TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The report tfiat King Royal Edward is developChess Players, ing an enthusiasm for chess is a reminder thai many monarch*, including some of his predecessors, have been fond of the game. Several of them wero unable to keep their temper at it. When William the Conqueror was once playing with the eon of the King of France a dispute arose which ended in William bringing the board down so heavily on his opponent's bead as to make him unconscious. Needless to cay William fled from the French Court in all haste. On the occasion of a visit of Prince Henry— afterwards Henry I.—to the French Court, he proved co superior to the King's son at the game that the latter insulted him, and threw the chessmen

in his faoe, whereat Prince Henry struck his opponent on the head with the board. According to a chronicler, the affair would have ended in a tragedy had not some one interfered. King John quarrelled with one of his nobles, and was severely injured by his irrascible opponent. Tho King had the last word, however, for he punished the nobleman on coming to the Throne by withholding his heritage. Napoleon was a selfish and intolerant player. Once when he was playing with Eugene Beauhearnais, and suddenly found himself checkmated, he swept board and all off the table in a fit of passion, slapped his opponent in the face, and walked out of the room. One of the most disastrous effects of chess playing on record was the fate of Ferrand, Count of Flanders. Ho was in the habit of playing with his wife, and was ungallant enough to win nearly every game, with the result that the Countess came to hate him, and when he was taken prisoner in battle, refused point-blank to take any steps to procure his release. Phillip 11. of Spain could play amiably so long as he won. Aβ for the presumptuous player who dared to checkmate His Majesty, banishment from Court was the least penalty he'"might expect. Louis XIII. of France was so infatuated with the game that he was accompanied wherever he went by his chess board and men, and invariably played it in his coach when he wont out driving. Charles I- found it so fascinating that when his game was interrupted "by the news that the Scots had decided to hand him over to the Parliament, ho proceeded with his move as unruffled as if he had received a summons to dinner. When John Frederick. Elector of Saxony, heard in the course of a gome that he had been condemned, to death, he completed his move, and was again immersed in the game before the messenger had had timo to withdraw, j A gruesome story of A Tale of the the old days, which, Old Days. so far as the narrator knows, has not appeared in print before, is told in the "Otago Daily Times" by Mr R. Carrick, in his article on "Bloody Jack" Island. This place lies off the mouth of Catlin's River, and in the old days was the stopping-place for canoes plying between the important settlements at the Otago Heads and at the Ruapuke Island?, at the entrance to Foveaux Sti -iils. How it got its name need not concern us. There came to Stewart Islard an American whaler, and when she left for the whaling grounds 6he took four natives. When the vessel was six days out an epidemio broke out, and ispreadj (with alarming rapidity. Tho wants of the patients were attended to at the end of long poles, and tho dead were lifted over the side with handspikes. One man went mad, and it' was decided for the safety of the ship to take his life. All-efforts to knock him overboard failed, but when he had taken refuge in the rigging he was fired at with a shot-gun, and his body dropped into the sea. With hardly enough men to man the ship, the vessel I returned to New Zealand to get addiI tional hands, and at Molyneux Bay I two sailors and three of the natives were put' ashore-on the understanding | that the. ship would stand by until they recovered. No sooner were the two sufferers got rid of, however, than the ship sailed away, never to be beards of, again. "Of the eubsequent»Eorro»*j& that .doomed ship," jsaj,s rs Jftr;>Carriek, "it would be difficult t6 fo'rifl exaggerated ideas." The abandoned patients were found by a sub-tribe of natives, and nursed, but onlj one survived. . Hβ shipped in a trading vessel, and on reaching Hobart told his story. The natives suffered severely for their humanity, for "the broke out amongst them. The great chief Wakatapunga touched at the spot on his way to Ruapuke, and though he hurried/ away, he fell sick shortly after arriving at "Bloody Jack" Island. A canoe was despatched to bring the spirit medium from Ruapuke, and to tell his people of his illness, and all who could started for the island to be present at the death. The medium found Wakatapunga dead. Hundreds flocked from the neighbouring settlements to take part in the funeral ceremonies, and, when they returned to their homes, carried with them the seeds of the disease. The ravages wero terrible. One "hapU," on its return journey, lay down and died in a heap. Wakatapunga was a chief of renown and ability. It was he who, when asked by a follower if his gun would kill a man as it killed birds, told the inquirer to stand aside, and shot him dead. According to a writer in America's an American inegasine, Poisoned the adulteration of food Foods. in the United States is . assuming gigantic proportions. He tells us, for instance, that in the fruit-canning establishments it is a rule that nothing is to go to waste. The skine, cores, and decomposed parts which are removed from, the nr»t grade fruit, together with all spoiled fruit, are mixed into a general pulp, and from this is turned out "a marvellous variety of different brands of highly coloured and tempting-looking bottled and canned goods.". Flavourings and chemicals make up for deficiencies in flavour and appearance. But this is mild compared with other revelations. The refuse of the streets, the cast-off products from large establishment*, and the gleanings from the uewers are often employed in producing food. The duet of old bones found in alleys m> sometimes mixed with Sour, leather 'from old boots gathered in the streets is, ground, treated chemically, mixed with chicory, and made into an imitation of coffee. It is the ingredients used to give these goods a genuine appearance that are so dangerous, substances such as coal-tar dyes, arsenic, 'wood alcohol, fusel oil, copper salt, turpentine and petroleum. The demand has become so great for come of the most poisonous of these adulterants that extensive factories are employed exclusively in producing them for uee in foods alone. In a bottle of catsup recently purchased in New York was found enough anilkie dye to colour eixty-four square inches of white nun's veiling, a small jar of plum jelly yielded enough dye to colour two hundred and fifty-eix square inches of cloth, and in a jar of cheap jelly may be found enough acid to eat a hole in a person's hand. According to an jostimate by a responsible medical officer cdxty-five per cent, of the total infantile deaths in America, are the result of bad feeding and poisons administered in impure foods. With the native adult the stomach generally becomes

callous from its long practice in dfalinJafH with poisons, but foreigners often when they come to America from ing American made foods. Adultera-"M| tion is practised because it greatly sens the cost of production. A loading, 'Wm manufacturer admitted to a Pood Com--ilfflj mieejonor that if he were forced to Wffl discontinue the uee of adulterants it tIH would add £2000 to his monthly ox- fli penees. "A man who counterfeits a 'jl dollar is considered a criminal, and at "111 loasfc wonld ha excluded from good society. The man who ooyntorfcita )1 food is ranked among our millionaire social leaders. Law has been likened If to a spider , * web that oatchea the ,*§ little things that are not heavy enongb 'Jl to fall through." , ■ 'f£&