Part 12

is solved by _Left_, _felt_, _let_.

135

“Insanitary” and “sanitary reform” are very happily recast by anagram thus--_In nasty air; Former air nasty_.

136

The charade--

Let my second cut my first When I come to table; Though I cannot quench your thirst Eat me--you are able.

is solved by _Cutlet_.

137

These are the completed lines--

What mars a land so sadly as a war? What days as dark as days that wars alarm? Alas! ask any, ask at hand, afar, All shall call war a harass and a harm. Why call, as ballads talk, that ghastly art All gallant acts--a grand and manly part?

It will be seen that “a” was the only missing letter.

138

The charade--

To me when whole, for I am sweet, The moon fresh brightness brings; Cut off my tail, I’m blunt, but meet To sharpen other things.

Behead me twice, and I have led Soldiers to face the foe; Headless and tailless, one remains Though all the rest may go.

is solved by Honey (honey-moon; hone; Ney; one).

139

The enigma--

We start when the ninth hour is past, Then there’s an end of you. A vengeful goddess shows at last What Antifat will do.

is solved by _Attenuate_:--at ten, u, Ate, goddess of Revenge.

140

The charade--

When on charades intent I take my pen, To seek some hidden goal, Over my first my second comes, and then Quite overcomes my whole.

is solved by _Overcomes_.

141

The cryptogram which was sent as a reliable tip before a race in which Petronel was to run--

Tell me, Ben, who tore it. Seek a plant for it, see Bob.

is deciphered thus--

Take every third letter, and you arrive at Lenortepnoteb. Read this backwards, and you have the tip, “Bet on Petronel!”

142

The enigma--

I have no form, I have no friend, From me all come, in me all end. And it is strange but very true That I am here and nowhere too--

is solved by _Nothing_.

143

The broken sentence--

A sed end ought eat ease ain.

is thus filled in to describe a curse and to proclaim its cure--

A cursed fiend brought death, disease and pain; A blessed friend brought breath and ease again.

144

The charade--

My first is a cover, My second a city; The whole you discover With this if you’re witty.

is solved by _Capacity_.

145

The four rivers buried in the sentence--

The deaf and dumb girl began gesticulating with a message, and her delivery was ever neat, with graceful pose in every attitude.

are _Ganges_, _Thames_, _Severn_ and _Seine_.

146

If the “shingle” on the Brighton beach could speak, it might boast by anagram, “I am _English_!”

147

The enigma--

She is as deaf as any post, Incurable I fear; She is my guest, I am her host, How can I make her hear?

is solved by adding an a to _her_, which becomes _hear_.

148

The missing words in the “Plaint of the Rejected” are--_The R.A._, _hater_, _heart_, _earth_, _Herat_.

149

The man who could attach a phonetic meaning to the words “Beta in Greek means letter B,” could in another fashion invite others to beat his wife by merely calling them and saying, “_Hither!_” (hit her).

150

The rebus--

storm? an umbrella with all a th me who alls mud

is solved thus--Who follows me under an umbrella, with overalls all over mud, after a thunderstorm?

151

This is the completed palindrome:--

Nor I nor Emma had level’d a hammer on iron.

It reads alike from either end.

152

The tutor came to the conclusion that there is nothing in Ecclesiastical Law to prevent the Pope from burying the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the undergraduate who had proposed the question demurred to this reply; pressed for his reason he said, as his face broke into a smile, “He cannot do so, because _the Archbishop is not dead_!”

153

The proverb buried in the sentence, “While there are very many as kind as this, they know no task unkind,” is, “_Let every man skin his own skunk_.”

154

Kate gathers me where children three, Tom, Jane, and Mary, chatter; He leads the way and then we see The other two come at her!

is solved by _Heather_ (he, at her).

155

The quotation from Shakespeare buried in--

Strange weather! What could equal it? Yesterday sunshine and soft breezes, to-day a summer cyclone raging noisily; then other changes, as floods of fiercest rain eddy beneath the blast.

is “The quality of mercy is not strained.”

156

The beetroot palindrome, which reads alike from either end is--

RED ROOT PUT UP TO ORDER

157

My _first_ we all do when we fail; My _next_ is heard in rain or hail; My _fourth_ a sheep of gender male; My _third_ is one without its tail; My _whole_ for foreign countries sail.

is solved by _Missionaries_.

