No. 81 Beetle and Wedge
There are games in which the guesser has only Scogan’s choice91 between two sorts of disaster.
Thus, a party of boys pitch on two who are unacquainted with the game, and ask them if they would not like to play “Beetle and Wedge.” “The fun is to be the Beetle and the Wedge,” they explain. The victims consenting, the Beetle is then driven against the Wedge, back to back, with a force that “sends him flying.” This amusement belongs to Connecticut.
In Philadelphia a boy is asked whether he prefers mustard or pepper; in either case receiving corresponding personal inflictions. So in the English game of “Trades” a boy is made to guess the trade of the questioner, and is hammered, planed, or rasped, accordingly.