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90 The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games |
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captains. One from each side is then chosen, and the game is continued. When the play is finished, that side wins which numbers the most persons—whether adherents or prisoners.
GOSSIP
Human nature is arraigned before the bar in this game, and it may have the salutary effect of making the participants more accurate in their statements and more lenient to the lapses of others when they find how easy it is to falsify unintentionally.
One of the company composes a narrative which he writes down, reads it over carefully, and then puts it away out of sight. He then repeats it as accurately as possible to his neighbour, who in turn tells it to the per son next to him. The story may be whispered or each pair may leave the room in company in order to receive the tale in strictest confidence, until all have heard it.
The more numerous the company, the more interesting the test will be.
When the repetition of the story has been passed on by a dozen or more, the last one to hear it recounts aloud the version that has been given him, which is then compared with the written narrative—with usually many and amusing discrepancies.
Every one protests that the change did not originate with him—believing his statement, in all probability, for it is a difficult thing to tell the truth—quite aside from the intention to deceive.
The following story was narrated in whispers to a company of persons of the highest respectability and with a reputation for honesty and reliability:
"Mrs. Sigismund Sedelmyer inherited about thirty thousand dollars from her Uncle Isaac Mosenthal, but |
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