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[Illustration: RING A' ROSES
_From the painting by Fred Morgan_
_Frontispiece_
]
GAMES
FOR
THE PLAYGROUND, HOME, SCHOOL
AND GYMNASIUM
BY
JESSIE H. BANCROFT
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR PHYSICAL TRAINING, PUBLIC SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY;
EX-SECRETARY AMERICAN PHYSICAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION; MEMBER AMERICAN
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE; AUTHOR OF "SCHOOL
GYMNASTICS," ETC., ETC.
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1922
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1909,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published, December, 1909.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
TO THE TEACHER OF GAMES 26
COUNTING-OUT; CHOOSING SIDES; WHO'S "IT"? 35
MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVE GAMES 43
QUIET GAMES 211
FEATS AND FORFEITS 243
SINGING GAMES 259
BALLS AND BEAN BAGS 295
_a._ Specifications for Balls, Bean Bags, and
Marking Grounds, etc. 297
_b._ Bean Bag and Oat Sack Games 303
_c._ Ball Games 319
INDEXES
GAMES FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, FIRST TO EIGHTH YEARS 427
GAMES FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 433
GAMES FOR PLAYGROUNDS, GYMNASIUMS, AND LARGE NUMBERS 435
GAMES FOR BOYS' AND GIRLS' SUMMER CAMPS 440
_a._ Active Games 440
_b._ Quiet Games 442
HOUSE-PARTY AND COUNTRY-CLUB GAMES 444
_a._ Active Games 444
_b._ Quiet Games 445
GAMES FOR CHILDREN'S PARTIES 446
_a._ Active Games 446
_b._ Quiet Games 447
SEASHORE GAMES 449
ALPHABETICAL INDEX 451
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
RING A' ROSES _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
ALL-UP RELAY RACE 45
BUYING A LOCK 58
CATCH-AND-PULL TUG OF WAR; A HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN CLASS 60
FORCING THE CITY GATES 89
HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON? 108
JUMPING ROPE ON THE ROOF PLAYGROUND OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL 118
OYSTER SHELL 143
PITCH PEBBLE 147
PRISONER'S BASE 158
ROLLING TARGET AS PLAYED BY THE HIDATSA INDIANS,
FORT CLARK, NORTH DAKOTA 169
SNOW SNAKE 182
A CITY PLAYGROUND 200
FLOWER MATCH 220
SKIN THE SNAKE 252
DRAW A BUCKET OF WATER 263
THE DUCK DANCE 276
BALLS 297
CAPTAIN BALL IN A HIGH SCHOOL 342
CIRCLE STRIDE BALL 358
DRIVE BALL 375
BALL GAME ON THE ROOF PLAYGROUND OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL 400
TETHER BALL 409
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE AND PLAN.--This book aims to be a practical guide for the
player of games, whether child or adult, and for the teacher or leader
of games. A wide variety of conditions have been considered, including
schools, playgrounds, gymnasiums, boys' and girls' summer camps, adult
house parties and country clubs, settlement work, children's parties,
and the environment of indoors or out of doors, city or country,
summer or winter, the seashore, the woodland, or the snow. The games
have been collected from many countries and sources, with a view to
securing novel and interesting as well as thoroughly tried and popular
material, ranging from traditional to modern gymnasium and athletic
games. An especial effort has been made to secure games for particular
conditions. Among these may be mentioned very strenuous games for
older boys or men; games for the schoolroom; games for large numbers;
new gymnasium games such as Nine Court Basket Ball and Double Corner
Ball; games which make use of natural material such as stones,
pebbles, shells, trees, flowers, leaves, grasses, holes in the sand or
earth, and diagrams drawn on the ground.
The description, classification, and arrangement of the games have
been made with the steadfast purpose of putting them into the most
workable form, easily understood, with suggestions for getting the
most sport and playing value out of them, and with means of ready
reference to any class of games for use under any of the conditions
mentioned. The series of indexes which accomplish this last-mentioned
purpose make it possible to classify the games in many different ways,
sparing the reader the necessity for hunting through much unrelated
material to find that suited to his conditions. The index for schools
is essentially a graded course of study in games.
The ball games requiring team play have been described according to an
analytic scheme not before used for the class of games given in the
present volume, which makes it possible to locate at a glance
information about the laying out of the ground, the number,
assignment, and duties of players, the object of the game, rules and
points of play, fouls, and score. The various kinds of balls are
described with official specifications. Diagrams for all kinds of
games have been supplied unsparingly, wherever it seemed possible to
make clearer the understanding of a game by such means, and pictorial
illustration has been used where diagrams were inadequate. The music
for all singing games is given with full accompaniment. Suggestions
for the teaching and conduct of games are given, with directions for
floor formations. Means of counting out and choosing sides and players
are described, and one section is devoted to forfeits.
