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made of tissue paper, which can be bought at toy stores or made at home, are often sent up on the Fourth. Home-made balloons are constructed by pasting together gores cut out of tissue paper and shaped as in Fig. 20.

A

that at the largest part may be found in like manner. The length of the balloon will be somewhat less than that of the gores, The best shape for a balloon is as nearly spherical as possible. A narrow balloon, or one

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B

Fig. 20.

One of these is folded lengthwise down the middle and a second placed on it so that only a little margin of the first shows; this margin is lapped over and pasted to the second, which is then folded lengthwise like the first. The desired number of gores is pasted together thus, and then the free edges of the first and last are pasted, thus forming the complete balloon. The shape of the balloon depends on the shape and number of the gores. Different shapes are shown in Figs. 21, 22, and 23. The length of

Fig. 22.

with a neck, takes fire easily. When the tissue paper has been pasted, a circle of wire the size of the opening at the neck, is made, with two cross pieces at right angles, and fastened by lapping the paper over it and pasting. A paper loop is pasted at

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Fig. 21.

the line A B, allowing for pasting, multiplied by the number of gores, is the circumference at the neck, and

Fig. 23.

the top of the balloon, and a small ball of lamp-wick, about an inch thick, is rolled together and fastened by passing wire through it (Fig. 24). The ends of the wire are hooked so that the wick can quickly be fastened

to the wire cross at the neck of the balloon. A plan of the arrangement is shown in Fig. 25, and a perspective view in Fig. 26. To send up the balloon the best plan is to make a fire Fig. 24. of sticks or shavings on the ground, and put above it a piece of stove pipe to conduct a current of the heated air upward. The neck of the balloon is held over this by one person, while another holds the top up by a stick passed through the paper loop. Where the balloon is full of hot air, the wick is saturated with alcohol,

Fig. 25.

hooked to the wire cross pieces, and lighted, and the balloon, being released, rises in the air. Care must be taken to hold it so far above the fire that there is no danger of its burning. The balloon would rise a little way without any lighted wick, but the latter is necessary to keep the air within it heated. For a small balloon it is not necessary to build a

Fig. 26.

fire, but simply to light the wick, and hold the balloon till the air is heated enough; but a large balloon needs a better and quicker mode of filling it with hot air. If a wind is blowing,

the balloon should be sent up from the sheltered side of a building, and care must also be taken that no tree or building is near enough to its path to obstruct it as it rises.

Toy balloons are sometimes arranged to carry up fire-works which are set off in the air. Any fire-work not too heavy may be fastened by a string to the middle of the cross pieces, a piece of slow-burning fuse being attached and lighted just before the balloon is sent off. In the case of most fire-works the explosion would destroy the balloon. A small rocket may be thus taken up, being suspended by two strings, so that it will point horizontally, or slightly upward. A good plan is to open a roman candle, take out the stars, and wrap each in tissue paper with a little powder. The stars are then arranged at intervals on a string and a fuse running through them all is lighted at the lower end as the balloon is set off. The stars explode one by one in the air.

Parachutes, (C. C. T.). Toy parachutes can be made by crossing two long pieces of string cornerwise on a square piece of tissue paper, and then pasting another piece to it, so that the string is thus fastened between. The ends of the string are then tied together and fastened to a small weight, for instance, a lead fish-line sinker. The parachute may be attached to a fuse, like the fireworks, so that when the fuse burns up to it, it will fall. It should be fastened to the balloon at the middle of the paper, where the strings cross, and will hang down like a closed umbrella; but when it falls it will open and then drop very slowly. Fire-works may be fastened to a parachute instead of to the balloon.

Fourth of July Parties. Public celebration of the Fourth used always to include the reading of the Declaration of Independence, a patriotic oration, and a parade. Fifty years ago such celebrations were held in almost every town ;

may move instead, if he wishes. The Fox cannot be penned anywhere by less than six Geese, as will be seen by looking at the board, and therefore when only five Geese are left, the Fox has won. If the Geese are played skillfully, it is said that they must always win, and the game is therefore sometimes played with two Foxes. Holes may take the place

The orations were often very flowery and boastful, a style of talking now often called Fourth of July oratory." These public celebrations are less frequently held than formerly, but friends now often meet at a party or a picnic, and indulge in amusements appropriate to the day. An excursion to some place of historical interest may be made, especially if it be connected with Revolutionary of the dots on the board and the history.

I.

