The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1877-02-15

One vancouver consists in taking the !
letters of word, adding to or sub
tracing from them, and seeing in |
what way the meaning becomes |
changed thereby. Of this kind is the |
enigma, my first two letters are a
man, my first three woman, my first
four a brave man, nv whole brave
woman This is a really excellent
analysis of the literal constituents of
Heroine. The following example is
attributed to Charles John Fox, and is
without much difficulty seen to relate
to glass:
"What is pretty and useful in various ways,
Tho it tempts some poor msrtals to shorten
Take one letter from it, and there will ap-
What youngsters admire every day in the
year;
Take two letters from it, and then without
doubt
Your what that is, if you don't find it out"
Canning's enigma is very neat. on
the effect Of adding the letter ''s' to
the word ..cares' -converting plu-
raj into singular, troubles into a
pleasure. One of the best enigmas of
this class was by Lord Macaulay, on
the word-but we will leave the dis
cOvery of the word to the ingenuity OF
the reader:
"Cut off my head, and singular l am;
| Cut off my tail, and plural appear;
| Cut off my head and tail, and, wondrous
Although my middle's left, there's nothing
| there.
| What is my head, cut off? a sounding sea
| What is my tail, cut Oft? rushing river;
And in their mighty depth fearless play,
Parent of sweetest sounds, yet mute Tor
ever.''
The initials A E C U formed an
enigma that lasted during many years
of the reign OF Frederick the Third,
Elector of Austria and Emperor OF Ger
many in the fifteenth century. They
were inscribed on public buildings, on
regimental flags, on the backs of books
and on the imperial plate. A solution
was found among the Emperors pa
pers, after his death, in German and
Latin; and sufficiently boastful it GER
tainly was:
"Alles Erdreich list Esterreich unterthan.
Austrin est imperare Orbit universe"
Another form Of o enigma is that
clever production which was for long
time attributed to the late Professor
Whewell, but which is now said to
have been due to Rev. r. Edgerton
Warburton, although the reply may
have been WheWell's. 1t is based on
the near identity OF sound between
:scipher" and 'ssigh for - on the fact
that cipher stands for zero, nOught, @,
or nothing; that cipher is also mot
to or monogram; and that the exclama
ton O (Oh y is shaped nearly like the
cipher 0. A lady is supposed to ask
for your cipher and motto, and you re-
ply as follows:
'sUO Gao, but 0 thee;
OOno o, but 0 0 me-
Or else let O thy o 60,
And give back 90 | 0 thee"
The lady responds thus:
cpd 0 your o, but 0 q not;
40 am l, and can't o your lot
Isend you Q and your pain;
But your O in vain"
The word sigh reminds us of the fol-
lowing elegant trife:
sit came, though fetched it; when come il
was gone;
1t stayed but moment, 1t could not stay
long;
ask not who saw tit could not be seen,
, And yet might be felt by king or queen.
pend here a pretty triplet by Sill
Thomas Wyatt, dated as far back as
the time of Henry the Eighth
"a lady gave me gift she had not,
And received her gift which | took not,
And if she take it again grieve not"
; Effects of ludicrous kind-all the
more ludicrous through being wholly
unexpected-a are produced by present
ole 10
was originally nursery rhyme, or
perhaps, a humorous ditty. On
scarcely recognizes a comic song, much
Q in favor some years ago, when dressed
up in the stanzas beginning: eff ha(
a quadruped averse to speed &c
The elegant furnishing which Jacl
. and Gill has received may be cited a.
another example:
'Twas not on Alpine snow or ice,
But honest English ground,
e Excelsior was their device;
e But sad the tate they found,
n The did not climb for love or tame,
= But follow'd duty's call;
They were together in their aim,
But parted in their fall
, The late Bishop Wilberforce, VIII
: relieved more grave studies by occa
> siOnal pleasantries of wit and humOT
} constructed an enigma on s'man' b
J the employment of a whole string o
words having two or more meaning
!, each: ''All pronounce me a wonder
q full piece of mechanism, and yet fe,
2 people have numbered the strang
y medley of which | am comprised.
u have a large box and two lids, tw
l. caps, two musical instruments, nun
o Der of weather-cocks, two establishe
Z measures, some weapons of warfare
and great many little articles that
IL carpenter cannot do without. The
Is have about me couple of esteeme
fishes, and great many of smalle
size, two lofty trees, and the fruit c
r an Indigenous plant; handsome stag
y and great number of small kinds G
III game; two halls or places Of worship
q two students or scholars, the stairs G
y an hotel, and half score of SPANS
% gentlemen to attend me; | have Wha
ld is the terror of the slave, also two d.
&c nestle animals and number Of neg:
% tives.' We should have said-bI
ID most readers will soon gee this fC