An amusing variety is for all the players to compose telegrams on the same subject; the subject being given beforehand. Thus it might be decided that all the telegrams should be sent from President Roosevelt to Alice in Wonderland asking for her views on the tariff. Then having completed these messages, the answers may also be prepared, using the same letters. But, of course, as in all games, family matters work out more amusingly than public ones.
Initials
Paper is handed round, and each player thinks of some public person, or friend or acquaintance of the company, and writes in full his or her Christian name (or names) and surname. Then, for, say, five minutes, a character sketch of the person chosen has to be composed, each word of which begins with the initial letter of each of the person's names, repeated in their right order until the supply of thought gives out or time is up. Thus, suppose the person chosen is Frank Richard Stockton, the story writer. The character sketch might run:—
F ancifully R ecounts S trange F reakish R omantic S tories. F inds
R isibility S urely. F requently R aises S miles.
An occasional "and" and "of" may be dropped in if necessary. Where one of the names begins with a vowel (such as William Ewart Gladstone) the character sketch can be made to run more easily.
It is sometimes more amusing to give every one the same names to work on; and in some houses the players are not allowed to choose names for themselves, but must pass the paper on. The characters of towns and nations may be written in the same way, using all the letters of the word as the initials.
Riddles
A more difficult game is "Riddles." At the top of the paper is written anything that you can think of: "A soldier," "A new dress," "A fit of the blues," "A railway accident"—anything that suggests itself. The paper is passed on and anything else is written, no matter what. It is passed on again and opened. Suppose that the two things written on it are, first, "A school-teacher," and second, "A pair of skates." The duty of the player is to treat them as a riddle, and, asking the question either as "Why is a school-teacher like a pair of skates?" or "What is the difference between a school-teacher and a pair of skates?" (whichever way one prefers), to supply a reasonable answer. This game, it will be seen, is suited particularly to clever people.