The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-12-16 00:00:00

o)ur yontion aortesporannt.

Iwe deem It right to state that we do rot a all tlxvil
cuitty ourselves with sus (orrespondent's oplaloius)

No pot of your journal will be resit with deeper
interest than that %hilt refers to the Prince of
%Vales. When the news on this sad subject hae been eo
ilentiful, I do not profess to add any item of intelli-
renee, but I cannot refrain from jotting down a few
remarks onkte manifestations of sorrow, sympathy, and
affection thWhave come within my own obeervation.
The first telegram conveying the sad news that the
Prince had suffered a relapse created is painful sensa-
tion, and everywhere this crushing of the hopes that
bad been naturally raised was the common topic of
onversation. On Friday afternoon and evening the
public feeling was vividly manifested. Telegrams
were posted up at numerous public establishments
end most of the newspaper offices, and knots of people
•:itlierisl round these notices and talked seriously and
• adly of the erninotoi news. There could be no mis-
taking the sentiments of the public. People;talked in this
kindest way of the Prince as if he had been a personal
ri.-na, and sympathising remarks about the Princess
and the children were common. The eagerness to ob-
tain the latest news was everywhere apparent, and
the special editions of 'the papers were bought with
avidity. As late as midnight these papers were being
sold in the streets—a thing I do not remember to
have previously occurred. On Satunlay morning it
must have keen with dire fore). tinge that people
opened tier papers to PSC the latest *ewe on the one
absorbing topic, but happily these forebodings were
not realised On Saturday the anxiety for news
was intense, and throughout the day there wined to
be but one subject occupying the pnblie mind, hope
Ind feu alternating. On Sunday, ft is not exaggera-
tion to say, the sad news from Sandringham hung like
a black pall over the metropolis. The bulletin dated
••4 a.m. was posted up, an hour or so afterwards, in
several }dense, and crowds gathered round the
notices, and eagerly read the cautiously weeded,
exciting, and still ominous telegram. The news
nnuit have been discussed in almost every

•
home in London, and in the evening, when the
farther news, dated 5.30, arrived, public feeling was
evidently intense. For hours there was a throng of
people in Pall Mall, cold and cheerleee as the night
was, waiting few still later news at Marlborough
!louse, talking ever the intelligence that had been re
elves!, and speculating anxiously and sadly on what
right be the next news. All through the evening, and
t ill very late at night, the ordinary quiet of the streets
..n Sunday night WU disturleel by boys calling out
..peeial editions of the papers. It WAS with cad fore-
hogs that most people on Monday morning, as
they were about commencing another week, eagerly
looked for the latest intelligence on the one absorbing
.4.lbject which had been weighing on the national
heart. But despite the sail affliction that weighed so
heavily upon the hearts of those who have watched by
the bedside of the illustrious sufferer, the evidences of
the kindly sympathy and sorrow of the nation which
have been manifested throughout the length and
breadth of the land, must have afforded them some
little consolation, and would prove to the Queen and
:err amiable relatives how much they are beloved by
Ike people.
A very grand work approaches completion, the
Foreign Cattle Market, at Deptford, which is to be
opened on New Vear:e Day. From that day will date
a new era in the importation and slaughtering of foreign
cattle, and improvements will be effected which will be
of immense importance, both as respects our food
supply and our sanitary regulations. The market was
to have cost £lOO,OOO, but it will cost more than
double—by no means an uncommon occurrence in
regard to public works.
Whatever may be the result of the strike of the
telegraph clerks in Manchester and Liverpool, the
,trike is certainly very awkwarsl for the public, and
especially for the commercial community. No doubt
,;ere is much to be said, and indeed much igsaid, on both
41,,5, but the clerks would hardly have resorted to so
lesperate a step had they not had some good ground
for it. In any case there is not much hope for the
telegraph clerks succeeding in any future strike, as
telegraphic opeAtions are now understood by so large
is number of persons of both sexes. By the way, that
a very curious letter on the subject from the Liver-
pool postmaster:—" The Postmaster much regrets to
have to notify. . . and I trust that the inconvenience
will be only very 'temporary." This reminds one of
FI elm ed the Duke of Wellington's celebrated letters, or
..1 that famous epistle, "Mrs. Brown presents her com-
pliments to Mrs. Jones, and Twill come to tea," etc.
The Nine Hours' Movement progresses here. The
ether day I was rambling about Kensington, the Court
..nburb, as Leigh Hunt calls it, when my attention was
drawn, as correspondents of The Times say, to a
demonstrative display of flap and hunting, with the
f flowing doggrel flaunting on a transparent frame :
o tee our wishes gain to-day,
Nine hours' work for ten hours' pay,
Freely granted by our firm
Three cheers we give them in return."
The firm were the proprietors of a large foundry, em-
ploying a large number of men. Whether the said
bens considered themselves adequately repaid by three
cheers for relinquishing six hours' labour per week per
man, I did not leans; but as the boon had been freely
eranted by the firm, no one had much occasion to
erumble. The early closing movement in the retail
,hops is also progreasing, and there is very little busi-
ness now done in I.ondon after eight o'clock in the
evening, except in certain branches of trade.
As Christmas approaches we have, as a matter of
course, innumerable appeals to the charitable for funds
to supply dinners or clothing to the poor, to support
weip-kitchens, refugees, &c. Now, that there is no
need of such charity I should be sorry to affirm, but I
do say, after many inquiries on the matter, that there
is lees occasion for it this winter than at the come-
t-loading period of many m year past. The working
lasses here are very generally employed, and as to
that portion of them who are always verging on
pauperism, lam half inclined—only half, remember—
to think that charity and soup-tickets do them more
harm than good.
We all have our opinions about advertising for a
wife. I for one see no reason why a man may not as
honourably make his wants knowt in this respect as
advertising fer a housekeeper, a partner, or a gover-
mos ; but other people think very differently. Hors,
for example, is an advertisement in Galignani which
loolcs genuine enough. "A French nobleman, aged
widower, without children, desires to unite himself
in matrimony with an English or American lady,
whether a widow or not, who speaks a little French ‘",
Italian, and has • year income of .C 1,000. His
I,llniary regnirements, considering that he will wafer
et the lady a title, are at any rate not unreasonable.
Always supposing that the advertiser is mincers, I hope
he may get a good wife, and that they may "live happy
ever afterwards."
Visitors to London, say twenty years ago, will re-
member the Colosseum, one of the most attractive
eebibitions in the metropolis. The enormotusbuilding
has been put to many wee mince that, and has for
ears been deserted and to let. But a company is
:shout to devote it to the purposes of baths of all kinds,
as well as a winter garden. If the promisee are
carried out, the Colosseum Turkish and swimming
baths, he winter garden, its statuary, and its decors-
liens, will be about the grandest affair of the kind in
ihe world. Ido not think, however, that the Turkish
Lath establishment' in the metropolis have succeeded
to any great extent. This kind of bath may suit some
conetitutione, lett certainly not all ; and then a Turkish
bath takes PO much time and costa so much money. As
t, the proposed winter garden, It is a thing we have
for many years been talking about, but have never yet
aeromplished.

No one who has read the first volume of Mr. John
Forster's Life of his friend Charles Dickens, can be
,urprised to learn that it has met with great public
favour, but it is rather surprising that the book should
, t into its third edition in the course of a week. The
work will rather startle many of us. Little was it
thought that the great English novelist went through
.uch bitter hardships during his early life as this
~.moir sh.,ws he did. But this, perhaps, will only
. o,lear th, memory of Dickers; in ths hearts of his