The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1894-09-08
|0100lEs Or ANolEMr TlMEa.

L - 80 0ovo Of tie Roo1An1o&.
4t eeenns ridiculous that the peop1
who hvsd hundreds and hundrels -
year. ago were more interested In puz
1les than you and are today. T,hi.
- Srue, nevertheless. The puzzles
Ie1er 70 arc those in writing, although
sne ancients probably occupied some
/ VI sneT spare time with strange and
Puzziang devices of wood and metal, q
we do What = pleasure it il to solve
eno problems in our favorito maya.
~Anes or newspapers. It is very good
exercise for our brains, too, and where
prize Is offered to the fortunate bow
OF ssirl who first solves the puzzles Of
ah' sun In the anticipation of proving
oneself little cleverer than the
otners and of receiving the gift We
nnd that the acrostic is the most an.
Gent form of puzzling mankind.
Acrost1c is Greek for number OF
verses; the first letters of which form
"ord-soinetimeS name and some
times sentence. The final letter
may form word. or, as Addison tells
US the letters will even run down the
center OF the verses, as a seam. The
neorew poets often make their verses
run over the entire alphabet. Twelve
OF the psalms arc written on this plan.
the most notable being the
one hundred and nineteenth. |
Inns has twenty-five division. |
oi s'anzas, corresponding to the |
twenty-five letters of the Hebrew al
Pna net. Each stanza is formed OF
eight couplets, and the first line OF
each couplet in the first stanza in the
original Hebrew begins with the letter
aiePh. the second commences with
oeth- the third with gimel and so on
through the alphabet. The English |
iiv's1ons OF the Psalms arc called after
he Hebrew letter that began the corn-
4 /
'ose verses on sacred subjects after the
ash1on OF Hebrew acrostics. This
vas done with Il view to aid the mem
ry: and such pieces were called abecc-
arian hymns.
The riddle is also of ancient ORIGIN
ne Proverbs of the Bible, or savings
ttrlbuted to Solomon, are often in the 8
orm OF riddles. Was it not the queen 9
oneoa who proposed riddles to Solo
ION: The Koran, the scriptural book )
the Mohammedans, also contains q
"oies: as 90 some books now in exist
ice. Wr1tten In Arabic and Persian. I
ne ancient Egg tiaus also propoun,l.d u
ddIes, and one of the seven wise men e
Greece, who lived in the sixth cen
ry Is: C., was celebrated for Y
riddles in verse. Homer. the ! i,
eek poet, according to a y
atement in Plutarcl,. died of
nation at not being able to solve a a
idle. In the middle ages riddles were =,
couraged for amusements on win ter +,
shts IN the baronial hall and also in ! %,
z monastery. In later days some Of
most brilliant men of letters con- n
buted to the list of riddles
..he anagram, or transposition of the
ters IN words Or sentences, was much
vogue in Greece in the olden times. NJ
c "a ballsts. Or Jewish doctors. ! Pr
ought that the anasram always
nted out a mans destiny. and if his tn
ne written backwards or transposed in
my way spelled word with mean 81:
:, they firmly believed it revala ton.
natterers of James T., of England. pi
we'd his right to the British mon ho
ny as the descendant of the MYTH pc
King Arthur, from his name Charles N;
nes Stuart, which becomes claims
hurs seat. The best anagrams arc oy
Sc which have in the new order of We
ers some Specification appropriate col
hat from which they are formed. =
en- Plate asked: "Quid est veritaso', s,.o
'at is truthO he probably had no Sta
that his question answered itself. list
1T did; the transposition made it tai
vir qui adest'' Ut is the man who
ere)- Anagrams were written as Sc
as 25O Il. c., and their name comes pan
the Greek words ana, backwards. ,niii
sranHa, overwhelmingly full