The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-05-12 00:00:00

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HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL

A FAST RUN ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.—The Guion
Mail steamer Alaska has made another fast passage,
six days twenty-three hours forty-eight minutes.
She left Queenstown on Sunday, the 29th of April,
and arrived at New York at six a.m. yesterday. The
daily runs were as follows :-45, 401, 421, 4/9, 428, 413;
and 312 miles, total 2,844. This is the first time
that the outward passage has been made under seven
days.

THE NEW CRAlL—Provincial Manager (to Scion of
Aristocracy, who has come to commence) : "So, my
Lord, you 're here at last! We've had three re-
hearsals without you, and it 's produced to-morrow. I
suppose you've been studying since you've been
here? "—Lord Plantagenet (pleasantly) : " Oh—ah—
no, I 've not begun yet. The fact is "—(still more
pleasantly)—" I'd no idea that Plumborough was such
a jolly place I "—Punch.
YANKEE WIT. —Many years ago a Pittsburgh iron
firm purchased a lot of condemned bombshells for old
iron (says the Detroit Free Press). The shells were
not loaded, but in order to melt them it was necessary
that they should be broken up. This was attempted
with sledge hammers, but the labourers made but
little progress and it was finally given up as a bad job.
One day a long, slim Yankee came along and said :
"I understand you have a job for a man here? "
"Yes," was the reply, "we want that pile of bombs
out there broken."—" How much will you pay ? "
"We will give you a flip a piece (six and a quarter
cents) if you will agree to break them all."—" I'll take
the contract," answered the Yankee. The day was a
cold one, and the thermometer down to zero. The
man immediately went to work, but disdained to take
the large sledge hammer which was offered him. The
Yankee laid every bomb out on the ground with the
hole up. He procured a bucket filled them all with
water; then he came into the house, made out his bill,
and said he would call around in the morning for the
money. Every one was much mystified, but in the
morning their astonishment was great. The water had
frozen during the night, and in the morning a pile of
scrap iron was found, as the freezing water had
broken every bomb into a least at dozen pieces.
AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN. The follow-
ing are the average prices of British corn for last week,
as received from the inspectors and officers of Excise:
—Wheat, 425. 10d, ' • barley, 325. 4d. ; oats, 235. 2d.
per imperial qr. Corresponding week last year :
Wheat, 47e. 2d.; barley, 28s. 5d.; oats, 22s._8d.

_
INCREASE OF SHEEP IN THE STATES.—The sheep.
farming business in America is said to be opening most
auspiciously this spring (says Land and Wafer),
Stock has come through the winter in much better con-
dition than last year. The lambing season has been
most successful. In the State of lowa alone the vast
range of its pasturage have brought the number of
sheep from 420,000 to 1,500,000 during the past two
years. The wool prospects are favourable, and no
doubt this increase in the supplies of home-grown wool
in the States, which hitherto has been on so limited a
scale, -has a Material effect on the dull nature of our
own wool markets in England. Breeders of sheep are
elevating the standard of the animals they intend for
permanent stock, and necessarily their purchases of
rams and ewes from England are of the choicest kinds.
The Wcst and South-West are good customers to the
Eastern States for their young sheep; and altogether
the move among the stock breeders both in sheep and
bullocks, is one that must in the end tend to the eleva-
tion of the class of animals that is found to be the most
profitable both to consumers and breeders.