It is to laugh

Plato said, “One can discover more about a person in an hour’s play with him than is possible in a year’s conversation with him.”

We found out the real truth of that in our war work with soldiers and sailors, and we are continuing to see its truth in our recreation work in communities all over this country. It is a real revelation to a church to see how splendid an example of good sportsmanship the minister sets when he is absolutely duped in a trick game that sent the others into gales of good-natured laughter, with him, not at him, and yet comes through it laughing as heartily as anyone, and sincerely glad for the huge enjoyment the game created!

Trick games are invaluable not only for developing the finest kind of sportsmanship in victims and onlookers alike, however, but they are invaluable too as “fillers-in” for awkward pauses in an evening’s program. That is their forte, to bridge over awkward pauses, to keep interest high, to call forth hearty laughter and best of all, to create the finest kind of spirit in a social gathering.

Wrong!

Tell your guests that there are three words in the English language which are particularly difficult to spell, and that a person who can spell them correctly can spell almost any word. Ask some individual to spell the word “receive.” He spells it correctly and you compliment him and then ask him to spell “believe.” He does spell it right, but you shake your head and laughingly say, “Wrong”! Say nothing more than that but repeat it several times at his insisting that he spelled “believe” correctly. Usually the next step is, “Well let’s start over again because I know I spelled those words correctly!” If the request is not forthcoming, make the suggestion yourself and start all over with “receive,” and after “believe” again shake your head and look shocked beyond words at the ignorance evidenced, and say “Wrong!”

If you are not fatally injured by this time, suggest again that you start from the beginning, and again after “believe” say “Wrong,” with a shocked look. Eventually your victim will arrive and spell “W-r-o-n-g!”

Palmistry.

This is always done by some very attractive girl. She will guarantee to read the palm of any man present, and leave it to the crowd if all she reads in his palm is not in accordance with what they know of him. Some well-known and popular man is chosen as the subject, and with the rest of the guests silent so that everything she says may be heard, she begins reading his palm. Her conversation may run as follows: “Now this is your head line, and it shows that you have a great many possibilities which you are not developing. Your heart line over here is woefully cracked. I’m not going into detail there! Your life line is firm and unbroken and it shows almost no ill health, but it does show an early and painful death because this line right here (pointing to any other line) shows that you are an awful flirt and let young ladies hold your hand right out in public!”

Of What Are Matches Made?

This is best for a small group. Arrange four squares of matches on a table or a book. Ask your guests to take away four matches, and rearrange three, thus writing out the name of the thing of which matches are made. Invariably they will try to spell “Wood” and they have a real task ahead of them. What matches are really made of is “love,” which is very easy to spell in the required way!

Crystal Gazing.

Choose a guest who is fairly dignified but ready to appreciate a joke even though the joke be on him. Tell him that to read his thoughts is really a simple matter if he will look into quiet waters and do just what you tell him to do. Be perfectly serious in all that you say, for if you act as though it is going to be something funny, you scare off the bravest guest ever entertained.

Take two glasses of water, full to the brim. You take a sip out of one and ask him to take one from the other. Then slowly move the glasses around in a circular motion two or three times. Ask your victim to kneel and to place both hands on the floor with fingers spread out to enable him to hold the glasses securely without spilling any water. Put a glass on each hand, very emphatically stating that for either you or him to spill even one drop of water is against the spirit of the proceeding. Make a real point of this, for subjects are always scared to death that you are going to throw water on them, and I can’t say that I’d appreciate that little bit of humor myself.

After the glasses are safely placed on his hands your conversation should run something like this: “Wait till that water quiets down and then look very intently into the glass on your right hand, the one out of which you drank. Then make a wish, a real one, not about something silly like the weather, but a wish that could come true before the end of the year. Don’t tell us what your wish is but tell us when you have made it, and almost at once I can tell you what your wish was and whether it will come true or not.”

That is the correct time for you to go to another and healthier part of the room. “Well, I’ve made my wish,” comes almost at once. Your reply is an indifferent, “Oh that’s all right. That doesn’t make any difference!” and you pay no more attention to his protests until the other guests have had their fill of the hilarious laughter that is inevitable at his ridiculous plight, whereupon you tell him that he is wishing you would take the water off his hands, and that his wish will come true!

Paralysis.

