The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-10-31 00:00:00

ear ittonbon Corrtmtent.
fWe &cm It right to state that we do tot at all tIMOII
Identify ourselvea with our Correapondeat'a op 'talons.]

upon a soL.:_. trost. It stops their toil, tim. rith '
this their wages stop also. Suddenly, and
through no fault of their own, they are called
upon to provide for their wives and families
without having the stipend upon which they
have been accustomed to rely, and the necessary
consequence is a great deal of hardship, which, as
a rule, is patiently borne. It is easy for those
who do not suffer from such a state of things,
and who are better off in the possession of this
world's goods, to argue that those who are thus
circumstanced should in the time of constant
employment take thought for the period when
they will be out of work, and make such
provision as will enable them to pass
through it without undue privation. But,
whatever may be the case with the
better-paid class of skilled artisan, it is evi-
dent to any our will study the matter that there
is a large number of outdoor workers whose
earnings, even in their most prosperous periods,
are scarcely sufficient to allow them to save a
little for clothing and occasional sickness, and
much less to allow them to put by such a sum
as shall secure them from feeling very keenly the
pinch of poverty when hard times come. Even
those who may hold a contrary view might feel
it difficult to comfortably meet their expenses if,
for a month or six weeks during the winter, they
received no salary at all.
The opening of another volunteer year—which
does not, like our ordinary year, begin with the
first of January—finds our chief auxiliary force
not only as efficient but as popular as ever. It
had to live down a great many prejudices and to
overcome much ridicule before it was firmly
established, but the prejudices have now practi-
cally vanished and the ridicule has died
away. The motto of the force, "Defence
not Defiance," will largely explain this
altered attitude on the part of the public.
There is nothing aggressive about the volunteers.
Young men join the ranks, pass through their
drills, become marksmen of various degrees of
merit, and drop again into civil life without
strain. The training they have undergone has
, been physically beneficial, and straight backs
I and expanded chests are possessions worth
acquiring by all young men. Life in our great
cities is very wearing, and not much opportunity
is given for the physical capacities to be brought
even to a fair pitch of development. And,
therefore, setting every other consideration
aside, there is this always to be said to the credit
of the volunteer force as a permanent institution
—that it has afforded an opportunity for phy-
sical training which could not otherwise have
been provided, and that it has thus enabled
many thousands of young men to be much more
healthy than would have been the case had no
such institution existed. G. R.

We have now come so close to the general
election that, with a great number of citizens,
no topic but that which is political seems worthy
of acceptance. Soeial pleasures are for the time
abandoned by many in order that all leisure
moments may be given to promoting the cause
of some favourite candidate, and those who
make their living by providing the various forms
of popular amusement bewail with great earnest-
ness this tendency. And just as it is in England
during the period immediately preceding a
general election, so it is in the United States in
what is known as "the Presidential year."
People are so absorbed in electoral affairs that
business suffers as well as amusements, and not
until the campaign is over, and victory for one
aide or the other is assured, is the old equilibrium
restored. It may be taken that, as far as Eng-
, land is concerned, it will be Christmas before a
return is made to the normal state of things.
Such excitement as culminates at the period
of a general election necessarily produces
a reaction, and it will not be until that
has worn off that we shall feel ourselves
straight again. There is often made at such a
period a calculation as to the amount of money
which a dissolution causes to be expended; if
such a calculation could include the value of the
time which is given, the result would be astonish-
ing.
The Mayors of the various municipal boroughs
in England will soon be chosen for the ensuing
year, and the first important duty of many of
them will be to preside over the election of mem-
bers to Parliament. It does not seem likely,
however' that as many Mayors as heretofore will
have that duty devolve upon them. The Redis-
tribution Act has introduced a number of
changes into Our representative system, which
are scarcely yet comprehended by the general
public; and among these not the least striking
is the very largo decrease in the total of Par-
liamentary ; boroughs and the correspondingly
large increase in the sum of the county con-
stituencies. One effect of this is expected to be
that many less mayors than before will officiate
as returning officers. The High Sheriff is the
returning officer for each county, and, if he
chooses to appoint deputies, as undoubtedly will
be the case in the larger counties, it is in his
power to appoint whomsoever he pleases. In
one caie;at least, the sheriff has already inti-
mated that he will delegate his functions to the
coroners of the respective districts, and it is not
yet known how far such an example will be fol-
lowed. The loss of the old duty will certainly be
felt as a deprivation by many mayors, who have
always regarded it as a privilege of which to be
proud. But great changes, whether in the
political or the social world, can never be secured
without interfering with or limiting the preroga-
tives of somebody; and this is the consolation
which those aggrieved must take to heart.