158

The words written on the walls of a Western college gained their ambiguous sense from the three final words, printed in italics--“Young women should set a good example, for young men _will follow them_!”

159

The enigma--

I’m but a little letter, still I have my duties to fulfil; If off you take My tail, and make An alteration in my lot, Though I seem shorter I am not.

is solved by _Note_.

160

This is the full text--

Says Tom to Bill, “Pray tell me, sir, Why is it that the devil, In spite of all his naughty ways Can never be uncivil?”

Says Bill to Tom, “The answer’s plain To any mind that’s bright; Because the _imp o’ darkness_, sir, Cannot be _imp o’ light_!”

161

Beneath the _limes_ which shade the lawn Her bicycle she mounted; And with a _smile_, ere she had gone An hour, ten _miles_ she counted. It rained, it snowed, but nought could stop her, Till in the _slime_, she came a cropper!

The words in italics have the same letters.

162

The date of the new organ given by the English is concealed in the lines of this inscription above its keyboard at Ober Ammergau--

QVI CHRISTI LAVDES CANTANT SANCTÆ PASSIONIS SVÆ VIRTVTE IN IPSO ET PATRE VNVM SINT.

If the Roman numerals that occur in the words are added together, they amount to 1894, the date of its completion.

163

A woman’s name Of foreign fame, Hers was a noble mind. Now, sir, transpose, And I suppose No smaller thing you’ll find.

is solved by _Stael_, _least_.

164

The French charade--

Pour avoir mon _premier_ Femme qui cache mon _dernier_ Manque souvent mon _entier_.

is solved by _Mari-age_.

165

The charade--

Let go! let go! you naughty first, Or you will make my second; A stream of words will then outburst, Swift as my whole is reckoned.

is solved by _Current_.

166

My first is first when cruisers charge in line, And oft in frosty skies is seen to shine.

Don’t spare my second if you would suggest To an impulsive child the way that’s best.

My sporting whole, though now neglected grown, Travelled by tube before the tube was known.

is solved by _Ramrod_.

167

The enigma--

First of men we lead a measure, Last we end the same. Starting merrily, our pleasure Is to finish lame.

is solved by the letters _me_.

168

When Tom declared that he could give his sister quite a simple sentence of seven common English words of one syllable, which she could not produce on her typewriter, he had in his mind, “We can spell (to, too, two) in three ways,” which cannot, of course, be expressed in seven written words.

169

The French charade--

Mon premier est un tyran, mon second un horreur, Mon tout est le diable lui-même. Mais si mon premier est bon, mon second ne fait rien, Et mon tout est le bonheur suprême.

is solved by _Mariage_.

170

Sydney Smith’s conclusion as to the value and satisfaction of a City dinner was completed thus:--“I cannot wholly value a dinner by the _test you do_!” (Turtle, in Latin, _testudo_).

171

DEAN SWIFT’S ENIGMA--

In youth exalted high in air, Or bathing in the streamlet fair, Nature to form me took delight And clothed my body all in white; My person tall and slender waist On either side with fringes graced; Till me that tyrant Man espied, And dragg’d me from my mother’s side. No wonder that I look so thin, The monster stripp’d me to the skin; My body flay’d, my hair he cropp’d, And head and foot both off he lopp’d; Pick’d all the marrow from my bone. And then, with heart more hard than stone, To vex me more, he took a freak To slit my tongue, and make me speak. But that which wonderful appears, I speak to eyes and not to ears. All languages I now command Yet not a word I understand.

is solved by _A Goose-quill_.

172

The answer to the riddle propounded by the possessor of a new KEEN KUT razor to his friend whose chin was disfigured by scars, “What is the difference between my razor and yours?” is--“Mine cuts thoroughly; yours also cuts, tho’ roughly!”

173

The decapitated words are in italics--

The ship rode in an _eastern_ bay, Asleep _astern_ the master lay, A _stern_ and rugged man was he, And, like a _tern_, at home at sea. Like swooping _ern_ he caught his prey Whene’er an _R.N_. came his way; But while due _N_. the needle kept He in his cabin lay and slept.

The ern, or erne, is the sea-eagle.

174

When the tempest roars the loudest Oft my first a shelter proves. Say what fair one, though the proudest, Spurns my next from one she loves? When the storms of life are past Earth provides my whole at last.

is solved by _Covering_.

175

One syllable, I help to turn the scale Of party strife or faction; Recast me, and two syllables avail To stop all further action.

is solved by _vote_, _veto_.

