We learn from a foreign journal that the village of Stroebeck is known throughout the whole of Germany as the "chess-playing village." For centuries every native of that village, from the prosperous freeholder down to the poor shepherd, has been an enthusiastic and a more or less efficient chess-player.
From time immemorial the knowledge and love of the game have been handed down from one generation to another, and parents are still in the habit of teaching it to their children as soon almost as they are able to walk. It is one of the regular subjects taught at the village school.
Once a year, at Easter, the children's knowledge of the game is tested by a kind of examination conducted by an examining committee of peasants, of which the clergyman is the president and the school-master the vice-president. Forty-eight of the scholars are selected by lot, and matched against each other by a similar method. The twenty-four winners in the series of single combats then enter upon a second struggle among themselves, and the remaining twelve on the third. The six winners in the threefold contest are declared the champion players of the school. They each receive a prize, consisting of a chess-board and chessmen, and are escorted home by their parents and friends after the manner of the Olympian victors among the ancient Greeks. Afterwards a feast is given in their honor to which all the friends and relations are invited.
MARSHMALLOW PASTE AND CANDIES.
Dissolve five ounces of best white gum-arabic in twenty table-spoonfuls of water, and strain it. Put it with a pound of powdered sugar into a basin, and place this basin in another containing water. A farina or double boiler is especially good to use for this cooking. Stir constantly till the mass is very stiff and very white. Divide the paste while still hot into parts, flavoring one with vanilla, another with rose and a few drops of pink coloring matter, and another with orange-flower water, if strong and fresh. Then pour the paste into tin dishes dusted with corn-starch. When cool divide into squares with a sharp knife, using it with a quick stroke. A variety of candy can be made with this paste by dipping the squares when perfectly cold in fondant. The fondant should be melted in small quantities, and each portion differently colored and flavored. From marshmallow paste is made another attractive candy, called Neapolitan nougat. Make the marshmallow paste as before, but when thick and white add the well-beaten white of an egg. When well blended remove the mass from the fire, flavor with vanilla, and add a pound of blanched, chopped almonds, and an ounce of pistache nuts, also blanched and chopped. When well mixed press into a box, and when cold cut into bars and wrap each bar in double waxed paper. As this candy will not keep long put it into an airtight box.
Elisabeth R. Scovil in her book, "The Care of Children," recommends the use of Ivory Soap for bathing infants, and says: "There is no particular virtue in Castile Soap, which has long been consecrated to this purpose."