The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-05-06 00:00:00

Visaßaucous aintelligence.

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

RESCUE AT SEA.—A Times' telegram from
New York, dated May 2, says that the White Star
United States mail steamer Baltic, which arrived at
New York the previous morning from Liverpool had
picked up a crew 3f 15 belonging to the Norwegian
br3rque Augusta, bflund from Christiansund for
Miramichi, on the 23rd of April.
THE GENUDE ABAIOLE.—TIIO Wabash (In-
diana) country has always been celebrated for the
persistency and quality of its fever and a4ne. A local
physician thus describes the genuine Wabash article:
' It comes creeping up a fellow's back like a ton of
wild cats • goes crawling through his joints like iron
spikes, and is followed by a fever which prohibits the
patient from thinking of anything but Greenland's icy
mountains. It isn't the every-other-dAy ' kind, but
gets up with a man at daylight, and sleeps in the small
of his back all night. His teeth feel about six inches
long, his joints wobble like a loose waggon wheel, and
the shakes are so steady that one can't hold conversa-
tion except by putting in dashes.
DIE S ?AV MEE CIVIL LIST: L.—The Madrid
journals give the following details of the Civil List of
Spain :—The King and his household receive seven
millions of pesetas (If. each). The Prince or Princess
of the Asturias, 500,000 f. The Infanta, at present
Princess of the Asturias, in case she no longer retains
the latter title, 250,000 f. For each of the Infantes,
male children of the King or of the Prince of the
Asturias' from and after the age of s<Nen, 250,000 f.
For each of the Infantas, daughters of the King or of
the Prince of the Asturias, after the same age 150,000 f.
When the King or the Prince of the Asturias con-
tracts a marriage, a constitutional law shall deter-
mine the annual allowance for his wife, and her pen-
sion in case she becomes a widow. The Infantas Dona
Maria del Pilar Berenguela, Dona Maria de la Paz
Juana, Dona Maria Eulalia Francisca de Assisi, have
each a right to 150,000 f , and the Infanta Dona Maria
Louisa Fernanda to 250,000 f. Queen Isabella is to
have 750,000 f., and King Franc as d'Assisi 300,000 f.
The pension granted to Queen Christina by the law of
the Budget of 1845 is reduced to 250,000 f. a year.

MR. STEWART'S Wm.—The will of Alex.-
airier T. Stewart has been proved at New York.
The bulk of his property is bequeathed to his wife, but
there are legacies to all who have been ten years in
his service, and Judge Hilton has a legacy of
1,000,000 dols., for which he is to manage, close, and
wind up Mr. Stewart's partnership, business and
affairs. A circular has been issued stating that Judge
Hilton has entered into partnership with Mr. Libbey,
the only surviving partner of the late firm of A. T.
Stewart and Co., for conducting the business in the.
United States and abroad.

NAME THIS Snip.—Russia, it seems, has a
man of-war which rejoices in the name of Knjas pas
Harky. We don't know if anyone has pronounced
the vessel a success, but should be inclined ourselves
to consider it an "utter failure, if we mentioned it at
all.— Fun.

--
THE BUSINESS OF PLEASURE. Professor
Guzzleton (to fair Chatterbox). "Are you aware that
our host has a French cook? "—Fair Chatterbox: So
I hear! "—Professor Guzzleton: "And that that
French cook is the best in London? "—Fair Chatter-
box : "So I believe ! "—Professor Guzzleton "Then
don't you think we had better defer all further con-
versation till we meet again in the drawing-room V"—
Punch.

A NEW TYPE-EGTTING MACHLNE.—An Ottawa
paper says that Mr. G. P. Drummond, of that oity,
has forwarded a new type-setting machine of his own
invention to Philadelphia Exhibition, Mr. Drum-
mond has been engaged for some years past in bringing
his invention to perfection, and about seven months
ago he commenced making the present machine. It
, is a handsome piece of workmanship, being made of
polished steel and iron with braes finishings. The
principle is an entirely new one, the machine being
worked by oOmbination keys and electric battery. It will
set from undistributed type, and is claimed to be able
to set up from twelve to fifteen thousand an hour, in
accordance with the skill of the operator. The
mechanism is simple, the type being controlled by five
or ten keys, either of which numbers are sufficient to,
reach the different letters of the alphabet. The 'art
of operating it is said, may be acquired very easily.
The invention has been patented in Canada, the
United States, and the principal countries of Europe.
EXTINCTION OF A FAMILY. —The Liverpool
Weekly Albion says : A few months ago the Rev.
Thomas Carter, who for many years was chaplain of the
borough gaol, died. Last week his widow also died at
a comparatively early age, and now we have to record
the death of their only son. Mrs. Carter, with het
little child, went on a visit to her brother-in-law,
William Carter, Esq.' Crumpsall Green, Manchester,
lon the 6th instant. The child was taken ill of scarlet
fever. The mother caught the infection, succumbed
on the 18th, and on the 21st her son, who was the onlY
I one, also died.
-

