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CHESS COLUMN.
De la Bourdonnais recommends, tliat when
solving a Problem, the player should, with the
board before him, consider the position and med
itate the moves, and solve the problem in his
mind: not touching the pieces till he thinks he
has discovered the solution. This process will
give one the habit, and much improve one’s fac
ulty of calculating results several moves in ad
vance. If the player, thinking that he has dis
covered the solution, move the pieces to prove it
and find that he was mistaken, let him replace
the men in original positions, and re-commenee
the work of mental solution.
The solution of Problems is a most improving
exercise.
PROBLEM XI.
(From Dc la Bourdonnais, page 25.)
POSITION'.
White. Black.
King on c 1 Bishop on h 4
Pawn on c 2 Queen on e 5
Bishop on d 2 King on h 5
Queen on g 2 Bishop on e 6
Bishop on b 3 Pawn on h 6
Rook on g 6 Pawn on g- 7
Whites to play and mate in three moves.
Solution of above will be given next week.
• MATE NO. 5.
King against a King and two Knights.
(From De la Bourdonnais, page 174.)
The king which has two knights cannot
check-mate his adversary. Nevertheless, if the
adversary have a pawn to play, there is a cer
tain position of the men in which the check
mate may be given, if you have the time neces
sary to place your knights upon the squares
where this mate may be effected. For instance:
POSITION.
WHITE. BLACK.
King on b 6 King on b 8
Knighton f 3 Pawn on h 3
Knighton d 6
MOVES.
1. Knight f 3—d 4... Pawn h 3—h 2
2 - Knight d 4—c 6f. .King b B—a 8
3. Knight d G—b 5... Pawn h 2—h 1 a (Queen.)
4. Knight b s—c7 f
We give below a game that was played by
the author of our text book, Mr. De la Bour
donnais, with an English amateur playei of first
rate force.
GAME VIII.
(From Dc la Bonrdonnais, page 159.)
WHITE. BLACK.
1. Pawn e 2—e 4 P. e 7—e 5
2. Pawn f 2—f 4 P. e s—f 4:
3. Kght. g I—f 3 P. g 7—gs
4. Bish. f I—c 4 P. g s—g 4
5. Kght. f 3—e 5 Q. d B—h 4 f
6. King e I—g 3 P. f 4—f 3
7. Pawn g 2—g 3 Q. h 4—h 3 f
8. King f I—f 2 (1) Q. h 3—g 2 \
9. King f 2—e 3 B. f B—h 6 +
10. King e 3—d 3 P. d 7—d 5(2)
11. Bish. c 4—d 5: Kt b B—a G
12. Pawn c 2—c3 P. c7—c6
13. Bish. d s—f 7: + K. e B—e 7
14. Bish. f7—b 3 Kta.6—cs +
15. King d 3—c 2 .Kt c s—e 4 :
16. Queen dl—f 1 B. cß—f 5
17. Queen f I—g 2 : Kt e 4—f 2 +
18. Pawnd2-d3 P. f 3—g2:
19. Rook h I—g 1 It. a B—d 8
20. Bish. c I—li 6: Kt g B—h 6 :
21. Rook g I—g 2: • Kt f 2—d 3 :
22. Kght. o s—d 3 : B. f s—d 3 : f
23. King c 2—-c 1. .R. h B—f 8
24. Kght. b I—d 2 Kt h G—f 5
25. Bish. b 3—d 1 Kt f s—e 3
26. Rook g 2—g 1 B. d 3—f 1
27. Bish. d I—g 4: R. f B—f 2 (3)
NOTES.
(1) The Whites lose the pune by committing, very
early in their play, a fault, or which the Blacks skillfully
take advantage. "
(2) It is quite a skillful move on the part of the
Blacks to sacrifice this jiawn. Considerable time is
gained by it
(8) In the present position of the pieces, the Blacks
must win the game.
OPENING IX.
(From De la Bourdonnais, page 16.)
WHITE. BLACK.
