Part 3

=Deceptive Heights.= (_a_) Ask a person, or several persons, to point out with a finger or walking-cane, on a wall, above a table, about what he supposes to be the height of an ordinary hat. You will find he will place his mark about a foot above the table. Place the hat under it, and he will find, to his surprise, that the space indicated is more than double the height of the hat.

(_b_) The height of a common flour-barrel is just the length of a horse’s face, and much merriment may be made by asking the company to mark their idea of the height of a flour-barrel upon the wall. In nine cases out of ten the mark will be several inches, or even a foot, too high.

=Slang.= The players may be young or old and of both sexes. They are given pencils and paper and asked to write down all the slang words they can think of in five minutes. When the time limit is reached the hostess collects the papers, and reads the names and the list of slang words aloud.

This is where the fun commences. Imagine a quiet little mouse of a woman having the following expressions to her credit: “Soak him,” “Chase yourself,” etc. Imagine a dignified old gentleman writing the following: “Put out his lamps,” “Me for the dreamy eyes,” etc. In one case, a lawyer seemed to be right at home, and at the end of the five minutes had a list of thirty expressions. But the prize unexpectedly went to a little lady who could think of only one word of slang. In presenting it, the hostess said, “You have used the best English, and the best slang.”

The lawyer, whose list of slang was the longest, received a booby prize. The point, of course, is that the least slang is the best.

=Observation Contest.= Have on tables and pinned on curtains, etc., quantities of small objects. Provide pads for all and let each have three minutes to observe each table, each part of the room, etc., and then five minutes to note down in another room all that she remembers to have seen. This is great fun. The prize should be given to the one with the keenest power of observation.

=The Bargain-Counter Game.= The Christmas bargain-counter is a charming fireside game for Christmas night that will amuse and at the same time instruct the nursery children. The bargain-counter may be the nursery table set in front of the fireplace or hearth. On the counter are laid as many as one likes of the toys which the children received from tree and Christmas stockings. One child is chosen to take charge of this play toy shop, and a second child leaves the room after looking carefully first at all the toys on the counter to determine their names. While this child is absent from the room a third child selects and hides one of the toys. When the second child returns he must try at one guess to say which of the toys was sold during his absence. If he guesses successfully he may be the next toyman. To make the game more difficult two or more toys may be hidden. Another and slightly more difficult way of playing the bargain-counter game is to have the toyman change the positions of the toys while the child is out of the room. The child on returning must rearrange them, if he can, in exactly the same positions. They may be scraps of color instead of toys. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet ribbons, balls or Christmas tree candles may be laid out in the order of the rainbow colors. While one child is either blindfolded or outside the room, the child in charge of the colors removes one from sight or alters the color order, and the other child must guess the hidden color or restore the rainbow order on his return.

=The “Thirty-five” Trick.= An envelope, handed to any person in the company at the outset, contains a slip of paper, bearing the number 35. This is kept in the person’s pocket until the close of the trick; or the number 35 can be written on the inside of a trick slate, or elsewhere, for production in due course.

The performer now goes around with a slip of paper, which he hands to some one, with a request to place any single figure thereon. This done, he gives the paper to a second person to place another figure under the first, and so on to as many persons in succession as necessary. As each figure is written, he secretly adds all together until the total reaches 26 or over; when this is the case, he stops calling for more figures and, retaining the paper, remarks, “That will do, thank you, but I would like to place this gentleman’s initials on the paper for the purpose of identification.” The initials are given and written on the paper by the performer, who at the same time takes the opportunity thus afforded of placing another figure, to make the sum total 35, at the foot of those already written. This done, the paper may be handed to any person to add up the sum, for the simple reason that the trick cannot now fail. Of course no one ever thinks of checking the number of figures on the paper with the number of persons who wrote them. The envelope containing the slip of paper is now opened, and the two amounts compared.

=An Ink Shock.= Cut a piece of black paper to imitate spilled ink. Lay it flat on a white table cover. Beside it, place an upset dry ink bottle. This will shock the mistress of the house.

=Reading from Folded Papers.= For this trick, you enlist the service of a friend. Each one is given a slip of paper and told to write on it a question. Fold up well and drop into a hat. Mix them up, and, holding the hat over your head, pick out any paper, and without unfolding it, answer the question, doing the same with the rest.

In order to do this, you must know your friend’s question, and as you collect the papers, slip it under the band inside the hat. When performing, take any slip, but answer your friend’s question first. Now open, to prove yourself right, and thereby see another question. This is answered while the next is held, and so on until the last, when all and the one in the hat are mixed and left for the audience for investigation.

