THE YOUNG 
way the last drop may be dispersed in 
spray. 
The applications which might be made 
of this simple device are almost innumer- 
able. 
Puzzles as Mental Exercises. 
THE following puzzles are good, con- 
sidered merely as puzzles, but when 
analyzed, as we find them in the House- 
hold, so as to show the particular way in 
which the mind is led astray from the 
correct answers, they become most in- 
teresting and valuable studies : 
" Two brothers," began the Professor, 
impressively addressing the hostess, ' ' were 
walking together do wn the street, and one 
of them, stopping at a certain house, 
knocked at the door, observing, ' I have a 
niece here who is ill.' 'Thank heaven,' 
observed the other, ' I have got no niece,' 
and he walked away. Now how could that 
be?" 
"Why, it's a riddle!" exclaimed Mr. 
Funnidog, delightedly. 
" And one that you will not guess in a 
hurry, simple as it is," observed the Pro- 
lessor confidently. "Come, ladies and 
gentlemen, solve the problem." 
" I see ," ejaculated Mrs. House- 
wife. 
" Hush ! whisper in my ear," cried Puz- 
zleton, with all the excitement of a child 
with a top. "Don't let 'em hear it. 
* Niece by marriage. ' Stuff and nonsense. 
The thing is not any foolish kind of catch 
at all; " and once more he glanced with 
hostility at Funnidog, as much as to say, 
*' Such as he would ask you." Nothing 
can be simpler than my question. "I've 
got a niece, that's ill," says one brother. 
Thank heaven, I have not got a niece," 
says the other. " How can that be? You 
all give up? Well, the invalid was his 
daughter." 
"Oh, I see," said Mrs. Housewife de- 
spondingly. " How very stupid in us not 
to find it out. 
" Yes indeed, ma'am," answered the re- 
morseless savant. " That failure only 
shows how difficult it is for ordinary 
minds to grasp more than one idea at the 
same time. The attention is solely fixed 
on the different varieties of nieces." 
SCIENTIST. 131 
"And, also," observed Mr. Aloes (who 
was much displeased at being classed 
among " ordinary minds "), " and, also, the 
attention is naturally distracted from the 
point at issue by the brutality of the 
father's remark. Now that is in itself ' a 
catch,' in my opinion." 
" Well, Sir, I will give you another sim- 
ple exercise for the understanding that has 
no such distracting element," observed 
the Professor, cooly. "A blind beggar 
had a brother. The brother died. What 
relation were they to one another? Come, 
tell me that." 
" Why, they were brothers," exclaimed 
the colonel, with the rapidity of a small 
boy at the bottom of his class, who hopes 
to gain promotion. 
" No, sir," answered the Professor, re- 
garding Thunderbomb with interest, as a 
significant type of some low order of in- 
telligence, "they were not brothers, or I 
should scarcely have asked the question." 
"They might be brothers-in-law," sug- 
gested Funnidog. 
"Undoubtedly they might," replied 
Puzzleton, with a pitying smile; "but 
they were not." 
' ' Stop a bit, ' ' said McPherson, hurriedly, 
like one who has not got his answer quite 
ready, but yet doesn't wish to be antici- 
pated. "The blind beggar, you said, had a 
brother, and the brother died. Well, of 
course, if one was dead, you know they 
could not be brothers any longer. " 
" The idea is novel," observed the Pro- 
fessor, gravely, " but you have not hit 
upon the exact solution. The fact is, 
gentlemen and ladies, a blind beggar 
may be either male or female. In this in- 
stance she was a female. They were 
brother and sister." 
"I call that a catch," said Aloes, 
gloomily. 
" Well, at all events, it was an easy one, 
and you all missed it," returned the Pro- 
fessor, with quiet triumph. " Now, I will 
give you one more example of social 
arithmetic, which will be in all respects 
bona fide. It is a simple question in sub- 
traction, and all I ask of you is — since 
two or three guesses would arrive at the 
truth by mere elimination— to write down 
the reply on paper. A man went into a 
