GAMES TO PLAY AT LEAP-YEAR PARTIES
as found in
THE BOOK OF GAMES AND PARTIES FOR ALL OCCASIONS

(Note from Raenell: The following text was taken word for word from the book mentioned above, and
shown at left. The first printing of this book was 1911, and this copy is from 1933. As you read through
it you will clearly notice that you may not recognize some of what the author is describing. Some of you
may recognize the words or games, but it is obviously from a different time. It is very possible to update
these games. If you do, please submit them here for our approval of posting. Enjoy the games!)

LEAP-YEAR PARTIES

These parties may appropriately be given any time throughout the year. Either one of these two forms of
invitation would be novel:

'Tis Leap Year, as you doubtless know; The calendar has told you so.
'Tis this one year and this alone; The ladies call their very own.
Below you'll see the hour and date, So come and help us celebrate.

One year in four The girls adore;
'Tis Leap Year, as you know;
So be my guest, To laugh and jest
Upon the date below.

The twenty-ninth is almost here, The extra day that makes Leap Year,
On this day things are turned askew, And so a maid will call for you.
She'll bring you to this home of ours, Where valentines and hearts and flowers
Will help to while the time away, Till midnight's chime doth end the day.
Then you must take the maiden home, For leap-year sprites no longer roam.

To make fun at a Leap Year party the following is suggested: The ladies are ushered into a room
destitute of toilet accessories save for one tiny, lonesome mirror and a pair of military brushes.
Posted conspicuously about are the following notices:

"Remember at All Times the Deference Due to the Sterner Sex."

"No Lady Will Remain Seated While a Gentleman is Standing."

"In All Acts Conduct Yourself Tonight as on Other Nights You Would Wish
a Gentleman to Conduct Himself Toward You."

The gentlemen find themselves in a dainty room where wraps and overshoes are removed by an attendant, a stalwart young man in cap and apron. The dressing-table is weighted down with a multiplicity of powder-puffs, brushes, combs, perfumes, pins, etc. The notice posted reads:

"You are Expected to Receive With Becoming Modesty All Attentions
Proffered by the Ladies."

Each guest is given a numbered slip bearing the name of an occupation. The leader then announces that when a number is called that person is expected to illustrate in pantomime the occupation given.

One by one the men illustrate the following occupations:

These tasks fall to the ladies:

To secure partners for the supper to follow, the gentlemen are auctioned, each being covered nearly
full length with a long sack or sheet in an outer room and brought in and sold for "wampum," or,
rather for kindergarten beads strung on raffia.

MOLASSES KISSES

A good mixer to get everyone laughing and talking will be to give each guest a big molasses kiss and
request that the kisses be eaten immediately. When everybody's mouth is pretty well filled commence
introducing one to another. Really, under the circumstances, one cannot be formal when acknowledging
an introduction and at the same time endeavoring to move a kiss out of the way. It is a laughable way to
break the ice and start lively chatter.

COUNTING OUT

The next game receives its inspiration from the old one played with daisy petals. A dish of tiny red hearts is passed around and each person permitted to take all he can scoop up once with a teaspoon. Then partners for the evening get together and count off their hearts. The girl begins " He loves me," and lays one heart on the table. The man says " He loves me not," and lays one of his hearts beside it, and so on. The last to say his or her line has to pay a forfeit, whatever the partner may dictate. Then another couple take their places at the table and follow the same procedure until all have played.

GETTING THE MITTEN

"The Glad Hand or the Mitten" is one form of amusement always popular at Leap Year parties, the girls
doing the progressive proposing of course. For this the men should be provided with a number of small
hands and mittens, easily cut from colored cardboard, to which dainty cords or ribbons may be attached. When a girl is accepted by the man to whom she is proposing he gives her "the glad hand " if rejected, she "gets the mitten."

A prize should be awarded to the girl who has collected the greatest number of hands, while a consolation present should be given to the one holding the most mittens. Girls may decorate with pink bows the men who accept them, while blue bows might adorn those who reject them.

