A. P. H.
"SUGGESTIONS."
A Warning.
Entering as we are upon the season of games, it might be well to utter an urgent appeal to hostesses not to play "Suggestions." For "Suggestions," though it may begin as a game, is really a wrangle. Under the guise of a light-hearted pastime it offers little but opportunities for misunderstanding, general conversation, allegations of unfairness, and disappointment.
"Suggestions" ought to be played like this: You sit in a semicircle and the first player says something—anything—a single word. Let us suppose it is (as it probably will be in thousands of cases) "Margot." The next player has to say what "Margot" suggests—"reticence," for example—and the next player, shutting his mind completely to the word "Margot," has to say what "reticence" suggests—perhaps Grimaud, in The Three Musketeers—and the fourth player has to disregard "reticence" and announce whatever mental reaction the name of Grimaud produces. It maybe that he has never heard of Grimaud and the similarity of sound suggests only Grimaldi the clown. Then he ought to say, "Grimaldi the clown," which might in its turn suggest "melancholy" or "the circus." All the time no one should speak but the players in their turn, and they should speak instantly and should say nothing but the thing that is honestly suggested by the previous word. At the end of, say, a dozen rounds the process of unwinding the coil begins, each player in rotation taking part in the backward process until "Margot" is again reached.
That is how the game should be played.
This is how it is played:—
First Player. Let me see; what shall I say?
Various other Players (together). Surely there's no difficulty in beginning? Say "anything," etc., etc.