The squarest game on the beach
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Puzzle
My chum and I were taking in the side shows the other day, when we struck what the man told us was the squarest game in the world. There were ten little dummies which you were to knock over with base balls.
The man said take as many throws as you like at a cent a piece and stand as close as you please. Add up the numbers on all the men that you knock out and when the sum amounts to exactly 50, neither more nor less, you get a genuine Maggie Cline cigar with a gold band, worth a quarter.
Our money gave out before we learned how to win, and we noticed that lots of people didn't smoke any more Maggie Cline's than we did.
The man who run the business said he didn't mind telling us that people let their predjudices ruin their chances.
An Irishman would always soak the coon, while the darkies had it in for that Chinaman, and
as a matter of fact every one had their race prejudices which kept them from winning.
Can you show how we might have made exactly 50 points, and won a Maggie Cline cigar with a gold band around it?
Puzzle in short
Can you mark off exactly 50 points?
Answer
Show answer
References
- Loyd, Sam [1914]. in Loyd, Sam, Jr.: Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles Tricks and Conundrums (in English). New York: Lamb Publishing company, page 8.
