Will never go right;
Shall I tell you the reason why?
Wherever he goes,
He follows his nose,
And that stands all awry!
If this appendage had slanted more.
Why would it serve a hole to bore?
is solved thus--It would be _Askewer_ (a skewer!)
76
“S” is the missing letter which occurs 55 times, and these are the four
lines:--
This season’s sunshine smiles, such storms as pass
Assist us to assess success or loss.
Spring’s sweetness still possesses mossy grass,
As summer’s tresses mass soft shades across.
77
The enigma--
Protected, open, plain,
Without my tail I’m flat;
I’m round, curtailed again;
Again, you have me pat!
is solved by _Patent_, _paten_, _pate_, _pat_.
78
The logogriph--
When all are gay this holds the sway,
But take a letter out,
That change of fare is ruling there,
You see, without a doubt.
Behead me twice; it is not nice
To have this in your skin;
Lop head and tail, and find a nail
Or tack to drive it in.
Behead this right, and in your sight
A little word you find;
But you will never make it out,
Though it is in your mind.
is solved by _feasting_, _fasting_, _sting_, _tin_, _in_.
79
He _prides_ himself much on his skill,
In many a burglary tried;
But when he _prised_ open the till
There was only a _spider_ inside.
The words in italics are spelt with the same letters.
80
The enigma--
Three-fourths of me an act display,
Three-fourths a bed for man;
Three-fourths have legs that cannot stray,
Three-fourths have legs that can.
I have a back without a spine,
An arm without a bone is mine.
is solved by _Coat_.
81
The charade--
My first is the French for my second,
My whole a narcotic is reckoned
is solved by _Lethe_.
82
The two palindrome words which can be formed from the letters of the
sentence “Arrive to vote at it,” are _Rotator_ and _Evitative_.
83
The enigma--
Sweet till I lose my head,
Sweet-hearted then I show;
Decapitate again, I spread,
And cannot be below.
Served so once more, I am not dead,
But with fresh beauty glow.
is solved by _Clover_, _lover_, _over_, _ver_ (Latin for Spring).
84
When Tommy undertook to put a shilling in his money-box if his father
would give him as much as he had in his purse, and after repeating the
process for three more days found himself penniless, he had elevenpence
farthing in his purse at first.
85
Two articles of English make,
And three from foreign source.
All these together you must take
Where dramas run their course.
is solved by _Theatres_ (_tres_, Latin for _three_).
86
When young Hopeful said, “If it were possible I should choose a life
double as long,” and old Sobersides answered, “Yes, and you might turn
it to better account if it was also begun old,” and the fact that their
actual words “double as long,” and “also begun old,” were spelt with
_exactly the same letters_, gave emphasis to the reply.
87
The charade--
Lop head and tail, and you will find
I have both tail and head.
Or if for spirits you’ve a mind
Set my tail first instead.
Life, as “a vapour full of woes,”
With many a darker page,
My whole in picture will disclose,
For “all the world’s a stage!”
is solved by _Drama_, _ram_, _a dram_.
88
A glowing _transept_ window, graced
With _patterns_ that true art has traced.
The words in italics have the same letters.
89
The proof by anagram that the words of commendation “blessed in pain,”
are properly applied to anæsthetics, is that exactly the same letters
spell _indispensable_.
90
The quotation buried in the sentence--
“What sin was it, sonny?” said an American negress to her lover, when
she sat on his best hat, which was flattened. Wearily he heard her
musical laugh, and arose to go. His hobby was botany, but not hers,
for she was then a merry girl. “Bother the flowers! I would prefer
this mellow pineapple, Leonidas,” she said; “I guess we Ethiopians
just love fruit!”
is “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would
smell as sweet.”
91
They _grab_ the dress with grip so keen
That half the _garb_ gives way:
And home return with purses lean
To _brag_ of “bargain-day”!
The words in italics are spelt with the same four letters.
92
Three _ladies_ went sailing out into the West,
Out into the West as the sun sank low;
Each thought as she _sailed_ of the lad she loved best
For they all had _ideals_, and each had a beau.
