“T.”
Guests are sitting about informally when the hostess turns to her right-hand neighbor, Mrs. Brown, and says, “I simply can’t abide ‘t’ but I like onions. What do you like, Mrs. Brown?” and Mrs. Brown, who knows the game, answers, “I don’t like ‘t’ but I like cabbage,” and turns to the next one who is in the dark as to what they are talking about, and asks her what she likes. She replies, “Well, I don’t like tea but I love soda water,” but laughter greets her and she is told that she certainly cannot join their secret organization. Her right-hand neighbor then tells what she likes, and so it goes around the circle, all the uninitiated trying valiantly to get in on this secret understanding that seems to be so funny. Before it has gone around the circle once, however, someone gets it. She is not allowed to tell, but when her turn comes in the second round she gives evidence as to whether she is right or not. She might say perhaps, “I don’t like ‘t’ but I do like pickles!” and she is declared an initiated member.
It is very simple. If you wish to belong to the “Anti-T” band your taste must run to food that has no “t” in it, like pickles, soup, etc., etc. but not like potatoes, turnips or ketchup!