1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
Games and Pastimes. 
In the December issue of the Leisure 
Hour is a description of old-fashioned 
games, many of which have now given 
way to modern innovations containing 
much less innocent fun. The writer 
says: 
No modern invention can surpass 
some of the games which the race has 
enjoyed for centuries. I have seen the 
game of “Fox and Geese” played be¬ 
tween a long-armed maiden of 16, with 
a perfect comet’s tail of younger chil¬ 
dren behind her, and an active boy of 
14, with an interest and delight in the 
contest that, through a vista of years, 
awakens an irresistible laugh of sym¬ 
pathy. The origin of the game lies in 
the mists of remote ages. Doubtless 
Anglo-Saxon children played it when 
foxes were frequent intruders in the 
farmyard, probably the children of 
Nineveh and Babylon had its equivalent. 
The game can only be played to perfec¬ 
tion by those familiar with it. Two ex¬ 
perts can introduce much drama into 
the opening scene. 
The essentials to a successful game 
are plenty of space, whether in a large 
loft or out of doors, and no best clothes 
such as will suffer from the intense 
grasp of clutching hands. The merits of 
“Fox and Geese” are that it can include 
a large party of all ages, though six is 
young enough, and 60 perhaps a little 
too old; that it is equally enjoyed by 
both sexes; and that the entire brood 
in charge of Mother Goose are equally 
important, individually, and become in 
turn equally prominent. To a corner of 
the playground enters the fox, looking 
as furtive and evil-minded as the young 
dramatist can depict him. By scanning 
the horizon, snuffing the wind, or sharp¬ 
ening his claws, he can convey to the 
spectators a conception of his fell inten¬ 
tions. To him approaches Mother 
Goose, with a benevolent aspect of fam¬ 
ily pride and an obvious indifference to 
every-day cares that is creditable, in 
view of the fact that 18 or 20 of her 
brood cling to her by the simple method 
of holding, first her and then each other, 
round the waists. Observing the fox, 
Mother Goose says with cheery con¬ 
tempt, “Good-morning, Mr. Fox. May I 
ask what you are after?” The fox re¬ 
plies, with typical suavity, that he is 
taking a walk to improve his appetite. 
“Then you have a meal in prospect?” 
says Mother Goose. The fox replies 
unctuously that he means to breakfast 
off a goose. Mrs. Goose inquires where 
this luckless bird will be found, to which 
the enemy replies, “One of yours will 
do.” He then makes a rush towards the 
end of the line, whereupon a lively 
scene ensues. The fox does not touch 
Mother Goose, nor must he touch any of 
her brood save the last in the train. As 
the line wavers and serpentines to keep 
its end out of his way, while Mother 
Goose meets him with outstretched 
wings wherever he turns, the fun be¬ 
comes fast and furious. The game con- 
timies until each of the brood has been 
successively caught, or the fox confesses 
his willingness to retire discomfited. 
Children too young for the rough and 
tumble of this game derive great enjoy¬ 
ment from “Frog in the Middle” and 
“Thread the Needle.” In the first game, 
one child sits in the middle of the ring, 
while the others take hands and dance 
round her singing, “Frog in the middle, 
she dare not catch me.” To seize the 
drapery of one of the whirling figures 
without rising, is only difficult where 
the circle is so large as to be out of 
reach; then the frog rolls, turns and 
stretches without rising, until her fin¬ 
gers close on the frock of somebody, 
who becomes frog in turn. 
Little children will enjoy marching to 
the lilt of “Barney and Johnnie” for a 
surprisingly long time; the chief ad¬ 
vantage of this pastime is that two or 
twenty can play at it. The children put 
*4 
2 / 
their hands behind them, the left hand 
of one clasping the left hand of the 
other, their right hands crossing these 
and clasping also. They then set off to 
march together, keeping step, and re¬ 
peating the following rhyme: 
Barney and Johnnie, all dressed in black, 
Buckles and swords behind their back; 
Foot for foot, knee for knee, 
Now you are married you must obey. 
