The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-07-28 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Her Majesty has been pleased to confer the honour
of baronetcies upon Dr. Andrew Clark and Mr.
Prescott Hewett.

At Geddes, near Syracuse, New York, on Monday,
eight men entered a blast furnace to repair the lining.
While they were engaged in this work the furnace fell
upon them, covering them with 100 tons of debris, and
all were killed.

On Saturday, at Gobbs' Oak, near Cheshunt, a man
named Tharby was killed by lightning while taking
shelter under a tree.

Yellow fever being prevalent at Havannah and
elsewhere, strict quarantine is enforced at all the
Atlantic and Gulf ports, extra precautions being im-
posed at New York,
According to a South German newspaper, "the
battlefields around Metz have been visited and studied
by a number of officers from the English Military
Academy, and the same thing has happened regularly
at about this time for the last year or two."
The Commissioners of Inland Revenue give notice
that, in accordance with the provisions of the Act 46
Vic., cap. 10, all gun licences and such licences or
certificates to kill game as are dated to expire on the
sth of April which are now in force, or which may be
granted during the current year, will continue in force
up to the end of July, 1884,

The British Association's visit to Montreal next
year is eagerly anticipated by the Canadians, who
have already made all arrangements for entertaining
their guests. One of the chief excursions will be a
fortnight's trip from Montreal to the Rocky Moun-
tains, returning by Chicago and Niagara.
The offic;al monthly Review of the German Im-
perial Statistical Bureau informs us that during the
financial year 1882-3 the number of manufactories of
playing cards in the German Empire was 60, which
produced during the year 3,264,349 packs of lea than
36 cards each, and 1,058,f-26 packs of more than 36
cards each.

Sir Charles Tupper, the High Commissioner for
Canada, has received the followii g cablegram from
the Minister of Agrculture :—" Common and agri-
cultural labourers wanted, Manitoba and throughout
the Dominion. Pacific works in west and north Lake
Superior require 10,000 labourers."
The recent interview at Spa between the King of
the lielgia,is and the King of Hol,and is considered
to have put an end to a sentiment of coolness whi•Jh
the events of 1830 and 1831 had creatt d between the
two countries and their ruling f.mtilies. A visit
of the King of the Belt,ians to the Dutch Court is even
deemed probable.
Reports of the grouse prospects in Scotland say that
there is likely to be this year an average supply of
grouse, and that the birds are strong and free from
disease. On the moors of Perthshire and Forfarshire
coveys are numerous, and on all the shootings of
central Scotland there is a fair supply of most kinds
of game. •
The House of Lords has unanimously decided that
the sender of goods who signs a "risk note " relieving
the carriers from liability for injury by delays in
transit or other causes, in order to pay a lower rate of
carriage, must be bound by the alternative he has
adopted and cannot recover for losses.
In London, on Monday, the Duchess of West-
minster laid the foundation-stone of a range of paro-
chial buildings in Little Grosvenor-street. They will
include a dispensary, a lending library, a workman's
club, a meeting ball, model dwellings, and a room for
parish work. The Duke of Westminster has given the
site, and the requisite funds, some £14,000, have been
nearly collected.

A New York telegram says that the visible supply
of wheat on July 20 was 18,200,000 bushels, as against
18,600,00 bushels the previous week. Visible supply
of Indian corn, 11,600,000 bushels, as against 12,300,000
bushels the previous week. The export clearances of
wheat for Europe during last week amounted to
460,000 bushels; the export clearances of Indian corn
for Eorope during last week amounted to 1,220,000
bushels.

Fifteen large tobacco shops in New York were closed
the other day in order to retaliate upon a strike of
cigar makers, with the result that some 10,000 men
were locked out.—Two thousand men employed in the
South Chicago Bessemer Steel Works have struck for
a change in the method of paying wages.

A State paper recently issued by the Minister of
Public Works in France contains some interesting
details on the French mineral waters. There are
1,027 sources which are worked. Of these 319 are
sulphurous, 357 alkaline, 136 iron, and 215 salt; 386
are cold, that is to say, they do not exceed 15 degrees
C. in temperature, and 641 are thermal.
According to a recent German patent for process
for preparing a pressed enamel on glass, a mixture of
dry enamel, thick pine oil, and dammar lac is laid on
the glass in a semidried state. After drying the
drawing is pressed in. The enamel is then burnt.
Thus it is possible to reproduce the forms of figures in
slight relief, also the feathers of birds, hairs of animals,
and veins of leaves.

During last week seven steamers, with live stock and
fresh meat on board, arrived at Liverpool from the
United States and Canada, bringing a total supply of
1,548 cattle, 1,530 sheep, 4,033 quart..ra of beef, and
224 carcases of mutton. The figur,s snow a somewhat
large falling.off in both live stock and fresh meat,
more especially in fresh meat, when compared with
the arrivals of the past few weeks.
John Henry Orton, aged 15 months, son of a labourer
in Bedworth, met with an extraordinary death on
Tuesday. The deceased had been left in the kitchen
by his mother for a few minutes, and when the mother
returned she found the boy head downwards, in a tub
of soapsuds, the wAter being only a foot deep. Life
was extinct.