LEAP-YEAR LUCK

Provide a number of cards either in heart or shamrock form, or plain cards may be used for the purpose.
Upon each glue or fasten by thread some small article symbolic of the future. These cards may be used
as place-cards, or a "Gallery of Fate" may be arranged by fastening the cards around the wall of an
adjoining room, the plain side, of course, outward. Each young man may be con- ducted with mock
formality to this room and bidden to choose his card, thereby learning his "Leap Year luck."

The following articles may be attached to the cards, the", rimes giving their significance:

(A small steel pen)
A literary maid, 'tis true,
This year will seek to marry you.

(A bit of feather)
A milliner will soon decide
That she desires to be your bride.

(A penny)
An heiress, with her wealth galore,
Will for your coy" I will" implore.

(A button)
A seamstress will this year propose,
And she will neatly mend your clothes.

(Tiny mitten)
Alas! alas! 'tis very true:
Nobody wants to marry yo u!

(Tiny mirror)
A charming social belle has planned
This year to coyly seek your hand.

(Pumpkin or other vegetable seeds)
A farmer maid will be your fate,
For she will win you for her mate.

(Ring-a ten-cent one)
A widow, by your charms impressed,
Your hand, this leap year, will request.

(Tiny brush)
An artist plans to be your wife
And lead with you a happy life.

(Large pill)
Oh, very happy you will be,
For you will wed a nice M. D.

(Lump of sugar)
A charming maid of sweet sixteen
Will seek you for her spouse, I ween.

(Bit of slate pencil)
A teacher will propose to you,
And you'll say "Yes" - that's what you'll do.

(Bonbon)
The keeper of a candy shop
To you the question soon will pop.

(Hairpin)
A damsel skilled in coiffure art
Will try to win your manly heart.

(Miniature tin dish or spoon)
If for domestic joys you look,
Accept the offer of a cook.

(Lump of starch or ironing wax)
A laundress soon to you will say:
"Oh. dear one, will you name the day.?"

(Key)
A maid who ne'er sings" off the key"
Will strive your future spouse to be.

A ONCE-IN-FOUR PARTY

Twelve girl friends received verbal invitations to a leap- year party, each being slyly asked whom she
would like to have invited as an escort. Each of the young men specified received a formal invitation
attached to an at-home card. The invitation prepared him for the fact that this was to be a once-in-four
-year function, and that he was to be "escorted" in place of escorting. The invitation was in rime. On
the morning of the day of the party each girl received a note asking her to call for one of the young
men; the latter were not told just who would call for each, the mantle of secrecy being preserved
until he saw the maid. When the guests arrived they found the rooms profusely decorated with hearts
of all sizes, ferns and palms.

TO FIND PARTNERS

For the first game they found partners by matching with hearts that had been cut into two parts through
the centers, somewhat like the serrated parts of Yale keys, no two being cut alike. Each young man
received one half, . and a girl the other. The hearts were cut from pink card- board. Upon mating, each
one pinned on his or her half- heart, and when all had found their partners a march was played. To its
tune the couples marched several times around the double parlors, finally to be halted in turn in front
of a large rose bush, where each man picked a rose for his partner. Meantime the chairs and sofas
had been so arranged that they formed one large circle, and now all the couples seated themselves.
The rose bush was a large, growing bush, to which paper roses had been attached with wires. In the
center of the roses were concealed tiny hearts, each containing one written word~ Each couple had
to arrange these words so that they formed two lines of a popular love song containing an even number
of words: The first couple to do this received a small prize.

PROGRESSIVE GOSSIP

"Progressive Gossip" was the second game. Each couple evenly divided their small hearts and now
became opponents instead of partners. They were given two minutes to converse on a given subject,
but were not to use any personal pronoun in their conversation. At each use of a personal pronoun
the opponent claimed one of the small hearts. At the end of the two minutes the girls rose and each
moved to the next man, while the men remained seated; a new topic was given out and this was
continued until the girls had made the circle and each returned to her first opponent. The girl and
man having acquired the most hearts were declared winners in this contest.

