The evening world. Newspaper, January 28, 1922, Page 20

we * +) “- ter is showing his card to his friends ’ THE EVENING WORLD'S FICTION: SECTION, _SATURD. Y, JANUARY 328, _ 1922. Another Knotty Checker Problem a ee BLACK MOVES FIRST—WHITE CANNOT WIN Third in a Series of. Checker Problems Originated by ny ‘*Gentleman Jack’’ O’Brien To-day Checker Wizard O’Brien shows us a board on which three WHITE kings and four WHITE men are locked in bat- tle _with six BLACK men with not so much as a single king to aid them, orl It looks as though BLACK’S chance of winning is very re- mote, and that WHITE should have an 0 time of it. for BLACK to lose! See if you can figure out Mr. O’Brien’s first move—and those which follow. ‘Next Saturday we will see just how he ac- complishes the apparently impossible. will give us “another problem ey knotty. Two Real Puzzlers ITH a paper of pins and a W glass of water you can per- form an_ experiment = that seems akin to real magic. The glass should ‘bé so full of water that a drep or two more would cause it to overflow. Ifyou’ are doing the trick in a parlor, perhaps it would be best to place the’glass on a tray or saucer so that a i a ean do no damage. Drop one of the, pins nite the water, point foremost and carefully. It does not cause the water to overflow. Drop another. The water does not over- flow. After you have added fifteen or twenty pins one at a time to the water your audience will begin to show signs of unusuaft interest. Per- he. «Q” WENTY or more buttons or coins | are arranged on the table in the form of a capital ‘‘Q.'’ The il- lustration should give a”good idea of how the arrangement should appear. The number of buttons used is imma- terial. A spectator is asked to think of any While you turn your back number. haps you will be a bit surprised your- self. Keep it up, however, until the water starts to overflow. By that time the pins will seem to fill the glass. The logical question is: How did you manage to add all those pins to a glass that seemed already more than comfortably filled with water? The real puzzler is in the second part of the experiment. Another glass of water is used, but instead of drop- ping pins in ygu will drop pennies. Much care must be exercised in order to cause them to drop edgewise and gently. You can’t fill the glass with pennies but you can get a comfortable handful into the glass without qausins the water to overflow. Mystery. he is asked to start with tl® button at the tip of the tall of the Q” (the button marked ‘‘A’’) and count up the tail and up the right side of the “Q"' until he reaches the number of which he thought. Now he is to start at the button on which he stopped and count the same number in the reverse direction. Instead, however, of going down the tail of the “Q"’.he is to go up the left side of the ‘‘Q." This being done, you face the party ‘and place your. finger on the button upon which he stopped counting. To do this you merely count as many buttons up the left side of the *Q" as there are buttons in the-tail. A little thought and experiment will make it clear to you why tiius must If you repeat the trick, add to or take from the buttons in the tail. It would not do to let the spectators know that no matter how lage or small the number decided upon, the counting always stops at the same number. An Easy Card Trick. F you like card tricks here is an | easy one that is very effective. It _ requires litle practice, but it impossible to detect if performed with what entertainers call ‘ta good line of chatter,”’ A spectator selects a card pack of cards. He shows it to one or two of his neighbers and replaces it in the pack, The performer holds the ecards behind his back and, after a little hesitation, tells the name of the card selected, Before presenting the trick, the performer turns the bettoam card of the pack face.upward, When he has v card seleeted ‘he is carefit that the erse position of the bottom card is hat observed. While the specta- very is almost from a the performer turns the pack over, holding the cards well squared. When the spectator returns the card to the pack apparently all of the cards are face down. Really, only the top card and the one the spectator returns are face down, While taiking, thé performer turns the. pack upsidg down again. Con- tinuiag his ehatter about the diffi- culties of mind-reading, or whatever other pseudo-science he pretends he employs in performing the trick, he Slightly spreads the cards so'that he can get a except the is exposed. glimpse of the only card, bottom one,. whose face ‘ This done, he holds the ecards behind his back, and afte? a little hesitation, toradd to the effect, Ys a the name of the selected ~ But, remember, it is BLACK’S first move, and Mr. O’Brien says. he.can play it and, once he has moved, not only is it impossible for WHITE to win, but, under his guiding hand, it is impossible (Copyright, 1922, by Jack O’Brien, Also he d's WEEKEND TRICKS*PUZZLES Clip Out; Paste on Cardboard or Heavy Paper and Save With Others for Binding in a Book It Seems Easy, But— ERE is a puzzié that would be H a wonder if it did not have one very serious shortcomin;:. It will be observed that the diagram (figure A) is composed of sixteen lines. The problem is to draw a con- tinuous line that will cross each of the sixteen lines, once and once only. It is necessary that the continuous line touch the lines of the diagram at one point each and that it cross only one line at a time. That is, it cannot pass through the junction of two or more lines. There are many people who. believe that the puzzle is easy. Perhaps it is. The writer has seen many attempted solutions, but he has never seen one that was correct. That is the short- coming mentioned, Bither the puzzle cannot be solved or the solution has never been found. It is fascinating, it always seems that the next attempt to the mys however, because will produce a_ solution tery. Figure B shows one attempted (but incorrect) solution. It will be ob served that the to cross one of the lines of the dia- continuous line fails gram. Figure C shows another fault often found in solutions which puz- zlers imagine are correct. The con- tinuous line crosses one of the lines of the diagram twice. If you are like’most folk; however, you will not accept the statement that ‘it can’t be done"’ until you try ft for yourself. \ All rients reserved.) FIRST BOARD. The problem as given last Saturday. SECOND BOARD. BLACK No. 1 moves as shown. WHITE No, 2 jumps and blocks two kings. THIRD BOARD. BLACK No. 3 moves as WHITE No. 4 jumps, - blockade of kings. shown, completing FOURTH BOARD. BLACK No. 5 moves as shown. WHITE now conipletely blocked. The Nine Little Crosses. HIS is one of the few good puz zles upon which all memb-1s of the party may work at the same time. It has an additional ad- vantage in being not at all well I:nown. Nine little grosses (or dots) are made on a piece of paper in the man- ner shown in figure A. The solution of the puzzle requires that four straight lines be made (without tak- ing the pencil from the paper) that will pass through all of the littie crosses, Figure B shows the solution of the Luzzle. /