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.”