This can be the funniest thing imaginable. Choose someone who is not liable to look very deeply into the hidden meaning of your explanations. Tell him that if he will do exactly as you ask, you can hypnotize him so that it will be physically impossible for him to get up alone. Let me give you a skull and crossbones warning to put your emphasis on “alone,” and not on “up.”

You and your victim are seated facing each other, but make a great point of the fact that you don’t have to touch him to hypnotize him. Ask him to look straight into your eyes and try to get into the spirit of the thing. He is to do everything you do and in the same way. That always seems to make victims feel that if you can do it without bodily injury, they too stand a good chance of coming out of it alive!

The process of hypnotism is on. Make the most ridiculous motions you can think of, accompanied by the most ridiculous noises, all the time looking intently at your subject. For example, sing up the scale (a process which many of us would make a ridiculous noise!) at the same time twiddling your fingers on top of your head as though the fingers were paper ribbons fluttering in the breezes. Your subject imitates you. Rub your hands together as though they were cymbals, while you buzz like a bee. The victim cymbalizes and buzzes. Five or six of these hypnotizing motions, conscientiously imitated, generally have the effect of paralyzing the audience with no further effort on your part, while the victim begins to “feel queer already!” Just about then you give one last intent look, one last hypnotizing motion, and tell him in a sepulchral tone that now it will be absolutely impossible for him to get up alone.

He experiments, putting out first one foot and then the other, and finally stands up triumphantly and crows, “Well I guess you didn’t hypnotize me! I stood up alone!” “Oh no you didn’t,” comes the answer, “I got up with you. You didn’t get up alone!”

Owa Tagoo Siam!

Tell your guests that the Siamese national slogan is very intricate and that only really intelligent people can learn it, but that you have a way of teaching it so that even the simplest person can grasp it immediately. Ask them to repeat what you say. “Owa!” with emphasis on the o; “Tagoo!” with emphasis on the goo; “Siam!” Then ask them to repeat, running all three words together. They will have to do it over and over with much help and encouragement from you before they appreciate the full meaning of your scornful “Well I should say you are!”

Finally they arrive. Each one is exclaiming “Oh what a goose I am!”

Abbreviations.

Ask some dignified man to put the tip of his forefinger under his chin. While he holds it there ask him to tell the assembled multitude the abbreviation for quart. He will look the part when he says “Q-t,” which you’ll all agree sounds like “Cutie.”

Later on get some other guest to point his forefinger at his head and show how well educated he is by immediately giving the abbreviation for mountain “M-t.” certainly sounds like “empty” though it would hardly be right for any of the other guests to thus describe the victim’s head!

Under the Table.

Let the host make a wager with one of his men guests that he cannot get under the dining table or some small sidetable and stay there while his host knocks three times on the table. “Why that would take just a second! Surely I can!” He gets under the table and his host knocks once and twice and then knocks no more but proceeds to lead his guests out of the room, leaving his betting friend either to pay up, or wait indefinitely under the table for the third knock!

Impossible!

“Would you like to see something that has never been seen before and that will never be seen again?”

“Impossible!”

Whereupon you pick up an English walnut or any kind of nut, crack it, take out the kernel and ask if it has ever been seen before; then eat it and ask if it will ever be seen again!

The Lost Sheep.

This is to follow some vocal selection that gained enough applause to justify an encore. Immediately following the announcement that the next number is to be a little ballad entitled “The Lost Sheep,” the accompanist begins an elaborate accompaniment with an introduction that is unusually long. At the correct moment she crashes out a loud chord and signals to the singer to begin. The singer takes a deep breath, holds it as long as she can, and then gives forth one heart-rending “Baa!”, the song of the lost sheep.

The Gathering of the Nuts.

It is announced that an impromptu farce will be staged, with guests taking the various parts. As the different guests are assigned parts they are in turn called to the stage and told where and how to stand. If a large group is present, from fifteen to twenty actors are used; if a small group, all of them may take part. A list of the various rôles has been made out, and the announcer begins calling out characters with the name of the guest who is to take each part. The following cast is used to good advantage:

1. Two footlights, who sit at the front of the stage, upright when the footlights are on, but with faces to floor when off.

2. Curtain. A large man who stands at the middle back. When curtain goes up, arms are outstretched.

3. Scenery. Two girls who stand in right and left corners at the back of the stage with fingertips on top of their heads.

