The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-09-01 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

At Cologne during a recent swimming drill of an
Infantry Regiment in the Rhke, ins non•commis-
sioned officer and four privates were drowned.
The Fish Trades' Gazette understands that active
measures are being taken for the formation of another
fishing company, whose fleet of smacks will carry fish
to the newly•established London markets, as well as
distribute it throughout the country.

At a recent meeting of the Manchester guardians
It was atated that the board had decided upon tying
the experiment of fish dinners for the inmates Gf the
workhouse. It was anticipated that a considerable
saving will be (fleeted. A. similar course has been
adopted by the Bolton guardians.
At Toulouse, on Monday night, several mills caught
fire, particularly the one belonging to the Sdcietd In.
dustrielle du Sid (Merit. A large quantity of flour
and corn was destroyed, and the loss is estimated at
upwards of 2.000,00 W. No one was injured.

At a mass meeting weavers on strike at Ashton-
under•Lyne, held in Stamford-park on Tuesday, it
was agreed to continue the strike until a satisfactory
settlement is arrived at between the delegates of the
workmen and the employers,

After the prorogation of Parliament on Saturday
the Serjeant-st-Arms banded the mace into the
custody of the Crown authorities. It wai taken to
the Tower of London, where it will remain during the
recess, a formal receipt being tendered to the Serjtant-
at-Arme.
.On Tuesday the Hanley Borough Coroner held an
inquest touching the circumstances attending the
death of a collier named Henshall, who was killed in
Earl Granville's Fargreen Pit, Hanley. The de-
ceased and another man, named Doobar, were trying
to draw the charge of a shot that had missed fire,
when the shot exploded. Henshali was killed in-
stantaneously, and Doubar, braid, s receiving other
injure, was p-rrnanently blinded.— A verdict of
"Accidental death" was returned.

A fire broke our in a lurnbrr yaid at Wllliatrupet,
p,urtllvini. on 'Alowidy wicti cia,ioned
damage to ths 140it,Wit 0 0),(00 di + These wai
also a fire in Sam Antonio, Texas, lerultirg in a lo,qi
estirna'ed s.t ?5),000 'l(6 In this latttr fire five men
were itijureti, three beir,g very terioutdy burnt.
Fro n eLleuktio,s, wb;ch 1-;aVE, been iliaoe, it i+
de-
cried tia.t be o,.st It earn pern-. iol2 out tt•E
grt:gra as,tro.a it n .t be far short of £1,i..00,003, or
near') tis:,ce the amount or;ginal!), eatime.ted.

Mr. Atnir,w Carneoe, of New Yuir, who is well
known fo: bid munificent Lifts to Dunfermline, Ws
native city, has intimated his intention to subscribe
21,000 to the fund for completing the new buildings in
c-itiou %%WI the Univerity of Edinburgh.
At I) vtr, on Sunday, a man named David Green
eLnployed by the Harbour Board, Wll6 found drowned
in the harbour. It is not known bow he got into the
water. A soldier while bathing along by the rocks
was also drowned!

Dr. Cameron has given notice that next seesion he
will ask leave to introduce a Bill to legalize the creme.
tion of the dead.

The Observer says that the impression is gaining
ground that the Cabinet look forward to a dissolution
of Parliament in ,;he autumn of next year. The Minis.
terial programme for next Se»don will be epecially
framad with a view to this contingency.
A French nobleman was killed on Saturday in a
crevasse while trying to ascend the Pitz Bernina, the
highest mountain of the Engadine. The two guides
accompanying him escaped.
A large quantity of naw wheat was shown at Spald-
ing market on Tuesday. The yield and quality varied
considerably, but some remarkably good samples were
sold. The yield is fr-m four to six quarters per acre,
and the price from 404. to 475. per quarter.
The steams'. Biversdate blew up white lying at a
wharf in North River, New York on Tuesday after-
noon. Fifty lives are reported to have been lost.

