Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-03-12
FIFTEEN.

FIFTEEN.
The fifteen puzzle mania has strucl
Staunton with the force of tidal wav
and with very much the same result. 1
sends business men home at dark to see
"wife has got it, it keeps the young mel
in their rooms and at their clubs and read
ing rooms till midnight ''trylng to get it;
it takes the school boys home as soon a!
dismissed Yin the hopes of getting it,
confines the wives at home all da
working to ''get ahead of husband whel
ne comes up" and it shuts the school girl
in after study hours when they ought t,
be promenading instead of puzzling ove
1S, 1S, ID. Shopping has fallen off anG
the streets grown dull and to the question
from the countryman. Where are all thu
people to day?" he is answered AT hom'
working out the Fifteen An eminently
practical gentlemen OF Staunton, good
at figures says, this silly puzzle will cos,
the country millions of dollars" in thu
time that will be taken from business in
''valnly attempting to place fifteen figures
as they can not be placed"
More than a week ago the first lot OF
ISIS was received at DIVERS. The pro.
prietor. his clerks and the regular loafers
at the store commenced to puzzle over it;
customers dropping i'll looked on and
caught the contagion which spread like an
epidemic. The demand for puzzles was
puzzling. Order after order has been re-
ceived and sold and more order ed and
''stili there's more to follow" At Hun
ters it is the same way-the first lot sold
out, the second received and sold, and
others ordered, customers waiting and the
demand still ahead Of the supply.
Lawyers, merchants, ministers, doctors,
teachers. pupils, everybody, ard even the
servants are trying it or wanting to try it,
some waiting for more puzzles and others
looking for the quarter to buy it with.
But NOW every man. woman or child who
has quarter Can be supplied, the book
stores are at last stocked and will be at
least until Tonight.
The way it affects different persons ID
queer. A staid merchant of settled habits.
who hangs out well known sign on
Main street, near the post office. always
goes to his home on Frederick street at
dark and turns off his gas at 8 O'Clock, but.
the night he was taken, forgot all about.
the gas and the children and bed time,.
and wearied over the blocks until his wife
had to turn off the gas and put him to
bed.
An active business man on New street,
after working four solid hours on the Is,
Is, IA combination, which is pronounced
a mathematical impossibility, swore he
would give any man $25 who would do it
and tell how he did it, Some one said
that BIS son over near the depot could do
it. He left his hat and rushed over bare
headed to BIS store to ask young B. about
it. Young B. said that he could get all
except the l3. Is, ID, and the gentleman
returned to his store happier If not a
wiser man and still holds his SOS.
A sick lady residing on Frederick street
forgot her pain while sitting in her rocker
lingering the little blocks till late in the
night and dropped to sleep. After while
waking and yawning, her eyes fell upon
the puzzle on her lap and IN the fullness
of her heart she exclaimed: "Oh, that I
knew where to put this one figure"
A steady going, even tempered man Of
the types, with his hair flying every way.
darts into Olivier's book store. exclaim-
ing: "I've done it !! I've done it !" ''How''
says the clerk. "Why just SO. and so and
so.'' "Oh pshaw" exclaims the clerk, who
has grown to be authority in the puzzle
business, THAT won't do, you didn't have
the blocks right when you began. Any
child can do it that way" and another sad
man returns to his work.
Six men and negro boy in the corner,
were all working at the puzzle at one time
in popular Main street store. Three
Principals of schools that we know of, a
minister and his son are all working at it
and VOW they can do it and mean to do it,
and a county official from the country
claims that his sister has worked it out
three times, but don't know how she did
it. while respected School Superinten-
dent, who was standing behind the coun-
ter at Hunters when our reporter stepped
in, and slowly manipulating the blocks, re-
marked: "I-was just seeing if could do
it Acknowledgement I did it at home last
night-BGt nO-I-do not believe-I-did,
am not-certain."
1t has been held that the impossible So
luton is to get the figures straight after
placing the last three tbus-l3, Is. II.
This is not SO however if any figure in
those that precede them is permitted to be
changed. Make the third line of the puz-
xle read Q, III, 10, instead of Q, 10, III,
and the Ii, Is, / 4, is solved easy. This
way:
A ARRANGING THE MAGIC BLOCKS THUS ::
l 2 8
S 6 7 8