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504 The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games |
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feeling of shyness among them. It is therefore a good time for the hostess to assume the responsibility and active leadership. She may gather them in a circle— out of doors, if possible—and announce that they are to play a variation of the old game of stage-coach—that instead of the adventures and misadventures of that obsolete vehicle, she will tell them a story of the woes of Uncle Sam and Madam Columbia, who, like the old woman that lived in the shoe, have "so many children that they don't know what to do." She may then give to each child some bit of costume, while assigning to him or her the name of some race or subject owing allegiance to the United States.
To the Indian a row of turkey or chicken feathers, sewed on a band of red flannel, to be worn on his head to a Porto Rican lady a black lace or tarletan veil and paper fan; to a Hawaiian, paper flowers for her adornment; and to a negress, a bandana handkerchief for her head, and a few dabs with a burnt cork to suggest "the touch of the tar-brush." The Alaskan Esquimaux may be accommodated with a harpoon—a stick with its barbed head represented by a heart-shaped patty-pan. Chicago is given a large pair of shoes, Boston a book and wire spectacles, New York a conspicuous hat or other article of dress, etc., etc. (the hostess explaining the time-worn jokes), while the foreign nationalities are represented by their respective flags.
It is easy to improvise a story, or, better, to think one out beforehand about the troublesome family and quarrelsome neighbours (foreign nations), the difficulty of keeping dear Chicago in shoes, lamenting the wicked love of display and fondness for dress evinced by New York—who, being one of the elder children, should be an example to the rest—regretting the difficulty of |
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