1. Pawn e 2—o 4 P. o 7—e 5
2. Bish. f I—c 4 B. f B—c 5
3. Queen d I—h 5 (1) Q. d B—e 7
4. Kght. g I—f 3 P. d 7—d 6
5. Kght. f 3—g 5 P. g7-g6(2)
G. Bish. c 4—f 7 : f Q. e 7—f 7 :
7. Kght. g s—f 7 : P. g 6-h 5 :
8. Kght. f 7 h 8 : Kt g B—f G
9. Pawnd 2—d3 B. c B—e G
10. Rook h I—f 1 Kt b B—d 7
11. Pawn f 2—f 4 P. e s—f 4:
12. Bish. c I—f 4: K. e B—e 7
13. Pawnc 2—c 3 R. a B—h 8: (3)
NOTES.
(1) This move is very often made, but it can hardly be
called a good move. The Whites commence too soon an
attack which is not likely to lead to any advantageous re
• suit.
(2) If the Whites, upon this move of the Blacks, with
draw their queen to square h 4 the Blacks may play
bishop c S—e 6, and thus successfully counteract the at
tack of tho Whites. If the Whites withdraw their
queen to square f 8, tho Blacks will play knight g S—h
6; for if the latter should oppose their queen's bishop to
the adverse king's bishop,the Whites, taking this btsnop
with their knight, and playing afterwards queen f 3—b
3, would gain a pawn.
(8) The position of pieces is now about equally favor
able to both parties. The Blacks have the advantage of
one piece.
Origin of Chess. —Some writers place the
invention of this game at so early a date as
1209 B. C., attributing it to Palamecles, a disci
ple of Chiron, who flourished during the Trojan
war. Others ascribe the glory of invention to
to the Brahmin Sissa, a favorite of one of the
Indian monarclis in the fourth or fifth century
of the Christian era. This last opinion must be
erroneous, for Chinese annals prove that the
gamo was known in China at least one hundred
and fifty years prior to the commencement of
the Christian era.
It thus appears impossible to fix, with even
an approach to satisfactory certainty, either the
date or place of the origin of the game. It was
brought in the sixth century from India into
Persia, whence it was spread by the Arabians,
and the Crusaders, all over the civilized world.
It is most commonly played in Asia. In truth,
the charaater as well as the name of the game
indicate plainly an Asiatic origin.
Its Name. —ln Sanscrit this game is called
. “ SciiTHRANTSH,” a word which is believed to
express the most important divisions of an an
cient Eastern army—elephants, infantry, war
chariots, horses, etc. The actual name of this
game, Chess, is derived from the Persian word
Schah or Shah (king, or monarch). This name
is retained, more or less corrupted, in all modern
languages. In France it becomes Echecs (pro
nounced aashaa)— in Italy, Sacchi —in Germany,
Schach.
Names of Pieces. —ln the East the most ef
ficient piece of the board, called by us queen, and
by the French lady (dame), is known by the more
appropriate name of vizier or general. The
KHK gOVXKK&S? SXJE&D AND VXBXSXDS.
pieces we call bishops are in France called fools
—in Germany, runners. The knights are, in
German, called leapers. In the East (India),
the piece which we call castle or rook, which
the French call tower (tour), and which in Eu
rope is ’now represented by a tower, is repre
sented by an elephant (the elephant being used
in India as a moving military castle or tower)
The Arabs represent the castle or rook, by a
dromedary (rockh). Hence one of our names
for this piece, rook; and hence the French
roquer (to castle). The Germans give to pawns,
the name of peasants. Tli# old Germans called
pawns vandals, a tribe despised by them.
— —
FUN, FACT, AND PHILOSOPHY.
(Carefully prepared for the Southern Field and Fireside)
Every woman has a right to think her child
the “ prettiest little baby in the world,” and it
would be the greatest folly to deny her this right,
for she would be sure to take it.
Oliver Goldsmith’s “Vicar of Wakefield'has
been translated into Armenian by T. C. Ave
room, Esq., a distinguished Armenian scholar
and an established merchant in Calcutta.[ — The
Bengal Ilurkaru.
