The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-18
CHRISTMAS Eve GAMES.
Sports That Supply Merry Entertain
ment For Young People.

A very amusing game is the wood
seller, and it is capable of several vari-
atoms, including the ever-popular for
feits. ANY number of persons may join
in the game.
The person who starts the game
writes the name of some kind of wood
on d paper and folds the paper so that
no one can see the word written upon
it. He then goes around, all the rest
of the players being seated, and says:
81 have a load of wood to SELL
Each person in turn asks:
What kind?"
The answer is:
Find out!''
Then The person mentions one kind
and if it happens to be the wrong one,
the woodseller goes to the next, and so
on until it is finally guessed right.
When the right one is named. the one
naming it becomes Woodseller.
All who make mistakes must pay
forfeit, to be redeemed at the end of
the game Those who name a wood
twice pay The list of woods is q. long
one, but the best known ones are the
very ones that the players are most
apt to overlook in naming them. A
clever person can make much fun by
the manner of calling out his wares,
and another by witty rejoinders.
Definitions is another interesting
round game, suitable for young folks,
and their elders need not disdain to
join in. The leader gives to each a slip
of paper on which he or she writes the
word given to define, and the definition
of it, according to the idea of the writer.
Each player, in turn, has the right to
give word, and all these words are
written down before the definitions are
written. The object is to allow each
one liberty in defining a word to be
epigrammatic, poetical ideal or mag
NATIVE.
In one game the word wind" was
defined as rude Notwithstanding
roarer,' 'the fan of nature" "a bellows
that stirs up great flies" and the
sailors friend and enemy" ''the cham
pion kisser," etc. A pen was defined
as "a loss to one goose and no gain to
another ''the servant of thought"
the cause of many a law suit. -
There is no limit to the wise and
witty-and foolish things one may find
in these definitions
When they are all written, and each
slip signed, they are folded and put in
a vase, and the best reader is chosen
to read them. The best ones entitle the
writer to prize.
After a game of this kind, which re-
quires concentrated thought, a more
lively one may be played. A good one
for this purpose is where the company
present tries to keep a feather in the
air. For this game it requires a small,
light feather. preferably white. All
present sit in circle. One blows this
feather up into the air. and it is the
duty of each to try to keep it from
falling and resting anywhere. 1t is not
easy to do this, as the most of the
blowers begin to laugh. The one who
lets it fall must pay a forfeit, and any
one on whom it falls must also pay a
forfeit.
THE GAME OF TELEGRAMs.
Have you ever played "telegrams?'
1t is a game for a crowd of young or
old, or both. Not a very deep or intri-
cate game nor yet a particularly ele-
waiting one, but, nevertheless, full Of
jolly, mirth- provoking qualities.
To carry out the idea properly, slips
of yellow paper should be handed to
each participant, and pencils provided
for them Each one is to write thirteen
different letters at the top of their slip.
That is. any thirteen from the alpha
betical twenty six, but without repeti-
ton. For instance, one might write:
s, G, X, L, M, T, E, W, c, S, II, o, r,
Another:
A, 3. G, D, E, F, G, H, I, ], K, L, NJ.
and so on.
The slips are to be then passed along
to right-hand neighbors who must
make an understandable telegram of
thirteen words, using the characters at
the TOP of the slips handed them, for
the first letter of each word. To thor
oughly illustrate, take the first exam
pie given above. Here is a specimen
telegram from it:
Better go to Kingston late Monday.
Try express Willie candy soldier. Hope
orders rushing"
Note the fragmentary sentences,
such as are generally employed in cor
| respondence of this sort. The posi-
bilities for good-humored fun in the
compiling of kilograms" among a
crowd of friends are endless. But, Of
course, they cannot be satisfactorily
illustrated in public print. AS in any
! similar game, care should be exercised
in not becoming dangerously personal.
At first glance the second example of
letters as given above (the first thir-
teen in our alphabet) might seem to be
difficult of extension. But such is not