The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-09-18 00:00:00

A few days sgo,a woman who is said to have been
before the London police magistrates, for various offences,
at least SOO times, was charted with having attemyted to
strangle herself.
A rumour is current in Paris that the Emperor
will abdicate when the Prince Imperial attains the age of
fourteen.
The following advertisement appeared in the
columns of a London paper the other day :—" Occasional
• ecretsry —Occupation is required, by a lady, *ha writes
readily, and In choice language, on ally given subj. ct
Suitable sermons, appropriate letters, wedding aid dinner
speeches promptly prepared ; also cases for counsel and
attractive advertisements.—Audress first to Scribe, he.

It will surprise many to know the amount in value
of the cut-flower trade of Covent Garden. The wedding
orders alone are many thousand pounds. ranging from a
guinea tea hundred guineas. Although flowers in Autumn
are of little value, a bride's bouquet will cost from one to
three guineas.
A Charlestown paper states that there is in South
Carolina • young ex-Confederate soldier who lost his leg
in the war, from the stump of whose thigh a new leg and
foot are growing.
A man attending one of the Dissenting churches in
Stirling was lately offered an eldership In the congregation
of which he is • member, and declined on the ground that
being a keeper of a publichouse he could not in con-
science" be also an eider.
The trustees of the Hudson Annuity Fund have
invested the £4,000 placed at their disposal at the rate 01 11
per cent., so as to yield Mr. Hodson an annuity of £520. A
further sum of £l,OOO is expected to be realized.
According to Dornbooch's Floating Cargoes Morning
List, the number of ships arrived in the course of eight days,
vi.. from Friday the 3rd, to the loth of September, at Fal-
mouth, lrlymonth, Queenstown, and other ports of call
amounts to 653, of winch 103 are wheat, 189 maize, 12 rye,
and 14 barley.
The velocipede mania is certainly spreading with
alarming rapidity. An international exhibition is talked of.
On Saturday, at a meeting held in the "Golden
Lion" Hotel, Stirling. it was resolve 1 to take steps to erect a
monument to King Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.
The Prussian Bible Society in Berlin has distri-
buted, since its foundation. in 1014, more than three mil-
lions of copies of the Holy Scriptures. In the year 1067 alone
the number was 90,000.
"To the great joy of French gentlemen, and sports-
women with English taste, at one of the most aristocratic
houses in France may be seen cock-fighting, alter the fashion
in Albion. The heroes of these bloody combats are a Java
anti a Swiss cock. The combatants are armed with
bayoneted spurs, whi th redoubles the interest. The attraction
of this horrible spectacle (says a Frenchman) Is such that,
even while detesting the sight, you cannot resist looking at
R. Add to this coroliery, that betting at these cock-fights
Oval those at bores races, which is without doubt the great .
attraction for many "—Coon i JCWITaI.
The provincial synods of Armagh and Dublin met in
St. Patrick's Cathedral on Tuesday. about NO of the clergy of '
various grades being present. The lay conference has peen
postponed from the sth to the 12th October, to suit the con-
venience of several country gentlemen.
At the fourth congress, the International AISOCia•
Mon of Working Men at Sale, a resolution was passed de.
(laden that society has a right to abolish individual property
in the soil. This was carried by • majority of 54. Another
declaration was then put, stating that R was necessary to
abolish individual property in the soil, and this was carried
by the same majority.
The lockout at Denaby Main Colliery, near Sheffield,
which has lasted over six months, has at length been brought
to • termination, and a Lumber of the men will resume work
in the course of a few days.
At Dundee, a young man, named Ogilvy, has been
tried on a charge of having administered poison ;viriol or
sulphuric add) to the infant illegitimate child of a girl named
Mary Lunen, of which child the latter said the prisoner was
the father. The child died about a month after the poison
was administered to it. The jury acquitted the prisoner of
murder, but found him guilty at common law of administer'
log poison, and he was sentenced to eight years' penal servi-
tude.
At a mill near Oldham, a man named Harrison, was
sestattvg to piece • strap when the engine was running, when
by some means the strap got upon the pulley, and, catching
Harrison, it wound him round the abaft, his body coming in
contact with the ceiling during the chine of its rapid
motion. The poor man's arms were thus torn off, and the
body fell to the floor a dreadfully mutilated MUM The
spectacle was witnessed by several workpeople.