The Missouri Free Trade League has summoned a
national conference of Free Trade leaders to meet at
St. Louis on October 2. The invitation is endorsed by
the American Free Trade League and by the New
York Trade Club. This is the first step of the Free
Traders towaris an attempt to influence the Presiden-
tial election campaign.
The weekly average of letters delivere I to members
from the post-office in the lobby of the House of Com-
mons has been during the past session 22,698, and the
weekly average of replie4 13,000; 2,858 postal orders
have been granted and 959 money orders; 1,223 letters
have been registered and a sum of £2,843 received for
stamps.

According to intelligence received at Lisbon, the
King of Dahomey has set the garrison of the Portu-
guese fort at Whydah at liberty, on their entering
into an engagement not to cede the place to Eng-
land.

During a fire at the packing-case works of Messrs.
Dawson, under some railway arches in Gloucester.
street, Manchester, early on Saturday morning, a fire-
man turncock, named Joseph Marsh, received fatal
injury from a jet of water, which dashed up his leg as
be stood on a ladder. He died in the infirmary in a
few hours from the shock to the system.
On Saturday the prizes were distributed to the
winning competitors at the Zurich Exhibition by M.
Droz, member of the Federal Council, who in a long
and animated speech said the Exhibition had proved
In every respect a brilliant success. The number of
visitors since the opening exceeds a million and a half.
On Saturday afternoon Frederick Fox, aged 12, was
gathering acorns in one of the suburbs of Sheffield, and
climbed an oak tree. He reached a high bough, which
broke under his weight, and the boy fell upon an iron
raiiing, which penetrated his stomach and caused
death a few minutes afterwards.

On Tuesday the poll on the Chester Parliamentary
Improvement Bill was declared at the Town Hall, the
ratepayers approving of a bill for the abolition of the
River Dee bridge-toll, towards which the Duke of
Westminster hike generously offered k:10,C00, by 3,778
votes against 1,488.
Harvest operations have commenced in county
Down. Corn is a magnificent clop, the heads being
large and full. Flax is as the best reaped for a
number of years, and as for potatoes, the yield is
superior to any gathered for the past twenty years.
There is no sign of the blight anywhere. All the
crops are superior to those of last year.
A New York telegram says that the visible supply
of wheat on Aug. 24 was 21,000,000 buehels, as against
20,400,0f20 bushels the previews week. Visible supply
of Indian corn, 11,300,000 bushels, as against 10,800,000
bushels the previous week. The export clearances of
wheat for Europe during last week amounted to
1,680,000 bushels. The export clearances of Indian
corn for Europe during last week amounted to 1,283,000
bushels.
In a statement contained in fie official return of
Belgian trade, the proportion of the annual commerce
ot the following countries to each 1,000 inhabitants is
thus summarized :—Belgium, 819,248 f.; England,
489802 f.; France, 251,15 f.; Germany, 211,877 f. ;
United States, 122,8f7f ; Austria, 114,8481, ; Italy,
86545 f.; and Russia, 41,8071.

Some of the provisions of the Bankraptcy Act
(1883) come into immediate operation, although the
rest of the Act does not take effect until Jan. 1 next.
No composition or liquidation under the Bankruptcy
Act (1869) will be allowed without leave, which is only
to be granted when the Court thinks it reasonable,
and for the benefit of the crediLors generally.
According to official statistics just published there
remain at Casatnicciola 2,827 inhabitants. 1,992 died,
including 1,0(.0 strangers. At Foria there are 6,647
survivors: 313 persons perished. At Lacco 1,787 are
alive ; 138 are dead. The total number of deaths
was 2,443.
The authorities of the Parcels Poet have refused to
recognise live lobsters as articles which can be for.
warded under their control. This intimation has been
communicated to a gentleman in Gelway, who was
preparing to develop a business in live shellfish.
Mr. Gladstone arrived at Hawarden on Saturday
night about eight o'clock from London. The right
hon. gentleman attended Divine service at the parish
church on Sunday morning, accompanied by Mrs.
Gladstone, Miss Helen Gladstone, and Mr. Herbert
Gladstone, and read the lessons. He also attended

A telegram received through Reuter's Agency from
Cardiff on Tuesclsy says that Messrs. John Cory and
Sons have received intelligence that their steamer
Rapid was wrecked on Tuesday morning near Brest
and is a total loss. The crew were saved and landed.
The steamer was from Bilbao for CArdiff, with a cargo
of iron ore.

