The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1880-03-28
THE PUZZLE soogRsE.

Unquestionably the most exaaper-
ating invention OF modern times Is
the little gem puzz e, or fifteen-block
game. 1t has taken q strong hold
upon the country, and for tie time
threatens business, and politics even,
with dire consequences. When Mark
Twain started the boom beginning
Punch. brothers, punch with care,
Punch in the presence of the passeDgaire,
there was some very incendiary talk
throughout the republic. It vas for
tunate for Mark that be resided in
quiet, laW-abiding old Hartford. Had
be been in the west his presence
would have warranted the organiza-
ton of a vigilance committee, for the
purpose OF wedding the inventor Of
the Grazing rhyme to a lamp-post. The
difference between TWain's infamous
production and this latest internal
machine is that the former took right
hold of everybody, and refused to let
go, while everybody takes right hold
of the puzzle, and will net let go
until he "does it," There is one e.
pecially exasperating feature about
the gem-the 6-year-olds can give
their fathers long odds, and then
come in ahead. And yet it is not a
child's game. It is an arrangement
that taxes the brain of the arithme-
ticiap, calls into play the coil, cal
culating head Of the business map,
puts the bank cashier to his wits
end, requires the cunning of the legal
mind, and plays sad havoc with
Woman's ideas and knowledge of
figures. The most remarkable sin
gularity of the game is that you may
work it cut alone, and know Just how
it Is done, but wnen you attempt to
explain to friends how easy it is,
you are sure 20 mix those
blocks up worse than did Little
Buttercup jumbo those children.
Without fear of contradiction we as
Jsert that many men and women will
remain at home to-day, depriving
themselves Of the spiritual consolation
and instruction that they would OBJ
tain in church, merely to get at
solution Of the puzzle that will solve
it, and tomorrow morning the blocks
will prove more contrary than ever.
Another Of the peouliarities of the
little fiat box Is that after working at
i, few minutes everybody is willing
to take an affidavit that be has solged
the 13-15-14 inversion, and can do it
again. OF course nobody Rculd lie
about little thing like this, but it is
strange taat under the interested eyes
of bystandeTs 10 one has ever been
able to do what 1t is go easy fos him to
arrange when alone. When the pug
zle Is really solved it seems to be an
accident, coming when least expect
ed, and the operator forgets just how
it happened. His subsequent wander
ings among the blocks are dismal in
the extreme.
The newspapers haven't helped the
public in this trying period, but have
rather complicated matters. The
numerous solutions that have been
published are inoomprehensible by
ordinary persons, and more confusing
.haa the puzzle in all it, original per
plexity. Besides, nobody likes to be
told how to manage so simple an
arrangement. Human pride hates
to be beaten by fifteen insignificant
little cubes; it prefers TO suffer, rather
than accept the disgrace of defeat.
Hence the long hours of wakefulness,
the late dinners due to the housewife
with the blocks, and the
general 1tlgnation and air of obi
viousnes5 to surroundings thst one
notss at home, in stores, on the etreet
cars, and in fact everywhere.
What this co1n.ry now needs is 8
for tais mind destroying
puzzle, and a solution that will solve
when people are looking Oh, as we'll
as at other times. The thing is ruin
ing soma of the finest minds in the
nation; it is blasting domestic peace
and threatens the disruption OF many
happy families; it is seri-
ously unsettling the business affairs of
the nation. Nobody cAn rest or feel
at east until rule for working the
game has been discovered. It is a
little thing that may be carried in the
pocket - and is carried in pretty
nearly every pocket in the Union
but its influence Is mighty and the
consequences thatit threatens TO bring
lnOn Ia are sDnslliup,