He that will believe only what he can fully
com-prehend, must have a very short creed, or
a very long head.
A gentleman, who spoke of having been
struck by a lady’s beauty, was advised to kiss
the rod.
In the narrative of the second voyage of Co
lumbus in 1494, we are informed by Roman Tune,
friar who accompanied him, that tobacco was
reduced to a powder, which “ the natives take
through a cane half a cubit long; one end of this
they place in the nose, and the other upon the
powder, and so draw it up.”
When in the company of sensible men, be
careful not to talk too much. You may lose their
good opinion ; you will lose an opportunity of
improvement; for what you have to say you
know, but what' they have to say you know
not.
A verdant looking chap sat down to take
1 some fillin,’ as the immortal Joe Pruit would
say, and in due time a waiter presented himself
at the back of our hero’s chair and inquired—
“Teaor coffee, sir?”
“ Tea,” he answered.
“What kind of tea, sir?”
Greeny looked up in the waiter’s face, and
with considerable emphasis, said:
“Why, ‘store tea’, of course; I don't want
none of your blamed sassafrac stuff.”
The number of visitors at Saratoga this seas
on have been twenty three thousand and eighty
four, against eighteen thousand four hundred
and sixty-seven for the same period last year,
showing an increase of four thousand six hun
dred and sixteen.
Endeavor so to temper gravity with cheerful
ness, that the former shall not become melancho
ly, nor the latter frivolity.
“ Waiter,” said Hood once, at a Brighton
hotel, “ I’ll get you a place in London as a first
rate packer.”
“Packer, sir!” said the astonished waiter,
with the white cloth under his arm, slightly ag
itated, “ I never learned to pack.”
“ All the better,” replied Tom; “ it’s a natu
ral gift: for see how you have packed my bottle
of wine in a pint decanter!”
It was in the first week of November, 1492,
that Europeans first noted the Indian custom of
tobacco smoking. The two sailors sent by Co
lumbus to explore Cuba returned to the ships of
their great commander, and told this among oth
er things new and strange. They found the na
tives carried with them a lighted firebrand, and
puffed smoke from their mouths and noses; this
their European notions led them to conclude was
some mode of perfuming themselves.
Deliberate with caution, but act with decis
ion. Yield graciously, or oppose firmly.
A GOOD story is told of an Irish hostler, who
was sent to the stable to bring out a traveler's
horse. Not knowing which of the two strange
horses in the stable belonged to the traveler,
and wishing to avoid the appearance of ignor
ance in the business, he saddled both animals
and brought them to tho door. The traveler
pointed out his own horse, saying—
“ That’s my nag.”
“Certainly, yer honor, I knew that, but I
didn't know which one of them was the other
gentleman’s.”
The returns of the names of voters registered
in New York city foot up 103,450 —33,748 more
votes than were cast at the last State election,
and about 18,000 more than were given at the
municipal election of 1857, which was tho high
est vote ever cast in that city.
But a step separates cunning from knavery ;
and that step is almost sure to be taken.
Going to leave, Mary ?”
“Yes, mum; I find I am very discontented.”
“If there is anything I can do to make you
more comfortable, let me know.”
“No, mum, it’s impossible. You can’t alter
your figger to my figger, no mor’n I can. Your
dresses won’t fit me, and I can’t appear on Sun
days as I used at my last place, where missus’s
clothes fitted ’xactly.”
It is said that the farm work in Minnesota is
now performed by about half as many males as
females.
Keep good company or none. Never be idle.
Depend not on fortune, but conduct.
A SON of the Emerald Isle, on being told that
a friend of his had put his raonoy into the stocks
replied, “ Och, an’ it’s there ye are! Troth, an’
I niver had a farthin’ in the stocks; but, be the
holy poker, I’ve had me brogues there oftener
than I liked, sure.”
The statistics of the oyster inspector of Vir
ginia show that about twenty million bushels of
the bivalves were taken from the Virginia waters
the past year.
Quiet conscience gives quiet sleep.
