OCR Text |
Show jzj Iround the Fire ThanKj giving E- Evening . ett rl ULL justice has been f VTjjj done the Thanksgiving jV VJSm dinner from soup to ' M ' nut;s and raisins. The ' rsj3lU somnolent spirits have taken their after-dinner ! I fSsEE naP and the more stren-7 stren-7 uous ones have come f7I?njj$SB5 back from a brisk after-' after-' 1 dinner tramp. It's grow- ifiLy i lnS colder outside. Twi-MPiLsj Twi-MPiLsj light is approaching. ttaS;fyi Within, around the open fire, housemates and guests have gathered for an evening of Thanksgiving Thanks-giving jollity. And now what shall we do? No flry, brain-racking game of whist, no stylish hand of bridge nothing like that is meant for this glorious occasion. occa-sion. Any kind of cards is too exclusive, exclu-sive, too cold blooded for this hour. No, next on the Thanksgiving program pro-gram is an evening of good, wholesome, whole-some, silly, jolly games. A few suggestions in the line of games of this sort may help the housemother make this Thanksgiving evening Is an especially jolly one. "Telegram" is a good game to get every one Into good humor as quickly as possible. Supply each member of the company with a pencil and a sheet of paper. Each person is then to say offhand some letter of the alphabet. al-phabet. The letters, in the order named, are taken down by the whole company. The stint set is for each one to write a telegram made up of words beginning with the letters given. giv-en. All the letters must be used, the original order must be preserved and no extra words can be added. When the telegrams are completed they are fathered in, mixed up and dealt out again that responsibility for and personality per-sonality in them may be impossible to place. After they have been read, a new set of letters is given and new telegrams tele-grams composed. Very shortly each one in the company vill be chuckling with delight over his own efforts and roaring with laughter over the ingenious ingen-ious and ridiculous conglomerations that will be read. From A B C D E F G H I J, for instance, one might produce pro-duce "Aunt Betsy's cow dying" "Editha flunked German" "Holocaust "Holo-caust imminent, Jane." Another might make of it "All broken-hearted. Come directly. Ever faithful George has ignominiously jilted." "Gossip" is great fun, though no one wants to play it more than a few minutes. Let the entire company stand side by side on a straight line. Then let the person who stands at one end whisper something very quickly in the ear of his next door neighbor. The minute he stops whispering, whis-pering, the next door neighbor imparts im-parts the message just as swiftly and just as secretly to his neighbor and so on down the line. When the last person In line Is reached the originator of the message tells the company what he said and the man at the other end what was said to him. Of course, the original remark has been garbled. The moral and the laughter are both obvious. Games in which two of the company, com-pany, confederates, mystify the rest are always fun, although they can, of course, be played only once. Prime among these is "The Wand Passes." One of the company is sent from the room. Another, who is in league with the first, promises that when he holds the wand, which may be a cane or umbrella, over some member of the company, the exiled member will be able to tell over whom. The door must be left open. The confederates explain that this in order not to Interrupt In-terrupt the current of electricity between be-tween them. The magic-monger allows the company com-pany to chat a few minutes after his confederate has departed. Then he suddenly breaks in upon the conversation, conversa-tion, waving the wand and saying in a sepulchral tone, "The wand passes." The exile answers from the next room very solemnly, "Let it pass." Again comes the announcement, "The wand passes." and again the answer, "Let It pass." The third time the pos sessor of the wand holds it over some head and inquires, "The wand rest' over whom?" Then is the exile promptly to an-: swer, "Over so-and-so," naming the right person. The trick Is accomplished accom-plished by having it arranged that thei confederate who remains in the room shall hold the wand over the person; who spoke last before the announcement, announce-ment, "The wand passes." All the exile ex-ile In the next room need be able to do is to distinguish the voices of tha company. Another mystifying game is called "Chinese writing." Take grandfather' cane in your hand; request your confederate con-federate to step into the hall. All decide de-cide upon a rather short word, say, "meat." Both of you understand that you will tap with your cane for the vowels according to their regular order; or-der; a, one tap; e, two taps; i, three taps; o, four taps; u, five taps, and. that the first letter of the first word of every remark that you make after your confederate enters will be a consonant con-sonant of the word she is to guess. The taps of the cane will be the vowels vow-els according to their order. As she enters you begin marking on the floor with your cane marvellous marvel-lous characters, which the whole company com-pany will watch eagerly. As you write you say casually, "Must I write fast?" Here she gets the "M." Then you make two heavy taps as you write, which, according to the code '. means "E." After a little more writ ' ing make another single tap for the "A." Then say naturally, "Try to follow fol-low me very closely," which gives her the "T" to complete the word. Go on writing mysteriously for a moment or two and then ask her if she has read the word all right. She will doubtless be able to tell the company, to their great astonishment. With a little ingenuity you can make your remarks re-marks sound very natural and hence make the trick seem very puzzling. In another clairvoyant trick one person goes out of the room while a word, representing some object, Is chosen. When he returns, his confederate con-federate asks him, "Is it a ?" naming nam-ing some article the first letter of which is the first letter of the word he is to guess. The guesser replies in the negative. The questioner then asks, "Is it a ?" naming some, article ar-ticle the initial letter of which is the second letter of the word to be guessed, and so on until the word is complete. Thus, suppose the word was curtain. cur-tain. The questions might be, "Is It a candle?" "Is it an ..umbrella?" "Is it a rat?" "Is it a table?" "Is it an apple?" "It is ice?" "Is it a needle?" To all of these the person questioned has answered, "No," but he has been following the first letters of the words, and when the next question comes, "Is it a curtain?" he answers "Yes." If it is preferred to make the trick seem more magical, when he has heard the word spelled out ha may suddenly interrupt his questioner question-er and, rubbing his forehead, say, "Wait, I know what it is. It Is a curtain." cur-tain." Howevsr, the company will be more apt to guess the trick if it la done in this way. If you have in your company any person good natured enough to appreciate ap-preciate a joke on himself, the following follow-ing trick will furnish much fun: Announce An-nounce that you will hypnotize any friend who is willing to follow your directions. Retire from the room and take two cups and saucers. Put your own carefully aside. Then take the other saucer and hold It over a lamp or candle until the under part is covered with soot. Put the cup back in the saucer. Fill the cups with water. wa-ter. Then tell your friend who is to be hypnotized that it Is impossible for the spell to work unless he follow your directions exactly. Present him with a cup and saucer. Tell him to hold these in his left hand, and, looking look-ing straight into your eyes and nowhere no-where else, to do exactly what you do. Then dip the fingers of your right hand in the water, rub them on the under side of his saucer is thick with cabalistic passes over your forehead and cheeks. The patient to be hypnotized hyp-notized will do the same, and as tha under side of his saucer is thick witb soot every cabalistic pass will leave its mark. The effect on the part of the company who are entirely unprepared unpre-pared for this denouement soon enlightens en-lightens the victim. The soot scrubs off easily and there Is no harm done, provided you have been wise enough to select a good natured person for your hypnotic influence. |