Under each of the main divisions chosen--miscellaneous active games,
quiet games, singing games, bean-bag games, and ball games--the
material has been arranged in alphabetic order to facilitate ready
reference, although a general alphabetic index is appended. In short,
the book aims to bring together all related material and every
available device for making it readily accessible and easily
understood.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Original research]
SOURCES AND NATURE OF MATERIAL.--The material in this volume, aside
from that accumulated through a long experience in the teaching and
supervision of games, has been collected through (1) special original
research, and (2) bibliographical research. The original research has
been made among the foreign population of New York City, where
practically the entire world is accessible, and in other sections of
the United States. This has resulted in some entirely new games that
the writer has not found elsewhere in print. From among these may be
mentioned the Greek Pebble Chase, the Russian Hole Ball, the Scotch
Keep Moving, the Danish Slipper Slap, and, from our own country, among
others, Chickadee-dee from Long Island, and Hip from New Jersey.
Entirely new ways of playing games previously recorded have been
found, amounting not merely to a variation but to a wholly new form.
Such is the method here given for playing Babylon, a form gathered
from two different Scotch sources. Another example is the game of
Wolf, for which additional features have been found that add greatly
to its playing value, especially the rule whereby the wolf, when
discovered by the sheep who are hunting for him, shall take a jump
toward the sheep before his chase after them begins; or, should he
discover them first, the requirement that they take three steps toward
him before the chase begins. Such points add greatly to the sport of a
game, and with the spoken formulas that accompany them form a rich
find for both student and player.
One may not well refer to the original research without mention of the
charm of the task itself. It has been one of the sunniest, happiest
lines possible to follow, attended invariably with smiling faces and
laughter on the part of old or young, native or foreign, the peasant
people or those more sophisticated.
[Sidenote: Bibliographical research and results]
The bibliographical research has covered a wide field. Heretofore the
principal sources in English for the collector of games have been the
invaluable and scholarly folklore compilations of Mr. William Wells
Newell (_Songs and Games of American Children_) and Mrs. Alice B.
Gomme (_Traditional Games_ in the _Dictionary of British Folk Lore_).
The earlier British collection by Strutt (_Sports and Pastimes of the
English People_) has also been a source of great value. In the United
States considerable collecting and translating of games have from time
to time been done by the physical training magazine, _Mind and Body_.
For all modern athletic games an invaluable service has been rendered
by Messrs. A. G. Spalding and Brothers in the publication, since 1892,
of the _Spalding Athletic Library_, under the direction of Mr. A. G.
Spalding and Mr. James E. Sullivan. The author is greatly indebted to
all of these sources. In addition, hundreds of volumes have been
consulted in many fields including works of travel, reports of
missionaries, etc. This has resulted in games from widely scattered
sources, including European countries, the Orient, the Arctic regions,
and the North American Indians. While in such a mass of material
there are some games that are found in almost all countries, so that
one is continually meeting old friends among them, a very considerable
harvest of distinctive material has been gathered, eloquent of
environment, temperamental, or racial traits. Such, among many others,
are the Japanese Crab Race; the Chinese games of Forcing the City
Gates, and Letting Out the Doves; the Korean games with flowers and
grasses; the North American Indian games of Snow Snake and Rolling
Target; and the poetic game of the little Spanish children about the
Moon and Stars, played in the boundaries marked by sunshine and
shadow.
[Sidenote: Standard Material]
But the object of the book has been by no means to present only novel
material. There is an aristocracy of games, classic by all the rights
of tradition and popular approval, without which a collection would be
as incomplete as would an anthology of English ballads without _Robin
Hood_, _Sally in our Alley_, or _Drink to me only with thine Eyes_.
These standard games are amply represented, mingled in the true spirit
of American democracy with strangers from foreign lands and the new
creations of modern athletic practice.
[Sidenote: Local color and humor in games]
The games, old and new, are full of that intimation of environment
which the novelist calls local color, often containing in the name
alone a comprehensive suggestiveness as great as that of an Homeric
epithet. Thus our familiar Cat and Mouse appears in modern Greece as
Lamb and Wolf; and the French version of Spin the Platter is My Lady's
Toilet, concerned with laces, jewels, and other ballroom accessories
instead of our prosaic numbering of players. These changes that a game
takes on in different environments are of the very essence of
folklore, and some amusing examples are to be found in our own
country. For instance, it is not altogether surprising to find a game
that is known under another name in the North called, in Southern
States, "Ham-Ham-Chicken-Ham-Bacon!" The author found a good example
of folklore-in-the-making in the game usually known as "Run, Sheep,
Run!" in which a band of hidden players seek their goal under the
guidance of signals shouted by a leader. As gathered in a Minnesota
town, these signals consisted of colors,--red, blue, green, etc. This
same game was found in the city environment of New York under the name
of Oyster Sale, and the signals had become pickles, tomatoes, and
other articles strongly suggestive of a delicatessen store. The
butterfly verse for Jumping Rope is obviously another late production
of the folklore spirit.
