Hands Up Hands Down
Source:
Games For The Playground, Home, School And Gymnasium
Category:
QUIET GAMES
_10 to 60 players._
_Schoolroom._
This is a schoolroom adaptation of Up Jenkins, and is designed
especially for use as children assemble in a class room before the
opening of the school session. The only material required is a small
paper or worsted ball of a size that may be hidden in the clinched
hand.
The players are divided into two groups, each group seated, partly
facing the other (indicated by arrows in the diagram) with a captain
standing before each side at _C_.
The side starting the game is given a small ball of paper or worsted,
and at the command of the captain of the _opposing_ side the players
pass the ball rapidly from one to another. Each player makes the
motion of passing, so as to deceive the opposing group as to the
whereabouts of the ball.
The captain and players of the opposing group meanwhile keep a sharp
lookout for the ball without leaving their seats.
After a short time of passing, the captain, who started the passing
(Group _B_, diagram) calls suddenly, "Hands up!" and immediately all
passing in Group _A_ must cease, and all hands must be raised high
overhead and tightly clinched, so the player having the ball, when the
passing ceased, may not disclose the fact.
The _B_ captain again gives a sudden command of "Hands down!"
Immediately all hands are brought down softly on the desk in front of
each player of Group _A_, hands wide open, palms downward, and again
the player with the ball tries to hide it under his hand.
The players of Group _B_, who think they know who has the ball, raise
their hands. No player may speak unless called by his captain. When
called, he may say, "Under J.'s right hand" (or left hand, as the case
may be). J. raises the right hand, and if the guesser be mistaken,
places that hand in his lap, it being thereafter out of commission, so
to speak. No other player of Group _A_ moves a hand. Should the ball
be found under the hand raised, the opposing group, _i.e._ Group _B_,
receives as many points as there are hands left upon the desks.
Otherwise, the search continues, the captain of Group _B_ asking
players of his group to order a hand raised, or orders it himself,
until the ball is discovered. Group _B_ now takes the ball and passes
it from one to another, and Group _A_ gives commands through its
captain. The side making a score of three hundred points wins. A side
loses ten points when a player talks or calls for a hand to be raised
without the permission or call of the captain.
This adaptation was made by Miss Adela J. Smith of New York
City, and received honorable mention in a competition for
schoolroom games conducted by the Girls' Branch of the Public
Schools Athletic League of New York City, in 1906. It is here
published by the kind permission of the author, and of the
Girls' Branch, and of Messrs. A. G. Spalding & Brothers,
publishers of the handbook in which the game first appeared.
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