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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +EText by Alan Murray - North Carolina + + + + + +FLOOR GAMES + +by (H)erbert (G)eorge Wells + + + + +Contents +I. The Toys To Have +II. The Game Of The Wonderful Islands +III. Of The Building Of Cities +IV. Funiculars, Marble Towers, Castles And War Games, + But Very LIttle Of War Games + + + + +Section I +THE TOYS TO HAVE + +The jolliest indoor games for boys and girls demand a floor, and the +home that has no floor upon which games may be played falls so far short +of happiness. It must be a floor covered with linoleum or cork carpet, +so that toy soldiers and such-like will stand up upon it, and of a color +and surface that will take and show chalk marks; the common green- +colored cork carpet without a pattern is the best of all. It must be no +highway to other rooms, and well lit and airy. Occasionally, alas! it +must be scrubbed--and then a truce to Floor Games. Upon such a floor may +be made an infinitude of imaginative games, not only keeping boys and +girls happy for days together, but building up a framework of spacious +and inspiring ideas in them for after life. The men of tomorrow will +gain new strength from nursery floors. I am going to tell of some of +these games and what is most needed to play them; I have tried them all +and a score of others like them with my sons, and all of the games here +illustrated have been set out by us. I am going to tell of them here +because I think what we have done will interest other fathers and +mothers, and perhaps be of use to them (and to uncles and such-like +tributary sub-species of humanity) in buying presents for their own and +other people's children. + +Now, the toys we play with time after time, and in a thousand +permutations and combinations, belong to four main groups. We have (1) +SOLDIERS, and with these I class sailors, railway porters, civilians, +and the lower animals generally, such as I will presently describe in +greater detail; (2) BRICKS; (3) BOARDS and PLANKS; and (4) a lot of +CLOCKWORK RAILWAY ROLLING-STOCK AND RAILS. Also there are certain minor +objects--tin ships, Easter eggs, and the like--of which I shall make +incidental mention, that like the kiwi and the duck-billed platypus +refuse to be classified. + +These we arrange and rearrange in various ways upon our floor, making a +world of them. In doing so we have found out all sorts of pleasant +facts, and also many undesirable possibilities; and very probably our +experience will help a reader here and there to the former and save him +from the latter. For instance, our planks and boards, and what one can +do with them, have been a great discovery. Lots of boys and girls seem +to be quite without planks and boards at all, and there is no regular +trade in them. The toyshops, we found, did not keep anything of the kind +we wanted, and our boards, which we had to get made by a carpenter, are +the basis of half the games we play. The planks and boards we have are +of various sizes. We began with three of two yards by one; they were +made with cross pieces like small doors; but these we found +unnecessarily large, and we would not get them now after our present +experience. The best thickness, we think, is an inch for the larger +sizes and three-quarters and a half inch for the smaller; and the best +sizes are a yard square, thirty inches square, two feet, and eighteen +inches square--one or two of each, and a greater number of smaller ones, +18 x 9, 9 x 9, and 9 x 4-1/2. With the larger ones we make islands and +archipelagos on our floor while the floor is a sea, or we make a large +island or a couple on the Venice pattern, or we pile the smaller on the +larger to make hills when the floor is a level plain, or they roof in +railway stations or serve as bridges, in such manner as I will presently +illustrate. And these boards of ours pass into our next most important +possession, which is our box of bricks. + +(But I was nearly forgetting to tell this, that all the thicker and +larger of these boards have holes bored through them. At about every +four inches is a hole, a little larger than an ordinary gimlet hole. +These holes have their uses, as I will tell later, but now let me get on +to the box of bricks.) + +This, again, wasn't a toy-shop acquisition. It came to us by gift from +two generous friends, unhappily growing up and very tall at that; and +they had it from parents who were one of several families who shared in +the benefit of a Good Uncle. I know nothing certainly of this man except +that he was a Radford of Plymouth. I have never learned nor cared to +learn of his commoner occupations, but certainly he was one of those +shining and distinguished uncles that tower up at