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The lights also must be carefully arranged, so that, while apparently throwing plenty of light upon the subject, they are really rendering it more obscure. A little previous rehearsal with them will be necessary to effect this satisfactorily.

The head in this state, with the eyes upside down, &c., is a most ghastly sight, and it would, therefore, be desirable not to admit very young children to view the body.

Of course some suitable story must be got up and told by the showman; or it might be brought into a charade or tableau vivant.

A little flour and rouge will be found very useful in hiding the line of junction between the real and imitation flesh.

CONSEQUENCES.

This is a capital indoor table game, especially when there are some ten or a dozen players to keep the game alive.

It is founded upon the absurd incongruities that result when a number of people combine together to make one connected sentence, each taking his own part irrespective of each and all of the others.

Just as in the preceding game a connected drawing was made by uniting three several parts, each drawn in ignorance of the other two, so in this the several component parts of a sentence are written down by a number of players separately and without collusion, and then joined together in one.

We will suppose eleven players are sitting round the table, severally provided with a pencil and a strip of paper. Each writes on the top of his paper one or more adjectives attributable to a man, folds his paper down over the writing, and passes it to his left-hand neighbour, receiving one in return from him on his right; and proceeding in the same order he writes in succession,

Adjectives suitable to a man,

A man's name,

Adjectives suitable to a woman,

A woman's name,

The name of a place,

Some productions of ditto,

A date,

A short sentence suited to a man,
A woman's reply,

The consequences,
and

What the world said.

As an example we will suppose the following to have been written down on one of the papers:

The irascible and enthusiastic-Paul Pry--The pious and charitable-The Queen of the Cannibal Islands-The ball of St. Paul's-Bloaters and ginger beer-Christmas Day, B.C. 450-Have you seen Blondin?-Ask mammaThey both perished miserably-It always knew how it would be.

When all have been filled up, the president takes the papers and reads them out; the one instanced above reading thus:

The irascible and enthusiastic Paul Pry met the pious and charitable Queen of the Cannibal Islands in the ball of St. Paul's, famous for its bloaters and ginger beer, on Christmas Day, B.C. 450. He asked her in tender strains, "Have you seen Blondin?" To which she replied, with a modest blush, “Ask mamma." As a natural consequence they both perished miserably; and the world said it always knew how it would be.

ADJECTIVES.

This is also a very amusing game. One of the players writes a letter, which of course he does not show, leaving a blank for every adjective. He then asks each player in turn round the table for an adjective, filling up the blank spaces with the adjectives as he receives them.

The following short letter will explain the game better than a long description. My detestable FRIEND,

In answer to your mendacious letter, I am silly to inform you that the dirty and degraded Miss Jones sends you her most fallacious thanks for your kindness, and bids me tell you she will always think of you as the vainest and most demented friend she ever had. As for that sagacious fellow Smith, he is such a delightful ass, such a filthy and eminent muff, you need not fear he will prove a very complicated rival.

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This is a game only for those who have some facility in rhyming and versifying; with half a dozen such it will always afford unlimited amusement. It is played as follows:

The players sit round the table, each with a pencil and two slips of paper; on one he writes a question-any question that occurs to him, the quainter the better-and on the other, a noun.

These slips are put into two separate baskets or hats, and shaken up well, so as to be thoroughly mixed. The hats or baskets are then passed round, and each player draws two slips at random, one from either basket, so that he has one slip with a question and one with a noun.

The players thus furnished now proceed to write on a third slip each a practical answer to the question before him. The answer must consist of at least four lines, and must introduce the afore-mentioned noun.

For instance, supposing a player to have drawn the question, Who killed Cock Robin? and the noun Faw, he might answer it somewhat as follows:

I, said the Sparrow,

With my bow and arrow.

If you'd known him too

You'd have wished him at Harrow;

With his cheek, and his jaw,

And his dandy red vest,

He became such a bore,

Such a regular pest!

'Twas really no joke:

Such troublesome folk

Must not be surprised if they're promptly suppressed.

Or, as a more concise example, question asked, Do you

Noun, Cheese. Answer,

bruise your

oats?

As I don't keep a steed,

Here is another

For oats I've no need;

For myself, when my own private taste I would please,
I prefer wheaten bread to oat-cake with my cheese.

example of veritable crambo rhymes. The question was,

"Can you pronounce Llyndgynbwlch?" and the noun "Oil." Answer as follows:

"Pronouncing Llyndgynbwlch
My glottis will spoil,
Unless lubricated
With cocoa-nut oil."

There happened to be cocoa-nut cakes on the table.

These will be amply sufficient as guides to the method of playing the game. They are not offered as models of poetry or diction, but as just the sort of things anybody might write on the spur of the moment, and therefore better suited for our purpose than any more finished and elaborate productions.

Of course this game can only be played by those who will take an interest in it, and who possess some little facility of versification. A player who, after half an hour or so spent in puzzling his brain and beating about for rhymes and sense, cannot succeed in turning out a few lines of doggerel, had better, for his own sake and that of others, turn his attention to other and less intellectual amusements.

But we would not alarm any timid players-we have no wish to seem to require any great poetical gifts in the player, though, of course, the more witty and brilliant they are, the more delightful and interesting the game: the merest doggerel is quite sufficient for all purposes, and the facility of stringing verses together will be found to increase rapidly with every day's practice. None but a veritable dunce need despair of taking at least a creditable part in this very amusing game.

DEFINITIONS.

This is a game only for elder boys and grown-up people; it is quite beyond the powers of youngsters, and not all even amongst the seniors can make any figure in it.

