It is to laugh

by Edna Geister

11. Her Father. A picture of righteous wrath.

12. The Hero. A small meek man on his knees at the feet of the heroine.

13. The Villain. Arms crossed, sneer, air of defiance. Much showing teeth and twirling of mustache.

After they are all in their right places with instructions as to how to look and act, footlights go on, curtain goes up, and the announcer breaks in hurriedly, “Oh! I forgot to tell you the name of this play! It is ‘The Gathering of the Nuts!’”, whereupon she makes a hasty exit!

The Band.

Guests are told that the object of the game is for each one to pantomime the action of the instrument assigned him, in such a realistic way that the others cannot help but guess what it is. Each performer is to continue his pantomiming until the audience makes the correct guess. The hostess then asks the first performer to step into another room with her so that she can tell him what his instrument is, and help him with the action of it. She assigns him something easy like a cornet, telling him at the same time however that his part is really a blind to keep the group from getting suspicious about any hoax. He goes back into the room, pantomimes the action of a cornet, and immediately the audience guesses “Cornet,” and probably thinks “Oh what a stupid game!”

The hostess carefully picks her next performer, takes him into the next room, and tells him his part. He is to play the accordion, and, according to rule, is to keep it up until the audience makes a correct guess as to his instrument. In the meantime, the man who played the cornet is carrying out the instructions given him by his hostess, and is telling the group that the next man will play an accordion, but that they are all to profess great ignorance and to guess everything under the sun but an accordion—a piano, a piccolo, drum, flute, violin, trombone, anything but an accordion. Inevitably the impatient question will come from the performer, “Well! What is it that I’m playing?” and the group will sweetly answer, “The part of the goat!”

Whistle!

The group is told that a whistle will be blown behind the back of whoever is chosen to go into the center, and that he, because of a magic coat he has put on, has clairvoyant power and can immediately turn around and tell who did it. If he should by some mishap make an error, he may try again and he can without question guess who did it the second time.

Mr. Victim goes into the center and the magic coat is put across his shoulders. Great care must be used however so that he cannot possibly see that the whistle, which is a very light one, is hanging on a short cord pinned securely on the back of the coat just between the shoulders. The sleeves are tied in front and the coat is bunched across his back so that plenty of thickness is arranged for in order that he may not feel the whistle as he turns around rapidly. Other guests crowd in on him very closely so that the whistle can be reached easily and can be blown by any one of the onlookers without the victim’s feeling the tug.