The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-02-26 00:00:00

SATURDAY, FEB. 26, 1876.

siderations of professional or private interest will pre-
vent the members of other circuits from giving in their
adhesion to the resolution arrived at by the members
of the late Home Circuit.—Solicitors' Journal.

Rm.
A CRUSADE AGAINST •DRUNKENNESS.—Mr. W.
I. S. Horton writes to The Times, from Talbot Villa
Rugeley :
"Some weeks ago you inserted a letter with this headieg
which was signed by some distinguished and ropresentativo
clergymen. Perhaps you will allow me to stale through your
Influential columns what has been the result of that earnest
appeal to the clergy as a body to support tho memorial on
Intemperance which is to be presented to tto bench of
Bishops. When the letter appeared the rinntr,r of the
memorialists was about 2,000. Now up to this dato I have,
received 3 231 names. Are there no more out af the'
20,000 clergy of the C lurch of England who are willing to,
protest against the drunkenness of the country? P.S
I than be happy to forward list of signatories on applica-
tion."
- - -

--- -
THE . RULING PAS:MON.—Prison Chaplain
(oharged to report on convict's religious knowledge).
"Do you know the Commandments? "—Prisoner.
"Yes, Sir. "—Prison Chaplain, "Say ,the eighth."
—Prisoner (promptly). "Thou shalt do no manner of
work; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter," a-4%
i Punch. --

CHOPPING AND CHA..NGING. —A n Australiar
correspondent says that in Melbourne housewives are
sadly in want of domestics, especially those whose can
cook a chop. Housewives over here are in great want
of anyone who can chop a cook. And change her for
the better..—Fun.
THE. DOG TAX.—In the year ended the 31st
of December, 1874, the dog tax yielded £313,017
against £294,065 in the previous year. The Commis-
sioners of the Inland Revenue add in their last report
that in the year ended the 31st of December, 1874.
75,806 more dogs were brought into charge than int
the preceding year, Making an increase to the revenue
of £18,952, but, notwithstanding considerable exertion,
"there is still a large number of dogs uncharged.'

THE SEAL FISHERY.—Land and Water saps
—" We are sorry to learn from an official statement
in the House of Commons last Monday that, though
our Government made an order under the Seal Fishery
Act of 1875 prohibiting the slaughter of Arctic seals
earlier than the 3rd of April, they have nevertheless
been obliged to rescind the notification as, in the
absence of the concurrence of the other seal fishing
nations, we cannot let the seal fisheries be closed to
English fishers and open to others; and since NorwaY
has not yet been able to pass a statute similar to our
own, there can be no check on the premature and in-
discriminate destruction of seals this year."
DISTRACTING. —Customer. "What did you
think of the Bishop's sermon on Sunday, Mr.
WigOoy ? "—Hairdresser. "Well, really, Sir, there
was a gent a-settin' in front o' me as 'ad his 'air prided
that crooked I couldn't 'ear a word I "—Punch. .
NEW SPECIES OF WOOL-BEARING ANIMALS.--
From the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's steamer
Aconcagua, arrived in Liverpool from the West Coast
of South America, have been landed two new and disk
tinct breeds of sheep. The first are two fine white
woolled sheep, each having four long massive horns.,
two of which have a forward curve over the bead,
while the other two curve downwards under the eyes,
giving the head a singular appearance. Of the second,
which are said to be a species between the Llama and
Alpacca, there are three, one male and two females,
which are thickly covered with long dark brown, but
exceedingly fine hair or wool, which is highly prized
by the native Indians for the manufacture of tha'v
more delicate fabrics. The male stands about three'
feet high at the shoulder.
A LIVING RAFT.—The leaves of the gigantic
water-lily known as the Victoria Regia, in the Botanic
Garden at Ghent, having attained a remarkably large
size, Mr. Van Hulle, the chief gardener, recently un-
dertook to determine their buoyant power. One leaf.
easily supported a child, and did not sink under a man,
Mr. Van Hulle then heaped bricks over its enii,ve
area, and found that, before the leaf became submerged,.
a weight of 7611b5. was floated. - . - .

