CHILDREN'S TYPICAL GAMES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 78

CHILDREN'S TYPICAL GAMES.

By Maobilanda. (For the Witness.) The greater number of children's games , in which toys or implements play' a part ' have a certain similarity in all paa-tV of - the world. Girls amuse themselves' with dolls and dolls' houses ; boys engage -in football, baseball, rounders, -or cricket, with variations, be they subjects of King Edward or independent American citizens."--Even hare and hounds is fairly international if one considers the, game itself . and not the trappings, -with which it has „ been surrounded. But in the imaginative games of even the English-speaking ehil- _ dren of America, England, and the Australasian ooionies there is, a wide divergeixse, and in them, curiously enough, is reflected the life of the countries to which they belong. * On the whole, the games of the English' boys, are the least imaginative, of JJie.-.three groups. They reveF-in^outd^oj? j^rtsy'andl are content to let the "world "gb?;t>y as it will, except when some' wave of 'leelirf^-'s'weepa over the country/ las , was vthe^&ase -at thetime of ,the,Bqer ■vjjar/Wien'girls'^arid Vyoya- * flung aside their % ' piaythirigsV tifid 'pf/'their ordinary games,-* an.<ih paraded. as^'soldiers and nurses, "wjnle* luffkipjf^itll 'tl»ir*>pa. > ys turn on" the p'ivoV.oPinir: : "^'-p ■"}•''-'• -_ E " ' Both English- and" ; ATistf al'asian girls bring hcrme-life into their amusements more than, does the American child. It is a compara-> tire rarity -to see the American, except when very sana^l, with her doll in her arms. The others carry them perpetually. . Housekeeping, visiting,, and "teaching school"' are played at by all three ; but the first is the favourite of the English and colonial child, while the second and third oi my 'list come first with the little American,- who in the yery early stages looks forward to future social triumphs* The American boy bases', his plays on th? world's happenings. — or, more literal, on the -happenings of itlie American world about him. For "foreign* countries he cares little and -knows less.^v \ • 'An English lad.- miglv^ find it difficult to enter, into some of 'these/purely% American plays.' He> knows ,'of the,^"race problem/^ ! '- arid Iwould 'j scarce " understand why a- fierce,.battle,^e]wuld-/^^e"4aod'-the,-afternoon'end with & "mocK ljTi^jngv--Agaih, tfoo AmersduiiiVl^ider, AvmU; djavr ios the dissensions^ ,'p-f paJj&psif the farces will l divide into* unionist© arid! non-unionists when accees to a certain piece of prairie will be denied by one party to the other. In these encounters feeUng_frequently runs high, for the American is- nothing If _not absorbed:':in <; |.is' ch*m acts and,, imaginings: / ; ; ". "'*•ss& * ■Jjs£'L\-&i.\. - l Fire is" -an -'ever^pi'esent'V'fear^ in' -the American's mind, bandit glays "as,inxportanfc a part in the games of the children as it does in real life in the States. . Fire scenes are enacted with passionate- Tehem- - ence from the nrst to the last act of the '_ drama. A call comes to a pretended station, and there ensues a wild stampede to a burning building.- , Toy ladders are reared against the ' walls in frantic, haste, and difficult rescues achieved," while ,the injured are finally carried dff on. ambulances. Zvlurder and the. attempted ' apprehension / of the murderer takes" a wide space in tho American daily -press, and 'hence, abo, in the chaldrer's games. I have many. times seen gangs of boys absorbed in the reacting of such cases: Until one of their number. , has been Judged the murderer ,and is hauled off each 1 boy is so occupied with' the roleallotted to him that I have sometimes' feared for the skull of the arrested one — he is tumbled pell-mell down steps, bundled into the "patrol .waggon," and ■ rattled along the street in such a reckless _ manner. The drastic methods ot the American police are accurately copied. Even the "hold-up" man is employed as a factor in the games of the children. Many a mock "saloon" is raided by masked desperadoes of terdc-r yeaTS. Down under in Australia the children indulge in few of these games", but they, too, have developed for themselves games founded on incidents in Australian life. "Few Australian children are there who have not sought for gold in the wood* or the sands. Few there are -who have not taken the part of avenging police or blacktrackers seeking for the print of the cattlespearers. • In parts of N-ew Zealand the little ones have a game that is peculiar to themselves : it is one in which an erupting volcano plays a part. For the story of the great, eruption in which the famous terraces were destroyed is a household tale.