LADIES' CHOICE

"Ladies' Choice" was played next, each girl being allowed to choose her partner. For this game each
couple received large hearts composed of two pasteboard hearts pasted together at the edges with
narrow strips of gold paper. Each heart contained written directions, in verse, as to what was to be
done. Inside the hearts were eight sections of cardboard, which were cut like a jigsaw puzzle and
were to be put together to form one large heart. All had been cut alike, so that no one couple had
an advantage. Of course there was a small prize for the couple that first succeeded in mending the
"broken" heart.

FAMOUS LOVERS

The guests were then led to a pink-draped table which held two hollow hearts of cardboard covered
with crushed pink tissue. In the top of each was an opening large enough to admit the hand. The
girls drew heart-shaped cards from the receptacle on the right, and the boys from that on the left.
Each card bore the "pied" name of one of a pair of famous lovers, and as soon as it was deciphered
the holder started to make a "match" by finding the one who held its mate, the two becoming supper
partners. "JO, NED, 'N HAL" proved to be John Alden, whose representative started at once in quest
of Priscilla (CAP ILL, SIR?). "EVEN I, ANGEL" (Evangeline) promptly paired off with "BEG, LIAR!"
(Gabriel), and "U PAL" (Paul) with  "I GRIN, IV A" (Virginia). Then there were John Hancock and
Dorothy Q., Hero and Leander, Dante and Beatrice, Dora and David Copper- field, and other celebrated
"matches" of fiction and history.

In the dining room, whither they were conducted as soon as the match-making was over, chairs were
ranged against the wall in pairs, joined by garlands of pink crepe paper ribbon, from each of which
depended a pair of hearts inscribed with the assumed instead of the real names of the guests. When
all found their places a buffet supper was served, nearly everything being arranged in pairs. Thus to
each couple was served, on a single small tray, two cups of "love potion " (bouillon). Sandwiches were
tied together in pairs with pink and blue ribbon. A salad of apple, celery, nuts, tomato and asparagus
tips, in mayonnaise, was served in twin "love-apple" shells (scooped-out tomatoes). With the ices,
which were frozen in heart and cupid molds, were passed "true-love knots" formed with ribbon-like strips
of puff paste brushed with white of egg and sprinkled with coarse sugar and chopped blanched almonds
before baking. Then came a huge, heart-shaped fortune cake, from which each guest must cut a slice.
It was iced in delicate pink and decorated with crystallized rosebuds. Fortune-telling trinkets were
scattered through it, including, of course, the inevitable ring, coin and thimble.

With the coffee "love box" favors were distributed. These were heart-shaped cardboard bonbon boxes,
covered with real icing and decorated to "match" the large cake. So perfect was the resemblance that
at first all were deceived into thinking that they actually were cakes, but they proved to contain candy
hearts, candied rose petals and crystallized "pairs" (pears).

MATCH-MAKING

After supper they played a match-making game. Each participant received a list of well-known advertising slogans, culled from magazines, and was directed to "match" the names of the advertisers, or articles advertised, to the phrases. At the end of twenty minutes lists were exchanged and compared with a correct list read aloud by the hostess, and suitable prizes were awarded.

TELEGRAPHIC EFFUSIONS

Last of all a "valentine" postman brought in a number of large valentines, one addressed to each pair of
famous lovers. These may be of the old-fashioned embossed valentine envelope kind, or, failing to find
these, plain white envelopes decorated with heart seals may be used. Each envelope contained one
pair of small scissors and six advertisements cut from popular journals; with these each couple formed
a love letter, or message, or telegram, using only such words as they were able to cut from their
advertisements. Small saucers of paste were passed around, and each couple pasted their chosen
words on their envelopes. No mutilation of words was allowed. The composers of the best effusion
received a prize.

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