544 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
Games for a Holiday Party. 
Trick9 and Puzzles. 
Both those who give holiday parties, and those 
"who go to them, can propose these. A very amus¬ 
ing little trick is done thus: upon a table, covered 
with a cloth, place a dime ; cover it with a goblet 
■or tumbler, with its edges supported by quarter- 
do] lars or five-cent nickel pieces, or any other coin 
■of greater thickness than the dime. Having all 
arranged, as in fig. 1, you ask those present to re¬ 
move the dime from beneath the glass without 
disturbing the present arrangement. Some, 
who have not seen the ruse, may try to 
blow out the coin, but will not succeed. 
After all have tried, you have only to scratch 
the table-cloth gently with the finger-nail, 
when the dime will gradually move toward 
you from under the glass. 
Another Puzzle Trick 
requires a little preparation beforehand. You 
need a decanter or water-bottle,with a shoulder, 
somewhat of the shape shown in fig. 2, and 
some nice straight rye straws. Those present 
are asked to lift the bottle by placing the 
straw within the neck. They could easily lift 
it by twisting the straw around the outside of 
the neck, but how to do it with the straw 
within the neck is the puzzle. The engraving 
shows how it is done. Of course the straw 
must be a good stiff one. An amusing illus¬ 
tration of the center of gravity can be shown 
by whittling a cork in the shape of a bird’s 
head, using a piece of quill to represent the 
beak. By the use of a pin, this may be fixed 
to the top of a common bottle cork, at the 
lower end of which another pin is inserted. 
This is an old table trick, and the puzzle is to 
make this bird appear at the top of a bottle. 
If a couple of forks are inserted, one on each 
6ide of the cork, a coin placed over the mouth 
of the bottle, and the cork set upon this by 
its pin (fig. 3), the whole affair will move 
around if properly started, and “bob” about 
in a manner so amusing as to quite repay the 
little trouble required to prepare it by the laughter 
it causes among the members of the party. 
The Game of “Shadow Buff” 
is a very amusing affair, and requires little prepara¬ 
tion. It is usually played by placing a strong 
light behind the spectators, and allowing those 
who take part in the game to pass between the 
light and the white wall, or a sheet hung up for 
the purpose. Those who thus cast their shadows 
can disguise themselves as they please. An¬ 
other and better method is to have the shadows 
thrown upon a transparent screen. If a house 
has folding-doors between two rooms, a sheet 
hung over the opening gives 
abundant 6pace for the dis¬ 
play of shadows, but an or¬ 
dinary door will answer. 
Stretch a sheet tightly over 
this. The room containing 
the company is to be dark, 
while on the other side of the 
sheet is to be a single strong 
light. A number of amusing 
tricks can be played with this. 
By placing the lamp high 
enough to give a shadow of 
the face, a capital game of 
“ Shadow Buff ” can be play¬ 
ed. By setting the lamp upon 
the floor, at proper distances, 
wonderfullydistorted shadows 
will be thrown upon the 
screen. If one 6teps over the 
lamp, to come between that 
and the screen, he will be seen 
by the spectators to drop from 
above in the mo6t wonderful 
manner, and if he steps back 
again, his shadow will appear 
to go upwards in a manner 
equally mysterious. Two per¬ 
sons, one as a Policeman ap¬ 
parently chasing a thief, can 
make a great deal of sport in 
this shadow-game. 
A Chinese Restaurant. 
One of the most amusing 
shadow games we ever saw was a Chinese bill of 
fare, with rats, rabbits, and many other such 
things, and prices attached—the Chinese characters 
cut out of black paper and pasted on a sheet of tis¬ 
sue paper. The shadows of these were thrown upon 
one side of the sheet. A Chinaman came in and 
lay down so that his shadow looked like a thin 
giant on the sheet. The restaurant man passed 
him various articles, which appeared by the shadow 
to enter his mouth, and to be chewed and swal¬ 
lowed. The artificial rat, cut out of black paper, 
being passed many times, it looked to the observer 
as if he had eaten 20 or 30 of them, and so of 
other things, as loaves of bread, links of sausages, 
etc. By moving the light further occasionally, his 
body appeared to swell out very largely with what 
he ate. By and by he got up, and a bill of many 
dollars was presented him (in shadow). He re¬ 
fused to pay, was thrown down, and by a saw moved 
up and down between him and the light, he ap¬ 
Fig. 2.— LIFTING A BOTTLE WITH A STRAW. 
peared to be cut open, and the enraged caterer 
seemed to take out and throw to one side all he 
had eaten, and the changing position of the light 
made the Chinaman appear to 6hrink greatly. 
Some Wonderful Christmas Pies.— Our 
Christmas pies are usually the well-known mince 
and apple tarts, while Jack Horner’s famous 
pie was said to have been stuffed with plums. 
In the olden times, a meat “pasty,” or a rich 
crust filled with the breast, legs, and wings of 
fowls, was considered a proper dish for the 
merry Christmas-tide. They were sometimes 
of an enormous size, and in these days we 
should open our eyes in astonishment at such 
a pie as was made in 1769 for Sir Henry Gray, 
Bart., by his house-keeper, Mrs. Dorothy Pat¬ 
terson, and shipped to him in London, from 
her home at Howiek. Its ingredients were— 
two bushels of flour, twenty pounds of butter, 
four geese, two turkeys, two rabbits, four wild 
ducks, two woodcocks, six snipe, and four 
partridges ; two neat’s tongues, two curlews, 
seven black-birds, and six pigeons. It was 
considered a great curiosity, and was, no doubt, 
an object of pride to the good woman who 
concocted it. The pie was nearly nine feet in 
circumference at the bottom. This pie weigh¬ 
ed twelve stones (168 pounds,) and required 
two men to serve it at table, when it was fitted 
in a case with four wheels, and moved around 
from guest to guest, each helping himself. 
But even this wonderful pie was exceeded in 
size, by one presented by James, Earl of Lons¬ 
dale, to King George III, and which contained : 
two geese, two tame ducks, two turkeys, four 
fowls, six pigeons, six wild ducks, three teals, 
two starlings, twelve partridges, fifteen wood¬ 
cocks, two Guinea fowls, three snipe, six 
plovers, three water-hens, one wild goose, 
one curlew, forty-six yellow hammers, fifteen 
sparrows, fifteen chaffinches, two larks, four 
thrushes, fifteen field-fares, six blackbirds, twenty 
rabbits, one leg of veal, half a ham, three bushels 
of flour, and two stones of butter. It weighed 
twenty-two stones (308 pounds,) and had to be 
carried through London on a two-liorse wagon, 
and we are sure all will agree that it was a truly 
Fig. 1.— REMOVING A COIN FROM BENEATH A GLASS. 
