EXAMINERS’ REPORT.
Nearly nine hundred competitors tried their skill upon this puzzle, and with such good effect that our award is long enough to excite editorial remonstrance. To make room for it we must cut down our report to the verge of terseness.
Many solvers left out the “An” in the heading. In a way it was only a trifling error, but as it could only be attributed to carelessness, it did not commend itself to our sympathy. It was less wonderful that the unwonted exercise of the hen in the first title was not correctly interpreted by all. Let us say at once that the excited fowl was not “drowning” nor “in danger of drowning;” the water was too shallow. “When in water” was not quite explicit enough either as a title or as an interpretation of the picture. The hen was in a bath, and therefore presumably bathing.
In the first line we often found “big” and “large” instead of great. It is more customary to speak of big and great waves than of large waves, and we gave slight preference to the former readings.
In the title of the second puzzle a few solvers failed to notice the s and wrote “An earthquake.” It was a pity. Likewise in the first line the s was sometimes missing, and more often the apostrophe. But it was in the fourth line that the real trouble was found. Was the h under the w, or was it inside or was it outside? Opinions widely differed, but the majority voted it to be beneath, appreciating the sense of the advice in spite of poetic obscurity of expression.
While we were wrestling with the point a learned professor came into our room. We read the lines to him, and asked what impression they conveyed to his mind. Without an instant’s hesitation he threw open the door and stood beneath the lintel, and we returned to our work with much comfort and increased admiration for learned professors.
The advice may seem to be strange to those unacquainted with earthquakes and their ways, but it is based upon wide experience. However great the “tumult,” the framework of the doorway generally affords ample protection.
In the same line “whatere” was sometimes erroneously substituted for whate’er. Here we must call attention to the fact that whatever is one word, and that the contraction is one word also.
In very many solutions tho’ appeared in place of “though.” On this point one competitor very clearly puts the correct ruling. He writes—“‘Tho’’ for ‘though’ phonetically (as ‘ma’ for ‘may’ in line following). ‘Tho’’ is not admissible, nor any shortenings by an apostrophe of the spelling of a word where, abbreviated or unabbreviated, the pronunciation remains the same.”
In writing, these abbreviations are sometimes used, but they indicate a lack of refinement in style, and are much to be deprecated.
It only remains for us to say that absolute perfection was attained by the first prize-winners, and by no one else. As to the mention lists, those solvers who took the trouble to indent the lines of the first verse, as in the published solution, will find their names in a higher class than those who did not. The rhyming lines of the second puzzle run in pairs, hence no grouping by indentation was necessary.
An expert and critical solver has written a letter about the puzzle, “An Ideal Garden,” which deserves attention. He first contends that he “sent in a perfectly correct solution,” but we have been able to set his mind at rest on that point by returning it to him. He next maintains that in punctuation “the printed solution is wrong.” According to him the first line should read “A garden, like a room, should be,” and not “A garden like a room should be,”.
But it all depends upon the meaning of the lines. In our version it is that a garden should be like a room, it should have a green carpet, and for furniture, a few trees.
In our correspondent’s version the sense is altogether different. It is that a garden should have a green carpet like a room, and we feel inclined to apply to it Euclid’s most popular utterance. And yet indifferent as the reading is, we let it pass, for as we have before remarked, we only take punctuation into account when it is absolutely wrong.
Again, our critic complains of the absence of commas in line 4, which should, in his opinion, read—“And on it, here and there, a tree.” Here we prefer the amended version to that printed, but it is entirely a question of taste and not of accuracy. He further asserts that the note of exclamation can correctly follow either the interjection or “happiness” in line 10. So it can, and our only crime is that we did not print it in both places. Finally he complains that while his solution was not mentioned, some solutions which owed their perfection to his help were more fortunate. The information is no surprise to us, for we have often traced our correspondent’s hand in solutions under another name. He says—“I suppose this is allowable.” It is allowable inasmuch as we have no rule forbidding it, but we do not think that help ought to be asked from a rival competitor. It does not accord with our notions of strict fairness, and a less generously-minded solver would not place his ingenuity at the disposal of his friends.
And this is the way in which we cut down a report!