THE beginning of the game of Little War, as we know it, became possible with the invention of the spring breechloader gun. This priceless gift to boyhood appeared somewhen towards the end of the last century, a gun capable of hitting a toy soldier nine times out of ten at a distance of nine yards. It has completely superseded all the spiral-spring and other makes of gun hitherto used in playroom warfare. These spring breechloaders are made in various sizes and patterns, but the one used in our game is that known in England as the four-point-seven gun. It fires a wooden cylinder about an inch long, and has a screw adjustment for elevation and depression. It is an altogether elegant weapon.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN LITTLE WARFARE
It was with one of these guns that the beginning of our war game was made. It was at Sandgate—in England.
The present writer had been lunching with a friend—let me veil his identity under the initials J. K. J.—in a room littered with the irrepressible debris of a small boy's pleasures. On a table near our own stood four or five soldiers and one of these guns. Mr J. K. J., his more urgent needs satisfied and the coffee imminent, drew a chair to this little table, sat down, examined the gun discreetly, loaded it warily, aimed, and hit his man. Thereupon he boasted of the deed, and issued challenges that were accepted with avidity....
これらの銃のひとつから、我々のウォーゲームが始まったのです。サンドゲートにおいて ― イングランドのです。
筆者はある友人と昼食をとっていました ― 彼の身元は、イニシャルでJ. K. J.とだけ言っておきます ― 小さな男の子の楽しみの一杯の残骸が散らかった部屋でです。我々のテーブルの近くのテーブルの上には、4人または5人の兵士と、その銃の1丁が置かれていました。J. K. J.氏は、より差し迫っていた欲求を満たし、そのすぐ後にコーヒーというところで、この小テーブルに椅子を引き寄せ、腰掛けて、さりげなくその銃を観察し、慎重に弾を込め、狙いをつけて、兵を撃ちました。その結果、彼はその行為を自慢して、何度か挑戦してきて、私は貪欲にそれを受け入れ ....
