Hee Haw!
The group is told that at a signal, each one is to imitate the call of the animal assigned him, to see which one can do it the most realistically and still be heard above the others. Assistants go about, supposedly assigning the names of animals, but in reality whispering to everyone to make no sound at all. Only one person is told to really imitate the call of an animal. That is a victim who is to represent a donkey. When the signal comes, he “Hee Haw’s!” at the top of his lungs, blithely unconscious of the fact that he is alone in his efforts. That state of bliss does not last long!
Willie.
The leader holds her left hand in front of her, fingers spread out. With her right forefinger she traces her way along the inside of the fingers of her left hand. To illustrate, she starts at the tip of the thumb, comes down, and up to the tip of the forefinger, down it and up the second finger, and so on through all the fingers. She then starts at the thumb and does the same thing again. From the very first she has been saying, “Willie, Willie, Willie, Willie, little Willie, Willie, Willie!” in the most pitiful tone she can muster up, and in rhythm with her finger movements. She then quietly folds her hands and says “Now you do it.”
It looks so simple that it isn’t even funny until two or three people try it and make utter failures of it. Because she scowled when she did it, they scowl, thinking that that is the trick; because she used a pitiful tone, they use one; and they imitate her finger movements exactly, while she criticizes them for not getting the little finger just right. Finally someone arrives. It is the quiet folding of the hands at the end that is all-important.
Wonderful Vision.
The leader may claim that it is a perfectly simple matter for him to see through any amount of covering over his eyes. To test his vision, he chooses five or six testers if the group is large, but if there are not more than ten present they may all be included. They form a circle around his chair, first covering up his eyes so that he cannot possibly see. He then asks them to start moving slowly around him, each one doing something that no one else is doing. One may hop on one foot, another clap his hands, another do facial gymnastics, fly, walk backwards, anything that no one else is doing, but each one must go through some action or the thought wave is broken and the wonderful vision impaired. One person is designated to suddenly stop all action after a minute or two of moving around, by clapping his hands and calling out, “Now! Exactly what is each one of us doing?” and the leader promises on his word of honor that in spite of the heavy covering over his eyes he can without a moment’s hesitation tell what every last person in the moving circle was doing at that identical moment.
The circle begins moving slowly around, each one in it going through some definite movement, and each one wondering, probably, how in the world the blindfolded leader will be able to tell that the Methodist minister is wiggling his ears, and that Mrs. Newly Rich is doing an esthetic dance. Suddenly a halt is called by the one chosen to do it. He claps his hands briskly and says, “Now tell us what we were doing at the moment I clapped my hands.”
The leader throws off the covering, looks intently at the group and then says with great satisfaction, “Each one of you was making a goose of himself!”