,,floor ,,games by 7,h7erbert 7,g7eorge ,wells ,contents ,i4 ,the ,toys ,to ,have ,,ii4 ,the ,game ,of ,the ,wonderful ,islands ,,iii4 ,of ,the ,building ,of ,cities ,,iv4 ,funiculars1 ,marble ,towers1 ,castles ,and ,war ,games1 ,but ,very ,little ,of ,war ,games ,section ,i ,,the ,,toys ,,to ,,have ,the jolliest indoor games for boys and girls demand a floor1 and the home that has no floor upon which games may be played falls so far short of happiness4 ,it must be a floor covered with linoleum or cork carpet1 so that toy soldiers and such-like will stand up upon it1 and of a color and surface that will take and show chalk marks2 the common green-colored cork carpet without a pattern is the best of all4 ,it must be no highway to other rooms1 and well lit and airy4 ,occasionally1 alas6 it must be scrubbed--and then a truce to ,floor ,games4 ,upon such a floor may be made an infinitude of imaginative games1 not only keeping boys and girls happy for days together1 but building up a framework of spacious and inspiring ideas in them for after life4 ,the men of tomorrow will gain new strength from nursery floors4 ,i am going to tell of some of these games and what is most needed to play them2 ,i have tried them all and a score of others like them with my sons1 and all of the games here illustrated have been set out by us4 ,i am going to tell of them here because ,i think what we have done will interest other fathers and mothers1 and perhaps be of use to them 7and to uncles and such-like tributary sub-species of humanity7 in buying presents for their own and other people's children4 ,now1 the toys we play with time after time1 and in a thousand permutations and combinations1 belong to four main groups4 ,we have 7#a7 ,,soldiers1 and with these ,i class sailors1 railway porters1 civilians1 and the lower animals generally1 such as ,i will presently describe in greater detail2 7#b7 ,,bricks2 7#c7 ,,boards and ,,planks2 and 7#d7 a lot of ,,clockwork ,,railway ,,rolling-,,stock ,,and ,,rails4 ,also there are certain minor objects--tin ships1 ,easter eggs1 and the like--of which ,i shall make incidental mention1 that like the kiwi and the duck-billed platypus refuse to be classified4 ,these we arrange and rearrange in various ways upon our floor1 making a world of them4 ,in doing so we have found out all sorts of pleasant facts1 and also many undesirable possibilities2 and very probably our experience will help a reader here and there to the former and save him from the latter4 ,for instance1 our planks and boards1 and what one can do with them1 have been a great discovery4 ,lots of boys and girls seem to be quite without planks and boards at all1 and there is no regular trade in them4 ,the toyshops1 we found1 did not keep anything of the kind we wanted1 and our boards1 which we had to get made by a carpenter1 are the basis of half the games we play4 ,the planks and boards we have are of various sizes4 ,we began with three of two yards by one2 they were made with cross pieces like small doors2 but these we found unnecessarily large1 and we would not get them now after our present experience4 ,the best thickness1 we think1 is an inch for the larger sizes and three-quarters and a half inch for the smaller2 and the best sizes are a yard square1 thirty inches square1 two feet1 and eighteen inches square--one or two of each1 and a greater number of smaller ones1 #ah x #i1 #i x #i1 and #i x #d-a_/b4 ,with the larger ones we make islands and archipelagos on our floor while the floor is a sea1 or we make a large island or a couple on the ,venice pattern1 or we pile the smaller on the larger to make hills when the floor is a level plain1 or they roof in railway stations or serve as bridges1 in such manner as ,i will presently illustrate4 ,and these boards of ours pass into our next most important possession1 which is our box of bricks4 7,but ,i was nearly forgetting to tell this1 that all the thicker and larger of these boards have holes bored through them4 ,at about every four inches is a hole1 a little larger than an ordinary gimlet hole4 ,these holes have their uses1 as ,i will tell later1 but now let me get on to the box of bricks47 ,this1 again1 wasn't a toy-shop acquisition4 ,it came to us by gift from two generous friends1 unhappily growing up and very tall at that2 and they had it from parents who were one of several families who shared in the benefit of a ,good ,uncle4 ,i know nothing certainly of this man except that he was a ,radford of ,plymouth4 ,i have never learned nor cared to learn of his commoner occupations1 but certainly he was one of those shining and distinguished uncles that tower up at times