McLoughlin Bros. 1875 Bookshelf Games featuring Life’s Mishaps

The 1875 game of Life’s Mishaps, along with two others called Domino Rex and Diamond and Hearts, is now a McLoughlin Bros. collectible.

Portraying the form of books when closed and out of their slipcase, the three board games discreetly sat on a shelf waiting to be pulled down for a night of entertainment. The board of Life’s Mishaps is featured fully on the outside and displays a colorful circular path. The boards of Domino Rex and Diamond and Hearts (or Wealth and Worth) are shown on the flipside. Each inner half marks the playing surfaces for these games. The names of the games are seen written on the imitating book spine.

McLoughlin Bros. of New York are known for producing attractive and beautiful games. Life’s Mishaps, with its depictions of various calamities is not an exception. Along the winding path are comical images of every day mishaps. The directions for the game state, “as these are mostly accidents, so in the game they are the accidents of the die.”

Only one tiny die is rolled to determine movement. The player’s game pieces move around the board accordingly. Thirty two disc counters are also part of the game. Divided evenly among players at the start of the game, these discs are used either to pay or receive from a pool. Landing on a mishap space, requires a player to pay two discs to the pool. Landing on other specific spaces, a player may receive three from the pool or pay only one. The winner of the game is the player with the most discs at the end.

Although the first player to reach the central space, numbered 48, receives the pool, a player arriving first to space number 47 (waiting to roll a one to move forward) receives a third of the pool. So it is possible for a player to win without being the first to center. The many mishaps of the board are shown through numerous amusing pictures. Falling off a chair, being chased by geese or dogs, getting caught in the rain, or slipping on ice are only some examples.  They share the humor (and their version of a Mishap) for the time period.

The game of Domino Rex is one of the games located inside the ‘book’. Strategically played, Domino Rex offers players a challenging time. Players begin by covering the domino like squares, below the central play area of the board, with small paper discs (16 each). Each player then places five checkers (game pieces) onto the first row of numbers of 7 to 11. Taking turns, players ‘unmask’ a domino square. The adding of this number to the opponent’s previous unmasking determines if a checker may be moved.

A player is able to move his checker if the two numbers added correspond to the same numbered space of the checker. The object of the game is to move the checkers, forward and then back again. Upon moving back, the player calls out ‘Rex’, for he is now crowned and has completed his goal. Strategy comes to play with the removal of discs. Since only a limited supply of numbers is presented, a player needs to be aware of all unmaskings, and all yet available unmaskings. On some turns, the sum of the numbers may not allow a player to move. The winner of the game is the first person to crown all his checkers.

Diamonds and Hearts, or Wealth and Worth is the last game of this particular bookshelf series. Each player receives 10 counters to place on their outside row of ‘hearts or diamonds’. This row is called the Treasury. Players then take turns moving around the inner board, depicting a Greek cross, by the roll of the die. A player landing on the corresponding numbers to an opponent’s treasury space takes the counter. The first to deplete his opponent’s treasury wins.

The above three games are as enjoyable to play as they were the day they were made. This McLoughlin Bros. bookshelf series games has players laughing at Life’s Mishaps, strategically thinking in the game of Domino Rex, and then balancing out the night of play with a relaxing game of Diamonds and Heart. They are treasured games from the past.