DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 80, 25 June 1927, Page 4

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

PUZZLES (Copyright , 102"t.J A B ? OK called “ Real Puzzles” has come to my desk. In it there are some 150 puzzles included. Those who like puzzledom will be entertained and many who do not like puzzles will be started on their downward path. Solving a puzzle introduces us to the mental process which discovers many useful things. The problems of this life are not solved like questions in arithmetic, but are usually solved by the process known as “fumbling: and experiment. , answ ers to a question by computing the average of probabilities is the way which is followed by those who find out recondite matters. There are puzzles in the Bible. There is a tradition that Adam proposed curious riddles to his two sons, but it is not substantiated. We know, however, that Samson, besides being the strongest man was a good deal of a puzzler. ’ When the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon she “proved him with hard questions and it is recorded that Solomon and Hiram King of Tvrp had a contest in riddles. * ’ The hieroglyphics of the ancient Phoenicians and Egyptians were a sort of rebus, in fact the alphabet started with rebus svmbols 4 Readers of history are all familiar with the puzzle of the sphinx which was: Vi'hat is that animal which in the morning goes forth on four feet at noon on two, and in the evening on three?” ’ 1 The answer is: “Man.” Edgar A. Poe wrote a most charming and intriguing storv called -The Gold Bug/’ which turned on the solution of a cryptogram, and cryptogrJms are now the favourite amusement of puzzlers. Some people despise the puzzler’s art. but there ic* « , League in the United States which directs attention to ihe educat onaVbene'fl’t of it. It publishes a paper called “The Enigma,” which is a good esfoi one’s general information and power of weighing probabilities After all we know very little in this world exactiv, and most of our opinions are formed by the preponderance of probabilities.