The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-07-15
Reappearance of the Famous Automa.
ton Chess-P1ayer.

The Paris correspondent Of the New York
World writes:
1 wished to tell you in my last letter of the
temperance of a marvel which made the world
stare twenty-five or thirty years since, but
space failed me. Is it too late to let you know
Maelzael's Automatop Chess-player is attract
ing Paris more than it did on its last public ap-
pearance? We know it cannot claim to be
an automaton. 1t is confessed q man ls
hidden in the apparatus. But we are all
crazy to know where and how he is hidden
in it. The Snowman exhibits the apparatus
Just as his predecessor in the olden time
did. Door after door is opened to show the
complicated machinery within; lights are
placed back Of it, and front as well as back
doors are opened to show there is nobody con-
cealed in it. After the eyes have been puzzled
the Snowman confesses there is man in the
apparatus-hunt switch again, if you please
the theatre where it is exhibited. The mo-
ment it is no longer required it is closed in
sheet iron safe, secured by locks. These pre-
cautions are not unnecessary. Everybody VINO
can get permission to go behind the curtain
land more people have this permission in Paris
than in any city in the world is in the wings,
waiting the act to end. in order to 'pry with his
own ewes to discover the secret The Chess
player belongs to Mons. Robert Houd1n, the
well-known performer of tricks of legerdemain.
Whilehunting for all the curious apparatus his
profession among the old curiosity shops OF
Paris, he heard Maelzaels Automaton Chess
player was with rubbish belonging to the last
Snowman OF the wonder, in a garret in one OF
the suburban villages Of Paris. He discovered
it. found one OF the men employed by the show
man, who explained it to him, esd purchased
it. He kept it for some years as curiosity.
Since he retired from business he has de-
voted great deal of his attention TO mechanl-
cal inventions. he has built house near
Blois which is as full Of curious machinery as
a stage whereon fairy piece is produced.
Ring the bell at the outer gate, plate :ls un-
covered over the door, whose text runs, "Come
in" or Nobody is at home," according to
circumstances. The letter-bo1 is 30 ar
ranged as to convey to the house in
timation whether there are letters and
newspapers thrown in by the postmen, or only
one, and which one Of them. The servants are
aroused at the hour the master desires, by
bells, whose alarm not only banishes sleep but
brings on headache, unless the servants quit
bed and move q bar. he annually amazed his
rustic neighbors with those tricks which had
amazed Europe, until, one year, when hail
storms and drought of unusual severity had
laii waste the country, he found his neighbors
insisting he should exert his magic" to re-
pair the weather's ravages, and supporting
their prayers by threats Of drowning.
escape to Paris, where be remained for
q year. The history Of the automaton
chess player suggested to him
drama, which he engaged two friends, play
wrights, to put on the stage. During the
Polish insurrection Of 1880, Pole, named
Wronski, had made himself in particular man
ner obnoxious to the Russians. he was man
of extraordinary mathematical genius, which
lad enabled him to render signal assistance to
&bai ipc ciu treat
him with the utmost cruelty until he was lash
ed with the knout and carried to Siberia. 1t
seemed impossible he could escape the police
search, for he had lost both his legs, which
had been carried of BY cannon ball. This
singular mutilation and it's recent occurrence,
made it impossible for him to adopt dis
guise under which he might fly the ooun-
try. Flight itself was impossible, except by
the easiest carriages. he had found shelter
in the house Of an old friend. He could not
live constantly in seclusion. His death would
plunge his friends into the greatest embarrass-
ment. Moreover, the atmosphere, tainted BY
Russian breath, seemed to sudocate him. He
to escape. How? His mechanical
genius solved the question. he had always
pastime during his secluslon, and he felt he
had no master IN the game. He determined to
construct machine which he should give out
was an Automaton Chess.nlaveerr. ne I should
hide In 1T. H,s Lends should exhibit it, first
IN Poland and then in the German cities, reach
ing the French frontier by degrees to effect
safe fight beyond the power Of Russia and
Russia's minions. After patient efforts, often
baked by failure, he succeeded in his
design. Repeated trials we're made, with the
machine in his friends house. The design
seemed successful. TWAS next tried before the
more intimate friends OF the family without,
however, sharing the secret with them, and
soon nothing was talked of in Warsaw but the
Chess-player. Everybody insisted
O public exhibition Of the wonderful mechanism
should be given. Night after night it was ex-
hibited with increasing success-nobody sus-
pecting anything until tho sixth night, whom
Russian officer, q great chess player. and before
the insurrection, q great friend of Wronski, eT-
claimed by Jove, it is astonishing how nearly
the Automaton's play resembles Wronskl'sl l.
has the same opening moves, the same plan OF
attack, the same system Of defence, left-handed
too like Wronski by Jove, tbs Wronskil" The
excitement raised by this speech may be
imagined A fortune had been offered for Wron-
ski's arrest. Tho police swarmed into the room.
Wronski's friend, who did not ohce Lose his
sang .fioid, quietly showed them again and
again the apparatus, and at last they were per-
suaded 1t was, as it pretended to be. an Au-
tonaton Chess-player This adventure IL
creased the success Of the show. The two
friends, before they quilted Poland, we're the
possessors Of good deal Of money. Success
attended them through Germany. After they
reached France, Wronski continued his life OF
concealnent until he had amassed q competen-
cy. he then abandoned the 1tomaton to an.
other person, who travelled with IL to America.
The chess-player died soon after his return to
Europe and the automaton was discarded.