It was stated in the Dublin police-court on Saturday
daring the hearing of a charge for receiving diseased meat
for the purposes of sale, which was dismissed for an infor-
mality in the summons, that no less than 31,000 it. weight
of raw meat has been seized in the city by the officers of the
Public Health Committee within the past three months as
unfit for human food.
In London, a man named Hall, who lately made a
false confession of having been concerned in the Cannon-
street murder, has been charged at the Guildhall with attempt-
ing to commit suicide. ilia defence WAS that he was weary of
his existence, and the presiding magistrate, after a remon-
strance, remanded the prisoner. In order that an inquiry
might be made into the state of his mind.
"The Dean of Ripon will be no loss to the Congress.
The vanity of popular preaching has so long ago spoiled him
for aity better purpose than popular preachiog. You mis ht
have words with him, as the secretary to the Congress has
jut had, but not thoughts. Ile does not reason, he con-
tends"—Spectator.
The annual meeting of the American Spiritual
Association was convened at Buffalo in the 30th About
200 delegates were present from various States.
A butter merchant of Birmingham paid • high price
t 1085." for a parcel of butter, and being desirous of testing its
quality, he took 270'z. from a firkin, and sent it for analysis
to Mr. Stoddart, an eminent analytical chemist of EristoL
The following is the result of the analysis :—Water, 4 05oz. ;
wood, dirt, ste , 11305. ; meal, 25405. ; common salt, 11:000. ;
mineral matter, clay, sisc., ; lard and butter, 17100., ;
colouring matter, o—total, 47•00ez.
From a despatch received at the Foreign Office by
her Majesty's Austrian Ambassador, it appears that • disease
resembling the cattle plague has broken out in the western
districts of Vildeget and towards the Danube, and foot and .
mouth disease towards the Black Sea. This will necessitate
some additional precautions in the importation of hides
through Austria.
A shoveller named Marshal, engaged at the Niagara
Elevator at Buffalo, has been smothered to death, 2,000
bushels of wheat being thrown upon him while he wu asleep
in a boat.
"Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe gets five hundreu
pounds from Macmillan for her article on Byron, betides the
sum she is said to have received from the Atlantic Monthly,
for an article on the lame subject, which appeared at the
same time."—Court Journal.
A Paris letter states that the Emperor of the French
was astonished at the excitement which his drive through
Paris produced, and observed that he must have been very ill
indeed. On the oceseion of bin second excursion he went in .
an open carriage, in order that it might not be supposed he
wished to conceal any marked alteration in his appearance.
Mr. Houghton, of the North Western Railway,
made a very remarkable statement last week in the columns
of • contemporary. He made the startling announcement
that every railway passenger weighs in effect two tons.
Taking the average, every railway passenger with his luggage
weighs in reality about two hundred weight; but in order to
carry him to his destination rolling stock to the weight of
nearly twenty times that amount has, according to Mr.
Houghton, to be act in motion; no that for every passenger
In a train the weight to be dragged la two tons.
The number of wrecks reported during the past
week is 29, milking for the past year 1,519.
Cloaked as it may be, it is evident that the illness of
the French Emperor has been of a more serious nature, and
Is likely to move more lasting, than the Paris journals
are permitted to state.
An American paper states that a coloured woman
recently leaped from a train of cars in Mississippi whilst it
was going forty miles an hour. She fell on her head, but
escaped unhurt.
This has been an eccentric year—millions of daddy-
longlegs hue swarmed the fields after the ladybirds.
An American editor speaks of his political opponents
as " quthblesophical.'
A company has been formed in Paris to carry out •
rather mud idea in the way of advertising. The company .
takes a lease of one window in the second or third story of a
house in • pronduent street or boulevard. From duck till
after midnights transparency, brightly lit up, on a sea-green
ground, sets forth the advertisement. Arrangements can be
made either for • display once a week or a whole week, ac.,
alternately in any of the windows in the several quarters pos-
sessed by the company.
A telegram from New York, dated the 14th instant,
states that the San Francisco Bulletin of that day published
a letter which it declared to be authentic, stating that docu-
ments have been found near San Buenaventura, giving •
detailed account of the desertion of the ships Erettue and
7'error of Sir John Franklin's expedition. According to them
documents, the party wintered in 1840 and 1047 at lleechy
Island. Sir John Franklin died en the 11th of June 1047.
The papers had evidently been thrown overboard about
latitude 591, longitude 98.