above the common levels of humanity4 ,at times1 when we consider our derived and undeserved share of his inheritance and count the joys it gives us1 we have projected half in jest and half in earnest the putting together of a little exemplary book upon the subject of such exceptional men3 ,celebrated ,uncles1 it should be called2 and it should stir up all who read it to some striving at least towards the glories of the avuncular crown4 ,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 him4 ,there are whole bricks #d-a_/b inches x #b-a_/d x #a-a_/h2 and there are quarters--called by those previous owners 7who have now ascended to1 we hope but scarcely believe1 a happier life near the ceiling7 piggys4 ,you note how these sizes fit into the sizes of the boards1 and of each size--we have never counted them1 but we must have hundreds4 ,we can pave a dozen square yards of floor with them4 ,how utterly we despise the silly little bricks of the toyshops6 ,they are too small to make a decent home for even the poorest lead soldiers1 even if there were hundreds of them1 and there are never enough1 never nearly enough2 even if you take one at a time and lay it down and say1 ,this is a house1 even then there are not enough4 ,we see rich people1 rich people out of motor cars1 rich people beyond the dreams of avarice1 going into toyshops and buying these skimpy1 sickly1 ridiculous pseudo-boxes of bricklets1 because they do not know what to ask for1 and the toyshops are just the merciless mercenary enemies of youth and happiness--so far1 that is1 as bricks are concerned4 ,their unfortunate under-parented offspring mess about with these gifts1 and don't make very much of them1 and put them away2 and you see their consequences in after life in the weakly-conceived villas and silly suburbs that people have built all round big cities4 ,such poor under-nourished nurseries must needs fall back upon the ,encyclopedia ,britannica1 and even that is becoming flexible on ,india paper6 ,but our box of bricks almost satisfies4 ,with our box of bricks we can scheme and build1 all three of us1 for the best part of the hour1 and still have more bricks in the box4 ,so much now for the bricks4 ,i will tell later how we use cartridge paper and cardboard and other things to help in our and of the decorative make of plasticine4 ,of course1 it goes without saying that we despise those foolish1 expensive1 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 mortis4 ,let me now say a little about toy soldiers and the world to which they belong4 ,toy soldiers used to be flat1 small creatures in my own boyhood1 in comparison with the magnificent beings one can buy to-day4 ,there has been an enormous improvement in our national physique in this respect4 ,now they stand nearly two inches high and look you broadly in the face1 and they have the movable arms and alert intelligence of scientifically exercised men4 ,you get five of them mounted or nine afoot in a box for a small price4 ,we three like those of ,british manufacture best2 other makes are of incompatible sizes1 and we have a rule that saves much trouble1 that all red coats belong to ,g4 ,p4 ,w41 and all other colored coats to ,f4 ,r4 ,w41 all gifts1 bequests1 and accidents notwithstanding4 ,also we have sailors2 but1 since there are no red-coated sailors1 blue counts as red4 ,then we have beefeaters1 7,footnote2 ,the warders in the ,tower of ,london are called beefeaters2 the origin of the term is obscure47 ,indians1 ,zulus1 for whom there are special rules4 ,we find we can buy lead dogs1 cats1 lions1 tigers1 horses1 camels1 cattle1 and elephants of a reasonably corresponding size1 and we have also several boxes of railway porters1 and some soldiers we bought in ,hesse-,darmstadt that we pass off on an unsuspecting home world as policemen4 ,but we want civilians very badly4 ,we found a box of ,german from an exaggerated curse of militarism1 and even the grocer wears epaulettes4 ,this might please ,lord ,roberts and ,mr4 ,leo ,maxse1 but it certainly does not please us4 ,i wish1 indeed1 that we could buy boxes of tradesmen3 a blue butcher1 a white baker with a loaf of standard bread1 a merchant or so2 boxes of servants1 boxes of street traffic1 smart sets1 and so forth4 ,we could do with a judge and lawyers1 or a box of vestrymen4 ,it is true that we can buy ,salvation ,army lasses and football players1 but we are cold to both of these4 ,we have1 of course1 boy scouts4 ,with such boxes of civilians we could have much more fun than with the running1 marching1 swashbuckling soldiery that pervades us4 ,they drive us to reviews2 and it is only emperors1 kings1 and very silly