Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-07-20
X x x X x x x x X X X < x
THE GAME CALLED BINGLE.
By Julia Wilbor Tompkins
Of The Vigilanten.
4 y = x 4 = y x y = x y x = !
This is how you play it.


The leader draws the next playe
aside and whispers rapidly in his ear
"Lord Kitchener was becoming an IA
barassment to the British government!
The second player runs to the thir(
and whispers "Did you know that tn,
British government had to get Lore
Kitchener out of the way?"
Then the third player runs to tn
fourth: cit is known for fact thai
it wasn't the Germans that blew up the
ship carrying X. of X. The British gov
ernmeRt--"
Then all together in loud whisper:
ga man just back from the other side
told me, so it MUST BE .TRUEi"
That is Bingling, the faverite indoor
sport of the hour, as played in England
and this country.
German Bingle is more complicated.
but far more exciting. 1t is being played
to such an extent that everyone should
know how it is done. One can scarcely
go to an evening entertainment or drop
in on a reighbor without finding che
game in progress.
German Binglc is generally played for
money, and the leader is always o Ger
man agent
lie begins by stopping over for a
night or two in any loyal community
The initial play is made with gkill that
is still German secret, though America
is now working On it night fnd day
and expect soon to have it analysed,
After his play, he vanishes.
Then the chambermaid runs to the
grocer s wife with the whisper that the
soldiers in camp Ructons have mutinied
and are being shot against n wall; and
the elevator boy tells the travelling man
that an American transport has been
lost with all on board; and a leading eli
izen confides to the newspapers that
our Red Gross nurses have been SO mis-
treated by Officers and men that spec
ial hospital has been made necessary for
them; and every player got his whisper
from someone on the inside who got it
straight from an intimate friend Of a
man in Washington who is in position
to know.
Any citizen Or newspaper may con-
tinue the chain of players, but the mo-
theirs of soldiers and sailors are always
1T. The leader who can make the mo-
thers cry, all together
"My boy is being starved-frozen-
drowned-poisoned executed -anG
am not being toldl"-gets the pot.
That is Grand Bingle.
Little Bingls is also popular. Start
with whisper about the food stored
in MIR. Hoover's cellar, or the secret
of Japanese forces in Mexico
or the misappropriation of Red Cross
funds-any good lie will do-and the
leader will win every time. Unless
one of the players cries, "Bingle!"
He must shout it the instant the
whisper reaches him. Then the chain
is broken, and the leader has to start all
over again. If this happens too often,
the leader viii get discouraged and give
up. In that case, German Bingle will
die out of America.
WHY is THIS GAME so POPU.
LAR9
AND WHY DOES THE LEADER so
OFTEN WIN THE POT?
Because we like getting excited It
is more fun to repeat in an outraged
voice, Did you know that soldiers in
our cantonments must buy their food or
stare to death9" than it is to yell, "Oh,
Bingle!" F"
But there is such lot to get excited
about now; we can find all the thrills
anybody needs in the plain truth. And
every one of these whispers referred to
rs well as of ten thousand others, has
been proved to be whopping lie made
n Germany.
Bingling agonizes the parents, har-
lsses the government, worries the local
,itizen, keeps bssk enlistment, saps tho
,nergy out of service; it is like putting
IN tho brake going uphill. We have
yiyen up bridge, we have let the tango
lie; why not stop Bingling for the per-
cd of the war!
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