THE LEAP-YEAR LADIES.
(
Money Puzzles)
Last leap-year ladies lost no time in exercising the privilege of making
proposals of marriage. If the figures that reached me from an occult
source are correct, the following represents the state of affairs in
this country.
A number of women proposed once each, of whom one-eighth were widows. In
consequence, a number of men were to be married of whom one-eleventh
were widowers. Of the proposals made to widowers, one-fifth were
declined. All the widows were accepted. Thirty-five forty-fourths of the
widows married bachelors. One thousand two hundred and twenty-one
spinsters were declined by bachelors. The number of spinsters accepted
by bachelors was seven times the number of widows accepted by bachelors.
Those are all the particulars that I was able to obtain. Now, how many
women proposed?
Answer:
The correct and only answer is that 11,616 ladies made proposals of
marriage. Here are all the details, which the reader can check for
himself with the original statements. Of 10,164 spinsters, 8,085 married
bachelors, 627 married widowers, 1,221 were declined by bachelors, and
231 declined by widowers. Of the 1,452 widows, 1,155 married bachelors,
and 297 married widowers. No widows were declined. The problem is not
difficult, by algebra, when once we have succeeded in correctly stating
it.