A POOR fellow says ; “In an evil hour I be
came addicted to drink. From that moment I
have been going down, until I have become an
outcast —a loafer—a thing of no account; fit for
nothing else on this earth but to be a member of
Congress.”
The ordinary employment of Artifice is usual
ly the mark of a petty mind, conscious of its
want of power; and it almost always happens
that he who uses artifice to cover himself at one
point uncovers himself at another. Truth is the
best panoply.
Gold. —The continent of America, from its
discovery in 1492 to 1848, produced $1,944,657,-
000 of gold. The amonnt now annually yielded
throughout the world is $200,676,000.
Sin is like a bee, with honey in its mouth, but
a sting in its tail.
A farmer in Strathmore, being invited to dine
at Belmont, had the precaution to ask the butler
if there was any particular ceremony to be ob
served at the table, and was told there was on
ly one thing his lord and lady disliked, and that
was the drinking of their healths. The good
man determined to be on his good behavior: so
when raising the wine to his lips, he called out.
“ Here’s to a’ the company's gude health, except
my Lord Privy Seal and Lady Betty Mackenzie.
PERSONAL.
rPre[u»red expressly for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
—M. Poinsot, member of the Senate of France,
has recently died in Paris. He was one of the
most eminent mathematicians of France.
—On the sth instant, Ex-President V an Buren
was seventy-seven years of age, and almost as
sprightly as a young man.
—The New Orleans Christian Advocate an
nounces the arrival there of Bishop Pierce and
family, from California via Texas.
—The King of Abyssinia has received gladly
the vernacular Scriptures sent by the London
Bible Society, through the Bishop of Jerusalem,
to Abyssinia, and began at once himself to dis
tribute them.
— A letter from Mr. " Ward, Minister to China,
says the Russian Envoy was in Pekin at the
time he was there, but so strict was the surveil
lance of the Chinese government that it would
not allow them to see each other. The exchange
of several private notes, howover, was permit
ted.
The widow of the famous Morg an, of An
ti-Masonic notoriety, is now a resident of the vi
cinity of Memphis, Tenn. The Appeal of that
city says: “ She has been connected with Leatli
Orphan Asylum since her advent here, and her
labors in behalf of the poor and unfortunate
will not soon be forgotton by the recipients of
her favors.
—lt will be recollected that some months ago
a lady admirer of Lamartine left, on dying, to the
illustrious poet a sum of 100,000 francs, and that
the friends of the deceased lady, having attack
ed the will on the ground of her weakness of
mind at the moment of making the will, Larraar
tine, to cut short all discussion, renounced the
legacy. But now the creditors of M. de Larmar
tine have stepped <n and offered opposition to
the renunciation of the legacy, and the affair has
entered the courts, where it will probably re
main for a long time.
—Dr. Cumming, whose last publication, “The
Great Tribulation,” is at present creating an ex
citement in the literary world, is thus described
in a late English review: “ His singularly hand
some person,his brilliant flow of poetic thoughts,
his striking talents, and his burning zeal com
bine to make him one of the most interesting
speakers of the day. Mr. Cumming is very small
in person, not exceeding five feet four or five
inches in height, with a slender and graceful fig
ure. His face is one of the most beautiful I have
ever seen, for he is altogether too diminutive to
be called strictly handsome. His hair is of a
jet black, with a soft, waving curl npon it; his
complexion resembles alabaster, with a deep, da
mask color; his forehead is high and finely formed
and his eyes are concealed by invisible specta
cles. His nose is aquiline, but not very large;
and the lower part of his face is as perfect as
that of some Greek statue, with the addition of
beautiful teeth. Altogether, ho is what his coun
trymen call a very 1 bonnie chiel,’ and he would
really be incomparable were he only magnified.
His manner is very unassuming; he never puts
himself forward, but remains behind tho other
speakers. While silent lie has all tho meekness
of a tractile child; but when he speaks he dis
plays all the vigor and energy of a young eagle.”