4. The Table. Two short men who, facing each other, bend over till the tops of their heads come together forming an ideal tabletop.

5. The Davenport. Two men who kneel facing each other with hands joined as near the floor as possible.

6. The Lamp. A tall girl with a very fixed radiant smile.

7. The Clock. A girl who moves her head from side to side, saying automatically, “Tick, tock, tick, tock!”

8. Exits. Two people standing at each door with joined hands held high to form a passageway.

9. The Heroine. A tall stout girl who stares dreamily at one of the light fixtures.

10. Her Mother, who stares adoringly at her.

11. Her Father. A picture of righteous wrath.

12. The Hero. A small meek man on his knees at the feet of the heroine.

13. The Villain. Arms crossed, sneer, air of defiance. Much showing teeth and twirling of mustache.

After they are all in their right places with instructions as to how to look and act, footlights go on, curtain goes up, and the announcer breaks in hurriedly, “Oh! I forgot to tell you the name of this play! It is ‘The Gathering of the Nuts!’”, whereupon she makes a hasty exit!

The Band.

Guests are told that the object of the game is for each one to pantomime the action of the instrument assigned him, in such a realistic way that the others cannot help but guess what it is. Each performer is to continue his pantomiming until the audience makes the correct guess. The hostess then asks the first performer to step into another room with her so that she can tell him what his instrument is, and help him with the action of it. She assigns him something easy like a cornet, telling him at the same time however that his part is really a blind to keep the group from getting suspicious about any hoax. He goes back into the room, pantomimes the action of a cornet, and immediately the audience guesses “Cornet,” and probably thinks “Oh what a stupid game!”

The hostess carefully picks her next performer, takes him into the next room, and tells him his part. He is to play the accordion, and, according to rule, is to keep it up until the audience makes a correct guess as to his instrument. In the meantime, the man who played the cornet is carrying out the instructions given him by his hostess, and is telling the group that the next man will play an accordion, but that they are all to profess great ignorance and to guess everything under the sun but an accordion—a piano, a piccolo, drum, flute, violin, trombone, anything but an accordion. Inevitably the impatient question will come from the performer, “Well! What is it that I’m playing?” and the group will sweetly answer, “The part of the goat!”

Whistle!

The group is told that a whistle will be blown behind the back of whoever is chosen to go into the center, and that he, because of a magic coat he has put on, has clairvoyant power and can immediately turn around and tell who did it. If he should by some mishap make an error, he may try again and he can without question guess who did it the second time.

Mr. Victim goes into the center and the magic coat is put across his shoulders. Great care must be used however so that he cannot possibly see that the whistle, which is a very light one, is hanging on a short cord pinned securely on the back of the coat just between the shoulders. The sleeves are tied in front and the coat is bunched across his back so that plenty of thickness is arranged for in order that he may not feel the whistle as he turns around rapidly. Other guests crowd in on him very closely so that the whistle can be reached easily and can be blown by any one of the onlookers without the victim’s feeling the tug.

When the leader says that all is ready, someone back of him blows an earsplitting blast on the whistle. Immediately everyone puts his hands behind him. Mr. Victim turns around at once and accuses the guiltiest looking one of holding the whistle. The guilty looking party holds up his hands and shows that he has no whistle and vows that he did not pass it to anyone else. Only one guess as to who did it is allowed in each case and the one accused is to hold up his hands at once, to prove his innocence or guilt.

Sooner or later the unfortunate in the center discovers who has been holding the whistle all the time, and that is the strategic time for everyone to go into the other room!

The Prison Guard.

For a small group only. Make a square representing a prison on a piece of paper, not joining the lines at the corners however. Let “P” represent a prisoner in the center of the square. At three of the corners let “G” represent guards. The story is that the prisoner escaped in spite of the guards, that there was a guard at this, and this, and this gate, pointing with your pencil to the three gates at which are stationed guards. Ask how in the world he could have escaped.

Invariably someone answers, “Why he could have gone through this gate,” and puts the tip of his finger on the unguarded gate. Your pencil is resting carelessly on the paper. At the crucial moment you hold it poised and when the answer comes and the finger points to the unguarded gate, your pencil comes into action with a swift rap across the knuckles as you exclaim in surprise, “Oh no! I am guarding that gate!”

Magic Writing.

