HOW TO SOLVE THEM

Solving a cross word puzzle offers numerous enjoyments of which the uninitiated are ignorant. There is the pure esthetic stimulation of looking at the pattern with its neat black and white squares, like a floor in a cathedral or a hotel bathroom; there is the challenge of the definitions, titillating the combative ganglion that lurks in all of us; there is the tantalizing elusiveness of the one little word that will satisfactorily fill a space and give clues to others that we know not of; and there is the thrill of triumph as the right word is found, fitted, and its attendant branches and roots spring into being. No better illustration could be used than a recent brilliant construction of Mr. Gelett Burgess, published in the Sunday World Magazine.

Consider the solver as he faces his problem. The numbers in the squares, he knows, refer to the definitions; in the system of numbering used in this book, the first letters only are indicated by numbers. Thus 1 horizontal means a word that will fill the space following the figure up to the next black square.

Horizontal

1 Lowest form of life

12 Product of coal or pine

18 Opponent

Vertical

1 Gustated

2 Divine nourishment

3 Before

4 Indefinite number

1 2 3 4

12

18 20

30 32 33

The solver, then, looks the puzzle over. Aha! a friend. 12 horizontal, three letters long—“product of coal or pine.” Triumphantly the solver writes TAR in the spaces and proceeds with this clue. 2 Vertical is defined as “Divine Nourishment.” It links with TAR at the second letter. A moment of thought and MANNA appears as the only possible solution. He turns to 1 vertical, the second letter of which is the first of 12 horizontal—T. The definition is “gustated,” and the word is of three letters. Why hesitate? ATE goes into the space. “A cinch!” reflects the solver, and joyously writes ENEMY in 18 horizontal, defined as “Opponent.” 3 vertical is defined as “Before,” and with -RE staring him in the face he would be dull indeed who did not write ERE. And now 1 horizontal stands revealed. “Lowest form of life,” eh? AMEBA goes down. 4 vertical is “Indefinite number.” Well, A-Y cannot be anything but ANY—and there is the corner complete, with three clues to the words in other sections.

1 A 2 M 3 E B 4 A

12 T A R N

18 E N E 20 M Y

N

30 A 32 33

So far the sailing has been fairly easy. But trouble waits just around the corner. There are other definitions which are not so simple as “product of coal or pine.” In the far reaches of the puzzle to which the above corner belongs may be found such definitions as “Vexation (Provincial British),” “Humorous figure of speech,” “One-sided headaches” and “Droning dung-beetles.” Is the solver prepared to state that he can fill the spaces represented by those words without the assistance of the linked horizontals or verticals?

It is here that one of the greatest charms of the crossword puzzle lies: the discovery of new words by the process of building them, though entirely ignorant of their actual spelling. Consider another portion of Mr. Burgess’ puzzle. The construction of the provincial form of “Vexation” and “Humorous figure of speech” fortunately come in juxtaposition; they illustrate at once the vocabulary-building feature of the cross word puzzle and a constructional weakness which may lead to non-solution.

The definitions surrounding this precious pair are as follows: Horizontal, “Series of games,” “Self,” “Means of sustenance,” and “Surface of fibres”; Vertical, “Drinking vessel” and “Body of cavalry.” When these words are solved one finds:

S E T

T U R

E G O

A L I M O N Y

N A P

Now the unfortunate part of it is that the section is completed; there are no more clues, and if one does not know what the humorous figure of speech is and what the British provincialism is, there is no way of discovering them aside from the use of deduction. A little thinking will show that the first letter of the provincialism is more likely to be “S” than any other letter, and a short search in the dictionary will give “Sturm” as the answer; while as for -EUGMA, a brief running through the alphabet will so limit the possibilities that a very short search will reveal ZEUGMA as correct.

