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REPLYING TO THE oft-repeated query as to how puzzles are originated; whether they come spontaneously like sudden inspirations or as the result of long and careful study, I would say that like the development of any other inventions, they come either way from a happy thought or from hard work, although in either came the idea is generally suggested by some chance incident.
By way of illustration I will say that during my summer's outing, while scouring the country en-wheel, I ran up against a good-natured Hibernian whose apple orchard and spring of cool water made his little shanty a veritable Mecca for weary bicycle pilgrims. He was a unique character, and few of us ever came out first best with him in a passage of wits, as he had an inexhaustible stock of replies at his tongue's end ready for anything that could be fired at him.
It will be interesting to know how he takes to the idea of being immortalized in print when he sees the sketch I made of him seated in char- acteristic pose at the door of his do- micile. The original picture, neatly framed, has been sent by express to grace his drawing room" in acknowledgment of "one on the puzzler."
You see, I was so foolhardy as to intimate that there was a certain bond of fellowship between us be- cause we both made our Living by the pen, which seemed to touch him in his most tender spot, for he asked in his earnest way if I knew why an Irishman always builds a pig pen under the drawing room win dow? Then, after I had suggested every practical explanation and com pletely exhausted my repertoire of conundrums, appropriate or other wise, he told me in a confidential whisper which could be heard a mile that it was built there to keep the pigs in. He begged me not to tell the reason to the rest of the party, who might think it a joke. During the journey home there was not one of that party who did not fall off his bicycle a dozen times in thinking over Pat's problem. Of course I thought of it as well, and there was one statement concerning his pig- sty which struck me as being so "odd" that I utilized it to get even on the rest of the crowd. I can not tell it in Pat's own language, but it appears that, believing with Rory O'More in "the luck of odd num- bers." he had made it a rule to bring up." as he suggestively termed it, just twenty-one pigs every season. To accommodate them he built the pen under the drawing room window, dividing his happy family into four groups, so that each pen contained an even number of pairs and one odd pig It looks like an easy little prob lem to divide twenty-one pigs in that way if you say it quick, but just try it!
If you understand the mystery of Shakespeare's "divinity of odd numbers," show how Pat placed his twenty-one pigs in four pens so that each pen contained that odd little porker.
Peterchen's Pretzel.
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Here is a simple little marking problem for the juveniles who have found the other problems somewhat difficult. Little Peterchen had a Vienna twisted pretzel, as shown in the drawing, and asks his young friends to guess into how many pieces he divided it with one straight cut with a knife. Supposing it to be a real pretzel, draw a straight line which would divide it into the greatest possible number of pieces.
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