The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-09 00:00:00

SS. PATRICK AND PARTRIDGE.
" Now at the Birds, me Boy, let dhrive !"
Says Mike, exhorting Dan.
"That's how we'll keep the game alive,
By killing all we can !"—Punch.

A NOVEL HOLIDAY TRIP.
(From Wedneaday's Daily News.)

At the beginning of last month a Scottish gentle-
man, who has greatly interested himself in the develop-
ment of railway travelling, conceived the happy idea
of a holiday in which the tilVeller should be as indepen-
dent of hotels as the dwellers in a caravan. This
scheme could, of course, only be carried out by the
co-operation of the railway authorities, and by the use
of the American sleeping cars. This, however, was
obtained. The host engaged a train of Pullman sleep-
ing, dining room, and drawing-room cars, and invited
a party of sixteen ladies and gentlemen to accompany
him from London upon a peripatetic picnic to a num-
ber of the most interesting and beautiful places in our
island, staying a day or so here and there, wherever
there proved to he the greatest attraction. It was under-
stood from the first that nobody was to be too curiously
inquisitive of their entertainer as to where the ex-
pedition was next going, and he so arranged everything
throughout that each day's excursion proved a plea-
sant surprise to his friends during the month's trip.
The train contained a saloon or drawing-room, about
forty feet long, furnished with easy chairs turning on
pivots and with shifting backs, so as to enable the sitters
to change position either for the panorama they were
traversing or for conversation. At the end was placed
a piano, by which many stray moments were beguiled.
Beyond the drawing-room was a separate reading and
writing compartment for the more studious, and a smok-
ing snuggery for cloud-compelling creatures. Another
car was devoted to a dining-room, at which twenty-eight
could sit down comfortably, if necessary, with a butler's
pantry attached, con-taming an ice-chest and other com-
forts. Beyond this were divided sleeping cabins for
ladies and when dinner was over the party passed to
the saloon for conversation and music, upon which the
tables were let down, and by an ingenious series of
contrivances, something being pulled down,, some-
thing pushed up, a handle or two turned,
like the transformation scene at a theatre, the car was
changed almost magically from a comfortable dining.
room into a series of two tiers of sleeping berths, ar-
ranged much as in first-class cab,ns on board ship.
There were four dressing compartments in connection
with the cars, and a luggage-van in which a bath was
fitted up. The cars, which were each about sixty feet
long, travelled upon bogies, or small carrying plat-
forms at each end fitted with the running wheels, and
a series of helical and other spriags so connect the cars
with the bogies that the shaking and rattling of
ordinary fire-class carriages was changed into so
gentle a motion that on several occasions when
the train left a place after bedtime, the occupants
of the sleeping berths found, on waking up in the
morning, that they had passed unconsciously on-
ward to another point of their journey. The freedom
of promenading throughout the cars, a dis-
tance of 120 feet, and the comfort of all the
appliances for resting and amusement, prevented any
tedium being experienced, while between the cars were
roomy railed platforms upon which members of the
party often sat cosily on camp stools for pleasant chats
while enjoying both the fresh air and charming views
passed through, especially in Derbyshire and the
Highlands. The saloon was so lull of windows from
one end to the other that unimpeded views could be
had of the scenery throughout, and through many
districts, especially on the Highland Railway and its
branches, the train went at a purposely low rate of
speed in order that the beauties of the country around
might be enjoyed leisurely.
The companies arranged with proved most con-
siderate, the Midland Railway carrying the party
from London to Cheltenham and other places in the
West of England, and thence to Derbyshire, where
Chatsworth, Haddon Hall, Matlock, and Buxton were
visited. Onward by the new Settle and Carlisle
route, through the beautiful Eden Valley, they were
passed forward to the North British system, making a
halt at Melrose, visiting Abbotsford, Dryburgh
Abbey, and the tweed factories at Galashiels. At
Edinburgh they visited Rosslyn Castle and Abbey,
and thence their wanderings extended to the
Highlands, via Perth, after having the cars safely
ferried over the Firth of Forth to Burntisland.

