Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1878 — A Christmas Puzzle. [ARTICLE]

A Christmas Puzzle.

Let the person whose name you wish to know tell you in which of the upright columns the first letter of his name is found. If it be found in but one column, it is the top letter; if it occurs in in more than one column, it is found by adding the alphabetical numbers of the top letters of these columns, and the sum will be the letter sought. By taking one letter at a time in this way the whole name can be ascertained a n d H p C C E I Q EFF.TR O G G K 8 I J L L T K K M M U M N N N V o o o o w Q R T X X S- 8 U Y Y U V V Z Z WWW Y Z For example, take the word Jane. J is found in the two columns commencing with B and H, which are the seoond and eighth letters down the alphabet; their sum is ten, and the tenth letter down the alphabet is J, the letter sought. The next letter, A, appears in but one column, where it stands at the top. N is seen in the columns headed B, D and H; these are the second, fourth and eighth letters of the alphabet, which added give the fourteenth, or N, and so on. The use of this table will excite no little curiosity among those unacquainted with the foregoing explanation.