New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-07-27

Games and Songs Of American Children" is
based upon Mrs. Pyrnelle's communication, my
own recollections of childlife in Michigan and
Northern Ohio. and verbal and written collections
made in the course of my lecture tours In various
parts of the United States.
In Florida the games which about to de-
scribe the exclusive possession OF children;
they played by adults we'll and when so
played some of them take the place of the dance.
This phenomenon is not peculiar to the South,
however. II is common TO many rural communities
in all parts of the country. especially to COM
munities where the traditions of religious pref
udice against dancing still exert powerful infiu-
ence. When they not resorted TO as a subter-
fuge. but. together with kissing games" are
frankly cultivated for their own sakes, so TO
speak. they may he looked upon survival of a
custom once common among all classes of society.
The maids of honor of Queen Eizabeths day.
says Mr. Newell. 'if may credit the poets were
devoted to the of tag, and conceived it TO be
waste of time TO pass in idleness hours which
might be employed in that pleasure. with which
Diana and her nymphs were supposed TO amuse
themselves. PROTESTANT describes the court Of
France amusing itself with sports familiar 10
his childhood" Even at later date the
ladies and gentlemen of the English court INDUCED
in dance which a dance only in name, being
in effect nothing else than stately version OF the
kissing game known in every rural district in the
United States as Pillow" A player carries pill
low about the room and places II at the feet or
the favored one, thus mutely soliciting a kiss,
which is bestowed while both kneeling on the
pillow. The equivalent of this simple game. known
TO the English people two centuries ago as the
Cushion Dance" helped to arouse the ire of John
Selden who in his Table Talk found time to de-
plore the change which had come over court dane
ing. when he remembered how the gravity and
stateliness which had prevailed during an earlier
generation had given way 20 the Trenchmore (which
dance, according to Burton. went over tables,
stoves and chairs') and the Cushion Dance. Here
the words of the old political moralist:
So in our court in Queen Elizabeths time gravity
things We're pretty we'll But in King Charles
the Cushion Dance. omnium gatherum. folly polly
hottie cum toity.
Those of my readers who are curious about these
old dances may find the music and a full descrp-
ton of how to play the Cushion Dance in an egh-
teenth century Ms. in the Lenox Library which
J. W. Drexel bought at the sale OF DR.. Rimbault's
library in London. We have Mr.. Newells word
for it that games took the place OF dances in the
country towns of New-England forty or fifty years
ago. In these towns
dancing under that name little practised
it was confined 10 one or two balls in the
course OF the year on such occasions as the
At other times the amusement of young people at
their gaheTngs was playing These
Kissing. in every variety OF position and method
were not called dances. and mankind pays more
attention TO words than things. the religious con-
dancing. took no alarm. Such were the pleasures
81 young men and women from sixteen to twenty.
rustics: many OF them could boast as good blood
in the land Neither was the morally nor sensitive,
ness OF the young woman of that day in any respect
inferior 10 what IL is at present.
In a footnote Mr. Newell is careful TO explain
further and add to his apology for the prevalence
Of kissing in the games of the young people OF a
former generation in New England Those who
have participated In the games will scarcely think
his apology necessary. Thoughts that the salute
was indecorous mmodest never entered the
minds of the players. though too great exhibi
ton of partialty for one maiden neglect of an
other frequently left sting. II is pleasant more
over. for those who must needs find an extenuatior
for the custom. to remember that in England fol-
centuries and up TO the end Of the seventeenth a
kiss was the usual sautation of a lady to a gentle
whom she wished to honor Erasmus thought
it "a custom never 10 be sufficiently commended"
Sweetheart.
/ were unmannerly to take you out
And not to kiss you,
says Henry VIII to Anne Bullen at the dance II
Shakespeare's play. The Portuguese ladies'" say.
Mr.. Newell in his apologize footnote. who cam,
TO England with the Infanta in 1862 not useC
TO the custom: but, Pepys says. in ten day:
they had learnt to kiss and look freely up anC
down."
In urban communities the kissing games fas
dying out as are, am sorry to say also the limo
cent love games. the rounds of children Som,
years ago. when some kind friends organized
children's choir for to illustrate lecture or
the subject of Dramatic Dances and Children.
Games" in of the popuIous cities of the North
west, / was Mortified to find that not one Of tn,
twelve fifteen little had ever heard Of
London Bridge" or Oats, Pease Beans; anC
hours of effort my part to persuade even one Of
the boys to kiss any of the girls Were futile
/ shrddered TO think what ungallant stock is grow
ing up in Minnesota. But now to Mrs. PyrneIle.
Cracker" games
TURN. CINNAMON, TURN.