=Blind Man’s Buff with Dominoes.= Sit opposite another player, each placing his right foot on the other’s left. Turn the dominoes face down and the game now begins. Of course each one must look at his domino before he plays it, but he does not show it to the other. The pressure of your foot on his shows the number with which you begin, without the possibility of a blunder, although playing the dominoes face downward. He now counts the movements of your foot, which indicate the number he is to match. He then presses your foot with the number you are to match. This is continued until all the dominoes are played. When the game is finished, turn the dominoes over to show that the numbers have been played with perfect exactness.

“=My Aunt Has Arrived from Paris.=” A circle is formed, all kneeling on the floor. The leader says to the one on his right side, “My aunt has arrived from Paris,” and the one addressed, asks the question, “What did she bring you?” The leader answers, “A pair of scissors,” and at once imitates the opening and shutting of the scissors with two fingers. This same question is asked, answered, and imitated by each one around the circle.

The leader again says, “My aunt has arrived from Paris,” and the one addressed asks, “What did she bring you?” The leader, still keeping up the scissors motion, says, “A fan,” and at once imitates fanning with the other hand. This goes around the circle as before.

The leader then announces in the same way, “A Japanese doll,” and imitates by bowing his head backward and forward, which goes around the circle. Then a rocking-horse is announced by the leader, and is imitated by moving the body up and down, all the while remaining on the knees. This also goes around the circle.

Finally in the same manner the leader announces a cuckoo, and immediately gives the imitation of a cuckoo, which is also done in turn around the circle. All five imitations are to be kept up continuously by each one until the players are exhausted. The one holding out the longest is the winner.

=Surprising Strength.= Just lightly put the tips of your fingers together. If you invite any one to separate them by taking your wrists and trying to draw them apart in a direct line with each other, they will be surprised to find that no amount of strength will avail them at all, as the thing is really almost impossible.

Place your clenched fists one upon the other, and ask some one to separate them by pushing them aside. They will be quite unable to do so, although you are exerting your strength but little against them.

Let them, however, approach you with the forefingers only, and give a sharp rap at your knuckles in opposite directions. You will find in this case that you are quite powerless against this, and cannot keep your fists together at all.

=Card-passing Contest.= Divide the players equally and seat them in two rows facing each other. The leader of each row is provided with a pack of playing cards. At a given signal, each leader passes one card to the next person, who in his turn gives it to the next person, and so on down the line until the last one drops it on the floor beside him.

The side that gets the last card on the floor first wins the game. The cards may be passed to the right on each side, moving in opposite directions.

=A Cobweb Tangle.= Have as many balls of twine as there are players. Starting at a given point, fasten each end securely. Starting from this point, wind the twine in every conceivable place, wherever you care to have the players go; under tables, around chairs, door-knobs, upstairs, and anywhere that can be made difficult without doing any injury to the surroundings. When the winding is completed, fasten the string to a small round stick about three or four inches long. All this should be done before the guests arrive, as it takes some time to do it. When ready for the game, have the guests draw the sticks and then proceed to wind the twine until they arrive at the end. The one arriving there first wins a prize.

=A Novel Masquerade.= Each gentleman receives a printed card asking him to call at the house of a lady who is to be his partner for the evening. The ladies change places with one another, so that when the gentlemen call for them, they will not be in their home but in the home of one of the other ladies. As the ladies are masked and do not have to talk, the gentlemen never find out their mistake until all are unmasked.

=Hit the Bag.= A bag about the size of a person’s head, or larger if desired, made of tissue paper, or other very thin paper, containing candy, is suspended from the ceiling by a string so that it will be about six feet from the floor. A person is blindfolded and a cane, or a stick about the length of a cane, is placed in the person’s two hands, allowing the farther end to touch the bag. The performer is then requested to take three steps backward and then turn around three times, alone. When this is done, he is requested to take three steps forward, strike three times and break the bag. The cane can have only a perpendicular motion. Each one tries the same, until the bag is broken, when all present scramble to see who will gather the most candy.

=A Pretended Illusion.= Place three coins on a table, coins 1 and 2 being only a short distance from each other, while the coins 2 and 3 are more than double the distance apart. Now point out to a spectator that a curious optical illusion can be observed by placing one eye on the level of the table edge and looking along the line of the coins. The spectator having done so, ask him which two coins he considers are the farthest away from each other and to point them out. He will probably point out coins two and three. You immediately point to the coins 1 and 3, and say you consider these coins are the farthest away from each other.

=Dancing Fairies.= Most of you have seen the smooth, round beans called “magic beans.” They were brought to this country several years ago from the East Indies, and were a great curiosity until their secret was discovered.

