The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-26
CONUNDRUMS
ENGAGE BILL ARP
Biggest Part of Life is Living
For Children.
A BOOK THAT is NEEDED
To Contain the Poetic Gems by Best
Writers of the Old Times.
SOME VERSES THAT WILL NEVER DIE
Bill Arp Thinks That Such Poems, Written
Fifty Years Ago, Could Not be Writ
ten Now.

Two school girls down in Alabama write
to know why it is that geese will not eat
corn when it is strewn around the cir
cumference of the circle. They say that
their presiding elder couldn't tell, and
advised them to ask me. 1 supposed it
was conundrum, or that there was some
catch in the question: catch like the
the, Why will guinea pigs eyes fall out
if you hold it up by the tail? AS the
guinea pig has no tail, of course, his eyes
are in no danger But a lady friend who
raises geese assures me that she has
often seen them tempted with corn or
other grain strewn thickly round a cir
Gle, and they will not venture near it.
but if scattered, they will, after careful
inspection, approach and eat. What the
circle has to do with it is past my ken,
Though we do know that geese march in
straight lines and the wild geese fly in
straight angles. A goose is a very sus-
picious fowl. and is always on the look
out for danger A goose hasn't much
d d
their devotion to each other when mated
is beautiful. How faithfully the gander
will stand by his mate while she sits on
her nest. She plucks the down from his
breast and covers her eggs. HOW gall
lantly he escorts her to the grass and
escorts her back when size leaves them
for food. How tenderly they care for
the brood when it comes. and never leave
them until feathered and grown. There
are no divorces nor grass widows in the
Anserian family-what a pity we are not
all geese.
But speaking of conundrums reminds
me of how a lady caught me yesterday
when she asked me how the water got
into the watermelon. and as l proceeded
to expound the chemical processes that all
fruits and vegetables had to go through,
she stopped me and said: "Oh. major the
water gets into the watermelon because
it is planted in the spring" l got even
with her, though, by asking her why was
an elephant like lady's belt. When she
gave it up, l said. Because there is a b
in both" Why" she said, there is no
b in elephant" There is 81
in BOTH" said 1. "B-o-t-h'-you can't
spell both without a b." 1t takes a
little time to see that. And there is an
other conundrum that was classic when
l was young.
Charge, Chester charge-On, Stanley, on,
Were .he last words of Marmicn.
Had but been in Stanleys place
Tears would have moistened Chester's
face"
The smell Of an onion would have
brought tear or two. l reckon. Now,
let those sweet school girls strain their
minds over that and then let them
search the scriptures and tell me this
There is reference made in the old and
new testaments to a person who died as
no other person ever died; whose body
never saw corruption, whose name is new
er spoken and the material of whose
shroud is found in every household. There
is no catch in that-it is a fact Ask the
presiding elder.
| am indulging in these thoughts to
please the children, for that is the big
gest and best part of parental life, and is
what the world is working for Sometimes
cannot help Eliminating upon wnat
pleased me when l was young and my
mind was expanding into knowledge day
by day How l did strain over the
problem of the fox and the goose and the
bag OF corn. And there was the elephant
puzzle, where an old man died leaving
eighteen elephants to his three Sons-one
to have half of them, another third
OF them and the other one-ninth. But
before the division one elephant died. and
seventeen wouldn't divide even at all. SO
they consulted a wise old neighbor who
had but one elephant. He generously drove
his cne into the herd of seventeen and
then divided them, giving to one of the
BOYS nine, 10 another six and to the
other two. This took but seventeen, and
so he drove his own elephant back home
again. How is that? Wasn't he a smart
old fellcw 10 satisfy the boys and save
his elephant?
But. By and by these school children
advance into their teens and begin to
choose sweethearts, and the boys brush
their hair more carefully and the girls
cast glances that are shy and sly and read
poetry and mark the loving passages, and
flowers grow lovelier and the birds sing
sweeter ard the world grows brighter
and the days of loves young dream have
| come. Delightful days, delicious memor-
| ies-even an old man loves to reveI in
| them. No wonder the poets wrote so ten
derly Of love and the novelists made il
| the chief subject of their story l was
| Illuminating the other day about comp!l-
| ing and publishing book-a little boob
| that could be sold for less than dollar
| a beck OF gems-poetic gems by the besi
| authors, and urging every parent to buy