times above the common +levels of humanity. At times, when we consider our derived and +undeserved share of his inheritance and count the joys it gives us, we +have projected half in jest and half in earnest the putting together of +a little exemplary book upon the subject of such exceptional men: +Celebrated Uncles, it should be called; and it should stir up all who +read it to some striving at least towards the glories of the avuncular +crown. What this great benefactor did was to engage a deserving +unemployed carpenter through an entire winter making big boxes of wooden +bricks for the almost innumerable nephews and nieces with which an +appreciative circle of brothers and sisters had blessed him. There are +whole bricks 4-1/2 inches x 2-1/4 x 1-1/8; and there are quarters-- +called by those previous owners (who have now ascended to, we hope but +scarcely believe, a happier life near the ceiling) "piggys." You note +how these sizes fit into the sizes of the boards, and of each size--we +have never counted them, but we must have hundreds. We can pave a dozen +square yards of floor with them. + +How utterly we despise the silly little bricks of the toyshops! They are +too small to make a decent home for even the poorest lead soldiers, even +if there were hundreds of them, and there are never enough, never nearly +enough; even if you take one at a time and lay it down and say, "This is +a house," even then there are not enough. We see rich people, rich +people out of motor cars, rich people beyond the dreams of avarice, +going into toyshops and buying these skimpy, sickly, ridiculous pseudo- +boxes of bricklets, because they do not know what to ask for, and the +toyshops are just the merciless mercenary enemies of youth and happiness +--so far, that is, as bricks are concerned. Their unfortunate under- +parented offspring mess about with these gifts, and don't make very much +of them, and put them away; and you see their consequences in after life +in the weakly-conceived villas and silly suburbs that people have built +all round big cities. Such poor under-nourished nurseries must needs +fall back upon the Encyclopedia Britannica, and even that is becoming +flexible on India paper! But our box of bricks almost satisfies. With +our box of bricks we can scheme and build, all three of us, for the best +part of the hour, and still have more bricks in the box. + +So much now for the bricks. I will tell later how we use cartridge paper +and cardboard and other things to help in our and of the decorative make +of plasticine. Of course, it goes without saying that we despise those +foolish, expensive, made-up wooden and pasteboard castles that are sold +in shops--playing with them is like playing with somebody else's dead +game in a state of rigor mortis. Let me now say a little about toy +soldiers and the world to which they belong. Toy soldiers used to be +flat, small creatures in my own boyhood, in comparison with the +magnificent beings one can buy to-day. There has been an enormous +improvement in our national physique in this respect. Now they stand +nearly two inches high and look you broadly in the face, and they have +the movable arms and alert intelligence of scientifically exercised men. +You get five of them mounted or nine afoot in a box for a small price. +We three like those of British manufacture best; other makes are of +incompatible sizes, and we have a rule that saves much trouble, that all +red coats belong to G. P. W., and all other colored coats to F. R. W., +all gifts, bequests, and accidents notwithstanding. Also we have +sailors; but, since there are no red-coated sailors, blue counts as red. + +Then we have "beefeaters," (Footnote; The warders in the Tower of London +are called "beefeaters"; the origin of the term is obscure.) Indians, +Zulus, for whom there are special rules. We find we can buy lead dogs, +cats, lions, tigers, horses, camels, cattle, and elephants of a +reasonably corresponding size, and we have also several boxes of railway +porters, and some soldiers we bought in Hesse-Darmstadt that we pass off +on an unsuspecting home world as policemen. But we want civilians very +badly. We found a box of German from an exaggerated curse of militarism, +and even the grocer wears epaulettes. This might please Lord Roberts and +Mr. Leo Maxse, but it certainly does not please us. I wish, indeed, that +we could buy boxes of tradesmen: a blue butcher, a white baker with a +loaf of standard bread, a merchant or so; boxes of servants, boxes of +street traffic, smart sets, and so forth. We could do with a judge and +lawyers, or a box of vestrymen. It is true that we can buy Salvation +Army lasses and football players, but we are cold to both of these. We +have, of course, boy scouts. With such boxes of