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

The Magnetic Ring. Take a gold ring,—the more massive the better. Attach the ring to a silk thread about twelve inches long; fasten the other end of the thread around the nail-joint of your right forefinger, and let the ring hang about half an inch above the surface of the table, on which you rest your elbow to steady your hand. Hold your finger horizontally, with the thumb thrown back as far as possible from the rest of the hand. If there be nothing on the table, the ring will soon become stati

Packing the Trunk. A game adapted from the French, that is very popular among the little people of America, is a good test for the memory. The children must sit in a circle, and one, as leader, announces in this fashion: “I pack my trunk, and in it I put”—mentioning some articles used in traveling, as gloves, brush or cologne. The next child begins then, saying what the leader has said and adding another article, and so on around the circle, each child repeating all the articles mentioned by the

The Raised Hand. Tell some person to pick up a coin in one hand and hold that hand above his head while he counts twenty, aloud and slowly. Before the person picks up the coin, you leave the room and return just after he finishes counting, but not so soon that you can see in which hand he had the coin. Nevertheless you tell him correctly every time, which hand he had raised. The way this trick is done, is exceedingly simple. On entering the room, after the person has counted twenty you look at h

General Directions. The best place for a pantomime show is where two rooms are connected by folding doors. A screen or curtain can be fitted to this opening. Care should be given that this screen fits the opening so that no light can show over the top or from around the sides or bottom. If the screen does not fit, this can be remedied by hanging some curtains or other draperies at the top and on the sides, and by putting carpets or rugs at the bottom. Now for the screen. This is a sheet or squar

Calling the Cards. To begin with, allow the pack of cards to be thoroughly shuffled. When the pack is returned to you, adroitly notice the value (suit and denomination) of the bottom card, which we will suppose happens to be the four of spades. Now, with apparent carelessness, throw the cards face downward on a table and scatter them about with your fingers. However, you must not lose sight of the bottom card, and wherever your fingers may push it your eyes should follow also, in order that you

Blowing Soap-bubbles. Secure a lot of clean clay pipes, and to make your bubble solution, take a preserve-jar and fill two-thirds full of boiling water, add three ounces of finely shaven Castile soap, a teaspoonful of sugar and four tablespoonfuls of glycerine, shake this mixture thoroughly and then strain it through a piece of white cloth. Your solution is now ready for use. Strawberry or cranberry juice will make pink bubbles, and orange juice will make yellow ones. Any color may be obtained b

Grasp the right ankle by the right hand, and, standing on the left leg, bend it until the right knee touches the floor, then rise slowly to a standing position again. The left hand must be kept extended all the time and must touch nothing. The right foot must not be allowed to touch the floor, nor the ankle released from the right hand. A large bottle is placed on its side. The forfeit payer is seated upon this, with the heel of his right foot resting upon the floor and the heel of his left agai

Decorations. On account of the great variety of houses, decorations for Hallowe’en and the arrangements for entertainment must be planned according to the situation, and individual convenience. The following are some suggestions. The party may be ushered into a room decorated for the occasion with autumn leaves, yellow pumpkins, and anything else that may suggest itself to the host, and lighted with pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns and candles. All the lights are covered, some with red and some with bla