DRAUGHTS v CHESS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9323, 25 January 1896, Page 3

DRAUGHTS v CHESS.

Some time ago Mr J. H. Blackburn, the celebrated British chess-player, said :— " Chess is a kind of mental alcohol. It inebriates the man who plays it constantly. He lives in a chess atmosphere, and his dreams are of gambits and end games. I have known many an able man ruined by chess. The game has charmed him, and as a consequence he has given up everything to the charmer. No; unless a man has supreme self-control, it is better that he should not learn to play chess. I have sever allowed my ohildren to learn it, for I

1 have seen too much of its evil results. j Draughts is a better game, if you must have I a game." i Oh, happy chess-player ! who after a hard-fought battle can lie down in his bed, and dream of gambits and end games. But alas ! for the unfortunate draughts-player, who, after a hard fought victory, and weary, and worn, goes to bed and lies awake all night, thinking of his opponents' desperate attempts to win tho " Ayrshire Lassie," or listening to tho music of the " Fife," which is drowned by the war-like strains of " Deliance." After a hard fijjht at draughts, sleep and die&nis arc out of the question. In fact draughts, when played to excess, especially when mixed witii toddy, is THE DAMBROD ROAD TO RUIN. Fy the late Jons B3tu..v.vp, Glasgow. " All ye younpr drauj;hts-p!ayors, look .it mc, Jiy coat i:i uiturs like to rW, ily trousers worn out, at the knee, And feet wol-sho;!, All caused by play isi£ eternally At that Uaiubrod ! " When ytv.injr like yaw I gaed fu , snod, I'd thirty rH>r.:i;U *h.Vc-vM!i .1 cod ; I took a nxioiio' the luvd — ily warlv I Ay ';>pe'.l, And spent it all, so help mc G , Before I stopped. " Xo doubt yon'H say the fault's mr am, And that i sho'iiJ lao ara-.iy'.usalane. But my frec:is. you'iv- a" mistic'n, i.ike a , youni; baiiis, For it's a most esuii-ui' prat. Fair waur than ccirds. " Suppose you get to be first-rrte. Like Sinclai: 1 , Hlair, or Mr Tuts, No doubt it would yo'ir hear;, elate To j>!ay s..c lilt* ; But there's n.u , prn.ir -damn the haet, I>ut loss uf tune. " When ance you're fairly o;i the key You ntVr can let tht liiodiilo he ; It aften 1-Miis you on the spree ; Vor, luse yiur w.-.rk. Till you're maybe jraim nboot like mc, Vi'V scarce a sark. " These thirty years it's been my hobby, All my thought's bei'ii on the broddie, Wi , playing draughts and drinking- toddy ily race is ran ; And now i'm ruined, soul and body, As sure's a gun."