Chapter 8
Section 8 of Conundrums, Riddles, Puzzles and Games. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Conundrums, Riddles, Puzzles and Games by Sarah J. Cutter. Games Part 2. Fortune-Telling Doll. A clever idea is a feature for a fair or entertainment.
Here is an English idea for a money-making device at fairs or similar charitable entertainments. It is a fortune-telling doll which any clever girl can make. The doll is mounted firmly on a stand and holds a pointer directed beneath her to a revolving disc of cardboard. The doll and the pointer remain stationary, while one paying the fortune-telling charge is allowed to spin the disc around. When it stops, the pointer is directed to a subdivision of the disc,
on which is printed the fate of the person spinning the wheel. Here are some of the inscriptions on the disc. Fortunes for Men If you marry the widow whose house is brown, you will have the finest establishment in town.
Variety is charming, we know very well, but if carried too far, you will lose the fair bell. The lady whom you marry of town is quite the bell. She rejoices in the very unassuming name of Nell. To speak your mind you will still endeavor,
Believe me, it is not always clever. Need Sunny Skies by Lake of Azure Blue A merry little maiden waits for you. Conceit, conceit in every line I trace Of your good-looking but transparent face.
Society book, public applause, Critics approve, fame is yours. You despise my powers, but by this token I tell you your engagement will be broken Fortunes for women
Yourself you think of first in everything Forget yourself, some comfort it will bring Dance with him, play for him, there let it end Be in no way impressed by the letter he'll send Yes, tall and graceful will your hero be
Brave, rich, refined, this night, you soon will see. Two plain gold rings, it will be your lot to wear. One will bring happiness, the other care. Before the old year's bells ring out, he will propose without a doubt. If you choose a lover with a golden egg, you will have plenty and will never beg.
Pluck up your spirit, your lover is true, but there's worry for him and a journey for you. If you decide to be his wife, in another climb you will pass your life. Any person with a little ingenuity can toss up piles of such sentiment as the above, and by exercising a little wit, there is no reason why there should be any lack of variety in the fortune-telling discs. To play musical whist
In these days, when it is the fashion to understand and study whist, It is interesting to know that as a novelty for a bazaar, the game has been introduced as musical whist with living cards. Four players are seated upon raised seats, a large square cloth on the floor or on a platform or stage forms the card table. The cards are represented by persons in appropriate costumes and the gowns for the court cards may be very original. The clubs usually wear grey and white, the emblems being in black velvet, and have crowns of silver grey and jet.
Hearts wear a pretty shade of green with white, and the emblems are in red. Spades are in pink with black velvet emblems. Diamonds in yellow with deep red. The parts of the smaller cards may be taken by children in gowns of cream white and mob caps, the cards being indicated in large characters on the front of their dresses,
or they may carry an immense card two feet in length and hung over the shoulders, hanging in shield fashion in front, on which are the spots of the card, and a card should hang at the back also, and display the ordinary kind of a card back. The cards enter to the music of a march, and are preceded by two little pages clad in slashed satin suits, capes with ostrich tips, and carrying wands of silver. Shuffling, cutting, and dealing are shown by a dance,
and the cards then arrange themselves in front of their respective players. Each player indicates in turn the card to advance to the center with musical accompaniment. The winning card of each trick leads the others to one corner of the square where they form and file, and so on, closing up when six tricks are made on either side. At the conclusion of the game, the tricks of the winning side lead off in triumph those of the losing side.
A faggot party. A faggot party is a pleasant way to spend an evening. After the guests have arrived, a bundle of faggots about an inch long is brought in, and the sticks are distributed. Each guest in turn puts a faggot in the fire,
and while it is burning must entertain the company. Song Soiree This game is played the same as the art soiree. Only in the place of names of animals on the slips of paper, write the names of popular and patriotic songs, such as
It was my last cigar, Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching, My bonnie lies over the ocean, After the ball, when the robins nest again, sweet violets, over the garden wall, little fisher maiden, etc. As each guest receives a slip of paper, they call out the number and then draws on the blackboard,
such as a cigar for, it was my last cigar, then draw a large ball with a boy running after it for, after the ball. The guests and turn write on their paper what they think it is, opposite the number on their card. An ornament of a little dressed-in-china piano is appropriate for the first prize and a brass horn for the booby. Progressive Needles Arrange the tables in the room the same as you would for cards.