We understand the first edition of his “ Great
Tribulation," published by Rudd and Carleton,
was speedily exhausted.
Mr. John A. Washington. —A paragraph has
been passing through the newspapers to the ef
fect that Mr. John A. Washington had lost all
the money paid to him for the purchase of Mount
Vernon, in consequence of mortgages and liens
on the estate. An extra of the Mount Vernon
Record contradicts this statement by publishing a
letter addressed to Miss Cunningham, Regent of
the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, by Mr.
Alfred Moss, clerk of Fairfax county court, Vir
ginia, as follows: “John A. Washington, Esq.,
of Mount Vernon, has title to twelve hundred
and twenty-five acres of land in this county,
known as the ‘Mount Vernon Estate.’ It was
conveyed to him by his mother, Mrs. Jane C.
Washington, on the 18th of September, 1849, un
der the authority vested in her by the will of her
husband, John A. Washington, the elder. The
conveyance was in fee, without any charge or
reservation whatever, except to Mrs. Washing
ton, the fishing shores thereon during her life,
and a charge of six thousand dollars to Mrs. Wm.
F. Alexander. The property at the time of the
conveyance was clear of all incumbrances what
ever, and Mr. Washington, since the conveyance
to him, has never mortgaged the same or other
wise incumbered it, nor is there any judgment
against him, or other lien upon the said land,
except that in the deed from Mrs. Washington
to him as aforesaid. The contract between the
Regent of tho Mount Vernon Association and
Mr. Washington is dated the 6th day of April,
1858, and was admitted to record in this court
on the 19th day of April, 1858.”
Death of Thomas De Quincey. —The death
of the celebrated English opium-eater, is announ
ced in the advices by the last European arrival,
as having taken place at Edinburgh, on Thurs
day, the Btli of December. For several years
past he had resided in that city, instead of his
rural home at Lapwade, chiefly for the purpose
of superintending the complete edition of his
works now passing through the press of the
Messrs. Hogg. His health had been seriously
affected for some weeks, although with his hab
its of a confirmed invalid, no apprehension of
his speedy death was entertained by his friends,
until very recently. The Scotsman says that
“ almost till the very last his perceptions were as
vivid, his interest in knowledge and affairs as
keen as ever; and while his bodily frame, wast
ed by suffering and thought, day by day, faded
and shrunk, his mind retained unimpaired its
characteristic capaciousness, activity and acute
ness. Within a week oa two before his death,
he talked readily, and with all that delicacy of
discrimination of which his conversation partook
equally with his writings, of such matters as oc
cupied public attention; displaying so much of
elasticity and power that even those who had
the rare privilege of seeing him in those latter
days, were startled and shocked by the seeming
suddenness of his death.” Thomas De Quincey
was born in a suburb of Manchester, in 1786, and
was consequently in the seventy-third year of
his age, at the time of his death. He was prin
cipally known by the graphic autobiographical
sketches, under tho title of “ Confession of an
English Opium Eater,” so vividly portray his illu
sions and sufferings while under the influence of
that pernicious drug. His other voluminous wri
tings, which embrace a vast range of subjects, are
remarkable for their ponderous enidition, and
ambitious style.
OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.
Geneva, Switzerland, Oct. 28, 1859.
Mr. Editor:— l rather extended myself in the
matter of ballets. The reason is, simply, that it
is something we are quite unacquainted with
in the L'nited States. It belongs to the domain
of the ideal rather than the actual, and the
Greeks and Romans, in their palmiest days, had
nothing like it. I think they have made some
attempts at imitation in New York, but the imi
tation is contemptible. All the conditions are
wanting, or nearly all. Nor do you see in Lon
don or Paris, anything half so good in this line.
It may be said, we are the better off without
such nice sure?. I leave it to others to discuss
that subject.