small boys who can take an undying interest in uniforms and reviews4 ,and lastly1 of our railways1 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 system4 ,nothing is more indicative of the wambling sort of parent and a coterie of witless1 worthless uncles than a heap of railway toys of different gauges and natures in the children's playroom4 ,and so1 having told you of the material we have1 let me now tell you of one or two games 7out of the innumerable many7 that we have played4 ,of course1 in this ,i have to be a little artificial4 ,actual games of the kind ,i am illustrating here have been played by us1 many and many a time1 with joy and happy invention and no thought of publication4 ,they have gone now1 those games1 into that vaguely luminous and iridescent into which happiness have tried out again points in world of memories all love-engendering must go4 ,but we our best to set them and recall the good them here4 ,section ,,ii ,,the ,,game ,,of ,,the ,,wonderful ,,islands ,in this game the floor is the sea4 ,half--rather the larger half because of some instinctive right of primogeniture--is assigned to the elder of my two sons 7he is1 as it were1 its ,olympian71 and the other half goes to his brother4 ,we distribute our boards about the sea in an archipelagic manner4 ,we then dress our islands1 objecting strongly to too close a scrutiny of our proceedings until we have done4 ,here1 in the illustration1 is such an archipelago ready for its explorers1 or rather on the verge of exploration4 ,there are altogether four islands1 two to the reader's right and two to the left1 and the nearer ones are the more northerly2 it is as many as we could get into the camera4 ,the northern island to the right is most advanced in civilization1 and is chiefly temple4 ,that temple has a flat roof1 diversified by domes made of half ,easter eggs and cardboard cones4 ,these are surmounted by decorative work of a flamboyant character in plasticine1 designed by ,g4 ,p4 ,w4 ,an oriental population crowds the courtyard and pours out upon the roadway4 ,note the grotesque plasticine monsters who guard the portals1 also by ,g4 ,p4 ,w41 who had a free hand with the architecture of this remarkable specimen of eastern religiosity4 ,they are nothing1 you may be sure1 to the gigantic idols inside1 out of the reach of the sacrilegious camera4 ,to the right is a tropical thatched hut4 ,the thatched roof is really that nice ribbed paper that comes round bottles--a priceless boon to these games4 ,all that comes into the house is saved for us4 ,the owner of the hut lounges outside the door4 ,he is a dismounted cavalry-corps man1 and he owns one cow4 ,his fence1 ,i may note1 belonged to a little wooden farm we bought in ,switzerland4 ,its human inhabitants are scattered2 its beasts follow a precarious living as wild guinea-pigs on the islands to the south4 ,your attention is particularly directed to the trees about and behind the temple1 which thicken to a forest on the further island to the right4 ,these trees we make of twigs taken from trees and bushes in the garden1 and stuck into holes in our boards4 ,formerly we lived in a house with a little wood close by1 and our forests were wonderful4 ,now we are restricted to our garden1 and we could get nothing for this set out but jasmine and pear4 ,both have wilted a little1 and are not nearly such spirited trees as you can make out of fir trees1 for instance4 ,it is for these woods chiefly that we have our planks perforated with little holes4 ,no tin trees can ever be so plausible and various and jolly as these4 ,with a good garden to draw upon one can make terrific sombre woods1 and then lie down and look through them at lonely horsemen or wandering beasts4 ,that further island on the right is a less settled country than the island of the temple4 ,camels1 you note1 run wild there2 there is a sort of dwarf elephant1 similar to the now extinct kind of which one finds skeletons in ,malta1 pigs1 a red parrot1 and other such creatures1 of lead and wood4 ,the pear-trees are fine4 ,it is those which have attracted white settlers 7,i suppose they are71 whose thatched huts are to be seen both upon the beach and in-land4 ,by the huts on the beach lie a number of pear-tree logs2 but a raid of negroid savages from the to the left is in the only settler is the man in a adjacent island progress1 and clearly visible rifleman's uniform running inland for help4 ,beyond1 peeping out among the trees1 are the supports he seeks4 ,these same negroid savages are as bold as they are ferocious4 ,they cross arms of the sea upon their rude canoes1 made simply of a strip of cardboard4 ,their own island1 