In the centre of each table, place a dish containing a quantity of needles, ranging from very fine to very coarse. By the side of the dish, a spool of thread, number 36. After the guests have arrived, draw for partners with numbers the same as you do for progressive cards. When the signal is given, the one that gets the thread first breaks off a piece and threads a needle. The one that gets the thread next does the same,
each trying to see who can thread the most needles in the given time. Each needle must be threaded on a separate thread. Progress by partners the same as in cards. Before leaving the table, draw the threads from the needles and replace in the dish. The time that is usually given is about 3 minutes.
Each one keeps tally of the number of needles they have threaded, and at the end of the game, the lady and gentleman that thread the most receive a prize. A silver needle case is appropriate for the first prize, and a very unique prize for the booby is a diamond pin. Dime and Pin
Take a ring box, and in the place where you put the ring, stand a nice new dime on one side. Pin through the velvet, lengthwise, a common pin, and put the cover on it, and when ready, presented to the winner with a good deal of ceremony.
A PEANUT PARTY FOR YOUNGSTERS A clever way to amuse a troop of children is to invite them to a peanut party. For one lately given here, tiny cards of invitation were sent out, on each one of which two half-peanut shells were fastened. A large quantity of nuts were hidden about the house,
and when the young folks arrived, they were told to hunt them. They who found the most and least of them received prizes, the first being a Chinese doll made from peanuts and dressed in crepe tissue paper, and the second, a pig made from a large peanut. A string was glued on for a tail, and four pins furnished the legs.
A few marks with pen and ink completed his pigship. A Penny Entertainment A penny party is a very amusing entertainment for an evening, with the invitations to request each guest to bring a penny, not for an admission fee, but for use in the games.
For each guest, provide two cards and a pencil. One card should be blank, the other have a list of the things to be found on a penny. The list should be numbered, and each person is expected to make out as many as he could, prizes being awarded for the best and poorest list. Find 1. Top of hill.
2. Place of worship. 3. An animal. 4. A fruit. 5. A common fruit. 6. Links between absent friends.
7. Union of youth and old age 8. A vegetable 9. Flowers 10. What we fight for 11. A metal
12. A messenger 13. A weapon of defense 14. A weapon of warfare 15. A body of water 16. A beverage
17. What young ladies want 18. The most popular state 19. What men work for? 20. Sign of royalty 21. A jolly dog
The answers are 1. Brow 2. Temple 3. Hair 4. Date
5. Apple 6. Letters 7. 1894 The date of the penny 8. Year
9. Tulips 10. Liberty 11. Copper 12. One cent 13. Shield
14. Arrow 15. Sea 16. Tee 17. Bow 18. United States matrimony
19. Money 20. Crown 21. A merry cur Usually, a half hour is allowed for filling out the blank cards and after that some time for correcting the lists and awarding prizes. Silhouettes
For a silhouette entertainment, the ladies' names are written on blank cards and enclosed in envelopes which are then put in fancy basket and passed around to each gentleman in turn to take an envelope and the lady mentioned on the card in his envelope is his partner, each to draw the other person's profile. All are then given pencil and paper. Book binders paper. White on one side and black on the other is the best. And if the company is a large one, place at one end of the room three boards,
so that three couples can then be employed at one time. Tack the paper black side next to the board. The lady then sits in a chair, so that the shadow of her profile will be cast on the paper by an unshaded lamp or candle. And the gentleman carefully traces out her profile,
after which she traces his profile. When the three couples are finished, the traced paper is removed. Others take their places while they adjourn to another room, where should be a table supplied with white paper, four or five pairs of scissors and two bottles of library paste.
