Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-11
CHAPTER Nv.

When the Franco Prussian war broke
out, accompanied the French army as
correspondent of several prominent En-
glish and American newspapers, having
gradually drifted into journalism.
The opening moves of the campaign con-
vinced me that Moltke had not lost any of
his former skill. The French were hurled
back at every point; their headlong ad-
vance, flushed with the expectation of vic
tory, was turned into disorderly. rout.
witnessed the bloody work at Saarbruck
and at Gravelotte; the surrender of Napo-
leon at Sedan: the capitulation of Metz
Hurrying back to Paris, where the seat Of
war had now shifted, heard die Wacht
am Rhein' sung before the city's defenses.
1t was during the ides of January, II, that
the last hope of saving the capital vanished.
The government de la defense rationale
had exhausted itself in vain attempts to
raise the siege; until famine, together with
the ominous mutterings of the Commune,
turned all further show of resistance into
an absurd farce. The entry of the victor
ious Germans was only matter of days.
Early morning on January 10 found me
walking along the German lines, which,
like the coils of giant serpent, were grad
ually contracting about the doomed city.
wore heavy fur coat, for it was bitter
cold; snow lay several inches deep, and
sharp wind blew from northwest
German soldiers, gathered in knots about
brushwood fires, were discussing the chances
of speedy return to- the Fatherland, the
probable results of the war and the bruited
elevation of the Hohenzollern family to the
imperial dignity.
On the outskirts of a small coppice saw
one group whose uniforms betokened them
to be officers of a superior rank; they were
ranged in a circle about the object of
their attention, and my approach, impelled
partly by the instinct of duty, partly BY
the inexplicable cosmic law which attracts
a smaller body to larger, passed entirely
unnoticed. A picturesque tableau present
ed itself to my view.
playing chess They were seated upon
empty powder kegs; the squares were
marked with charcoal upon the head OF
drum; and the pieces had been ingeniously
improvised from exploded cartridge shells
hammered into various shapes. One of the
players was a major, unknown to me; the
other was the marshal of the German
forces, Won Moltke himself The hardy
soldier, though but lightly clad, seemed un-
conscious of the cold, so absorbed was he in
the game put up the big fur collar of
my coat, folded my arms across my breast,
and looked on.
For no great time did the gam
remain in doubt. Moltke's opponent
writhed in his iron grasp like q worm under
the heel OF giant Less than dozen
moves were made in rapid succession; then
''check check mate r. finished the brief
but brilliant contest
'Moltke,", asked the Major in rising.
Hhaye Won ever been beaten 2"
The great General worked his arms up
and down like fails and stamped about
fercely in order to restore the circulation
to his numb limbs.
"Oftener than have won," he replied.
THE Orient is vast chess board where a
Philidor sits on every square. Day after
day l have played in the coffee-rooms of
Smyrna or on the Nile terrace at Alex
andria, and suffered defeat from weazcned
Pashas and .gray-bearded muftis. The
Syrian dervishes and Bedouins of the
Arabian desert would be worthy opponents
to Andersen himself"
"You speak of long ago." said the Major,
'and of players whose. skill, compared with
yours at that time, looms colossal through
the mist of memory. But tell us whether,
In late years whose gap our minds can
bridge, you have met any players whom you
esteemed above yourselt''
Moltke drew his hand meditatively across
his forehead, as if to coniure up. a picture
from the past. through the storms of war
and the lull of peace, that he might there,
upon the trampled snow, beneath the bleak
wintry sky, untold it to his comrades of the
camp and fald.
81 have met" he said slowly, "a player
beside whom was as child. It was Is
years ago, in yonder city, which, by the
grace OF God. we hope to have entered be-
fore another moon has lspsed He