FOX AND CEESE, a name given to several different games. A game played by two persons, one of whom has one piece, or man, called the Fox, and the other 17 men, called Geese, on a board like that in Fig. 1. The Fox is usually larger

Fig. 1.-Fox and Geese.

than the Geese, and of a different color. At the beginning of the game the pieces are placed as shown in the illustration, the Fox being in the middle of the board. The players take turns, the Fox moving first. The pieces may move from one dot to the next along any line. The object of the Geese is to pen up the Fox so that he cannot move, and that of the Fox is to capture so many of them that they cannot do this. The Fox may capture a Goose by leaping over it, if the space next beyond it be unoccupied, as in CHECKERS, and the Goose so leaped is removed from the board. The Fox is not obliged to leap when he has a chance, but

game is then played with pegs or marbles instead of men. It may be so played on a SOLITAIRE board.

The Battle Game, or Siege, a kind of Fox and Geese in which part of the board is separated from the rest, as shown in Fig. 2.

This is called the Fortress, and is occupied at the opening of the game by two Sharpshooters, who correspond to the two Foxes in the older game. The rest of the board is called the Battlefield, and is occupied by 24 common Soldiers, who are like the Geese. The Sharpshooters may stand anywhere within the Fortress at the beginning of the game, and they can move from one spot to the next, in any direction, to any part of the board. A Sharpshooter can take any Soldier by leaping over him to the next spot beyond, if it is vacant, as in CHECKERS. The Soldiers can move forward (either straight or diagonally), or sidewise, if in so doing they approach the Fortress, but never backward, and they cannot take the Sharpshooters by leaping. The player who moves the Soldiers wins if he can place his men so that the Sharpshooters cannot leave the Fortress, or if he can pen them up in any part of the Battlefield, so that they cannot move at all. The one who has the Sharpshooters wins if he can take so many of the Soldiers that not enough are left to pen him up. This is done when he has captured all but nine. As a Sharpshooter, when in the middle of the board, can move in any one of eight different directions, he has great power. The same Sharpshooter is

allowed to make as many leaps as he can in one turn, as in Checkers.

History. This variation of Fox and Geese is called in Germany

Fig. 2.-Battle Game, or Siege.

"Belagerungspiel" (The Beleaguering Game). Though it is an old game, a description of it was recently published in a New York paper as if it were a new invention.

Chinese Fox and Geese. This is played on a board like that in Fig. 3, which also shows the arrangement of the men. The Commander (corresponding to the Fox) is placed in the middle and surrounded by 26 soldiers (corresponding to the Geese). The Commander may take a soldier by leaping, as in CHECKERS, and all the pieces may move forward, backward, or sidewise. The object of the soldiers is to pen up the Commander in the triangular space a, c, b. As in ordinary Fox and Geese, the soldiers will always win in this game if it is played well. It is someti called the Chinese Rebel Gan

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black piece, called an Army Corps, corresponds to the Fox, and the three pieces of a different color called Brigades of Cavalry, to the Geese. The object of the Cavalry, as in the other forms of the game, is to pen up the Army Corps so that it cannot move. The Army Corps is allowed to move in any direction along a line, but each Brigade of Cavalry can move backward only once during the game, all other moves being forward or sidewise. The Army Corps is given the first move. This game is said to have been devised by Louis Dyen, a French army officer, in 1886. It has been shown in a French scientific paper that, as in other forms of the game where there is one Fox, the Geese (in this case the Brigades of Cavalry) must win, if played properly.

II. A game played by any number of persons, one of whom takes the part of the Fox and the others stand in a double circle, facing inward. At one place in the circle there are three players instead of two as shown in Fig. 4. The object of the Fox is to

three. The Fox may not enter the circle, and there should be plenty of room left between the groups of players, so that the Geese may run in easily.

In England this game is sometimes called Round Tag and Tierce. Its ancient name was The Faggots, the pairs of players, one in front of the other, being called Faggots, and the Fox and Goose the Hound and Hare. A similar game was played there in ancient times, called Trick the Rabbit.

In France it is called Deux c'est assez, trois c'est trop (Two is Company, Three is a Crowd), and in Germany, Den Dritten Jagen (Hunt the Third).

III. An outdoor game played by any number of persons on a figure marked on the ground or in the snow, like that in Fig. 5. There may be any

O

Fig. 4. Fox and Geese, or Tierce.

touch the outside one of three, who tries to escape by running into the circle and standing inside two of the others, thus exposing the outside player to the Fox. If any one is caught he must take the Fox's place. When the number of players is large there may be two or more groups o;

Fig. 5.-Fox and Geese,

number of circles and lines according to the number of players and the size of the ground. One of the players is selected as Fox, and the others represent Geese. The Geese may run on any of the paths, but the Fox must keep on the straight ones. If he touch any one of the Geese, that one must take his place as Fox. In some parts of New Engnd this game is called Pickadill. FRENCH AND ENGLISH. See TUG OF War.

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