ber 12."

Still another pleasing Hallowe'en game, based on the revelation of one's
matrimonial future, is played as follows: Seven lighted candles are
placed in a row on a table. The men are then blindfolded, whirled
around three times and commanded to blow out the candles. The number
extinguished at a blow tells the number of years before they meet their
bride. This game only grows interesting, of course, when some old goat
with long whiskers can be induced to take a blind shot at blowing out
the candles. Have Pyrene convenient--but not too convenient to spoil the
fun.

For the older members of the party, the host should provide various
games of cards and dice. In keeping with the ghastly spirit of the
occasion, it would be well to have the dice carefully loaded. Many hosts
have thus been able to make all expenses and often a handsome profit out
of the evening's entertainment.

If the crap game goes particularly well, many hosts do not hesitate to
provide elaborate refreshments for the guests. Here, too, the spirit of
fun and jollity should prevail, and great merriment is always provoked
by the ludicrous expression of the guest who has broken two teeth on the
cast-iron olive. Other delightful surprises should be arranged, and a
little Sloan's liniment in the punch or ground glass in the ice cream
will go a long way toward making the supper amusing. And finally, when
the guests are ready to depart and just before they discover that you
have cut cute little black cats and witches out of the backs of their
evening wraps and over coats, it would perhaps be well to run up stairs
and lock yourself securely in your room.

CHAPTER EIGHT: CORRESPONDENCE AND INVITATIONS

CORRESPONDENCE

It is narrated of a well-known English lady (who is noted on the other
side of the Atlantic for the sharpness of her wit) that on one occasion,
when a vainglorious American was boasting of his country's prowess in
digging the Panama Canal, she calmly waited until he had finished and
then replied, with an indescribable smile, "Ah--but you Americans do not
know how to write letters." Needless to say the discomfited young man
took himself off at the earliest opportunity.

There is much truth, alas, in the English lady's clever retort, for the
automatic typewriter, the telegraph, and the penny postal card have done
much to cause a gradual decline in the gentle art of correspondence.
As one American woman recently remarked to a visitor (wi