Two Exciting Puzzle Contests Ended.
Endeavoring to favor the Table with an easy puzzle, since many said the questions were too hard, a flood of correct answers resulted in the Authors' Outing Contest, and, in accordance with the role, a second contest had to be held. Here are correct answers to the original contest:
1. Moore—Moor. 2. Gay. 3. Yonge. 4. Lot's wife. 5. The mulberry is said to have turned red because Pyramus killed himself at the root of the tree, in the belief that Thisbe had been devoured by a lion. 6. Bacon. 7. Hogg. 8. Ruskin. 9. Lemon. 10. Robinson Crusoe's man Friday. 11. Dickens. 12. Watts. 13. Bangs. 14. Theodore Child. 15. Butler. 16. Canning. 17. Hawthorne. 18. February. 19. Reade. 20. Swift. 21. Howitt—How it. 22. Motherwell. 23. Scott—Scot. 24. Hood. 25. Lamb. 26. Lover. 27. Harte. 28. Twain. 29. Spenser. 30. Akenside. 31. Holland. 32. Sterne. 33. Cooper. 34. Smiles. 35. Wordsworth. 36. Goldsmith. 37. Shelley. 38. Borrow. 39. Steele. 40. Santa Claus.
A set of 35 new questions was prepared and sent by mail, to those who gave the foregoing correct answers. Thus the ties were played off, so to speak, unsuccessful contestants and outsiders being barred. Following are answers to the new questions. In some cases the questions themselves are given, since they have not before been published. It was asked who wrote these:
1. "The Widowed Heart," Albert Pike; 2. "The Revellers," William Davis Gallagher, Mrs. Hemans; 3. "The Remarkable Wreck of the Thomas Hyke," Frank R. Stockton; 4. "Sicily Burns's Wedding," Geo. W. Harris; 5. "The Tar Baby," Joel Chandler Harris; 6. "The Only Daughter," Harriett Campbell, O. W. Holmes, Mrs. Henry Wood; 7. "The Semi-attached Couple," Hon. Emily Eden; 8. "Marco Bozzaris," Fitz-Greene Halleck; 9. "The Buckwheat Cake," Henry Pickering; 10. "Adams and Liberty," Robert Treat Paine, Jr.
Four riddles were propounded:
11. The Ghost in Hamlet. 28. La Grippe.
18.
Four of a kind, four of a name,
Loving one who was called the same.
Her star of good-luck went steadily down,
She lost her life when she lost her crown;
But they served her fondly till all was o'er,
These four of a name, these faithful four.
—The Four Marys of Mary Queen of Scots.
35. We are boon companions and nearly inseparable. We take interminable journeys together, travelling over almost incalculable distances; always work together, and take our vacations at the same time. We may be found in every civilized portion of the globe—useful alike in the king's palace, the peasant's hut, the Indian's wigwam, the hospital ward, and the ship at sea. Yet in some respects we are entirely different, for while I can adapt myself to every situation with perfect ease, my companion is very set in his ways, but together we bring order, comfort, and beauty wherever we go. After the labor of years and he is laid aside, my work remains to cheer and gladden many hearts, sometimes preserving family history which would otherwise be forgotten. And yet, marvellous to relate, we have neither hands, feet, head, nor body.—Needle and Thread.
Nos. 12 to 17 were quotations from the poets, and their answers are: 12. Sir Walter Raleigh, on the snuff of a candle; 13. Pope; 14. The Serenade. J. G. Percival; 15. War Song of Revolution, John Neal; 16. Youth and Age, Richard Dabney; 17. The New Roof, Francis Hopkinson.
Contestants were asked to name the works in which the following characters appear. Answers are here given: 19. Froth, Measure for Measure; 20. Shallow, Merry Wives of Windsor; 21. Godfrey Ablewhite, Moonstone, by Collins; 22. Edmund Gray, Ivory Gate, by Besant; 23. Gwendolen Harleth, Daniel Deronda, by Eliot; 24. Blind Muriel, John Halifax, Gent., by Miss Mulock; 25. Grant Munro, Sherlock Holmes, by Doyle; 26. Christine Ludolph, Barriers Burned Away, by Roe; 27. Princess Irenè, Prince of India, by Wallace.
These questions were asked. Answers are here after each:
29. A book wherein the heroine's name is not once mentioned.—"Rutledge," "She." 30. What famous character is it who, whether in doors or out, summer or winter, always keeps a glove on one hand?—M. Hamel in Mrs. Edwards's "Hand and Glove." 31. What one was it who always offered his left hand to his friends because of the guilty deed done by the right?—Eugene Aram. 32. Name the fellow who, in a famous book, stands chewing the rust from his fingers. When he reaches home he will probably find his wife "prayin' agin'" him.—Jerry Cruncher. 33. A character in another book who was the first to ride on horseback from New York to San Francisco.—Willard Glazier, John C. Fremont, John Brent. 34. The book wherein one person calls upon another, and receives an answer, though they are miles apart.—Jane Eyre, Peter Ibbetson.
In No. 33 it was found that authorities, equally credible, differed. Hence the question was dropped, and no matter what was the answer it was counted correct.
The prizes were $25 divided, but $10 to first. The amount awarded is slightly increased. The highest honor goes to George Peirce, who is a Pennsylvanian, aged 12. He answered correctly all but two of the questions. Second prizes of $2 each go to Lois A. Dowling, of New York (Rochester), and John H. Campbell, Jr., of Pennsylvania (Germantown); and third prizes of $1 each to the following: Harry Nelson Morey, New York; Henry S. Parsons, Massachusetts; John J. Clarkson, Helen J. Curley, and Martin Henneberry, Illinois; Charles A. Urner and Frank A. Urner, New Jersey; Pierre Freret, Louisiana; Edmund T. M. Franklin, Virginia; Kathrine S. Frost, Massachusetts; Edith L. Warner and Edith C. Sanders, Maryland, and Mae Sterner, Pennsylvania.