THE PLAGUE. —The Levant Herald of the
19th inst. says that the following is the latest tele-
graphic bulletin of the plague epidemic received by the
Sanitary Board in Constantinople :—At Hillah, from
the Ist to the 7th inst. inclusive, there were registered
114 attacks and 56 deaths; on the Bth there were 22
attacks and 13 deaths; on the 9th, 31 attacks and 11
deaths. At Bagdad, from the 2nd to the Bth of April
inclusive, 256 attacks and 169 deaths ; on the 9th, 74
attacks and 13 deaths; and on the 10th, 56 attacks and
26 deaths. The highest number of cases registered in
a single day at Bagdad was on the 9th. Some of the
above cases occurred in the military hospitals and in
the prisons. The appearance of plague is also reported
from Berkouk, and the epidemic is evidently still on
the increase.

SKATING ON REAL ICE.—The Standard of
Monday says :—" Some months since an account ap-
peared in the Standard of an experimental rink of real
ice, the invention of Mr. John Gamgee which was
then actually being tested at the Old dloc.. House,
King's-road, Chelsea. It was stated at the same time
that a larger rink for the Glaciarium Club was in pro-
cess of construction. On Saturday this real ice rink,
which is thirty-seven feet by twenty-four, and forms
the area of a beautifully designed hall, representing
view in the Arctic regions, was formally opened by.o
large gathering of the members and visitors. It wdl
be remembered that Mr. Gamgee's very successful
mode of making and maintaining a sheet of ice for
skating purposes was by the alternate condensation
and evaporation of ether, the intense cold thus pro-
duced being imparted to a mixture of glycerine and
water which never freezes, and which has the valuable
property of not oxydising metal. This mixture chat-
lating continually.through copper pipes, flooded to
depth of 2i inches, speedily converts it into a sheet of
perfect ice, which might be maintained beneath a tro-
pical sun. Since that description was given, Mr.
Gamgee has substituted sulphurous acid for ether, the
process with this difference being precisely the same.
There is no limit to the extent to which areas of water
may be thus frozen, and with real ice keeping down
the temperature, 'rinking' might ba made agreeable
even in the dog days."

