Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-03

to tho number OF times that cards may
be shifted from one part OF the square to
another.
Another popular variation Of the same
puzzle is 20 take twenty-five cards and lay
them out in five rows Of five cards each,
supposed to be poker hands, and then
shift them about until each row is a pat
hand. There no limit TO the number OF
changes that may be made. but every one
Of the hands must be technically patti that
IN, it must be OF such a character that It
is not necessary to draw to it, because a
discard would either spoil It or a draw
could not improve it. OF the standard
poker hands only four are pat-straights.
flushes, fulls and four of a kind.
1t is said by experts at this game that
1t Is impossible TO pick out any twenty
five cards from which five pat hands can
not be made, an assertion which has cost
some people a good deal of time and
patience to verify. AS a rule the cards
naturally arrange themselves into three or
four pat hands Immediately, but It usually
takes a good deal of study and changing
about to make the fifth hand without de-
s~troying the others.
The puzzle from which both these forms
are derived was a common form OF amuse-
ment in the seventeenth century, long be-
fore poker was thought of. Only the first
nine cards OF a suit were used, those run
ming from the ace to the nine being picked
out.
The object Of the players was TO arrange
these nine cards In a magic square, so that
no matter which of the eight rows was
counted horizontally, vertically or diago-
naliy. the sum of the plps on the cards in
that row would be the same as the sum OF
the pips in any and every other row. The
only drawback to this form Of puzzle is
that after you have once mastered It you
can always do 1t again.
A rather curious puzzle which had a
great vogue in the old days was to take this
sequence OF cards from the acc TO the nine,
mix them and throw them face dow on
the table. Three persons were then asked
each to draw a card, without showing Il
to the operator, but each was TO show his
card TO the others who had drawn.
The operator then told one Of them to
subtract one from double the pips on his
cards and multiply the remainder by five.
He was then TO add the number of pips on
the second PERSONS card. TO this total he
added five, doubled 1t and took one from It,
after which he had TO multiply it by five
again, adding to the total the number of
pips on the third PERSONS card.
The operator then asked the sum, to
which he mentally added five, giving him
a sum consisting always of three figures.
The first Of these three figures is the num-
Der of pips on the card the first person
took. The second figure will equal the num-
Der of pips on the card taken by the second
person, and the third figure will tell the
number of pips on the third persons card.
Although this process seems a little COM
plicated in telling 1t 1t is not so In practice,
and the certainty with which the cards can
be named comes In the nature of a surprise,
especially If the operator simply names the
figures and suit, pointing rapidly to each
person in turn, as: "Trey of diamonds.
Six Of diamonds. Eight Of diamonds
A very curious puzzle, based on the prop
critics of permutations, which is seldom seen
now. but which a we'll known business man
once offered Mellini 500 to learn, is known
as ''The Hoodoo Numbers Take three
persons and tell the first that his hoodoo
number is twelve. the second that his num-
Der is "a and the third that his is So. Their
ask each of them to draw a card from a
pack which you do not touch. Let one OF
them mix these three cards and then lay
them face up on the table for you TO
look at.
These three cards must be laid out in
some one of six positions. and these six
permutatlons Of position are mentally num-
bered from twenty-three to twenty-nine,
tomitting twenty-six, the three cards being
distinguished, say, as A, B, c. No matter
how the cards are laid out those drawn by
Nos. u, "a and SO must occupy one OF these
six POSITIONS: