The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-02-17 00:00:00

Distellant nttiligenct.

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL

THE " GI/J=ol/ND OF THE ATLANTIO."—The Guion
mail steamer Alaska, "the Greyhound of the At-
lahtic," left Liverpool for New York January 21, and
arrived back at Liverpool February 11, making the
voyage out and home in twenty-one days three hours,
including all detention in discharging and loading at
New York and several hours' detention at sea through
fog, the passage home being made in six days twenty.
three hours forty-two minutes. The following are the
distances run :-326, 430, 409, 396, 381, 378, 136,

THE NEWSPAPER PRESS OF GREAT BRITAIN.—The
sixth annual issue of Messrs. C. H. May and Co.'s
"Press Manual" contains a list of 196 newspapers
printed daily in the British islands-97 in the morning
and 99 in the evening. Of these London has 18 morn-
ing and 12 evening papers; the provinces 50 morning
and 68 evening ; Wales three morning and one even-
ing ; Scotland 11 =Dining and 11 evening; Ireland 13
morning and seven evening ; the Isle of Man and
Jersey one morning paper each. There is in addition
a list of 17,000 papers published in the provinces, 400
published in London, and a long list of weekly and
monthly magazines and reviews published in the
kingdom.
AN INTERESTING EXHIBIT.—Among the exhibits at
the Internatianal Colonial Exhibition to be held at
Amsterdam in May next, will be a choice selection of
samples of all the different grains in straw and
threshed, prairie grasses and flowers, woods, hops,
coal, and other products of Manitoba and the North-
west Provinces, together with specimens of the manu-
factures of a portion of that country. In order to
show fairly the nature of the land the samples of soil
will be taken every twenty miles between Winnipeg
and the Rocky Mountains. The exhibits will be
accompanied by a gigantic map of this vast territory,
which will occupy a considerable space in the exhibi-
tion building.

AMERICAN STREET RAILWAYS.—There are now
organized and doing business in the United States
and Canada 415 street railway companies. These
companies employ about 35,004 men, and run 18,000
cars. More than 100,000 horses are in daily use, to
feed which it requires annually 150,000 tons of hay
and 11,000,000 bushels of grain. These companies
own and operate over 3,000 miles of track. The
whole number of passengers carried annually is over
1,212,400,000. The amount of capital invested in
these railways exceed £30,000,000.

NEWSPAPERS IR Pis.—A manual just issued by a
publishing firm in Paris under the title of "Lee
Journaux de Paris en 1883" shows that there are
1,291 newspapers and periodicals of all kinds, pub-
lished in the French capital. The daily political
papers number no fewer than 67. Of the others 59
are devoted to religious matters, 110 to the law, 240 to
political economy, commerce, and finance, 22 to geo-
Fraphy and history, 128 to light reading, 38 to popular
instruction, 62 to literature, philosophy, and biblio-
graphy, 11 to the fine arts, 3 to photography, 9 to
architecture, 3 to archxology, 15 to music, 29 to the
drama, 73 to fashions (including 3 devoted to hair-
dressing), 138 to technological subjects, 92 to medicine
and pharmacy, 51 to the sciences, 54 to the army and
navy, 28 to agriculture, 18 to horses, and the remainder
to miscellaneous purposes.

A MAP or THE HEAVENS.—The celestial charts of
Dr. Peters, of the Litchfield Observatory, Hamilton
College, U.S.A., now completed, are twenty in
number, 16 by 24 inches in size, containing from
2,500 to 3,500 stars marked on each, or about 60,000
In all. The astronomic territory covered by the chart
is the belt extending thirty degtees on either side of
the equator. The work has been prosecuted with very
little assistance in the enormous work of making the
reductions, and through twenty years of assiduous
toil by day and of observation by night.

THE JAPANESE SILKWORM.—It is stated that the
New York Silk Exchange has received some 20,000,000
Japanese silkworm eggs by direct importation, rid
San Francisco. The eggs are deposited on cards about
12in. square, on which they lie so thickly as to prevent
the card being cut without some of the eggs being
destroyed. It is intended to distribute the eggs gratis
to silkworm oulturists throughout the country. The
interest taken in this industr7 in the United States is
reported to be growing rapidly, and the number of
inquiries made at the Exchange daily by mail amount
to upwards of 100. Some cultivators have already
succeeded beyond their expectations.
EDUCATION OF DOGS IN MAINE.-4 schooner
rounded to at some distance from its wharf at Bath,
Ma., the other day, and while the lookers•on were
waiting for a boat to be lowered and rowed ashore
with a hawser, according to the natural order of things,
they saw something very different. A dog sprang
from the schooner into the river, swam to the wharf
with the end of a line in his mouth, and when the
hawser to which the line was attached had been hauled
in and made fast, swam back to the schooner, seized a
rope that was flung to him, and was drawn on board.
EMIGRATION FROM HUNGARY.—The official journal
of Buda-Pest, the Nemzet, complains that, in spite f
the last good harvest, emigration still continues and
increases from Northern Hungary. The Pester LI cycl
puiuts out the dangers resulting from this emigration,
In one village commune not a single able-bodied man
remains. It is becoming plain that the cause of the
emigration does not lie in any passing scarcity or hard-
ship, but in the whole social organization of the people.
Iu the ten years between the census of 1870 and that
of 1880 Hungary has lost nearly 23 per cant, of her
male population available for military service. As a
remedy the journal recommends tile Colonization of
State lands and the introduction of home industries.

