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 Forum index » Diversions » TimeWasters
A Century of Charades - 100 riddles from 1895
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		A Century of Charades - 100 riddles from 1895
I bought a book (at a local thrift shop) called "A Century of Charades" by William Bellamy published in 1895. This book is original from 1895. The book has old-fashioned riddles and the answers are given at the end in a coded key. I haven't solved them

I thought some of the puzzle people here might have fun solving these riddles from 100 years ago. We'll see how it goes. I thought of catherwood and rowan and some of my other friends here when I saw this book. Hey, at any rate this seems to fit as a time waster.

The preface says in the final paragraph" To start fair,let me state that my charades are all accurate to either the sound or to the spelling, but not necessarily to both, and that the parts into which my words are divided are all monosyllables."


Herewith, the the first riddle:


My first endured a hundred years,
A prodigy of logic and wit;
My last the faro banker fears,
King Solomon was not arrayed like it.
My whole, dear reader, you'll divine
When you peruse this book of mine.


edit to add: the 2nd and 4th lines are indented two spaces but I can't get that to show on the forum, it moves them to the edge even though my post has the spacing correct. and,, I tried to scan the pages but the book seems too fragile to scan.
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 7:32 pm
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Guest
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 		PDF Version
http://djm.cc/library/A_Century_of_Charades_Bellamy_edited03.pdf

PostPosted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 6:45 am
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		Thanks guest for that post! I'm sure it is easier to read the riddles as they were originally typed.

I found an article from the globe and mail about these charades. The author has solved 2 of them:

Quote:
A century ago puzzles

Having just picked up an 1895 copy of A Century of Charades, I pass along two puzzles. William Bellamy's book contains 100 poems that must be deciphered in the manner of a cryptic-crossword clue. That form of riddle had been popular for centuries, and Bellamy's success with his first "century" was so great that he published several sequels.

Frustratingly, he doesn't supply the answers at the back. He offers a complex numerical code which, if readers think they have solved the riddles, they can use to determine whether their answers are correct. Each solution is a single word. Bellamy breaks the word into syllables, and provides clues to the first syllable, last syllable and any in between. "My charades are all accurate either to the sound or to the spelling, but not necessarily to both," he writes.

I have tried eight, and so far solved only two, which I will print here.

My first is headgear of Ismail;
My last rebukes the lazy sinner;
Hang up my total by the tail,
And when it falls, ask me to dinner.


My first, a sacred river,
Flows to a sunless sea;
My next was doomed forever
To be followed by a bee;
My third I do that you can guess my whole,
Which Cadmus out of Egypt stole.

(Answers appear at the end of the column.)




Quote:
Don't skip to these answers

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The answers to the opening two puzzles are "pheasant" (fez, ant) and "alphabet" (Alph the sacred river, "a" precedes "bee," bet). I trust it won't take me a century to figure out the other 98
.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/many-ways-to-skin-a-letter/article1466988/
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:29 am
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		I know what Rose's solution is, but in order to explain it, I need to find a philosopher who lived 100 years and who's name sounds like "shah" or "share".

Editing per Rose's suggestion:
Code:
My first endured a hundred years,
A prodigy of logic and wit;

Can't get this part
Code:
My last the faro banker fears,
King Solomon was not arrayed like it.

A faro banker fears "a raid" 'cause s/he'll lose all their money; And, while I don't get the "King Solomon" part(Pharaoh, maybe?), the "arrayed"/"a raid" play seems pretty obvious.
Code:
My whole, dear reader, you'll divine
When you peruse this book of mine.

You need look no farther than the title of the book, itself, for the word:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
CHARADE

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:17 am
Last edited by Rogi Ocnorb on Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:27 pm; edited 3 times in total
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		Rogi: why not post what you have? I'll put up the second one, the spacing is the same as the original:



My first, offender 'gainst agrarian laws,
Was shot, for no one would defend his cause.

On Mansfield Mountain once did dwell
A youth who did my second well.

In gaudy hues my whole you see
A-cheapening a pound of tea.



(I'm still not sure how these work, I guess cryptic crosswords in rhyming clues is the best way to describe it. I hope people enjoy looking at these puzzles that were popular 125 or so years ago.)
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Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

PostPosted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 6:39 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		It's amazing how much the language can change (or not) in that amount of time.
To think people could do these without the benefit of the internet, says a lot about their mental acuity.