The magic writer sends his confederate out of the room while the group decides on some short active verb. On his return the magician will write out this word in magic writing, whereupon the confederate will immediately go through the action of the verb decided upon.

That verb may be “dance.” When the confederate comes into the room the magician must be careful to say nothing that is not connected with his magic writing, or he will confuse his confederate. The first thing he says is, “Don’t get excited.” He then makes a great many fantastic motions on the floor with an umbrella, suddenly tapping hard, just once. Then he remarks, “Now be careful,” and after a very short pause, “Come on and try it,” and finishes with more flourishes of the umbrella and two distinct taps. Immediately the confederate, without saying a word, starts to dance.

It is a simple matter—when one knows how. The flourishes and the fantastic motions mean nothing, but all conversation and the taps mean a great deal. The first letter of each sentence gives the necessary consonant, and the taps give the vowels. For example, the first letter of the first sentence was “d.” Next came one tap, the first vowel “a,” then, “n,” then “c,” and then two taps for “e” the second vowel, and there you have “d-a-n-c-e.” The vowels come in their usual order of course, a, e, i, o, u, with one tap for a, two taps for e, three taps for i, etc., etc.

Discourage any other than short verbs. Imagine living through “palpitate!”

Hee Haw!

The group is told that at a signal, each one is to imitate the call of the animal assigned him, to see which one can do it the most realistically and still be heard above the others. Assistants go about, supposedly assigning the names of animals, but in reality whispering to everyone to make no sound at all. Only one person is told to really imitate the call of an animal. That is a victim who is to represent a donkey. When the signal comes, he “Hee Haw’s!” at the top of his lungs, blithely unconscious of the fact that he is alone in his efforts. That state of bliss does not last long!

Willie.

The leader holds her left hand in front of her, fingers spread out. With her right forefinger she traces her way along the inside of the fingers of her left hand. To illustrate, she starts at the tip of the thumb, comes down, and up to the tip of the forefinger, down it and up the second finger, and so on through all the fingers. She then starts at the thumb and does the same thing again. From the very first she has been saying, “Willie, Willie, Willie, Willie, little Willie, Willie, Willie!” in the most pitiful tone she can muster up, and in rhythm with her finger movements. She then quietly folds her hands and says “Now you do it.”

It looks so simple that it isn’t even funny until two or three people try it and make utter failures of it. Because she scowled when she did it, they scowl, thinking that that is the trick; because she used a pitiful tone, they use one; and they imitate her finger movements exactly, while she criticizes them for not getting the little finger just right. Finally someone arrives. It is the quiet folding of the hands at the end that is all-important.

Wonderful Vision.

The leader may claim that it is a perfectly simple matter for him to see through any amount of covering over his eyes. To test his vision, he chooses five or six testers if the group is large, but if there are not more than ten present they may all be included. They form a circle around his chair, first covering up his eyes so that he cannot possibly see. He then asks them to start moving slowly around him, each one doing something that no one else is doing. One may hop on one foot, another clap his hands, another do facial gymnastics, fly, walk backwards, anything that no one else is doing, but each one must go through some action or the thought wave is broken and the wonderful vision impaired. One person is designated to suddenly stop all action after a minute or two of moving around, by clapping his hands and calling out, “Now! Exactly what is each one of us doing?” and the leader promises on his word of honor that in spite of the heavy covering over his eyes he can without a moment’s hesitation tell what every last person in the moving circle was doing at that identical moment.

The circle begins moving slowly around, each one in it going through some definite movement, and each one wondering, probably, how in the world the blindfolded leader will be able to tell that the Methodist minister is wiggling his ears, and that Mrs. Newly Rich is doing an esthetic dance. Suddenly a halt is called by the one chosen to do it. He claps his hands briskly and says, “Now tell us what we were doing at the moment I clapped my hands.”

The leader throws off the covering, looks intently at the group and then says with great satisfaction, “Each one of you was making a goose of himself!”

The Elastic Ring.

A guest with a large head is chosen as the one on whom to experiment. The hostess holds up a lady’s ring and assures her guests that if she, while facing this guest, holds the ring in just the right position she can easily poke her guest’s head right through it without hurting him in the least. It sounds incredible but her friend of the large head stands obediently before her, she twists and turns the ring to get just the right position, finally succeeds, and giving a sigh of satisfaction, proceeds to poke his head through the ring by putting her finger through the ring and poking his head!

