The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-05-22
The Scribe's Report.
THAT CHICKEN PROBLEM

THAT CHICKEN PROBLEM.
We promised to give the solution
this week, if no one else should have
sent it in. The conditions of the prob
lem were, briefly, these Two women
had each thirty chickens; one sold hers
at two for dollar, which would bring
her SIS; the other sold hers three for a
dollar, which would give her $40, max
ing S25 for the sixty chickens. But
the merchant said to one woman:
You sold yours at two for dollar"
and to the other: You sold yours at
three for a dollar; that makes five
chickens for 81, hence sixty chickens,
being twelve times five chickens, will
bring you twelve times 81, which is
only S24. The problem was to show
whether figures lie. Not in this in
stance surely. For, if the merchant
had bought the chickens by twos of
one woman and by threes of the other,
paying them dollar each time-when
he had bought all the thirty chickens
of the latter woman, and had paid her
SO, he would have bought only twenty
of the other woman, for the $40 he had
paid her, and for her remaining ten
chickens he must pay her So, making
in all $25 for the sixty chickens. This
agrees with the other solution. and
therefore gives us no warrant for say
ing that figures lie. If this explana-
ton does not seem clear to you, take
beans, or buttons, or pieces of paper,
and place them on two piles-thirty in
each pile-to represent the chickens.
Then imagine yourself the merchant
buying two at time from one pile and
three at time from the other, and
make pencil mark to represent 81
every time you take two from one pile
and the same when you take three
from the other pile, and by the time
you have bought out" both piles
you will have twenty-five of these " dol
lars" charged to you, and you will
doubtless then see through the mer-
chants trick.
One member of the Hill Country
Club has entered protest against the
opinion recently expressed by Cd"
that things of later day" are more
interesting to young people than those
which lie farther back. He says: at
adds zest to question to have it diff
cult; and it also seems to me that if
one is going to study literature, or any
thing else for that matter, the best
place to begin at is at the beginning"
Nevertheless, since we desire to have
our Boys and Girls department as
broad and free as the Hill Country
itself, we are very glad to give place to
the following communication from
" D." which will explain itself; albeit
the Scribe may have little additional
explanation to make afterward:
"Dear Boys and Girls:-You would
have heard from me ere this had | not
postal cards which our Scribe called
for not long since; but will wait no
longer, as | wish to tell you what / am
doing with all the Scribe's reports.
am putting them all in a scrap-b book,
one after the other, and would suggest
that plan to others, unless they have a
better way of preserving them. | also
wish to tell the Scribe what D. thinks
of the questions the Chautauqua Young
Folks Reading Union are studying
april pa. | think they are the right
questions in the right place. If am not
mistaken, the Chautauquans begin
their work by purchasing books to aid
them. Not so with this club. | agree
with the article in the american Teacher,
and would teach the youth at school of |
Napoleon, Cromwell and some others
whose names appear in connection with
their studies. l think brief sketch of
a few OF them in these columns would
interest every one who reads them.
Who will volunteer? AS to the right !
use OF Words the Scribe has surely
grasped my meaning, else such pro-
fusion OF 'gots would not have found |
its way to these columns. | should !
think there would be many responses
to the Scribe's suggestion to revise the
paragraph, as many who might not be
able to find the answers to some pre-
vlous questions can easily rewrite it,
minus the gots and GETS
Another lesson we might learn
from the paragraph is to avoid going
around Robin Hoods barn in narrating
or composing. l suppose you all know |
that 1t is not good taste to preface a
sentence with say or WE'LL or to
end a sentence with proposition, the
latter net being grammatical. We often
hear 1t is them for 1t is they 1t
is him for 1t is he's 1 might of gone,'