When singing “Turn about Johnnie,” 
the players, without losing the clasp of 
their hands, reverse the position of 
these, so that the under arms become 
contracted and the over-arms length¬ 
ened; this enables them to turn without 
turning round each other. Halliwell, in 
his “Nursery Rhymes,” gives the names 
as Darby and Joan, but owing to the 
mutual wear of swords and buckles, I 
venture to think that Joan is a corrup¬ 
tion of the male name. I certainly 
never heard Joan given in this connec¬ 
tion, though the partnership of “Barney 
and Johnnie” was familiar to my ear¬ 
liest years, and conveyed the idea to my 
infant mind that it symbolized a long 
past alliance between tne French and 
English, or Irish, when these fought to¬ 
gether against a mutual foe. 
The marriage and kissing games are 
of intense interest to the student of 
manners and customs; but in the play¬ 
ground, it would be inadvisable to re¬ 
vive them. Nothing is more subversive 
of the good fellowship natural between 
boys and girls, if left to themselves, 
than an idea of racial divergence, apart¬ 
ness, hostility, or fraternal superiority 
or inferiority. If left unspoiled by the 
foolish suggestions of their seniors, 
young boys and girls would never dream 
of embracing each other any more than 
brothers and sisters would. The mar¬ 
riage games indicate three successive 
stages of civilization: first, that in which 
freebooters or outlaws effected the ac¬ 
quisition of wives by force, as in the 
case of the early Romans and the Sabine 
women; second, the period of marriage 
by purchase, when the suitor paid the 
girl’s parents what they considered an 
equivalent for her services, and she be¬ 
came his chattel property; third, that 
in which the girl was consulted regard¬ 
ing her own destiny, and the state of 
her exchequer was investigated. 
The first of these games involved a 
contest and a parley between the suitor 
and his friends on one side, and the 
bride and her friends on the other, then 
a struggle, finally a tug of war, in which 
the girl was taken captive, and there 
was an end. Admiration was not prof¬ 
fered, affection was not indicated. In 
the other two kinds of games, the suit¬ 
ors approached with some pomp and 
some semblance of courtesy, there was 
considerable palaver on both sides be¬ 
fore the negotiating parties came to 
terms, then the chief players kissed each 
other, and the rest of the company 
danced round them singing, “Now you 
are married, we wish you joy.” 
In the “Oats and Beans and Barley” 
game, an interesting detail is that it is 
the bridegroom who is thus addressed: 
Now you are married you must obey. 
You must be true in all you say; 
You must be kind, you must be good. 
And help your wife to chop the wood. 
In all enjoyable pastimes, there are 
two main essentials—first exercise, then 
emulation. The old “country dance," 
whose name contredanse indicated that 
the performers occupied opposite sides 
of the room, had in it every element of 
excellence; social intercourse, the usage 
of good manners, cultivated grace of 
movement, and indispensable good 
health. But the abuse of good things 
has always led to tneir abolition, and a 
frivolous age brought not only dancing, 
but all pastimes and physical exercises, 
into disrepute. John Bunyan reproach¬ 
ed himself so bitterly for having in- 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s SootMng Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Beet.— Adv. 
dulged in the game of tip-cat, that his 
commentators long believed that the 
game involved cruelty to a living grim¬ 
alkin. 
Rural Recipes. 
CRUMPETS, WAFFI.ES AND WAFERS, WITH 
A PRELIMINARY WARNING. 
She measured out the butter with a very 
solemn air, 
The milk and sugar also, and she took the 
greatest care 
To count the eggs correctly, and to add a 
little bit 
Of baking powder, which, you know, be¬ 
ginners oft omit; 
Then she stirred it all together, 
And she baked it for an hour; 
But she never quite forgave herself 
For leaving out the flour! 
Indian crumpets may be recommended 
as a very nice breakfast bread. Just 
before bedtime heat two cupfuls of milk 
to scalding and pour it gradually upon 
two cupfuls of corn meal. When thor¬ 
oughly mixed, stir into this a table¬ 
spoonful of granulated sugar and a 
quarter of a yeast cake dissolved in a 
little warm milk. Cover the bowl with 
a clean cloth and set to rise. Early in 
the morning add a tablespoonful of 
melted shortening and beat hard for a 
moment before pouring the batter into 
muffin tins. Set near the range for 20 
minutes and bake. 
