The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-05-24 00:00:00

visttuarctous 3111eINCntt.
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLOhLiIIi.

BURNING OF A TOWN IN TURKEY.—A great fire ash
occurred on the 17th inst. at Bei Bazar, in the pro-
vince of Angora. Owing to the strong wind prevailing
at the time it was impossible to stay the progress of the
conflagration, which destroyed 950 houses, 544 ware-
houses and shops 11 mosques, 15 schools, nine khans,
and 146 other buildings. Eleven persons perished in
the flames. The cause of the catastrophe is not
known.
WAR BETWEEN NETAUL AND THIBET.—The long-
threatened war between Nepaul and Thibet appears to
have begun. A report reached Khatmandu on the Bth
inst. that the Thibetans were moving forward to seize
the stores which the Nepaulese had been accumulating
on the frontier. On the 12th four regiments, in all
2000 strong, were dispatched by different roads to the
frontier. The men were provided with warm clothing
and tents. General Puddum Jung, younger son of
Jung Bahadur, commands the brigade. The Nepaulese
troops are greatly superior to the Thibetans in equip-
ment and discipline, but they will have to contend with
serious difficulties owing to the climate and the nature
of the country.
POST-OFFICE .PROSECUTIONS.—In London, on Mon-
day, at the Central Criminal Court, Thomas Blackburn
Wood, 24, pleaded " Guilty " to stealing letters con-
taining postal orders. The prisoner, who was a postman
in the Eastern District Ace, was also employed as an
out-door officer of Customs. The Common Serjeant
sentenced him to five years' penal servitude:—Sidney
Albert Willey, 25, who pleaded" Guilty" to stealing a
test" letter, had been 10 years in the employment of
the Post 011 ice, and was engaged at the Western
office. He was sentenced to five years' penal servitude.
EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE.—In Paris, on Sunday, a
Prussian was arrested in the Jardin des Plantes,
charged with attempting to poison one of the elephants.
The man went into the rotunda of the elephant house,
and while the keepers were feeding the animals he
attempted to give them some bread, steeped in a
mineral essence, to one of the elephants. He was
promptly taken before the Commissary of Police, and
several flasks containing mineral poison were found in
his pockets. No motive has been assigned for his
extraordinary action.
CENTRAL AFRlCA.—Captain Foote, the newly-ap-
pointed Consul at Lake Nyassa, one of the most im-
portant centres of the African slave trade, has arrived
at his destination, and is now in the active exercise of
his functions. It is said that his efficacy as a consul
specially charged with the duty of watching the slave
trade would be greatly increased if a steam launch
were placed at his dirposal. His arrival has excited
much interest and sympathy among the natives.
Private correspondence gives an encouraging account
of the enterprise of both missionaries and traders in
this region.
SUDDEN DEATH OF AN UNDERGRADDATE.—A shock-
ingly sudden death of an undergraduate took place on
Monday evening at Oxford, during the racing of the
second division of the eights. The deceased, Mr. win-
ham Arthur Jesson, commoner of Balliol College,
.was
running up the bank with his college boat, when, just,
having passed the long bridge, he staggered and fell.
Medical assistance was at once sent for, but was of no
avail and the body of the deceased was brought to his
rooms in the college. The deceased matriculated in
1881, and would have completed his university course at
,
the expiration of the present term.
SUBTERRANEAN FISH. —A fact of much interest to
students of natural history is vouched for by Cavalier
Moerath, a civil engineer, formerly of Rome, and nosy
visiting this country. This gentleman has develoved
from Passed
a s swe dh s
which
neow tahs etube
Abyssinian"b e
w
much labour and attention to the improvement of
water supplies in Italy. In prospecting for water with
n Tube Wells,he tapped a
spring pumped a tiny living fish. This
fish e fad
well through the ordinary
perforations ef about one-eight cf an inch. Examina-
tion proved it to have no eyes, clearly indicating that it
belonged to an order intended to inhabit subterranean
waters. The occurrence was Qertified to by two other
0.1 nohg' Norton
gentlemen who were present when the fish was pumped
up.