176

The lines to an owl are filled in thus--

Oh, on old towers, thou gloomy owl, Thou lovest to hoot, thou lovest to howl. Or on old oaks your hollow tone So lost, so solemn, sounds alone, So mournful no one loves to go Or of your hooting howls to know.

The vowel “o” occurs forty-six times in the six lines.

177

In the Army anagram--

I’m free to-day, the _old sire_ said, _O no cell_ now have I to dread; For this one happy day to me _Are glen_ and hill and forest free, I, if I will, can ride, or fish, _A pit can_ enter, if I wish, In search of chalk or sand. In peace alone I now can dine, And sing to Anna’s _lute at nine_, Nor fear a reprimand.

the words in italics spell also _soldier_, _colonel_, _general_, _captain_, and _lieutenant_.

178

My first transposed becomes a name Which may quite mean be reckoned, Two syllables combine the same, With one or two for second.

My whole when fields are fresh and green, And softly blows the wind, Where the first signs of spring are seen Within the woods we find.

is solved by _Anemone_, the _wind_ flower (name, mean, anem, one, o, ne).

179

The anagram enigma--

Silent long is the wood-bird’s song, Bare is the woodland bough; For waving trees in wintry breeze Have “no buds now.”

is solved by _snowbound_, which contains exactly the same letters as “no buds now.”

180

The question of time--

A farmer with children sixteen Killed the fattest young lamb of his flock. To divide it these children between, What must be the time by the clock?

is solved by _a quarter to four_.

181

The Donkey drive--

To the far end of any train Hitch on a pair of neddies; Then you will hear, like steps of Cain, The threat that in their tread is.

is solved by _Ass-ass-in_.

182

The “Eating by Alphabet” enigma--

Take all the alphabet, and cast Its final letter out; Then set the first where was the last, And this you bring about: Without a cook, without a fire, A dainty dish which men desire.

is solved by A past Y (a pasty).

183

The charade--

My second with my first we greet; My whole in earlier days Gave understanding to the feet That moved in tragic plays.

is solved by _Buskin_.

184

The sentence--

Behest on thy lips, Society;

forms an Anagram of the proverb

“Honesty is the best policy.”

185

This sentence, fashioned by eight schoolboys as anagrams on their Christian names, arranged in order--

“I thy Tom am sober and lie or live in dew, but her brain sinned”--

reveals, when deciphered, the names Timothy, Ambrose, Daniel, Oliver, Edwin, Hubert, Brian and Dennis.

186

The enigma--

In any coward’s company you find That I have place. Cut off my head, and from your mind All wrong erase.

is solved by _Fright_.

187

The double acrostic--

From “Punch,” 1875.

My first, elect among the few, Chooses my second to expose his view.

1. Of various colours, changed at will, I sit or stand for good or ill.

2. I rule alone from noon till night, And when I am not am is right.

is solved

M. P. P. M.

188

A man in a rage should go to a “shooting gallery,” because by its Anagram it is _largely soothing_.

189

The beatitude--

Let her be or beat her, Give her little ease; Then in safety seat her All among the bees,

is solved by _A Queen Bee_. The _Bee_ is made up of the _letter b_ (let her be), in Greek called Beta (beat her), and two little _e_’s (ease).

190

The puzzle-lines--

“We,” cried my first and second, “Are not quite satisfied.” “The story may be reckoned Imperfect,” fourth replied. Said third, “The fact indeed I tell,” And so at last all ended well.

are cleared up by _Satisfactory_.

191

The English proverb which is concealed under its anagram--

“I dare not admit faint women,”

is _Time and tide wait for no man_.

192

The charade--

My first and second are as best they should be, My third in Latin mouth is what it would be, My whole would soon be ashes if it could be.

is solved by _Asbestos_ (_os_ is Latin for _mouth_).

193

Since Spooks, a _subtle_ man is he, _Sublet_ this haunted house to me, In _bluest_ funk I _bustle_ round, And fear a ghost in every sound.

The four words in italics have the same letters.

194

That which is found in the centre of Australia and of America, and in no other place, is the letter “r” (no othe_r_ place).

195

Grandfather’s riddle, “Do you know why is the fourth of July?” is solved by the fact that the fourth letter of that word is y!

196

My _first_ is never far away, My _next_ in Latin found; My _third_ may rage by night or day; _All_ make melodious sound.

is solved by _Nightingale_.

