The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-02-20 00:00:00

Rlisallantns !nttlligtste,

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

DR. RUSSELL'S JOURNEY TO EGYPT.—As our
readers know, Dr. Russell, the famous Times corre-
ondent, is now with the Prince of Wales in the
East. The clever Irishman is a great favourite with
the Prince. Dr. Russell, in fact, was sent for—to
amuse His Royal Highness. The latter loves anecdote
and racy animated conversation, and the fi.rmer is as
good a talker as he is a writer, and that is saying a
good deal. Many persons who have heard of Dr.
Russell being amongthe distinguished party of tourists
will naturally conclude that he has gone for The Times
to record the story of travel and adventure ; but this is
not the came. Ile is still so far on The Times' staff that
he enjoys a handsome pension for former services, but
he writes very little for the paper, and the Prince
would give no facilities to any reporter who might
choose to follow in his track.
- -•

ALGEBRAIC ETIQUETLE.—IL is polite to believe
a man to be rich unless he bears signs of poverty. An
in algebra, plus in understood when there is no Min La
presented. —PM/C/..
WAN TED, A PHRENOLOGIST. Considemb e
amusement was caused in the United States Senate
on the 27th ult., by the presentation by Mr. Howe of
a memorial praying for the appointment of an able
phrenologist to examine all candidates for Internal
Revenue appointments, to see whether benevolence,
conscientiousness, casualty, and comparison be their
most prominent protuberances, to the end that the
Government may no longer suffer from the frauds now
so common in that department. The memorial was
referred to the Committee on Retrenchment and
I Reform.

BORROWING • HINT FROM ENGLAND.—The
Indepentlance Beige announces that typhus fever,
which has for six weeks prevailed at Brussels, has
been sensibly diminishing for several days, and that
the city may now be considered free from this terrible
disease. It thinks that a scientific investigation of the
causes of the epidemic should at once be commenced,
pointing to the example afforded by England in such
cases as one to be followed. "Every time that an
epidemic occurs in London," says the ineUpendance,
'science not only multiplies her efforts in order to
combat its immediate effects, but searches for its
initial causes. Each appearance of an epidemic thus
supplies fresh arms for the future, and such is the
excellent influence of these incessant studies, that in
the vast agglomeration of Loudon the due dion of
epidemics is perhaps shorter than anywhere else."
CoTroN PROSPECTS —ln the Lancashire markets
during the past week some small failures among
manufacturers, and unpleasant rumours and antici-
pations of others, have had, according to the Man-
Mester Guardian, rather a depressing influence, which
has been partially counteracted by the steady character
of the cotton market, where the slow way in which
last year's crops are coming forward creates anxiety
about the supply. It is still asserted, however, by
many persons that the receipts are fallacious, as sup-
plies are stopped by bad roads, and by the capability
of planters and speculators to hold back their cotton,
in consequence of the large profits made on that they
have already disposed of.
A NATIONAL POOR-BATE.—An influential
body of farmers presented to Mr. Gladstone, on
Friday, the resolutions which the Chambers of Agri-
culture have recently adopted in favour of a national
poor rate combined with local administration. They
stated, on behalf of the agriculturists, their belief that
the incidence of the poor rate should be equal all over
the country. They would like alsoto have the income
tax assessment made the basis of the rating. The im-
mediate practical step which is proposed is the appoint
ment of a royal commission of inquiry. Mr. Glad
stone showed by his questions that he had listened to
the deputation with interest, and promised to give
most careful consideration to the subject they had
brought under his notice.
WILL OF Mn. JAMES DISRAELI—The will of
James Disraeli, Esq., one of the commissioners of the
Board of Inland Revenue, was proved on the 2nd
inst. The personality was sworn under £34,000. The
testator was appointed to the Board of Inland Reve-
nue in 1856, having previously been the treasurer for
some years of the county courts of Lincolnshire and
Derbyshire. The will is dated March 3, 1800. After
leaving to his housekeeper a legacy of £4,000, and to
her sister, then in his service, a legacy of £4OO, both
free of duty, he bequeaths the residue of his personal
estate, together with his real estate, to his brother, the
Right Hon. B. Disraeli.
CRUELTY TO PUPILS BY AN ECCLESIASTIC.—The
Correctional Tribunal of Lyons has just been engaged
with the trial of an ecclesiastic named Quineandon, but
known in religion as Father Pirin, twenty-two years
of age, for cruelty to the pupils placed under his care
as their teacher. The evidence proved that the pri-

aoner waa accustomed to hang the pupils up by the
legs to a large hook in the wall and then flog them.
Sometimes he left the unfortuaate children for a con-

siderable time with their heads down, totally regard-
less of the ill effects which sunh punishment might
produce on their health. He also frequently made
the big boys act as executioners and whip the young
ones. The court sentenced the accused to six months'
imprisonment. During the trial murmurs and marks
of strong indignation arose from the public.
A CIVIL MAIDSERVANT'S QUESTION.—The
other night, at a meeting of the National ARsociation
for the Promotion of Social Science, a philogynist