civilians we could have +much more fun than with the running, marching, swashbuckling soldiery +that pervades us. They drive us to reviews; and it is only emperors, +kings, and very silly small boys who can take an undying interest in +uniforms and reviews. + +And lastly, of our railways, let me merely remark here that we have +always insisted upon one uniform gauge and everything we buy fits into +and develops our existing railway system. Nothing is more indicative of +the wambling sort of parent and a coterie of witless, worthless uncles +than a heap of railway toys of different gauges and natures in the +children's playroom. And so, having told you of the material we have, +let me now tell you of one or two games (out of the innumerable many) +that we have played. Of course, in this I have to be a little +artificial. Actual games of the kind I am illustrating here have been +played by us, many and many a time, with joy and happy invention and no +thought of publication. They have gone now, those games, into that +vaguely luminous and iridescent into which happiness have tried out +again points in world of memories all love-engendering must go. But we +our best to set them and recall the good them here. + +Section II +THE GAME OF THE WONDERFUL ISLANDS + +In this game the floor is the sea. Half--rather the larger half because +of some instinctive right of primogeniture--is assigned to the elder of +my two sons (he is, as it were, its Olympian), and the other half goes +to his brother. We distribute our boards about the sea in an +archipelagic manner. We then dress our islands, objecting strongly to +too close a scrutiny of our proceedings until we have done. Here, in the +illustration, is such an archipelago ready for its explorers, or rather +on the verge of exploration. There are altogether four islands, two to +the reader's right and two to the left, and the nearer ones are the more +northerly; it is as many as we could get into the camera. The northern +island to the right is most advanced in civilization, and is chiefly +temple. That temple has a flat roof, diversified by domes made of half +Easter eggs and cardboard cones. These are surmounted by decorative work +of a flamboyant character in plasticine, designed by G. P. W. An +oriental population crowds the courtyard and pours out upon the roadway. +Note the grotesque plasticine monsters who guard the portals, also by G. +P. W., who had a free hand with the architecture of this remarkable +specimen of eastern religiosity. They are nothing, you may be sure, to +the gigantic idols inside, out of the reach of the sacrilegious camera. +To the right is a tropical thatched hut. The thatched roof is really +that nice ribbed paper that comes round bottles--a priceless boon to +these games. All that comes into the house is saved for us. The owner of +the hut lounges outside the door. He is a dismounted cavalry-corps man, +and he owns one cow. His fence, I may note, belonged to a little wooden +farm we bought in Switzerland. Its human inhabitants are scattered; its +beasts follow a precarious living as wild guinea-pigs on the islands to +the south. + +Your attention is particularly directed to the trees about and behind +the temple, which thicken to a forest on the further island to the +right. These trees we make of twigs taken from trees and bushes in the +garden, and stuck into holes in our boards. Formerly we lived in a house +with a little wood close by, and our forests were wonderful. Now we are +restricted to our garden, and we could get nothing for this set out but +jasmine and pear. Both have wilted a little, and are not nearly such +spirited trees as you can make out of fir trees, for instance. It is for +these woods chiefly that we have our planks perforated with little +holes. No tin trees can ever be so plausible and various and jolly as +these. With a good garden to draw upon one can make terrific sombre +woods, and then lie down and look through them at lonely horsemen or +wandering beasts. + +That further island on the right is a less settled country than the +island of the temple. Camels, you note, run wild there; there is a sort +of dwarf elephant, similar to the now extinct kind of which one finds +skeletons in Malta, pigs, a red parrot, and other such creatures, of +lead and wood. The pear-trees are fine. It is those which have attracted +white settlers (I suppose they are), whose thatched huts are to be seen +both upon the beach and in-land. By the huts on the beach lie a number +of pear-tree logs; but a raid of negroid savages from the to the left is +in the only settler is the man in a adjacent island progress, and +clearly visible rifleman's uniform running inland for help. Beyond, +peeping out among the trees, are the supports he seeks. + +These