The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 1017, June 24, 1899Various
General
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 1017, June 24, 1899
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
For instance, a failure to indent the lines properly was reckoned
one-sixteenth of a mistake. The substitution of “around” for _about_
was counted two-sixteenths, and so on, with arithmetical precision.
As only a limited number of names can be mentioned, all we have to
do is to draw the line at a certain point (in this case it was at
nine-sixteenths), and say: “Beyond that, no mention.” The result is
an adjudication which can face criticism with a very fair amount of
confidence. And here let us say that if any competitor thinks that
an injustice has been done, we hope she will not harbour the thought
privately, but frankly let us know as soon as the report appears. We
much prefer to have the opportunity of acknowledging a mistake or of
proving that none has been made.
To return to the puzzle. Many competitors failed to notice the “s” in
the title, and wrote “Exploding Lamp.” This could only be regarded as a
whole mistake, and was therefore fatal to any chance of success.
The rhythm of the first line, No. 6, was often marred by the insertion
of “an.” In the second line, as we have already intimated, “around”
could not be considered equal to _about_, for a reason which a
reference to the puzzle will divulge. In the fourth line “face” was
continually given for _head_, though the better sense of the latter
reading is obvious, and the puzzle form of spelling “detach” was often
adopted without thought.
In No. 7, “Cycling” was the title generally given, though many solvers
were careful to read the _two_ into it. This was an error we could not
very severely condemn, and as a matter of fact two solutions which were
perfect in every other respect, were admitted into the prize bundle.
In the first line “you are” would not do instead of the contraction
_you’re_, neither did the insertion of “a” before hedge improve the
rhythm of the last line but one. In the same line we did not object to
the more strictly grammatical “accord” in place of _accords_, although
the puzzle gave the latter.
We have received several letters questioning our award on “An
Accidental Cycle II.” We have turned up every solution written about,
and find that absolute justice was done to each. For the benefit of a
very large number of solvers who cherish similar doubts in silence,
we may say that the mistake of spelling “some one” as one word was a
very important factor in the adjudication. That our report should have
contained no reference to this point was an unfortunate circumstance.
The award on the whole series of Accidental Cycles cannot be published
for two or three weeks, the number of solutions being very large.
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
STUDY AND STUDIO.
M. H.—1. The thought in your poem is very good, and you describe nature
well and sympathetically. You need, however, to pay more attention to
your _technique_. Your lines are frequently halting—
“’Tis sunset on the ocean, radiant with light.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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