the one to the south-left1 is a rocky wilderness containing caves4 ,their chief food is the wild-goat1 but in pursuit of these creatures you will also sometimes find the brown bear1 who sits--he is small but perceptible to the careful student--in the mouth of his cave4 ,here1 too1 you will distinguish small guinea pig-like creatures of wood1 in happier days the inhabitants of that ,swiss farm4 ,sunken rocks off this island are indicated by a white foam which takes the form of letters1 and you will also note a whirlpool between the two islands to the right4 ,finally comes the island nearest to the reader on the left4 ,this also is wild and rocky1 inhabited not by negroid blacks1 but by ,indians1 whose tents1 made by ,f4 ,r4 ,w4 out of ordinary brown paper and adorned with chalk totems of a rude and characteristic kind1 pour forth their fierce and well-armed inhabitants at the intimation of an invader4 ,the rocks on this island1 let me remark1 have great mineral wealth4 ,among them are to be found not only sheets and veins of silver paper1 but great nuggets of metal1 obtained by the melting down of hopelessly broken soldiers in an iron spoon4 ,note1 too1 the peculiar and romantic shell beach of this country4 ,it is an island of exceptional interest to the geologist and scientific explorer4 ,the ,indians1 you observe1 have domesticated one leaden and one wooden cow4 ,this is how the game would be set out4 ,then we build ships and explore these islands1 but in these pictures the ships are represented as already arriving4 ,the ships are built out of our wooden bricks on flat keels made of two wooden pieces of #i x #d-a_/b2 inches1 which are very convenient to push about over the floor4 ,captain ,g4 ,p4 ,w4 is steaming into the bay between the eastern and western islands4 ,he carries heavy guns1 his ship bristles with an extremely aggressive soldiery1 who appear to be blazing away for the mere love of the thing4 7,i suspect him of ,imperialist intentions47 ,captain ,f4 ,r4 ,w4 is apparently at anchor between his northern and southern islands4 ,his ship is of a slightly more pacific type4 ,i note on his deck a lady and a gentleman 7of ,german origin7 with a bag1 two of our all too rare civilians4 ,no doubt the bag contains samples and a small conversation dictionary in the negroid dialects4 7,i think ,f4 ,r4 ,w4 may turn out to be a ,liberal47 ,perhaps he will sail on and rescue the raided huts1 perhaps he will land and build a jetty1 and begin mining among the rocks to fill his hold with silver4 ,perhaps the natives will kill and eat the gentleman with the bag4 ,all that is for ,captain ,f4 ,r4 ,w4 to decide4 ,you see how the game goes on4 ,we land and alter things1 and build and rearrange1 and hoist paper flags on pins1 and subjugate populations1 and confer all the blessings of civilization upon these lands4 ,we keep them going for days4 ,and at last1 as we begin to tire of them1 comes the scrubbing brush1 and we must burn our trees and dismantle our islands1 and put our soldiers in the little nests of drawers1 and stand the island boards up against the wall1 and put everything away4 ,then perhaps1 after a few days1 we begin upon some other such game1 just as we feel disposed4 ,but it is never quite the same game1 never4 ,another time it may be wildernesses for example1 and the boards are hills1 and never a drop of water is to be found except for the lakes and rivers we may mark out in chalk4 ,but after one example others are easy1 and next ,i will tell you of our way of making towns4 ,section ,,iii ,,of ,,the ,,building ,,of ,,cities ,,we always build twin cities1 like ,london and ,westminster1 or ,buda-,pesth1 because two of us always want1 both of them1 to be mayors and municipal councils1 and it makes for local freedom and happiness to arrange it so2 but when steam railways or street railways are involved we have our rails in common1 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 area4 ,it is an undesirable thing to have other people bulging over one's houses1 standing in one's open spaces1 and1 in extreme cases1 knocking down and even treading on one's citizens4 ,it leads at times to explanations that are afterwards regretted4 ,we always have twin cities1 or at the utmost stage of coalescence a city with two wards1 ,red ,end and ,blue ,end2 we mark the boundaries very carefully1 and our citizens have so much local patriotism 7,mr4 ,chesterton will learn with pleasure7 that they stray but rarely over that thin little streak of white that bounds their municipal allegiance4 ,sometimes we have an election for mayor2 it is like a census but very abusive1 and ,red always wins4 ,only citizens