N.ntes is said to posPees perhaps the mt perfect
and conveni nt system cf tramways to be found in any
larva ciy. Tney ;.1 worked on the compresed air
system, without noise or duet, but hitherto they have
not proved a financial success, and this in the fa:e of
the fact that the working expenses per mile are con.
siderably lower than eithtr steam or horse tramways.

The Saratovski Liztock says that a short time ko the
Siberian plague broke out among the horses ef one of
the villages of the Saratov, and thirty horses die every
day. 'The same disease has now broken out amorig the
cattle, and rages so severely that in some of the vil-
lages not one beast remains alive.
During last week only six steamers nith live stock
and freeh meat on board, arrived at Liverpool from
the United States and Canada, being an unusually
small number fcr this period of the year, and the total
arrivals brought by them show a somewhat large fall-
ing off in both live stock and fresh meat when con
trasted with the arrivals of the last few weeks. Thr
totals were 1,132 cattle, 1,972 sheep, 5,055 quarters of
beef, and 215 carcases of mutton.
in London, on Monday afternoon, a number of
boys were fishing in the waters of the Regent's Canal,
when one of them, named Robert Pembridge. 6 years,
Eon of a labourer, of 48, Wynford-road, Caledonian
road, 'bile trying to get something from the water
overbalanced and fell in, and was drowned.

There were 2,450 birth,' and 16 desths registered
in London last week. Allowing for increase of popes.
lation, the births were 159, and the deaths 153 below
the average numbers in the corresponding weeks of the
last ten years. The annual rate of mortality from all
causes, which had been equal to 17 3 and 190 per
1,000 in the two preceding weeks, declined again
to 179.

At Coblenz experiments were recently made with
young ravens with a view of replacing carrier pigeons
by them. The ravens are not so subject to being
attacked and destroyed by Lir& of prey. The ravens
were sent from Coblenz to a small place on the Moselle
near Troves, a distance of about forty miles. The
experiments proved eminently successful.

The total imports of foreign stook into London last
week amounted to 16,198 head. In the corresponding
period last year we received 16,423; in 1881, 15,102;
in 188(1, 19,686; in 1879, 15,2d6; in 1878,2.,1(2; and
In 1877, 23,534 head. At Liverpool were received
1,038 beasts and 4,037 sheep from Montreal, 1,411
beasts ft- m Boston, and 90 beas's front Oporto ; at
Bristol 287 1-eaets and 225 sheep from New York, and
1 02) sheep item Montreal; at Sonthempton 58 beasts
and six calves from Jersey, and 100 beasts from
Oporto; and at Hull 126 besets from Boston.
A man named James Gordon died at Arbroath on
Tuesday from an injury which he accidentally received
while playing in a football match on Saturday between
the Arbroath and the SoutleWestera of Glasgow clubs.
The match was played at Arbroath, and the accident
occurred to wards the end of the game. The oasts of
death was rupture of the liver.
A writer in the New York Timm emphasises the
fact that the profit of the eairyinan comes wholly
from his good cows, and that many a dairy mieht be
reduced one-half In number of its cows and the dairy-
man make more profit than he may have done from
the whole original number, because one poor cow will
not only "eat off its own head,' but will eat off that
of anither, and a better one, too, before it has eqoalised
the profit and the loss and the keep of the two.
The Deputy Borough Coroner for Brighton held an
inquest on Tuesday on the body of John Kelly, a pri-
vate in the 4th Dregoon Guards, who was fourisl dead
on the London and Brighton Railway about half past
five that morning. The deceased, whose head bad
been par.ly carried away, was lying by the side of the
line at the foot of a chalk bank about fifty feet in
heUilt, and from marks on the b ,dy it is probable that
be fell over the bank and was afterwards run Over by
one f the night Inggage trains.—The jury return: d a
verdict of found dead.
The Berlin Correspondent of the Standard write:
—The sporting world here is greatly rejoiced that the
Jubilee Prize at the Jffezheim Races, consist:ng of
forty thouand marks and the Gold Cup presented by
the Grand Duke of Baden, has been won by a German
horse, the property of Lieutenant Frerichs. Tbe second
horse was also German. The winners were heartily
congratulated by the Prince of Wales, who is very
pop:-.lar with all sportsmen here.

