The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-11-30


seems to DO an instinct os the
human family and almost always of o
disagreeable nature. We are told that
Samson, by way of making things pleas
ant during his wedding festivities, asked
riddle of his "best man" and ushers,
with a sort of wager attached to it. If
they guessed twithin the week the bride
groom was to give each of them new suit
of clothes, and if they did not each Of
them was to give him one. 1t is very
entertaining story throughout, but not
in place just here except as it is the ear
lest recorded instance of a conundrum.
1t was not fairly guessed, and the result
was good deal of family unpleasant
ness, a divorce and the deaths of several
hundred persons, including the bride
and all her family.
Then comes the Sphinx with her stupid
little riddle about the animal that i'll the
morning walks on four legs, at noon on
two and in the evening OH three. 1t is a
very poor affair looked at as n riddle,
but pretty serious when one remembers
that Madam Sphinx was III the habit of
devouring those who gave it up" What
an advance the world has made. to be
sure, since the days of Gdipus and the
sphinx! Nowadays instead of being de
voured if You do not guess conundrum
some one kindly explains it to you, and
you have the opportunity to smile satir-
ically and blandly while saying: ''Oh,
really Is that all?'
For my part never tn II guess CO.
nundrums. the other course is so much
more amusing.
But as in most other things, nature
eXcels man i'll this sort of puzzle max
ing, and the best of it is from her point
of view that she can inilict her own pen
altleS for the failure TO give Il correct an
swer, and we are quite powerless to re-
sist her DEGREES. Perhaps the completest
puzzle of all those i'll the dear old ladys
abundant store, and one that has never,
80 far as l know been successfully an
swered by any son of Adam or daughter
of Eve, is a series of questions relating
to the due relation of tine sexes to each
other, with minor queries us to the ma
ture of woman and the nature of man
asked IN each case of some member of
the opposite sex. The beauty of it is,
that the questions are so fascinating that
both man and woman insist upon study
Ing them, and unwarned by the example
of others they put so much of their time
and life and interest into the matter that
when the time comes that they must
''give it up" they are too weary of all
life's problems to care to take up another.
Oh, the mistakes that men and wom-
en- make with regard to each other. Oh,
the fatal shipwreck they encounter in
trying to personally test their theories
as to the true solution of the puzzle
upon which all their forefathers and
foremothers have broken their teeth and
yet never come at the kernel of the nut I.
And with what gallant confidence each
new aspirant comes before the sphinx
and says: II can guess your charming
riddle, although these others have failed.
understand the nature of at least one
woman or one man, and | will stake INV
whole life upon giving the correct an
swer."
The sphinx smiles, and that cold, sa-
trio, incomprehcnsibles smile was caught
most cleverly long since by the Egyptian
sculptors and fixed upon the immortal
stone which after the lapse of ages tells
its story more clearly than words can
put it.
The sphinx, as those great artists
knew, is the prototype of nature in her
conundrum asking mood = the subtle
amusement, the bitter satire. the yelled
ana conscious power Of the great mother
as She plays with her children like Il IL
gress with her cubs is all there She is
but sportive mother at the best, that
old nature! She filings her children into
the water to teach them to swim for
their lives. If they have nerve AMI
strength tc strike out vigorously they
are safe, but if they are weak or tiiniI
or make mistakes, why, she let's them
drown as not worth saving In the old
story of Saturn and Ops ,c children
were devoured by the parents and earth
and nature are but one And SO the
poor little wretches go on century after
century sinking or swimming as the
case may be. always trying to get the
better of nature and very seldom sue
ceeding even when they plume them
selves upon having done so.
Look at the manner in which men and
women practically reply to the query as
to which member of the opposite sex is
the one best adapted for life long com
panionship, this being, as we all know,
one OF the most important of natures
conundrums. Every one of us at some
period or other has found it propounded
to us, and probably every one of us has
decided 1t in manner differing from
that we should have selected had we bet
ter understood the matter.
A man sees woman at some social
gathering, it matters not if it is at the
reception of duchess or queen of
society in our own COUNTRY On, if ~ L. 4