The game goes on until the seven or eight spots have been located and the “handsome rewards” given out. All the spots have been chosen with the purpose in mind to get guests absolutely relaxed, thoroughly mixed and free from any stiff formality. That is why a definite line of march would be fatal. Instead, let the first spot be behind the piano; the next on the platform; the next leaning up against a pillar, etc., etc.
To sum up, the rules are as follows:
1. Everyone must have a partner.
2. Partners must be changed for every round.
3. No one is allowed to stand in the same place for two successive rounds.
Four or five so-called “policemen” assist the leader in detecting violators of these rules and much publicity is given the fining of the offenders.
The success of the game depends entirely on the ability of the leader to make her guests feel the great desirability of finding one of those elusive lucky spots. No one knows where they are. All they know is that it behooves them to move, to get a partner, to keep moving, and to keep on getting partners!
Shake Hands!
Now shake hands, everybody, whether you know each other or not. Let’s be sociable. Shake hands!
You have heard that before? And immediately you started in to shake hands with friend and foe and foreigner? Hardly. No real incentive is offered there for shaking hands with people you have never seen before or people you see every day of your life, no incentive other than a sense of duty, and a sense of duty is not what one would call particularly successful in promoting the real spirit of sociability which makes a social evening, or the lack of which, breaks it.