Mary A. A. Dawson

“ Each prayer for truth-inspiring light,
Each manly struggle for the right,
Each kindly word to cheer the lowly,
Each aspiration for the holy,
Each strong temptation overcome,
Each clamorous passion held in silence dumb.
As it arises slowly toward the upper heaven
Stone after stone until the mass is given.
Its base upon the earth, its apex in the skies,
The good man’s character, a pyramid doth rise.
[Pg 133]
“Revolution” is transposed “to love ruin,” and “French Revolution,” “Violence run forth.” ”

“ Beheaded, I am one of the sources of light and growth. Beheaded again, I sustain life; again, and I am a preposition. Omit my third, and I am a domestic animal in French, and the delight of social intercourse in English. ”

“ How much have I to pay you?”
“Two dollars and sixty-two cents,” replied Frank.
“Can you change it?”
“Let me see; sixty-two, thirty-eight, yes, there is the change; the spell is broken, Grace, and you and I divide the spoils.”
“This bank-note beats all I ever saw. How much has it paid? Let us count up,” said Grace. “Mrs. Baker gave Aunt Susan fifteen dollars, which Aunt Susan gave me; I gave Frank twelve dollars and sixty-two cents; Frank gave Mr. Baker ten dollars—altogether fifty-two dollars and sixty-two cents.” ”

“ Joyous the life which tills the pregnant soil,
And sweet the profits of the farmer’s toil:
Content, as smiling as an angel’s face,
Keeps peaceful vigil ’round his dwelling-place;
And gentle Hope, and Love, forever bright,
Smiling like seraphs in their bowers of light,
Salute his mornings, and embalm each night.
A few days passed, and this self-complacent gentleman had the satisfaction of reading in a Boston paper [Pg 147] that the editor of The Star in the West had fully justified the acrostic contained in a late beautiful poem on SPRING, by publishing and praising it in his paper. ”

“ Listen, as she condoles with a widower, on his recent bereavement:
Sickness and afflictions is trials sent
By the will of a wise creation,
And always ought to be underwent
With fortitude and resignation. ”

“ Baker, my friend’s husband, absently feeling in his vest pocket, found a five dollar note which he had no recollection of putting there.
“Hallo!” he exclaimed, “that is no place for you. I should have put you in my pocketbook. Here, wife, don’t you want some ready money?” and he threw the note across the table to her.
“Many thanks,” she replied; “money is always acceptable, although I have no present need of it.” She folded the note and put it under the edge of the tea-tray, and then proceeded to pour out the tea and attend to the wants of her guests. ”

“ If to this word of syllables three,
A personal pronoun be prefixed,
The three reduced to two you’ll see: [Pg 70]
And this new word will just express
What everything earthly does in time,
Life’s bitter sooner than its sweets,—
So end the riddle and the rhyme. ”

“ While the compiler has, doubtless, brought her readers face to face with many of their old acquaintances, she naturally prefers not to introduce those whom they are certain to meet every day at their own tables. “There must be a line drawn somewhere.”
But there is a word to be said about K. N. Pepper, whose irresistibly droll papers were contributed to the Knickerbocker Magazine, early in the ’50’s. He was, in fact, pioneer in that region of illiterature, in which so many others, since he withdrew, have apparently settled for life. ”

“ Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others, that what you were or might have been, was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise. ”

“ Sister Anna, what dreams terrify and distract my mind! What think you of this wondrous guest who has come to our abode? In mien how graceful he appears! In manly fortitude and warlike deeds how great! ”

“ Sir Walter Raleigh, in his prison, was composing the second volume of his “History of the World.” Leaning on the sill of his window, he meditated on the duties of the historian to mankind, when suddenly his attention was attracted by a disturbance in the court yard before his cell. He saw one man strike another whom he supposed by his dress to be an officer ”

“ The compiler of this little book has no hope of winning the prize, and leaves the lists open to her readers, with a hope that some one of them may succeed in “guessing” not only this, but the next riddle, of whose true answer she has not the faintest idea.
The noblest object in the works of art;
The brightest scenes which Nature can impart;
The well-known signal in the time of peace;
The point essential in a tenant’s lease; [Pg 78]
The farmer’s comfort as he drives the plough;
A soldier’s duty, and a lover’s vow;
A contract made before the nuptial tie;
A blessing riches never can supply ”

“ The school-boy finds it in a noise,
The lover in a kiss.
When on the field, in dread array,
Opposing legions wait the fray,
When trumpets sound and banners wave,
The watchword “Victory or the Grave”
Where’er my SECOND may be found,
The bravest knights will there abound.
What though my THIRD the soldier spurns
With undisguised disdain,
To it the farmer gladly turns
To cultivate the plain. [Pg 69]
My WHOLE a gallant warrior’s name,
The idol of the fair;
A wizard celebrates his fame—
You’ll find my subject there. Answer
358.
A little word of syllables three,
Holds in its heart a mystery. ”

“ It will last as long as the world lasts, and yet it is destroyed every day. It lives in beauty after the grave has closed over mortality. It is to be found in all parts of the earth, while three distinct portions of it exist in the air. ”

“ He neither lies in a bed nor sits in a chair; his clothing is neither dyed, spun nor woven, but is of finest texture and most brilliant hue. His warning cry ought to call all sluggards from their slumbers: he utters it in every land and every age ”

“ It has been said that the faculty of generalization belongs equally to childhood and to genius. Was she a genius, clad in sable robes, and bewailing the recent loss of her husband—she was certainly not a child—who observed in conversation, with most impressive pathos: “For we are all liable to become a widow!” ”