The lover of childish humor will find many delightful examples of it
among the games, as where little Jacky Lingo feeds bread and butter to
the sheep (Who Goes Round My Stone Wall?); or the Mother, trying the
Old Witch's apple pie, discovers that "It tastes exactly like my child
Monday!" The tantalizing "nominies" or "dares," as in Fox and Geese,
and Wolf, and the ways in which players are trapped into false starts,
as in Black Tom, are also highly amusing.
* * * * *
PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION.--In the selection of material for this work,
a marked distinction has been made between games, on the one hand,
and, on the other, the unorganized play and constructive activities
included in many books of children's games. While the term "play"
includes games, so that we "play games," it applies also to informal
play activities, such as a child's "playing horse," "playing house,"
or playing in the sand. In such unorganized play there are no fixed
rules, no formal mode of procedure, and generally, no climax to be
achieved. The various steps are usually spontaneous, not
predetermined, and are subject to individual caprice. In games, on the
contrary, as in Blind Man's Buff, Prisoners' Base, or Football, there
are prescribed acts subject to rules, generally penalties for defeat
or the infringement of rules, and the action proceeds in a regular
evolution until it culminates in a given climax, which usually
consists in a victory of skill, speed or strength. In a strictly
scientific sense, games do not always involve the element of sport or
play, being used in many forms among primitive peoples for serious
divinatory purposes. It is perhaps needless to say that all of the
games in the present collection are for the purpose of sport and
recreation.
[Sidenote: Playing values]
The four hundred games here published are selected from a far larger
number. No game has been included that has not been considered to have
strong playing values, by which term is meant, in addition to other
qualities, and above all others, the amount of sport and interest
attending it. The points of play that contribute to the success of a
game have been secured from experience, and unfamiliar games have been
thoroughly tested and the points of play noted for older or younger
players, large or small numbers, or other circumstances.
[Sidenote: Elements of games]
Games may be analyzed into certain elements susceptible of
classification, such as the elements of formation, shown in the circle
form, line form, or opposing groups; other elements are found in modes
of contest, as between individuals or groups; tests of strength or
skill; methods of capture, as with individual touching or wrestling,
or with a missile, as in ball-tag games; or the elements of
concealment, or chance, or guessing, or many others. These various
elements are like the notes of the scale in music, susceptible of
combinations that seem illimitable in variety. Thus in the Greek
Pebble Chase, the two elements that enter into the game--that of (1)
detecting or guessing who holds a concealed article, and (2) a
chase--are neither of them uncommon elements, but in this combination
make a game that differs in playing value from any familiar game, and
one affording new and genuine interest, as evidenced by the pleasure
of children in playing it. Indeed, the interest and sport were fully
as great with a group of adult Greek men who first demonstrated this
game for the author. This element of guessing which player holds a
concealed article is found again in a different combination in the
Scotch game of Smuggling the Geg, where it is used with opposing
groups and followed by hiding and seeking. This combination makes a
wholly different game of it, and one of equal or even superior playing
value to the Pebble Chase, though suited to different conditions.
Because of this wonderful variety in combinations, leading to entirely
different playing values, the author has found it impossible to agree
with some other students of games, that it is practicable to select a
few games that contain all of the typical elements of interest. Such
limitation seems no more possible than in painting, poetry, music, or
any other field of spontaneous imitative or creative expression.
There will doubtless always be some games that will have large popular
following, playing on the "psychology of the crowd," as well as on
that of the players. Thus we have the spectacle of so-called national
games, Baseball and Football in America, Handball in Ireland, Pelota
in Spain, and so on; but natural expression through games has always
been and probably always will be infinitely varied, and should be if
the psychology of the subject is to be taken as a guide.
In the arrangement of material there has many times been a strong
temptation to classify the games by their historic, geographic,
psychologic, or educational interests; by the playing elements
contained in them; or by several other possible methods which are of
interest chiefly to the academic student; but these have each in turn
been discarded in favor of the original intention of making the book
preëminently a useful working manual for the player or leader of
games.
