every-day life; and even from the
singers on the boards the best songs are rarely heard. There are many
songs I should like to repeat the mere name of, so much it means to me;
but it might not carry the same music to others. Dr. Johnson said of a
certain work, "There should come out such a book every thirty years,
dressed in the words of the times." So there should appear at least
twice in every decade of each man's and woman's life an unsurpassed
singer of old songs, who should give us not only the "Adelaide," but
"Mignon," "The Serenade," the "Adieu," and all the many-colored ballads
on love,--plain, fantastic, descriptive, sad, and sweet,--so that we
might enjoy an epitome of our life-long musical pleasures, and not have
to cry, like Faust, but in vain, "Give me my youth again."

L. M.

A Chess Village.

The all-pervading influence of chess observable in that peculiar region
described in "Through the Looking-Glass" is hardly less perceptible in
the little, antiquated German village of Stroebeck, not far from
Halberstadt. In the eleventh century this village was noted for the
devotion of its people to chess, and they have kept this characteristic
feature down to the present day. All the inhabitants, except the very
small children, are chess-players of more or less skill, and the game is
to them what the world-renowned Passion-play is to the Oberammergauers.

A great many notable men have visited Stroebeck at various times on
account of its reputation as a chess-playing community. The
council-house contains numerous memorials of these visits, which the
villagers take pride in showing to strangers. Among the most highly
prized of these memorials are a board and chessmen which were presented
to the village in 1651 by Kurfuerst Frederick William of Brandenburg.

In June, 1885, the chess societies of the Hartz districts held a
"_Schachcongress_," or chess convention, at this appropriate place.
Besides the regularly-appointed delegates, a large number of visitors
came from various parts of Germany, many of whom were players of wide
repute. Among the latter was Herr Schalopp, well known as one of the
best chess-players of Berlin. While at Stroebeck, Schalopp played games
with thirty-seven persons at the same time. He won thirty-four of the
games, and two of the three opponents whom he did not defeat were an old
woman of the village, and her grandson, a boy of thirteen.

The convention lasted several days, and the