A DEarlataTE CASE.—A Massachusetts widow had
OCCadOll to consult a lawyer regarding some money
she had loaned to a neighbour and could not recover.
"You'll have to sue the note," said the lawyer. "But
he isn't worth a dollar." "Get a judgment and sell
it." "No one would buy it." "Can't we garnishee
anybody?" "No ; he never has anything coming
to him." "Nothing to attach?" "Nothing." "See
here," said the lawyer, after scratching his scalp for a
minute, "suppose we marry him?" "We !" "That
is, you. You are a widow, and you might—" "But
he has a wife and seven children," she interrupted.
"Ah ! That's too bad, too bad. Well, the only way
we can do is to watch and wait, I'll keep my eye on
the family, and just the minute his wife dies, elopes
or gets a divorce I'll serve papers on the fellow and
bring him to time."—Detroit Free Press.

THE OLDEST JUDGE ON THE BENCH. —On Sunday
Vice-Chancellor Sir James Bacon attained his 85th
year, he baying been born on February 11, 1798. The
learned Vice-Chancellor is consequently the oldest
judge on the Bench, and since the resignation of Sir
Charles Hall in October last, he has become the last
of the Vice-Chancellors. He was called to the Bar at
Gray's-inn so long ago as May, 1827, and was ap-
pointed a Vice-Chancellor in June, 1870, and he is
also the Chief Judge in Bankruptcy, to which office
he was appointed on the Bankruptcy Act of 1869
coming into operation.

AN INTERVIEW WITH Mn, GLADSTONE.—A corres-
pondent of the Daily News at Cannes sends an account
of an interview which M. Clemenceau, the leader of
the French Radicals in the Chamber, has had with
Mr. Gladstone at the Chateau Scott. In the course
of conversation the subject of decentralisation was
touched upon. Mr. Gladstone, addressing M. Cl6men-
ceau with intense earnestness, said: '• The curse of
Ireland has been centralisation. What I hope and
desire, what I labour for, and have above all things
at heart, is to decentralise administrative authority
there. We have disestablished the Church, relieved
the tenant class of many grievances; we are now try-
ing to produce a state of things which will make the
humblest Irishman realise that he is a governing
agency, and that the Government is to be carried on
by him and for him." Mr. Gladstone has resolved to
prolong his stay at Cannes, owing to the benefit he has
derived from his visit, and may not return until
Easter.
THE BLACK AND WHITE RACES IN AMERICA.—The
subject of the legality of the laws passed by the Legis-
latures of several States of the American Union, pro-
hibiting intermarriage among the black and white
population, has lately been brought before the Supreme
Court of Justice of the United States. The contention
raised was that such laws were contrary to the four-
teenth amendment to the Federal Constitution, which
provides for complete equality of the two races. The
B.upreme Court holds that the enactments in question
are perfectly legal, seeing that the prohibition applies
equally to both black and white persons.
M. GAMBETTA'S EYB.—SO many stories (the Lancet
says) have been told concerning M. Gambetta's eye
that it becomes necessary to re-establish the true facts
of the case. The most popular account is that M.
Gambetta, when quite a boy, destroyed his eye
because his father refused to take him away from
school; and this is related as a proof of his determined
character. This version has, however, the disadvan-
tage of being absolutely false. The injury was due to
an accident when he was a boy. A tool escaped from
the hafids of a workman in a turner's shop, and struck
Gamb,istta in the face, blinding him in one eye. In
the course of years the anterior part of the globe gradu-
ally dilated and became so large that he could no longer
close the eyelids. In 1867 the eye was removed by the
celebrated oculist, De Wecker. De Wecker preserved
the eye, but he ultimately lent it to the
histologist, Professor Iwanoff, remarking at the time
that it was the eye of a man destined, he was sure, to
enact an important part in the history of his country.
Two years ago Professor Iwanoff died at Mentone,
having still in his possession Gambetta's eye. This
relic, together with Professor Iwanoff's collection, was
banded over to his most devoted pupil, the Duke
Charles of Bavaria, brother of the Empress of Austria
and of the ex-Queen of Naples. Thus the eye of the
statesman and patriot who, as Dictator, contributed
more than any one. else to raise armies and resist the
German invasion, is now in the hands of a German
Prince.

THE PROCESS OF FREEZING DESCRIBED.—James
Humphreys, a Canadian, nearly froze to death in a
recent storm when driving homeward from Wallace.
town to Aldborough. He has since Riven this de-
scription of his experience to a correspondent of the
St. Thomas Times :—When he felt no longer able to
bold the reins with any grip he determined to seek
shelter in the first house until well warmed. His
tongue became stiff, then his arms, sharp chills ran
through his back, and finally it seemed as though his
whole body was being congealed, causing an almost
total cessation of the heart's action. This con-
dition of extreme suffering and despondency
speedily gave place to a feeling of grateful
warmth suffusing he ystern and causing an exhilarat•
ing glow. By t.his. time he had reached a house, but
he drove on, thinking that nothing was now to be
feared. The sleigh, instead of crawling along at a
snail's pace, appeared to glide through the air with
great swiftness, and the horses fairly flew like pigeons.
A sense of exultation filled the farmer's breast as he
urged the horses to a greater speed, and the woods on
each side were passing so quickly that they became
indistinguishable black lines. Then the sleigh bells
sounded fainter and fainter, until the chimes disap-
peared in the distance, the farmer fell gradually into a
delicious slumber, which came near being the sleep
that knows no waking, and he knew no more until
brought to life under a vigorous treatment.