The party then wended their way to the west,
making some stay amid the wild mountainous scenery
of Loch Carron, at Strome Ferry and Plocktown, Loch
Mares, and Gairloch. They then made their way; to
Thurso and John o' Groats, visiting Barrogill Castle,
at the invitation of Lord Caithness. Reture ing from
this northernmost part of the "Land o'Cakes," a pause
was made at Wick to see the herring fleet of about 800
vessels crowding out of harbour on a sunny afternoon
with their variously-coloured sails, and the next day to
witness their return in the morning, laden sometimes
to the gunwale with the silvery pray, afterwards to be
shovelled out by stalwart fishermen standing in the
fish up to their thighs. Once, when the train was
passing over one of the less frequented lines, some of
the ladies were initiated into the mysteries of
stoking and driving an engine, at which
they proved themselvee adepts, especially in whistling,
one of them afterwards remarking, "We pulled away
at all the handles we could get hold of, and were not a
bit nervous." The curiosity of the people in many
places was very great, and sometimes the crowd at the
railway stations made it difficult to get in and out.
Dinner-time in the cars proved an especial attraction
to the outriders—as at the Zoo—and at Wick even
herring scales were left on the windows as a reminis-
cence of the faces of the admiring multitude. After
visiting Dunrobin and Ardross Castle and enjoying
some fishing and shooting, a different route was chosen
fQr the return, and Lochs Lomond, Long, and Fyne
were successively visited by using the steamers from
Balloch and neleneburgh, and the party finally made
their way bacii to London, vid Glasgow and Dumfries.
On the lines in the North of Scotland it was
found that the cars were too lofty to pass
under some of the bridges, but some navvies who
were sent forward obviated the difficulty by lowering
the permanent way a few inches where neeessary.
One of the bridges proved, hewever, such a close shave
that it cut off the tops of some of the ventilators. At
several points the party were taken for Americans, the
tune of "Yankee Doodle" being expressly played for
their benefit by a baud at one station, while at Buxton
a flower girl, on getting but a shake of the head when
proffering her bunches, remarked, "It's no use talking
to them; they're Americans, and don't speak Eng-
lish." At Edinburgh a gudewife's verdict upon one of
the cars was, "Wed, it's jitst a gingerbread-looking
thing."
Tao weather was fine throughout, and no hitch
whatever occurred to mar the trip. A delicious sense-
tion of comfort and freedom was experienced on reach-
ing each fresh halting-place from the fact that no 1
baggage had to be removed from the cars, and that
all were utterly independent of the thousand and one
troubles connected with hotel accommodation, carry.
hog their rooms, servants, and provisions with them;
besides which, there was the feeling of thorough
privacy which would not have been obtained at the
inns on the way for so many. Practically such a
party could not have travelled together throughout
the country from the West of England to John
o'Groat's in any other way, as at many of the most
interesting localities where a stay was made, beds,
and sometimes provisions, for such a number would
not have been procurable. The idea of "home" in
connection with the cars grew stronger every day of
the journey, and on returning after drives, walks,
rowing or fishing expeditions to the railway siding,
where their travelling houses were temporarily be-
stowed, every one felt as if going to a moot pleasant
rendezvous. The excursion was, in fact, so entirely
apreeable to all concerned, that it was prolonged to
double the time originally intended to be occupied by
it. The company started out for a fortnight's trip,
but it was at once so novel and so delightful that it
was extended to a month, and terminated to the
regret of all concerned. It was a kind of yacht voyage
on land, without the accompaniment of baffling winds
or topsy turvy seas.

Lord Beaconsfield lately received from Maidstone,
his first constituency. an address of congratulation signed
by the surviving electors who vocl for him in 1847. To this
address a reply has been received through his lordship's
secretary. The Premier expresses the pleasure which it has
given him "to receive this message of esteem and goodwill
from the Conservatives of Maidstone, which he values
the more for the special remembrance it contains from the
survivors of those friends who supported him at a period
now nearly forty years sgo."

