Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-08-21

NIOI long ago L was SlttlnB one eve
IN ming, just after dinner. on the outer bal.
cony of a city club The daylight still
fingered in the street. and was idly smok-
ing and watching three little girls playing
on the sidewalk across the way. A man I
did not know sitting near After a
few moments he spoke.
Funny thing" he said. but those girls
over there have invented a game. I've sat
here evenings for two weeks now and
watched it's evolution. They've got II COM
pleted at last. I suppose hop-scotch and all
the rest got invented some time other"
probably" said I. "But they seemed to
have always been, didn't they?"
Sure" said he. Funny how they get
passed down the generations I wonder II
this new game will become a tradition, too?"
I have been wondering since If other
games have not been invented in our con-
gested modern cities games which we
children know nothing about, games which
are the result Of the peculiar new environ
ment. Possibly somebody has Investigated
the subject and written about IT, but
haven't chanced to see the report. Will these
games persist in tradition, as the old ones
have persisted? The field is really fertile
one for somebody who loves curious and
pleasantly unimportant subjects!
Variation and vexation
After the man on the balcony and no
longer had the new game to watch we fell
to talking about games of our own child
hood. and especially about counting out
rhymes We soon discovered that there evil
IDENTIFY exists a considerable variation in
these rhymes. Our discussion Of one of
them, in fact, nearly precipitated quarrel
He said:
Acker. hacker. soda cracker,
Acker hacker, boo!
My father chews tobacker,
out goes you
NO" said l. THAT is obviously wrong
1t isn't the counters father who INDUCES in
the filthy habit, but the father of the person
who is counted out There is scorn in the
line. You have completely missed the sub
tlety Of this rhyme Nor is the charge made
| directly The third line goes this way:
If your father chews tobacker,
Out goes you
mot at ALL" said the other man. "In the
days when that rhyme came into being there
was no shame attached to the good old Gus
| tom of chewing tobacco. The child, in fact,
was rather proud to proclaim his parents
addiction to the weed. The line went as I
| quoted IT,"
"It did not" said I.
"It did," said he.
Unfortunately, there was no third party
to whom we could appeal stiIl, I know
that am right
We were rather amazed as our memories
got to working to find out how many count
ing-out rhymes we could recall between us
Some we agreed on. as the famous:
Ene meme mini, mo-
Catch a niger by the toe,
II he hollers let him go,
Enc meme mini, mo-
this;
AS l going TO Salt Lake
met little rattlesnake,
He'd ct much OF jelly cake
II made his little belly ache.
The other man maintained stoutiy that IL
was ginger cake the poor snake had eaten
or. not wisely. but too we'll. This held to
be manifestly wrong, because one OF the
things most attractive about the rhyme, be-
sides, Of course, the excuse 1t gave for using
the word belly in mixed company. was the
delicious similarity of sound between ''jelly
cake" and belly ache" Such simiIarities
Of sound appeal 10 children. as good cpl
gram appeals to adults or a good pun
Who Made Them Upf
As a matter OF fact, have seen somewhere
collection OF nearly 80 contingent rhymes
In use in a single section. and most OF them
with variants. or course the children do
not learn them from printed collection,
though. They are passed down through the
generations by oral tradition. How old are
they9 Who made them up in the FIRST place
Did You ever make one up. or assist In the
process? Obviously the man who was going
10 Salt Lake and met the rattlesnake was
an American That one must have been
composed not only In this country but since
the discovery OF the Great Salt Lake.
Engine number nine,
stick your head IN turpentine,
Iprpentne make Il shine.
Engine number nine.
also beirays internal esidence of cIeailon