· · · · · · ·
But seas will rise, and spirits will sink,
And they all were too ill of _ideals_ to think,
So these _ladies sailed_ back moaning!
The words in italics have the same six letters.
93
The charade--
Lurking in riddles oft my first is found;
My second should in ample stores abound,
Or help to make the sweetest songster heard.
Peculiar, and quite proper, is my third.
My whole has found with England’s monarch grace,
The verdant home of many a goodly race,
is solved by _Punchestown_.
94
The enigma--
Accent my head,
An opening I appear;
In other fashion said
I charm all far and near--
is solved by _Entrance_.
95
The two sentences--
A lamp shines out for thee,
Win me best by tears,
are anagrams of _The Houses of Parliament_ and _Westminster Abbey_.
96
When on the Brighton beach an excited collie in pursuit of stones thrown
into the sea, suggested the riddle, “What is the difference between that
dog and a hungry man?” The appropriate answer was, “The one stops and
shakes himself; the other chops and steaks himself!”
97
The hidden animal in--
A part of me in rain,
A part in hail must be,
A part belongs to pain,
A part in bones we see,
A part in gleaming gold,
A part in common copper.
A part in peace behold,
A part in any topper,
Two parts are heard in sound,
And in our finals found.
is _Rhinoceros_.
98
The smart enigma--
Men commonly say I am clever,
Book-learning I never could boast;
Yet I turn the leaves inside the cover,
And when I am found I am lost.
is solved by _A Fox_.
99
_A sot_ is like a _toast_, or what is most
Comparative, a _toast_ is like _a sot_;
For when their substances in liquor sink
Both properly are said to be in drink.
The words in italics are spelt with the same letters, the _t_ being
repeated in _toast_.
100
The pied proverb is “Fine words butter no parsnips.”
101
The puzzle verse--
A wordy warfare waged with wit,
In youth its joys none need descry;
But where our elders take to it
Its name points loss of dignity,
is solved by _Badinage_ (bad in age).
102
The hero’s name, hidden in--
My first’s in garb, but not in dress;
My next’s in praise, but not in bliss;
My third’s in man, but not in miss;
My fourth’s in we.
My fifth’s in boar, but not in hog;
My sixth’s in cat, but not in dog;
My next’s in calm, but not in fog;
My eighth’s in we.
My ninth’s in rope, but not in twine;
My tenth’s in light, but not in shine;
My next’s in four, but not in nine;
My twelfth’s in we.
is _General Wolfe_.
103
Here is the sentence given with its appropriate and perfect anagram--
A defeat whose test is very sure.
_Sweet are the uses of adversity._
104
The phonetic missing words are given in italics:--
’Tis _plain_ that no one takes a _plane_
To _pare_ a _pair_ of _pears_;
A _rake_ may often take a _rake_
To _tear_ away the _tares_.
105
The queer obstacle--
I’m in everyone’s way,
Yet no one I stop.
My four horns each day
Horizontally play,
And my head is nailed on at the top.
is _A turnstile_.
106
The old enigma--
Take five from five, and then
Put fifty in the middle;
Twice ten times five times ten
Will finish off my riddle,
And bring it to your ken
As fit as any fiddle!
is solved thus--
When Jacky Barrett, learned Don,
Composed his famous riddle,
His thoughts, perhaps, were resting on
The strings of his old FIDDLE.
107
The phonetic gaps are filled thus--
No _quail_ will _quail_ before the wind,
A _bough_ will _bow_ before it;
We cannot _rein_ the _rain_, or find
That earthly powers _reign_ o’er it.
108
We seem to sound a note of lavish bounty;
Reverse us, and we indicate a county--
is solved by X S--S X.
109
The cryptogram--
~FTHNMLKBRNGSLLCTTN
LLSKMTMXTTLLTSTHN!~
is solved by inserting the letter “I” throughout, when this rhyming
couplet is formed--
If thin milk brings illicit tin,
I’ll skim it, mix it, till it’s thin!
110
The buried proverb in--
Yet I see them all! on golden wings that fly
Old memories steal anew;
With a tear, with a sigh, with an old, old cry
They return in ghostly hue!
is _’Tis a long lane that has no turning_.