Rabbit.

The leader shows great enthusiasm in asking her guests if they know that “awfully funny new game ‘Rabbit.’” If a small group, all may join in; if a large one, only a select few have the privilege. They form a circle, kneel on the right knee, each one putting the first finger of the right hand on the floor. When they are all set the leader asks again as if to make sure, “Really don’t you know how to play ‘Rabbit’?” and again they assure her that they do not.

“Neither do I,” she remarks regretfully.

Rubber!

The leader has a rubber band at the base of the first two fingers of her left hand which is closed. She opens the hand suddenly and throws the rubber in such a way that it jumps clear across to the base of the third and fourth fingers of the same hand. Impossible? Not a bit, but only clever people can do it, or at least so the guests are told.

The rubber band is put at the base of the first two fingers. All four fingers are then folded over and the rubber is stretched a bit so that it may cover all four tips. When the fingers are stretched out straight it is inevitable that the rubber band jump to the base of the third and fourth fingers.

The Unbreakable Match.

A man’s handkerchief is opened up and waved about to show how free it is from any trickery. A match is put in the exact center of the handkerchief which is then carefully folded up. Complete silence is asked for in order that all may hear the leader break the match. They listen carefully and admit that they hear the distinct crack of the match as it is broken. The leader shakes out the handkerchief and the match is shown, unbroken.

She repeats the performance, and each time all will admit that they heard her break the match. There are always many theories advanced as to how she does it—by cracking her finger-nails together, etc., etc., and there is always somebody who wants to see the handkerchief. Instead of showing it, however, she shakes it freely and tells them that that ought to satisfy anybody.

Just between us, there is a match pushed far into the hem at all four corners. Each time she is supposed to be cracking the match in the center of the handkerchief, she is very careful to crack one of the corner matches instead!

Leterfly.

Leterfly and Salaam are quite evidently not for exactly formal dress affairs! Leterfly is especially good for Poverty Parties and the like, and is best adapted to a small group. Guests are told that one by one they will be introduced to the Fly Family. The leader chooses four assistants, and the rest of the guests are taken aside some place where they cannot see the presentations. The assistants are lined up like a receiving line as the Fly Family, and as the guests come in, one at a time, they are presented to each member of the family. The first one is the butterfly, next the firefly, then the dragonfly, and lastly leterfly, who does what her name implies and lets fly about ten drops of cold water from a thimble which she has held concealed at her side.

Salaam.

His Majesty, the King of Timbuktu, is seated on his throne at one end of the room with a page close at hand. Four or five people have been asked to leave the room and to come in one at a time as called, in order to be presented to His Majesty. The first one is called in, brought before the king, told to bow deeply before him three times, each time saying, “I pledge allegiance to my king.” He is told too, that the deeper his bow, the greater his favor with the king. He bows once, then again, and then a third time. His allegiance gets a bit chilled however during the third bow, for the page has provided the king with a small piece of ice, which is gently but firmly applied to the back of the neck during the third bow.

Hypnotism.

Much care is evidenced in the selecting of a subject for hypnotism. It is hardly necessary to say that a confederate is in the group. The hypnotist goes about touching different people’s temples to see whether they are the right kind for hypnotism. He finally discovers a good subject, his confederate of course. The subject is sent out of the room while the group decides on something they want him to do when hypnotized. Perhaps they want him to sing. He is seated on a chair facing the audience and the hypnotist begins to rub his forehead slowly. The movements are slow and well defined, that is, the fingers are lifted after each move across the forehead. The subject soon loses consciousness and as the movements continue, seems to get more and more under the spell of the hypnotist. Finally with a shaking of his fingers the hypnotist stops and there is absolute silence for just a moment, in order to keep the subject under the spell. Suddenly he begins singing in a high squeaky voice, “Wait till the Sun Shines Nellie!”

If the subject has any relatives present they will almost surely beg that he be taken out of his trance. The obliging hypnotist presses his fingers twice into the temples of the subject who shudders, sighs, and wakes up wondering what it is all about!