same negroid savages are as bold as they are ferocious. They cross +arms of the sea upon their rude canoes, made simply of a strip of +cardboard. Their own island, the one to the south-left, is a rocky +wilderness containing caves. Their chief food is the wild-goat, but in +pursuit of these creatures you will also sometimes find the brown bear, +who sits--he is small but perceptible to the careful student--in the +mouth of his cave. Here, too, you will distinguish small guinea pig- +like creatures of wood, in happier days the inhabitants of that Swiss +farm. Sunken rocks off this island are indicated by a white foam which +takes the form of letters, and you will also note a whirlpool between +the two islands to the right. + +Finally comes the island nearest to the reader on the left. This also is +wild and rocky, inhabited not by negroid blacks, but by Indians, whose +tents, made by F. R. W. out of ordinary brown paper and adorned with +chalk totems of a rude and characteristic kind, pour forth their fierce +and well-armed inhabitants at the intimation of an invader. The rocks on +this island, let me remark, have great mineral wealth. Among them are to +be found not only sheets and veins of silver paper, but great nuggets of +metal, obtained by the melting down of hopelessly broken soldiers in an +iron spoon. Note, too, the peculiar and romantic shell beach of this +country. It is an island of exceptional interest to the geologist and +scientific explorer. The Indians, you observe, have domesticated one +leaden and one wooden cow. + +This is how the game would be set out. Then we build ships and explore +these islands, but in these pictures the ships are represented as +already arriving. The ships are built out of our wooden bricks on flat +keels made of two wooden pieces of 9 x 4-1/2; inches, which are very +convenient to push about over the floor. Captain G. P. W. is steaming +into the bay between the eastern and western islands. He carries heavy +guns, his ship bristles with an extremely aggressive soldiery, who +appear to be blazing away for the mere love of the thing. (I suspect him +of Imperialist intentions.) Captain F. R. W. is apparently at anchor +between his northern and southern islands. His ship is of a slightly +more pacific type. I note on his deck a lady and a gentleman (of German +origin) with a bag, two of our all too rare civilians. No doubt the bag +contains samples and a small conversation dictionary in the negroid +dialects. (I think F. R. W. may turn out to be a Liberal.) Perhaps he +will sail on and rescue the raided huts, perhaps he will land and build +a jetty, and begin mining among the rocks to fill his hold with silver. +Perhaps the natives will kill and eat the gentleman with the bag. All +that is for Captain F. R. W. to decide. + +You see how the game goes on. We land and alter things, and build and +rearrange, and hoist paper flags on pins, and subjugate populations, and +confer all the blessings of civilization upon these lands. We keep them +going for days. And at last, as we begin to tire of them, comes the +scrubbing brush, and we must burn our trees and dismantle our islands, +and put our soldiers in the little nests of drawers, and stand the +island boards up against the wall, and put everything away. Then +perhaps, after a few days, we begin upon some other such game, just as +we feel disposed. But it is never quite the same game, never. Another +time it may be wildernesses for example, and the boards are hills, and +never a drop of water is to be found except for the lakes and rivers we +may mark out in chalk. But after one example others are easy, and next I +will tell you of our way of making towns. + +Section III +OF THE BUILDING OF CITIES + +WE always build twin cities, like London and Westminster, or Buda-Pesth, +because two of us always want, both of them, to be mayors and municipal +councils, and it makes for local freedom and happiness to arrange it so; +but when steam railways or street railways are involved we have our +rails in common, and we have an excellent law that rails must be laid +down and switches kept open in such a manner that anyone feeling so +disposed may send a through train from their own station back to their +own station again without needless negotiation or the personal invasion +of anybody else's administrative area. It is an undesirable thing to +have other people bulging over one's houses, standing in one's open +spaces, and, in extreme cases, knocking down and even treading on one's +citizens. It leads at times to explanations that are afterwards +regretted. + +We always have twin cities, or at the utmost stage of coalescence a city +with two wards, Red End and Blue End; we mark the boundaries very +carefully, and our citizens have so much local