St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-02
WORD GAME.
1t Can Be Played With Poker
h Chips or for the Drinks.

1t Can BE Played With Poker
Chips or for the Drinks.
Chicago Record.
The word game" is being played
with considerable enthusiasm in sew
eral Chicago clubs. If one wishes to
be successful in the game he must
have a good knowledge of words and
be able to spell them, and his MEM
DRY must be quick.
Any number of players seat them
selves in a circle, or at least so that
the play may move in a circle One
of the players announces a letter
OK and z are usually barred) and
the next player adds a letter, the
third player another letter, and so
on,but whoever puts on letter COM
pleting a word is stuck" On the
other hand, every player who adds a
letter to the word which is being
spelled out must have in mind some
word which is being correctly spelled
and the letter which he adds must
assist in the spelling.
For instance, if he adds a. letter
and the next player cannot think of
the word which is being spelled, the
next player, to avoid being stuck,
says: Il challenge you There
upon the player who adds the last
letter must tell what word he had
In mind. If he fails to do so, or if
he has misspelled the word, he is
stuck" But if he can give the
word the challenger is stuck" but
is given the privilege of starting an
other word
Each player is given thirty sec
onds in which to add a letter. If at
the end of thirty seconds he has not
added a-letter or challenged the pre-
ceding player he is stuck"
Proper nouns are usually barred
but adjectives and adverbs are per-
mitted.
TO illustrate: Suppose the first
player announces ID" The second
says r. and the third "a Then
things begin to look dark for the
fourth player. He must add another
letter, but not complete the word.
He thinks of "drab," "dray," drag"
and nearly every word except the
word draft" which would let him
out easily and stick player No. 5.
suddenly he shouts "cv' And then
No. begins to worry. Whoever
heard of a word beginning "drac?"
; The seconds tick rapidly while he
rumages wildly through his brain for
h4r
he turns to No. 4 and says: 1T chal-
lenge you"
why, the words 'drachm'-don't
you see? D-r-a-c-h-m, or it might be
'dracanth,' a kind of gum, commonly
called gum tragacanth."
Thereupon the fifth player would ac-
knowledge himself beaten and another
word would be started.
The game naturally develops
"hends" who search the dictionary for
curious and unusual words with which
to puzzle the other players, but as
every player has the right to put in
an unexpected letter the "fiends'' are
often beaten at their own game.
AT an exciting game the other even
ing the first player announced &c"
the second a. while the third. who
was regarded as an expert, thought of
the word "cataclysm, and added at. :"
The shouts of laughter aroused him
to the fact that he had completed one
of the simplest words in the primary
reader.
Sometimes the game is played with
poker chips, and every player who is
stuck must give a chip to every
otner player. Again, a record is kept,
and the player who is Stuck the
largest number of times is expected
to pay for whatever refreshments
have been served during the progress
OF the game. Or, at social parties,
the player who is stuck" the least
number of times may be awarded a
prize, and there may be a correspond
ing "booby' prize, as in progressive
euchre.
1t is needless to add that an i'm
partial timekeeper is needed, and that
a dictionary should be held in readi-
ness to settle all disputes.