The theatre of the “Marion ‘t," is another
amusement of Italian origin, and is best in
Milan. The harlequin is here— “Girolamo."
lie is present in all the important scenes, crack
ing his jokes in a low and amusing dialec t. In
Central Italy and Naples, Girolamo becomes a
living person, named “Stentordlo." In Naples,
he speaks a language that is “Greek" to all but
Neapolitans—who have been accustomed to hear
the gibberish of the Lazzaroni—which is, by
no means, even a dialect of the Italians. In
fact, much of it is Greek—having come original
ly across the lonian Sea to the coasts of Apulia,
Jtc. You can see the ruins of their temples
there now, and lovely women and men, with the
Greek outline, wearing the ancient pallium—the
former in cloth of gold, often—a country seen
by not one traveler in ten thousand. The “Ma
reonettr are strange enough. You see nothing
but a rod descending from above, and attached
to the head of these figures, and yet they bow
and make courtesies, waltz, dance quadrilles,
and all that. We saw the “Capture of the Mala
koff town," got up in honor of the Zouaves in
Milan, and largely patronized by those lovers of
fun. Two brothers of a French family, living in
the Crimea, are taken by conscription as recruits
for tho Russian army. The sister, knowing
how necessary to the support of the old father
is the labor of one of them, dons the uniform,
and smuggles herself into his place. She is a
good scribe, and is taken into the service of the
Russian commander as an orderly. While en
gaged in writing an order, dictated by him, for
a general attack on the line of the Allies, a min
iature shell comes blazing away in a regular
parabolic curve, explodes in the very building,
knocking down a part of the walls, and scatter
ing the bricks about the stage. Our young sol
dier takes no heed of this danger, but scribbles
on with nervous energy. This self-possession
pleases the General, who sends him with the
order to a remote command. Our soldier de
serts with this order, and brings it to the French
camp, hoping to do a good turn for “la belle
France." The attack on the Malakoff is planned
as a counter movement A regular column of
attack is now organized by a mass of these lit
tle figures. They wait for the cannonade and
preparatory shelling of the place, and this fire is
hot enough. They are now seen to march to the
assault. They are arrested by several walls
and stockades. Their engineers apply petards,
and blow these obstacles into the air, they
marching through tho intervals. You see them
mount up and up—one platoon after another.
They effect an entrance, and soon the Russian
standard falls from the flag-staff—the French tri
color is run up in its stead. The place is taken.
The curtain falls.
If you have a day to spare in Milan, or rather
if it rains, and you hope, by waiting a day, to
have good weather, as we had for the passage
of the Simplon, you cannot do better than to
take a carriage and visit the “ Certosa ” (Carthu
sian Convent) of Pavia. It is twenty miles dis
tant, but if it were one hundred it would repay
you, for it is the grandest and most glorious con
vent ever erected by the hands of man. The
sculptures of the exterior or principal facade,
are worthy of the noblest interior ever seen,
and you may say of it as the Emperor, Charles
V., said of the miraculous tower of Giotto, in
Florence: “ Bought to be preserved under glass."
The medallion portraits of historical personages
alone, are “chefs rf oeuvres" in marble of. purest
white. This lovely front is approached through
a quadrangle more than three hundred feet long,
and it was nearly or quite completed before tho
discovery of America. The foundations were
laid in 139 G. The edifice betrays much of the
“Lombard style," with a mixture of that “ren
aissance" commonly known as “cinque cents."
The whole thing is perfection. The inlaid work
of single side altars was the work of from eight
to seventeen years, for two brothers. Imagine
two persons working seventeen years on the de
coration of a single one of some twenty altars,
and that not the high altar. The family Sacchi
and their descendants, worked three hundred
years on tho decorations of this wonderful mon
ument of art. The fresco and other paintings
are by such men as Pietro Perugino—the mas
ter of Raphael—Guercino, Luini, Borgognone,
Procaecini, &c. The new sacristy, of itself, is a
miracle of beauty, and the tomb of Giovanni
Galeazzo Visconti—one of those same “serene
Dukes" heretofore noticed, is without a peer. Its
cost, converted into money of our day, was about
$125,000. There are much grander and more
imposing mausolea. I know of nothing so
beautiful. It was begun in 1490, but not finish
ed until 1562. This Visconti is said to have de
creed the edification of the Certosa, and provi
ded means for it, as some expiation of his great
crimes, among which was the murder of several
near relations.
