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HOME ENTERTAINING

What To Do and How To Do It




HOME ENTERTAINING

    AMUSEMENTS FOR EVERY ONE

    EDITED BY
    WILLIAM E. CHENERY

[Illustration]

    BOSTON
    LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.




    PUBLISHED, AUGUST, 1912


    COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
    _All Rights Reserved_
    HOME ENTERTAINING


    Norwood Press
    Berwick & Smith Co.
    Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.




PREFACE


THIS collection of games, tricks, and pastimes is the result of many
years’ effort to find the most clever and practical diversions and
entertainments suitable for the home. Each trick has been tested
by the editor, and each sport introduced has received most careful
consideration in regard to ease of production, as well as the enjoyment
to be gained from it.

As no refined person of any age can find amusement in coarseness, great
care has been exercised in presenting only such diversions as are to
be welcomed in a refined home circle. The necessity for elaborate
apparatus has also been avoided, so that with dullness, difficulty,
expense, and ill-taste eliminated, it is felt that this collection will
supply a lack which has always existed, as the many who have sought
in vain for a bright, safe, and up-to-date book of really feasible
entertainments will appreciate.

While this book contains much that is original, especially in
descriptive matter and ways of presentation, it has of course been
necessary to draw freely from the accumulated mass of tricks and
“sells” that have in some form or other come down from unknown times,
and are recognized as being the common property of any who take pains
to learn them. As a matter of courtesy, due acknowledgement is hereby
made to all who have preceded me in this line of work.

A word of general advice to the amateur entertainer may be in order.
Never tell the company what you are about to do, unless the very nature
of a trick demands that its outcome be stated in advance. In this case,
do it as guardedly as possible. If you state that you are to perform a
certain trick, you thereby greatly increase the chance of detection, as
the spectators will know what to look for, and in that way will more
readily arrive at the true method of bringing about the results. Do
not allow yourself to be persuaded into performing a trick twice in
an evening. With the element of surprise gone, the best performance
loses much of its effect. Finally, remember that a great deal depends
upon the personality of the entertainer. An easy flow of pleasantries,
which may or may not have to do with what is being performed, adds to
the entertainment of the company, and at the same time helps much in
diverting the attention of your friends from too close a scrutiny of
your proceedings.

                                               WILLIAM E. CHENERY.

    FRAMINGHAM, MASS.,
        May, 1912.




CONTENTS


                                             PAGE
    The Magnetic Ring                           1
    To Tell the Hour                            2
    The Spirit Calculator                       3
    The Square of Sixteen Numbers               5
    The Square of Nine Digits                   5
    Making a Bird Enter a Cage                  6
    The Handkerchief Snake                      6
    To Pass Your Body Through a Postal Card     7
    Silhouettes                                 8
    Gymnastics for the Tongue                   9
    The Passenger to Boulogne                   9
    Mind-reading                               10
    Blowing a Card on Twine                    12
    Naming a Card                              12
    A Horse Race                               14
    A Jam-eating Contest                       15
    A Potato Race                              15
    Guessing Contests                          16
    A Phonograph Concert                       17
    To Lift Fifteen Matches with One           18
    A Donkey Party                             19
    The Dwarf Exhibit                          19
    Stick-and-Pea Amusement                    22
    An Introduction to the Doll Family         22
    Second Sight                               24
    The Blind Feeding the Blind                25
    An Amateur Vaudeville                      25
    The Elusive Coin                           25
    Novel Paper-cutting                        26
    The Mysterious Remainder                   27
    Home Field-Sports                          29
        (a) One-yard Dash                      29
        (b) Tug of War                         29
        (c) Standing High Jump                 29
        (d) Hurdle Race                        29
        (e) Drinking Race                      30
        (f) Bun Race                           30
        (g) Cracker-eating Contest             30
        (h) Rainy-Day Race                     30
    The Gentlemen Nurse-Maids                  31
    New Year’s Resolutions for Others          32
    Can You Draw a Watch-face?                 33
    The Endless Thread                         34
    The Telltale Glass                         35
    Pairing Ten Half-dimes                     37
    Deceptive Heights                          37
        (a) Of a Hat                           37
        (b) Of a Barrel                        37
    Slang                                      38
    Observation Contest                        39
    The Bargain-counter Game                   39
    The “Thirty-five” Trick                    41
    An Ink Shock                               42
    Reading from Folded Papers                 42
    Blind Man’s Buff with Dominoes             43
    “My Aunt Has Arrived from Paris”           44
    Surprising Strength                        45
    Card-passing Contest                       46
    A Cobweb Tangle                            47
    A Novel Masquerade                         47
    Hit the Bag                                48
    A Pretended Illusion                       49
    Dancing Fairies                            49
    Describing a Lady’s Costume                50
    The Wonderful Hat                          51
    Mirror-Drawing                             51
    The Dancing Skeleton                       53
    Pitching Cards at a Hat                    54
    Peanut Guessing                            54
    Peanut Shelling                            54
    Peanut Rolling                             55
    The Peanut Hunt                            55
    Progressive Peanut Party                   55
    Your Friends in Black                      57