On Tuesday, an inquest VIM held at Boeton Clttage
Ho -pital on the body of a man named George Whitton,
of Sheffield. He had been taking part in an angling
compettion in the River Witham at llogdyke. He
crossed the line in front of a train and was knocked
down, and died while being conveyed to the hospital.
verdict of "Accidental death " was returned.
The United States Government has just purchased
the property of Wakefield, Westmoreland County,
Virginia, where George Washington was born. It is
about 88 miles from Washingtcn city, is 20 acres in
extent, and is a portion of the property owned by
Waabington's grandfather. Congrees has, moreover,
voted 33,000 dollars to erect a monument upon the
spot where the "Father of his Country "was born.
The Philcuielphia Ledger has published a table show-
ing the elevations of the higher points in each ward of
the city above high water. The greater part of the
city in area and population is on a plateau not exceed.
log fifty feet high, and for the most part much lower,
Three-f.urths of the population live on a plateau
whose greatest elevation does not exceed 113 feet.
One third of the remainder live in West Philadelphia,
and only 50,000 out of 850,000 in the two wards of
very high elevations.

A Philadelphia telegram says that five persons were
suffocated in a burning tenement at Boston on Sunday
morning. Two others were injured, one of them
fatally.

At the recent Swansea Assizes, George Isaac Knight
was sentenced to death for the wilful murder of his
wife in the Rhondda Valley. This sentence has now
been commuted to penal s,ryitude for life.
The Emperor and Empress of Russia, accompanied
by their children and the Grand Duchess Marie
Paulowna, left Cronstadt on M .nday on board the
Imperial yacht Dershava, for Copenhagen.

The eteamship Cape Clear, Captain Henderson, the
first vessel chartered by the agents of the Tasmanian
G.vernment, sailed from Plymouth on Saturday
with 372 souls, tonal to 291 6taLute adults.

Mr, Terry, who a short time ago c.effied the
Channel, from Dover to Calais, on an apparatus which
he can either convert into a tricycle and travel by
land, or into a boat for sea voyages, arrived at Dover
on Monday from Paris. He rode his machine from
Paris to Calais, but croused the Straits by ordinary
packet.
Last week's receipts of cotton at all United States
ports were 11,000 bales ; since let September,
5,952,000 bales. Week's exports to Great Britain,
13,000 bales; week's exports to the Continent. 10,000
hales. Total since let September, 4,673,000 bales.
Stock at all.ports, 237,000 bales.

The number of visitors to the International leishesies
Exhibition last Saturday was 23,163, making a total
for last week of 106,892; the total number from the
opening of the Exhibition has been 1,444,515.

The scaffolding employed in building the new Royal
Castle for the King of Bavaria on the Island in the
Chiem Lake fell down the other day killing twenty-
two workmen on the spot, and severely wounding
seventeen more.

During last week nearly 8,000 continental pas-
sengers passed through Dover. The previous week
the number was 10,000. The traffic is very heavy
this year. .

The National Polish Museum in the Chiteau of
Rapperswyl; founded by Count Plater in 1869, will, on
Sept. 12th, be chosen as a meeting place for the cele-
bration of the 200th anniversary of the deliverance
of Europe from Islamism." The Institution has of
late years obtained considerable accessions of rich col-
lections of historical souvenirs, a beautiful gallery of
the paintings of great masters, and a library of 50,000
volumes.