I might weary your readers with extracts from
a magnificent description of this work published
in Milan, but enough has lieen said. I ought to
add, however, that the great courts (hollow
squares) enclosed by cloisters of the monks have
friezes of “ terracotta ” (burnt clay), to which
there can be found no parallel. Some day I may
explain to your readers what can bo done in ar
chitecture by these ornaments —beginning with
simple bricks, with a vetrified enamel burnt on
—of black, straw color, vermillion and other
tints. To see what has been accomplished in
brick-masonry you must go back to medueval
Italy, or to modern Munich. The monks of the
Certosa (there are now but thirty-one of them)
have each a small two-story house, with a sit
ting and eating room below —another to work
in adjacent, and a sleeping room above. Their
food is placed for them in a recess made in the
wall near the door. They rise every night, af
ter four hours of sleep, to say their first matins,
and then the midnight mass. They then return
to their cells, where are moro offices and exercises
during three hours, and then two or three hours
more sleep. They fast in all, about eight months
of the year, wear no linen, and lie down to sleep
in their monk’s dress, on a simple paliasse.
Leaving our hospitable quarters in the hotel
“ Gran' Bretagna," at Milan, we took seats in
the cars for Arona, on the Logo Maggiore. At
Novarra, the road sends off two branches—one
to Alessandria, Turin and Genoa, and the other
towards the North. We passed by the field of
Magenta or rather right along through the scene
of the fiercest combat on tho edge of the vil
lage.- The chateau-like looking building from
whence the murderous fii-e was maintained
| against the French, was quite near us. It was
| pierced with round shot, and an Irish traveller
who had been there, informed us that in one
room the blood remains on the floor, not yet quite
hardened—quite an inch thick in some places.
When this house was carried, no quarter was
given, and no wonder. The slaughter of the
French had been fearful—among the victims,
was the gallant General Espinasse, whose dog, a
great favorite—now quite the lion of Magenta,
is visited by every traveler. The Tyrolese ri
flemen, you know, occupied these houses, and if
they ever appeared, with all their boast, like
brave enemies on the open plain, Ido do not
now remember it. though it may be so. But I
know, as a general tiling, that they are in shel
tered positions or in ambuscade, and I suspect
there must be a good reason why the Austrian
Government seldom or never puts them into an
order of battle. In 1848, when the battle of
Novarra was fought, they did nothing more than
protect the rear of Marshal Radetski's army.
It was so in the Napoleonic wars. We had
passed by the scene of the most memorable of
their ambuscades on the river Inn. It was in
1809. A column of some ten thousand French
and Bavarians lost more than two thirds of their
number. They were extended along the road
two or three miles—the advanced guard having
gone on as far as the village of Pruts, when they
were attacked in front, flank and rear. Not only
did they fall under the bullets of the Tyrolese,
but they were crushed by rocks, trees, Ac., rolled
down from above. W alter Scott gloats over this
scene with peculiar satisfaction. I never had
the patience to read his book, however. I find
an extract in Murray. As to the rest, you will
find a good account of this event in Thiers’, and
detailed ones in several of the French “ memoires
pour servir." Bright eyed Italian boys offered
us at Magenta, trophies picked up on the field.
There were a good many Austrian cap plates,
with the double headed eagle, rainnie bullets,
French, Austrian and Sardinian musket balls!
grape and round shot, Ac. We purchased some
of these. To judge from the very moderate ta
riff established by these poor boys, the “iron
harvest of the field,” must have been ample.—
Arriving at Arona, we embarked on a “ Lago
Maggiore” steamer, and after going the entire
length of the lake, landed at Pallanza on the
other side. Hero we took the coupe of a dili
gence to Duomo d’Ossola near the foot of the
Simplon pass, where we slept.
