New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-12-19
our best wishes for his speedy deIiversnce
from the profession he IL never weary Of Willy
yoRD-PUzzLES WITHOUT FENCES

HORU-PUZZLE0 HlIHOOl TENLEc
Prize word competitions have had great run
In London and probably will prove equally
popular here. We recently directed attention
to the astonishing array of advertisements OF
word-spelling lotteries published by that
stanch organ of English aristocracy. 1he
Morning Post. Those advertisements disclosed
the fact that large sums could be raised for
public or benevolent objects In tournaments
of this class. The suggestion has been prompt
" taken up by our good-natured and enter
prising contemporary, The Judge. During the
last fortnight 1t has been advertising on
large scale a similar competition In behalf or
the Grant Monument Fund. One-half OF the
gate money is to be reserved for that pubic
object, and the remainder, after legitimate
expenses have been deducted. Is to be offered
as cash prizes to the most ingenious and in
dustrious competitors.
Word lotteries conducted on this basis are
not only Innocent and entertaining diversions
for leisure hours, but they may also be made
instructive and profitable employment. Young
people who engage in the popular series Of
word making games invariably derive literary
and intellectual benefit from them. Not only
are such games useful 10 imparting an accurate
of the language. but they also tend to promote
rapdity of intellectual action and the develop
ment of powers Of observation. The prize
word-competition under proper limitations can
be cow erted into an equally useful educational
agency. If tho word chosen as a text be
reasonably short one and the combinations are
restricted to words that are in common use and
are found In some standard dictionary. the
competition will BIZ genuine test of skill,
memory and mental resources. But IL the
ground to be occupied be not fenced about
with various necessary restrictions, the contest
will prove an unmanageable, heter- SHELTER,
60 as you please race, which will only serve to
exhaust the patience of the competitors. The
Judqe has not yet published in detail the regu
latioDs and conditions of its proposed word
lottery. 1t has reserved, therefore, for itself
the opportunity OF correcting some serious
errors of Judgment in its original proposals.
1t will pardon us if we call attention TO these
mistakes in the nope that it will discover them
in time to remedy the defects.
The proposed text contains fifteen different
letters, four of which are repeated once and
one of them four times. AS only one vowel is
absent, the large representation of cOnsOnants,
with the duplicates, makes it possible for the
competitor to embrace thousands upon
thousands Of words. The compass is certainly
broad enough when it comprises the pages of
an unabridged dictionary. But not satisfied
with restricting it to the dictionary, the con-
ductors of the competition, In spirit OF
voluminOus generosity, specify proper DOnns
as an admissible class. A proper noun is the
individual name of any person, place or thing.
If proper nouns are included, the competitors
will be at liberty to use any name found either
in an atlas or biographical or geographical
gazetteer, or in any city directory. con-
tes,ant must not only draw upon the resources
of the English tongue accumulated in the
monster lexicons of the day, but he must also
forecast the range of geographical research
from Cape Horn and No Mans Land to Jones
River. and then be prepared to grapple with
the cosmopolitan nomenclature OF the New
York and Chicago directories as well as the
Bible, the classics and biographical annals.
If the advertised proposals are not essentially
modified by the detailed regulations hereafter
to be published, we shall be quite safe in
pronouncing the competition the funniest joke
that has ever appeared in the columns Of that
bright, sparkling and excellenty conducted
Journal We apprehend, however, that in the
end it would prove serious business for the
most Industrious competitors and the commit
tee for awarding prizes. They would be 1T
subjects for an asylum for decayed and in
digent brain workers.