Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1883-05-31
GAMEs'oF AMERICAN CHILDREN.
Some Curiosities of the Nursery and
the Playground.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.

From the Chicago Inter ocean,
There is something very curious in
the way in which children's games are
transmitted from one generation of chill
dren to another. Men and women for
get all about them, or have but a dim
recollection of them at best, and il is
rare that any allusiOn to them finds it,
way into written language; but the
same games are repeated over and over
again by little boys and girls of from
five to ten years of age for a century to-
gether without material change. When
half a dozen or more little people in
some Western village stand in circle
with hands joined, and one within the
circle goes around touching each pair OF
hands and counting aloud up to twenty
as he goes, and then ends off with the
jingle:
Here bake and here brew,
Here make my. wedding cake, and here win gel
through.
The rhyme takes us back to old England
at time when every farmer had his
bakehouse and brewhOuse, and the chill
dren of the neighborhoOd cOntrived
their play by allusion to domestic labOrs
with which they were most familiar.
Hardly an American child knows any
thing about the process of brewing, and
the ancient "baking day" has lost its
Importance since the abolition of brick
ovens: but the rhymer survives.
Another of the "Counting Out"
rhymes is the one which must have
originated in England before the refor-
nation:
0nery, twoery, hickory Ann,
Filson, FOllason, Nicholas John,
Queevy, quavy, Virgin Mary,
Singalum, sangalum, buck.
Still another is the one in a very short
kind of meter, which is, perhaps, even
better known:
Eny, meny, mony, my,
Tusca, leina, bona, stry,
Kay bell, broken wed,
We, We, wack.
Mr.. William Wells Newell has done
a good service to the cause of juvenile
literature by writing handsome book
of nearly $50 pages about the "Games
and Songs of American Children
which has just been published in New
York. Under the head of "Love
Games" he gives ten specimens. Among
the nine which he classifies as ''Histo-
ries" is one called Little Sallie Waters"
in whose honor dance has been
named, which is now in vogue. The
rhyme runs thus:
Little Salie Waters,
Sitting in the sun,
Crying and weeping
For young man.
Rise, Sally, rise.
Dry your weeping eyes,
Fly to the east,
Fly to to the west,
Fly to the one you love best.
Goats, peas, beans, and barley grows"
and Here l bake and here / brewn ap-
pear among the ten rhymes of "Playing
at Work" There are dozen of
"Humor and Satire, ," of which, perhaps,
"The Three jolly Welshmen' is the
most familiar. Among the "Flower
Oracles, etc.," are Counting Apple
Seeds" and "Rose in the Garden"
There are five under the heading of
"Bird and Beast" of which the Bloody
Tom" play of the shepherd and the
wolf will be remembered by many grown
people. Ofthe nine rhymes of "Human
Life" the Marching to Quebec" of rev.
olutiOnary origin, is mentioned as q rare
instance of children's rhyme in allu-
sion to military event. 1t runs thus:
As we were marching to Quebec,
The drums were loudly beating;
The Americans have won the day,
The British are retreating.
March! march! march march
Among the pleasures of Motionn
we find the old
Ring ring a rosie,
Pot full of posie,
All the girls in our town
Ring for little Josie;
and also the "Peas porridge hot" which
accompanied by a peculiar clapping of
hands that can't be described, but which
can not be forgotten when once learned
In "Mirth and Jest" we come upon 1.-THE
church and steeple" and "Bestle and
wedge" and here we also ought to find
also 'Snap the whip" but do not. The
Guessing games" of "Odd or even,"
"Hul gul, ;" fright or left" "Comes, it
comes" and "Hold fast m y gold ring"
or Button, button, who's got the but
ton"' are among the simplest and most
entertaining of all that children play.
There are seventeen "Games of chase,n
"How many miles to Baby
lon," "rag," II spy" "Blind mans
DttIl, ihooiiCI . DttoC, vi NJOdl' kpEU-
nounced "Goop') and Stealing grapes. -
There was another running game, called
"ThornoWary," much like "Goal,n of
which no mention is made here. It has
probably gone entirely out of use. There
are ten games.mentioned as being for
little girls, and twenty-one that are
mostly played with ball, though mar
bles, hop scotch, and mumblety peg
seem to occupy place by themselves.
In all there are 100 games and rhymes
in this book, and many of them are il.
lustrated with historical notes and vari.
Gus local readings. They come origin.
ally from the continent of Europe, more
largely from England, and to some ex.
tent from the different American colo.
MES. A few also are of recent origin
and these are all American. They near
ly all show the lear marksn of having
been composed and invented by the
children themselves, and to that fact
and their consequent adaptation to the
exact tastes of children, their immor
tality is no doubt due.
That's a Fact.