Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-09-17
gro BE CoNTINUED.)
New Game with Letters.

SIMPLE ENOUGH FOR CHILDREN AND
DIFFICULT ENOUGH FOR GRAYBEARDs.
A new game which affords a good
deal Of amusement to many people, and
also mparts considerable instruction To
the young in the formation OF words, is
played in the following manner. with
the letters of the alphabet: Half a doz-
en- sets Of all the letters of the alphabet
are provided. each letter on a small
piece of pasteboard or wood One
player than gathers all the letters before
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 sitting at his
right hand and continuing around the
table in order.
AS he deals letter out he turns its
face up so that all may see it is an IN"
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 IN" THIS is surrendered to
him and he forms the word mo- on the
table in front of him, and must leaYe it
there undisturbed until some other
player get letter which added to the
word mo will form some other word.
Suppose, for instance, that the third
letter dealt out is Wv Then the
owner of the wv may claim the word
mo- and adding his Wv to make it
now The fourth letter turned up
may be ~ and the owner of now
breaths'a sigh of relief as he thinks he
will hold on TO his word for a little while
anyway. for the NOW" and the ''y''
don't seem to make anything Perhaps
seven letters follow, out of which no COM
bination can be made which will spell a
correct word, until some one gets an
-" This letter. in connection with
NOW" will spell '.snow," but if the
lucky owner of the - is sharp enough
he viii also claim the ~ from his 9TH
CT rival and spell SNOWY"
The example given here are sample
words. as they show more clearly TO
young minds how the game may be
play ed easily, but when 4 number of
letters have been dealt ont the most
ski,lful spoilers may find scope for their
/ abilities. and many are the combinations
which will escape the notice of all who
are gathered around the table, for a
time. until some one discovers them, as
/ if by accident, and then the wonder will
be that they had not been seen before
One player may not claim from
another any letter or letters which have
been worked up into the word without
taking that whole word and using it all,
though its letters may be entirely trans.
posed, TO make a different word. The
range of words may wander over half a
dozen languages, if the players so agree,
and then the game becomes difficult
enough for Boston blue. stocking or a
college professor.
The winner Of the game is the player
who has the most complete 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
no more than short words, and if two
players tie they set to work breaking
, up their long words into short ones, an
this dispoSes of the ties nine times on
Of ten. For large number of player,
a large number of letters is. of course
required. but two people will often play
the game half an hour before exhaust
ing half dozen complete alphabe's.