A Few 19th-Century Parlor Games to Amuse You While You’re Stuck at Home
“Do you know what my mole is doing?”
It’s easy, now that I’ve been socially isolating in my apartment for more than two weeks, to realize, at the end of the day, that I’ve done nothing—nothing—but look at screens. For all the “we’re so bored now!” narratives, in fact this epidemic couldn’t have come at a moment in time when we are less likely to be bored, considering the level of technology most Americans have at their fingertips. I started thinking about what people used to do while cooped up before they could watch television or play video games or attend Zoom meetings (besides read, of course), and soon found myself looking through 19th-century parlor game manuals. (Still, obviously, through my screen.) They were fun enough to explore that I thought I’d excerpt them here, but you should feel free to go through them more thoroughly yourself, as they’re mostly in the public domain and many are available online.
Some of the samples below tell of tricks to play, some of feats of physics. Some are truly absurd (the mole!), and some are simply the barest of excuses to let players kiss each other. Some require roommates (or families), others do not. Some I have chosen to highlight for their ridiculousness, others because I think they might actually be fun to try. So whether you find yourself with lots of extra time on your hands—as the prevailing cultural narrative would have it—or whether you suddenly have to entertain your relations 24 hours a day—as is more likely for many of us—I hope you enjoy.
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Lighting the Candle
This feat is a very amusing one and is performed as follows: Two persons kneel on the ground, facing each other. Each holds in his left hand a candle in a candlestick, at the same time grasping his right foot in his right hand. This position compels him to balance himself on his left knee. One of the candles is lighted; the other is not. The holders are required to light the unlighted candle from the lighted one. The conditions are simple enough, but one would hardly believe how often the performers will roll over on the floor before they succeed in lighting the candle. It will be found desirable to spread a newspaper on the floor between the combatants. Many spots of candle-grease will thus be intercepted, and the peace of mind of the lady of the house proportionately spared.
From George Henry Sandison, How to Behave and How to Amuse: A handy manual of etiquette and parlor games (1895)
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Pinch without Laughing
In this game each player must pinch the nose of his or her neighbor; and if that person laughs, they give a forfeit: while pinching they ask odd questions. The person who laughs in questioning or replying gives a forfeit, and they seek mutually to make each other laugh. The fun of this game consists in putting two or three persons who know it against two or three who have never played it. The cunning ones blacken their fingers with a burnt cork; in pinching their neighbors, they laugh at their expense; they also laugh at seeing the others blackened, not knowing that they are in the same plight themselves, which makes may forfeits.
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The Dancing Egg
Place the egg (which should be hard-boiled, not raw) upon the under-side of a smooth tray, and move the tray round and round horizontally, gradually increasing in speed. The egg, resting in the middle of the tray, is carried round and round by the movement, and gradually begins to revolve on its own axis, faster and faster, till at last it is seen to rise on end, and spin away exactly as a top would do.
In all experiments involving egg-balancing, you will find it a material aid to success to keep the egg upright in the saucepan while it is being boiled. The air-chamber will, in such case, be kept central with the longer axis of the egg, which will in consequence be much more easily balanced.
From George Henry Sandison, How to Behave and How to Amuse: A handy manual of etiquette and parlor games (1895)
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Mesmerizing
This may be made very amusing, although no actual mesmerism is attempted. A member of the party announces that he has been declared to possess a vast amount of mesmeric power’ not enough to gain absolute control over a person, but sufficient to at least prevent him from rising from a chair alone. His challenge being accepted by some one, he seats his victim in a low chair and himself in a higher one close at hand. Then, solemnly demanding a complete relaxation of will power and a sober countenance on the part of the subject, he begins making passes with his hands, stroking the forehead of the person beside him, and otherwise imitating a genuine mesmerist. After a short time he quietly says: “Now see if you can get up alone!”
Of course, the subject rises to his feet at once, but so does the mesmerist, thus proving to the former that having risen simultaneously with himself, he has surely failed to rise alone.
From George Henry Sandison, How to Behave and How to Amuse: A handy manual of etiquette and parlor games (1895)
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A Mask of Flame
Take six parts of oil of olives and one of phosphorous, suffer them to digest well together, and preserve the solution, which, in the dark, will become luminous. An experiment that is considered amusing may be performed by closing the eyes and lightly passing a sponge, dipped in this solution, over the face and hands, which will then, in the dark, appear covered with a light bluish flame. This trick is not at all dangerous.
From George Henry Sandison, How to Behave and How to Amuse: A handy manual of etiquette and parlor games (1895)
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The Mole
Nothing is necessary in this easy game but to say to one of the players, “Have you seen my mole?”
This person replies, “Yes, I saw your mole.”
“Do you know what my mole is doing?”
“Yes; I know what your mole is doing.”
“Can you do the same?”
It is required to shut the eyes every time you reply, or give a forfeit.
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Rooster
This is a short game, reaching a quick conclusion and exciting a hearty laugh. Tell everybody in the room that you will give to each in a whisper, the name of some animal, whose peculiar cry they are to imitate in concert at a given signal. To all but one person the simple charge to “keep perfectly silent” is given. Upon that one is bestowed the name of “Rooster.” Then saying, “All be ready when I say three!” Count “one, two, three,” when a lusty crow from the victim of the joke, and a laugh from the others, tell him that the general amusement has been at his expense.
From George Henry Sandison, How to Behave and How to Amuse: A handy manual of etiquette and parlor games (1895)
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The Rhymes
Giving an answer of which the first word rhymes with the last of the demand addressed to you, is the difficulty of this game, which makes many forfeits.
EXAMPLE: The company is ranged in a circle, intermixed with ladies and gentlemen, who interrogate their right-hand neighbors. These reply, and go on questioning to the right, and so on, thus:—
A Lady. “How is your aunty?”
A Gentleman. “Jaunty as possible. What will you do on Sunday?”
A Lady. “Monday, I have a balloon fight at Saint Cloud. Have you a good appetite?”
A Gentleman. “Quite. Do you love company?”
Etc.
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The Extinguisher
Pass rapidly before the nose of the Penitent a lighted candle, which he must blow out as it passes. This is harder than one would think.
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The Parrot
In this, the person whom the Penance metamorphoses into a Parrot says to the players, one after the other, “If I were a Parrot, what would you teach me to say?”
Each player replies as his idea is. If a lady says, “Kiss, pretty Poll,” the gentleman can profit by this circumstance to kiss; otherwise he must repeate exactly each reply before passing to another person.
