The Wrangell sentinel., 1925-02-05

 Puzzle Craze
IDEA FAILED TO INTEREST pE LIC DECADE AGO: SALE OF
 DICTIONARIES AMAZING

tionary, little volume hardly larger than wrist watch, is being sold on the streets of New York like the proverbial hot cakes Your first guess is correct-it is being bought by crossword puzzle fans.
 This is not the only dictionary placed on the market especially for crossword puzzle workers. Hardly a publishing house that deals in dictionaries has overlooked the field. One firm alone has sold 250,- 900 volumes.
 A most remarkable phase of the crossword craze, and one which is baffling psychologists, is that the crossword puzzle made it's first ap- pearance in New York thirteen years ago and failed to interest the public The syndicate which created crossword puzzles at that time, shortly afterward discontinued them because of the public's lack of in- tereSt.
 What different story is to be told today!
 No form of public amusement has taken hold the way the cross word puzzle has. It is almost i'm possible to pick up a newspaper anywhere in the country without finding crossword puzzle.
 Harry Flory, an American news paper correspondent stationed in London, who arrived on the liner Olympic last week, said that the crossword puzzle only now has be- gun to interest the British. At first it was looked upon as another American fad" Newspapers printed long articles, some of which were highly exaggerated, and told of the "cross- tournaments in all the large cities"
 It is a different story today, said Flory The stolid Englishman may be seen grimly absorbed in cudgel- ing his brain for "a word of four letters representing birds mouth,'' as he rides on the bus. In the House of Parliament a member surreptitiously draws paper from his pocket during desultory de- bate and begins thoughtfully to print letters in the white squares
 Coming back America, J. c. Boyd, who complies crossword pug, zles for the biggest newspaper feature syndicate in this country says the crossword puzzle in real ity was originated thirteen years ago by a New York artist. He hit upon the idea of combining all acrostic, a puzzle poem, with a checkerboard.
 Boyd is not so sure that the fad | is adding to the vocabulary of the American people, as has been con- tended. The average vocabulary comprises 500 words, according tC Boyd, and creators of cross wort puzzles aim to keep all words with in such a vocabulary.
 The crossword has, however brought an enormous demand fol dictionaries, Boyd said. These new dictionaries, though, contain more three letter words than anything else, and while they help the pug gle worker, they are not, in his opinion, conducive to greater vo cabulary.
 Archaeologists are declaring that the crossword puzzle idea is to be found in cuneiform or cylinder writing. It was, they argue, created by the Phoenicians some 10000 years ago.
 The psychologists are about even ly divided on the psychology of the subject. The majority is inclined to the belief that the psychology oi l'the crossword puzzle is that the human mind is eager for mental combat. The crossword puzzle they say, is a form of challenge and since it is simple, millions oi minds have accepted the challenge -