    GAMES
    Packing the Trunk                          59
    Blowing Ping-pong Balls                    60
    Doing the Impossible                       60
    The Game of “It”                           61
    The Game of “Turtle”                       63
    The Game of “Empty Hands”                  64
    Simon Says                                 65
    Passing Bean-bags                          66
    Buzz                                       67
    Can You Laugh?                             68
    An Optical Game                            68
    Blowing the Feather                        69
    Throwing the Handkerchief                  70
    Going to Jerusalem                         71
    Find the Whistle                           71
    The All-around Story Game                  72
    An Obstacle Game                           72
    Impudence                                  73
    Rolling Chase-ball                         74

    TRICKS
    The Sharpers Outwitted                     76
    The Raised Hand                            78
    Unconscious Movements                      78
    The Broken Match Restored                  79
    The Cent and the Hole                      80
    Mysterious Reading                         81
    The Baffling Card                          83
    A Watch Trick                              83
    Silk from Paper                            84
    The Obedient Ball                          86
    Tricks with a Pen                          87
    The Dice and Cup                           88
    The Surprising Paper Bands                 89
    Napkin-ring Trick                          89
    The Magical Cups of Tin                    90
    The Elusive Cork                           92
    The Three Pennies                          92
    A Lesson in Gravity                        93
    The Tantalizing Half-dollar                93
    Drawing Matches to Win                     94
    Eye-errors and Ghosts                      96
    The Detaining Hand-clasp                   98
    The Pictorial Nail                         99
    Cane Trick                                 99

    PANTOMIMES
    General Directions                        101
    Aerial Figures                            103
    Silhouettes                               105
    Shadow Pictures                           106
    Shadow Show                               106

    CARD TRICKS
    Calling the Cards                         110
    The Odd Card                              114
    Naming the Cards                          116
    A Diamond Ace of Hearts                   117
    A Three-card Trick                        118
    Detection by Smell                        119
    Naming a Drawn Card                       121
    Grouping the Kings                        123
    Detecting a Turned Card                   124
    Telling the Number of Transposed Cards    124
    The Three Packets                         127
    A Card Found at the Second Guess          127
    Pocketing a Chosen Card                   128
    To Pick Out a Card Thought Of             131
    The Siamese Aces                          133
    Detection of a Drawn Card by Color        136
    Mathematical Detection of Card            137
    Passing a Card to Top of Pack             138
    The Trick of “Thirty-one”                 140

    SOAP-BUBBLES
    Blowing Soap-bubbles                      142
    Fantastic Soap-bubbles                    143
    Rebounding Bubbles                        145

    FORFEITS                                  146

    HALLOWE’EN
    Decorations                               149
    Invitations                               150
    Receiving Guests                          150
    The Heads of Bluebeard’s Wives            152
    The Severed Head                          153
    Ghost Stories                             154
    The Unearthly Look                        154
    Luminous Writing                          155
    The Floating Candle                       155
    Ornamented Apples                         156
    Finding the Candle                        156
    The Full Moon                            