An American millionaire, it is reported, intends to
bring to England a dozen intelligent linron•lroquois
Indians, who have shown their ability by their pro-
ficiency at native schools, and have them educated at
Eton and Oxford at his expense, with a view to their
entering on a special mission, partly religions and
partly educational, among the red tribes in Canada
and the United States.

Five of the individua's charged with having organ-
ised the Alexandria massacres have been acquitted by
court•martial on account of insuffiriency of proof
against them.
Daring last week 17 British and foreign actual ship
wrecks were reported, bringing the total for the present
year up to date to 1,151, compared with 930 at the
corresponding period of last year. Seven were British.
owned vessels, two being " missing " with all hands,
the total tonnage amounting to 2,564 tons.
The Fisheries' Exhibition has been prayed for (says
the City Press). " Bless the International Fisheries'
Exhibition, as through it there is a promise of more
food for the poor," was said by the Rev. J. De Bewer
Williams in his prayer at the Old Gravel Pit Chapel,
Hackney, on Sunday evening. The rev, gentleman
preached a sermon on the subject.

The traffic receipts of the railways in the United
Kingdom for the week ending August 24, upon a
mileage of 16,6271, amount to £1,435,657, being equal
to £B6 7s. per mite. For the corresponding week of
last year the receipts were R 1,402,862, the number of
miles open 16,422 i, or £B5 Bs. per mile. A comparison
of the two weeks shows an increase in the total re-
ceipts of 02,795, and an increase in the number of
miles open of 2041.

Miss Bing, one of the nursing sisters at the Military
Hospital, Chatham, has received the decoration of the
Royal Red Cross, conferred upon her in recognition of
her energy and untiring devotion to the sick and
wounded during the Egyptiau campaign.
It is stated that Methodism is making rapid pro-
gress in Winnipeg and the other cities of Manitoba
and the Cans al an North• West. There are now as
many as 70 ministers of this i.fngle branch of the
Church, and their number will probably reach 100
before the end of the year. The Manitoban Methodist
Conference has just been organised at Winnipeg, The
Primitive Methodist colony nor h of Qu'Appsile bas
increaaed from twelve families la 4 winter to MO.

The first of the refrigerator cars sent for fish to
Scotland by the Fish League ILitnited) arrived in
London on Monday morning. This car left Wick at
midnight on the previous Friday with silty baskets of
herrings, which on being opened were found to be in
perfectly good condition, and were sold in the
Columbia Market at from twopence to threepence per
dozen. This is the first time that fresh herrings have
been brought to London from the extreme North of
Scot land.

The Government of New South Wales has had
executed J Qn d Pn.thrle, tpxtsull Parraza
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the other an
allegorical figure representing New South Wales.
They are intended to be placed In prominent positions
in the new Government offices at Sydney.
At an executive meeting of the Yorkshire Miners'
Association on Tuesday, at Barnsley, a resolution was
passed urging the formation amongst the mining
classes of South and West Yorkshire of a political
uvion with a view of running candidates at the elec-
tions.

From April let to the 25th instant the Exchequer
rec,ints amounted to £32,423,967, as compared with
231,485,546 in the corresponding period of last year.
The r xoenditure has been £34.442,068. On Baturday
last the balance in the Bank of Engiand was £3,649,396,
and in the Bank of Ireland £1,100,200.

Fibbing boats arrived at Peterhead on Monday
morning report an unprecedented destruction of fish-
ing nets through the shoals of herrings being so dense.
Very few boats have escaped without losing a portion
of their nets, and many have lost the entire drift, the
weight of the fish carrying them to the bottom of the
sea.

The proprietor of the Hohe Llnie Inn, at Erfurt,
has placed tablets over the gateway bearing inscrip-
tions to the Effect that the following persons have
resided in the house :-1341, Duke Christian of
Brunswick, Archbishop of Bremen; 1541, Landgrave
Philipp of Hesse; 1543, Duke Maurice of Saxe; 1543,
Dr. Martin Luther; 1631, Gustavn4 Adolphus, King
of Sweden; 1817, Frederick William, King of
PIIIEBht.