patriotism (Mr. +Chesterton will learn with pleasure) that they stray but rarely over +that thin little streak of white that bounds their municipal allegiance. +Sometimes we have an election for mayor; it is like a census but very +abusive, and Red always wins. Only citizens with two legs and at least +one arm and capable of standing up may vote, and voters may poll on +horseback; boy scouts and women and children do not vote, though there +is a vigorous agitation to remove these disabilities. Zulus and foreign- +looking persons, such as East Indian cavalry and American Indians, are +also disfranchised. So are riderless horses and camels; but the elephant +has never attempted to vote on any occasion, and does not seem to desire +the privilege. It influences public opinion quite sufficiently as it is +by nodding its head. + +We have set out and I have photographed one of our cities to illustrate +more clearly the amusement of the game. Red End is to the reader's +right, and includes most of the hill on which the town stands, a shady +zoological garden, the town hall, a railway tunnel through the hill, a +museum (away in the extreme right-hand corner), a church, a rifle range, +and a shop. Blue End has the railway station, four or five shops, +several homes, a hotel, and a farm-house, close to the railway station. +The boundary drawn by me as overlord (who also made the hills and +tunnels and appointed the trees to grow) runs irregularly between the +two shops nearest the cathedral, over the shoulder in front of the town +hall, and between the farm and the rifle range. + +The nature of the hills I have already explained, and this time we have +had no lakes or ornamental water. These are very easily made out of a +piece of glass--the glass lid of a box for example--laid upon silver +paper. Such water becomes very readily populated by those celluloid +seals and swans and ducks that are now so common. Paper fish appear +below the surface and may be peered at by the curious. But on this +occasion we have nothing of the kind, nor have we made use of a green- +colored tablecloth we sometimes use to drape our hills. Of course, a +large part of the fun of this game lies in the witty incorporation of +all sorts of extraneous objects. But the incorporation must be witty, or +you may soon convert the whole thing into an incoherent muddle of half- +good ideas. + +I have taken two photographs, one to the right and one to the left of +this agreeable place. I may perhaps adopt a kind of guide-book style in +reviewing its principal features: I begin at the railway station. I have +made a rather nearer and larger photograph of the railway station, which +presents a diversified and entertaining scene to the incoming visitor. +Porters (out of a box of porters) career here and there with the trucks +and light baggage. Quite a number of our all-too-rare civilians parade +the platform: two gentlemen, a lady, and a small but evil-looking child +are particularly noticeable; and there is a wooden sailor with jointed +legs, in a state of intoxication as reprehensible as it is nowadays +happily rare. Two virtuous dogs regard his abandon with quiet scorn. The +seat on which he sprawls is a broken piece of some toy whose nature I +have long forgotten, the station clock is a similar fragment, and so is +the metallic pillar which bears the name of the station. So many toys, +we find, only become serviceable with a little smashing. There is an +allegory in this--as Hawthorne used to write in his diary. + +("What is he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river?") + +The fences at the ends of the platforms are pieces of wood belonging to +the game of Matador--that splendid and very educational construction +game, hailing, I believe, from Hungary. There is also, I regret to say, +a blatant advertisement of Jab's "Hair Color," showing the hair. (In the +photograph the hair does not come out very plainly.) This is by G. P. +W., who seems marked out by destiny to be the advertisement-writer of +the next generation. He spends much of his scanty leisure inventing and +drawing advertisements of imaginary commodities. Oblivious to many +happy, beautiful, and noble things in life, he goes about studying and +imitating the literature of the billboards. He and his brother write +newspapers almost entirely devoted to these annoying appeals. You will +note, too, the placard at the mouth of the railway tunnel urging the +existence of Jinks' Soap upon the passing traveller. The oblong object +on the placard represents, no doubt, a cake of this offensive and +aggressive commodity. The zoological garden flaunts a placard, "Zoo, two +cents pay," and the grocer's picture of a cabbage with "Get Them" is not +to be ignored. F. R. W. is more like the London