The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-05-22 00:00:00

THE SICK POOR OF PARIS.

The Lancet contains a description of the new Central
Magaine of Paris, from which the hospitals bereaux
de Menfaisance and 'liaisons de secours are supplied
with every possible necessary. Here are stored the
personal effects of those who have died in the public
hospitals, and whose friends are unable to redeem the
relics, which they readily can do by paying the fees
for hospital treatment. Here are old men's chairs,
and piles of well-worn arms and legs. Here are
feathers and occasionally brilliants. And all this
lumber is sold off every three months.
The store is disposed in blocks, lettered and num.
bered. There is exquisite neatness, order, and clean-
liness. Hospital sheets, pillowcases, &c., are all of
regulated quality. The bandages are of the sof test
texture. 'the work is executed by the poor, who make
all the clothing.
In another department the hardware and crockery
are kept. Contrivances for the use of the sick, such
as eraelsoirs, night-lamps, tisane pots, little goblets,
phials, brushes, &e.—everything, in fact, from a " mar-
mite " to a mousetrap.
In the food department there are sacks of haricots,
peas, rice, lentils, and semolina, and all of the best
quality.
Above all are the stores of made-up clothing
grouped in squares, each square belonging to a special
hospital. There are packets of layettes in astonishing
numbers, each of which consist of twenty-seven
articles. Then there are trouserings for orphans of
every age, from one to eighteen years. There is the
toilette for orphan girls of two or three years, and
trousseaux for young women.
Here, also, are huge bundles of hospital linen, made
up by the sick; and so complete is the system that not
a yard of linen nor a child's pinafore ran be lost.
Lastly, there are piles of hospital beds, mattreseses,
and the light, warns Nredons under which almost the
poorest contrive to sleep. Then there is a department
for cutting out, and another in which mending is con-
tinually going on. In every corner there is seen the
moral and pecuniary value of order.

BADEN OUT OF THE SEASON.
The Correspondent et a London contemporary, writing from
Baden-Baden, the 17th in-tant, says:—
The gaming tables are the chief object of interest at
Baden with many; and really it is a pity it should be
so—for the tables bring the crowds, and the crowds
spoil the valley. At Homburg or Monach they are not
so much in the way.
I had ignorantly supposed that of gaming at Baden
there was an end ; the fact is, one rouge-et-noir table
and two roulette tables are in full syving, even as I
write. All is just as it was, save that at this early
period of the season the players are not here in great
numbers. I should say that fifty or sixty people
round any of the tables is about the maximum I
have seen. They appear to me to be mainly
old men and young boys, and three or four of the old
men with the ineffaceable gamester's mark upon their
brow. As yet they do not seem to play very high;
for a thousand francs won or lost is about as far as
they have gone while I was watching their proceed-
ings. Youngsters, who look like German students
from Heidelberg, come in eight or ten together; and,
after a good deal of whispering, Karl or Franz risks a
fivmfrano piece, according to his fancy, on odd or even,
red or black. If he wins, he perseveres. I have seen
a lad of this sort win his two hands full of five-franc
pieces; I have never seen one leave the room with the
money he had at first gained. They will play on.
A gentleman last night won five hundred francs at a
coup, and walked out. There goes a man with some
brains in his head, I said to myself. In a few minutes
he was back again, studding the figures on the roulette
table with napoleons, according to some system pro-
bably. His original gain soon disappeared, and as
much more from his own stores. When he put his
last napoleons on the two zeros, and the ball was rolling
round, I could just see a nervous twitch on his forehead.
It went wrong—the pitiless rake swept in his last
napoleons—he turned on his heel and disappeared.
As a contrast to this, you will see a merry English
boy, in a net of ditto's, run in and throw down his live-
franc piec- anywhere; he has no system. He loses,
bursts out laughing, and vanishes. Well for him !
A lady here last night went on playing with varied
luck for about an hour? when she had lost all, her face
was a very picture of quiet despair. Behind the chair
upon which she had lost all her money she stood,
watching the others at play, or rather as I sup-
pose reflecting uncomfortably on consequences. A
gentleman presently came up and gave her some
snore money. She sat down again; but, oh,
how cautious she was this time ! She pricked
the card for ten minutes at least, waited till the red
turned up three times running, and a "lucky" player
had staked a mass of napoleons upon the recurring
chance. She risked a five-franc piece; it was all right;
she kept it there. There was a run upon the red.
Her stake went on doubling, till she could stand it no
longer, and raked in a Mafia of silver—her face from
white was red. There was no mistake, "Rouge gagne,
couleur peed."
Then there is a little bald nrut who seems to ins
steadily to lose. but, who, when he has laid down the
gold, walks away a step or two from the table, and
turns aside till the croupier announces results. I won-
der what that man's end will be.
Of one thing be assured, the gaming tables here are
going on as merrily as ever; and it may interest coins
of your countrymen to know it. On one point, however,
receive from me full assurance, that no one line an idea
of what the beauty cf the Baden Valley is who has not
seen it in full bloom—in the month of lay and " out
of the season."