[Sidenote: Varying modes of play]
The same games are found not only in many different countries and
localities, but under different names and with many variations in the
form of playing them. This has necessitated a method of analytical
study which has been followed with all of the games. A card catalogue
has been made of them, and in connection with each game notation has
been made of the various names under which it has been found, and
details of the differences in the mode or rules of play. The choice of
rules or directions has been determined chiefly by the playing values
previously alluded to, those directions having been selected which
experience has shown to make the most interesting game. Sometimes
these differences are so great as to amount to a different game, or
one suited to different ages of players. In a few instances, as with
Prisoners' Base, Captain Ball, Zigzag Ball, etc., it has seemed best
to present several typical forms of the same game with an analytic
statement of the differences, leaving the leader to select the form
best adapted to his conditions. At no time, however, has there been
any attempt to present all games or all forms of any one game. That
would be merely to make a compendium of all possible material. A
purposeful selection has been made throughout.
The choice of names could not well be made on any one principle.
Wherever feasible, the name that has seemed to have the widest vogue
has been adopted. In other instances it has appeared best to make a
different selection to avoid too great similarity in names. Some
games, especially those from foreign sources, came without names and
have had to be christened. In the case of several modern adaptations
of old games, a name bestowed by some previous worker has been
continued, if especially descriptive or appropriate.
[Sidenote: Games for boys and girls]
No distinction has been made in general between games for boys and
girls. The modern tendency of gymnasium and athletic practice is away
from such distinctions, and is concerned more with the time limits or
other conditions for playing a game than with the game itself. This is
a question that varies so much with the previous training and
condition of players on the one hand, and on personal opinion or
prejudice on the other, that it has been thought best to leave it for
decision in each individual case.
* * * * *
THE USES OF GAMES.--The use of games for both children and adults has
a deep significance for the individual and the community through the
conservation of physical, mental, and moral vitality.
[Sidenote: Sense perceptions]
Games have a positive educational influence that no one can appreciate
who has not observed their effects. Children who are slow, dull, and
lethargic; who observe but little of what goes on around them; who
react slowly to external stimuli; who are, in short, slow to see, to
hear, to observe, to think, and to do, may be completely transformed
in these ways by the playing of games. The sense perceptions are
quickened: a player comes to see more quickly that the ball is coming
toward him; that he is in danger of being tagged; that it is his turn;
he hears the footstep behind him, or his name or number called; he
feels the touch on the shoulder; or in innumerable other ways is
aroused to quick and direct recognition of and response to, things
that go on around him. The clumsy, awkward body becomes agile and
expert: the child who tumbles down to-day will not tumble down next
week; he runs more fleetly, dodges with more agility, plays more
expertly in every way, showing thereby a neuro-muscular development.
[Sidenote: Social development]
The social development through games is fully as important and as
pronounced. Many children, whether because of lonely conditions at
home, or through some personal peculiarity, do not possess the power
readily and pleasantly to coöperate with others. Many of their elders
lack this facility also, and there is scarcely anything that can place
one at a greater disadvantage in business or society, or in any of the
relations of life. The author has known case after case of peculiar,
unsocial, even disliked children, who have come into a new power of
coöperation and have become popular with their playmates through the
influence of games. The timid, shrinking child learns to take his turn
with others; the bold, selfish child learns that he may not monopolize
opportunities; the unappreciated child gains self-respect and the
respect of others through some particular skill that makes him a
desired partner or a respected opponent. He learns to take defeat
without discouragement and to win without undue elation. In these and
in many other ways are the dormant powers for social coöperation
developed, reaching the highest point at last in the team games where
self is subordinated to the interests of the team, and coöperation is
the very life of the game.
[Sidenote: Will training]
Most important of all, however, in the training that comes through
games, is the development of will. The volitional aspect of the will
and its power of endurance are plainly seen to grow in power of
initiative; in courage to give "dares" and to take risks; in
determination to capture an opponent, to make a goal, or to win the
game. But probably the most valuable training of all is that of
inhibition--that power for restraint and self-control which is the
highest aspect of the will and the latest to develop. The little child
entering the primary school has very little of this power of
inhibition. To see a thing he would like is to try to get it; to want
to do a thing is to do it; he acts impulsively; he does not possess
the power to restrain movement and to deliberate. A large part of the
difficulty of the training of children at home and at school lies in
the fact that this power of the will for restraint and self-control
is undeveloped. So-called "willfulness" is a will in which the
volitional power has not yet been balanced with this inhibitive power.
One realizes in this way the force of Matthew Arnold's definition of
character as "a completely fashioned will."
