplications.

We might follow Miss Gail as she follows directions on her cards.

Her first card reads, “Go look on the third shelf of the music cabinet.” There she finds another card which bids her go up to the front bedroom and look under the red pin-cushion. The card there asks her to look under the gas stove in the kitchen for further instructions. Next she is to look under the foreleg of the wash machine in the laundry, and there she finds a card which tells her that she will find her partner in the living room on the couch.

He, in the meantime, has had just as varied a journey, and his last instructions were to look on the couch in the living room for a charming partner.

When the weather permits, it adds a great deal to put part of these different trips out-of-doors.

The Matrimonial Bureau. (Small Group.)

Early in the evening every guest is given a piece of paper and a pencil, and is asked to write out his or her ideal of a perfect husband or wife. Names are signed[131] on the backs of these descriptions, and the papers are collected. Later in the evening, just before refreshments, the papers written up by the ladies are given out to the men, and vice versa. Then some man designated by the hostess reads aloud the description handed him and says in addition, “Marion Davis wrote this. This is her idea of a perfect husband; which of us is he?” and by popular vote the men pick out the perfect partner for Marion Davis.

She has her turn too, however. She reads the idea given her, announces who wrote it, and then asks the ladies to help her find the perfect partner for this deluded man. They do so joyfully!

Thus it goes around the entire group. Each one reads his description, tells who wrote it, and the group picks out the ideal partner for each one. Some of them have difficulty in recognizing themselves.

Refreshments.

Refreshments should be served when the evening is just about two-thirds over. Every social committee wants guests to go home feeling that the evening has been a tremendous success from start to finish. The committee takes a chance as to their going home with that feeling when refreshments are the last thing on the program. Some of them finish before others, and finally a group decides that it is time to go home and they start out. Others follow them, and eventually they all drift out, but with a more or less vague and indefinite feeling of being let down at the end of a mighty fine evening.

[132]It has proved to be far more effective to carry the fun right through refreshment time, then have a few more games, finally closing your evening with a game that brings in everyone, the kind of game that makes one have a new respect for one’s capacity for laughing. Let that game end in “Good-Night Ladies,” and your guests go home refreshed and relaxed and absolutely convinced that they never had a better time in their lives.

However, there is a pause sometimes, during refreshments, which, instead of promoting sociability, promotes a letting down of interest. It comes when some of them have finished and others have just begun their refreshments. That is a splendid time to put on informal singing. It isn’t at all necessary to get people out of their seats to sit in straight rows in front of the piano. Those who have finished may come up to the piano. Popular songs and old songs are always very effective, and a few foolish ones never fail to make the slower eaters hurry up and join the crowd. For example, let them sing “Smiles.” Then ask them to sing it omitting the word “smile.” In its place they are to smile sweetly at their neighbors. It is so easy to smile sweetly when one is convulsed with laughter!

Another good impromptu song is “John Brown’s Baby Had a Cold Upon Its Chest.” It is sung to the tune of “John Brown’s Body.” The first line is repeated twice. The fourth line is, “And they rubbed it with camphorated oil.” At first it is sung in perfectly proper fashion, but the second time the word “baby” is omitted and an imaginary baby is rocked. The third verse omits both “baby” and “cold,” a sneeze taking the place of the cold. In the next verse[133] the same two words are omitted, and in addition “chest” is left out and pantomimed by a hearty slap on one’s chest. Next omit “rubbed,” rubbing one’s chest instead, and lastly omit “camphorated oil,” pinching one’s nose as decidedly indicative of one’s feelings toward the oil.

If the song is not allowed to drag, the last verse usually leaves your guests helpless, for although there is almost no singing left to be done, the violent pantomiming is enough to reduce them all to tears!

If a program of entertainment features has been planned this same “in-between” time has proved to be a far better time for it than the first half hour which is usually given it. If the program is made up of several numbers, ask the men to get up and change partners between numbers. A five cent fine is imposed on any man sitting with the same partner for two successive numbers.

Stunts, too, always fit in well at this time, both impromptu stunts and three or four which have needed a little preparation.