Tee LATH EMPEROR MastratterAw. Herr Hesse.
Wartegg, the Austrian traveller, who is now in Mexico,
writes from Queretaro to say that the State Govern-
ment of that province has erected a large monument in
red sandstone upon the spot where the Emperor Maxi-
milian was shot in 1867. Hitherto the only means of
identifying the spot where he fell was a pyramid of
stems which was gradually disappearing, aemany of the
014 soldiers who served under him took the stones
awaj as souvenirs. The cot:* which shows the stains
of Me blood, stands in the Government Haase, and
Ameriran tourists lave chipped a great many pieces of
wood frni it. Thu Monastery of Santa Crux, in which
the Emperor was conned before his execution,-is going
to ruin, anti it is diffeult to reach the room which he
occupied. Monsignor ;Aerie: m who reired his rest con-
fession, died at the end of March.
CHEAT FIREIN LIVERFC*L.—A fire Broke out he some
warehouses iv Grundy-street and 1/laTingtori-street,
Liverpool, on Saturday morning. The conflagration
or'.ginated in one sf a block ef warehouaesin Grundy-
street, containing cotton and other inflammable
materials. Despite- the efforts of the fire brigade the
flames made headway, and the rod of the building fell
carrying away the floars. Shortly afterwards the • back
• wall et' the warehouse collapsed, and a quanity' of' thee
burnin3 material fell against a warehouse in lrriugtone
street, setting it on fire. Attention was turned to thhe
building,hut the firemen were unable to extinguish the •
flames, which burned fiercely, and the roof speedily
fell in. The firemen succeeded in confining the- flames'
to two warehouses. The produce in the warehenSes
was estimated to be worth £50,000.
PREPARATIONS FOR PLANTING APPLE TRFJBg:,-41017'11t
the time to prepare soil and materials for planting in.
autumn, which should not be delayed long after the
leaves have fallen; and it may be done before that, pro--
vided the wood is hardened, remarks the" Fiat" All;
manures and other materials should be brought' to the
place: and the ground should be trenched regularly over
fromtwo feet to three feet deep, the lesser depth in late'
and cold localities, and the greater in those that are
warmer and drier. In drenching, the common
practice of simply turning the ground upside
down, and burying the manure in the bottom
of the trench, should be avoided,. anti instead
thereof, the soil, lime, ashes, and manure • should
be turned regularly over, so as to mix all
thoroughly from top to bottom, levelling the surface
of the subsoil as the work proceeds. If flags are used
to place below the roots, as suggested, they may be
laid on the subsoil at the same time where the trees are
to stand. What are called Yorkshire greystone slates,,
or strong blue slates, are cheapest and best. They
should be laid flat, even and close, overlapping, as we
have said, from the centre or crown; and if it is con-
venient to bed them roughly in lime, all the better.
This is an excellent and simple plan where the subsoil
is bad, as it effectually prevents subsoil-rooting, if care
is taken to pack each slate solid beneath with earthrao
as not to let the whole weight rest on the lap/ in which
case the slate may crack through the weight of the
superincumbent earth. The refuse of stone quarries
will answer well enough, and these may be got for the
loading, or little more, in some places.
CHARGE OF ATTEMPTED MIIRDER.—A determined
attempt at murder was made early on Saturday morn-
ing in Manchester. A police-sergeant in Ancoats saw
a man in an evident state of alarm running across the
street shortly before four o'clock in the morning, and
stopped him. In answer to the sergeant's inquiry why
he was running, he replied that he had murdered his
father. The man, whose name was- found tube Joseph
Saxon, a moulder by trade, took the sergeant to the
house of his father, who was found bleeding profusely
from a wound in the head, which he said had been
caused by his son. The relations between the two have
lately been of the most unhappy character,, the son
being a man of evil habits and well-known to the police.
On Saturday morning the father went downstairs in-
tending to go to his work, when the son followed him
into the kitchen and without provocation attacked him
with a hammer, striking him a violent blow on the head.
The wounded man was taken to the hospital' and the
son lacked up on the charge of attempted murder._ _