111
Lewis Carroll’s doublet, which changes ELM into OAK by seven links,
introducing the name of another tree as one of them, is solved thus by
him--
ELM, ELL, ALL, AIL, AIR, FIR, FAR, OAR, OAK.
A shorter solution is by these six links--_Ely_, _sly_, _say_, _bay_,
_bat_, _oat_; and one of these (_bay_) is also a tree, as was _fir_, so
that the conditions given are fulfilled.
112
My dear Mr Bird,
We are giving a ball;
First second we third,
Pray give us your all.
is solved by _attendance_.
Second, I did my first and last,
Till I became my whole,
And told the tale of my repast,
A sad and greedy soul.
is solved by _satiate_.
113
The charade--
My whole, industrious, wends his way
His daily task to meet;
Behead, transpose a, lo! a sound
Of music soft and sweet;
Behead again, I make my way
With swiftness past belief;
Again, and where the fields are gay
My bounty brings relief.
is solved by _Artisan_, _strain_, _train_, _rain_.
114
The lines by an old Oxbridge don--
“’Tis an absurdity to say
Women should try for a B.A.
To College honours forward looking;
They’d best confine themselves to cooking!”
can be happily met by this retort in the same words, recast by a Girton
girl--
“Women should try for a B.A.,
To College honours forward looking;
’Tis an absurdity to say
They’d best confine themselves to cooking!”
115
The enigma--
Eight letters (start with b)
Three syllables contain;
Take one away, and see
Four syllables remain!
is solved by _Beautify_, _Beatify_.
116
The beasts buried in the lines--
Ireland’s lot heals slowly. Troubles came long ago--at times in
battalions--to attack and harass her. Ambitious democrats now
countermine famous enthusiasts nearly akin to heroes. Anarchy enables
cowards to sow hot terror and all amazement, are--
eland, sloth, camel, goat, bat, lion, stoat, ass, ram, fat, ermine,
mouse, yak, roe, hyena, cow, sow, otter and llama.
117
This is the palindrome verse that reads and rhymes from either end--
Dies slowly fading day, winds mournful sigh,
Brightly stars are waking;
Flies owlet hooting, holding revel high,
Nightly silence breaking.
118
The anagram recast from “The Observatory at Greenwich in England” is
completed thus--
_On landing here begin to watch every star._
119
The enigma--
No man at all am I,
And, if you turn me round,
To hear my warning cry
Not any men are found.
is solved by _Nemo_, _omen_, _o men_.
120
The question--
How can our sailors fare the best
When times are harder?
How do they greet with merry jest
An empty larder?
is solved thus--
FOWL IS FARE.
Wind that blows foul and chops about,
With lighter puffs,
And finds the thirsty sailor stout,
Brings food enough!
121
The enigma--
I lose my head when I am here,
Transpose me I am three;
Look in a book, you find me there,
And with me her and he--
is solved by _There_.
122
Jack did _declaim_ that he could square
The circle to a _decimal_;
His friends _claimed_ that a brain so rare
Required attention _medical_.
The words in italics are spelt with the same letters.
123
A Mr Harwood had two daughters by his first wife, the elder of these was
married to John Coshick. This Coshick had a daughter by his first wife,
whom old Harwood married. Thus Harwood’s daughter could say--
My father is my son,
And I’m my mother’s mother;
My daughter and sister are one,
I’m grandam to my brother!
124
The charade--
Catch my first with nimble wit,
Add a simple word;
Then my whole may help a bit
Opportunely heard.
is solved by _Catchword_.
125
The paradox--
My mate and I from home did start,
Some little space we were apart.
When we had run a mile or more
We kept our distance, as before;
Shade of Colenso! could this be,
When twice as fast as I ran he?
is solved by the fact that the lines apply to the large and small wheels
of a bicycle.
126
The enigma from Lewis Carroll’s Papers--
A monument all men agree
Am I in all sincerity,
Half cat, half hindrance made.
If head and tail removed should be,
Then most of all you strengthen me.