On Tuesday, in commemoration of the first anni-
versary of the Battle of Kassassin, the Ist Life Guards
held a series of athletic sports in the pressnce of the
Duke of Tenk ar.d a large assembly of spectators at the
barracks at Windsor.

On Tursday night a girl named Rigby, twelve years
of age, wp.a ki.ocked down andlhd by a fast train
at a )evel erorsirg en the Greet Western Railway
midway between Oakengates and Weill! gt.on, Salop

In the northern gallery of the British Museum a
new eme has been fitted up containing some interest-
ing silver treasures found at Rome in 1793. The
principal object is a bridal casket, about two feet
long. _ .

The number of paupers in the metropclis durirg the
second week In August was 84,931, whii,h is a decrease
of 1,192 on the corresponding period in 1882, an in-
ort-a.e of 13 on the year 1881, and an increase of 2,190
on 1880. The number of vagrants relieved in the
ruct•opolis on the last day of that week was 467-312
men, 130 women, and 25 children.
A new oil country is said to have been discovered in
Missouri. Eight wells have now been sunk, and the
oil ia said to be petroleum of better quality than the
average.

During the session which closed last Saturday 180
private Biils received the Royal assent. The total
number of private Bills introduced or brought from
the Lords was 265, but 85, for various reasons, did not
reach their final stage. Only 14 were thrown out
because the preamble was not proved.
Twenty•three men of the Mustaphazeen Corps,
charged with baying taken part in the Alexand-ia
masaacre, were tried by court martial on Tuesday; 13
of them were sentenced to be banged opposite the
police station, two to penal servitude for 14 years, and
six, incliriing a major, to penal servitusie for five
years. The other two were acquitted.
The Anchor Line steamer City of Rome. which
arrived at Queensto vn en Saturday in 6 days 20 hours
and 33 minutes, bas accomplished the quickest passage
across the Atlantic. Her daily runs were unprece-
dented. On Sunday, 19th August she made 422
miles; on Monday. 443; Tue.day, 4'9; Wednesday,
455; Thursday, 447; and Friday, 437, or an average
of over 18 miles per hour,

The anniversary of the birthday of the Prince
Consort was celebrated at Balmoral on Monday, when
the Princes Christian Victor and Albert of Schleswig-
Holstein, and the servants and tenapts of the Balmoral
and Abergeldie estates assembled at the obelisk and
drank to the memory of his Royal Highness.
The Cairo Correspondent of the Standard teleeraphe
that six doctors and thirty-six hospital aseistants have
arrived from India, and that although the cholera has
now virtually disappeared frem Lower Egypt, their
services will probably be retained.
A telegt am from Rome says that an encounter has
taken place near Catareare between a hand of
brigands and the police. The brigand chief Ricca was
killed, and two of his subordinates are reported tq
have been wounded. The police had one killed and
two slightly wounded.
A Geneva telegram reperts that a tourist tamed
Comlrez, from Cannes, has been killed while attempt.
big the ascent of the Bernina, and one of his guides
was seriously, it is feared fatally, injured. A few
days ago another tourist from Zurich died of fatizne
after notching the summit of the Pitz Centrele in the
Grieons.

The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens,
Regent's Park, London, during last week included
two silver-hacked foxes from South Africa, presented
by Mr. John Mayden ; a Syrian bear, from Thfbet,
presented by Mr. A. W. Hicks-Beach; two red.
backed shrikes, British, presented by Mr. D. B )wi
a sparrow hawk, British, presented by Mr. P. Gunn ;
two spotted salamanders, European, presented by
Mies Harris; two Russ's weaver birds from West
Africa, three Java sparrows from Java, two saffron
finches from Brazil, two undulated grass parakeets
from Australis, a grey-headed love bird from Mada-
gascar, a goldfinch, two bullfinches, a chaffinch, a
lesser redpole, a simkin (British), an Indian python
from India, deposited; five blue-headed pigeons from
Cabs, purchased ; a Quebec marmot, two gray
squirrels from North America, a plantain squirrel
from Java, received in exchange; five common vipere,
born in the Gardens.