Retzxch's Game of Life

VOL. IX.—No. 440.]

NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1865.

SINGLE COPIES TEN CENTS. $4.00 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1865, by Harper & Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

CHECK-MATE.

SLIGHTLY ALTERED FROM RETZSCH'S GAME OF LIFE.

"IT is Davis, the Spirit of Treason, playing with UNCLE SAM for his Life. The scene is chosen with a sort of mysterious reference to the whole idea that is to be expressed. The very architecture intimates the presence of that dark Being to whose sphere belongs all that is horrible, traitorous, and repulsive. It is a wide vault whose arch is formed by two lizard-shaped monsters, whose heads—half bird, half locust—as well as their short, misshapen claws, adhere closely to its two pillars, down which they seem to creep. The upper surface of a sarcophagus is transformed into a chess-board; and UNCLE SAM, the type of calm, self-possessed manhood, sits at this table, his countenance expressive of triumph tempered by amiability. Opposite to him, on the spectator's left hand, is Davis, the Prince of Rebellion, seated in a large chair,

one of whose arms shows the British Lion in an orgasm of disappointed ' neutrality ;' while, lower down, the claw of this lion grasping a human skull, intimates his protective government of Ireland. A broad cloak, from which only his bony, claw-like hands appear, is thrown around Davis, and his hair and his beard bristle with impotent rage. The expression of his features, as becomes his fallen state, is devilish and hateful. He who was a liar from the beginning, he who has played falsely, is undeniably before us, with all the rapacity of a Tiger and all the cruelty of a Hyena. Contumely, scorn, hatred, malice, rejoicing in mischief, find here their appropriate features ; and the hand whose nails are being gnawed in baffled fury may either conceal a demoniacal grimace at the evident defeat of his schemes, or repress a horrid imprecation before which the gates of Hell would tremble, that deliverance is no longer possible. Between the two players, somewhat

in the back-ground, stands a gentle, lovely angel-form, with white and outspread wings—the GODDESS OF LIBERTY, the protecting spirit of UNCLE SAM, but not seen by him. She looks in rapture down upon the victorious termination of the struggle. But now let us look again at the game itself. On DAVIS'S side but one piece remains : ROBERT E. LEE, driven to a corner, held in check by the Knights, SHERMAN and SHERIDAN, and mated by the opposition of the Church, has no alternative but to yield to GRANT, who, as King, may not press too closely on a fallen foe. The captured and broken pawns indicate, in their emaciated forms, the merciless spirit of their captor. On the side of UNCLE SAM the Queen is COLUMBIA, a lofty, majestic figure, unfurling her vindicated flag. Her position, strengthened by the Castles, supports the more active officers ; and the pawns are well disposed for either at-tack or defense. The adversary's Castles have been taken, as well as the motley crew of pieces

which throng the hither side of the board. The nefarious designs of DAVIS are foiled, and he is beaten at his own game."

THE HIGH-TONED LADIES OF
RICHMOND.

AMONG other fallacies dissipated by this war is the one which assumed that to Southern la-dies belonged a species of letters patent for dignity and the proprieties of behavior. But the facts prove them to be, after all, weak-minded sisters, no better than their sex elsewhere, but, on the contrary, somewhat more inclined to insolence, peevishness, and an insulting manner and bearing toward those they please to call Yankees—which is, in fact, the highest tribute they could pay to the chivalry and good temper of the Northern man, who can exercise forbearance and make allowance even to those who