When I ask the young folks to spend a pleasant evening with me at my
home, what shall I do to entertain them and give them a pleasant
time? This is a vexing question. I do not understand the children at
the play-hour. What shall I do?
You are entirely right; plan a play-hour for the children of "the
meeting." They have a right to their play. God gave them that right.
Help them to use it to the limit. Let them make merry with their
friends. It will do more for them than just give them a happy
evening; it will give them a blessed memory, for when they are grown
up, and look back to their childhood days, then will they remember
that their religion was all tangled up with smiles and glee.
In those older days they will not say Christians are "joy-killers"
and have outlawed the smile. Write it down in letters which stick.
They must have their play-hour, they _shall_ make merry with their
friends.
It may help you to build your program by looking over the following
simple little stunts and pastimes. A half million children have given
them their O. K.
=1. Doing Something No One Else Can Do=
Announce that you will do something in this room that no other person
can possibly do, "I will seat myself where it will be impossible for
another person to do so." Now, sit down in another person's lap.
Nobody else can sit there while you sit there.
=2. Can't See the Candlestick=
For this stunt you hold in your hand an ordinary candle in a common
candlestick. State that you will put this candle in a place where
everybody but one can see it, and that person will not be
blindfolded, nor shall he be prevented from examining every part of
the room to find it, neither shall the candle be hidden. This is done
by placing the candle on his head, taking care that there is no
mirror or looking-glass in the room.
=3. A Coin Trick=
Stand up before the children. Place a coin in each hand, and stretch
out both hands as far from each other as possible. Now say, "Without
bringing my hands together, I can cause both coins to come into the
same hand." This is the way to do it. Place the coin on a table, then
turn around and pick it up with the other hand.
=4. The Prison Circle=
The circle that makes you a prisoner. Draw a circle around a person,
placed in the center of the room, so that he will not be able to jump
out of it, though his legs be free. This is done with a piece of
chalk. Draw the circle around his body.
=5. Crawling into a Pint Bottle=
How to crawl into a pint bottle. This is a play on words in every
sense, so it is played by playing on words. Hold in your hand a
little ink bottle, or a pint bottle, and state that you will ask some
little boy to crawl into this bottle. Watch every movement, keep your
eye upon him. Select some little boy, who has been instructed
beforehand, and also rehearsed in private, to come forward and place
the pint bottle in the center of the floor. He is told to go out of
that room and think how it can be done, and when he is ready to do
it, he is to knock on the door. You then open the door, and he crawls
into the room on all fours. This is crawling into the pint bottle.
=6. Candies Under the Hat=
Place three candies on the table about ten inches apart, and cover
each with a hat. Announce that you will now place these three candies
under one hat without touching but one hat. Look wise and approach
the hats with a thoughtful and solemn face, waving your hand over
them and muttering some incoherent words like "Hocus-pocus," and then
call upon three boys to lift the hats to see if the sweets are yet
there; after they have lifted the hats, quietly pick up the three
candies, place them in your mouth, and put a hat on your head, and
say, "The three candies are now all under one hat, and I touched only
one of the three hats." You can add a little variation to this game
if you so desire by saying after you have placed the candies under
the three hats, "On second thought I will turn my back, and when I do
so, I would like some one to rearrange the candies under the hats."
You have previously arranged with one of the boys to do this service.
He appears to be playing the joke on you by eating the candies
himself. When you look under the hats you will find nothing there,
but when you turn around, you quietly put one of the hats on his head
so the candies are now all under one hat.
=7. Will Tell the Date=
Ask some one in the room to select a penny and note its date. You
will now say, "I am under the charm of King Copero, and I will try to
tell you the date. Don't let me see the coin at close range, because
I want to tell the date without seeing the coin and cause you to
witness King Copero's mystic power. I will now ask you to place it
under the corner of the rug, and then stand on it, and King Copero
will tell me the date." You now close your eyes and exclaim, "Copero
the mystic, come to my thoughts and tell me the date!" Open your
eyes, and look around the room for the King, and then place your hand
back of your ear and exclaim, "Speak, Copero, tell me the date." You
now exclaim, "I hear you, King. You have spoken indeed." Then with
great dignity say, "The date is 1925. I did not say I would give you
the date on the coin, but would give you 'the date,' and the present
date is 1925 or the year in which you play the game." This will
produce a smile and provoke genuine jollity.
=8. Making a Strong Man Sweat=
Here is the way to make a strong person sweat and become tired by
carrying a small stick out of the room. This seems impossible, and it
causes you to smile as you think it over.
This is the way to do it. Select the strongest and tallest boy or man
present, and say that you have a task for him to perform. Place in
his hands a thin stick not much thicker than a pipe-stem and about
six inches long. Tell him he is to carry it out of the room and lay
it down one foot from the other side of the door without sweating or
becoming tired. Of course, he not knowing your intention will laugh
at this proposition.
As soon as he promises to do this task take the stick and with a
knife cut off a little bit so small he can hardly see it; then bid
him carry that first. Then give him another piece of the stick, and
so until it is all carried out. This would cause him to make about a
thousand trips and more before he has carried out the entire stick,
and it would take him two weeks working day and night to complete the
task. It would surely make him sweat and grow weary. He himself will
so conclude. This little stunt seems quite insignificant at first,
and that makes the laugh more hearty at the last. This was a stunt
quite common in the days of Washington and the Colonial children.
=9. The Disappearing Square=
Draw a square about two feet square on a large sheet of common paper.
Pin it up on the door and say you have the pleasure of presenting to
your audience the Wondrous Square which has the marvelous power of
disappearing and reappearing right before your very eyes. Then ask
the audience to close both eyes and they will note the square has
perfectly disappeared. Then ask them to open their eyes, and the
square immediately reappears again. This little stunt has been used
by over a thousand little friends of mine and has helped them to make
"merry with their friends."
It will often help a little to secure a small box of tricks and show
them how to do them. Sometimes one of the invited boys may own such a
box. Ask him to bring it with him, and show them how to do wonders
also.
This can be made a large evening for the teacher personally. Be
careful to listen to the children as they speak, observe the laws of
their conversation, note down the words they use when they talk to
each other, and when you talk to them talk as they talk, observe the
same rules of conversation, and use their words when you talk to them
in the lesson, then will they hear a lesson in their own tongue. It
will be something new for them, and the lesson will be a success, and
you will feel well paid for the labors of your social hour.
=46
"THE WORDLESS BOOK"