CHAPTER V Progressive Games RULES FOR PROGRESSIVE GAMES HE number of guests must be divisible into TH parties of four, preferably composed of both sexes in equal proportions. Twenty-four makes a good number. A small table for every four players will be required, and all should be placed about the room where the light is good, leaving sufficient space between for the players to change their seats without inconvenience to any one. Tables three feet across, the tops covered in green baize, are satisfactory and are the kind usually supplied for this purpose by the best caterers. One is marked the head table; the next in order, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The tables are identified by cards with these numbers fastened to them by thumbtacks. Each table is supplied with a box of tiny stars with mucilage on the back, like stamps, one of which is stuck on the score-card to mark each victory. A tally-card is provided for every person and each is marked number 1, 2, etc., respectively, to assign the seats at the tables for the first game. These cards may be of various colours, but always two of the same tint, to determine the partners. Or white cards may be tied with bows of different coloured ribbons and small pencils attached, and of these each must have its duplicate. The honours may be marked in pencil upon the cards and the star counters dispensed with. The names of the guests are often written upon the backs of the cards and the partners' names given below them. It is sometimes pleasant as a relief to the little awkwardness felt in the beginning of an evening in a society where there are many strangers if the hostess arrange to have friends play as partners for the first game. The usual way of determining partners is to put the cards in two baskets, from one of which the ladies draw their cards on their arrival, from the other the gentlemen each taking one, and matching the cards or ribbons to determine the partners. The When all are seated, the hostess or leader rings a bell, and all set to work assiduously to play the game until the bell rings again, when all must stop. completion of the game played at the head table determines the length of time allowed. But courtesy, of course, imposes the obligation of waiting a few moments if the game at some table is nearing its completion. If to finish it would require too long a detention, the two players who are ahead in the count are regarded as the winners. At the first table the winners should remain where they are, the two who are worsted go to the sixth or last, and, at each table except the first, the winning players move to the one next above them. At each progression there is a change of partners, though some prefer to play the game by keeping the same partners to the end. The players mark their score-cards as a game is lost or won. At the end of an hour or more, according to circumstances, the hostess rings a bell, the games are counted, and a prize is awarded to the most successful lady and to the victor among the men. The one whose score is lowest receives a booby prize in mock derision, or a "consolation" prize is given either as a second or third award, or it is drawn for by the contestants who have not been the winners of the others. This is generally done by drawing a card from the pack, each in turn. The person to whose lot the first ace falls is the fortunate one. The supper is often served at the little tables. SALMAGUNDI Of all progressive games, this one of the strange name is probably the one most widely popular. As in all others, a small table is provided for every four players, but Salmagundi is distinguished from other games in that a different game is played at each table. Games of cards may be chosen-if preferred-Hearts, Euchre, Five Hundred, Sniff, etc., or such games as Dominoes, Jack-straws, Tiddle-dy-winks, Conette, Lotto, Halma, Pit, Fish-Pond, the rules for playing which are supplied with the game when purchased. There is no rule against such games as "Patent Medicines," "Menagerie," etc., which certainly contribute to a merry uproar. The winners progress at sound of the signal given at the head table, and play a new game; the losers retain their places and must play the same game over again. The introduction of variety adds much to the pleasure -and, as there is a change of partners at each "progression," everybody meets everybody else. When every couple has made the rounds of the tables and played all the games, as nearly as their varying fortunes will permit, the prizes are awarded and supper is served. A LIBRARY PARTY Place four or five small tables about the roomarranged as for the usual progressive game. The players may be paired by each drawing half of a quotationwhich, reunited, determines their partnership at the beginning of the game-as, for instance, one finds this appropriate question, "How happy could I be with either?" on the paper that falls to his lot; so he must seek for "Were t'other dear charmer away." The young women need not wait to be sought, but may be as active in looking for their mates as if Leap-Year privileges were permanently conceded. As the players take their seats-four at each table-one set finds a list of questions, written upon four cards, and a blank card for each person, whereon to record the answers. For example, at the first table the cards ask: 1. Who wrote 2. Who, "I remember, I remember The house where I was born"? "I love it, I love it, and who shall dare To chide me for loving that old arm-chair?" 3. Who is the author of "Mary, Mary, quite contrary 4. And who of "Man wants but little here below 5. Who wrote "'Twas the night before Xmas"? 6. Who said these words: "With malice toward none, With charity for all, With firmness in the right, As God gives us to see the right"? The cards are signed as the bell gives the signal, and the hostess collects them at each table, compares the answers with her "key"-and returns those of the winning pair, who then progress to the next table. At the second table, the questions may be of the authorship of famous or well-known books, of foreign lands, and of our own: Who wrote: 1. "Bracebridge Hall"? 2. "Love Me Little, Love Me Long"? 3. "Corinne"? 4. "Consuelo"? 5. "Evelina"? 6. "L'Aiglon"? 7. "Télémaque"? 8. "Wilhelm Meister"? 9. "Denis Duval"? 10. "Tom Brown at Rugby"? II. "Rasselas"? 12. "Don Quixote"? 13. "Robinson Crusoe"? 14. "Anna Karénina"? The third table may offer a variety from the first ones, having strewn over its surface a number of pictures cut from periodicals, illustrating the titles of books, pasted upon numbered cards. The guesses of the players are written upon the blank cards supplied them -numbering each one in accordance with the picture that offers the problem. |