Replace my head, the stand you see
On which my tail is laid.
is solved by _Tablet_.
127
The charade--
I’m known to the poorest and worst,
And my worth by a child may be reckoned;
The least thing in nature is double my first,
And my whole is just half of my second.
is solved by _Halfpenny_.
128
My first without its head and tail
Is one and undivided;
My second shows its teeth, is frail,
And as a rule one-sided.
The two to hold my first avail,
By busy toil provided.
is solved by _Honeycomb_.
129
The towns buried in the sentences--
His sister played the piano while we sang.
I saw Nell out here last evening.
The general rode a large black mare.
I have ordered a cab at half-past one.
Meet me in the lane at half-past nine.
are _Lewes_, _Louth_, _Deal_, _Bath_ and _Neath_.
130
The anagram on “The leaning tower of Pisa, in Tuscany, Italy,” is
completed thus--
A funny spot in a sweet city; _I o’erhang it all_.
131
When they found that catacomb
Near the _Capitol_ at Rome
’Twas the _topical_ discussion of the season;
But the _optical_ effect
Of the skeletons select
Deprived the poor Professor of his reason!
The words in italics are spelt with the same letters.
132
The charade--
My first is pretence,
My second a dandy;
When fogs are most dense
My whole will be handy.
is solved by _Flambeau_.
133
If we adopt the old spelling of the final word, we can prove by anagram
that Bacon had no hand at anyrate in Shakespeare’s play “Much Ado About
Nothinge,” for the same letters exactly spell “_Bacon? O, naught due to
him!_”
134
Use all your wits to guess my all,
Can any guess it right?
Transposed, and never seen at all,
It still is felt in sight.
Behead, transpose, then let it be,
And you at last a clue may see.
is solved by _Left_, _felt_, _let_.
135
“Insanitary” and “sanitary reform” are very happily recast by anagram
thus--_In nasty air; Former air nasty_.
136
The charade--
Let my second cut my first
When I come to table;
Though I cannot quench your thirst
Eat me--you are able.
is solved by _Cutlet_.
137
These are the completed lines--
What mars a land so sadly as a war?
What days as dark as days that wars alarm?
Alas! ask any, ask at hand, afar,
All shall call war a harass and a harm.
Why call, as ballads talk, that ghastly art
All gallant acts--a grand and manly part?
It will be seen that “a” was the only missing letter.
138
The charade--
To me when whole, for I am sweet,
The moon fresh brightness brings;
Cut off my tail, I’m blunt, but meet
To sharpen other things.
Behead me twice, and I have led
Soldiers to face the foe;
Headless and tailless, one remains
Though all the rest may go.
is solved by Honey (honey-moon; hone; Ney; one).
139
The enigma--
We start when the ninth hour is past,
Then there’s an end of you.
A vengeful goddess shows at last
What Antifat will do.
is solved by _Attenuate_:--at ten, u, Ate, goddess of Revenge.
140
The charade--
When on charades intent I take my pen,
To seek some hidden goal,
Over my first my second comes, and then
Quite overcomes my whole.
is solved by _Overcomes_.
141
The cryptogram which was sent as a reliable tip before a race in which
Petronel was to run--
Tell me, Ben, who tore it.
Seek a plant for it, see Bob.
is deciphered thus--
Take every third letter, and you arrive at Lenortepnoteb. Read this
backwards, and you have the tip, “Bet on Petronel!”
142
The enigma--
I have no form, I have no friend,
From me all come, in me all end.
And it is strange but very true
That I am here and nowhere too--
is solved by _Nothing_.
143
The broken sentence--
A sed end ought eat ease ain.
is thus filled in to describe a curse and to proclaim its cure--
A cursed fiend brought death, disease and pain;
A blessed friend brought breath and ease again.
144
The charade--
My first is a cover,
My second a city;
The whole you discover
With this if you’re witty.
is solved by _Capacity_.
145
The four rivers buried in the sentence--
The deaf and dumb girl began gesticulating with a message, and her
delivery was ever neat, with graceful pose in every attitude.
are _Ganges_, _Thames_, _Severn_ and _Seine_.
