BACK OF THE OLDTIME song of “Grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf, so it stood for ninety years on the floor,” there was a legend of a pestiferous grand-father and a cantankerous old clock which, from the fitful time when “it was bought on the morn, when the old man was bom,” it had made his whole life miserable, owing to an incurable habit which the clock had acquired of getting the hands tangled up whenever they attempted to pass.
These semi-occasional stoppages became of more frequent occurrence as advancing age made the old gentleman more irritable and his feeble hands more incapable of correcting the cranky antics of the balky old timepiece.
Once when the hands came together again and stopped the clock the old man flew into such an ungovernable passion that he fell down in a fit, stone dead, and it was then that
“The clock stopped short,
Never to go again,
When the old man died. ”
A photograph of the clock was presented to me, showing the classical figure of a female representing time, and it struck me as remarkable that with the knowledge of the hour and minute hands being together that it should be possible to figure out the exact time al which “the old man died,” from the position of the second hand as shown, without having to see the face of the clock. The idea of being able to figure out the exact time of day from seeing the second hand alone is very odd, although not so difficult a puzzle as one would imagine.
“The clock stopped short,
Never to go again
when the old man died,”
It was explained that the hour and minute hands had tangled up, and the puzzle was to determine their point of contact from the position of the second hand. Well, as the second hand may be said to be a little less than 5 1/2 seconds past 60, we will find that the time must have been 49 minutes, 5 and 5/11 ths. Of a second past 9, which would bring the hour and minute hands together so that they caught and stopped the clock, which so irritated and excited grandfather that he just “up and died.”
2.
My second belongs to my first; but my whole has nothing to do with either my first or my second. Hogshead.
3. HIDDEN CITY.
Speaking about the recent cat show, I wish to mention that Uncle Rubens and wife were on here last week, and being interested in such matters, resolved to see if there were any felines on exhibition to compare with their old family cat. By mistake they got into the zoo, and, as shown in the puzzle sketch, were surprised at what they saw.
How many of our young puzzlists can discover Aunt Betsey’s home, concealed in what she says?
Hands off of that tiger which is on exhibition at Bangor.
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