HERE IS AN ODD little concealed word puzzle, built upon historical lines. According to a German writer upon the American war of independence, the capture of Andre in 1780 was effected by two Hessians, who could not speak English. Without discussing the probabilities of the case, we will ask our young puzzlists to discover the possible home of the captors concealed in the description of the picture.
The Andre captors came from Dresden.
2.
Some people can never catch on to the puzzling features of Agebra, and I confess to the seeming absurdity of multiplying P D Q by m i x, although I can see that the adding of M to ore would make it more. The addition and subtraction of letters is all right, but as a Western school teacher told me, “The multiplication of one letter by another is a corker.” He kept, a general store in connection with his school “and other things,” as he termed it, and, as shown in the picture, introduced a system of algebra which goes as far as he knew. I saw the billboard, and from the prominent position which he gave to chess, above money consideration and so far away from soap, I knew he must be a true votary of the royal game, and studied out his algebraical sign.
I soon discovered that, like all great merchants, he had a secret price code. viz.: a word of ten letters which gives a number for each letter, by which they mark their goods. You see the letters are all arranged like numbers to be added up by simple addition. If you will guess what that key word is you can change all the words to numbers and you will see why all of those animals and things add up exactly so as to make “all wool” the correct answer. It is a simple puzzle, and as tending to show that algebra is not such a bugbear after all, our young friends are asked to discover the key to the cypher word.
I find that algebra is more popular with our puzzlists than is generally supposed, and they found no trouble whatever in adding up bow-wow chops, Alsop’s pale ale and cow's cheese so as to make it all wool. To such”if any there were”who could not solve the mystery which has puzzled me all these years, it may be stated that the keyword to the situation is “peach blows,” a most popular variety of potatoes. Give each of these letters a number, running from 1, 2, etc., to 0, and it becomes an easy matter to discover the algebraic value of hoes, apples, soap, etc., the total of which adds up “all wool,” which, to say the least, is a remarkable coincidence.
3.
What French word contains every vowel and but one consonant? Oiseau.
What parts of speech are shopkeepers most familiar with? Articles.
When did Ruth treat Boaz badly? When pulled his ears and trod on his corn.
Why is the port, of Plymouth like a very wonderful phenomenon in acoustics? Because it includes a part of the sea called the Sound; and that is the only sound that you can see.
Why are young ladies so partial to sunset and twilight? Because they are daughters of Eve.
What kind of robbery may be said to be not dangerous? A safe robbery.
When is a fish-kettle like a city omnibus? When it's blocked-tin (blocked in).
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