Frankly, it is not easy to do unless both subject and hypnotist are very alert and wideawake. If they are, however, it is a comparatively simple process to hypnotize a confederate into doing anything the audience wants him to do. We assume that they want him to sing. The hypnotist begins rubbing his forehead and carefully rubs nineteen times, for “s,” the first letter in sing, is the nineteenth letter of the alphabet. He carefully lifts his fingers at the end of each movement. After the nineteenth rub he presses hard into both temples to show that the letter is completed. Waiting just a second, he begins again and rubs nine times for “i,” the ninth letter of the alphabet, pressing the temples at the end. The next time he rubs fourteen times for “n,” and the last time only seven times for “g,” at the end of which he shakes his fingers vigorously as a signal that the word is completed.

It will make it more interesting for all concerned if the hypnotist asks the audience to choose verbs of three or four letters. His explanation is that simple action is very easy to get over even to a new subject, while long and complicated action takes practice. The real reason is that it is fairly easy for a subject to get the words “cry,” or “dance” or “sleep” or “jump,” while “hippity-hop” would be almost impossible and too long drawn out to be interesting.

If a hypnotist can get a confederate who will get thoroughly into the spirit of the thing and sigh, shudder, go into a trance, or act completely exhausted, while the hypnotist himself makes a serious thing out of it, a group can be completely deceived as to the genuineness of the performance.

Eny.

This is particularly good for a table game or in any situation where there is no room for moving around. Announce that there is a word in the English language that ends in “eny,” pronounced like “any.” It is necessary to put just one letter at the beginning to make it a very common and much used word. Suggest that they begin with “a” putting every letter of the alphabet in turn before “eny” till the proper letter is found. The usual process is this: “A-eny, b-eny, c-eny, d-eny, f-eny, g-eny, h-eny,” and so on through the entire alphabet until an impatient “Why there isn’t a single letter that will do it,” calls forth your positive assurance that there is a letter that will do it.

If they simply cannot get it, ask them to change the accent. Finally they will arrive. “D-eny” is a perfectly good word.

“T.”

Guests are sitting about informally when the hostess turns to her right-hand neighbor, Mrs. Brown, and says, “I simply can’t abide ‘t’ but I like onions. What do you like, Mrs. Brown?” and Mrs. Brown, who knows the game, answers, “I don’t like ‘t’ but I like cabbage,” and turns to the next one who is in the dark as to what they are talking about, and asks her what she likes. She replies, “Well, I don’t like tea but I love soda water,” but laughter greets her and she is told that she certainly cannot join their secret organization. Her right-hand neighbor then tells what she likes, and so it goes around the circle, all the uninitiated trying valiantly to get in on this secret understanding that seems to be so funny. Before it has gone around the circle once, however, someone gets it. She is not allowed to tell, but when her turn comes in the second round she gives evidence as to whether she is right or not. She might say perhaps, “I don’t like ‘t’ but I do like pickles!” and she is declared an initiated member.

It is very simple. If you wish to belong to the “Anti-T” band your taste must run to food that has no “t” in it, like pickles, soup, etc., etc. but not like potatoes, turnips or ketchup!

Self Praise.

The hostess makes a remark to the effect that “This group is mighty good-looking,” accompanying the remark with a very prim, set smile, and then asks the one at her right to repeat it exactly as she gave it. The neighbor gives what she considers an exact duplication of the remark and the smile, but she is told that she isn’t even warm, so the next one tries it and so it goes around the circle, with some of them utter failures and others very successful. This continues until most of them have arrived.

Many of them put the greatest emphasis on the smile, thinking that that is the important factor, which of course is just exactly what you wanted them to think, for half the fun of the game is caused by the utterly hopeless smiles that are forthcoming. The successful ones however have noticed that each time before you made a remark you cleared your throat. Easy, isn’t it, when you know how?

No Fair!

Two of the men are blindfolded and are asked to sit in the middle of the circle on the floor, facing each other with knees touching. Each one is given a swatter, made of newspapers folded together. At a signal, the smaller one of the two is told to call out to the other “Where are you?” and the big one is to answer “Right here,” and then without moving his knees he may dodge in any way he can to avoid the sweep of the swatter that his opponent aims in the direction of the “Right here.” He may be successful in his dodging, but then again, he may not, and he gets a “swat” that calls for revenge, so he takes his turn, and calls out, “Where are you?”, and the small one answers, “Right here” and immediately dodges as best he can the avenging swatter that is swatting in his direction. They take turns at this for a few moments and then the small one, to whom the leader has whispered a few words when he was blindfolding him, slips down the blindfolder and gets in several good dodges and several good swats before his opponent gets suspicious that all is not well!