with two legs and at least one arm and capable of standing up may vote1 and voters may poll on horseback2 boy scouts and women and children do not vote1 though there is a vigorous agitation to remove these disabilities4 ,zulus and foreign-looking persons1 such as ,east ,indian cavalry and ,american ,indians1 are also disfranchised4 ,so are riderless horses and camels2 but the elephant has never attempted to vote on any occasion1 and does not seem to desire the privilege4 ,it influences public opinion quite sufficiently as it is by nodding its head4 ,we have set out and ,i have photographed one of our cities to illustrate more clearly the amusement of the game4 ,red ,end is to the reader's right1 and includes most of the hill on which the town stands1 a shady zoological garden1 the town hall1 a railway tunnel through the hill1 a museum 7away in the extreme right-hand corner71 a church1 a rifle range1 and a shop4 ,blue ,end has the railway station1 four or five shops1 several homes1 a hotel1 and a farm-house1 close to the railway station4 ,the boundary drawn by me as overlord 7who also made the hills and tunnels and appointed the trees to grow7 runs irregularly between the two shops nearest the cathedral1 over the shoulder in front of the town hall1 and between the farm and the rifle range4 ,the nature of the hills ,i have already explained1 and this time we have had no lakes or ornamental water4 ,these are very easily made out of a piece of glass--the glass lid of a box for example--laid upon silver paper4 ,such water becomes very readily populated by those celluloid seals and swans and ducks that are now so common4 ,paper fish appear below the surface and may be peered at by the curious4 ,but on this occasion we have nothing of the kind1 nor have we made use of a green-colored tablecloth we sometimes use to drape our hills4 ,of course1 a large part of the fun of this game lies in the witty incorporation of all sorts of extraneous objects4 ,but the incorporation must be witty1 or you may soon convert the whole thing into an incoherent muddle of half-good ideas4 ,i have taken two photographs1 one to the right and one to the left of this agreeable place4 ,i may perhaps adopt a kind of guide-book style in reviewing its principal features3 ,i begin at the railway station4 ,i have made a rather nearer and larger photograph of the railway station1 which presents a diversified and entertaining scene to the incoming visitor4 ,porters 7out of a box of porters7 career here and there with the trucks and light baggage4 ,quite a number of our all-too-rare civilians parade the platform3 two gentlemen1 a lady1 and a small but evil-looking child are particularly noticeable2 and there is a wooden sailor with jointed legs1 in a state of intoxication as reprehensible as it is nowadays happily rare4 ,two virtuous dogs regard his abandon with quiet scorn4 ,the seat on which he sprawls is a broken piece of some toy whose nature ,i have long forgotten1 the station clock is a similar fragment1 and so is the metallic pillar which bears the name of the station4 ,so many toys1 we find1 only become serviceable with a little smashing4 ,there is an allegory in this--as ,hawthorne used to write in his diary4 7,what is he doing1 the great god ,pan1 ,down in the reeds by the river87 ,the fences at the ends of the platforms are pieces of wood belonging to the game of ,matador--that splendid and very educational construction game1 hailing1 ,i believe1 from ,hungary4 ,there is also1 ,i regret to say1 a blatant advertisement of ,jab's ,hair ,color1 showing the hair4 7,in the photograph the hair does not come out very plainly47 ,this is by ,g4 ,p4 ,w41 who seems marked out by destiny to be the advertisement-writer of the next generation4 ,he spends much of his scanty leisure inventing and drawing advertisements of imaginary commodities4 ,oblivious to many happy1 beautiful1 and noble things in life1 he goes about studying and imitating the literature of the billboards4 ,he and his brother write newspapers almost entirely devoted to these annoying appeals4 ,you will note1 too1 the placard at the mouth of the railway tunnel urging the existence of ,jinks' ,soap upon the passing traveller4 ,the oblong object on the placard represents1 no doubt1 a cake of this offensive and aggressive commodity4 ,the zoological garden flaunts a placard1 ,zoo1 two cents pay1 and the grocer's picture of a cabbage with ,get ,them is not to be ignored4 ,f4 ,r4 ,w4 is more like the ,london ,county ,council in this respect1 and prefers bare walls4 ,returning from the station1 as the guide-books say1 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 again1 