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AMUSEMENTS FOR EVERYBODY 73
some object you wish to lift. When all the air has been excluded you will find the object can easily be lifted by means of the sucker.
Jackstraws, or Jerk-Straws, and Spillikins
This game may be played with straws about three inches long, but thin slips of wood of the same length are far superior, not being so liable to break. Forty or fifty of these slips are required of three inches, and three or four of six inches in length; they should all be rounded at one end, and pointed at the other. Some of these jackstraws are styled King, Queen, Bishop, etc., and should be distinguished from the others by dipping both ends of the straw in red paint for the King, and one end for the Queen; the Bishop should differ in color, and he may be painted black; the variations may also be made by putting little touches of wax on them instead of colors; these distinguished straws have different values assigned to them—as, for instance, four for the King, three for the Queen, and two for the Bishop. One player should take up all the jackstraws in a bundle, and holding them at a little height from the table, let them fall down in a confused heap on it; each player must then try alternately to take away a jackstraw from the heap without moving any of the others, and this is generally very easy to accomplish at the first, for the top straws are mostly unconnected with the rest, but as the players proceed it requires some tact to jerk them out, with the help of a "pointer," or piece of wood made pointed for the purpose. The player who, at the entire removal of the heap, has the greatest number of straws, wins the game. Should any of the straws while being removed shake the others, they must be put back into the heap again. It is usual in some places, instead of each player removing a straw alternately, for one to continue lifting up the straws until he happens to shake one, when another player takes his turn until he in like manner fails, when another tries his fortune; and so the game continues, until all the straws are withdrawn.
Spillikins is a game founded on that of jerk-straws, the rules for playing it being precisely the same. The spillikins are |
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