A dairyman named Thomas Blackburn, who until
recently also carried on business as a butcher at
Wakefield, has committed suicide by hanging himself
in the kitchen of his own house with a child's skip-
piog-rope. The deceased, who was a married mln,
47 years of age, hid of late been in a desponding
state.

Fourteen British and foreign actual shipwrecks
were reported during last week, making the total for
the present year 1,049, against 831 at the correspond-
ing pericd of last year. Five vessels were British.
owned, and four vessels (British) were lost off the
United Kingdom. o,ly ten lives were lost.
In London last week 2,559 births and 1,781 deaths
were registered. Allowing for the increase of popu-
lation, the births were 43 below, while the deaths
exceeded by 87, the average numbers in the correspond-
ing weeks of the last ten years. The annual rate of
mortality from all causes, which ha'i steadily increased
in the five preeeoing weeks from 169 to 229, further
rose to 235. No fatal Case of smallpox was registered
in the metropolis daring the fortnight ending last
Saturday.

Tuesday (24th) was the anniversary of the cApture of
Giltraltar by the British in 1704 The town was
attacked by the British under Sir George Rook°, the
Print:e of Flesse-Dariustadt, Sir John Leaks, and
Admiral Byny, on July 21, and wa, t tken on July 24.
The town VMS afterwards besieged by the Spanish and
French, who lost 10,000 men, while the Elr,tiAli loss was
only 400. In the following year Sir John Leake cap.
tured several ships, and raised the siege, and the town
was formally ceded to England by the treaty of
Utrecht in 1713,

It is in contemplation at Coventry to furnish the
inmates of the workhouse with a fish dinner once a
week, provided the project can he carried out without
any extra expense to the ratepayers, and it is believed
tbat the inclusion of fish in the workhouse dietary
would be not only acceptable to the inmates but con.
&wive to health,

The Lord Mayor of London has remitted £l,OlO to
the Royal College of Music as the result of the concert
recently given at Guildhall.
The Darwin memorial fund now amounts to £3,30a,
Among the most interesting of the ems that the
trea.urer has received is a cheque for £94 4s. collected

in Finland.
The phylloxPra has male its appearance in the south
of Italy, near Reggio, Calabria, to the great consterna•

_
tion of the vine growers.
It is. Aated th,t China and Russia, have cmcluded
an arrangement for admitting China tea to Russia and
Russian merchandise to Kasbgar free of duty.

- - -
It i 9 stated that the sailors and marines of the
German ironclad squadron, in addition to several
h ittalions of the land army, have been experimentally
_..

armed with repeating rifles.

On Monday afternoon the Prince and Princess o
Wales gave a garden party at Marlborough House,
which was very numerously attended.
A severe hurricane visited the Navigator Group on
March 28, The island of Savaii also suffered from
tidal wave, which destroyed everything within its
reach. The French priest resident there was killed
while endeavouring to save church property.

-
Potato blight has made its appearance in various
parts of West Cork. The crops have hitherto been
most promisiug, and an extremely bountiful harvest
had been anticipated.
-

A sad fatality occurred on Sunday evening in the
Bristol Floating Harbour. Four young men were
rowing in a boat, when two of them shifted their
seats for the purpose of changing oars, and the boat
capsized. Two of the occupants were drowned, and a
third was insensible when taken out of the water.

At Dover on Saturday afternoon two soldiers be.
longing to the Dublin Fusiliers were drowned while
bathing. The men were good swimmers, but, being
carried out by the tide, were unable to return, the sea
being very rough. The lifeboat was launched, but
arrived too late. The bodies were not recovered.

On Sunday morning divine service was performed
in the presence of the Queen and Princess Elizabeth
of Hesse and several members of the Royal Hous6.
hold, in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, by the
Very Rev. Randall T. Davidson, Dean of Windsor,
who also preached the sermon.
Last week's receipts of cotton at all United States
ports were 9,000 bales ; since Ist September, 5,905,000
balm Week's exports to Great Britain, 20,000 bales ;
to the Continent, 2,000 bales ; total since Ist Septem-
ber, 4,576,000 bales. Stock at all ports, 347,000 bales.

• • -
A scientific commission on board the Washington is
to examine the basin of the Mediterranean, ascertain-
ing the depth, temperature, density, and chemical
composition of the water, the geological nature of the
bottom, the velocity and direction of the marine
currents and their action on the coasts; and also to
study the deep-sea plants and animals.
Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia has commis'
sioned Conrad Freyberg, the Court painter, to per-
petuate a very memorable scene in the military career
of his Royal Highness—the handing over to him of the
French colours and standards acquired by the capitu-
lation of Metz.

It is stated in the German newspapers that the
Vienna painter Makart's colossal picture of "Diane
and her Hunting Train "has been bought for 35,000
dole. by Mr. James, a banker of Irvington, on the
Hudson.