There is no agency that can so effectively and naturally develop power
of inhibition as games. In those of very little children there are
very few, if any, restrictions; but as players grow older, more and
more rules and regulations appear, requiring greater and greater
self-control--such as not playing out of one's turn; not starting over
the line in a race until the proper signal; aiming deliberately with
the ball instead of throwing wildly or at haphazard; until again, at
the adolescent age, the highly organized team games and contests are
reached, with their prescribed modes of play and elaborate
restrictions and fouls. There could not be in the experience of either
boy or girl a more live opportunity than in these advanced games for
acquiring the power of inhibitory control, or a more real experience
in which to exercise it. To be able, in the emotional excitement of an
intense game or a close contest, to observe rules and regulations; to
choose under such circumstances between fair or unfair means and to
act on the choice, is to have more than a mere knowledge of right and
wrong. It is to have the trained power and habit of acting on such
knowledge,--a power and habit that mean immeasurably for character. It
is for the need of such balanced power that contests in the business
world reach the point of winning at any cost, by fair means or foul.
It is for the need of such trained and balanced power of will that our
highways of finance are strewn with the wrecks of able men. If the
love of fair play, a sense of true moral values, and above all, the
power and habit of will to act on these can be developed in our boys
and girls, it will mean immeasurably for the uplift of the community.
[Sidenote: Evolution of play interests]
The natural interests of a normal child lead him to care for different
types of games at different periods of his development. In other
words, his own powers, in their natural evolution, seek instinctively
the elements in play that will contribute to their own growth. When
games are studied from this viewpoint of the child's interests, they
are found to fall into groups having pronounced characteristics at
different age periods.
[Sidenote: Games for various ages]
Thus, the little child of six years enjoys particularly games in which
there is much repetition, as in most of the singing games; games
involving impersonation, appealing to his imagination and dramatic
sense, as where he becomes a mouse, a fox, a sheepfold, a farmer,
etc.; or games of simple chase (one chaser for one runner) as
distinguished from the group-chasing of a few years later. His games
are of short duration, reaching their climax quickly and making but
slight demand on powers of attention and physical endurance; they
require but little skill and have very few, if any, rules, besides the
mere question of "taking turns." In short, they are the games suited
to undeveloped powers in almost every particular but that of
imagination.
Two or three years later these games are apt to seem "babyish" to a
child and to lose interest for him. His games then work through a
longer evolution before reaching their climax, as where an entire
group of players instead of one has to be caught before the game is
won, as in Red Lion, Pom Pom Pullaway, etc. He can watch more points
of interest at once than formerly, and choose between several
different possible modes of play, as in Prisoners' Base. He gives
"dares," runs risks of being caught, and exercises his courage in many
ways. He uses individual initiative instead of merely playing in his
turn. This is the age of "nominies," in which the individual player
hurls defiance at his opponents with set formulas, usually in rhyme.
Players at this time band together in many of their games in opposing
groups, "choosing sides"--the first simple beginning of team play.
Neuro-muscular skill increases, as shown in ball play and in agile
dodging. Endurance for running is greater.
When a child is about eleven or twelve years of age, some of these
characteristics decline and others equally pronounced take their
place. "Nominies" disappear and games of simple chase (tag games)
decline in interest. Races and other competitive forms of running
become more strenuous, indicating a laudable instinct to increase
thereby the muscular power of the heart, at a time when its growth is
much greater proportionately than that of the arteries, and the blood
pressure is consequently greater. A very marked feature from now on is
the closer organization of groups into what is called team play. Team
play bears to the simpler group play which precedes it an analogous
relation in some respects to that between modern and primitive
warfare. In primitive warfare the action of the participants was
homogeneous; that is, each combatant performed the same kind of
service as did every other combatant and largely on individual
initiative. The "clash of battle and the clang of arms" meant an
individual contest for every man engaged. In contrast to this there
is, in modern warfare, a distribution of functions, some combatants
performing one kind of duty and others another, all working together
to the common end. In the higher team organizations of Basket Ball,
Baseball, Football, there is such a distribution of functions, some
players being forwards, some throwers, some guards, etc., though these
parts are often taken in rotation by the different players. The
strongest characteristic of team play is the coöperation whereby, for
instance, a ball is passed to the best thrower, or the player having
the most advantageous position for making a goal. A player who would
gain glory for himself by making a sensational play at the risk of
losing for his team does not possess the team spirit. The traits of
character required and cultivated by good team work are invaluable in
business and social life. They are among the best possible traits of
character. This class of games makes maximal demands upon perceptive
powers and ability to react quickly and accurately upon rapidly
shifting conditions, requiring quick reasoning and judgment.
Organization play of this sort begins to acquire a decided interest at
about eleven or twelve years of age, reaches a strong development in
the high schools, and continues through college and adult life.
[Sidenote: Relation between development and play]
Such are the main characteristics of the games which interest a child
and aid his development at different periods. They are all based upon
a natural evolution of physical and psychological powers that can be
only hinted at in so brief a sketch. Any one charged with the
education or training of a child should know the results of modern
study in these particulars.
