CHESS.

Otago Witness, Issue 641, 12 March 1864, Page 16

CHESS.

The mimic war begins, and yet no sound Of stirring trumpet shakes the battle ground; No thrilling fife prolongs the note of death, No threat'ning clarion breathes its angry > reath. Pawn fronting pawn, can brook no more delay; And c'en the bishops greet the impending fray, With eager hands tuck up the useless lawn, And reckless, frockless, fight like any pawn. Strange sight ! to see such holy men engage In warring strife, and not that strife assuage. Up rise the gallant knights, o'er Mend andfoe They spur their steed to strike a fatal blow ; Pour stately castles move across the plain Like Birnam woods approach to Dunsinane ; Two royal dames of Amazonian might Undaunted rush like meteors through the fight, While each fat, gouty King will long defer, Long as he can, his hobbling steps to stir, And sceptered craven ! from hi 3 recreant throat For mercy roar behind a petticoat !

Corpulence.— Mr Bantling, a "gentleman who has suffered for years from excessive corpulence, has contrived to bring himself down to> a reasonable size. Ho had feed everything from excessive exercise to starvation, and everything failed ; till at last he took to living on animal food. This reduced his flesh rapidly, the fatness having 1 been nourished by milk and farinaceous diet. Doctors are well aware that cream will ciire excessive thinness almost as rapidly as cod-liver oil ; a comptnint more frequent and to women especially, scarcely less annoying than overfatness. — ' Spectator/ Dec. 12. >

It has been' calculated tliat over two millions will he the smount of ready money at the disposal of the Marquis 'of ' Bute* on his* coming ofr'age. The Marquis is in his sixteenth -year, and *t Eton, '■ ,