On the newest one, The first 2 lines would appear to be talking about a crow ("cause" vs: "caws").
The middle part might be about a mountain in Vermont that loosely resembles a supine human face.
For the last part... All I can find is a town in Maine called "Pound of Tea"

Did they abbreviate the states using 2 letters, back then?

If so, then the "gaudy" and "cheap" references might be related to:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
CHROME
?
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:24 pm
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GreenWindmill
Decorated

Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 195
Location: Midlands, UK

 		Any chance the middle section can refer to a youth named Shay? (Can't make the leap myself)

Making the whole
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
crochet
being a gaudy tea cosy?

Kind of a stretch I know...
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Mmm... Sacrilicious.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:23 am
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		I think Rogi is correct. The author provides at the end of the book "a key ...not intended to provide answers, but to verify the correctness of a guess." Rogi's guess fits and well done to him. These puzzles require a kind of abstract thinking that my brain doesn't do!

The third one is long I'll post it this evening.
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I love this site for being free, in every sense of the word~Spacebass

Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:45 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.
rose wrote:
These puzzles require a kind of abstract thinking that my brain doesn't do!


It's weird...
The kind of "riddle" I see around here typically just pisses me off because I never seem to be thinking it through the way the creator planned and frustration abounds.

These, though, have a certain elegance and "feel" that you're headed the right way.

Maybe I'm just out of my proper place in time. God knows I feel that way more and more often as I get older.

I'm SO SAD for my kids and the stuff they'll never get to do that I took for granted.
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:04 pm
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		number III
Here is the third one, after Rogi's post I decided to just take a minute and type it. (I wish i could type 100 wpm like Space) This one seems harder than the first two, no idea where to start!



'Tis pleasant in these shortened days
To sit before the chimney's blaze,
And hear afar the stirring sound
Of hunter's horn and baying hound.
When pussy, for he loves the heat,
Stalks in to claim his favorite seat,
I drop the paper half unread,
To scratch poor pussy's head instead;
And think how vain are business cares,
How vain the strife of bulls and bears.

Without, I catch my second's din,
I listen to my first within,
And learn from both the lessons blent
Of healthy sport and home content.
If stocks should rise, I would not sell;
If stocks were down, I'd fare as well:
The very kettle seems to sing
That riches are not everything.
I think I'll ask my broker, though,
If consols are my whole, or no.
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Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:20 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		Ha!
Thanks, Rose.

Just when I speak of elegance, they throw this one in.
It seems kinda repetitive, saying the same things a few different times/ways.

The meat of it seems to be the sounds inside and outside reference.

So the first part might be sounds of a fire? a cat?
and the 2nd part would be the sounds of a hunt.

The larger picture could be something to do with financial markets or risk.

The "kettle" bit's got me stumped.

"consol" refers to an old type of bond issued by the British government.
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:54 pm
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booba
Unfictologist


Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 1433

 		Just stumbled on this, and I'll take a stab at III

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The cat purrs
The sound of the chase
For: purchase (some stocks)


PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:01 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		Sounds right, to me.
So, I guess they don't all require some form of homonymy.
(Like, say... Substituting a chaise [lounge] for the "chase" or doing the whole thing as "perch" and "ace")
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:08 pm
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		Number IV
That answer fits the key.

Here's one more...Again, every other line is indented in the original.


My first will measure less than four feet long,
'T was often fifty in Quintilian's day ;
My second is the fertile source of song,
The sweet bird's carol, not the poet's lay.
My third in hills is apt to congregate ;
A worker, though addicted to the bowl
In Massachusetts, but in New York State
She's frequently a lady, and my whole.



PS. I'm in the city all day tomorrow so won't be able to look at this thread til Thursday. If this is solved and someone else wants to post the next one from the pdf file, I don't mind. I'm just glad if people enjoy the puzzles from this little book I found. And, I'm all about the collaborating community. I can't solve any of them myself.

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I love this site for being free, in every sense of the word~Spacebass

Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:19 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		I don't get the "less than 4 feet part.
The Roman letter numeral for fifty is "L"
The next 2 lines I think are describing an egg (VERY cleverly).
The next 2 lines seem to refer to... Chinese miners? (Addicted to Heroin).
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:58 pm
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