Transcriber's note
Obvious punctuation errors have been repaired silently. Word errors have been corrected and a list of corrections can be found after the book.
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The Handbook
of
Conundrums
by
Edith B. Ordway
Author of "The Etiquette of To-day," and"Synonyms and Antonyms."
New York
George Sully and Company
Copyright, 1914, by
SULLY and KLEINTEICH
Copyright, 1915, by
SULLY and KLEINTEICH
All rights reserved
Printed in U. S. A.
PREFACE
This book presents a grindstone whereonthe reader may whet his wits. It is of sufficienthardness to resist the coarsest metal ofbroad-bladed humor, and of sufficient finenessof grain to edge the best steel of fancy.
Like all grindstones, though its form isnew, its ingredients are of remote origin.It has whetted many English and Americanblades for the battle of ideas, and is, therefore,in places, somewhat worn. There is,however, much absolutely fresh surface.
Any blade of fine temper properly groundupon it is warranted to cleave to the dividingasunder of such subtle distinctions as thatbetween humorsome stupidity and precisewit, and that between the wit of laughteronly and the wit of insight.
E. B. O.
INTRODUCTION
A conundrum is a riddle in the form ofa question, the answer to which involves apun. Originally the term was applied to anyquaint expression. It is thus, in its modernform, a union of the elaborated riddle andthe impromptu pun.
With the earliest development of intelligencecame the discovery of likeness anddifference in things, and the search for analogywas carried out along both sensible andabsurd lines, the latter drifting into a doubleanalogy of thought and form, of which theconundrum is the logical product.
The literatures of all peoples contain theriddle, which might be witty or serious asimpulse prompted. All bright and cleverminds have seen the possibilities of the pun,and so common is it as an impromptu formof wit among keen people, so general thetemptation to fall into it, that it is lookedupon with disfavor, as a pitfall for thought,[Pg viii]which often prevents it from finishing itscourse.
The conundrum has, however, an ancientand honorable lineage, and, while not oftengiven its precise form in conversation oranecdote, is readily adapted to the permanentembodiment of those flashes of witwhich enlighten and cheer.
The ability to guess and to propound riddleswas held in high respect in early times.Men of great physical prowess were expectedto guess riddles to prove their mentalprowess, and many were the contests of thissort which were held. The stakes in thesecontests were very high,—often life orhonor. In Norse mythology the prize ofsuch a contest was once the daughter of thegod Thor; in another the life of the giantVafthrudnir was forfeit when he failed towin in competition with the god