New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-07-21
Fatal Fifteen.

TIME was when man who arrived at
his business late in the morning, with
blood-shot eyes, careless dress, pale face
and nervous manner, would have been
strongly suspected of having INDUCED
in drink. He would have been looked
upon with distrust by his employers, dis
favor by his friends, despair bV his rel
atives and disapproval by the moral
portion of the community. Reproba-
ton would have outwcighed any COM
miseration that he would have received.
Now it is not 80. Fifteen" has
changed it all. It is understood at
once that the unfortunate man has been
"trying to do the puzzle" and has
been unable to find time to eat. sleep
or dress. He is pitied rather than con-
demned, for he has fellow victims on
every side. The public at large is CIV
en- over to the consideration of the puz-
zle. The ticket-sellers on the "L"
roads forget to count their change in
the abstraction that comes of "almost
getting it, Errand boys stop around
the corner and pull out their little
square boxes and shove the blocks
around desperately. The pressmen in
the Herald Office when they finish their
nights work do not 90 home as of yore,
but stop to "play fifteen" through the
early morning hours. Business men
puzzle over it on their way to and from
their offices. Clergymen ponder it in
their studies. And yesterday man in
Broadway, with stand heaped high
with "gem puzzles" became so deeply
absorbed in trying to solve the puzzle
that he forgot to offer his wares for sale
and paid no attention when a gamin
stole one from his store, and going half
block away sat down to work It out
himself. DR.. Hammond declared in
the Academy Of Sciences on Monday
night that the puzzle was an excellent
thing for physicians who treat the nerv.
Gus disorders of the brain. It inn
proved their practice. 1t has also been
said that for few weeks the number of
commitments for lunacy by the police
justices of the city have been far in ex-
cess of the usual average, and the Off
Gals Of the Lunatic Asylum were una
BILE to account for it until they discov-
cred fifteen patients trying to arrange
themselves in order on a large diagram
they had marked out on the floor Of one
of the halls of the Asylum on Black
wells Island. &c..
Against the craze the reaction has
already begun. A large number of
signs have been printed with the in
scription "Pinafore and Puzzle Prattle
Prohibited" which may be hung up in
drawing-rooms and Offices by those who
have either escaped the popular fevers
or recovered from them. It is expected
that this reaction will become as strong
as the mania itself. It will probably be
dangerous after time to mention the
matter, and threats of violence have
already been sent to the Herald office
by mail. It is, therefore, in spirit of
kindness that the Herald suppresses the
name mentioned by one Of its CORE
spondents, who writes an interesting
letter claiming that the game of Z" fif-
teen'' was invented seventeen or eigh-
teen years ago by gentleman who was
then in Keokuk, Iowa, but is now q
merchant in Little Rock, Ark. The
game, he says, was well-known in Keo-
kuk, and was much INDUCED in by the
officers stationed there during the late
war. The inventor, he declares, was
an officer in the late war under General
Sherman. It is probable, therefore,
that the misguided person is man Of
sufficient personal bravery, and Little
Rock is q very considerable distance
from New York; but considering the
state of public feeling here at present,
it would be unworthy of the Herald to
expose the unhappy mans identity.
Since he has sought the West for safety
let him 60 unpublished. He probably
did not realize what he was DOING
N r Herald.