This puzzle post is more historical fascination with palindromes, this time from an 1883 edition of the Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser. Like my last puzzle post there is no solution yet. Feel free to suggest answers and at some point in the future I hope to be able to provide a solution. I think I have worked out the first pair (1A:1B) see the above image for my attempt.
Update Feb 2022 - Spoiler alert - have suggested 8 solutions for the 26 pairs at the end of the document.
NARRATIVE PALINDROME.
[By Miss C. H. Spence.]
[The blanks in the following narrative are to be taken in pairs. The first spelled backwards makes the second, the third spelled backwards makes the fourth, and so on. This kind of composition is rather amusing, and offers a variety when young people are fond of writing games. Although the number of palindromic words in the English language is limited, they are much more numerous than the superficial observer fancies, and some of the turns are very quaint.]
THE CRUSHED POET.
While wandering over the ranges near Mount Barker township, I fell in with an old friend, [- 1A -] Walters, living in a hovel more fit to be the [- 1B -] of a wallaby than the home of a man. He had the greatest facility in verse-making, and as he was perhaps the best ornamental [- 2A -] in the colony and disposed to [- 2B -] at everything and everybody, he [- 3A -] that he [- 3B -] cut out to [- 4A -] a comic newspaper, and hoped to take fortune at the [- 4B -]. A dear friend, whom he poetically called his [- 5A -], who was leading a [- 5B -] life in the bush, was induced to take in the venture, and Walters went out with a [- 6A -] to convey him and his small belongings to Adelaide with all possible [- 6B -]. For ere they had braved the [- 7A -] to emigrate, Tim Crayon had designed patterns for his uncle, a manufacturer of damask and [- 7B -], for which he had been in [- 8A -] such a niggardly manner that he was forced to take lodgings near the chimney [- 8B -] and [- 9A -] the broken windows with rags. Walters had been the [- 9B -] of Crayon's uncle, and he was sure that his friend could [- 10A -] [- 10B -]. When Walters had [- 11A -] this cooperation he hoped to make the fortune of both, but [- 11B -] Walters was not such a lucky literateur as [- 12A -], nor Crayon as Tenniel; they came to grief before a year was out. When they wrote to the old man to [- 12B -] them from their pecuniary embarrassments he only [- 13A -] them and said it served them right. Crayon went and threw himself into the Torrens [- 13B -]. A friend on the Exchange who had done a [- 14A -] stroke in [- 14B -] took Walters into his office in the [- 15A -] of a boy named [- 15B -]. But the [- 16A -] hand wrote verses better than he could keep accounts, and he and his master were at constant [- 16B -]. At last, when Walters had written [- 17A -] instead of acre in a memorandum of a land sale, his master slammed the [- 17B -] in his face and turned him adrift. Like a stricken [- 18A -] he left the herd, and here in these solitudes he never breathes on the [- 18B -] of [- 19A -] but hangs his harp on the sheaoak (sic), glad when in a brief [- 19B -] he forgets his sorrows. The [- 20A -] of his life is like that of the sons of [- 20B -], he can never [- 21A -] with a congenial soul and the fancies with which his, brain used to [- 21B -] have for a long [- 22A -] ceased to [- 22B -] any wit or wisdom for the good of his fellows. Here the poor [- 23A -] as he calls himself has [- 23B -] for months, and in mournful [- 24A -] has written his own epitaph in anticipation of his approaching [- 24B -]. He requested me to see that he was [- 25A -] beside a rude [- 25B -] of his own construction and to engrave on the stone : " To [- 26A -] is [- 26B -]; to rest is sweet."
Source: NARRATIVE PALINDROME. (1883, April 20). The Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser (SA : 1880 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved December 19, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148106288
Working towards a solution ... stop scrolling now if you want to solve it all by yourself.
Thank you Clare Vandenberghe for your contribution to pairs 17, 18 and 21.
THE CRUSHED POET.
While wandering over the ranges near Mount Barker township, I fell in with an old friend, NED Walters, living in a hovel more fit to be the DEN of a wallaby than the home of a man. He had the greatest facility in verse-making, and as he was perhaps the best ornamental LIAR in the colony and disposed to RAIL at everything and everybody, he SAW that he WAS cut out to EDIT a comic newspaper, and hoped to take fortune at the TIDE. A dear friend, whom he poetically called his [- 5A -], who was leading a [- 5B -] life in the bush, was induced to take in the venture, and Walters went out with a [- 6A -] to convey him and his small belongings to Adelaide with all possible [- 6B -]. For ere they had braved the [- 7A -] to emigrate, Tim Crayon had designed patterns for his uncle, a manufacturer of damask and [- 7B -], for which he had been in [- 8A -]such a niggardly manner that he was forced to take lodgings near the chimney [- 8B -] and LAP the broken windows with rags. Walters had been the PAL of Crayon's uncle, and he was sure that his friend could [- 10A -] [- 10B -]. When Walters had [- 11A -] this cooperation he hoped to make the fortune of both, but [- 11B -] Walters was not such a lucky literateur as [- 12A -], nor Crayon as Tenniel; they came to grief before a year was out. When they wrote to the old man to [- 12B -] them from their pecuniary embarrassments he only [- 13A -] them and said it served them right. Crayon went and threw himself into the Torrens [- 13B -]. A friend on the Exchange who had done a [- 14A -] stroke in [- 14B -] took Walters into his office in the [- 15A -] of a boy named [- 15B -]. But the [- 16A -] hand wrote verses better than he could keep accounts, and he and his master were at constant [- 16B -]. At last, when Walters had written ROOD instead of acre in a memorandum of a land sale, his master slammed the DOOR in his face and turned him adrift. Like a stricken DEER he left the herd, and here in these solitudes he never breathes on the REED of [- 19A -] but hangs his harp on the sheaoak (sic), glad when in a brief [- 19B -] he forgets his sorrows. The [- 20A -] of his life is like that of the sons of [- 20B -], he can never MEET with a congenial soul and the fancies with which his, brain used to TEEM have for a long TIME ceased to EMIT any wit or wisdom for the good of his fellows. Here the poor [- 23A -] as he calls himself has [- 23B -] for months, and in mournful MOOD has written his own epitaph in anticipation of his approaching DOOM. He requested me to see that he was [- 25A -] beside a rude [- 25B -] of his own construction and to engrave on the stone : " To LIVE is EVIL; to rest is sweet."
