Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-08

And still they. are guessing. not only
the fellow who has lots Of time on his
hands, but the real busy one as well; not
only the folks in town, but some Who
are as far away as Harpers Ferry.
Busy merchants, doctors. lawyers, gene
aloeists. ministers, antiQuarians and even
typewritists are numbered among those
who have taken a try to smooth out the
tangle in that tombstone.
II seems awfully easy" said an ex-
cited young woman in an uptown Office
Yesterday, "but just when you think you
have 1t it slips away from you. I really
can't waste any more time on 1t. Here it
is lunch time and have my whole morn
ing's correspondence yet to write"
Some express their answers much like
algebraic problems. others use diagrams,
and still others have sent In several Well
grown family trees. 1t Is wonderful how
much interest is being manifested in the
simple little riddle.
A few are arguing the impossibility OF
it all. What do you think about 1t? Have
you tried to solve it yet?
Here are some more or the hundreds OF
answers that have been sent in, and re-
member this is hot weather, with the
thermometer climbing up into the nine
ties:
Tombstone Editor: Anent riddle in Sun
days Star, think it's solution easy. Am
sure a mistake has been made in the
number of corpses under stone. If men
marry their mothers-in-law. wives being
dead, leaving daughters, conditions are
met, except that husbands are sons-in-
law instead of sons. There's where your
riddle is defective. CLIFF CHASE.
July 6, 1908.
The Tombstone Editor: i he six corpses
buried in the cemetery that were law
fully married in the riddle are the two
and two husbands and their
two wives. The two grandmothers had
two sons, who had two wives. and they
had two sons and two daughters. The
two maidens are the two granddaughters.
Yours, JAMES o. NOODLE.
Tombstone Editor, The Evening Star:
If the conditions stated in your riddle ap-
piled to the intermarrying 100 of New
York. one might possibly, guess how they
could exist; but to straight-laced Pres
byterian highly moral Scotch men and
women. all no! can't imagine. Now in
stead Of dealing with two OF each kind at
a time, let us take one. For instance. we
must imagine that one man and two
women can sustain the relationship to
each other of grandmother, mother. wife,
daughter and granddaughter, father, hus-
band and son. Now how under heaven
is it possible? Match the husband and
wife. the father and daughter and the
son and mother, and where do the grand
mother and granddaughter come in?
Can either of them be the wife? The
cannot because she must
be the maiden. or there can't be any
maidens. Can the grandmother be the
wife? No. for that would not only be
inf hrYf mi a mfr a y1ynII
II she could with propriety and legally be
the wife. how could her daughter be her
Or. take the man. If he
is the husband of the grandmother. where
is his mother, because the grandmother
must be the Oldest of the women. I can
see how the proposition might be worked
out with eight people. but certainly not
with six. Now II it cannot be worked
out with one set, it cannot be worked out
with two. because false in one is false in
all. LEX TALIONIS.
Editor. Evening Star.
Dear Sir: Your interesting riddle is.
think, very easily solved.
her daughter form the basis. The son
married the widow. his father married
the daughter and daughter was born to
each couple. These are the six buried
under the slab. for. as will be readily
seen. all the relationships are fulfilled.
granddaughter The daughter Of the
son and widow would have her fathers
fathers wife the widows daughter mar
ried to the widower) for her grandmother.
and the other child would have her
mothers mother 0he widow for her
1.-TWO husbands with their two wives -
Son and widow, widower and daughter
making the two couples.
1.-TWO fathers with their two daughters"
needs no further explanation.
Two mothers with their two sons"
The widow and the husband Of her daugh-
ter. the daughter and the son Of her hus-
band.
Two maidens with their two mothers
The two little girls with their mothers.
Yours sincerely.
HELEN PRESCOTT HUBBARD,
TAO Goth street northwest.
Tombstone Editor, The Star: The tomb
stone riddle reads to me like 1umbled
up mess of women covering four genera
mother. daughter
and granddaughter-and in addition to
this two OF them have to be wives and
two maidens. while there must be at least
four men-two fathers and two sons. 1t
complex tangle of men and women num-
Der only six, and that all are lawfully
married. How can the maidens be maid
ems II they are married? How can man
lawfully marry his grandmother. his
mother or his daughter? The bright mind
that put up your riddle was bit added.
l think. when he composed It.
MARY CORBERLY.
Tombstone Editor. Evening Star.
Dear Sir: The clue to your puzzle seems
to lie in the fact that it is at the pains to
locate the cemetery in Scotland
BY implication, therefore, 1t would seem
that the family was not OF the Church
of England. and. consequently. not sub
ject to the prohibition respecting a man
marrying his own grandmother.
II so. the following solution is simple:
No. I. Woman.
No. 2. Son, marries No. 3.
No. f. Maiden daughter No 5. Son, mar
ries No. I (his
grandnother).
No. 6. Maiden daughter.
Very truly yours. J. R. MORGAN
1907 NJ St, NV, city.