The illness of one of our number, and want
of time, prevented us from passing tho Simplon
on foot. It Requires two days’ Bleeping at the
village of Simplon, two or three hours from the
summit, on the southern or Italian side. As it
turned out, we fortunately obtained a coupi of a
diligence, well enclosed- with glass, reaching
that village in season for an early dinner. Re
suming our journey, we stopped at the hospice,
fortified ourselves with a little rum, or kirsch,
had the immense St. Bernard dogs called up for
our inspection, and arrived at Brieg, at the foot
of the Alps on the north side, for supper. At
Martigny, we took the rails down to the Lake
Leman, on the Savoy side, thence to Villeneuve,
and by the castle of Chillon to Yevay, Ouchy—
the port of Lausanne—and so down to Geneva,
passing, on the right hand, “Coppee," where
•Madame de Stael was boro, and on the left, the
villa Diodati, where Byron once lived, and
wrote the third canto of Childe Harold and
other pieces.
Geneva is remarkable for two specialities—
the education of young persons, and the making
of watches. In both, the success of the Gene
vese is eminent—particularly in the latter. They
make the bgst watches in the world, and this
has boon a long acknowledged fact. Their
‘‘right anchor escapement" watches are almost
perfect, while their “pocket chronometert,” (not
often among us in the South,) are incomparable,
and without doubt the highest attainment of
science and mechanical skill ever reached in
that department of industry. You can buy an
admirable one of these from Moulinii <fc Le
grandroy," for seven hundred francs—l mean
without a hunting or double case, now but little
used, as they cause some additional weight and
oxjien.se, and are an inconvenience—the springs
soon becoming so weak that they cease to throw
open properly anything larger and heavier than
the covers of light ladies’ watches. One of
these chronometers, with independent second
hand and repeater, costs twelve or thirteen
hundred francs—all perfect work —and I sup
pose the prices are the same with the other ma
kers. The Russians are curious about watches,
jewelry, Ac. When I left Geneva two years ago
last September, a Russian, living in Moscow,
sent to Messrs. M. d' L. an order for a watch.
It was to have a repeater, independent second
hand to show months and days, anil perhaps
something else. This watch was just done on
my visit the other day. The drawings, specifi
cations, and manufacture had occupied rather
more than two years, and cost about three hun
dred and fifty francs. Os course, all these first
class watches have balance-wheels of nicely
compensating metals. The regulation of a
chronometer watch is often the work of months.
It is sent to tho Observatory and subjected to
various trials. It must go well, among other
things, over the spirit-flame and enveloped in
ice. If it does not stiyid all the tests, it is
taken to pieces and new parts substituted for
some of the old ones. A friend of mine—a pro
found judge—who had spent some time in Eng
land, four years in France, and eighteen months
in Geneva, for the education of his children,
has assured me that the skilled labor employed
on these best Geneva watches, is the highest in
the world. These skilled workmen must go
through a course of mathematics, mechanics,
and astronomy. Howanany of your readers, I
wonder, can explain the difference between solar
and sidereal time—between apparent and mean
time—why the sun dial must be rectified by the
equation of time, or, in other words, why a good
watch, keeping mean time, is more correct than
the sun itself? Don’t all speak at once! Do
you suppose that one of them in one thousand
can give a ready and lucid explanation of these
problems ? And yet they belong to the most
familiar, and to us the most important phetjom
ena, that accompany us daily from the
cradle to the tomb.* A man who had bought a
watch towards the end of the last century, of
a rather celebrated maker in Paris, came back to
him after some months, saying, with indignation.
“ This watch of yours is a humbug. The sun is
leaving it behind more and more every day.”
“ That is the fault of the sun, and not of my
watch,” was the just reply.
Muxich, Nov. 2, 1859.
P. S. We returned here byway of Neufchatel,
Bienne, Aarau, Romanshom, across the lake of
Constance to Lindau, then by rail through
Kempton and Augsburg. I may one day take a
short retrospective glance, in order to say a word
about Switzerland.
Yours,
J. L. L.
♦ln Arago's popular treatlso on Astronomy, you wil i
find these subjects better considered than in any other
stmlar work.
253