nd Paris, went to Marseilles, whence he set sail by way of
the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal for India. He reached Bombay
February 13th. Thence visited Allahabad, Agra and rode on an elephant
to Amber; also went to Benares, Delhi. Calcutta and Rangoon, spent a
week in Siam, then went by steamer to China. After spending some time
at Canton, Pekin and other places he went to Japan for a brief visit.
He went to Nagasaki, Tokio and Yokahama, and at last, September
3, 1879, set sail from Tokio on his return to the United States.
September 20th he arrived in the harbor of San Francisco. After some
weeks spent in visiting the points of interest in California and
Oregon he returned to his home in the Eastern States.

HISTORY OF VASSAR COLLEGE.--- Vassar College is on the east bank of the
Hudson, near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. It was founded in 1861. In that year
Matthew Vassar, a wealthy brewer of Poughkeepsie, gave to an
incorporated board of trustees the sum of $108,000 and 200 acres of land
for the endowment of a college for women. The building was constructed
from plans approved by him, at a cost of about $200,000. The college was
opened in September, 1865, with eight professors and twenty other
instructors, and 300 students. The first president of the college was
Professor Milo P. Jewett; the second Dr. John H. Raymond; the third the
Rev. Samuel Caldwell. The college has a fine library, with scientific
apparatus and a museum of natural history specimens.

THE ORIGINS OF CHESS.--So ancient is chess, the most purely
intellectual of games, that its origin is wrapped in mystery. The
Hindoos say that it wad the invention of an astronomer, who lived more
than 5,000 years ago, and was possessed of supernatural knowledge
and acuteness. Greek historians assert that the game was invented by
Palamedes to beguile the tedium of the siege of Troy. The Arab legend
is that it was devised for the instruction of a young despot, by his
father, a learned Brahman, to teach the youth that a king, no
matter how powerful, was dependent upon his subjects for safety. The
probability is that the game was the invention of some military genius
for the purpose of illustrating the art of war. There is no doubt,
that it originated in India, for a game called by the Sanskrit name of
Cheturanga--which in most essential points strongly resembles modern
chess, and was unquestionably the parent of the latter game--is
mentioned in Oriental literature as i