Sir Lydston Newman, writing to the Field, states
that he shot a woodcock, on the lad of September at his
place, Stokely, near Dartmouth. The bird was close to the
sea-side, and, as the wind had been blowing fresh, no doubt
it had just arrived.
The New York Herold attributes the defeat of the
Harvard crew to bad steering!
At Pond City. Kansas, on August 25, a man named
Langford was seized bps vigilance committee of that city
and taken out of the town to be hanged. When he was in.
formed that he could hope for no mercy be confessed that he
had already killed six men, and if his fate could be postponed
for a few days he would kill as many more. After making
this confession, and giving utterance to some horrid blas-
phemy, he pulled off his boot., and, placing the rope around
Isis own neck, swung himself off the tree. mid thus was his
awn executioner. Langford was half Indian, about twenty-
two )ears old, and had led a desperate life all over the
border.
Advices received state that the cattle plague is being
happily subdued in the Canton de Vaud. Switzerland, as well
as in Eastern Prussia.
Rumours having been prevalent to the effect that
GOVUTMeIIt intended to treat Sheerness as It has treated
Woolwich, and "abolish it as a naval estailishment," some
of the more influential inhabitants have interrogated the
Admiralty on the subject. The result has been an official
communication, addressed to Mr. Marks, signed by Mr.
Vernon Lushington, secretary to the First Lord, which says,
"I am commanded to acquaint you that my lords have come
to no such decision, and that, in fact, they have never con-
sidered the queetion."
It is stated in the Levant Times that the Sultan has
expressed swish that the Catholic Church at Pere should be
sumptuously decorated at his own expense, for the Empress
Eugenie, during her approaching visit to Constantinople.
Among the " appointments "to he introduced is a splendid
canopied throne for her Imperial Majesty. It is even said
that a very dilapidated Mosque is to be polled down to afford
a better approach to the church bat this, the Levant Times
explains hiss for some time been contemplated as a public
improvement.
The telt graphic communication between Russia and
China has, according to the latest accounts been broken in
consequence of an inundation of Luke Baikal, in Siberia. The
line ot telegraph which peases along the shore of this lake
has been submerged for • distance of about thirty miles, The
rivers Angora, ,elenga, and Irkut have also over-flowed,
and the telegraph posts and wires •n their have been
destroyed by the inundation. All the attempt, hitherto
made to restore the communication have toilet!, and it is
feared that until the wnters subside it will be impossible to
work the telegraph beyond Ukulele
The Commercia/ Advertiser of Honolulu, Hawaii
Islands, gives the following list of presents given to the Duke
of Edinburgh:—" As near as we con learn, there were 760 !
fowls of all kinds, 160 pigs, two tons of taro, two tons of
fluor cane, one ton of melons, one ton of sweet potatoes,
besides fruit, such as c. con-note. mangoes, nine slip As, with
specimens of mats, native taps cloth, ds, , the whole mskiog
some eight or tentons of freights, wdiAs was sent on hoard
on Friday morning in two large scowl."
The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland received a &puts.
Mon from the Dublin Town Council on Momiay, to present I
an &dues. urging " the settlement of the land sioutio in on •
just and equal basis, and an amnesty for past political
offences." His lordship, in his reply, only emeriti the depu-
tation that the Goveroment would " attentively consider"
their views, but his remarks appear to have given saute
Tuesday, the 14th inst., was the centenary of the
birth of Alexander von Humboldt, the author of Cosmos,"
who may be called, scientifically speaking, the discoverer of
America. In Germany and in the United 'tales prepara-
tions have been for some time in program for cs 'ohm' ing the
event. In New York a column wed statue were to be raked,
and at Harvard University a new scientific schorl bearing
his name is to be established. The Germans in London met
to do honour to the memory of their distingui-hed country-
man. The centenary of the First Napoleon. which likewiee
itccun this year according to imperial chnouloiry, was cele-
brated the other day in Part', lit a somewhat ddieretil
lashlon.—Two other then hl worldwide Irate Were Mu in
1700—Wellimatos and tiuvls4

Australian paners state that a number of fine pearl.
discovered a': the fisheries carried on in the vicinity of Nicol
Bay, Western Austialia, have been exhibited in NI c'.eurne.
They are of great mile and beauty, the moat e among
Gum resembling in shape and dimenivons the ey, :Nal of a
large fish. This is said to be worth upwards of 0200.