read- a paper, and a conversation ensiled, 'on th 7 em-
ployment of women in the Civil Service--which the
Government are about to reduce. The argument of
the paper, however, and the general opinion of the
meeting, were in favour of opening the overmanned
Civil Service to women. The utility of no doing may
appear less obvious than the equity ; bat the idea at
least, suggests an inquiry perhaps of some imp,rtance
as a woman's question. There is one particular in
which women will naturally like to know whether, P
eligible for the Civil Service. they will be subject to
the same condition as that which generally regulates
the Domestic—"No Followers Allowed ”?—Punch.
ATTEMPT TO MURDER A SISTER OF MERCY.—
A determined attempt at murder has just been made
in the civil hospital at Wissemhourg. A sister of
charity was occupied in the kitchen, when one of the
attendants, a young man aged 21, approached with a
pair of double-barrelled pistols, and discharged two
shots at her head; then, finding that he had only
wounded her slightly, and that she was attempting to
escape, he rushed after her, and fired a third time,
point blank in her face, wounding her severely. The
sister is lying in a critical state, and the assassin has
been arrested. He declares that he had long meditated
this crime, the motives for which are not stated.

CLERICAL DRESS.—The Bishop of Norwich has
appointed the following subject for discussion at a
ruridecanal meeting to be held at Shipmvadow
1. Di it desirable to attempt the correction of the alleged
discrepancies between the long-established usage and the
letter of the law of the church in reference to the vestments
to be used iv the minister in public worship? If so, 2, is it
desirable to enforce unvarying uniformity of habit, or to
allow within defined limits certain variations? S. In case of
variations being allowed, should their adoption be at the
singe discretion of the minister, or with the consent of the
ordinary, opp.,rtunity having been first given to the congre-
gation to show cause against such consent being granted?
4. In what way may the public opinion of the clergy and
laity be best obtained upon the subject before It is dealt with
In pan lament and in convocation.

INCA.UTIOUS RIFLIE Paacrlca.—On Friday and
Saturday, before the Norwich magistrates, Mr. Fisher
was charged with feloniously killing and slaying one
Joseph Rudd. The torisoner is a lodger at the Rev.
Mr. Cooke's, of Thorpe Hamlet, and on the sth inst.
he amused himself by firing off a needle-gun with ball
cartridge. At the same time, the deceased Rudd was
walking in a road hard by, and he was shot in one of
his arms, the wound sustained resulting in gangrenous
inflammation and death. The only matter of uncer-
tainty in the case is that Mr. isher—who is an
assistant in the Norwich branch of the Provincial
Banking Corporation (Limited)—was accompanied
when out shooting on the sth by a youth, who may
possibly also have discharged the needle-gun. Any-
how, the case shows great recklessness on the part of
young Fisher in practising rifle-shooting so near A
public thoroughfare. After a considerable amount of
evidence—all tending to show that the sad occur-
rence was purely accidental—the prisoner was
remanded, and was afterwards committed for trial.

MORE LYNCHING IN AMERICA.—Another case of
lynching is recorded in one of the American papers.
This time the tragedy was characterise by all the
most atrocious features of mob law, and the victim
may have been innocent of offence for ought that
appears to the contrary. A negro of Memphis eloped
ith the white daughter of his employer. It is not
stated that the young woman was forced to go with
her black admirer, but her parents at least objected,
and somehow the negro fell into the sheriff's hands.
The Ku-Klux-Klan delivered the man from custody,
and then proceeded to dispense justice in accordance
with their own ideas. They first poured turpentine
over him, "hung him up by the neck, and set him on
fire! When half roasted, he was allowed for the
moment to escape, but was shot down in the attempt."
This outrage is one of the most horrible on record.
A FORTUNATE RECOVERY.—About six months
ago Mr. Newcome, a young artist of Liverpool, while
crossing the mountains at Capel Carig, having lost
: his purse containing twenty sovereigns, made fruitless
I efforts to trace it. A few days ago, however, he re-
ceived a letter from Bettway-coed, requesting his at-
tendance there, and upon his presenting himself he
was agreeably surprised to find that his long lost purse
and its contents had been picked up by an honest
farmer in the vicinity of the mountain, from whom he
received it intact With a generosity which does him
credit, Mr. Newcome immediately presented the lucky
finder with five pounds of the amount

