Life — January 12, 1899 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“MAMMA, WHEN 18 4 MAN IN HIS Priue?'? “THAT DEPENDS, MY SON, But when it comes to a ‘ geographical game,” patriotically entitled “Our Union,” and bristling with lamentable details about capitals and boundaries; or a game of “Population,” in which an infant player scores a point by remember- ing that Austria-Hungary has 42,620,000 inhabitants, we cannot but feel that good old Saint Nicholas must blush with indignation at the crimes committed in his name. And now comes along a fresh iniquity called ‘‘ Fraction Play”—a contradiction in terms—consisting of dreadful little cards, with ‘Knowledge is Power” printed on their backs, and an unlimited supply of fractions on their faces, The directions for this enlivening sport are equally simple and alluring. No child could fail to understand them, and no child could resist their seductions, “Tf Zand ; are on thetable, anda player holds ; in his hand, he adds these frac- tions, which equal 1, and takes all three cards. Or, if y%, $ and yy are on the table, and he holds § in his hand, he adds the first three fractions, equaling }§ or 4, from which he subtracts the } held in his hand, securing the necessary cipher O as the result.” The only trouble about a game like this isthe uproarious mirth it is likely to arouse in the nursery. Children should enjoy themselves, it is true, but they grow noisier than need be when their PON TUR AGE OF THE MAN YoU ask.” pastimes are of so frolicsome a nature, Think what a climax of joyous excite- ment must be reached when some happy little girl or boy “ builds” on a “ par- tial combination,” in this wise: “Tf a combination has been made which equals y, and a player holds yy and }} in his hand, he plays the y,, and thus changes the sum of the partial com- bination to ¥, to which he adds 3} (equaling 1) and takes the cards.” 35 Since the days when the languid passengers of a slave ship danced in fet- ters on the deck, to keep their blood in motion, no such jovial entertainment as this has ever been of- fered to a laughter-loving world. Its sprightliness and simplicity should com- mend {ft to every nursery in the land. Like castoria and Pear’s soap, it should be the object of infant am. bition and of infant love. We have already made a fetich of arithmetic !n our schools, and forced all our little scholars to worship indiscriminately at this grim shrine, Once estab- lish it as a recreation at home, and it will be said of the child of the future that, like—yet how unlike—the baby Pope, he * Lisped in numbers, for the numbers came.” Agnes Repplier. Buying Them Off. LEMENTINE: Arthur, I'll have to have a new feather boa. Artuur: Didn't you get one last winter? “Yes, but I left it out in the closet so the moths wouldn’t eat my fur cape.” ~~ e BWP HAD THEY ONLY WAITED.