of some public person,
or friend or acquaintance of the company, and writes in full his or
her Christian name (or names) and surname. Then, for, say, five
minutes, a character sketch of the person chosen has to be composed,
each word of which begins with the initial letter of each of the
person's names, repeated in their right order until the supply of
thought gives out or time is up. Thus, suppose the person chosen is
Frank Richard Stockton, the story writer. The character sketch might
run:--

F ancifully R ecounts S trange F reakish R omantic S tories.
F inds R isibility S urely. F requently R aises S miles.

An occasional "and" and "of" may be dropped in if necessary. Where one
of the names begins with a vowel (such as William _E_wart Gladstone)
the character sketch can be made to run more easily.

It is sometimes more amusing to give every one the same names to work
on; and in some houses the players are not allowed to choose names for
themselves, but must pass the paper on. The characters of towns and
nations may be written in the same way, using all the letters of the
word as the initials.

Riddles

A more difficult game is "Riddles." At the top of the paper is written
anything that you can think of: "A soldier," "A new dress," "A fit of
the blues," "A railway accident"--anything that suggests itself. The
paper is passed on and anything else is written, no matter what. It is
passed on again and opened. Suppose that the two things written on it
are, first, "A school-teacher," and second, "A pair of skates." The
duty of the player is to treat them as a riddle, and, asking the
question either as "Why is a school-teacher like a pair of skates?" or
"What is the difference between a school-teacher and a pair of
skates?" (whichever way one prefers), to supply a reasonable answer.
This game, it will be seen, is suited particularly to clever people.

Rhymed Replies

This is a game that needs a certain amount of readiness and some skill
with words. Each of the party writes at the top of a piece of paper a
question of any kind whatever, such as "How old was Caesar when he
died?" or "What is your favorite color?" The paper is folded over and
passed on, and the next player writes a word--any word--such as
"electricity," "potato," "courageously," "milk." The papers are then
passed on once more and opened, and the task of each player is to
write a rhyme in which the question on his paper is answered and the