CO-OPERAIIVE SOCIETIES.—In the year ended- •
the 31st of December returns from 810 industrial atid—
provident (co-operative) societies were forwarded 'to
the Friendly Societies Office. At the tnd of the yal•
there were 357,821 members, and the net profits ofth
year were £1,070,923.
LONG LIFE IN ENGLAND.—In the year 1873.
for which the returns have recently been published,
the lists of deaths included 196 men and 480 womejt
who were registered as 95 years of age or upwards whep..
they died.. Of -these 89 had attajned.loQ.years or mbre,
and it is very remarkable that -no less than 79 of this
number were females. The oldest of the men in tbe
obituary of the year died in the Wolstanton district,
Staffordshire, .aged 103, but a woman who died in
Hurst Almshouse, Exeter, was 108, and another At
Newport, in Monmouthshire, had reached the patri-
archal age of 112. • Of these 89 centenarians 9 were _
found in London, 13 in North and South Wales, 6 in -
Yorkshire and 6 in Norfolk.

IRISH SAVINGS BANKS.—A return compiled
by Dr. Hancock gives some interesting facts respect-
ing Irish savings. Last year they increased to the
extent of £980,009, and in ten years the increase has
amounted to £12,067,000. The aggregate of savings in
the joint-stock banks, deposits in savings' hanks, and
Indian Funds, is now £70,18),000. In the joint-stock
banks there was an increase last year of £1,785,00e,
and of £14,900,000 in ten years. In post-office savings?
banks the deposits increased £70,000. The investments
in Government Funds and India Stock decreased; but
this is owing to the larger interest allowed by railway
companies for debenture stocks, and the transfer has
been encouraged by the definition a securities which
married women might invest in given in the Married
Women's Property Act of 1870. and also by the greater
number of investments in Russian and American
bonds. The abundance of capital is shown by the fact-
that the 4 per cfgit. guaranteed stock of the Dublin and
Drogheda and Northern Railway rose from an average
price of £9O in 1865-69 to at the end of 18-75, and
the original stock advanced in price from an average
of £B9 in 1865-69 to £l23i at the end of last year.

RAILWAY CAPITAL. —The Bills deposited by
existing railway companies, with with a view to theirbeing
submitted to Parliament this Session, propose to raise
new capital to the amount of £21,487,365 in the
aggregate. Seven companies desire to raise sums .ex-
ceeding a million—the Caledonian, £1,113,300; the
Metropolitan, £1,283,333; the North-Eastern,
£1,332,000; the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln-
shire, 1,333,300;g the Lancashire and Yorkshire,
£2,000,000; the London and North-Western,
£2,066,800; the Midland, no 'less than £4,033,333.
New companies also deposited Bills to give them power
to raise £15,167,329 in the whole, but several of these
projects every year perish in infancy.
PATENT ME DICINES. —The stamp duty on
patent medicines show an increase in the consumption
in the year ending the 31st March last to £13,849. The
duty in 1874 was £95,388, and in 1875, £109,237.

A YANKEE NOTION.—One of the Yankee
notions exhibited at the American Centennial Exhibi-
tion will be a section of travelling pavement, an in-
vention for rapid locomotion in large cities. you will
see a pavement half a mile long. That portion of it
which is nearer the houses is stationary; the other
half, that nearer the roadway. is moving along at the •
rate of 20 miles an hour. You want to go from No.
10 to No. 300. You sit down on a little chair standing
on the middle of the pavement and touch a lever. The
next moment you.and your chair are caught up by the .
moving pavement and whirled along to your destine- •
tion. When you arrive there you touch another lever, -
and are !ihunted off. The invention is a sort of end-
less. moving platform, • operated upon by stationary
engines: The company who own it propose to trans-
port this section of their pavement to London after the
close of the Philadelphian Exhibition, and exhibit it
there.

