One of the players should act the part of lady’s maid. Each of the
players should take the name of something which a lady would wear to
a reception, as an article of clothing or jewelry. Or a player may
take the name of an article a lady would use in getting ready for a
reception, as a comb and brush.
The lady’s maid should stand at one end of the room, and looking
towards the players announce, “My lady is going to a reception
to-night, and wishes a handkerchief,” or whatever article she may
choose to select. The one named instantly rises, and steps two feet
forward, makes a low bow, then suddenly starting up twists about, and
turning to her right-hand neighbor says, “Change chairs.”
No sooner said than done. Everybody on the instant rushes for a chair,
including the lady’s maid, and the one that is left without a chair
becomes the next lady’s maid.
This person may continue the game, as did the previous maid, or she may
say, “My lady is going to a reception to-night and wants her salts.”
The moment salts are desired some of the players must sneeze as if the
salts were too strong, others should appear to faint, and others wave
their hands forward and back as if fanning.
Any second that the lady’s maid may choose she may exclaim, “Change
chairs!” and again there is another scramble, with one person left
without, and there is therefore a new lady’s maid.
This maid may try yet another way, which will result in getting almost
all of the players on their feet before they can change chairs. She
asks the players to re-name themselves, and for nearly all of them to
select articles of apparel.
Then the maid says, for instance, “My lady desires her white ivory fan.”
The person so named should rise, go two feet forward and, having bowed
very low, should stand just where she is until the signal for change
chairs is given.
The maid might then say, “My lady desires her white satin gown.” The
person named white satin gown rises, and repeats the action of the one
going before. And thus the maid continues to call, until having all the
requisite articles of apparel. But when she exclaims, “My lady wishes
her white kid shoes!” all rush for a seat.
Whoever is left without a chair after this method of playing must
rapidly tell the bootblack story.
“As I was going down the street I saw two bootblacks. One was a black
bootblack and the other a white bootblack, and both had black boots,
as well as blacking and blacking brushes. The black bootblack asked
the white bootblack to black his, the black bootblack’s black boot
with blacking. The white bootblack consented to black the black boots
of the black bootblack with blacking, but when he, the white bootblack
had blacked one black boot of the black bootblack with blacking, he
the white bootblack refused to black his, the black bootblack’s, other
black boot with blacking unless he, the black bootblack, paid him, the
white bootblack, the same as what he, the white bootblack, got for
blacking other people’s black boots; whereupon, the black bootblack
grew still blacker in the face, and called the white bootblack a
blackguard, at the same time hitting the white bootblack with the black
boot that he, the white bootblack, had already blacked with blacking.”
Should any one not leave his chair he must pay a forfeit.
Should the maid ask for an article that has not been taken for a name,
she must pay a forfeit.