St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-03-27
WHEELING defaulting cashier failed to
getto Canada. The reform spirit of a Demo-
cratic administration is on the advance.
THE BOSTON SENSATION:

The Boston Globe has the boss conundrum
of the age. 1t beats the fifteen puzzle. The
question Isl eff two girls going up the
street meet three other girls, and they all
kiss. how many kisses are exchanged!" The
matlematicians have gone to work on it,,
and the number of different answers that
have been given is as curious as the conun-
drum. One Philadelphian insists that
there were only five kisses ex-
changed. A New York arithmeti-
clan figured out sixteen, while Boston en-
gineer stakes his money that fourteen is the
correct answer. At social gathering in
Baltimore the other evening, at which a
number of young ladies and gentlemen
were present, the conundrum came up for
solution. There was such diversity of cal
culations it was proposed to have practical
demonstration by having two Of the young
ladies walk into the room and meet three
others at the door and the kiss exchange be
gone through with, whilst the remainder of
the audience should stand by and count.
The first effort failed, because the
girls kissed so rapidly the exchange
got into confusion and correct
tally could not be kept. In the second effort
one. of the young ladies declined to perform
her part and one of the young gentlemen
had to be substituted. He proved to be a
lightning calculator, for in less than three
minutes he had run the countup to a hundred
and the demonstration was not half through
with. 1t seems odd that a question so easily
answered should produce such craze. For
Illustration, we will say that ANN and Re-
BECcA were coming up the street and met
JANE, RACHEL and SUSAN. They all stopped
and exchanged kisses. While ANN was
kissing RACHEL, SUSAN was kissing JANE,
and REBECCA turned around to kiss ANN
when SUSAN threw her arms around RACHEL s
neck and i'm lanted an old-fashioned smack
on AIMS rosy mouth just as REBECCA had
finished kissing JANE, who in turn had
thrown her little Parian marble arms around
RAcHEL's neck while with upbraiding voice
she chided her for not coming to see her
oftener, and then kissed SUSAN on the mouth
just as it was opened to sccld ANN for wear
ing such an unbecoming dress on the street,
aud then they all fell to kissing again-and
that makes let US see how many. We will
have to go back and count up again. To
make it a little palmer we will reverse the
order of their coming, and at the same time
try to introduce a little more system into
the exchange market. JANE, RACHEL
and SUSAN were coming down the street
and met ANN and REBEcCA. Now, if we
can keep the girls quiet long enough we will
have the kissing done in detail. JANE steps
up first and kisses ANN, then REBEcCA.
SUSAN has kissed REBECCA and turns to kiss
ANN, when she finds RACHEL's and AIMS
labials in sweet communion. REBECCA hav-
ing been released from JAMES embrace turns
and kisses SUSAN, who has patiently been
awaiting the termination ofANN and RAoHELs
long-drawn smack. 1t now comes AIMS
turn to kiss REBECCA, and JANE as yet has
only accomplished two-ffths of her task. BY
the time she gets through, SUSAN, whose
place it was to wait until JANE was
done, has been around once and
half way again. So We must
go back to the beginning again in order to
get correct count. 1t will be observed
that If the two girls who come up the street
only kiss the three girls who come down the
street, and do not kiss each other, then only
six kisses will be exchanged. But if every
time a girl smacks her mouth is 10 be
counted, there will be twelve kisses. If each
one of the five girls is to kiss the other four,
then four times five make twenty. II JANE
kisses REBECCA and REBECCA kisses JANE,
and so on with each of the five, there will
be forty kisses. 1t requires little patience
to unravel the complications of the situation
and make close calculation that will bear
analysis. But when it is through with. the
correct conclusion will be that such kissing
doesn't count. 1t is wasting sweets on the
desert air for girls to be kissing each other.
1t is like spreading maple syrup on honey.