THE Do °TOR AND TBL HALL-PORTER. —A
young Paris doctor, just commencing practice, relates
an amusing anecdote in which he took an active part.
He had undertaken to call on the sick peer in one of
the arrondissements in Paris, so as to obtain the fixed
pittance of 1,000 francs, or £4O a year, vihicia the Bene- •
volence Committep of each Maine gives in exelange
for two hours medical service a day, exacted from those
who are climbing the ladder of success. The young
doctor, after going his-rounds in the midst of the rain
and snow, called in at the Maine about eight a.m. to •
make out his report. He was received by the hall-
porter, dressed in all the splendour of his uniform, his
face and general appearance showing that as far ascom-
forts of life were concerned he had exercised no very •••
great self-denial. The hall-porter was leisurely sweep- '
ing, as the doctor, dressed in black but covered with
mud and wet through, came in, falling rather than
sitting down in the nearest chair, and exclaiming •
against the hardships of his lot, having to go long -
rounds in all kinds of curious quarters at early hours -
for the beggarly sum of £lO a year. The sweeper
came up to the doctor with a compassionate smile on
his countenance, and said—" Courage, my dear sir;
£4O a year is not a fortune, but have patience, perse-
vere, and success will crown yonr efforts. Look at
me, when I commenced my career I was no better off
than you are now I"
YoUNG MEN KEEPING A DIARY. —A large
number of the young men of Detroit have purchased
diaries for 1876, and they will take up their pencils .
with a firm determination to keep track of every day •
in the year. Every young man should keep a diary.
When he is old and grey his grandchildren will fish it
out of the rag bag and find it more valuable than gold
or silver. There is no set style of jotting down thoughts
anti events, but perhaps it will be well to give the .
record of 1'575 as taken from the diary of an average
young man January
1. Went to see my girl. Shall
leave off swearing, drinking, euchre, smoking, chewing, - •
being out of nights going to the opera, and shall try
to save 10,000 dollars a year. • January 7. Went to
see rny girl. Lost a box of cigars somewhere.
February 1. Won 25 dollars betting on a dog- „
fight. That's the way to ecoop :ern. Am trying to
get along on' fifteen cigars per day. Went to see my •
girl. She eats I shouldn't swear. APril 20. Went .;
to see my girl: Nothidg new. July 4. „This is the
eglorioug Fourth. September 1. Went to see my girl. .-
November 11, Glorious weather. Went to see any
girl, December -1. This- is the Ist of December.
December 25. This is Christmas. December 31. This ,
is -the last day of -the year. Must commence -to.
.morrow to save money, and.break.off my bad habits. . • '
. Went to see my girl last night, and made her happy by
telline, her that I was going to save 10,000 &liars next
year.
PATENTING. THE FRUITS OF THE KAMM—A •
Bill has been introduced into the United States Con-
gress to create patent rights in favour of "the ori-
ginator or discoverer of any new and valuable fruit or
plant being a new variety,' &c. The Bill is intituled
" A Bill to encourage the Production of new and
•
valuable Fruits and Plants." The originator or
eedis-
coverer of any new variety of these is to have "the
sole right and liberty of growing, propagating. and
Felirg such plan for the tfrin of
,sqventeen years."
pro-
posed New
Act E
:—ligl
The
,aTtidheu Farmerotiteuti i
ua ts:o, in:rents*
joini
he
ehe
benefited by it, the inventor of the new apples and
potatoes, the cultivators who buy the right of pro-
ducing and selling them, or the litwyers who settle the
disputes arising between the two parties? Deliver us '
from growing any fruit we cannot give away if we
choose. . . . If every squash or pumpkin we buy for -
most
the table must have the seeds destroyed to prevent
them from sprouting, for fear of infringing on some-
body's patent, deliver us from the patent laws of the
pumpkins."—lt is to be hoped that Congress will sea
the absurd4y of sanctionieg patent rights in fruit and
plants before it is toe late,