The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-26
PUzzLING QUESTIONS.

phone NolceE eE-MySLery OOIVeu at
 Last.
 T have often wondered" said one of the party, where the gramophone makers get the remarkable voices which the announcers of the next song or speech to be given by the machine use. But the mystery was solved to- day. I heard the conductor on a Brooklyn Rapid Transit train use just such a tone of voice in announc- ing stations. But still another puzzle now arises. Did the conductor have a voice of the sort originally, or did he acquire it from having heard it in the gramophone? Was 1t a natural or a vitiated voice? I am writing for some light on the problem"
 T have a still harder puzzle to solve," said another of the party, T went into a restaurant with friend recently and hung up my hat and coat on a crowded rack. The next day found, to my amazement and surprise, that I was not wearing my own hat, but one much older and dingier but this was the remarkable fact-it fitted me, if anything better than my former one. Now, have difficulty in getting a hat to fit me, for I take a size much larger than the average, and I always have to have new hat conformed to my head before I can be comfortable in it, and sometimes have to take it back several times. always wear a derby, and the one had was fitted in that way. Now, how in the name of wonder did man with head exactly like mine come to have his hat in such proximity to my hat at that restaurant that one of us took up and wore away the others hat without knowing it? In fact, we both did that, I don't know which took the wrong hat first may have, for I did not discover my mistake un- til my attention was directed to the appearance of my head covering the next day, and, for all l may know, he may not have found it out vet, for he may simply have continued to wear the better hat as if it were his old one."
 Speaking of hats,' said a third, for the first time in my experience the other day I had hat ruined by it's blowing into the mud. l was crossing a wet and dirty strip of asphalt, which showed the neglect of street cleaning, when a sudden gust of wind whirled my soft hat from my head and it slid along on the mud in such a way that the dirt was ground into the brim. I tried to clean it with my newspaper and handkerchief, but it was too badly soiled to wear, and had to go back home Fortunately was early on my way to the office) and got another hat in order to look re- spectable. Hereafter I mean to jam my hat down so that the wind will not remove it if there are any gales about"
 Speaking of the wind blowing off hats" said another, T was on my way to a concert at Coney Island several years ago, in the days when Seidl rem dered Wagner music there and the wind blew off my hat and whirled it out of the open car of the train in which I was a passenger with my wife. There was nothing for it but to go on bareheaded and parade through the crowds with an uncovered head. It was then so uncommon for anyone to go with an uncovered head out of doors that l found myself the cyno sure of many eyes, and some persons
 looked at my wife as if she was being . 1. .Jo.v ,f the seaside the sight of an uncovered head of either man or woman, scarcely attracts an iota of attention. But then it was as noticeable if a man was minus a hat as if he had appeared without collar"
 That reminds me" remarked a listener, that I once had to go about Ion the beach collarless. l had been bathing with my family, and before dressing had removed my clothes from one bathroom to which l had taken a small boy to undress, to the bathroom which an older boy had oc- cupied. In moving the armful of clothing I managed to drop my collar on the wet floor and it was trodden underfoot and soaked and soiled be- yond any use before I recovered it. So there was nothing to do save to go about collarless for the rest of the afternoon and evening, for no place existed where collar could be se- cured short of town, and I did not in tend to cut my stay to the shore short in order to conform to the proprieties. I remember that I appeared to attract much more than the ordinary >atten- tion from persons I met, but was able to bear with equanimity the fact that did not conform to conventional requirements, for I realized that was simply the football of fate, the victim of conspiring circumstances, and that my motives were not to be impugned," London Tribune.
 TOGSTOY ON THE DRAMA.