TEE EXTINCTION OF -ANIMALS.---it is stated by
Engineer Phillips (late of the Northern Pacific Rail-
road) that no fewer than 20,000 elk, antelope, and mule
deer are slaughtered every winter in Minnesota, Mon-
tana, and Wyoming alone. There is every prospect that
three of the noblest game animals on the American con-
tinent will soon be entirely extinct. Elk, which
formerly ranged from the Middle States to the Pacific,
are now never found east of the Missouri River.
Twenty-five years ago they were plentiful in Kansas
and Nebraska, but civilisation has driven theni into the
dense and uninhabited regions of Minnesota and the
Northern Territories. The hide hunters effect the most
sweeping destruction. The average price of an elk skin
is 3 dols. The hide hunters use repeating rifles, and
frequently kill from six to twelve elk in a herd before
they get out of range. Mr. Phillips affirms that, besides
the slaughter of the animals named, in the year 1882
more than 25.000 buffaloes were killed for the traders
between the Yellowstone and the head waters of the
Little Missouri. If there is to be sport in the Great
West in the future those interested will be compelled
to move for legislation which will give protection te
game in the Western States and Territories. Other-
wise there will be very few elk, buffalo, mule deer, or
antelope left to hunt in five years.
SUICIDE OF A FRENCH PAINTER.—The Paris corre-
spondent of the "Daily News" writes: M. Jundt, a
very eminent painter, who was in the front rank of his
profession, financially prosperous, and a great social
favourite, has committed suicide. He was unmarried,
suffered from gout, and had nobody to take care of him,
but the concierge. Sitting at the window of his apart-
ment in the Rue d'Assas smoking a long pipe, it appears
to have suddenly occurred to him that life without the
enjoyments he had been accustomed to was not worth
living. He jumped out and was picked up dead on
the pavement.
LOCUSTS IN SPAIN.—A Madrid telegram states th,at
there is the greatest anxiety in the province of Ciudiul
Real owing to the fear that all this year's crops will be
destroyed by locusts. Entire districts are covered with
young locusts and larvm. In two townships aloue
upwards of 80 tons of these pests have been gathered
and buried, but this is only a very small proportion of the
whole. Time presses, and the Ministers of the Interior
and of Public Works promise subscriptions towards the
cost of gathering the insects, while the Minister of War
has undertaken to ser.d as quickly as possible all the
soldiers he can spare, quartered in or near the province,
to help in the extinction of the plague. It is to be
feared, however, that there will be neither money nor
men enough to do the work thoroughly.

WET OR-DRY.—The long-continued dry weather, not,
otpsi
sehne
velrayehrapiapnil
pity
rainfall
odryn talmosths
has
allbeen everywhere,o v
singularly
over the
adr kingdomgenerally,sma
lsmall,
osr
the because
naturallypat
"Gardeners'e7citi n gyfimnfiteiicehwcweie ,:attohttneheinere trl
tieho
should
), f andareldelaz
opportunity
r alarmttgyis e
epziriorpydlste:tesh!
to obtain ample enjoyment, and no saying in relation
to the weather is more common than the remark, " It
150 fallPStAn'eallie lime: of writing (for in our change-
able clime we must always make a (reservation) ',very
dry; yet vegetation is for the year only its infancy, and
no great strain has been made upon the soil to sustain
life. The pinch is now coming rapidly, and if no rain
fall during the present month we shall enter upon June
with sad forebodings. We have had it pleasantly im-
pressed upon us that a drier winter or spring than the
seasons just past have rarely been known, and to special
mildness has been linked special dryness. In the
almost ordinary course of things, in the realisation of
those average compensations which nature is so fond
of producing, we ought to have a wet, cold summer, but
certainly there is no present evidence that such a catas-
troph( is imminent; on the other hand, should the
summer continue as the winter and spring have been—
markedly dry—then we shall have beautiful weather to
set against thirsty soil and starved crops. No one can
say that at present the garden or farm outlook is cheer-
ing ; but were we now to have a week or two of abun-
dant, genial, warm rains, a revolution in vegetable
aspects would be worked quickly. The fruit graers
have had a heavy blow, and either a wet,
Nctho their l d
burdens;s u
exceeding mm summer,
interest and anxiety. Practical
eatddoers fully under-
tohr
eraef lolroet
tphaerscehaesdononies,
being
gd ad
rwatche
stand the importance of rain just now, for once the
summer is fairly in there is little hope for the desired
d
moisture until autumn is with us, and then it comes
too late. _ _