County Council in this +respect, and prefers bare walls. + +"Returning from the station," as the guide-books say, and "giving one +more glance" at the passengers who are waiting for the privilege of +going round the circle in open cars and returning in a prostrated +condition to the station again, and "observing" what admirable platforms +are made by our 9 x 4-1/2 pieces, we pass out to the left into the +village street. A motor omnibus (a one-horse hospital cart in less +progressive days) stands waiting for passengers; and, on our way to the +Cherry Tree Inn, we remark two nurses, one in charge of a child with a +plasticine head. The landlord of the inn is a small grotesque figure of +plaster; his sign is fastened on by a pin. No doubt the refreshment +supplied here has an enviable reputation, to judge by the alacrity with +which a number of riflemen move to-wards the door. The inn, by the by, +like the station and some private houses, is roofed with stiff paper. + +These stiff-paper roofs are one of our great inventions. We get After +the game is over, we put these roofs inside one another and stick them +into the bookshelves. The roof one folds and puts away will live to roof +another day. + +Proceeding on our way past the Cherry Tree, and resisting cosy +invitation of its portals, we come to the shopping quarter of the town. +The stock in windows is made by hand out of plasticine. We note the meat +and hams of "Mr. Woddy," the cabbages and carrots of "Tod & Brothers," +the general activities of the "Jokil Co." shopmen. It is de rigueur with +our shop assistants that they should wear white helmets. In the street, +boy scouts go to and fro, a wagon clatters by; most of the adult +population is about its business, and a red-coated band plays along the +roadway. Contrast this animated scene with the mysteries of sea and +forest, rock and whirlpool, in our previous game. Further on is the big +church or cathedral. It is built in an extremely debased Gothic style; +it reminds us most of a church we once surveyed during a brief visit to +Rotterdam on our way up the Rhine. A solitary boy scout, mindful of the +views of Lord Haldane, enters its high portal. Passing the cathedral, we +continue to the museum. This museum is no empty boast; it contains +mineral specimens, shells--such great shells as were found on the +beaches of our previous game--the Titanic skulls of extinct rabbits and +cats, and other such wonders. The slender curious may lie down on the +floor and peep in at the windows. + +"We now," says the guide-book, "retrace our steps to the shops, and +then, turning to the left, ascend under the trees up the terraced hill +on which stands the Town Hall. This magnificent building is surmounted +by a colossal statue of a chamois, the work of a Wengen artist; it is in +two stories, with a battlemented roof, and a crypt (entrance to right of +steps) used for the incarceration of offenders. It is occupied by the +town guard, who wear 'beefeater' costumes of ancient origin." + +Note the red parrot perched on the battlements; it lives tame in the +zoological gardens, and is of the same species as one we formerly +observed in our archipelago. Note, too, the brisk cat-and-dog encounter +below. Steps descend in wide flights down the hillside into Blue End. +The two couchant lions on either side of the steps are in plasticine, +and were executed by that versatile artist, who is also mayor of Red +End, G. P. W. He is present. Our photographer has hit upon a happy +moment in the history of this town, and a conversation of the two mayors +is going on upon the terrace before the palace. F. R. W., mayor of Blue +End, stands on the steps in the costume of an admiral; G. P. W. is on +horseback (his habits are equestrian) on the terrace. The town guard +parades in their honor, and up the hill a number of musicians (a little +hidden by trees) ride on gray horses towards them. + +Passing in front of the town hall, and turning to the right, we approach +the zoological gardens. Here we pass two of our civilians: a gentleman +in black, a lady, and a large boy scout, presumably their son. We enter +the gardens, which are protected by a bearded janitor, and remark at +once a band of three performing dogs, who are, as the guide-book would +say, "discoursing sweet music." In neither ward of the city does there +seem to be the slightest restraint upon the use of musical instruments. +It is no place for neurotic people. + +The gardens contain the inevitable elephants, camels (which we breed, +and which are therefore in considerable numbers), a sitting bear, +brought from last game's caves, goats from the same region, tamed and +now running loose in the gardens, dwarf elephants, wooden nondescripts, +and other rare creatures. The keepers wear a