A pre-World War I treasury of children's games

DiscussieName that Book

Sluit je aan bij LibraryThing om te posten.

A pre-World War I treasury of children's games

Dit onderwerp is gemarkeerd als "slapend"—het laatste bericht is van meer dan 90 dagen geleden. Je kan het activeren door een een bericht toe te voegen.

1Parpar1836
mrt 13, 2012, 4:58 pm

I'm looking for a hefty book with a red Art Nouveau cover (especially the decorative detail on the spine) that's a treasury of children's games. It lists and describes all sorts of games and their rules. One that I recall included the following rhyme of defiance to be recited by the "troublemaker" (since the player has been instructed by her "mother" not to stray or touch the mustard pot):

"She shall ramble, she shall trot.
She shall carry the mustard pot."

The treasury is a charming, quaint reminder of the times when children, their lives uncomplicated by television and texting, devised their own games, using the simplest, cheapest equipment. (My mother and her cousin played "Skelly," a hopscotch-like game, using bottlecaps. There was no money for fancy toys, but bottlecaps were plentiful, and the children made use of them.)

I would imagine that this treasury was published around or slightly after the turn of the century, before the 1920s. I used to own a copy. (But, as I tell anyone who wants to know why I no longer have it, I lost most of my cherished books in the aftermath of a fire in 1986, and have been striving to reconstruct my library, one book at a time.)

2Parpar1836
mrt 14, 2012, 2:44 pm

Greetings, all. The book is Jessie Hubbell Bancroft's "Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gymnasium," published by Macmillan in 1909 and 1922. I thought of deleting my query, but have decided to leave it up there in case anyone else has an interest in books describing old children's games.

3MyriadBooks
mrt 14, 2012, 2:54 pm

Thanks much for letting us know you found the book!

Touchstone fairy: Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gymnasium

4Parpar1836
mrt 14, 2012, 4:20 pm

The cover is a beauty! Thanks for posting the link.

5MyriadBooks
mrt 18, 2012, 7:54 pm

My pleasure!