Mention of the Mayors obviously suggests, to
a Londoner at least, the institution known as
Lord Mayor's Day. Thousands of children, as
well as grown-up folk, chiefly mark the month
of November as producing two great metro-
politan institutions—Lord" Mayor's Day and.
fogs. The latter, owing to some eccentri3 con-
ditions of the atmosphere, sometimes come a
month too soon, and though always spoken of as
the especial peculiarity of November, spread
their darkness around us in the month before.
But with Lord Mayor's Day there can be no
such wanderings, and weeks before "the Ninth"
a very large number of the youthful population
of the metropolis commence thinking and talking
about the glories of the show. Paragraphs begin
to appear in the newspapers, giving a foretaste
of the coming joys; and every year we are
assured that seine features will be introduced
which no previous Lord Mayor has ever thought
of, and which will give to the ancient institu-
tion an aspect of novelty. But amid all
the new features, there are old ones
which are never changed, for without them
the show would hardly be recognisable.
Bands and banners, watermen, and men-in-
armour may be shifted, added to, substracted
from, or re-arranged; trophies from distant A Parliamentary paper has been issued containing
lands, fire brigades, lifeboat men, -' hers from "Further Correspondence respecting Central Asia."
the Soudan, or sailors from many seas may come The despatches range in date from February 7of the
and may go; but the aldermen in their carriages present year to September 17. In a telegram dated
and the Lord Mayor himself in his State coach, February 7, Lord Kimberley acquaints the Viceroy
with his marshal and his sword-bearer, are the of India that the Russian Note proposed the following
central elements of the procession which cannot boundary line: "Starting from Ileri Rud, about 10
be piit aside. It may not be as artistic a yersts south of Zulfikar, the line would run by Karez
Diaz and Earez Sonnia to the rivulet of Evi Gueak,
play as is to be seen in some of the trades pro-
cessions in Germany; but it is the only touch of would follow the crest of the heights which border
on the right bank of the rivulet to the ruins of
colour which relieves the dull though crowded
Chemen-i-Bid, and thence to the chain of hills on the
London streets from year to year, and its absence right bank of the Kuslik to Ilanzi Khan, whence
would be felt by young and old, it would run to a point north of Meruchak,
One point about the streets of London which I which would belong to Afghanistan. From this
does not always secure sufficient recognition point the line would follow the crest of the heights
from either visitors or residents is that in the which border on the north the valley of Kaisor, and
most crowded parts they are continually being on the west that of Sangalak ; and leaving; Andkoi
widened. No such great works are now being to the west, would run to Khojah Saleh:' After
undertaken in the City as those which made describing she negotiations respecting the possession
Cannon-street as it at present appears, and
of Zulifikar and_ hPenjde , Lord Granville telegraphed
which drove Queen Victoria-street through a
on the 4of 4th May to the Viceroy describing
number of bye-streets and little lanes; but a
the new arrangement with regard to the frontier,
whereby Afghani Zulfikar, u ran,
-tan would receive GI
deal is being done even in the City in the
and Meruchak, th6e whole agreement -so be embodied
, direction of widening. In the West-End, works in a convention between England and Russia.
almost as important as those which have been The Viceroy found no objection to his proposal.
mentioned are being undertaken, and when they On the 23rd of May the Viceroy telegraphed that the
are accomplished the visitor to London cannot j Ameer had agreed to the boundary proposed in Lord
fail to be astonished at their magnitude. One Kimberley's telegram of the 4th of May. On the Ist
new street is being made to connect Piccadilly- of July Lord Salisbury, in a despatch to Sir Edward
circus with Holborn, and another to run from Thornton, records a conversation he had with M. de
Trafalgar-square to Tottenham Court-road. A Steal, the Russian Ambassador, whom he had in-
glance at the map of London is all that is re- Lformed of the hope that the line might be settled in
ondon, and that her Majesty's Government could
quired to show the neces?ity for these new
not recede from the engagement with the Ameer
thoroughfares; and any who have much occasion
respecting
to travel between the points named will welcome treaty was advisable; and that communications
them as a boon. The cost of such a boon is, between the Russian authorities and the Afghans
however, enormous. It is not only the price of should pass through an English officer. M. de Staal
the labour and the material engaged, it is the appeared to favour both ideas. In a despatch, dated
compensation which has to be paid to the land- the 18th of July, Lord Salisbury describes a further
lord for his property and the tenant for his dis- interview with M. de Staal, in which the latter re-
turbance, and this is exceedingly great. commended the Zulficar question should be re-
While in the City and the West-end old streets ferred to a Geographical Commission, but which pro-
are being widened and new ones made, in the posal Lord Salisbury rejected. M. de Giers, in a de.