146
If the “shingle” on the Brighton beach could speak, it might boast by
anagram, “I am _English_!”
147
The enigma--
She is as deaf as any post,
Incurable I fear;
She is my guest, I am her host,
How can I make her hear?
is solved by adding an a to _her_, which becomes _hear_.
148
The missing words in the “Plaint of the Rejected” are--_The R.A._,
_hater_, _heart_, _earth_, _Herat_.
149
The man who could attach a phonetic meaning to the words “Beta in Greek
means letter B,” could in another fashion invite others to beat his wife
by merely calling them and saying, “_Hither!_” (hit her).
150
The rebus--
storm? an umbrella with all
a th me who alls mud
is solved thus--Who follows me under an umbrella, with overalls all over
mud, after a thunderstorm?
151
This is the completed palindrome:--
Nor I nor Emma had level’d a hammer on iron.
It reads alike from either end.
152
The tutor came to the conclusion that there is nothing in Ecclesiastical
Law to prevent the Pope from burying the Archbishop of Canterbury, but
the undergraduate who had proposed the question demurred to this reply;
pressed for his reason he said, as his face broke into a smile, “He
cannot do so, because _the Archbishop is not dead_!”
153
The proverb buried in the sentence, “While there are very many as kind
as this, they know no task unkind,” is, “_Let every man skin his own
skunk_.”
154
Kate gathers me where children three,
Tom, Jane, and Mary, chatter;
He leads the way and then we see
The other two come at her!
is solved by _Heather_ (he, at her).
155
The quotation from Shakespeare buried in--
Strange weather! What could equal it? Yesterday sunshine and soft
breezes, to-day a summer cyclone raging noisily; then other changes,
as floods of fiercest rain eddy beneath the blast.
is “The quality of mercy is not strained.”
156
The beetroot palindrome, which reads alike from either end is--
RED ROOT PUT UP TO ORDER
157
My _first_ we all do when we fail;
My _next_ is heard in rain or hail;
My _fourth_ a sheep of gender male;
My _third_ is one without its tail;
My _whole_ for foreign countries sail.
is solved by _Missionaries_.
158
The words written on the walls of a Western college gained their
ambiguous sense from the three final words, printed in italics--“Young
women should set a good example, for young men _will follow them_!”
159
The enigma--
I’m but a little letter, still
I have my duties to fulfil;
If off you take
My tail, and make
An alteration in my lot,
Though I seem shorter I am not.
is solved by _Note_.
160
This is the full text--
Says Tom to Bill, “Pray tell me, sir,
Why is it that the devil,
In spite of all his naughty ways
Can never be uncivil?”
Says Bill to Tom, “The answer’s plain
To any mind that’s bright;
Because the _imp o’ darkness_, sir,
Cannot be _imp o’ light_!”
161
Beneath the _limes_ which shade the lawn
Her bicycle she mounted;
And with a _smile_, ere she had gone
An hour, ten _miles_ she counted.
It rained, it snowed, but nought could stop her,
Till in the _slime_, she came a cropper!
The words in italics have the same letters.
162
The date of the new organ given by the English is concealed in the lines
of this inscription above its keyboard at Ober Ammergau--
QVI CHRISTI LAVDES CANTANT
SANCTÆ PASSIONIS SVÆ VIRTVTE
IN IPSO ET PATRE VNVM SINT.
If the Roman numerals that occur in the words are added together, they
amount to 1894, the date of its completion.
163
A woman’s name
Of foreign fame,
Hers was a noble mind.
Now, sir, transpose,
And I suppose
No smaller thing you’ll find.
is solved by _Stael_, _least_.
164
The French charade--
Pour avoir mon _premier_
Femme qui cache mon _dernier_
Manque souvent mon _entier_.
is solved by _Mari-age_.
165
The charade--
Let go! let go! you naughty first,
Or you will make my second;
A stream of words will then outburst,
Swift as my whole is reckoned.
is solved by _Current_.
166
My first is first when cruisers charge in line,
And oft in frosty skies is seen to shine.
Don’t spare my second if you would suggest
To an impulsive child the way that’s best.
