Games for Everybody

by Mary Christiana Hofmann

Persons dressed as ghosts may receive the guests and usher them into the room where the fun is to be. As soon as a person enters, the hostess, who is not a ghost, blindfolds the victim, and those already in the room take turns shaking hands with him. He has to guess who each person is. It is marvellous how many mistakes will be made, even if the guests are the best of friends.

HALLOWE'EN STORIES.

There are several ways of telling ghastly stories on Hallowe'en. Have a large ball of different colored yarn handy and before the midnight hour, turn out the lights, and ask all the players to sit in a circle. The hostess, holding the ball of yarn, begins by telling some weird story, unwinding the yarn as she proceeds, until she comes to a different color, and then she tosses the ball to someone in the circle, and that one must proceed with the story until she comes to a different color. It is then tossed to another, and so on, until the ball is unwound and the story ended.

Another way, more ghastly still, is to give each guest a saucer in which is a handful of salt and some alcohol. Each one in turn lights the contents of the saucer and tells some ghost story, continuing until all the alcohol is burned, and no longer. The stories may be lively or sad.

HALLOWE'EN FATES.

For obtaining partners, fill a pumpkin rind with nuts, which have been opened, had the meat taken out, some token of the fate placed inside, and glued together again with a ribbon attached to each. Those drawing nuts having the same colored ribbon are partners. The one whose nut has a ring in, is to be married next; if a coin, he is to be the most wealthy; if a thimble, a spinster all her life. The other nuts may have slips of paper with prophecies written on them.

A bag filled with nuts may be tied up tightly and hung in a doorway. One of the players is blindfolded and given a stick with which he is to hit the bag as hard as he can, thus breaking it, and scattering the nuts on the floor. The one who succeeds in gathering the greatest number of nuts will be the luckiest during the year.

Fill two large pans with sawdust. Bury in one pan pieces of paper bearing a rhyme about one's future, these can be about the ladies for the men to draw, and in the other pan verses for the ladies to draw. The papers are folded up tightly. The ladies and gentlemen take turns putting in their thumbs. As soon as a verse is found it is read aloud.