197

Through the _forest_ trees Softly coo the doves; Let a _softer_ breeze _Foster_ youthful loves!

The words in italics have the same letters.

198

The enigma--

At starting half your income take, Then for my second write; And let your table help to make The total cosy quite.

is solved by _Comfortable_.

199

The charade--

My whole is a circle complete, Beheaded I fall to your feet. Behead me again and I fry, Or am baked in a savoury pie.

is solved by _Wheel_, _heel_, _eel_.

200

The anagram sentences are recast thus into single words--

See a pug dog. _Pedagogues._

Stay, O morn. _Astronomy._

Fat reward. _Afterward._

Red paper. _Prepared._

Set on a dish. _Astonished._

201

The enigma--

If my whole by my second and first you divide, One more than ten thousand it gives. In the land of my birth I have dwindled and died, In museums my memory lives.

is solved by _Do-do_.

202

The paradox--

Though never present, I appear, Of perfect form a token; And all that centres round my ear Is heard, though never spoken.

is solved by the word _heard_.

203

The enigma--

Behead me twice, and it shall be That I my perfect self regain; Restore both heads, and you shall see That most imperfect I remain.

is solved by _Incomplete_.

204

Grant lady, grant your _slave_ his whim, And give the coming _valse_ to him, For this will _salve_ his jealous heart, Stricken so sore by Cupid’s dart. If not, he _laves_ his hands of you, To seek fresh _vales_ and pastures new.

The words in italics have the same letters.

205

“Yes, yes, I know,” said Jack to Jill, “That thirty-two is freezing point: And I can tell you, if you will, Exactly what is squeezing-point!”

is solved by _Two in the shade!_

206

The puzzle--

To fifty add a third of one, A third to five attach; You have the means, when this is done, To kindle any match.

is solved by _Love_.

207

The missing words are in italics--

The untrained _speculator_ in the City Is robbed by _peculators_ without pity.

208

Read backwards it becomes--

Prosperity and peace; no barns empty; bills long paid; not high rents; berries bright; no birds hungry; merry Christmas comes.

209

The anagram plants concealed in the sentence--O rise love it lad never let this lamb chase trains, are: Osier, violet, lavender, thistle, balm, china asters.

210

The enigma--

My first is quite a sin by name, My third its simple cure; My second puts an end to fame, My whole of ease is sure.

is solved by _Sinecure_.

211

The paradox--

Cut off my head, it is unshaken, Cut off my tail, you turn it round, But if both head and tail are taken, Unconquered still I hold my ground.

is solved by TIT.

212

The charade--

Why should we quarrel, first and third, With nought between us but a word? Let third leave second unessayed To heal the breach these letters made. If your solution be writ fair You find my whole disjointed there.

is solved by I.O.U.

213

When Funniboy wrote from Naples to his friend, “Next week I am going ‘to plant onions, etc.,’” it was an intimation by anagram that he was bound for Constantinople.

214

In haunted house to sleep I tried, My dread _first_ was my chum. “With _second_ of my _first_,” I cried, “My _whole_ I should become.”

is solved by _Fearless_.

215

The enigma--

My first is possessive and second: My second possessive and first. Such banks most attractive are reckoned By those for rich treasure athirst.

is solved by _Thymy_ (_thy_, _my_).

216

This is the completed palindrome--

REPEL EVIL AS A LIVE LEPER,

which reads alike from either end.

217

When Tom Pickles’s father tried with a lusty puff to blow the small cork into the bottle, the sudden compression of the air inside, followed by its expansion, drove the cork in an unexpected direction, so that it flew out and struck him sharply on the mouth.

218

Acorns are as strong as oaken posts when they _propagate_ (prop-a-gate).

219

The completed palindrome runs thus--

“Put it up but not on tub, put it up but not on tub, put it up,” which reads alike from either end.

220

The _Kates_ of Shakespeare and of song Have fair and dainty features; But she I _stake_ my hopes upon Excels those lovely creatures. From _Keats_ she _takes_ her name so dear, She lives on _steaks_ and honey: She cannot _skate_, but she can steer, And Madeline has money.

The words in italics have the same letters.

221

The two long words used recently by a politician which can be recast by anagram to form the sentence, “Axiomatic intelligence, or dust” are--

TERMINOLOGICAL INEXACTITUDES.