The theory of the game is very simple, but the opening it gives for wit and satire is simply unbounded, and for pure intellectuality it stands unrivalled amongst evening games.

The players sit round a table each with a pencil and piece of paper; a noun is then selected at random from a list, or in any convenient way, and each is then bound to furnish an original definition. This done, another is given out and similarly defined.

When a convenient number have been thus disposed of, the papers are handed up to the president, who is chosen for the occasion, and the several definitions read aloud.

Some very brilliant impromptus are sometimes flung off in this manner; and we would strongly advise, where the game is much played, that a book should be kept for the enshrinement of the special flowers of wit.

We offer a few here as examples, not so much for imitation, but as illustrations of the modus operandi, or perhaps we might rather say, ludendi.

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to expect for himself, and is least inclined to desire for his neighbour.

(e) The pass-key that unlocks the gates of society (/) A prize in the lottery of fate.

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HOW DO YOU LIKE IT, WHEN DO YOU LIKE it, and Where do you LIKE IT? This is also, like "Proverbs," a guessing game. One player, as before, goes out of the room while the others fix upon a word. He then returns, and puts to them severally in turn the question, "How do you like it?" and then, having completed the circle, "When do you like it?" and thirdly, in like manner, "Where do you like it?" To each of which questions the other players are bound to return a satisfactory reply.

At the end of these questions, or at any time in the game, the questioner may make a guess at the word, being allowed three guesses in all, as before in "Proverbs." If he succeed in guessing rightly, he points out the player from whose answer he got the right clue, who, therefore, pays a forfeit and takes his place, and the game goes on as before. If he do not succeed in guessing rightly, he himself pays a forfeit and goes out again.

The great secret of the game is to select words that, though pronounced alike (spelling does not matter), have two or more meanings.

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For instance, Z goes out, and the word "bow" is chosen. He asks of each, "How do you like it?" A answers In a good temper" (beau); B, "With long ends" (a bow tied in a ribbon); C, "Very strong" (an archer's bow); and so on, ringing the changes upon the three different sorts of bow.

In the next round the players are not bound to adhere to the same meaning they selected before, but may take any meaning they think most likely to puzzle the questioner.

Thus, to the question "When do you like it?" the answers may quite legitimately be as follows: A, "When I am dressing;" B, "When I want exercise;" C, "When I am going to a party." And to the last question, "Where do you like it?" A answers, "Under my chin;" B, " At my feet;" C, "Outside on the lawn."

If there be only three to be questioned, this would prove hard enough to find out, though "Under the chin" might perhaps give a clue. Z's chance lies in the number of answers that have to be given to the same question, and in the short time each has to prepare a satisfactory answer—one that shall satisfy all conditions and yet give no clue to the word.

The whole fun in this game, as in "Proverbs," depends entirely upon the wit and spirit of the players. To be seen at its very best it should be played by a party of really clever grown-up people. The contest of wit is then, as Mr. Cyrus Bantam would say, "to say the least of it, re-markable." Below will be found a few words taken almost at random suitable for this game.

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WHAT IS MY THOUGHT LIKE?

This game is somewhat like the last, only that the questioner does not leave the room, and the onus of the game lies on the questioned, not on the questioner.

The players being seated in a semicircle round the questioner, he thinks of something or a person-it matters not what-and demands of each player, "What is my thought like?" The answers, of course, being given without any clue to the word thought of, are of the most incongruous nature.

This, however, is only the commencement of the fun. Having taken and noted each player's simile, the questioner now reveals the word he had thought of, and demands of each a verification of his simile under penalty of a forfeit. As the answer must be given promptly, without time to arrange an elaborate defence, much quickness of wit and readiness of resource is required to avoid the forfeit for failure.

If the whole party succeed in justifying their similes, the questioncr pays a forfeit, and a new questioner is appointed.

The decision as to an answer being satisfactory or not lies in disputed cases with the whole party of players.

An illustration of the working of the game may be, perhaps, not out of place.

We will suppose that Z, the questioner, has thought of a baby, and has asked the question, "What is my thought like?" all round, and received the following

answers:

A, "A lump of chalk;" B, "Alexander the Great;" C, "The Great Eastern;" D, "A gooseberry;" E, "A fishing-rod;" F, "A carpet bag;" and so on; Z now tells them he thought of a baby, and calls upon them each severally to justify his simile.

A, "It is like a lump of chalk because it is white." (Allowed.)

B, "It is like Alexander because it cries for what it can't get." (Allowed.) C, "It is like the Great Eastern because it costs a great deal of money before it makes any returns." (Disputed as rather too fanciful, but finally allowed.)

D, "It is like a gooseberry because it is soft and red." (Not allowed. It had previously been likened to chalk as being white; red, therefore, cannot stand, and softness is not a sufficiently distinctive characteristic. Forfeit.) E, "It is like a fishing-rod because it has many joints." (Allowed by general acclaim.)

F," It is like a carpet bag because it has most elastic capacities of stowage." (Allowed after some discussion.)

Of course, it is easy enough in most cases to find some sort of justification of almost any simile if time be allowed, though even then one sometimes comes across one that would puzzle the most ingenious; but in the actual game the explanation must be found on the spur of the moment, and herein consists half the fun.

This game, like all others of its kind, is entertaining exactly in proportion to the wit and capacities of the players. Even the most witty and most learned may join in it without derogating from their dignity, and with a certainty of deriving from it a fund of endless and highly intellectual amuse

ment.

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