The fullest and most practical correlation of our knowledge of the
child's evolution to the particular subject of play that has yet been
presented is that of Mr. George E. Johnson, Superintendent of
Playgrounds in Pittsburgh, and formerly Superintendent of Schools in
Andover, Mass., in _Education by Plays and Games_. The wonderful
studies in the psychology of play by Karl Groos (_The Play of Animals_
and _The Play of Man_), and the chapter by Professor William James on
_Instinct_, show how play activities are expressions of great basic
instincts that are among the strongest threads in the warp and woof of
character--instincts that should have opportunity to grow and
strengthen by exercise, as in play and games. We have come to realize
that play, in games and other forms, is nature's own way of developing
and training power. As Groos impressively says, "We do not play
because we are young; we have a period of youth so that we may play."
The entire psychology of play bears directly on the subject of games.
Indeed, although the study of games in their various aspects is of
comparatively recent date, the bibliography bearing on the subject,
historic, scientific, psychologic, and educational, is enormous and
demands a distinct scholarship of its own.
[Sidenote: Age classification]
It is highly desirable that a teacher should know the significance of
certain manifestations in a child's play interests. If they should not
appear in due time, they should be encouraged, just as attention is
given to the hygiene of a child who is under weight for his age. But
it should not be inferred that any hard and fast age limits may be set
for the use of different plays and games. To assign such limits would
be a wholly artificial procedure, and yet is one toward which there is
sometimes too strong a tendency. A certain game cannot be prescribed
for a certain age as one would diagnose and prescribe for a malady.
Nothing in the life of either child or adult is more elastic than his
play interests. Play would not be play were this otherwise. The
caprice of mood and circumstance is of the very soul of play in any of
its forms.
The experience of the writer has been chiefly away from dogmatic
limitations in the use of games. Very young players and adults alike
may find the greatest pleasure and interest in the same game. Previous
training or experience, conditions of fatigue, the circumstances of
the moment, and many other considerations determine the suitableness
of games. To illustrate, the author has known the game of Three Deep,
which is one of the best gymnasium games for men, to be played with
great interest and ability by a class of six-year-old boys; and the
same game stupidly and uninterestedly bungled over by a class of much
older boys who had not had previous training in games and were not
alert and resourceful. Similarly, the comparatively simple game of
Bombardment may be interesting and refreshing for a class of tired
business men, while high-school pupils coming to care largely for team
play may prefer Battle Ball, a more closely organized game of the same
type. In general, boys and girls dislike the mode of play they have
just outgrown, but the adult often comes again to find the greatest
pleasure in the simpler forms, and this without reaching second
childhood.
[Sidenote: Graded course of study on games]
The index of games for elementary and high schools contained in this
volume constitutes a graded course based on experimental study of
children's interests. This grading of the games for schools is made,
not with the slightest belief or intention that the use of a game
should be confined to any particular grade or age of pupils, but
largely, among other considerations, because it has been found
advantageous in a school course to have new material in reserve as
pupils progress. The games have usually been listed for the earliest
grade in which they have been found, on the average, of sufficient
interest to be well played, with the intention that they be used
thereafter in any grade where they prove interesting. This school
index by grades, which includes most of the games, will be found a
general guide for the age at which a given game is suitable under any
circumstances.
[Sidenote: Relation of games to school life]
The relation of games to a school programme is many-sided. To sit for
a day in a class room observing indications of physical and mental
strain and fatigue is to be convinced beyond question that the
schoolroom work and conditions induce a tremendous nervous strain, not
only through prolonged concentration on academic subjects, but through
the abnormal repression of movement and social intercourse that
becomes necessary for the maintenance of discipline and proper
conditions of study. As a session advances, there is needed a steady
increase in the admonitions that restrain neuro-muscular activity as
shown in the unnecessary handling of books and pencils and general
restlessness; also restraint of a desire to use the voice and
communicate in a natural outlet of the social instinct. One is equally
impressed with the prolonged continuance of bad postures, in which the
chest is narrowed and depressed, the back and shoulders rounded
forward, and the lungs, heart, and digestive organs crowded upon one
another in a way that impedes their proper functioning and induces
passive congestion. In short, the nervous strain for both pupil and
teacher, the need for vigorous stimulation of respiration and
circulation, for an outlet for the repressed social and emotional
nature, for the correction of posture, and for a change from abstract
academic interests, are all largely indicated. Nothing can correct the
posture but formal gymnastic work selected and taught for that
purpose; but the other conditions may be largely and quickly relieved
through the use of games. Even five minutes in the class room will do
this,--five minutes of lively competition, of laughter, and of
absorbing involuntary interest. The more physical activity there is in
this the better, and fifteen minutes of even freer activity in the
fresh air of the playground is more than fifteen times better.