The party is sitting down and cutting out carefully the traced heads and pasting them on white paper with the black side out. When all are ready, pin the silhouettes on a screen and the guests vote which is best, next best and the poorest and prizes are given to the ones decided upon.
A riddle on thoughts After telling the players what is expected of them, one of the gentlemen asks, What is my thought like? He is answered at random by all the others in turn
and he writes them down in the order received. First one says, It is like an elephant. Second, Like grass.
Third, Is like the sky. and fourth is like a tea kettle. After the answers are all given, then he says,
I have been thinking of Miss Mary S and why is she like an elephant? He is answered because she carries her trunk with her when she travels. She is like the grass because her wit is as sharp
and pointed as their blades. She is like the sky because she is far above you and she is like a tea kettle because she sings, etc., etc. Floral Salad. This is one of the latest forms of serving salad. The unique way in which it is
served is very appropriate for a floral entertainment. When the time for this course arrives, the butler and his assistant man or maid appear, bearing broad, snowy florist's baskets, heaped with bouquets of an ordinary size, and composed of roses and ferns, or orchids and smilax, always two or more brightly colored contrasting flowers with delicate greenery. The bouquet is somewhat ornately made, the flowers all wired, and the stems bound with abundant bows and streamers of rich satin ribbon.
The butler and his assistant offer their baskets that every guest may choose a bouquet, and find right in the centre, deep among the flowers, a closely folded head of lettuce, held in form by narrow green ribbons. This is plucked from the nosegay, laid on one's plate, the ribbons untied, and the leaves spring apart to display a very, very thin gelatine cup, holding tomato jelly with mayonnaise, or minced fowl, lobster, or celery, with a suitable dressing. The gelatine cup quickly melts away. The dressing and mincemeat overflow the lettuce.
the salad is then eaten with as much relish as those served in the conventional way, and the bouquets remain as souvenirs for the guests to carry home. Floral Parties When giving invitations, have in one corner of the card the word floral. Decorate the rooms as prettily as possible, and the tables also.
Before announcing refreshments, distribute cards among your guests on each of which is written a line of a poem. Inform them that the line on each card matches a line on some other card, and when joined will form couplets, from well-known poets, and are all about flowers. The holders must match cards, and so find escorts to dinner. Have for some of the lines,
In May, when sea winds pierced in solitude, I found the fresh roda in the woods. Emerson. Another. Buttercups that will be seen. Whether we will see or know
Wadsworth Oh sweet is the new violet That comes beneath the skies Tennyson When sunset clouds are hewed with rose
Down garden paths my lady goes To pluck the pink sweet peas Clinton's collard There are many pretty couplets By Shakespeare, Longfellow, Campbell
Felicia, Hemans, and others After dinner, when in the parlors Arrange small tables as if for cards with a supply of paper and pencils. Announce that the game is to be a floral tale
told by questions and answers and that a prize will be awarded to the person answering the most questions. What was her name? Lily.
An adjective that just fits Lily and her brother. Answer. Sweet William. What is a favourite sport for young people in winter? Answer.
Snowball. What is a boy's favorite musical instrument? Answer, trumpet The early hour in which he awoke his father by playing on it? Answer, four o'clock
With what did he punish him? Answer, birch rod What did this make the boy do? Answer, balsam What office in the Presbyterian church did his father hold?
Answer, elder The young man's name and what he wrote it with. Answer John Quill What he being single often lost.
Answer Bachelor Buttons What did he do when he popped the question. Answer Asta
To whom did she refer him. Answer Poppy What minister married them. Answer
Jack in the pulpit What did John say when he was obliged to leave her for a time? Answer Forget me not What colour was the horse that his father rode?
Answer Sorrel How much was he worth? Answer A mint of gold
Describe Marigold's father He was an awful old snapdragon, and his temper was like sour grass, and also had an adder's tongue. His hair was like the flax, of pure Germanic type. He wore a Dutchman's breeches. He smoked a Dutchman's pipe.