Aar leisn "LIVING "—There is a preferment
in the Irish Church Establishment which should come
well to the light before it disappears for ever (writes a
London contemporary). It is a living, and it is nothing
else than a living. The chantry of St. Mary, in the
parish of St. Nicholas-within-the-Walls, Dublin, was
founded and endowed by gift from the Earl of Wor
cester and some citizens of Dublin in the reign of King
Edward IV. A chantry, be, it known, is a little
chapel or particular altar in a church, endowed for the
maintenance of a priest to sing masses to redeem out
of purgatory the souls of the founders, and of all the
faithful deceased. The election of a "chanter," or
souls' priest, for this Dublin chantry, is in the pari-
shioners, and the Court of Queen's Bench have decided
that none but members of the Established Church can

vote. It is some time since there was an election, the
present "chanter," known now by the more accept-
able name of chaplain, having held the post for many
years. The duties prescribed for him the law now
forbas him to perform in a church or chapel of the
Establishment in fact he has no duties to perform,
and he discharges none, except one which occurs
quarterly or half-yearly as he has about 300 guineas a
year to receive. Except with the license of the
bishop, and permission of the incumbent, he could
neither perform nor assist in service in the church of
St. Nicholas; and if he did so, it would be his volun-
tary act, and neither a right nor a duty. There was a
very large number of these ehantriea in England for.
merly, but in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward
VI, their reyonueo were all cmfamted to the Crown,

and the chantries abolishect:—St. Mary's chantry in
Dublin is supposed to be the last of the race in the
United Kingdom.
- - -

THIS QUEEN OF SPAIN'S IDEA OF RESPECT.—
The ex-Queen of Spain recently visited a Paris con-
vent. No one except the lady superior presented her-
self to accompany her to the door. "Why am I not
treated with more respect than this?" asked her
Majesty. The superior meekly replied that it was
not the custom of the house to do extraordinary
honour to visitors. "But I am a Queen!" The
superior replied that no exception was wade in the
rules for a Queen. "Why, in Spain," exclaimed the
Queen angrily, "the nuns kneel when I enter their
convent." "Oh, madam!" was the pat answer, "here
we only kneel to God."
- - -

A CLERICAL SCANDAL—The Rev. G. J. Merest, I
of Britannia-square, Worcester, has been committed
by the Worcester magistrates for trial at the ensuing
Worcester Assizes, on a charge of sending threatening
letteng to another clergyman, the Rev. M. E. Workman,
manager of the Church and School Gazette, 10, South.
ampton-street, London, demanding money of him.
Mr. Montagu Williams, Q.C., conducted the prosectt
tigm, and Mr. Meredith, solicitor, Worcester, the
defence. The cage excited great stir in Worcester,
and occupied the Bench from noon on Friday until
nearly six p.m. There were numerous letters produced
which were said to have been sent to the complainant
by or at the instigation of the defendant, but the
following was the letter on which the prosecution was
based :

Mount-villa, Newtown, Worcester, October b. My dear
gir,—l am sorry to lay that some startling disclosures of
your antecedents have lately reached me. lum informed
LIAM undoubted authority that your mune Is" Rawlings,"
and that you were once curate of iluntsbourne, in Hants,
and perpetual curate of Bardsley, Lancashire. I have only to
say that unless the £465 that I paid you for Branksen be
returned, together with the documents that I agreed to when
last in your office, and a full explanation given of how the
money for the house at Upton and the restoration of the
church Is Invested, It will come before the public. A relation
of a friend of mine who is a writer to The Time*, is anxious
for me to hand over to him all the correspondence I have re-
ceived from you; hut I have at present not done so—Yours
faithfully, JANBB J. SIEREWT.

The other letter referred to allegations against the
complainant of having misapplied certain sums received
from the sale of livings, and the complainant himself
on examination, admitted that his name had been
originally Rawlings, and that in 1834 he had been con-
victed of forgery, and served two years in Coldbath-
fields prison.
WHAT MANAGERS, ACTRESSES, AND SPECTATORS
ALL WANT. —A Good Dreseing.--Punch.

AN EXPLANATION.—In London, on Monday,
in the court of Mr. Commissioner Holroyd, Mr.
Edwards, the official assignee, entered into a lengthened
history of his connection with Overeni, Gurney, and
Co., and replied to the questions which had been sub-
mitted by the Lord Chancellor for explanation. Mr.
Edwards contended that, although he might have
erred in judgment, what he had done had been done
fairly, openly, and honestly. For twenty years he
had filled an important post without a shadow of com-
plaint against him for neglect of duty in the matters
entrusted to his charge. He denied that his office of
official assignee had been made subservient to the in-
terests of Overend, Gurney, and Co., for it was their
practice to keep all cases in which they were concerned
out of bankruptcy. He further maintained that all
the charges against him were unfounded, and appealed
with confidence to the Lord Chancellor for a favour-
able judgment. Mr. Edwards's explanation has been
ransmitted to Lord Hatherley.
ADVICE TO THE SIAMESE TWINS.—alt and
don't come again.— Tomahawk.
Too BAD OF HIS NEIGHBOURS !—Mr. W. Peel,
an elderly milkman, of Broad-street, Golden-square,
London, recently married, for the fifth time, it is said,
ten days after the funeral of his fourth wife. The
marriage appears to be disapproved of by his neigh-
bours, and every night since they have expressed their
disapproval by parading in front of his house a banner
containing inscriptions referring to Mr. PeeL On
Monday night, however, the mob proceeded to smash
the milkman's windows, doing damage to the extent
of 4,7 or and a boy who was caught in the act was
brought up at Marlborough- street police court the
following morning, and ordered to pay 6s. for breaking
a window and 10s. tine, or to be imprisoned for four-
teen days. Another lad was fined 20s. for assaulting
a boy in the employ of Mr. PeeL The prosecutor
explained to the magistrate that he had suffered from
bronchitis, and having been told by a doctor that he
would die if he had a relapse, he had got married to
,ave his life!