and observing what admirable platforms are made by our #i x #d-a_/b pieces1 we pass out to the left into the village street4 ,a motor omnibus 7a one-horse hospital cart in less progressive days7 stands waiting for passengers2 and1 on our way to the ,cherry ,tree ,inn1 we remark two nurses1 one in charge of a child with a plasticine head4 ,the landlord of the inn is a small grotesque figure of plaster2 his sign is fastened on by a pin4 ,no doubt the refreshment supplied here has an enviable reputation1 to judge by the alacrity with which a number of riflemen move to-wards the door4 ,the inn1 by the by1 like the station and some private houses1 is roofed with stiff paper4 ,these stiff-paper roofs are one of our great inventions4 ,we get thick1 stiff paper at twopence a sheet and cut it to the sizes we need4 ,after the game is over1 we put these roofs inside one another and stick them into the bookshelves4 ,the roof one folds and puts away will live to roof another day4 ,proceeding on our way past the ,cherry ,tree1 and resisting cosy invitation of its portals1 we come to the shopping quarter of the town4 ,the stock in windows is made by hand out of plasticine4 ,we note the meat and hams of ,mr4 ,woddy1 the cabbages and carrots of ,tod ,brothers1 the general activities of the ,jokil ,co4 shopmen4 ,it is de rigueur with our shop assistants that they should wear white helmets4 ,in the street1 boy scouts go to and fro1 a wagon clatters by2 most of the adult population is about its business1 and a red-coated band plays along the roadway4 ,contrast this animated scene with the mysteries of sea and forest1 rock and whirlpool1 in our previous game4 ,further on is the big church or cathedral4 ,it is built in an extremely debased ,gothic style2 it reminds us most of a church we once surveyed during a brief visit to ,rotterdam on our way up the ,rhine4 ,a solitary boy scout1 mindful of the views of ,lord ,haldane1 enters its high portal4 ,passing the cathedral1 we continue to the museum4 ,this museum is no empty boast2 it contains mineral specimens1 shells--such great shells as were found on the beaches of our previous game--the ,titanic skulls of extinct rabbits and cats1 and other such wonders4 ,the slender curious may lie down on the floor and peep in at the windows4 ,we now1 says the guide-book1 retrace our steps to the shops1 and then1 turning to the left1 ascend under the trees up the terraced hill on which stands the ,town ,hall4 ,this magnificent building is surmounted by a colossal statue of a chamois1 the work of a ,wengen artist2 it is in two stories1 with a battlemented roof1 and a crypt 7entrance to right of steps7 used for the incarceration of offenders4 ,it is occupied by the town guard1 who wear 'beefeater' costumes of ancient origin4 ,note the red parrot perched on the battlements2 it lives tame in the zoological gardens1 and is of the same species as one we formerly observed in our archipelago4 ,note1 too1 the brisk cat-and-dog encounter below4 ,steps descend in wide flights down the hillside into ,blue ,end4 ,the two couchant lions on either side of the steps are in plasticine1 and were executed by that versatile artist1 who is also mayor of ,red ,end1 ,g4 ,p4 ,w4 ,he is present4 ,our photographer has hit upon a happy moment in the history of this town1 and a conversation of the two mayors is going on upon the terrace before the palace4 ,f4 ,r4 ,w41 mayor of ,blue ,end1 stands on the steps in the costume of an admiral2 ,g4 ,p4 ,w4 is on horseback 7his habits are equestrian7 on the terrace4 ,the town guard parades in their honor1 and up the hill a number of musicians 7a little hidden by trees7 ride on gray horses towards them4 ,passing in front of the town hall1 and turning to the right1 we approach the zoological gardens4 ,here we pass two of our civilians3 a gentleman in black1 a lady1 and a large boy scout1 presumably their son4 ,we enter the gardens1 which are protected by a bearded janitor1 and remark at once a band of three performing dogs1 who are1 as the guide-book would say1 discoursing sweet music4 ,in neither ward of the city does there seem to be the slightest restraint upon the use of musical instruments4 ,it is no place for neurotic people4 ,the gardens contain the inevitable elephants1 camels 7which we breed1 and which are therefore in considerable numbers71 a sitting bear1 brought from last game's caves1 goats from the same region1 tamed and now running loose in the gardens1 dwarf elephants1 wooden nondescripts1 and other rare creatures4 ,the keepers wear a uniform not unlike that of railway guards and porters4 ,we wander through the gardens1 return1 descend the hill by