The first player writes:—My dear Buffalo Bill.
The second player writes:—Can you give me any information about suitable songs for our village choir?
The third player writes:—Believe me yours slavishly.
The fourth player writes:—Kitchener of Khartoum.
The Reply Telegram
The fifth player writes:—Be with you to-morrow. Have sheets aired. Am bringing everything.
Telegrams
There is also the game of "Telegrams." In this the first thing to write is the name of the person sending the telegram. The paper is then passed on, and the name of the person to whom it is sent is written. The papers are then passed on again and opened, and the players in turn each say a letter of the alphabet, chosen at random, until there are ten. As these are spoken, each player writes them on the paper before him, leaving a space after it; so that when the ten are all written down his paper may look like this:
From the Duke of York
To Barnum and Bailey.
H ... A ... P ... N ...
W ... E ... K ... S ... F ...
T ...
A period of five minutes or more is then allowed in which to complete the telegram, the message having to be ten words long, and each word to begin, in the same order, with these letters. The players should, as far as possible, make the telegrams reasonable, if not possible. Thus, the form given above might, when finished, read like this:—
From the Duke of York
To Barnum and Bailey.
Have Awning Prepared Next
Wednesday Evening Kindly Send Five
Tickets
In calling out the ten letters which are to be used in the telegram, it is well to avoid the unusual consonants and to have a vowel here and there.