CUTTING Fr FINE. The Controller of Her
Majesty's Stationery Office has issued a Circular to the
public offices, urging greater economy in the consump-
tion of quill pens, which, jadging from Mr. Greg's
cutting remarks, appear to be very wastefully used
between ten and four. As this is a question of pounds,
shillings, and pens, the nation having to stump up a
large sum every year for the supply of these quills, the
Controller is no doubt right in making a pounce upon
what seems a decided abuse. But, perhaps, a still
more necessary reform would be effected, if the con-
autnption of another article in constant use in Govern-
ment offices could be lessened—Red Tape.—Punch.
" STANDING ORDERS."—Free Admissions who
can't get Seats—Punch.
" M,satg GRAY."
Magazine says :
The photographic presentment of a woman's pretty face
with braided and flowing hair, half-parted lips, and fascinat-
ing eyes. The vendors of the popular picture wide "Mabel
Gray upon the work, RIO evetyliodv buys it. "Who is
she?" the town outs; "this pretty, modest-looking woman?"
"She PAS announced to appear at 01.0 of oUr theatres, awl
never canto out." says a gossip. "She is to come out next
season, and this is a new mode of advertising her," says
another. And so the world swags on. The photographers
continue their work, and Glen the colourists trick the faee
out in pink and white. Voir can see that it has first been
" ina.le up ' for the sun-picture, stir pencilled eyebrows anil
titer " beautiful-for-ever " touches. Who is she?" ask
the world again. 'the old gossip laughs and whispers. If he
is In a respectable drawing-room he Boys, knowingly, 'The
holy is a celebrity in her way." The young men of the pi it)
cast side glances at each other; the ladies wonder; sod, if
the host anal hostess are good, sensible people, they will re-
move that photograph before their next party.

'---A writer in the Geitt/eman's

THE COMING MAN AND THE VELOCIPEDE.-

The Hey. Henry Ward lb-ocher recently said in a
lecture that one of the great question of the day was
in relation to the coming man, and how he waste) come.
He thought he was coming on a velocipede—(laughter)
—a new machine that was bound to play a prominent
part in the category of anoisements—a toy to some, an
instrument of pleasure and great use to others. He
had purchased two for his own boys, and there was
every probability of his riding on one himself. (Laugh-
ter.) He was not too old to learn, but he hoped it
would not be said that the velocipede was his hobby.
(Laughter.) His auditors were not too old to learn,
and he would not at all he surprised to see in a short
time hence a thousand velocipedists wheeling their
machines to Plymouth church. (Applause and
laughter.)
IRISH ITEM. There have been floods in
Cork. Cork, as usual, kept afloat notwithstanding.—
Punch.

DREADFUL ACCIDENT IN GLASGOW. —At RR
early hour on Sunday morning, when the storm which
had been raging since the previous afternoon WM at
its height, a frightful calamity occurred in Glasgow,
close to the banks t the Kelvin, and in the immediate
vicinity of the West-end-park. A tall chimney-stalk,
from 80ft. to 100 ft. high, in connexion with the paper-
mill of Mr. Bruce, and exposed to all the fury of the
south-west wind, gave way at the hour mentioned,
and fell right aslant of a row of one-story cottages
standing a few yards distant. Four of the roofs were
completely crushed by the mass of falling bricks,
and the inmates, for the most part, perished in the
wreck of their tenements. Seven persons, most of
them young women, were killed on the spot, and
an eighth, who was removed to the Infirmary, died
there shortly after. The tenants of the two houses
nearest the stalk had a narrow escape. When awoke
by the crash they found the roofs above them shattered,
and the walls bulged in, but they succeeded in crawl-
ing out without receiving any injuries worth tomtit, n
ing. The mass of the stalk, in fact, had only grazed
it, and had fallen with its full weight on the house-
a iljoining. An old woman had a remarkable escape.
She had risen from her bed, and was sitting at the
fireside when the crash came. Her son and two
daughters, asleep in bed, were killed, but she herself
received no serious hurt.