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN
MANUFACTURES.
The Times has published the following letter :
" August 23.
" Sua—r am glad to see that the danger to our
manufacturers from the competition of American
rivals is receiving some discussion in your columns. No
subject of more vital interest can engage the attention
of mercantile men. I have had opportunity during a
good many years to watch the progress of American
manufactures, and I am satisfied that America is soon
to become by very much the most formidable com-
petitor we have ever known. It is probable that the
Philadelphia Exhibition will hasten that consum-
mation, and will be found hereafter to mark the open.
leg of a new era for both English and American
manufacturers.
'The present position of American industry is in a
high degree unsatiofactory. Protective duties and the
war demand caused an excessive increase of producing
power. Protection made prices dear and profits
consequently large. It stripped foreign competition of
its terrors, and caused the days of the manufacturer to
pass in joy. But it also led imperceptibly to the ex-
pansion of old works and the creation of new, until
there was running in America an amount of machinery
enormously beyond the real wants of the country.
And then it was found that the high prices which were
so pleasant at home shut the American producer
altogether out of foreign markets. A fierce domestic
competition sprang up, under the pressure of which
many of the leading American industries have been for
the time utterly prostrated.
"The completeness of that prostration may be
illustrated by one or two facts. Almost any woollen
mill in America can be bought to-day at less than one-
half its cost. I know one large mill--almost new and
in perfect order—which was sold some months ago at
less than one-third its cost. A very large proportion
of the woollen machinery of America is unemployed.
A. New England cotton manufacturer told me lately
that he had machinery able to produce four times the
quantity of goods for which he could find a market,
and that his neighbours were all in a position more or
less closely resembling his. One of your own corres-
pondents states that one-third of the ironworks in
Pittsburg are closed. Similar facts could be multiplied
indefinitely.
"The situation of the American manufacturer is
thus, for the moment, eminently undesirable. He is
shut out by the consequences of Protection from access
to foreign markets. He is confined to the glutted
markets of his own country, and forced into a struggle
for existence in face of over-production more excessive
than was ever known before in America or elsewhere.
No one can envy him. But the English manufacturer
cannot look on with indifference. Here is my forecast
of the anxious future into which we are hastening :
" 1. The Americans have lately made surprising pro-
gress in the perfecting of their manufactures. There
is still among them a love of foreign goods, but it
consists with my observation that that preference
weakens year by year as American products improve.
All well-to-do men are still clothed in foreign woollens,
the dye of which is reputedly more reliable than that
of the native article. Ladies still assert, truly, that
American silks want the lustrd and attractiveness of
European. Rich men still cover their floors with
carpets woven in England or on the Continent. But
the American manufacturers will never rest till their
cloths compare favourably with those of Europe; and
during this present year there have been started in
New York silk and carpet factories, the products of
which threaten to supplant even the finest grades of
foreign goods in the favour of consumers. The
European producer holds the American market by a
tenure which crows every year more precarious.
"2. The Philadelphia Exhibition will reveal to the
world the excelleisce of American products, and thug
pave the way for their wider reception. England is
much less fully represented, and her manufactures
command less attention than those of her rival.
"3. Hitherto America has been disabled for foreign
competition by the high cost of her goods. I cannot
conceal from myself that this disqualification is now in
course of being removed :
"(a) American factories to a large extent hays
changed hands, or will do so, at a ruinous sacrifice to
.their first owners. They will be owned and run by
men who have obtained them at an extremely low
cost.
"(b) It is held that during the last two or three years
the average fall in the price of labour is not less than
40 per cent., and it is probable that the lowest point
has not yet been reached. In some industries labour
is not now dearer than in England. I have heard the
assertion made that it is actually cheaper if quality is
taken into account.
"(c) Competition has compelled attention to the
reduction of cost, and the results gained are highly
important. As one illustration of what has been done
—perhaps as yet rather an extreme one—l may
mention an article which some years ago cost the
manufacturer 800. per yard, and now costs him only
40c. The same article imported from England costs
45c., without duty. The necessity of reducing cost by
increased skill and economy is now thoroughly
appreciated by the American manufacturers.
"(d) The great cause of high prices in America is the
Protective Tariff. In former visits to the country I
found the manufacturing class vehement advocates of
Protection. Letely an important change has become
perceptible. The conviction has made rapid progress
that the tariff crippled America for foreign competition.
A very common opinion now is that Protection, indis-
pensable at first, has become unnecessary, at least to
the existing extent, and would soon become injurious.
There is a willingness, which may easily pass into
a desire, and then into a determination, that the tariff
should be gradually reduced. I regard the beginning
of that process as not now distant.
"4. America is year by year depending less upon
foreign countries for the goods which her people con-
sume. Her Protective policy has been costly beyond
all calculation, but it has made her a great manufac-
turing nation, soon to be independent of foreign
supplies; and not merely that. With a producing
power largely in excess of her own requirements, with
abundant capital, experience, and energy, with an
ample supply of labour, disciplined and intelligent,
with legislative disabilities soon to be removed, and
the cost of production reduced to the lowest point,
America enters the arena as a competitor with
England in all the foreign markets of which England
has hitherto enjoyed a virtual monopoly. America
has already ceased to take our iron. She will gradually
cease to take our cottons, our carpets, our woollen
cloths, our silks,; and in a few years more we must. be
prepared to encounter in all the marts of our foreign
commerce the iron, the cottons, the woollens, the Wes
of our enterprising kinsmen.
" Let not English manufacturers delude themselves
by a supine trust in the traditional supremacy of
English manufacture. Beyond the Atlantic are a
people with energy and skill equal to ours; with every
advantage which we possess and with no disadvantage,
excepting such as legislation has created and will
shortly remove; above all, with a passionate eager-
ne.ss for improvement, which contrasts ominously
with our Conservative dispoeition to tread in the steps
of our fathers. These are our competitors in the
future. I look not unhopefully on the prospects of
English industry; but we shall incur great sorrows if
we remain blind to the fact that we are about to enter
the era of a competition keener and more formidable
than it has ever before been our misfortune to en-
counter.—Your obedient servant,
"A MANUFACTURER."