After the refreshment hour is over it is always a good plan to get all guests on their feet in some big group game, not alone for the digestive value of such an action, but for the social value as well.

The following stunts are typical of the kind of stunt which is particularly good for that “in-between time” directly after refreshments.

Head-Work.

A quartette is announced, made up of people who really can sing, and whose success is laid at the door of the director who has devised a new and highly successful[134] method of getting the best out of one’s voice. He stands back of the quartette, which is seated facing the audience. When they are ready he starts the music by pushing down the head of the one who sings first, and thereafter keeps on the jump, pushing down the heads of the music-makers. When all four sing together he has a lively time, but by using both his elbows and his hands he manages to push down all four heads at once.

Usually they are heartily applauded, both for their nonsense and for their really good music. Even if they are not, however, they bow and respond with an encore. This time something goes wrong with the mechanism, and though they sing something old and familiar like Home Sweet Home, when a head is pushed down for a certain necessary note, a certain other note comes forth instead, and what is worse, a note gets loose, and doesn’t wait for the push on the head that insures harmony. It all ends in one final blare of awful discord, and the master drives them out in despair.

The Pygmy Choir.

Another stunt that is both delightful to listen to and highly interesting to watch is that of the pygmy choir. When the curtain of the stage is drawn a large sheet of paper is seen, with eight heads shown through holes cut in the paper, and eight pairs of long legs charcoaled on the paper below the dresses, and eight artistic charcoaled hats on the paper above the heads. The holes must be large enough to plainly show the faces of the singers, who are men. The effect is grotesque, to say the least—eight masculine faces attached to eight frivolous little bodies dressed in crêpe paper.

[135]There is nothing frivolous about their music, however, until just at the last of the encore, when one man loses his dress, which had not been pasted on, but which he held on by means of a pin. His distress, which is loud and lamenting, breaks up the choir.

Bedlam.

One person comes out and sings a well-known song in English. It is heartily applauded, but instead of an encore someone else comes out and sings the same song in French; then it is sung in Spanish; in Swedish; Italian; Dutch; and Norwegian. Finally, all of them come out and sing the song together, each in his own language, and each trying to outdo the other in being heard. It is always appreciated by an audience, this melody!

A Chinese Reading.

Some well-known local person is announced as about to give a reading, with no hint in the announcement of any foolishness. The reading is extraordinary, only in that it is given backwards!

It really is not difficult to memorize a piece backwards, if one will write it out that way before attempting to memorize it. The difficult part comes in listening to it!

Dinner Table Amusement.

There are so many hostesses at dinner parties, to whom the preparation of the dinner and its serving are not the awful bugbear. That honor goes rather to the[136] painful silences that spoil the best dinner ever served. There is only one thing more painful. That is a very evident attempt to make conversation, and to force a social atmosphere.

The following “Dinner Table Amusement” has been given every conceivable test as to real ice-breaking capability. It has been found, too, that much of it can be used to just as good advantage at church and school and club and community suppers, as at smaller affairs in the home. Where there are several tables or very long tables it is a good plan to have one person at every table or every section of a long table, who is responsible for putting on the various stunts.

All of these stunts are included in other chapters of this book. The following are examples:

1. Crystal gazing. This trick is infallible. It has never yet failed to gain the most helpless laughter of the evening. Instead of having the victim kneel, however, when this is done at the table, ask him to put his hands on the table, with fingers spread out wide. A good time to bring this in is just after dessert has been served, particularly if that dessert is tempting. Your victim is utterly helpless, and it is not an unheard of thing for another guest to calmly eat the delicious apple pie that stands idle.

Another good time to do it is just after dinner is over, and the other guests depart, leaving Mr. Unfortunate to sit alone for a moment to reflect on his sins.

2. Virtues. This may be put on between courses, but partners are not changed.

3. Mimic. Vocal gymnastics are possible, but because guests are seated, no “funny steps” are used.

The following may be used just as they are:

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Conversation.

After the ice has been broken one feels safe in guiding the conversation along certain lines between partners, confident that conversation will not seem forced. The following topics are not conducive to forced conversation:

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