A CHESS SKIT.
All chess players will be amused—and humour is not the commonest attribute in the game—at a little skit of a few pages privately edited in New York. It refers chiefly to the privileges of " The Gallery," the observers and watchers who interrupt as well as watch. They are perhaps a greater menace in New York than in London, though their presence makes itself felt in the coffee houses of Villiers Street, of St. Martin's Lane, of Fleet Street, where the game is encouraged. One of the early rules runs as follows. " The gallery shall have the right to advise either or both players of the most desirable moves to be made, and in case either or both players should decline to move in accordance with said advice, the gallery may assume control of the game and proceed with a Demon- stration of the Superiority of its Advice, provided that such demonstration shall not extend over more than fifteen moves:.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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