Wooden Toothpicks
offer many opportunities for amusement. I have seen grown men, in the reading-rooms of our great hotels, amuse themselves and companions for hours with only a handful of wooden toothpicks.
Suppose that mumps have invaded the household, and the younger members of the family are, consequently, confined indoors, with their youthful jaws tied up in bandages. If they have no ingenuity they will be fretful and annoying to their parents and themselves, but if they have inherited true Yankee grit and invention they will spend their enforced imprisonment in a very jolly manner.
Here is
A Simple Toothpick Example,
Fig. 159. Let us see you take away five toothpicks and leave three perfect squares.
Fig. 159.—Toothpick Puzzle.
It is a simple problem, and one glance at Fig. 160 shows how it is done, but you must remember that the other fellows or girls to whom you put the question are not supposed to know the solution, and unless the puzzle-workers are very bright it will take some thinking to work out the problem—at least it will take enough thought to be a source of amusement to all concerned.