First get a half-dozen or more of the dancing or “magic” beans. These are now sold in most of the large Japanese stores.

Cut out a half-dozen of tiny paper dolls. They must be made so that they are light, and so that their feet can be pasted securely to both sides of the bean. Cut out skirts of tissue paper which will cover the dolls’ legs and hide the beans without touching them. When these are made so that they will balance well, place them upon a heated plate and soon every little fairy will begin to dance in a mysterious way.

=Describing a Lady’s Costume.= When the guests arrive, have them all meet in one room. Every gentleman is presented with a card on which is written the name of some lady present, and the hostess announces that each gentleman must talk five minutes to the lady whose name his card bears. The reason for the conversation is not divulged. At the end of the appointed time, the ladies withdraw, and then the men are told to each write out a description of the dress the lady wore, the color of her eyes, of her hair, the fashion of wearing it, etc., etc. The ladies are now admitted and each one stands out, while a description of herself and costume is read aloud.

=The Wonderful Hat.= Upon a table place three pieces of bread, or any other eatable, at a little distance from each other, and cover each with a hat. Take up the first hat, and, removing the bread, put it into your mouth, letting the company see that you swallow it. Then raise a second hat and eat the bread which is under that, then proceed to the third hat in the same manner. Having eaten the three pieces, ask any person in the company to choose which hat he would like the three pieces of bread to be under, and when he has made his choice of one of the hats, put it on your head and ask him if he does not think they are under it.

=Mirror-Drawing.= To carry out this test you will need a sheet of paper, a mirror about the width of the paper, a pencil, and another sheet of paper or a large card or book.

Lay the paper flat on the table. Then prop up the mirror opposite you and the paper so that it is at right angles with the paper and reflects it. You may stand the mirror against a pile of books if it has no standard of its own. After you have done this, take the extra sheet of paper in your left hand and hold it so that it is between your eyes and the piece of paper which is lying on the table. You must hold the piece of paper in your left hand so that you cannot see the paper lying on the table, except in the mirror.

You are now ready to begin drawing, first announcing what you intend to draw. It should be some simple object, represented by some few straight lines, such as a kite, a box, or a square, with a straight line going from each corner diagonally across. You draw with your right hand, holding the paper with your left, so that you cannot see what progress you are making except in the mirror. Watch the mirror all the time until the drawing is completed.

=The Dancing Skeleton.= Get a piece of board about the size of a large school slate and have it painted black. The paint should be what is known as a dead color, without gloss or brightness. (A large school slate would answer the purpose.) Sketch out the figure of a skeleton on a piece of cardboard and arrange it after the manner of the dancing sailors and other cardboard figures for sale in toy stores, so that by holding the figure by the head in one hand and pulling a string with the other, the figure will throw up his legs and arms in a very ludicrous manner.

Make the connections of the arms and legs with black string and let the pulling-string be also black. Tack the skeleton by the head to the blackboard. The figure, having been cut out is of course painted black, like the board.

Now to perform: Produce the board showing only the side upon which there is nothing. Request that the lights may be reduced about half, and take position at a little distance from the company. With a piece of chalk make one or two attempts to draw a figure; rub out your work as being unsatisfactory; turn the slate; the black figure will not be perceived; touch the edge of the cardboard figure with the chalk, filling up ribs, etc., taking care that nothing moves while the drawing is progressing. Then manipulate with the fingers. By pulling the string below the figure it will of course kick up its legs and throw about its arms, to the astonishment of everybody.

=Pitching Cards at a Hat.= Borrow a gentleman’s hat and try to throw a pack of cards from a distance of two or three feet, throwing the cards in one at a time.

=Peanut Guessing.= Fill a dish with peanuts, and let each one guess how many are contained in it; the one who guesses nearest wins.

=Peanut Shelling.= Give each contestant ten peanuts, and at a signal let all begin to shell them, removing also the inner skin. The one who finishes first, without breaking a kernel, wins. If one breaks into more than the two natural divisions of the nut, another peanut must be shelled in its place.

=Peanut-rolling.= Place peanuts across one side of the room at interval of about three feet. Give each contestant a toothpick. At a given word they all commence to roll the peanuts across the room with the toothpicks. The one who first gets his peanut across the room is the victor. Another row of contestants then take their places in the same way. After all are through the victors in the different contests have a final contest.

=The Peanut Hunt.= Peanuts are previously hidden in every conceivable place in the rooms to which the guests have access. The finder of the greatest number receives a prize.