Adroit robberies being the rule in America, on the
night of the 27th of August a body •I thicves broke lido the
Tax Receiver's office, one of the public buildings in Pladadel.
phia, opened • supposed burglar-proof safe, :dole about
34,000 dots, and although the gone rot pdce-siation was only
a few yards off they slice eded fu escaping wi:h U car booty.
The money stolen belobged to the city and Slate, and was a
portion of the day's receipts from taxes.
A discovery haa been made in India which renders it
notimpossible that sewage may be utilised by being converted
. into gas. Experiments have been succesaluPy tried nt
leer-
feeling and Caleutta,and it is now proposed to apply the pro-
cess to some of the larger cities.
A telegram from Koenigsberg, dated the Lilt
Instant, says that during two days' testivitnis in hon. he of
the visit of the King, a depionable accident oc,urred.
Owing to the crush id spectators the rehires of a bridge
gave way. Twenty four dead bodies belonging to persons of
various ranks in society have been discovered.
The expedition to the North Pole, directed by ?if.
Gustave Lambert, Is unable to set out. About £7,200 is still
required to carry out the undertaking, intended to last four
years, with two of the winters passed Li the neighbourhood
of the pole itself.
On the new burgess roll for the parish of Birming-
ham, there are the names of upwards of 2,000 women, and for
the adjoining parish of Edgbaston, 475.
"An idea that would suit some of our 'fast' London
churches come, tons from New York, where • church lately'
tried the experiment of having the contribution bones passed
by handsome young ladles, laud is now. called 'The Church of
the Holy Water Girls.' "—Court Journal.
At Liverpool a man has been charged with biting the
end off his wife's nose. On the previous day they quurrelle.4,
when he knocked her down, and committed the offence
complained of. The case was remanded, the poor woman
not being able to attend the court.
A Sligo magistrate—Mr. Fanspett—has been super-
seded by the Lord Chancellor. Mr. Emmett, at • recent meet-
ing of the Sligo Harbour Commissioners, of which But, he is
a life member, uttered what might lie called a challenge r.°
fight a duel, lie also called a brother Commissioner • "lie
chap!' The Harbour Commissioners brought the matter
under the notice of the Government, and the result has been
. .

as already stated. .
The Greenock Advertiser of Friday regrets to learn
that the " foot and mouth" disease has broken out aniongst
cattle in that district, and that on one farm no less than
eleven cows have been attacked. It does not stem to have
been imported, bat is of the nature elan epidemic. As yea
there have been no Wet results.
A solemn council held at linden decided that Mdlie.
Nilsson might play Mignon in her own hair. Acting upon
this hold declaration of war against the tyranny of ATV
. &heifer, the fair Swede lett her brown wig at home.
We hear of a "novel aid to the playhouse" now ill
' use at New York. "Mr. Fisk," says the Citivn, runs 14
line of free cabs front Broadway to his vipers House." lip-
and-hp, Mr. Fisk, it is said, 'will issue passes over the Erie-
road to persons intending to visit either of his theatres"
Elder Kimball, one of the Salt Lake magnates, di,id
recently. He left an estate valued at 69 000 dole, and forty.
one children, amongst whom it will be divided.
By an error in the entries of the East and West
India Dock Company, the stock of congou in London appears
5,100,000 lb.. more than was supposed, the ynantity being
now estimated at 40,251,000 lbs, instead of 15,493,000165.
American advice' inform us that a large drove of
Texan cattle, which had just been landed from the inter-
national tarry boat, ran wild in Buffalo, and created much
excitement and did considerable mischief. One woman no,
fatally gored, and a number of persons seriously injured.
Some of the cattle swam the Niagara laver, and many a. e
still at large.
The Empress Eugenie has presented to Lady Mary
Douglas, in the occasion of her marriage with Duke do
Valentluots, a mite of sapphire ornaments of great value.
The gift was accompanied by an autograph letter of the most
affectionate character for the future eovereign of Monaco.
His Highness the Duke of Brunswick it is well
known possesses one of the brat collection, of precious stones
in the world. It is stated that the Duke transacts an ex-
tensive business as a diamond merchant, and that he has
several depots in Paris for the parasites and sale of Jewel-

key.
Mr. Merewether. Q.C., was recently announced to
read a paper on "rho Head-gear of the Ancients." That
gentleman, however, particularly tickled the risible faculties
of the audience by producing—not the heavy armour worn by
our forefathers, but • collection of bonnets from 1805 down
to the present time, and concluded by proposing that they
should all war to the knife against chignons.
Mr. Wm. Sowerby, of the Botanic Gardens, Ito'
gent's Park, London gives in Land and Water a very curious
and instructive account of what is teru.ed a natural life-boat
—that is, the leaf of the gigantic Victoria Regis, which lie
says he war able to Leal— and it still floated—to the great
weight of 426 lbs. Ile believes that, wita care, it could be
made to 11.. at • number of persons.
The Grand Duke Nicholas, second brother of the
Emperor of Russia, has Just escaped from • frightful acci-
dent. Ile was returning from Otanienbaum, when the train
ran off the rail, near St. Petershurgh. 'the conductor was
killed on the spot and a number of the passengers were in-
jured, but his Highness was unhurt,
A Californian paper reports that there were 50,009
tons of wheat lying in sacks along the banks of the Sac: ts.
mento river, in Tehama, Butte, :totter, Colitis and Vol
c 'unties, on the Ist of August, and that 60,000 more were to
follow, making 11,00..0 as the yield of five counties.
In the pariah of Llandelde, Carmarthenshire, on
Saturday last, a lime-kiln which had been in a nanous stato
for some time, but was used ix...lousily by a man named
Rogers for the purpose of supplying the neighbouring
farmers, suddenly fell down. Escape was Impossible, and
when, after the rubbish, together with the burning mass of
lime, stone, and coal had been removed, the man was found
lying across his wheelbarrow, quite dead. His body was
dreadfully charred and disilgured.
A letter from Fort Tchinaz (Russian Turkestan) to
• St. Petersburg journal mentions that the son of the Emir ot
Boukhara, a young man of fourteen, and of agreeable exterior,
I has just passed through that place on hir way to the Russian
capital to complete his education as a page at the Roasian
court. He wu taking with him three elephants as • present
from his father to the Czar.
"The amouchment of her Royal Highness the
Princess of Wales is expected to take place the latter end of
November or beginning of December."—Court Journal.
At Ilfracombe, the other day, a young lady, looking
for stones on the beach found a diamond ring, which was
lost by Mrs. Drake, • relative of the late Lord It. Me.
The other day a meeting of teetotallers of old stand-
log was held at Leeds Thirty-eight were present, of whom
eight had been pledged abstainers for 34 years ;six, 23; Bye,
32; two, 31 : three, 30; four, Ill; six. 28 ; three, 27; and one
25. The number of years which those who composed the
meeting had been abstainers amounted in the aggregate to
1,172, or an average of nearly thirty-oneyears each.
One of the highest tides ever known is expected to
take place on the Bth of next month.
"The suburbs of London are rapidly becoming a
portion of our gigantic metropolis Year by year tre. s awl
fields give way to bricks, and the rural sights and bounds
which used to please the inhabitants of Balham and Clapham,
of Highgate and liornsey, are seen alai beard no longer.
No man who rents or builds a house ail or eight ndl..s
from Chatiug-cross is secure of Ms position. 'His view
may be blocked out, his privacy destroyed, his pure air
dented., Daily News.
"Byronic literature is now all the rage. The book-
store windows are filled with pictures of Byrod and editions
of his works. In all sorts of bindings at all sorts of prices.
There was never • greater demand."—New York World,
August 31.
The American press comment at great length on
Canadian affairs and generally predict an early separation
of the British American colonies from the mother country.
The Hanley burgess rolls this year contains the
names of 398 females; that of Newcastle-under-Lyne has oi
females, and that of Congleton 207.
His Highness the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh has
returned to his seat at Elveden, Thetford, Norfolk, lor par-
tr'dge shooting. His Highness bagged upwards of 100 brace
of birds on the first day of his arrval to his own gun alone.
Another fatal well-sinking accident is recorded,
attributable solely to the neglect of the necessary precau-
tion to ascertain that the well was free from carbonic gas.
Some well-sinkers were at work at Rochdale, on I,,lokay, and
one of them was lowered by a windier., but before ho
reached the oottom befell as if in a fit. Another man sent
down was similarly affected, and • third man was plrawn no
again in an unconscious state. He recovered, but {he other
two when drawn up to the surface were dead. It is sup-
posed that the deadly gas had accumulated during the night
from au old coal pit in the neighbourhood.