Mr. Bumps.

The leader invites her guests to watch very closely the ceremony she will go through in honor of her friend Mr. Bumps, and tells them that an opportunity will be given to imitate the ceremony.

She sits at a table with a glass of water before her and with all simplicity begins her ceremony. Holding the glass between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand she takes a sip of water and says, “I drink to Mr. Bumps,” puts the glass down, taps on top of the table with her right forefinger, does the same with her left forefinger, repeats the finger tapping performance under the edge of the table, taps the floor with her right foot, then her left foot, and finally, bows her head once.

The second part of the ceremony is exactly like the first except that everything is done twice and the glass is held between the thumb and two fingers instead of just one finger. Two drinks are taken; the toast, “I drink to Mr. Bumps twice,” is given; the right forefinger and the left forefinger tap twice on top of the table and twice under the edge of the table; the right foot and then the left foot tap on the floor; and the head is bowed twice.

The third and last part of the ceremony too is just like the first, except that everything is done three times, and the glass is held between the thumb and three fingers, and the toast is, “I drink to Mr. Bumps for the third and last time.”

A cordial invitation to do likewise is then issued. While the explanation as given here may sound rather complicated, the performance really looks extremely simple, and in the average group there will be several who are sure they can do it. I have never yet seen a person do it absolutely correctly with the first effort, and it usually takes several efforts to master this apparently very simple procedure. Every applicant is given just one chance in the first round and at his first mistake he is supplanted by a new applicant. When they have all been given a chance (and incidentally all have failed) they are all urged to try again and each successive time it becomes easier but only one mistake is allowed in each trial.

You may look skeptical at the statement that real head-work is essential. My only answer is, “Try it!”

I Hypnotize You!

If the group is large, some five or six guests are asked to sit in a circle in front of the audience. If there are not more than ten guests present, let them all form a circle, seated, with a person who will make a good victim next to the leader. A good victim is not always only a good sport. He is inevitably that, but in addition, a leader who chooses her subjects wisely will choose one who will not readily see the hoax. In this case the victim is entirely unconscious of the important part he is to play.

The leader tells the group that certain very simple movements of the hands across the forehead of a subject can hypnotize that subject in almost no time, and without actually hypnotizing her subject she will demonstrate on her neighbor, so that they may all see the principle of the thing and practice on their neighbors before the real hypnotizing begins. Subjects in each case should be right-hand neighbors. Assuring her right-hand neighbor in all seriousness that she is only going through the motions of hypnotizing, without really accomplishing anything, she begins demonstrating on him. Her hands are lying folded in her lap. Her first request is very important, but she is very casual as she asks her victim to close his eyes, as she wishes to make certain movements over the closed eyes. As soon as his eyes are closed she makes several soft, gentle movements directly around and over his eyes, making much of the point that she is only demonstrating and not actually hypnotizing. When she has done the thing to her own satisfaction, she folds her hands again and tells him to open his eyes, while he, together with the rest of the group, is to practice these movements preparatory to some actual hypnotizing.

Mr. Victim cannot understand the very unreasonable mirth of the other members of the circle, who have all they can do to keep upright as they make a pretense of practicing on each other. He finally gets suspicious however, and goes to a mirror. What he sees there leaves no doubt in his mind as to what they were finding so extremely funny!

The leader’s hands, which were folded so innocently in her lap, had previously been generously coated with lampblack, all of which had transferred itself to his face!

Magic Photography.

This is for a small group of guests who know each other fairly well. The photographer boasts that he can take an impression of a person’s face on the back of a spoon, and make it so real that another person who has been out of the room can almost immediately tell whose picture was taken.

In the face of the scoffing, he sends someone (of course his confederate) out of the room, and sets about taking the picture of one of the guests on the back of a spoon. He rubs the spoon over the entire face, pressing into the depressions at either side of the nose and being sure to get the mold of the chin. He then calls in the one who was out of the room, shows him the spoon and asks, “What beauty is it?” At once comes the answer, “Winona Beal,” and he is right. He goes out again and when he has been called in the second time, the photographer says, showing him the spoon, “Go ahead!” and the answer is, “It is Gertrude Addams,” and again he is right.

