31 August 1883 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: NPV, UCCL 02827)
Dear Charley—
Orion has done his work first rate.
I wanted Wm the Conqueror to experiment on—you & Annie can do the same. I made a column of dates on a pine board—1066 to 1087—& we tried the game this morning. It went very well.
[in the diagram below, the rows of dots and the center column of dates are enclosed in rectangular boxes]
R | RED (10 each) | |||
. . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . | |||
B | 1066 | BLUE—8 each | ||
. . . . . | . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . | ||
Bl | 1067 | BLACK—5 | ||
. . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . | ||
Gr | &c | GREEN—3 | ||
. . . . | . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . | ||
&c | ||||
. . . . . . |
in a box on the left: Black-pin’s side. |
in a box on the right: Brass pin’s side. |
For accession of a king, I count one I stick one pin under the date, & one pin in the red row up in my corner of the board (a red hole being worth 10 points)—thus I score 11.
For end of king’s reign, 1 pin in the date & 1 in red row—11.
For birth or death of a king, or any very distinguished subject, 1 pin in the date, & 1 in Black——————6 points.
For a battle, 1 pin in date & one in blue——— 9 points.
For discoveries, inventions, earthquakes, memorable other calamities, &c &c, 1 in date & 1 in green————————— 4 points.
For all ordinary events, 1 pin in the date——— 1 point.
When the game is finished it is quickly & easily counted.
Kings & battles are the great landmarks of history—thus I try to make it worth the pupil’s while to secure those, they count so much.
In the chart there will be only one, or maybe two events printed opposite each date. That’s for the full outline game, using all the kings.
But for a detail game, where the players confine themselves to a single king, the umpire will sit with the book in his hand, not the chart, & all the events of that reign will be compressed into 4 or 3 or 4 large pages of small type, & each event numbered: 1, 2, 3, 4, &c.—10 events to each year.
I want 10 pinholes attached to each date (under it, for instance),—& divided in the middle by a vertical line: If you are playing answer No 6, the umpire will tell you to put your pin in the first hole to the right of the centre line, &c. The position of your pin will always show what answer it represents.
the paragraph above was written around a diagram of the game board, with a vertical line on each side and one down the middle, which included the following dates:
1 0 6 ◊ | ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅
⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ | ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅
1 0 6 7 |
⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ | ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅
⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ | ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅
1 0 | 6 9
⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ | ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅
1 0 | 7 0
⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ | ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅
1 0 | 71
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NPV.
MicroPUL, reel 2.
see McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.