At this point, your wife, dressed as a witch, should unexpectedly
rush out at him; there is always the delightful possibility that
he will pick up a convenient rock and brain her on the spot—an
event which often adds an unexpected touch of gayety to the
evening’s fun. If, however, no such event occurs, the guest
should be blindfolded and led into the house. Once inside he is
conducted upstairs to the attic, where he will find three or four
earlier arrivals also blindfolded.
The hands and feet of these four are then securely tied and they
are told that they are to be left there all evening. This is
really a great joke, because they do not, of course, at the time,
believe what you say, and when you come up to untie them the next
morning, their shame-faced discomposure is truly laughable.
The green-cord-into-neighbor’s-coal-cellar joke can be cleverly
varied by taking the lid off your cistern and making the green
line lead in that direction. Great care should be taken, however,
to keep an exact account of the number of guests who succumb to
this trick, for although an unexpected “ducking” is
excruciatingly humorous, drowning often results fatally.
Great fun can be added to the evening’s entertainment by dressing
several of the guests as ghosts, witches, corpses, etc; these
costumes can be quite simply and economically made in the home,
or can be procured from some reliable department store.
An “old-fashioned” witch’s costume consists of a union suit
(Munsing or any other standard brand), corset, brassiere,
chemise, underpetticoat, overpetticoat, long black skirt, long
black stockings, shoes, black waist and shawl, with a pointed
witch’s hat and a broomstick. The “modern” witch’s costume is
much simpler and inexpensive in many details.
A particularly novel and “hair raising” effect may be produced by
painting the entire body of one of the male guests with
phosphorus. As this glowing nude stalks uncannily through the
darkened rooms you may easily imagine the ghastly
effect—especially upon his wife.