Games for Everybody Part 20

Packages of all shapes and sizes and securely wrapped up are prepared by the hostess who has numbered each one. The players are provided with pencil and slips of paper with numbers corresponding to the numbers on the parcels, arranged down one side.

The guests sit in a circle and the packages are pa.s.sed from one to the other. Each one is allowed to feel the packages as much as he pleases, but no one must look inside.

As the packages are pa.s.sed, the names, guessed by the sense of touch, are written opposite their appropriate numbers on the slips of paper.

After all the bundles have been pa.s.sed, the hostess opens each one and keeps account of those who have guessed correctly, while those who have failed, are requested to read their guesses as this affords much amus.e.m.e.nt.

WHO ARE THEY?

Photographs of noted people, labelled with names that do not belong to them, are hung about the room. Each picture is numbered.

The guests, provided with pencil and paper, are given a certain length of time in which to guess the correct names, which are written opposite their corresponding numbers.

Familiar photographs such as d.i.c.kens, Shakespeare, Was.h.i.+ngton, Lincoln, Napoleon, etc., should be chosen.

SWAPS.

The guests are requested to bring something wrapped up in paper, which they wish to get rid of.

The hostess prepares a duplicate set of numbers, pinning one number on each parcel, as the guests pa.s.s by her. When she gives a signal (clapping hands or ringing a bell), the two persons having No. 1 pinned on their packages exchange them, those having No. 2, and so on, until all have exchanged or swapped. Then all open their packages, some may have received better things, while others may have a worse swap.

TALKING SHOP.

Partners may be chosen for this game by writing names referring to ladies on one set of papers like, "Judy," "Jill," "Juliet," and names referring to men on another set of papers like, "Punch," "Jack,"

"Romeo." Hand each guest a slip of paper with the name on it and each one hunts for his partner.

When all the partners are found, the leader announces that at a given signal all the ladies are to talk to their partners for five minutes about household affairs, shopping, or fas.h.i.+ons. Each man listens attentively to his partner, and when the five minutes are up, he has to write a short account of her conversation, on paper, which the hostess provides. Five minutes is allowed for this.

Then the men talk to the ladies for five minutes about business affairs, stocks, law, building or medicine, and it is the ladies' turn to write a short composition of what she heard.

The papers are collected, the hostess reads them, and a prize is awarded to the best or most amusing account.

SIGHT UNSEEN.

Partners may be chosen in any way for this game. The host gives each pair a sheet of paper and pencil. The partners decide among themselves which one is the best artist, he or she (as the case may be) takes the pencil and paper, while the other receives some common object from the host.

The chairs must be arranged side by side, but facing in opposite directions, so the one who is to draw may not see the object his partner has. When the signal is given to begin, the one having the object describes it to his partner, who must draw it, from the description given.

After twenty minutes have pa.s.sed, the drawings and their objects are collected, arranged side by side, and it is decided by vote which drawing is most like the object it represents.

A STUDY IN ZOOLOGY.

It will be necessary to have several sheets of silhouette paper (black on one side and white on the other), a large sheet of white cardboard, several pairs of scissors, and as many pencils as there are players, for this game.

Each player is handed a piece of silhouette paper, on the white side of which is written a number and the name of some animal. The players are handed pencils and requested to draw the animal, a.s.signed to each, on the white side of the paper. The animals are then cut out and handed to the hostess. Fifteen minutes are allowed for this.

The hostess, having collected all the animals, pastes them back side out, on the sheet of cardboard, and writes a number corresponding to the one already on the animal, underneath each. The cardboard sheet is hung up where all can see and the players are handed pieces of paper with numbers arranged down one side, on which each player is to write opposite its corresponding number what each animal is supposed to represent.

A prize may be given to the one guessing the greatest number of animals correctly.

AUCTION SALE

Provide twenty or more bundles, all shapes and sizes, securely wrapped. Each bundle has a name on it suggestive of what is inside. For instance, "A pair of kids," may contain two kid hair curlers, "A bunch of dates," may be a calendar; "A diamond pin," a dime and a pin.

Each guest is given a bag containing fifty beans, no one can bid higher than fifty.

The auctioneer, who must be a witty person, who can carry on a lively bidding, stands by a table where the parcels are piled and carries on the sale until all the parcels are sold. The bundles are then opened by the purchasers and there is much merriment over the contents.

THE GENTEEL LADY.

The players sit in a circle. The leader begins by saying, "I, a genteel lady (or gentleman, as the case may be) always genteel, come to you, a genteel lady (or gentleman) always genteel (bows to the player on the right), from yonder genteel lady (or gentleman) always genteel (bows to player on left), to tell you that she has an eagle."

The next player repeats that word for word and adds something about the eagle, for instance, the last part may be, "to tell you that she has an eagle with silver beak." The next player may add, "golden claws," the next "emerald eyes," the next "purple feathers," and so on.

The players who repeat every word correctly, adding their description of the eagle, remain "genteel," but those who make a mistake become "horned" instead of "genteel."

The leader has charge of the "horns" which may be toothpicks or pieces of paper twisted up tight. For every mistake a "horn" is tucked in the player's hair. Each player repeats what the leader has said, but if the player next to him is "horned," he must subst.i.tute "horned" for "genteel" when referring to him.

When each one has repeated this tale, the players who have "horns,"

and there will be many, must pay a forefeit for every "horn" they have.

RHYMES.

Provide each player with slips of paper and pencil. The hostess then announces that each one is to write some question at the top of the paper, fold the paper over and pa.s.s it to the player at the left, who writes a noun, folds the paper over and pa.s.ses it to the left again.