Two Ways of Securing Certain Valuable and Closely Guarded Information
Which the Fair Sex Defies Even the Courts to Extract.
Few mysteries are at once so impenetrable and so irritating as that which
surrounds a truthful woman who declines to take you into her confidence
when the subject of her age is mentioned. But even women who are truthful
and secretive are curious, and when a friend tells them that he can solve
the mystery in spite of them they may easily fall into a certain
mathematical snare.
Tell the young woman to put down the number of the month in which she was
born, then to multiply it by 2, then add 5, then to multiply it by 50,
then to add her age, then to add 115, then to subtract 365, and finally to
tell you the amount that she has left.
The two figures to the right will tell her age, and the remainder the
month of her birth. For example, the amount is 822; she is twenty-two
years old, and was born in the eighth month (August).
Then there is another method.
Just hand this table to a young lady, and request her to tell you in which
column or columns her age is contained, and add together the figures at
the top of the columns in which her age is found, and you have the great
secret. Thus, suppose her age to be seventeen, you will find that number
in the first and fifth columns. Here is the magic table:
1 2 4 8 16 32
3 3 5 9 17 33
5 6 6 10 18 34
7 7 7 11 19 35
9 10 12 12 20 36
11 11 13 13 21 37
13 14 14 14 22 38
15 15 15 15 23 39
17 18 20 24 24 40
19 19 21 25 25 41
21 22 22 26 26 42
23 23 23 27 27 43
25 26 28 28 28 44
27 27 29 29 29 45
29 30 30 30 30 46
31 31 31 31 31 47
33 34 36 40 48 48
35 35 37 41 49 49
37 38 38 42 50 50
39 39 39 43 51 51
41 42 44 44 52 52
43 43 45 45 53 53
45 46 46 46 54 54
47 47 47 47 55 55
49 50 52 56 56 56
51 51 53 57 57 57
53 54 54 58 58 58
55 55 55 59 59 59
57 58 60 60 60 60
59 59 61 61 61 61
61 62 62 62 62 62
63 63 63 63 63 63