The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-04-07
NEW LETTER GAME.

Simple Enough For Children and Difficult
Enough For Graybe ards.
DA new game, which affords good deal
Of amusement to many people. and also
imparts consid cradle instruction to the
young in the formation of words, is
played in the following manner, with
the letters of the alphabet: Half a
dozen sets of all the letters of the
alphabet are provided, each letter on q
small piece of pasteboard or wood. One
player then gathers all the letters be-
| fore him on the table and the other
PLAYERS sit around the table as at cards.
The player who has all the letters then
turns them face downward and proceeds
TO deal them out, one by one, to the
others, beginning with the player sit
ting at his right hand and continuing
around the table in order.
AS he deals a letter out he turns its
face up SO that all may see it is an m
for instance. The next player gets an
90" suppose, and he quickly sees that
his letter. Joined to the n" received By
the first player, Will form the word mo. |"
He announces the fact and claims the
m This is surrendered to him and he
forms the word no" on the table in
front of HIM. and must leave it there
undisturbed until some other player gets
q letter which, added to the word ''no, I"
will form some other word.
Suppose, for instance, that the third
letter dealt out is ''w." Then the
owner of the ''w'' may claim the word
mo" and add ng his Wv to make it
snow" The fourth letter turned upmay
be a ''y," and the owner of now"
breathes sigh of relief as he thinks he
will hold on to his wordfor little while
any way. for the now" and the ~"
don't seem to make any thing. Per-
haps seven letters follow out Of
which no com bination can be made
which will spell a correct word. until
some one gets an s." This letter, in
connection with now" will spell
SNOW" but If the lucky owner of the
s." is sharp enough he will also claim
the 'sy" from his other rival, and spell
SNOWY"
The examples given here are sample
words as they show more clearly to
young minds how the game may be
played easily, but when number of
letters have been spelled out the most
skiilful spoilers may find scope for there
abilities, and many are the combina-
tions which will escape the notice of all
who are gathered around the table, for
time, until some one discovers them,
as IL by accident. and then the wonder
will be that they were not seen before.
One player may not claim from an
other any letter or letters which have
been worked up into a word without
taking that whole word and using it all,
though its letters may be entirely
transposed, to make a different word.
The range Of words may wander over
3 half dozen languages, if the players
SO agree, and then the game becomes
difficult enough for Boston blue-stock-
ing or a college professor.
The winner of the game is the player
who has the mostcomplete words spread
out on the table In front of him when
the dealer has turned up the last letter
he has in his pile. Long words count
40 more than short words, and IL two
players site" they set to work breaking
up their long words into short ones and
this disposes Of the tie nine times out
Of ten. For large mum Der of players
= large number of letters is, of course,
cequired. but two people will often play
the game for half an hour before ex-
haust;ng a half dozen complete alpha
bets.-N. Y. Tribune.