His daughter's bath was twined with bittersweet. It did not run through clover, etc., etc. The prize may be a lovely watercolour of flowers. Floral Game For this game, write on separate sheets of notepaper a number of stories,
leaving a space here and there to be filled out by the players with the name of a flower appropriate to the sentence. Then give each guest a pencil and one of the stories. After filling the spaces with names of different flowers, the stories are read aloud which create much amusement.
The following is an example of how one of the stories may be written. The dots are to represent the space, but remember not to put the name of the flower there. A young man named Sweet William and his friend John Quill invited Miss Marigold and Miss Marguerite to go fishing.
They arose at four o'clock before the sun brought forth the morning glory. After preparing a lunch of milkweed and candied violet and rose, they called for the young ladies who wore daisy gowns trimmed with pink. Their poppy said they must not go without a chaperone, so Aunt Chrysanthemum offered her services.
Her gown was black silk with pansy blossoms. It was a beautiful spring day, and now and then as they walked along, they stopped and picked bellflowers to trim their hats. When they came to the woods, Marguerite said, Oh, don't go that way, for the cowslips are round,
and the bulrushes out. On arriving at the river, Jonquil gave each a goldenrod with a dandelion, and they baited them with the catchfly. Then they took their toadstools and placed them on the burdock, where they spent the morning fishing amid much enjoyment. Finally, as they started for home, they met a young friend, and as he went to shake Marguerite's lily-white hand, he slipped on acorn beneath her dainty lady-slipper. A yellow rose, oh, Johnny Jump-up, which so embarrassed the young
man that he turned away with a bleeding heart, exclaiming, forget me not, I am going to be jack in the pulpit and shall forevermore wear a bachelor's button. Fortunes of Players One person is chosen as secretary while the rest of the players are seated around the tables and are supplied with pencil and paper. The secretary orders each to write his name at
the head of the paper and fold it over, after which the secretary collects the papers and distributes them again saying, character. Then each one, writing out an imaginary character, hands it again to the secretary, who again distributing the papers says, past, present, future, and so continues with each as directed. The papers are finally collected by the secretary, unfolded, and read aloud.
For example, Robert Adam, character, kind and genial, and ready to do a good turn to a friend, even to lending him a dollar, also successful in all undertakings. Past, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he began his illustrious career as a vendor of peanuts. Present, rolling in affluence,
he snaps his fingers in the face of his old companions and refuses to acknowledge them. Future, as president of the council, he will raise a racket by opposing the three-cent car fare. Fate, a blushing damsel will captivate his youthful heart and will make him happy forever. Fortune, in his old age, he will have three acres of land and a cow, which will be his all-sufficient patrimony. Of course, each paper will be different,
and on reading them, the amusement of it can be imagined better than described. Anagrams. Anagrams are the transposition of the letters of a word, phrase, or short sentence, so as to form a new word or sentence. The best anagrams are such as have in the new order of letters some signification appropriate to the word from which they are formed. Astronomers. No more stars. Sweetheart, there we sat. Midshipman, mind us map. Presbyterian,
best in prayer. Penitentiary, nay, I repented. Parliament, partial men. An easy way to play the game of anagrams is to have ready several sets of the alphabet, each letter written on a small card, or purchase the cards with printed letters. Put the letters in separate boxes, that is, the A's in one box, B's in another, etc. Then after giving to each one a word selected from the letters,
the player forms a sentence appropriate to the word as shown above. A story in anagrams Another method of playing the game of anagrams is to write short stories, putting the anagram in a sentence appropriate to it, and drawing a line under to show which is the anagram.
The following is an example. Thinking that you, dear, underline, neat chair, would soon come to the, underline, red nuts and gin, of what I write you in, underline, a rag man, of my visits, with a, underline, crime angle, on the, underline, I hire parsons. As we were walking along, talking about the good deeds of, underline, flit on cheering angel, we suddenly met a crowd around the underline moon-starer.