222

My first your bosom friend, or man or maid, Whom you can trust, secure and unafraid. My second, sounded double, tells of fate, Or sounded single puts an end to hate. My whole a hall’s arched roof, or soft or hard, That lies beyond the gate with ivory barr’d.

is solved by _Palate_ (Até, goddess of fate).

223

The sentence “Woman without her man would be helpless” takes on a distinct meaning if the words “without her” are read together, and a comma is placed after “woman.” Thus--“Woman, _without her_ man would be helpless.”

224

The short sentences are recast into single words thus--

A moment’s cure. _Commensurate._ Cod is nice. _Coincides._ The old rocks. _Stockholder._ It lures a cat. _Articulates._

225

The enigma--

Without my head I circulate With speed and inclination. Without my bait, at anyrate, I still have inclination. Transpose three letters, in unbroken state I then receive the ashes of the great.

is solved by _Hearth_, _earth_, _heart_ (transpose _eat_ to _ate_).

226

Here is a metrical account of the anagram which, with some exaggeration, proclaims that Sims Reeves was often prevented from singing by his delicate throat--

The audience in wrapt impatience sits; Comes an excuse, and disappointment hisses, Strange that _Sims Reeves_, whose singing ever _hits_, By a mere shift of letters _ever misses_!

227

Consuming lust for _lucre_, now so rife, Like _cruel_ _ulcer_ mars both love and life.

The words in italics have the same letters.

228

This is the completed palindrome--

I maniac lived, a devil Cain am I.

229

The lines--

And as trim bees rise or go, A long aim I’d say, a libel O!

contain in anagram and in proper order the fruits _tamarinds_, _gooseberries_, and the flowers _magnolia_, _daisy_, _lobelia_.

230

These are the anagrams--

Now one old fort _Tower of London_. Rabid owl _Wild Boar_.

231

Alas, for that forgotten day When chivalry was nourish’d, When none but friars learn’d to pray, And beef and beauty flourish’d; And fraud in kings was held accursed, And falsehood sin was reckon’d, And mighty chargers bore my _first_, And fat monks wore my _second_!

Ah, then I carried sword and shield And casque with flaunting feather, And earn’d my spurs in battle-field, In winter and rough weather; And polish’d many a sonnet up To ladies’ eyes and tresses; And learn’d to drain my father’s cup, And loose my falcon’s jesses!

But dim is now my grandeur’s gleam, The mongrel mob grows prouder; And everything is done by steam, And men are kill’d by powder; And now I feel my swift decay, And give unheeded orders; And rot in paltry state away With sheriffs and recorders.

is solved by _Knighthood_.

232

My _first_ you oft savagely pierce through and through; My _next_ harbours nonsense, and wisdom, and dust; But, oh! what disaster might chance to accrue, Should my _whole_, from my _second_, step into my _first_!

is solved by _Earwig_.

233

My whole describes the action of a gale, Decapitation makes an organ play. Behead again, it sounds o’er hill and vale; Again, it tells of what we do not pay. Take nothing off, it is an eagle’s sail. Again behead, and half a string denote; Again, and lo! a horse’s head and tail; And last of all on music’s notes I float.

is solved by _A’blowing_ (n-a-g).

234

The proverb buried in the sentence--

Society--how her enthusiasts worship at her Juggernaut car. Cases exist here, proving how illogical are these eagle-sighted, place-hunting beings, scoffing at hereditary position, yet striving to get her smile.

is “Where the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered together.”

235

The answer by anagram to--What should we put on a bird’s tail to catch it without a _steel-trap_? is _Saltpetre_.

236

The charade--

Across my _first_, with flash and roar, The stately vessel glides alone. And mournful on the crowded shore There stands an aged crone, Watching my _second’s_ parting smile, As he bids farewell to his native isle. My _whole_ comes back to other eyes, With beauteous change of fruit and flowers, But dim to her are those bright skies, And sad those joyous hours; For, alas! my _first_ is dark and deep, And my _second_ cannot hear her weep.

is solved by _Season_.

237

The sequel to the Arab and his ass runs thus--

When morning dawned, and the tide was out, The pair crossed over ’neath Allah’s _protection_, And the Arab was happy beyond a doubt, For he had the best donkey in all that _section_.

You are wrong! They were drowned in crossing over, Though the donkey was bravest of all his _race_; He luxuriates now in perpetual clover, And his master has gone to the prophet’s _embrace_.

238