“ I have the same right; it is a fair kind of exchange, though very uncommon.”
“It shows the use of money,” said Aunt Susan. “It makes the circuit of the world and brings its value to every one who touches it.”
“And this note has not finished its work yet, as I [Pg 157] will show you, my dear, if you will give it to me again, said Mrs. Baker to her husband.
“I present you with this five dollar note,” said Mr. Baker.
“And I give it to you, Aunt Susan—I owed you fifteen dollars, and I have paid my debt.” ”

“ A SQUARE-OF-EVERY-WORD PUZZLE.
I.
The desert-king,
Whose presence will
Each living thing
With terror fill. II.
Of this word ’tis the mission
To be a preposition,
Giving you a notion
Of onward, inward, motion. III.
This charm to blend,
The myriad roses of Cashmere you ask
Their subtle essences to one small flask
Freely to lend.
[Pg 59]
IV.
The middy, to his labor trained,
The sun by sextant viewed;
And said that Phœbus had attained
His greatest altitude. Answer
305.
A prophet exists, whose generation was before Adam; who was with Noah in the Ark, and was present at the trial of our Lord. ”

“ Baker was pouring her tea, it occurred to her that she was in her aunt’s debt for certain small matters, and when she had the opportunity, she pushed the note under her plate, saying:
“Here, auntie, take this five dollars in part payment of my debt.”
“Very well,” she replied, “but the money does not belong to me. I owe you fifteen dollars, my dear Grace, which you lent me last Saturday. I had to pay the taxes on my little home, and had not the ready money, and Grace lent it to me,” explained Aunt Susan.
Grace, an orphan, was a cousin of Mrs. Baker. ”

“ It has completed the round, and we have all had the benefit of it.”
“And now it must go around again,” replied she gayly. “I like to see money circulate; it should never lie idle. Aunt Susan you take it. Now I have paid you ten dollars.”
“Dear Grace, here is another five dollars on my account,” said Aunt Susan, handing it to Grace.
“And you Frank, have paid ten dollars for the music you bought me,” said Grace, handing it to her brother.
“And I pay you ten dollars for my board,” he continued, and the note once more rested in Mr. Baker’s hands. ”

“ In these days of universal condensation—of condensed milk, condensed meats, condensed news—perhaps no achievement of that kind ought to surprise us; but it must be acknowledged that Thackeray’s condensing feat was the most extraordinary on record. To compress “The Sorrows of Werther”—that three volumed novel: a book of size—and tears, full of pathos and prettiness, of devotion and desperation—into four stanzas that tell the whole story, was a triumph of art which—which it is very possible GOETHE would admire less than we do. ”

“ The gentleman should always ride on the right side of the lady. According to some authorities, the right side is the left. According to others, the other is the right. If the gentleman is left handed, this will of course make a difference. Should he be ambidexter, it will be indifferent.
6th. If the gentleman and lady meet persons on the road, these will probably be strangers, that is if they are not acquaintances. In either case the gentleman and lady must govern themselves accordingly. ”

“ My FIRST is company; my SECOND shuns company; my THIRD calls together a company; and my WHOLE entertains company.
Answer
44.
My FIRST is a sound, of tranquillity telling,—
A cozy and complaisant sound for your dwelling.
A place which for criminals fittest is reckoned,
Yet where saints find ineffable peace, is my SECOND.
Or, where niggardly natures, who hunger and thirst
For the wealth of this world, keep their hearts, is my FIRST ”

“ If the gentleman’s horse throw him he must not expect him to pick him up, nor the lady; but otherwise the lady may. This is important to be borne in mind by both.
9th. On their return, the gentleman will dismount first and assist the lady from her horse, but he must not expect the same courtesy in return.
N. B.—These rules apply equally to every species of equitation, as pony riding, donkey riding, rocking horse riding, or “riding on a rail.” There will, of course, be modifications required, according to the form and style of the animal. ”

“ He won the wager. (But this occurred many years ago. There are no such young ladies in Rochester now) .
See! the fragrant twilight whispers
O’er the orient western sky,
While Aurora’s verdant vespers
Tell her evening reign is nigh. ”

“ The Dumb repeated it, word for word;
And he was Deaf who listened and heard. (See Key.)
QUESTIONS NOT TO BE ANSWERED UNTIL THE WORLD IS WISER.
Considering how useful the ocean is to mankind, are poets justified in calling it “a waste of waters”?
How can we catch soft water when it is raining hard?
Where is the chair that “Verbum sat” in?
How does it happen that Fast days are always provokingly slow days?
How is it that a storm looks heavy when it keeps [Pg 79] lightening? And the darker it grows, the more it lightens? ”

“ Than myself in my normal condition, nothing could be lighter or more airy. I am composed of six letters [Pg 61] and four syllables. Deprived of my first two and transposed, I am the haunt of wild beasts; transposed, I am a human being more dangerous than a wild beast; transposed again, I am part of a fence; robbed of my last letter, and again transposed, I am a melody; or I am that noun without which there would be no such adjective as my WHOLE.
Answer
315. ”

“ Patrick Henry, as every school-boy knows, gave us, “Give me liberty, or give me death,” and “If this be treason, make the most of it.”
Thomas Paine had many quotable epigrammatic sentences: “Rose like a rocket; fell like a stick;” [Pg 114] “Times that try men’s souls;” “One step from the sublime to the ridiculous,” etc., etc.
Jefferson’s writings are so besprinkled that it is difficult to select. In despair we jump at “Few die and none resign,” certainly as applicable to office-holders now as in Jefferson’s time. ”

“ In the printer’s short-hand poem on page 119, the “{” character was originally depicted facing upwards.
The illusion “Seeing is Believing: Seeing is Deceiving” on Page 97 may not work with every font. Therefore, right-side-up and upside-down text lines from the original work have been inserted as additional illustrations below the text.
The word pyramid on Page 132 may not make the expected shape with every font, and therefore the pyramid from the original text has been added as a additional illustration under the text pyramid. ”