=Progressive Peanut Party.= This is played exactly as all other progressive games. Arrange tables to seat four, choose partners, and provide score cards.

In the centre of each table, place a bowl containing one hundred peanuts in the shell, and lay a long, new, common hat-pin at each place. At the head table have a bell. Before being seated to play, each guest is to have the right hand securely tied down to the side by a ribbon or fancy cord. When ready to commence, a player rings a bell at the head table, and all begin to spear nuts from the bowl; when the bowl is empty at the head table, the bell is rung and all count to see how many nuts they have, the two having made the best score, progress, first replacing the nuts into the bowl ready for the next game; the cards are then punched according to the score and the game proceeds.

Five hundred may be the score limit, the one who first gets the five hundred winning; or it may be decided to have the game end when the players at the head of the table return to that table, or at least two of them.

=Your Friends in Black.= There are various advantages about a silhouette party. It admits of no small amusement, for occasionally the queerest object may be twisted to fit a name. The first thing to do is to prepare a list of your guests and find for each name something that will represent it. Set the wits of the entire family at work, for on this task two heads are infinitely better than one.

The longer time you have for the “rebusing” of the names the more entertaining the list will prove. Do not leave out a friend because at first it seems almost impossible to picture his name. The same license is allowed for a rebus as for poetry, and a point may be stretched to make the drawing fit the name, although it is not best to leave too much to the imagination.

For the mechanical part of the work provide ragged-edged cards of various sizes. One name will demand a long, narrow card for its representation; another name, a square card. The best surface for this purpose is a heavy, water-color paper which is neither smooth nor rough. Do not cut it. Crease it in such lengths as you wish to use, then tear it with a very blunt paper-knife. This gives an excellent ragged edge. Take the designs you have planned to use and trace them over black carbon copying paper on each card, leaving a generous margin. Sketch no detail except the mere outline of a figure. Fill a pen with India ink and go very carefully over the outline. Allow it to dry; then with a rather stiff, small sable brush dipped in the ink fill in the silhouette till it is perfectly black and even. Allow it to dry, and add in one corner the number which corresponds with the list. There is a good deal to learn in the adaptation of a design for a silhouette. If a human figure is chosen let it generally be in profile. As a rule, a full-face figure, either in an animal or a man, is almost meaningless unless it is full of action. When the silhouettes are completed, they should be pinned up in a conspicuous place, so that they may all be seen and examined easily and prizes awarded to the most successful guessers.

GAMES

=Packing the Trunk.= A game adapted from the French, that is very popular among the little people of America, is a good test for the memory.

The children must sit in a circle, and one, as leader, announces in this fashion: “I pack my trunk, and in it I put”—mentioning some articles used in traveling, as gloves, brush or cologne. The next child begins then, saying what the leader has said and adding another article, and so on around the circle, each child repeating all the articles mentioned by the previous one in their correct order, and then adding one more to the list, which after a while assumes lengthy proportions. If one boy or girl forgets one article or puts it in the wrong order, he or she must drop out of the game, and so on until only one child remains.

=Blowing Ping-pong Balls.= Arrange the players with their hands behind them along the sides of a long extension table, down the centre of which a row of ping-pong balls are placed at intervals of about two feet. Appoint two judges and place them at the ends of the table. At a given word, the players on both sides begin to blow the balls, endeavoring to blow them off their opponents’ side of the table and to prevent any balls from being blown off of their own side. Each ball blown off counts five points. The game is 100 points.

=Doing the Impossible.= A sure way to raise a laugh among a party of friends, is to claim that you can do an apparently impossible thing, and then get your friends to try it; then, when they have tried and failed, do the very thing they failed on, in a simple way which has never occurred to them. Here is a deception which seldom fails to work and which always provides a lot of fun, even to those who are fooled by it.

Begin by saying something about ant-eaters, which have such long tongues that they can touch the ground with them without lowering their heads, and then ask one of your friends if he can put out his tongue and touch his ear. He will try, gently at first, then harder, and at length make the funniest faces by trying to do that, which is of course, impossible. Then others will try poking their tongues out of the corners of their mouths, and trying to curl them around their cheeks until their ears are reached.

When they have finished, you put out your tongue, and touch your ear with your finger.

=The Game of “It.”= Here is a game that will amuse any party, but you must first find out adroitly that there is at least one person in the company who has never been initiated into the mysteries. This one is chosen to leave the room, but before he goes he must be told that those in the room will select an object which he is to guess on his return. He may ask as many questions as he wishes when the time comes, one question at a time of each person consecutively, but his questions must be so worded that they may be answered by “Yes,” “No,” or “I do not know.”