As a foreman platelayer, named Kingdom, was
working on the Great Western Railway at Creech St.
Michael, near Taunton, on Monday morning, he was
cut to pieces by the up-train to Bristol.

The Llndon Missionary Socisty has requested the
Congregational churches throughout the country to set
apart next Sunday as a day of special prayer relative
to the present crisis in Madagascar.

One day last week an enterprising thief succeeded in
gaining access to the private room of Mr. Justice Sal
in the Royal Conrti of Justice, and managed to walk
off with a pair of boots and some handkerchiefs
belonging to the learned Judge.

- -
According to intelligence received here from St.
Petersburg an explosion occurred in the powder man'
factory in that city. Nine persons were kill and
two severely injured. The mixing room was entirely'
destroyed.
We learn (Nature says) that the Dutch Government
have decided not to grant the sum of 30,000 guilders
which Baron Nordenskjold claims as the discoverer of
the north-east passage.
The first place in the competition for drawing at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Paris, has been gained by !in
English student named Fox, a pupil in Gerome's studio.
Mr. Fox is only 16 years of age.
A telegram from Berne says that a fatal accidelit
has occurred on the Simplon Line, near Sion. A train
ran int,) a vehicle at a level crossing, when two persons
were killed and two injured.
A Huguenot society h is been founded at New York,
which hag for its object the collection of materials for
the history and genealogy ot Huguenots in Americst
the formation of a special library, and the reading of
papers.
A panorama dSedan has been finished by the
historical painter, Professor Anton Werner, and will
he shortly opened to the public at Berlin by the
German Emperor.
The Sultan, who takes great interest in all scientific
discoveries and researches, has expressed his desire
that Turkey should his represented at the next Inter-
national Electric Exhibition, which is to take place at
Turin, in Italy.

Two maj Jrs and a lieutenant of the Mustafazeen
have been tried for complicity in the massacres of
Alexandria, when the Court sentenced the two former
to ten years', and the latter to seven years' penal
servitude in the Soudan.

The Loudon School Board has resolved that ele-
mentary social economy shall be added to the Board
ln.pectors' form of report as a subject for them to
report upon. The provisional syllAbus includes " the,
functions of labour and capita in producing wealth,'
the "contract between employer and employed," alio
interest, credit, biils of exchange, money, taxatiou•
and "the duties 61 citizens."
In London, on Saturday, Mr. Bedford, the coroner
for Weitminster, held an enquiry touching the death
of James Frederiak Cassell, nineteen years of age, 101°
was killed by the fall of a balcony. The balcony WO
about to be repaireJ, and the deceased had incautiouslY
stepped upon it and fell with it into the area belote,.,
The jury, on returning a verdict of "Accidental death,
asked the coroner to communicate with the district
surveyor, calling his attention to other balconies in the
same street.

It is reported that the German Admiralty are going
to try a novel experiment, as they intend to send
complete hospital ship to accompany the Baltic,
squadron on its evolutionary cruise. A corvette bag
been fitted with cote, requisites for the sick and
wounded, instruments, and operating tables. It DI
intended that in any future war the vessel shall accord'
pany the fleet into action, carr3 'log the Geneva flag,
and, in order to distinguish her, she has been painted
white with a red streak.

Captain Morton, of London, was announced to
make an ascent on Saturday evening in the balloon
Dudley Castle, in Delapre Park, Northampton. Dir.
Morton got away with a companion soon after five
o'clock, but almost immediately the balloon struck
tree. It got free from that, but a few moments later
a second tree caught the balloon and tore it from the
top to the car. A rapid descent was the result, but
neither of the occupants was injured.

The officers and men of the Royal Marine lOorPe
have decided to take steps for the preservation of tbe
graves of the Royal Marines who died in EgYll
during the late campaign. At present the majority
the graves are without any distinguishing mark sale
small wooden posts, which are rapidly disappearing,
and unless prompt measures are taken it will be do'
cult to identify the graves. It is proposed that tomb'
stones be provided at £2 each, consisting of whito
marble, with the name, division, Stc., of the decease°
engraved upon them.
The additions to the Zoological St.ciety's Gardens,
Regent's Park, London, during last week included 6
kinkajou from South America, presented by Mr. '
V. Brackenbury ; a Syrian fennec, from North Africa,
presehted by Mr. J. H. James; a blau bok trete
South Africa, presented by Mr. Ernest Honey; 9
slender-billed cockatoo from Australia, presentei b
Mrs. A. 0. Biddle; an Earl's Weka rail from North
Island, New Zealand, presented by Mrs,
two British wood owls, presented by Mr. J. 61".
calfe ; two black guillemots, from Ireland, presented,
by Mr. H. Beecher; a vervet monkey from south
Africa, a Moor macaque, a bonnet monkey from Indi6_
two common European snakes, a spotted cavy, tctio
hairy-romped agoutis from Guiana, deposited ;
hlack howler from Brazil, purchased ' • a Japanese
deer, a Burrhel wild sheep, born in the G.lrder.s.