the school of musketry1 where soldiers are to be seen shooting at the butts1 pass through the paddock of the old farm1 and so return to the railway station1 extremely gratified by all we have seen1 and almost equally divided in our minds between the merits and attractiveness of either ward4 ,a clockwork train comes clattering into the station1 we take our places1 somebody hoots or whistles for the engine 7which can't71 the signal is knocked over in the excitement of the moment1 the train starts1 and we wave a long1 regretful farewell to the salubrious cheerfulness of ,chamois ,city4 ,you see now how we set out and the spirit in which we set out our towns4 ,it demands but the slightest exercise of the imagination to devise a hundred additions and variations of the scheme4 ,you can make picture-galleries--great fun for small boys who can draw2 you can make factories2 you can plan out flower-gardens--which appeals very strongly to intelligent little girls2 your town hall may become a fortified castle2 or you may put the whole town on boards and make a ,venice of it1 with ships and boats upon its canals1 and bridges across them4 ,we used to have some very serviceable ships of cardboard1 with flat bottoms2 and then we used to have a harbor1 and the ships used to sail away to distant rooms1 and even into the garden1 and return with the most remarkable cargoes1 loads of nasturtium-stem logs1 for example4 ,we had sacks then1 made of glove-fingers1 and several toy cranes4 ,i suppose we could find most of these again if we hunted for them4 ,once1 with this game fresh in our we went to see the docks1 which struck us as just our old harbor game magnified4 ,i say1 ,daddy1 said one of us in a quiet corner1 wistfully1 as one who speaks knowingly against the probabilities of the case1 and yet with a faint1 thin hope1 couldn't we play just for a little with these sacks 444 until some-body comes8 ,of course the setting-out of the city is half the game4 ,then you devise incidents4 ,as ,i wanted to photograph the particular set-out for the purpose of illustrating this account1 ,i took a larger share in the arrangement than ,i usually do4 ,it was necessary to get everything into the picture1 to ensure a light background that would throw up some of the trees1 prevent too much overlapping1 and things like that4 ,when the photographing was over1 matters became more normal4 ,i left the schoolroom1 and when ,i returned ,i found that the group of riflemen which had been converging on the publichouse had been sharply recalled to duty1 and were trotting in a disciplined1 cheerless way towards the railway station4 ,the elephant had escaped from the zoo into the ,blue ,ward1 and was being marched along by a military patrol4 ,the originally scattered boy scouts were being paraded4 ,g4 ,p4 ,w4 had demolished the shop of the ,jokil ,company1 and was building a ,red ,end station near the bend4 ,the stock of the ,jokil ,company had passed into the hands of the adjacent storekeepers4 ,then the town hall ceremonies came to an end and the guard marched off4 ,then ,g4 ,p4 ,w4 demolished the rifle-range1 and ran a small branch of the urban railway uphill to the town hall door1 and on into the zoological gardens4 ,this was only the beginning of a period of enterprise in transit1 a small railway boom4 ,a number of halts of simple construction sprang up4 ,there was much making of railway tickets1 of a size that enabled passengers to stick their heads through the middle and wear them as a ,mexican does his blanket4 ,then a battery of artillery turned up in the ,high ,street and there was talk of fortifications4 ,suppose wild ,indians were to turn up across the plains to the left and attack the town6 ,fate still has toy drawers untouched444 ,so things will go on till putting-away night on ,friday4 ,then we shall pick up the roofs and shove them away among the books1 return the clockwork engines very carefully to their boxes1 for engines are fragile things1 stow the soldiers and civilians and animals in their nests of drawers1 burn the trees again--this time they are sweet-bay2 and all the joys and sorrows and rivalries and successes of ,blue ,end and ,red ,end will pass1 and follow ,carthage and ,nineveh1 the empire of ,aztec and ,roman1 the arts of ,etruria and the palaces of ,crete1 and the plannings and contrivings of innumerable myriads of children1 into the limbo of games exhausted 444 it may be1 leaving some profit1 in thoughts widened1 in strengthened apprehensions2 it may be1 leaving nothing but a memory that dies4 ,section ,,iv ,,funiculars1 ,,marble ,,towers1 ,,castles ,,and ,,war ,,games1 ,,but ,,very ,,little ,,of ,,war ,,games ,i have now given two general types of floor game2 but these are only just two samples of delightful and imagination-stirring variations that can be contrived out of the toys ,i have described4 ,i will now glance rather more shortly at some other very good uses of the floor1 the boards1 the bricks1 the soldiers1 and the railway system--that pentagram for exorcising the evil spirit of dulness from the lives of little boys and girls4 ,and first1 there is a kind of lark we call ,funiculars4 ,there are times when islands cease somehow to dazzle1 and towns and cities are too orderly and uneventful and cramped for us1 and we want something--something to whizz4 ,then we say3 ,let us make a funicular4 ,let us make a funicular more than we have ever done4 ,let us make one to reach up to the table4 ,we dispute whether it isn't a mountain railway we are after4 ,the bare name is refreshing2 it takes us back to that unforgettable time when we all went to ,wengen1 winding in and out and up and up the mountain side--from slush1 to such snow and sunlight as we had never seen before4 ,and we make a mountain railway4 ,so far1 we have never got it up to the table1 but some day we will1 ,then we will have a station there on the flat1 and another station on the floor1 with shunts and sidings to each4 ,the peculiar joy of the mountain railway is that1 if it is properly made1 a loaded car--not a toy engine2 it is too rough a game for delicate1 respectable engines--will career from top to bottom of the system1 and go this way and that as your cunningly-arranged switches determine2 and afterwards--and this is a wonderful and distinctive discovery--you can send it back by 'lectric4 ,what is a 'lectric8 ,you may well ask4 ',lectrics were invented almost by accident1 by one of us1 to whom also the name is due4 ,it came out of an accident to a toy engine2 a toy engine that seemed done for and that was yet full of life4 ,you know1 perhaps1 what a toy engine is like4 ,it has the general appearance of a railway engine2 funnels1 buffers1 cab1 and so forth4 ,all these are very elegant things1 no doubt2 but they do not make for lightness1 they do not facilitate hill-climbing4 ,now1 sometimes an engine gets its clockwork out of order1 and then it is over and done for2 but sometimes it is merely the outer semblance that is injured--the funnel bent1 the body twisted4 ,you remove the things and1 behold6 you have bare clockwork on wheels1 an apparatus of almost malignant energy1 soul without body1 a kind of metallic rage4 ,this it was that our junior member instantly knew for a 'lectric1 and loved from the moment of its stripping4 7,i have1 by the by1 known a very serviceable little road 'lectric made out of a clockwork mouse47 ,well1 when we have got chairs and boxes and bricks1 and graded our line skilfully and well1 easing the descent1 and being very careful of the joining at the bends for fear that the descending trucks and cars will jump the rails1 we send down first an empty truck1 then trucks loaded with bricks and lead soldiers1 and then the 'lectric2 and then afterwards the sturdy 'lectric shoves up the trucks again to the top1 with a kind of savagery of purpose and a whizz that is extremely gratifying to us4 ,we make switches in these lines2 we make them have level-crossings1 at which collisions are always being just averted2 the lines go over and under each other1 and in and out of tunnels4 ,the marble tower1 again1 is a great building1 on which we devise devious slanting ways down which marbles run4 ,i do not know why it is amusing to make a marble run down a long intricate path1 and dollop down steps1 and come almost but not quite to a stop1 and rush out of dark places and across little bridges of card3 it is1 and we often do it4 ,castles are done with bricks and cardboard turrets and a portcullis of card1 and drawbridge and moats2 they are a mere special sort of city-building1 done because we have a box of men in armor4 ,we could reconstruct all sorts of historical periods if the toy soldier makers would provide us with people4 ,but at present1 as ,i have already complained1 they make scarcely anything but contemporary fighting men4 ,and of the war game ,i must either write volumes or nothing4 ,for the present let it be nothing4 ,some day1 perhaps1 ,i will write a great book about the war game and tell of battles and campaigns and strategy and tactics4 ,but this time ,i set out merely to tell of the ordinary joys of playing with the floor1 and to gird improvingly and usefully at toymakers4 ,so much1 ,i think1 ,i have done4 ,if one parent or one uncle buys the wiselier for me1 ,i shall not altogether have lived in vain4