The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-12-25
BY j. c. BEARD.
Illustrated by the Author.

IVA b'S SiiuiiS' iOAioNCu ny tAlc oiilcrS.
train to take the crowd home for the
holidays.
He places as many chairs as there
are players in two long rows just as
the sets are arranged in cars. The
| only one who has no chair is the Train
| Master himself.
Then the Train Master selects his
| train crew. He picks out one person
! as Engineer, another as Stoker, an
other as Conductor, and so on.
| AS soon as they are at their stations,
he shouts "All Aboard" and the pas
sengers take their places. AS each
one enters the train, the Train Mas
ter gives the passenger his or her title,
such as the Fat Passenger, the Good
Looking Passenger, the Dark Lady,
the Nurse, the Salesman, the Sailor,
etc.
When they are all seated the Train
| Master makes circuit of the chairs
| and calls out the name of some article
| which would naturally belong to some
certain one of the passengers or train
/ crew.
For instance, "a ticket puncher''
naturally would belong to the Con-
ductor. He must stand up immediate
| ly. Or nursing bottle" can belong to
/
The player who does not recognize
the article appropriate to his or her
| character, must pay forfeit.
The Train Masters ingenuity can be
used in this without limit. He may
decorate the losing player with a
| ferocious mustache or mighty eye
brows or polka dots on the face, drawn
| with a bit Of burnt cork.
At any time during the game the
| ~,
and last letter of the name of the
| character assumed by some one of the
| players, and the person thus called on
| must leave his or her seat and take
hold of the coat tails or skirt of the
| Train Master. Those who follow take
hold Of their predecessors. Whoever
!, fails to recognize the first and last
letter of the name of the character as
sumed, must pay another forfeit.
Every little while as they circle
around the chairs, the Train Master
calls out the name of station.
Then all must half and make some
| noise or perform some act suggested
by the name of the station. Thus. If
the station is Buffalo" all make be-
lieve to below. At Washington
they all go through the motions Of
washing. At "Brandywine" they pre-
! tend to drink. At "Catln" they NEW.
Before they have time to tire of this.
the Train Master begins running
around the chairs as fast as he can,
| his followers running too, holding on
| to one another. After running around
the chairs a few times, he calls out
Junction Stationl Change cars!" and
| Immediately sits down in one Of the
chairs.
All the others at this signal scram-
BILE for seats. One Of them, of course,
fails to get a chair, because the Train
Master has it..
The unlucky one must become
Train Master or pay a forfeit, and the
game goes on. There are few that
have more opportunities for all kinds
Of unexpected jokes and rousing fun
full of variety.
THE LAD WHO WASN'T so SMART.
There once was a lad who said POOH
1t don't matter much what you do;
You'll get gifts all the same;
II you just know the game.
/ guess you can always skin
through"
But Santa was list'ning right there.
He said to himself, Il declared"
Then he slipped down the nue,
And what did he do
But fill that boys sock up with airl
Next morning that lad gave a start
And he most tore his stocking apart,
But vainly he tried;
There was nothing inside
And he said, We'll, / wasn't so
SMART"