Asking him if it was a underline rare mad frolic, he said, underline, it is no demon's art that he was holding his underline, the bar, watching the moon shining up with underline oil soap and trying to enlighten the underline ten teapots of different countries.
We did not take much stock in their real fun or to love ruin. Two slyware came up to us and said, we don't see much the law in this. We had never sympathized with the doctrines of
sin sat on a tin tar tub. Our first call was on a popular underline house rats, who had just returned from an underline horse cart concert. We had a pleasant call, and as we came out, we saw a underline go nurse and doctor underline rich able man driving at full speed. In great, underline, no stern action, we followed them, and found, underline, a just master, hurt by the cars. When the excitement was over, we were, underline, Tim in a pet, to return home.
So that ended our visits to the, underline, I hire Parsons. Answers to Anagram Story Catherine, Neat Chair Understanding Red Nuts and Gin
Anagram A Ragman Clergyman Crime Angle Parishners
I hire Parsons Florence Nightingale Flit-on cheering angel Astronomer Moon Starer
Radical Reform Rare Mad Frolick Demonstrations Tis No Demon's Art Breathe
The Bar Sepolio Oil Soap Potent dates, ten teapots, funeral, real fun, revolution, to love ruin, lawyers, sly wear, wealth, the law, transubstantiation, sin sat in a tin tart tub, The following anagrams are appropriate for the stories.
Spare him not. Peregrinations. O stranger, I pine. Punishment. Nine thumbs.
A joint stock company. Mock joy a tin pan cost. Old England. Golden land. Telegraphs.
Great helps. Solemnity. Yes, Milton. Malt house. O use malt.
Somersault. Roast mules. W. E. Gladstone. We lads get on. Napoleon, pale noon.
Oratorio, I roar too. Chronograms. Roman numerals may concoct a suitable sentence for any remarkable event you select. For example, Queen Elizabeth's death was in 1603. Roman numerals, MDCII.
The chronogram reads thus, My day is closed in immortality. Raphael died in 1520. MDXX. My deeds exceed expectation. William Cohn invades Britain. 1066. MLXVI. Mighty leader expect victory invading England. A circulating library party. Each guest comes representing in person or dress the title of some book. All are given cards and pencils,
and an hour is passed in reading the bound volumes and in circulating. A guess as to the title of the book that each person represents is then written on each card, and the person who guesses the largest number correctly is given a prize. A booby prize is also given. A game played to lengthen such an evening
consists of guessing the meaning of a number of cards, the cards being passed from one to another, upon which are drawings each representing the title of a book. The Little Minister, The Orange Bow, The Woman in White, Darkest Africa, The Ring in the Book, The Rose of a Hundred Leaves, The Squirrel Inn, and many other books that can be easily represented
but not so easily guessed, will soon occur to one who is looking for a character of the circulating library. Many others will be suggested by looking over the catalogue of some library. Another method of a library game is an observation of book titles. For this, have a large table in the centre of the room, and on it place objects to represent the title of books, such as a little toy boat with three paper men in it, and a little china dog beside the boat.
This represents the title, Three Men in a Boat, Say Nothing of the Dog. Two in a Tower, make a tower of cardboard, and put a large figure two on top in the centre. Fair Women of Castle A castle of castile soap And beside it, two or three pictures of beautiful women
Forum Four little bottles in a row with a label, rum on each Leather stocking tails A piece of leather and two fur tails pinned to a stocking A rose in bloom
A picture of a full-blown rose or a natural rose Nicholas Nickleby A nickel, five cents The word us, another nickel, and a picture of a bee. Pickwick papers.
A toothpick, a lampwick. Place these on two newspapers. Trilby. Represent on a staff of music a note to be trilled and put a picture of a bee after it. Each guest should be supplied with a pencil and paper, and at a given signal, they try
to guess from the object on the table, the title of the book, writing on their paper what they think it is. The hostess limits the time according to the number of books represented, say two or three quarters of an hour. A prize of a nice book is given to the one who guesses the most correct answers and a conundrum book to the booby.