uniform not unlike that of +railway guards and porters. We wander through the gardens, return, +descend the hill by the school of musketry, where soldiers are to be +seen shooting at the butts, pass through the paddock of the old farm, +and so return to the railway station, extremely gratified by all we have +seen, and almost equally divided in our minds between the merits and +attractiveness of either ward. A clockwork train comes clattering into +the station, we take our places, somebody hoots or whistles for the +engine (which can't), the signal is knocked over in the excitement of +the moment, the train starts, and we "wave a long, regretful farewell to +the salubrious cheerfulness of Chamois City." + +You see now how we set out and the spirit in which we set out our towns. +It demands but the slightest exercise of the imagination to devise a +hundred additions and variations of the scheme. You can make picture- +galleries--great fun for small boys who can draw; you can make +factories; you can plan out flower-gardens--which appeals very strongly +to intelligent little girls; your town hall may become a fortified +castle; or you may put the whole town on boards and make a Venice of it, +with ships and boats upon its canals, and bridges across them. We used +to have some very serviceable ships of cardboard, with flat bottoms; and +then we used to have a harbor, and the ships used to sail away to +distant rooms, and even into the garden, and return with the most +remarkable cargoes, loads of nasturtium-stem logs, for example. We had +sacks then, made of glove-fingers, and several toy cranes. I suppose we +could find most of these again if we hunted for them. Once, with this +game fresh in our we went to see the docks, which struck us as just our +old harbor game magnified. + +"I say, Daddy," said one of us in a quiet corner, wistfully, as one who +speaks knowingly against the probabilities of the case, and yet with a +faint, thin hope, "couldn't we play just for a little with these sacks . +. . until some-body comes?" + +Of course the setting-out of the city is half the game. Then you devise +incidents. As I wanted to photograph the particular set-out for the +purpose of illustrating this account, I took a larger share in the +arrangement than I usually do. It was necessary to get everything into +the picture, to ensure a light background that would throw up some of +the trees, prevent too much overlapping, and things like that. When the +photographing was over, matters became more normal. I left the +schoolroom, and when I returned I found that the group of riflemen which +had been converging on the publichouse had been sharply recalled to +duty, and were trotting in a disciplined, cheerless way towards the +railway station. The elephant had escaped from the zoo into the Blue +Ward, and was being marched along by a military patrol. The originally +scattered boy scouts were being paraded. G. P. W. had demolished the +shop of the Jokil Company, and was building a Red End station near the +bend. The stock of the Jokil Company had passed into the hands of the +adjacent storekeepers. Then the town hall ceremonies came to an end and +the guard marched off. Then G. P. W. demolished the rifle-range, and ran +a small branch of the urban railway uphill to the town hall door, and on +into the zoological gardens. This was only the beginning of a period of +enterprise in transit, a small railway boom. A number of halts of simple +construction sprang up. There was much making of railway tickets, of a +size that enabled passengers to stick their heads through the middle and +wear them as a Mexican does his blanket. Then a battery of artillery +turned up in the High Street and there was talk of fortifications. +Suppose wild Indians were to turn up across the plains to the left and +attack the town! Fate still has toy drawers untouched. . . + +So things will go on till putting-away night on Friday. Then we shall +pick up the roofs and shove them away among the books, return the +clockwork engines very carefully to their boxes, for engines are fragile +things, stow the soldiers and civilians and animals in their nests of +drawers, burn the trees again--this time they are sweet-bay; and all the +joys and sorrows and rivalries and successes of Blue End and Red End +will pass, and follow Carthage and Nineveh, the empire of Aztec and +Roman, the arts of Etruria and the palaces of Crete, and the plannings +and contrivings of innumerable myriads of children, into the limbo of +games exhausted . . . it may be, leaving some profit, in thoughts +widened, in strengthened apprehensions; it may be, leaving nothing but a +memory that dies. + +SECTION IV +FUNICULARS, MARBLE TOWERS, CASTLES AND WAR GAMES, BUT VERY LITTLE OF WAR +GAMES + +I have now