It is extremely difficult, in the construction of cross word puzzles, to avoid the use of such “unkeyed” letters, and effort has been used to ensure the presence of common words where more than one letter is unkeyed; but the exigencies of construction will not always allow this. Nor should it always be done; allowance must be made for erudition on the part of the solver. When such a construction appears as S-ALE-E, defined as “Unequal sided and angled” and with all clues exhausted, it is with a warm sensation of culture that one triumphantly fills the blanks with “C” and “N.” And the same thrill is present when “One-sided headaches,” standing clueless with M-GRI-S, is properly filled in to become MEGRIMS.

Thus is the solution achieved; in part by the science of deduction, in part by mother-wit, in part by erudition; appeals to as many as possible of the lobes of the brain. There is no nobler satisfaction than the fitting in of the last word that makes the pattern complete; one rises to lyric heights in the contemplation of the evolution of such a word as one enthusiastic constructor included in his design, the definition of which was “Parallel pairs of simulacra in echinoideans.” The cross-constructions showed BIVIA as the necessary filler and the vocabularies of the solvers were enriched by an addition of high esthetic value and utter incomprehensibility, to be used as occasion demands.

The cross word solver becomes a collector, a connoisseur of words. They lose, to him, their mundane purpose of a suitable medium for the exchange of thoughts, and take on an esoteric significance, akin to the appeal of slip-ware to the collector of pottery or the three-cornered Mauritius to the philatelist. He and Hamlet are one. “Words, words, words”—except that he has the advantage of the melancholy one. Hamlet’s words ran in decorous file, one after the other; the solver’s twine and intertwine, each leading to others, resulting in a harmonious whole unapproached by any except the masterpieces of classic literature.

* * *

It is generally conceded that as a form of amusement, cross words are very instructive, and that as a form of instruction, they are very amusing. The first thing that strikes the eye is the pattern in which the words are intermingled. Our experience teaches that an all-over interlock is an absolute necessity, and except in a few cases you will find that the puzzles in this book possess this quality. The advantages are obvious; when all the words interlock, you can check up the horizontal by the vertical, and vice versa.

Occasional stunt patterns are interesting, but as a general thing they are apt to detract from the value of a puzzle as a thing to be solved.

The numbering system used to be quite intricate and took up a lot of precious space. It required two numbers to each definition. On July 22, 1923, at the suggestion of an ardent puzzler who calls himself “Radical,” we offered the new system of numbering, which calls for only one number to a definition. It is quite simple to read either horizontally or vertically from one number, and forms a decided improvement over the old style. “Radical” deserves a special vote of thanks. All the puzzles in this book use the new system of numbering.

As for the words that find their way into cross words, strange as it may seem with the whole of the dictionary to choose from, the same old favorites have a way of recurring ceaselessly. Of course, all the two letter words are overworked, and many have to compromise on abbreviations. Our sole objection to abbreviations is that they cannot be defined without practically telling what they are. Parts of the verb “to be”; prepositions; the Egyptian Sun God, Ra; Pi, em, ma, pa, i.e., e.g., so, to, go, do, are to be found in almost every cross word puzzle, and the solver gets heartily tired of them. So the better patterns avoid these two word spaces. The three letters words contain some old favorites, too. Eel, emu and gnu are among the most popular. It seems that almost nine-tenths of the puzzles we look at have a “snake-like fish” wriggling in them somewhere. And who hasn’t found err, sin, and erg; cam, moa, tar; pal, ode, née, ace, e’er, o’er, sac; lee and lea; ape and pea; ego, ago and age; era and eon; Eli and spa; and all the notes of the scale from do to do. Truly, all these words are to the puzzler as buttons are to a shirt.

Among the longer words, the rule seems to hold that words with alternating consonants and vowels can be used more frequently than others. It is evident that a word containing three consecutive consonants, for instance, may have to take, in the word just below it, three consecutive vowels—and who hasn’t heard the cross-word constructor asking plaintively for a seven-letter word beginning with e-a-o and ending with u? Among the much-used words, you’ll surely find opera, onus, tenor, estop, used, ameer, renal, depot, emit, cabal, item, sere, lunar, nacre, neve, apse and the rest.

F. Gregory Hartswick

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