New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-04-13
The Tame 81 Shesa.


The Game 81 CHEESE.
Chess il one of the finest devices Of On
| human mind. and should never pass int
the lost arts. Games of high intellectual
character are not plentiful; and of the few
that exist, chess Is the supreme. 1t shout,
! be cultivated and have q literature. 1t
experts SHOULD not be ashamed to rank i
among the higher mathematics. An I'm
common knowledge of its resources SHOULD
entltle It's pOssessor TO u just professional
distinction. We have noble respect 70
this nobless of games, and consider tina
! whatever Is done to pOpularize it is pub
| lie good There is ne hazard or chance il
It--nOr any appeal TO the gambling propen
sity. 1t is pure skill. based ON knowledg,
and :orethought. To practice this gam,
properly is to exercise the mind with tiRC
! gymnastlc training. Ii gratifes a selt-re
speeding intellect more than all the games
I Of luck.
man Who Ma. an extraordinary genius
for it, as Paul MOrphy had, owes to- the
world what CIR. Aorphy is unhappily mol
| renderlng-a lifetime of labOrious investi
! CATION and analysis of the game, with a
! view TO write his natural conclusions in to
I standard work like treatise on l0ga
I rlthfns or the differentIal calculus. There
have been many treaties on chess, but there
! Is Zone Ia any language comparable with
! such work as Mr.. Morpby might either
| write OF supply the materials for.
! Had Mir. Morphy been made professor
| at some military academy, say at West
Point. and been officially and honorabIy
! set at work in teaching chess as q branch
| of mathematics, the world would by and by
I be the richer for thus preserving and per
! petuatlng the fruitage of d peculiar ginius,
| which is soon likely 20 be lost from it tGy.
{ ever
} Mr. Charles J. Woodbury.. writing from
! New Orleans to the Chicago Tribune, saws
that Mr.. Morphy has practically abandoned
| the game OF CheSs-s"a bdioated' it. He was
| led 60 do this las we Judge by the tenor of
| Mr.. Woodbury's remarksl from an extreme
| constituencies TO the criticisms of people
| who fOolishly wanted to know whether
Paul Merphy would show great intellectual
skill at anything else SO he began to study
law. but did not succeed in his profession
h failure that nine tenths of the men of
| genius Of all types Except legaD would
| have reached just as he has done. Finding
himself no lawyer. and finding that chess.
playing was no profession, and that 60 be
| addicted to 1t was like stage player-in
other words. was to be put under a ban
| he has given up in disgust the very career
| TOR which Providence designed him by the
! composition Of his constructive faculties.
Society wants an intellectual game Of a
J high order--a game above hazard-~a game
| lying wholly within the realm Of grave and
| honest thong ht--a game refreshing ard
strengthening to the mind--a game bearing
sine disciplinary relation to the great out
| ward. varying battle of life.
Mr.. Morphy~~beyond all other men who
ever came into the world-could have sup
piled this want. He could have done for
chess the inestimable service of cOdifying
Ii into an exact science: and this would
have been as great service TO humanity
as any German specialist renders by devo-
ting a lifetime TO q single department of
curious learning
Mr.. Morphy appears 70 be deferred from
any such pralseworthy undertaking~-to
which he might far more usetully devote
his life than by trying law eases with mod
crate successive say, lie seems deferred
from it by morbid dread of q public sen
tIment that does not know The intellectual
value OF the science Of which he is a master,
nor appreciate the precious quality of the
genius with which nature endowed him for
pursuing this science to it's utmost reach.
The world has right To the product Of
Mr. MOrpby's almost incredible knowledge
OF chess. II Mr.. MOrphy dies, leaving be-
hind him no communicable yesultS-no for
INFLATED laws--nc analysis of eombina-
noHs--no reasOnings and fnaxims-cOn-
nected with the game of chess, he will
have wasted q fife which. by better use
OF vt IN the line of his natural endoWments,
he might have made benefaction 20 the
intellectual world for ages to come.
Mr. Woodbury. says of the great player:
ellis strength has never been fully tested,
and will probably never be fully developed.
Paul Morphy is poor Unlike b Yankee,
he finds at impossible to live on his talent.
Opportunities there are in abundance-rch
offers for public exhibitions of himself as
delicate s5 those grasped at by men who
would pretend to more homer. He stead
tasty refuses them. He was morbidly
sensitive to misjudgmeft. lest he be taken
for one who travels on his muscle and, Oh
all his journeys, betrayed his own expenses.
and always played in the presence only of
select companies to which nc money could |
gain access. There seems to me tn be |
certain attraction in this fine delicacy, |
which one would encounter not elsewhere |
among us than in the halt foreign society of |
New Orleans, amid which Mr.. MOrDhy was |
reared. 1t ia dearer Co him than wealth or
rsnown. or the strange gift by which he |
mnst get his daily bread or go without it,"
The above statements lead as to say that
Mr.. MOrphy's sensitivenes to an unjUst pub
lie sentiment "a sentiment that under
values the intellectual dignity of chess, and
the usefulness of this science as one of the
ornaments or side issues or cOncomitants |
OB civili2atiOn-is q sensitiveness which !
ought to be no longer barbOred by that
gifted gentleman, but cast out as unworthy
Of nature that should COurageou-ly follow
ts own bent and walk the way of its own
,arePr.
We have intimsted that professorship
If chess in military academy would be as
legitimate az prOtessOIship of mathemat-
cs and we hope some day to see such
hair established at West Point Why not
,egin it now, and put Paul Morphy into it,
md let that institute reap the harvest of
lis COMMUNICATIONS knO Wedge before time
hall dull the edge of the most remarkable
nind for one type Of constructive mathe-
natcs that the world has ever SEEM
1oIdes Age.
A mild and affectionate wife in Lancaa-
er. Pennsy lyania, overheard an acuuaipt-
nee remark that her husband was too fond
f loo. She waited up for him that night.
nd when he came home demanded to know
he had been spending his time again
nth Loo. The unsuspecting husband ad-