Another dainty bread is known as hot 
pocketbooks. It requires one pint of 
sweet milk brought to a boiling point, 
to which add one tablespoonful of sugar, 
half-teaspoonful of salt and butter the 
size of an egg; let cool till lukewarm, 
then add half-cake of yeast, two eggs 
and a quart of flour. Let the dough 
rise in a warm place until very light, 
then put down with the hand and let 
rise again; roll out to about five-eighths 
of an inch thick, cut in four-inch circles, 
brush with melted butter and fold over; 
let rise on tins. Bake until a delicate 
brown; then, while warm, go over the 
surface with melted butter to make the 
crust tender. 
Corn waffles give still another mode of 
using our National grain. Two eggs, 
two cupfuls of sweet milk, half tea¬ 
spoonful of salt, sufficient corn meal to 
make a batter, and to every cup of corn 
meal used one tablespoonful of flour. 
Bake in well-greased waffle irons. 
Lexington rolls are very simple, but 
the results are very good. Wash, pare 
and boil in salted water two good-sized 
Irish potatoes at lunch time. While hot 
drain, mash and add two tablespoonfuls 
of butter, and when cold add one-half 
cake of yeast, two tablespoonfuls of 
sugar, two cupfuls of the water the po¬ 
tatoes were boiled in and flour to make 
batter—about 1 y 2 cupful. By night this 
should be as light as foam. Add more 
flour to make as thick a batter as possi¬ 
ble—about a quart of flour to two cups 
of liquid—which beat with a big wooden 
spoon five minutes or more. Remove 
spoon and sprinkle the batter lightly 
with flour. In the morning beat the 
batter again, stiffen sufficiently with 
flour to make out into small rolls, spread 
tops with melted butter, let rise and 
bake in hot oven. 
A quince cake makes a nice dinner 
dessert, as well as being suitable for the 
tea table. Prepare two layers, as for an 
ordinary layer cake. Spread one layer 
with quince jelly, and place over it a 
thick layer of whipped cream stiffened 
with a small tablespoonful of gelatin. 
The gelatin is melted oy soaking for two 
hours in a tablespoonful of cold water, 
after which a tablespoonful of boiling 
water into which a tablespoonful of hot 
melted quince jelly has been stirred fin¬ 
ishes the melting. The gelatin mixture 
is strained into the Whipped cream, and 
then whipped in. When this cream is 
spread on the one layer of cake set it 
aside, and spread on the other cake a 
meringue made of the whites of two 
eggs, two heaping tablespoonfuls of 
powdered sugar, and a tablespoonful of 
lemon juice or quince syrup. Shake 
powdered sugar over the meringue, and 
set it in a slow oven for 10 minutes, 
making it firm, but not colored. When 
the meringue is cold, set this layer on 
top of the layer covered with whipped 
cream, and serve on a glass dish. A 
handsome cake to look at, and delicious 
to taste. 
Ba & 
two instances 
that will scatter any doubt as to whether 
this shelf-emptying- means business, soon 
as you get samples. 
40 to 44 inch. 75-cent silk-mixed Dress 
goods, 35c - 
—neat dark novelties. 
48-inch all-wool Dollar Black goods, 
50c. 
—narrow close-together tufted stripe 
effects. 
Odd lines—but good goods—useful— 
and half old prices, which means a great 
deal more than you may think for, wool 
and other fabric stuffs ’way up in price 
now. Lots of goods couldn’t be bought 
wholesale to day for our this season’s 
retail prices. 
Hence a throw-away as to price in this 
shelf-emptying, present value considered, 
never equaled or approached. 
You can figure out what this means to 
you and your pocketbook. 
Lots of surplus lines useful Dress 
goods underprice, 15c., 25c. 
11 igh cost fine dressy novelties sacri¬ 
ficed—positive emptying of all surplus 
stock—both Dress goods and silks—silks 
for waists, gowns, petticoats and linings. 
And if you want to |fet in line for a 
considerable saving, write for samples 
and see. 
BOGGS & BUHL, 
department O, 
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Housework is Hard Work Without it. 
