The Exploits and Triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy, the Chess ChampionEdge, Frederick Milnes
History
The Exploits and Triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy, the Chess Champion
Edge, Frederick Milnes
Chess; Morphy, Paul Charles, 1837-1884
The crowd seemed, as it always does, to represent every rank of society.
There were military men, from colonels to privates; one or two priests,
who seemed somewhat out of their element; well-dressed,
aristocratic-looking individuals, who kept together in knots in different
corners; and the invariable _pillier de café_, who passes half his
existence in such establishments, and the other half in bed. The Café de
la Régence opens at eight o'clock in the morning, but little or nothing is
done until noon, barring the daily visit of some three or four patrons who
drink their coffee in silence, and are not seen again until early next
day. But at noon men begin to drop in quickly, and, by two o'clock, the
room is as full as it can conveniently hold, and so continues until
midnight.
The Café de la Régence has only existed on its present site for a few
years; in fact, since Louis Napoleon has made the many magnificent
alterations in the French capital. Previously, it was next door, in a
_locale_ not half so convenient as the present one. The café is separated
into two rooms on the Rue St. Honoré; in the larger one, which we have
already described, smoking is permitted to a frightful extent; in the
other, it is strictly forbidden. The latter chamber is well fitted up, and
the ceiling, which is massive, contains four shields in the cornices,
bearing the names of Philidor, Deschappelles, and Labourdonnais. The
fourth bears the date of the café's foundation, and the proprietor has
stated his intention of placing therein the name MORPHY. Perhaps it is
already done.
At the time of our arrival in Paris, the _Cercle des Echecs_, or in other
words, the Chess Club, met in rooms over the café. The association had
three rooms set apart for chess, and one for billiards, and Saint Amant,
Devinck, Guibert, Préti, Doazan, Delannoy, Seguin and Lecrivain were
amongst the members. But the great room down stairs prevented their
receiving any accession of numbers, and the rent being very high, and
funds very low, they gave up their quarters at the end of last year, and
are now to be found in the café below.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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