The solution is this: The first two words of the photographer’s statement have as their first letters the initials of the one photographed. “What beauty is it?” gave the initials “W” and “B” and “Go ahead” gave “G” and “A.”

In games of this kind, instead of endeavoring to find out the trick used, there is the inevitable someone who says, “Let me go out.” It has proved wise to let one of these inevitables go out of the room, telling him when he comes back that you are not sure that he will be quick enough to get the resemblance on the spoon, thereby putting the burden of proof on him. Sure enough, he fails, and almost always your group will ask that the one who was first sent out of the room be sent again, for no trick that does not work is interesting.

It is another matter when someone thinks he has discovered your trick. Instead of telling the group what he thinks it is, you ask him to leave the room in place of your confederate and when he gets back and tells correctly whose picture is on the spoon, it is much to the delight of the crowd. As each one of them discovers the trick and is allowed to try out his discovery, one by one they guess it, and nothing puts a crowd into a better humor than to have guessed a trick which looked hard!

The Pain.

There may in this very large world still be one or even two people who have not heard of the way to hypnotize a person so that he will inevitably feel a pain (pane). The hypnotist makes several passes before the eyes of the subject, stares at him fixedly, presses his hands on the temple of the subject, leads him to a window, raps his hand very lightly on the glass, holds his fingers there, and then inquires solicitously, and yet triumphantly, “You feel a pane now, don’t you?”

The subject, who feels absolutely no discomfort or pain, says so freely, but he is corrected by the hypnotist who assures him that he certainly is feeling pane!

Teapot.

This game centers about words that have two meanings like “can.” It is used to best advantage with a small informal group. The leader starts it by saying “I teapot teapot peaches when I teapot get them,” and the neighbor to her right is to take up the conversation if she can think of the word in the place of which teapot was used. She guesses correctly so she says, “Most teapots are made of tin, but I teapot show you a teapot made of glass.” Her right-hand neighbor has not the slightest inkling of what word they are thinking about, so she is obliged to pass, and so it goes around the circle, anyone who passes being obliged to pay a forfeit. When each one has had a turn and it comes back to the leader she tells what word she had in mind, “can.”

Then she starts another one, this one perhaps, “see,” and as before, she omits the word “see” and uses “teapot” instead. For example, “I did teapot the teapot when a fearful storm was up, and I am sure that I shall never again teapot such a raging teapot.”

Sometimes the leader will call upon someone else to start a new word, and in each case, anyone who is unable to “catch on” pays a forfeit.

Magic Numbers.

Children love easy trick games which they may try out on each other. One of the easiest and simplest of these is one in which someone, a confederate of course, is sent out of the room while the others decide on some number under ten. Perhaps they decide on six. The outsider is called in and the leader remarks to him, “Fire Away,” and immediately he says, “You decided on six.”

The next time when they chose four for their number, the leader said to his confederate, “Do you think you can get it from looking at me?” and of course the confederate said, “Easily. It is four.”

The first letter of any remark the leader makes tells the confederate what number has been decided upon. In “Fire away,” the first letter was “f,” which is the sixth letter of the alphabet. Therefore, six was the number chosen. In “Do you think” etc., etc., “d,” the fourth letter of the alphabet, gives the number four.

Red, White and Blue.

This is one of the most irritating and fascinating puzzles ever put to an informal group. While the confederate is out of the room the leader asks the guests to decide on any object in the room. The confederate is called in and after naming several wrong articles in the room, asking each time if that is the one chosen, the leader names the right one and instantly the answer is made, “That is the thing you chose.” Immediately someone says, “Oh, it is just like ‘Black Magic’ except that you name a red object just before the right one.”

The leader smiles and answers, “All right. Just watch this next time,” and next time the right object certainly was not preceded by an object that was red, nor was it the next time. As it happened, however, when the leader pointed out wrong objects and finally the right one the next time, the right one was preceded by something red and every last guest noticed it and spoke of it, but they could not say that the trick was that the right object was always preceded by something red, for that was not true.

The system used is indeed very much like “Black Magic” in which the object decided upon is always preceded by an object that is black, but in this case the right object is preceded by objects that are red, white and blue, in turn. The first time it follows a red object, next a white one, and then a blue one. Then the series begins all over again, first a red object to precede it, then a white one, and then a blue one and so on till finally some bright mind recognizes the familiar combination!