My sporting whole, though now neglected grown,
Travelled by tube before the tube was known.
is solved by _Ramrod_.
167
The enigma--
First of men we lead a measure,
Last we end the same.
Starting merrily, our pleasure
Is to finish lame.
is solved by the letters _me_.
168
When Tom declared that he could give his sister quite a simple sentence
of seven common English words of one syllable, which she could not
produce on her typewriter, he had in his mind, “We can spell (to, too,
two) in three ways,” which cannot, of course, be expressed in seven
written words.
169
The French charade--
Mon premier est un tyran, mon second un horreur,
Mon tout est le diable lui-même.
Mais si mon premier est bon, mon second ne fait rien,
Et mon tout est le bonheur suprême.
is solved by _Mariage_.
170
Sydney Smith’s conclusion as to the value and satisfaction of a City
dinner was completed thus:--“I cannot wholly value a dinner by the _test
you do_!” (Turtle, in Latin, _testudo_).
171
DEAN SWIFT’S ENIGMA--
In youth exalted high in air,
Or bathing in the streamlet fair,
Nature to form me took delight
And clothed my body all in white;
My person tall and slender waist
On either side with fringes graced;
Till me that tyrant Man espied,
And dragg’d me from my mother’s side.
No wonder that I look so thin,
The monster stripp’d me to the skin;
My body flay’d, my hair he cropp’d,
And head and foot both off he lopp’d;
Pick’d all the marrow from my bone.
And then, with heart more hard than stone,
To vex me more, he took a freak
To slit my tongue, and make me speak.
But that which wonderful appears,
I speak to eyes and not to ears.
All languages I now command
Yet not a word I understand.
is solved by _A Goose-quill_.
172
The answer to the riddle propounded by the possessor of a new KEEN KUT
razor to his friend whose chin was disfigured by scars, “What is the
difference between my razor and yours?” is--“Mine cuts thoroughly; yours
also cuts, tho’ roughly!”
173
The decapitated words are in italics--
The ship rode in an _eastern_ bay,
Asleep _astern_ the master lay,
A _stern_ and rugged man was he,
And, like a _tern_, at home at sea.
Like swooping _ern_ he caught his prey
Whene’er an _R.N_. came his way;
But while due _N_. the needle kept
He in his cabin lay and slept.
The ern, or erne, is the sea-eagle.
174
When the tempest roars the loudest
Oft my first a shelter proves.
Say what fair one, though the proudest,
Spurns my next from one she loves?
When the storms of life are past
Earth provides my whole at last.
is solved by _Covering_.
175
One syllable, I help to turn the scale
Of party strife or faction;
Recast me, and two syllables avail
To stop all further action.
is solved by _vote_, _veto_.
176
The lines to an owl are filled in thus--
Oh, on old towers, thou gloomy owl,
Thou lovest to hoot, thou lovest to howl.
Or on old oaks your hollow tone
So lost, so solemn, sounds alone,
So mournful no one loves to go
Or of your hooting howls to know.
The vowel “o” occurs forty-six times in the six lines.
177
In the Army anagram--
I’m free to-day, the _old sire_ said,
_O no cell_ now have I to dread;
For this one happy day to me
_Are glen_ and hill and forest free,
I, if I will, can ride, or fish,
_A pit can_ enter, if I wish,
In search of chalk or sand.
In peace alone I now can dine,
And sing to Anna’s _lute at nine_,
Nor fear a reprimand.
the words in italics spell also _soldier_, _colonel_, _general_,
_captain_, and _lieutenant_.
178
My first transposed becomes a name
Which may quite mean be reckoned,
Two syllables combine the same,
With one or two for second.
My whole when fields are fresh and green,
And softly blows the wind,
Where the first signs of spring are seen
Within the woods we find.
is solved by _Anemone_, the _wind_ flower (name, mean, anem, one, o,
ne).
179
The anagram enigma--
Silent long is the wood-bird’s song,
Bare is the woodland bough;
For waving trees in wintry breeze
Have “no buds now.”
is solved by _snowbound_, which contains exactly the same letters as “no
buds now.”
180
The question of time--