- -
A POPULAR DELUSION EXPOSED. —Among the
applicants to Mr. Cooke, the magistrate at the Clerk-
enwell police-court, in London for advice and assist-
ance, was a respectably-dressed female, apparently the
wife of a mechanic, who had in her arms a child which
she said had been badly bitten by a dog at Islington.
She asked to have the dog destroyed.—Mr. Cooke in'
quired her reason for thin—The applicantsaid she woo
afraid that if the dog was not killed her child might go
mad.—Mr. Cooke remarked that it was a strange
superstition to suppose that every person who woe
bitten by a dog went mad. There was no more barns
in the bite of a dog than the scratch of a pin if tho
injury were properly attended to. There was no our
gestion that the dog was mad.—Applicant :said if the
dog should hereafter go mad her child might be affected,
and therefore she wished the animal
killd—
Cooke said this was a silly delusion, and one that ought
to be exposed. He had not the power to order the dog
to be destroyed. The applicant could have a summons
if she chose.—The woman left the court, but did not
take the summons.—ln noticing the above, the DAY
Telegraph remarks:—
It is beyond question that not one bite in a hundred eves
has more effect than an ordinary scratch; next, that 11.,
proper precaution be at once taken not one bite in a thoussOu
leads to illness; and again, that, whether the bite is attended
to or not, the after madness of the brute does not necessarili
Involve the same fate to the human being. Even when the
animal is rabid, oily one case out of twenty-nine, aecordia
to John Hunter, is followed by hydrophobia; when the
animal is healthy —and most dogs are incomparably healthier
than the bipeds they assail—the chances against serious cor
sequences, if only ordinary care be used, are too remote
cause any uneasiness.
TURNING ABOUT OF THINGS.—One effect Of
the new Imperial title has perhaps hardly bees
thought of. The United Kingdom is to be, to solve
as yet rather doubtful extent, excused from its use'
But it may not have been remembered how very near
to us lie some parts of the queen's dominions which,
are not part of the United Kingdom. The Channo
Islands and the Isle of Man, though within the
range of the penny post, form no part of it. In the''
therefore, their Queen, Lady, and Duchess will b!
Empress on all occasions. The Celtic Island whic°
became the seat of Scandinavian kings, the insult°
Normandy which cave to its natural duke while the
Norman mainland bowed to the king of Paris, el
thus strangely tossed, along with Gibraltar, Malta,'ano
Heligoland, into the common mass of imperial territort
Of all strange turnings about of things, none surelY
stranger than for the last fragment of the orighor
inheritance of the Norman Conqueror to be declare°,
as far as titles can make it, to be held by Ha SOO'
reign, not as the representative of William, but 0
the representative of Baber,—Pall Mall Gazette.
Tim DOGS OF LONDON.— Several letters W.
been published in the London papers lately respecting
the opinion that the evil of the plague of dogs in Lon'
don suburbs would most probably be met by a consider"
able increase in the dog-tax. One oorrespondent 01;
eiders that the existing tax, if rightly enforced, wain.'
meet all wants and enhance the revenue oonsiderabli,
and affirms that 75 per cent, of the London dogs 09
untaxed, and that an evasion of the dog-tax is not con"
fined to the suburbs. "If," suggests this coos"
pondent, "a stamped collar, to be worn by every dog'
was insisted upon by the authorities, and the poli°.
required strictly to enforce the order, we should soon
see a rapid diminution of vagrant dogs and a speed/
extinction of cowardly dog poisoning."—ln another,.
letter to a somewhat similar effect, is is suggested theb
a person who keeps a dog should be required to place 9
numbered collar on his dog's neck corresponding tvitli
the number of his licence, and that when a licensece_
person removes he should be obliged to forward hoi
change or address to the taxing officer, and be fine°
for not doing so.
WALL PAPERS.— On the whole, although it 1119 Y
not be the cleanest or the healthiest way or Ways of lining
a room, we may regard the accepted and habitual Ws
papers as a boon to those who seek adornment of colour
for their apartments at little cost. It is not to be reconk
mended, certainly, where cleanliness and healthfulnel
are things in a general way difficult of attainment; 1,01
A
for the houses of the poorest classes, that is to say, an",
In crowded town tenements. Bat where circumstance°,
are different, where there is a probability of genero
cleaning and other sanitary processes regularly going
on, papering is a substitute not to be despised for those
who have not a little private fortune to spend °II
decorations of the rooms where their daily lives Are
mostly payed. It may be thought surprising, in fact,
that we slieuld speak iu an apologetic tone at all with
reference to so usual and respectable a way of pro'
dw_ing a decorative effect. But it should aim.) F; he
distinctly understood that, from an art point of view.'
mechanically stamped paper patterns, pasted on the
wall, can only be regarded as a compromise or an
pedient for supplying the place of more permanent an°
thoughtful decorative work, pruduced inilependently
mechanical aYistance. As a means of making a roora
"look pies " iu a short time and at a moderate expense'
they are invaluable; but, compared with painted deco-
ration, with constructive polychromy of any kind,
with the grand oak wainscoat linings of our late Goth"
and Renaiseance mansions, paper at its best is but °
_ _

paltry expedient.-I,tittier:
DEATH OF A MO.N OMAN lAC. —A n inquiry Yr
held in London on Saturday respecting the death o
Charles Crump, aged thirty-six, a watch finisher,.
His step-mother said thrit Crump left his father 0
home many years ago, and had since been living alone
in lodgings at various places. Formerly (she said) "116
used to read the Scriptures a great deal, and in cons&
quence suffered from religious monomania, and becatn°
very eccentric." He was placed under control sonie
eight years ago at Colney Hatch, but for the last three
or four years he had been living in Mereditli-streett
Clerkenwell. On Tuetday afternoon she was called to
his lodgings, and found him in bed in a very enaa.,,'
elated condition and evidently very ill. There wf:
plenty of food in the room and a sack of wheat3 as the
deceased was in the habit of grinding his ow s wheat
and making his own bread for fear that some on:
would poison him. He died on the following nigh::
Dr. Edward Dyer said when he was calkd hi °:
Tutsday afternoon he found the deoeased lying 011,:,;
small bed trying to eat some food, but he seemed tu"
weak to eat, and, moreover, he appeared to be out of
his mind, as he could not 'be prevailed upon to 051
1.0
anything. He made a post-mortem examination
company with Dr. Franklin, Dr. Hunter, and DIA
Taylor, and they all believed that the deceased 4310_,"
from syncope, from fainting of the heart, when he iv's"
suffering from debility and exhaustion produced
want of food. The jury returned a veadict in seega
anc,e with the medical evidesioe.