The typical school recess is a sad apology for such complete
refreshment of body and mind. A few pupils take the center of the
field of play, while the large majority, most of whom are in greater
need of the exercise, stand or walk slowly around the edges, talking
over the teacher and the lesson. An organized recess, by which is
meant a programme whereby only enough classes go to the playground at
one time to give opportunity for all of the pupils to run and play at
once, does away with these objections, if some little guidance or
leadership be given the children for lively games. The best discipline
the writer has ever seen, in either class room or playground, has been
where games are used, the privilege of play being the strongest
possible incentive to instant obedience before and after. Besides,
with such a natural outlet for repressed instincts, their ebullition
at the wrong time is not so apt to occur. Many principals object to
recesses because of the moral contamination for which those periods
are often responsible. The author has had repeated and convincing
testimony of the efficacy of games to do away with this objection.
The game becomes the one absorbing interest of recess, and everything
else gives way before it. Dr. Kratz, Superintendent of Schools in
Sioux City, Iowa, was one of the first school superintendents in the
country to go on record for this benefit from games, and much fuller
experience has accumulated since.
[Sidenote: Sociological and economic significance of games]
The growth of large cities has been so comparatively recent that we
are only beginning to realize the limitations they put upon normal
life in many ways and the need for special effort to counterbalance
these limitations. The lack of opportunity for natural play for
children and young people is one of the saddest and most harmful in
its effects upon growth of body and character. The number of children
who have only the crowded city streets to play in is enormous, and any
one visiting the public schools in the early fall days may readily
detect by the white faces those who have had no other opportunity to
benefit by the summer's fresh air and sunshine. The movement to
provide public playgrounds for children and more park space for all
classes in our cities is one connected vitally with the health,
strength, and endurance of the population. The crusade against
tuberculosis has no stronger ally. Indeed, vital resistance to disease
in any form must be increased by such opportunities for fresh air,
sunshine, and exercise. This whole question of the building up of a
strong physique is an economic one, bearing directly on the industrial
power of the individual, and upon community expenditures for hospitals
and other institutions for the care of the dependent and disabled
classes.
The crippling of moral power is found to be fully as much involved
with these conditions as is the weakening of physical power. Police
departments have repeatedly reported that the opening of playgrounds
has resulted in decrease of the number of arrests and cases of
juvenile crime in their vicinity; also decrease of adult disturbances
resulting from misdeeds of the children. They afford a natural and
normal outlet for energies that otherwise go astray in destruction of
property, altercations, and depredations of many sorts, so that the
cost of a playground is largely offset by the decreased cost for
detection and prosecution of crime, reformatories, and related
agencies.
[Sidenote: Children of the rich]
It would be a mistake to think that the children of the poor are the
only ones who need the physical and moral benefit of normal childish
play. One is forced to the conclusion that many children of the rich
are even more to be pitied, for the shackles of conventionality
enslave them from the outset. Many are _blasé_ with opera and picture
exhibits--typical forms of pleasure for the adult of advanced
culture--without ever having had the free laughter and frolic of
childhood. That part of the growing-up process most essential for
character is literally expunged from life for them. One need spend but
an hour in a city park to see that many children are restrained from
the slightest running or frolic because it would soil their clothes or
be otherwise "undesirable." The author recalls a private school for
girls in which laughter was checked at recess because it was
"unlady-like."
[Sidenote: Teachers of games]
In contrast to this barbarous repression are some delightful instances
of provision for normal childish play and exercise for such children.
In one of our large Eastern cities a teacher was employed for several
seasons to play games with a group of children on a suburban lawn to
which all repaired twice a week. This was genuine play, full of
exercise and sport and laughter. In another Eastern city a teacher was
similarly employed for many seasons to coach a Basket Ball team in the
small rear area of the typical city residence. Teachers of physical
training and others are doing much to organize this sort of exercise,
including tramping clubs and teams for cross-country runs, and the
encouragement of Tether Ball and other games suited to limited
conditions.
[Sidenote: Investment-value of recreation]
As a nation we are slow to learn the value of recreation. We go to the
extremes of using it either not at all or so excessively as to exhaust
nervous energy to the point where "the day we most need a holiday is
the day after a holiday." This may be different when we learn more
fully that the recuperative power of short intervals of complete
relaxation has a genuine investment value. The increased output of
energy afterward, the happier spirits, prolonged endurance, clearer
thinking, and the greater ease and pleasure with which work is done,
more than compensate for the time required. It has been stated that
one large manufacturing concern has found it greatly to its advantage
to give a daily recess period to its employees at its own expense, the
loss of working time being compensated in the quality of the output
following, which shows, for instance, in the fewer mistakes that have
to be rectified. The welfare work of our large stores and factories
should provide opportunity, facilities, and leadership for recreative
periods of this character.
