Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1916-05-06

few moments he spoke.
Funny thing" he said "but those
girls over there have invented a game.
| I've sat here three evenings for two
weeks now and have watched It's eyo-
luton, They've got il completed at
last. ! suppose hop-scotoh and all
the rest got invented some time or
other"
ePrubably.' said l. But they
seemed to have always been, didn't
they7"
sure said he. Funny how they
get passed down the generations
wonder II this new game will become
tradition. toog"
have been wondering since II 9th
or games have not been Invented In
our congested modern cities, games
which We az children knew nothing
about, games which are the result of
the peculiar new environment. Post
bly, someone has investigated the sub
ieet ana written about II, but ! haven't
ehanccd to see the report VIII these
games persist IN tradition, az the old
ones have persisted? The field Is
really a fertile one for somebody who
loves curious and pleasantly unim-
portant subjectsl
Variation and vcxation.
After the man on the balcony and
no longer had the new game TO watch
we fell 10 talking about games Of our
own childhood. and especially about
counting out rhymes. We soon dis
covered that there evidently exists a
considerable variation in these
rhymes. our discussion Of one Of
them. in fact, nearly prccipitated
quarrel. lie said
Ackor. hacker soda cracker,
Acker, hacker, boo,
My father chews tohacker.
out goes you
No" said |. That Is obviously
wrong II isn't the counters father
who INDUCES in the filthy habit, but
the father Of the person who Is count
ed out. There Is se0rn In the line,
You have completely missed the
subtlety of this rhyme. Nor is the
charge made directly. The third line
goes this way.
II 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 at
tAehed TO the good old custom Of
chewing tobacco The child. IN fact
was rather proud to proclaim his par
ents addiction 20 the weed. The line
went az ! quoted a.
II did not, said 1.
1T did" said he
Unfortunately there was no third
party 20 whom we could appeal. Stlll,
know that ] am right
We were rather amazed as our
memories got to working TO find out
how many counting-out rhymes we
could recall between as. Some we
agreed on, as the famous:
Enc meme. mini. mo,
catch a niger by the toe,
II he hollers let him go,
Enc, meme, mini, mo.
But another on which we differed
was this;
As | was going to Salt Lake
] met "a little rattlesnake,
He'd e't 81 much of Jelly cake
1t made his little belly ache.
The other maintained stoutly that
II was ginger cake the poor snake had
eaten Of not wisely. but too wen.
This / held TO be manifestly wrong,
heeausc one OF the things most at
traetlve about the rhymes, besides. 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 smilarities of sound appeal to
children. as a good eplgrain appeals
To adults or a good pun.
Who Made Them Up?
As a matter OF fact, ! have seen
somewhere a collection OF nearly fifty
contingent rhymes in use in a sim
gle section, and most OF them with
variants. OF course. the children do.
no learn them from a printed colec-
zion, though. They are passed down
through the generations by oral tradi-
lion. How old are they2 Who made
them up IN she iirst place? Did you
ever nuke one up. or assist IN tile
process. obviously, the man who was
going to Salt Lake and met the rat
tleanakc was an American. That one
. ifNst haNt RNin NAiltiftH'u nv tliiN IN
this country. but since the discovery
of the Great salt Lake.
Engine number nine,
Stick your head In turpentine,
Turpentine make Il shine.
Engine number nine,
also hetrays internal evidence of crea-
ton not earlier than the first quar-
ter Of the nineteenth century. Who
made up these rhymes and Why GER
tain ones get pcrpetuated is something
of mystery
Another phase Of childhood folk
lore Is found in the catches we were
all SO fond of when young Who in
vents them Who has ever seen a
new one In the makingg Who was
the author OF the most famous per-
hans, OF all You viii remember 1t,
fof course 1t was most popular at
Just about the age when YOU We're
learning 20 count You said TO an
other boy or girl II SAW dead horse
ON Chelsea Beach. one it. U sup
pose in Philadelphia the horse was
seen 40 some local pointD
The other hoy was supposed to re-
ply, n two IT,"
Then You said. II three Il, and so
on. until the other fellow affirmed
that he eight sc. and YOU screamed
With derisive mirth. "oh, he, Jimmy
ate dead horSo''
Then there was the "Just like me-
dialogue which ultimately caused the
unsuspecting victim to affirm that he
I resemblod a monkey Another we all
recall went as follows.