"A Practical Man" has also sent the following letter to
The Times :

Sir,—After spending more than three months at the
Philadelphia Exhibition, I return home more deeply
impressed than ever with the change that has occurred
in the prospects of England asa manufacturing country.
I have attended all the great International Exhibitions
since 1851, an have seen with concern the gradualt,loss
of position which England has suffered, until now she
finds herself closely challenged in every department of
industry, and in come, according to the judgment of
experts, she holds the first place no longer, or holds it
donbtfully.
I perfectly agree with the writer of the letter which
appeared in The Times of the 31st ult., over the signa-
ture of "A Manufacturer," that the Americans are
on the point of becoming our most dangerous rivals,
and I endorse every statement that he makes in sup-
port of this view. I have watched closely during the
last few years their rapid progress as a manufacturing
people. Their spirit and enterprise are boundless, They
have imported the very newest and best machinery of
England, Belgium, Ger-many, and France; they have
tempted away, through agents sent over for the purpose,
skilled workmen from each of these countries, giving a
preference, however, to those of England; and they are
rapidly training an army of skilled workmen for them-
selves. I can say from my own knowledge as a practical
man, and from the statements of friends upon Whom
I can rely, that in the departments of iron, wool,
cotton, and a certain class of silk they can produce
work which in quality is fully equal to our own.
That the cost of production is greater than with us is
very little to the point. That is a difficulty that will
right itself. The great matter for us to note is that
they can produce the article required. We may
depend upon it the rest will follow in due time. Out
of their present commercial chaos order will surely
come, and I fear in a form for which we are quite un-
prepared. I marvel that so few of our leading manu-
facturers have as yet been over to Philadelphia, and
I cannot too strongly urge those who are interested is
the branches of industry just named to go and
judge whether the alarm that is at last being
sounded is a false one. No description, however
graphic, no reports official or otherwise, ought to
be allowed to stand in place of a personal inspection.
Nor is America the only ccuntry to be thus critically
observed. Frarce, Belgium, and Germany are old
rivals and have long been formidable; but countries
hitherto almost unthought of as manufacturing centres
are now taking a very respectable position, and are
producing work which, if not equal to our own, is, at
any rate, of sufficient excellence to shut out our goods
from these markets. There are the woollen and por-
celain as well as the wrought iron of Sweden, the
hosiery, cotton, and woollens of Spain, the silks of
Russia, the machinery and woollens of Canada, and the
porcelain and metal work of Japan, all of which are
admirable and make a formidable list of addenda
to our catalogue of difficulties. Only a very small
number of English manufacturers visited the Exhibi-
tion at Vienna, and the mistake is being repeated at
Philadelphia. It will be a serious misfortune if the
two months which still remain are not better improved.
The situation is so new and strange that nothing but a
personal inspection of what the world is producing will
convince our manufacturers of the true state of the
case, and brace them up to make the extraordinary
efforts which have now become necessary if we are to
retain the position which still remains to us.

From the Registrar-General's weekly return it
appears that in London last week 2,329 births and 1,238
deaths were registered. Allowing for increase of population,
the births exceeded by 61, whereas the deaths were 179 below,
the average numbers in the corresponding week of the last
ten years. The 1,283 deaths included 8 from small-pox, 11
from measles, 41 from scarlet fever, 1 from diptheria, 32
from whooping-cough, 19 from different forms of fever, and
134 from diarrece a ; thus to the seven principal eliseases of the
zymotic class 246 deaths were referred, against numbers
declining from C 69 to 319 in the five preceding weeks. These
246 deaths were 167 below the corrected average number
from the same diseases In the corresponding week of the
last ten years, and were equal to an annual rate of 3 7 per
1,000. The deaths referred to each of these seven diseases
were considerably below the corrected average. 4,
4,
.4