[Sidenote: Brain workers]
For the brain worker such benefit from periods of relaxation is even
more apparent. Our strenuous and complicated civilization makes more
and more necessary the fostering of means for complete change of
thought. When this can be coupled with invigorating physical exercise,
as in active games, it is doubly beneficial; but whether games be
active or quiet, the type of recreation found in them for both child
and adult is of especial value. It affords an emotional stimulus and
outlet, an opportunity for social coöperation, an involuntary
absorption of attention, and generally an occasion for hearty
laughter, that few other forms of recreation supply.
The list in this volume of games for house parties and country clubs
is given with the hope of making games more available for adults,
though with the knowledge that guests on such occasions take in a wide
range of ages, and many games for young people are included. These are
equally appropriate for the home circle. In addition, the so-called
gymnasium games offer some of the finest recreative exercise.
[Sidenote: Play of adults with children]
The author would like to make a special plea for the playing together
of adults and children. The pleasure to the child on such occasions is
small compared to the pleasure and benefit that may be derived by the
grown-up. To hold, in this way, to that youth of spirit which
appreciates and enters into the clear-eyed sport and frolic of the
child, is to have a means of renewal for the physical, mental, and
moral nature. In a large city in the Middle West there is a club
formed for the express purpose of giving the parents who are members
an opportunity to enjoy their children in this way. The club meets one
evening a week. It is composed of a few professional and business men
and their wives and children. It meets at the various homes, the
hostess being responsible for the programme, which consists of musical
or other numbers (rendered partly by the children and partly by the
adults), of occasional dancing, and of games, some of which must
always call for the mutual participation of the children and their
elders. A more beautiful idea for a club could scarcely be devised. It
is also a tragic fact that, lacking such an occasion, many parents
have little opportunity to enjoy their children, or, alas! even to
know them.
[Sidenote: Games in country life]
Another illustration may indicate even more strongly the benefits from
such social gatherings of adults and children. In a small town where
the young boys and girls spent more evenings than seemed wise in
places of public amusement, a teacher of physical training not long
ago opened a class for them expressly to meet this situation. The
programme included games, dancing, and formal exercise, and a special
effort was made to teach things of this sort that might be used for
gatherings at home. The class fulfilled its object so well that the
parents themselves became interested, began to attend the sessions and
participate in the games, until they were an integral part of all that
went on,--a wholesome and delightful association for all concerned,
and one that practically ended the tendencies it was designed to
overcome.
Mr. Myron T. Scudder, in his practical and stimulating pamphlet on
games for country children (_Country Play; A Field Day and Play Picnic
for Country Children_. Pub. by _Charities_, N.Y.), points out a very
real factor in the failure of American country life to hold its young
people when he cites the lack of stimulation, organization, and
guidance for the play activities of the young. It is a mistaken idea
that country children and youths have through the spaciousness of
environment alone all that they need of play. Organization and
guidance are often needed more than for the city children whose
instincts for social combination are more acute.
* * * * *
ORIGINS.--One may not close even a brief sketch of games and their
uses without reference to the topic of origins. This has been studied
chiefly from two different viewpoints, that of ethnology, in which the
work of Mr. Stewart Culin is preëminent, and that of folklore, in
which in English Mrs. Gomme and Mr. Newell have done the most
extensive work. Both of these modes of study lead to the conclusion
that the great mass of games originated in the childhood of the race
as serious religious or divinitory rites. Indeed, many are so used
among primitive peoples to-day. Very few games are of modern
invention, though the development of many to the high point of
organization and skill in which we know them is very recent. Basket
Ball was a deliberate invention, by Dr. James Naismith, then of
Springfield, Mass., in 1892; Base Ball and Tennis, as we know them,
were developed during the last half century from earlier and simpler
forms; Indoor Base Ball was devised by Mr. George W. Hancock, of
Chicago, in 1887; Battle Ball and Curtain Ball, both popular gymnasium
games, were devised by Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent, of Harvard
University.
In ethnology the study of the origin and distribution of games
"furnishes," says Mr. Culin, "the most perfect existing evidence of
the underlying foundation of mythic concepts upon which so much of the
fabric of our culture is built." The most scientific work on the
entire subject of games lies in this direction. As revealed by board
and other implement games the element of sport does not originally
inhere in a game, the procedure being a rite of magic or religion,
pursued mainly as a means of divination. In Mr. Culin's opinion, "the
plays of children must be regarded apart from games, being dramatic
and imitative, although copying games as they [the children] copy
other affairs of life, and thus often preserving remains of
ceremonials of remote antiquity."