given two general types of floor game; but these are only +just two samples of delightful and imagination-stirring variations that +can be contrived out of the toys I have described. I will now glance +rather more shortly at some other very good uses of the floor, the +boards, the bricks, the soldiers, and the railway system--that pentagram +for exorcising the evil spirit of dulness from the lives of little boys +and girls. And first, there is a kind of lark we call Funiculars. There +are times when islands cease somehow to dazzle, and towns and cities are +too orderly and uneventful and cramped for us, and we want something-- +something to whizz. Then we say: "Let us make a funicular. Let us make a +funicular more than we have ever done. Let us make one to reach up to +the table." We dispute whether it isn't a mountain railway we are after. +The bare name is refreshing; it takes us back to that unforgettable time +when we all went to Wengen, winding in and out and up and up the +mountain side--from slush, to such snow and sunlight as we had never +seen before. And we make a mountain railway. So far, we have never got +it up to the table, but some day we will, Then we will have a station +there on the flat, and another station on the floor, with shunts and +sidings to each. + +The peculiar joy of the mountain railway is that, if it is properly +made, a loaded car--not a toy engine; it is too rough a game for +delicate, respectable engines--will career from top to bottom of the +system, and go this way and that as your cunningly-arranged switches +determine; and afterwards--and this is a wonderful and distinctive +discovery--you can send it back by 'lectric. + +What is a 'lectric? You may well ask. 'Lectrics were invented almost by +accident, by one of us, to whom also the name is due. It came out of an +accident to a toy engine; a toy engine that seemed done for and that was +yet full of life. + +You know, perhaps, what a toy engine is like. It has the general +appearance of a railway engine; funnels, buffers, cab, and so forth. All +these are very elegant things, no doubt; but they do not make for +lightness, they do not facilitate hill-climbing. Now, sometimes an +engine gets its clockwork out of order, and then it is over and done +for; but sometimes it is merely the outer semblance that is injured-- +the funnel bent, the body twisted. You remove the things and, behold ! +you have bare clockwork on wheels, an apparatus of almost malignant +energy, soul without body, a kind of metallic rage. This it was that our +junior member instantly knew for a 'lectric, and loved from the moment +of its stripping. + +(I have, by the by, known a very serviceable little road 'lectric made +out of a clockwork mouse.) + +Well, when we have got chairs and boxes and bricks, and graded our line +skilfully and well, easing the descent, and being very careful of the +joining at the bends for fear that the descending trucks and cars will +jump the rails, we send down first an empty truck, then trucks loaded +with bricks and lead soldiers, and then the 'lectric; and then +afterwards the sturdy 'lectric shoves up the trucks again to the top, +with a kind of savagery of purpose and a whizz that is extremely +gratifying to us. We make switches in these lines; we make them have +level-crossings, at which collisions are always being just averted; the +lines go over and under each other, and in and out of tunnels. + +The marble tower, again, is a great building, on which we devise devious +slanting ways down which marbles run. I do not know why it is amusing to +make a marble run down a long intricate path, and dollop down steps, and +come almost but not quite to a stop, and rush out of dark places and +across little bridges of card: it is, and we often do it. + +Castles are done with bricks and cardboard turrets and a portcullis of +card, and drawbridge and moats; they are a mere special sort of city- +building, done because we have a box of men in armor. We could +reconstruct all sorts of historical periods if the toy soldier makers +would provide us with people. But at present, as I have already +complained, they make scarcely anything but contemporary fighting men. +And of the war game I must either write volumes or nothing. For the +present let it be nothing. Some day, perhaps, I will write a great book +about the war game and tell of battles and campaigns and strategy and +tactics. But this time I set out merely to tell of the ordinary joys of +playing with the floor, and to gird improvingly and usefully at +toymakers. So much, I think, I have done. If one parent or one uncle +buys the wiselier for me, I shall not altogether have lived in vain. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Floor Games, by (H)erbert (G)eorge Wells + |