The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-07-06

three subscriptions, or the equivalent
in one subscription, to The Herald.
The contest brought forth a great
volume of answers There were so
many that days of work were re-
uuired to classify and check them.
The Herald had no idea the amount
of work that would be required
when the contest began. In fact, The
Herald knew nothing more about the
picture puzzle than did any of its
readers. The puzzle was furnished
us by a concern in Minnesota. The
Herald merely purchasing the right
to use it. Certain requirements
were made along with the sale OF
the picture, one of which the contest
must be closed on June goth, and
another of which was that the mas
ter list was not to be furnished un-
til the day of closing, and then must
not be opened until the contest had
closed. In view of these conditions,
The Herald, nor any one connected
| with it, could not possibly have
made any suggestion other than
laid down in the rules, if we had
been disposed to have done so, which
we were not, Of course.
The Herald has enjoyed this con-
test. This newspaper is the first
| weekly paper in the state to use such
a picture puzzle, and one Of the two
first papers, daily or weekly, to use
contest of this sort. 1t is some
thing new and novel; interesting and
instructive. Careful study and
thought were the only requirements
for winning.
In checking over the numerous
lists submitted The Herald finds that
the greatest fault was the failure of
contestants to read and observe the
rules carefully. Naturally a con-
test of this kind, open to everybody,
subscribers and non-subscr1Ders,
qualified or unqualified, meant that
some strict rules must be laid down
and enforced. These rules were
printed in every issue of the paper,
and in all circulars sent out.
One of these rules was that no
compound words must be used, nor
could two words be used in describ-
ing one object. This rule was brok-
en- quite often, and resulted in
good many penalties.
Another rule was that one point
was to be counted for each correct
word, and after allowing fifteen in
correct words for any honest differ
ence Of opinion concerning any OBJ
jects, a contestant was to be penal
lied one point for each additional
incorrect word.
Contestants will note that the sub
nilsson of the biggest lists of words,
did not suffice to win prizes. Some
of the lists submitted contained
above 400 words In view of the fact
that there are only ZIG words on
the master list prepared by the ar
tist, it was necessary to impose a
penalty for all incorrect words.
Therefore if a contestant submitted,
say, 400 words, and had named cor
rectly every object in the picture,
there would have been 1S4 incor-
rect words on the list. Allowing the
margin of Is words for difference of
opinion, the penalty imposed would
have been 169 points. The list be-
gan with 216 points for correct
words, but deducting the penalty
would leave a score of A..
Take, now, another list of, say,
$50 words. On checking the list. it
was found that 130 words were cor
rect and 20 wrong. Deducting the
Is words, above referred to, from the
list leaves penalty Of 5 points.
Therefore, the score would be 1875.
This list, with $50 words, made far
better score than did the list of 400
words, even though the larger list
contained all of the correct words.
But the larger list was encountered
with too many incorrect words.
The fairness of this rule is ap-
parent. Any contestant could have
taken a standard dictionary and
copied down all the words beginning
with "B" and thereby would have
been bound to name all of the OBJ
jects in the picture. This rule was
for the protection of the careful con-
testant.
Some peculiar aspects Of this con-
test were seen in checking. For in
stance the church building in the
picture received various names.
Quite number called it Bethel"
one called it bethlehem" and sew