North and East of London fresh tram lines are spatch to M. de Steal on the same date, says that
• being laid down. With the continual growth of wnedeenr_Zuldficathrawtatsbeexcrhaasnged foreaPnetndhlnint
ewlansindot
London—a growth which as yet shows no signs uway jetloeographecl follows swaosnmAuaust 2:—" Captafn.
of being checked—the problem of conveying per- Maitland, who is the only member of the mission who
sons to and from the outlying districts becomes has examined the Zulfikar Pass, writes to us from
more pressing. Trains and omnibuses do a Daelatyar that, provided Russians are kept away
great deal to solve it, but they cannot do all, from Karez Elias, the possession of the western of
and tramways have to be called in to help. It , the two defiles forming Pass will be sufficient for
cannot be denied that ,in some districts these Afghan interests." Russia subsequently proposed
have to encounter many prejudices, and in these that the line should leave the Herd Rod, dividing the
times no new line is laid without much Opposi- defiles in such a manner as to leave Russia the two
tion. The chief contention against them seems eastern exits, which would allow them to close the ap-
to be that the wheels of other vehicles are apt to preach to their territory on that side. This was sub-
become entangled in the rails to their own n, s tetreicl n o t
hColonel
conflicting Ridgway,
descriptions hosuggested e ttlemrrt
territory,
and the pecuniary loss of their owners. 't
the line could, perhaps, be beet settled on the spot.
There is thus provided one of the difficulties Major-General Sir Peter Lumsclen, in a memorandum
which legislators have to arrange when the ques- of ,the 3rd of September, expresses approval of the
tion of a new tramway is before them. In the line proposed, and on the same day Lord Salisbury, in
majority of cases the opposition is over-ruled, ' a despatch to Sir Edward Thornton, said that the Go-
and it is often found that the evils so confidently verninent were prepared to accept the proposal of the
anticipated do not come to pass. Like many Russian Government, provided that the frontier
others in this world, the expected dangers dis- lino should nowhere approach the scarp of the
appear when once they are fairly faced, western defile (including the edge of its northern
Now that the leaves have almost all fallen, branch) nearer than 1000 yards, and suggesting other
and the trees are looking gaunt aad bare, the slight alterations, Lord Salisbury further acquainted
various London parks present a forlorn appear- Sir Edward Thornton on September 4 that from
anee, and wayfarers hurry through them as short j Pendeh the Russian Commission should continue its
labours in the direction of Zulfikar, and that the
cuts
cu rather than stroll in them as Commission for the demarcation of the frontier
sure, not much briskness will be presented in any should meet within two months after the date of the
park scene until we have sufficient frost to cover
their ponds with ice. As soon as this comes to signature of the agreement; and that the escort
would be limited to 100 men on each side. This was
pass thousands will flock to each park, many of agreed to. The protocol embodying these conditions
them with skates under their arm, and will and the terms of the frontier line was signed on the
eagerly await the official declaration that the ice 10th ult.
is strong enough to "bear." So great is the '
desire to get upon the glittering surface that, I
unless the authorities interposed, a crowd of
people would essay to skate along the ice while
it was still too thin to boar their weight.
.The only consequence of such foolhardiness,
however, would be an immersion and not actual
danger. Ever since the Regent's-park catas-
trophe—now nearly nineteen years ago—care has
been taken that the ornamental waters in our
parks shall not be of depth sufficient to be cer-
tainly dangerous. An immersion under any eke
cumstances is far from a pleasant experience,
and it is apt to leave in its train a number of
evils not easily got rid of. But when the water
is not deep there is no immediate danger of
death, and this is a weighty consideration when
such vast numbers go upon the ice as are found
in the London parks after a severe frost. The
exercise is at once so health-giving and so plea-
. eirable that it is one to be cordially recom-
mended, and to young folks especially a hard
winter is a thing always to be welcomed with
glee.
There is, however, another side of the picture,
as there is to most enjoyments in this life. The
old fable of the frogs which, on being pelted
with stones by .heedless boys, remonstrated in
the words, "What is sport to you is death to
. us," is applicable to this as to so many other
concerns. The hard winter which is welcomed
by the young and the well-to-do as a season ef
;healthy outdoor exercise and sustained jollity is
a time of trouble to many thousands of honest
toiling folk, who then find their occupatio4s
temporarily gone. Masons and bricklayers, arid
Outdoor workers generally, look with no love