villagers won a large
proportion of the silver-ware, chess-boards, and other prizes offered
for victory. Every house contains prizes which had been won in such
contests on former occasions. The visitors were very much surprised at
the fine playing of the village children, who, before the convention
adjourned, gave a special exhibition of their skill in the game. The
time characteristically chosen for this juvenile tournament was Sunday
afternoon. Of course the early development of these small chess-players
must have been caused principally by frequent practice and constant
study of the game; but students of psychology might find in it an
instance of transmitted tendency and the inherited effect of a certain
habit of thought.

Such a rustic society as Stroebeck could hardly exist anywhere but in
Germany. The Italian peasants, who give so much of their time to _loto_,
are generally too lazy to make the mental exertion required for chess,
while in most other European countries the rural population of the lower
class entertain themselves chiefly with fights between dogs, cocks, or
men who are but little superior to either. Here in the United States
there are, no doubt, lovers of chess in nearly every village or small
town, as well as in the cities; but in comparison with that of base-ball
or roller-skating its popularity is nowhere great enough to be taken
into account as an indication of mental tendencies or characteristics.

W. W. C.

FOOTNOTES:

[C] A review of which the belles-lettres department is feeble, but which
publishes excellent articles in other departments.

[D] Known in Russian literature as Tschtedrin, one of the ablest
satirists, editor until last year of the leading scientific literary
review, now suppressed on account of its radical tendencies.

LITERATURE OF THE DAY

"The Congo, and the Founding of its Free State: A Story of Work
and Exploration." By Henry M. Stanley. Two Volumes. New York:
Harper & Brothers.

It is not as the geographical discoverer and explorer--except
incidentally and to a limited extent--that Mr. Stanley appears in these
volumes. It is as Bula Matari,--"Breaker of Rocks,"--making roads and
bridges, establishing stations, pushing the outposts of civilization
into the heart of Africa. He no longer fights his way through hostile
tribes or seeks to avoid their notice, anxious only to penetrate an
unknown region, secure his own safety and that of his f