The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-04-05 00:00:00

Misttlianenus 4nteltigtnre.

HOME, FOREIGN, AND. COLONIAL.

BY A BEASTLY OLD BACHELOR.—A Married Man's
fate (in brisf).—Hooked, Booked, Cooked. —Punch.
AN INSTANCE OF GREAT PRESENCE OF MIND.—
The World says :—" A good story is told, which, I
believe, is founded on fact, of General Clifford, who
is now Lord Chelmsford's second in command. One
day in British Kaffraria, during the Kaffir War of
1846-8, he was in the act of sitting down on the ground,
placing one hand beneath him for the purpose. He felt
something clammy to the touch, and found to his
horror it was a puff-adder, a most venomous reptile.
Another man, with less self-possession would have re-
moved his hand, probably to be stung in the act. Not
so Clifford. With great presence of mind he held the
snake down firmly with one hand, with the other drew
his clasp-knife from his pocket, opened it with his
teeth, and then coolly severed the reptile's head from
its body. If General Clifford displays the same
quality of cool courage in a moment of great danger,
he will prove a valuable lieutenant to the General-in-
Chief in the coming campaign."
HARD TIMES I—The Registrar• General has to report
that there were but 189,657 marriages in England
(including Wales) in the year 1878. We must go back
to 1870 to find the year's numbers so low. The highest
number registered in a year was 205,015 in 1873, and so
recently as in 1876 if was 201,874, but it fell to 194,343
in 1877, and now to 189,657 in 1878.
ILLEGALITY OF LOTTERIES. In the House of
Commons, on Tuesday evening, Mr. Cross, replying to
a question by Mr. Anderson, said that any person
advertising a lottery rendered himself liable to penal-
ties at the suit of the Attorney-General in the °curt
of Exchequer. In several cases he (Mr. Cross) had
given warning to persons that they were liable to be
proceeded against in that way, and had handed over
the papers to the solicitor to the Treasury for him to
deal with them, and in such cases as called for inter-
ference on his part he should continue to take that
course. He did not feel bound to interfere in every
instance. As regarded the keeping of lotteries, the
matter was in a different position, as in that case
every person was liable to be proceeded against by in-
dicttnent, or by information and summary conviction,
and any person could institute such prosecution.
THE MANATEE. " Mastodon " writes to The
Times :

Sir,—Some of your readers may be interested by being in-
formed where the head of the " archetypal mermaid"
(Halitherium Canhams), referred to by your correspondent
"Naturalist Student " in The Times of to-day, was dti.
covered and where it may now be seen. It was found by the
Rev. Henry Canham. LL.B., • in the Red Crag, in the
northern slope of a hill which runs from east to west through
Suffolk, near the base, about 61t. under
10 or 12 miles from the sea. A rib and
the village
stlagfacee
,osfnlzdoxhsomalel,
some other portions of this interesting inhabitant of our
coasts in bygone ages have been since found by him in the
same locality. These specimens form part of a large and
very valuabie collection of fossils made by that gentleman
from our Crags, and are now to be seen in the Ipswich
Museum, where, by the generotus aid of Sir Richard Wallace,
M.P., president, they have been placed.
MEASURE FOR ANGLERS.--One rod is equal to a
great many per, hes—especially if the latter happen to
be ia the humour to bite.—Judy.
ICE IN THE LEVANT.—The Times publishes the fol-
lowing letter :
sir,—About a month since you inserted a letter from a
corresPoWent upon the remarkable circumstance of South-
ampton Water having been frozen. I venture to ask you to
record another circumstance which I believe is still more ex-
traordinary. On the 25th of January last, after a calm for
some days, the Bay of Smyrna was, to the astonishment of
the inhabitants, found frozen, the ice extending from the
new harbour as far as the north-eastern end of the town, a
distance of at least a mile. The ice was computed to have
extended about 40 yards into the sea. There is no record of
such a circumstance ever having occurred before, and in such
a latitude as Smyrna it can only be accounted for by the un-
usual and exceptional inclemency of the past winter, This
communication may prove interesting to those who note
such matters.—! am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
EDWIN FRESHFIELD, 6, Bank-buildings, London, March 29.
A KIND-HEARTED AND POPULAR MAN. The
World says :—" The late Sir Walter Trevelyan was an
ardent adherent to teetotal principles. He went even
further than Sir Wilfred .i..awson in his dogmatic
abstinence ; for not only did he abjure wines and spirits
himself, but he also tried to force those who visited him
at Wallington into the ways of the "United Kingdom
Alliance—not a drop of alcoholic liquor was allowed
to be imported into the house, or, indeed, on to the
estate. Guests, however, with tastes superior to
lemonade and milk, generally smuggled bottles of some.
thing stronger in their trunks, and retired after dinner
to consume the same in the privacy of their bedroom!.
Sir Walter took considerable pride in showing his
empty cellars swept and gariiidhed, with bins ino-
cent of bottles, and cask-tresles without thou'
customary loads of malt. Tobacco was also an especial
aversion of his ; for he always declared ttie
fragrant
weed' to be injurious both to body and brain. Albeit
he was, despite his crotchets,. a kind-hearted and
popular man, of infinite leargang, as readers of the
AthantOunt and Notes andVuerits know well, anti as
well preserv'ed au old &Altman of eighty AS was to be
fonndc Tyneside.