A $50 Prize Puzzle.
There are twenty seven questions in the following. $50 in money will be divided among the ten, all under eighteen years, who send the best solutions. Correctness, spelling, and neatness count. Give answers by numbers. Put your own name and address at the top of every sheet, and at the top of the first sheet put the words "Round Table." Mail solutions not later than December 31, 1895. Correct answers and names of prize-winners will be given in Harper's Round Table for January 28, 1896. "Everything comes to those who try." Address the publishers, and put "Puzzle Answer" in lower left-hand corner of your envelope.
A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.
There were three wise men of Gotham
Who went to sea in a bowl.
What did they find the earth around
Before they reached their goal?
They found a good many things. To enumerate a few:
A nail in North American land; (1)
A meat in the isles of the sea; (2)
A gale of wind in a city of Maine,
As you may plainly see; (3)
A yellow man in Asian heights; (4)
Delicious fruit in a bay; (5)
A friend to man in a Russian lake; (6)
A measure of oil in Cathay. (7)
At a hotel in France they were given a queer dish of food. Here is the receipt for it:
Take poetry, music, and painting,
Already well combined,
And to make the dish we are wanting,
Add the first person you find.
Then stifle my first by my second,
And let all stand until cold,
When you have a delightful pickle
That our grandmothers made of old. (8)
Proceeding, they found
A town of Maine in a Floridian bay, (9)
A bit of wood in a sea; (10)
A little friend in an Alpine pass,
As travellers all agree; (11)
Convenient coin in a Russian mart; (12)
Bright light in an African isle; (13)
A part of a ship in a British town, (14)
A stag in a town of the Nile. (15)
In Egypt a landlord presented them with a bill that read:
When first you know that I am near,
You turn from me and flee;
Yet if I harm you, what seems queer
Is that you send for me;
And when my bad effects are gone,
You make me pay for what I've done. (16)
Their time getting short, the wise men left their bowl for a balloon, and found
A writer's tool in a Danish port, (17)
French coin in a State of the West; (18)
A rodent fierce in a Grecian plain,
A dreaded household pest. (19)
A favorite toy in a burning mount, (20)
With a cutting tool they see; (21)
A statesman famed in a town of Maine; (22)
A snake in an inland sea. (23)
Being up in the air, they had to exist on light dinners. Here is the receipt for one of their meals:
Take a conjunction and lay it near
Something that's fully equal.
The smallest article you can find
Follows this as a common sequel.
Add a substance of nature aerial,
And so make a food fit for palate imperial. (24)
Going back to their bowl again, they saw
An American stream in a city famed. (25)
French coin in an Italian town; (26)
A head of hair in an English isle,
A place of great renown.
All these they saw as they sailed afar,
Where'er their course they bent;
But never found 'neath the farthest star
The secret of content. (27)
This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp and coin collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondent should address Editor Stamp Department.
Another great find has been made. A philatelist in a town in Illinois applied to the postmaster for a 90c. stamp, expecting to receive the current issue. Imagine his surprise when the postmaster handed him a 90c. 1869 issue (portrait of Lincoln) in fine condition. Of course he immediately bought all the postmaster had, twenty-eight copies. One of these is now in his collection, the other twenty-seven have been sold at $30 each.
Doubtless there are many thousands of old issues still on sale in country post-offices, and I would advise the purchase of any or all U.S. stamps issued before 1887. Of the later issues dealers have a good supply. Plate-number collecting is growing every day. As time goes on the scarce plate numbers advance in price, and the commoner numbers decrease. No. 89 2c. is still the scarcest, although some of the first numbers are now almost unobtainable. All the unwatermarked sheets are growing scarce; the $1 has already advanced fifty per cent. since the change to watermark. The $2 and $5 will doubtless soon do the same.
M. Hess.—The stamps mentioned are sold by dealers at 1c. or 2c. each.
Watrous.—I do not recognize the coin by your description.
N. D. Henderson, 135 West Eighty-ninth Street, New York, wants to exchange stamps with Round Table collectors.—As the same rare stamp may be cheap or dear according to its condition, the only absolute test of its value is to sell it at auction.
E. France.—No addresses of dealers are given in this column.
Lester Hicks.—The 1858 flying-eagle cent is quoted by dealers at 5c.
H. E. P.—The half-cent 1809 is worth 10c.
L. E. S.—The ore coin is Swedish. The other coins are worth face only.
E. Ring.—Half-dollars of any date from 1817 to 1836 can be bought of dealers at 75c. each.
S. B. N. and A. C. H.—See answer to R. Baker in No. 837.
F. James.—The Antoninus Pius is an old Roman coin. The cent and gold piece have no premium value.
O. Furhman.—All the stamps are revenues, not postage.
Philatus.