The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-03-04 00:00:00

Mistrilantrius -4nttlligcntt,
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COI ONIAL

AN EX. CLZEGYNAW.—Mr. J. M. PeHew was
summoned to attend upon the grand jury at the
Central Criminal Court, in London, on Monday marn.
Mg. He pleaded rxtmption on the ground that, al-
though he had given notice of his des re to riling iih
holy orders, the period of six m ntha allowed for
reostration of the deed of relinquishment would net
expire until next month. The plea was allowed by
the Lord Mayor, instruction; being given, however,
that Mr. Bellew should be summoned for the grand
jury at the next sessions.
AN INNocENT FLT.—The ediccr of Dan-, It's
Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons and use
Judicial Busch states that in reply to his castomary
idquiry as to the armorial distinctions borne by the
new member, Mr. Martin replied—" I carry n 3 arms!
Tills is a proclaimed district."

Cutimivi,tiLvi.—New York papers,
describing Cu execution in Cumberland, Maryland, say
that the sheriff and his assistants had a sumptuous
supper with the condemned man the Eight before the
execution, at which the latter sang a settimental song.
The convict, who was half drunk. was carried to the
gallows in a prin.:eosin'', headed by a band of non,ic.
On the scaffold he made a j 'nose dying speech, which
the aheiff after vards had print d and sold, stating
that he interded to got back the money which his ap-
pointment had cost Lim.
Acivioa ion Poisoia pro A Doo.—A case of con-
sideralle interest to sportsmen occupied Mr. Baron
Clvasby the whole of Monday at the Warwick Ad,,iZ,S.
The plaintiff, the 'Rev. dames Fitch, curote in charge
of Burmanton, near Shiptson-on•Stour, Warwickshire,
sued the gamekeeper of Mr. Thomas Wright, of Tid-
mington House, Worcestershire, to recover £5O the
value of a favourite Pomeranian dog of the
alleged to have bi ea pais ined by the defendant. Tne
care fur the plaintiff was that the defendant placed
strychnine in rabbits' paunches, and left them about
the coverts, and that the dog, which the defendant
hod threatened to detroy, was poieoned by the 'dry.
chums. The latter fact was conclusively establiahed
by an analysis of the dog's stomach. The jury found
a verdict for the plaintiff, with £lO damages.

A GUN?: PROPOSAL.—(From Rentiniact ar•
Scottish Life, by E. B. Ramsay, M.A.) .

Os the au' jrct of beadle pecu3srities I have received from
Mrs. Meanie, of Hinsil Manse, an estraisitely characteristic
not beadle profesaional habits ',log made to bear
upon the tender passion —A certain besula had fancied the
mouse housemaid, but at a loss for an opportunity to declare
himeelf, one day—a Sunda) —when his duties were ended, be
looked sheepish, and said, " Moty, wad ye tak a turn, Mart T'
Ile led her to the churchyard. and pointing with his tinder,
got out, "My lowk lie there, Mary; wad yo like to Ile there r '
The grave hint wan taken, and she became his wife, but three
Dot yet lie there.

No SUIPITITCTES ! —The proposed abolition of
the right, in the Clatl of persona balloted for the
Militia, to provide sntatitutes, or to escape service by
the pa) meat of a fine. is founded on an intelligent re-
gard to equality in the sense of equal juitiee. If all
men are uot.equal before the law, they ought to be ;
&ad it is obvious that, suppose a man hi business,
whcla cannot go on without him, is compelled to serve
personally at a private in the Militia, he must be
ruined ; but it is no leas obvious th st he suffers no
greater hardship than his comrade, the agricultural
labourer, who, although he gets his daily pay, must
lose perhaps as much as nine or ten shillings a-week.
Nothing can be clearer than the truth that equality as
to any burden cannot poasibly depend upon circum-
stances; and, howsoever people may differ about Vote
by Ballot as proj,cted, there carnot, at least among the
thinking commercial classee, be two opinions respecting
the contemplated Ballot for the Militia. —Punch.
- - - -

ARTIFICIAL ICE. The Eng/ish Mechanic
says :—A few weeks back we called attention to the
economic production of artificial ice by • machine ex.
hibited in America. We were not aware, however, that
our TranaatlAntic condos had carried the matter so
far as to employ it in the manufacture of a skating
rink. We now learn that one of the prominent at-
tractione of the fair of the American Institute was the
artificial skating-pond. The bottom of a shallow,
water-tight tank, exposing a tolerably large surface,
say t qiial to that of a common parlour, was covered
with a gridiron of gaspipe, through which f1ow«1 a re-
frigerating fl Aid. Of course the water covering the giuspipe
was soon frog -n, and the pond was then ready for the
skaters. The mschire used for producing the cold was
was that of M. Carl d, which employs the evaporation
of ammonia as a BOUred of cold, but differs from the
Tellier machine in the fact that the ammonia is used
in a state of initiation in water, while the Tether
chine employs the condensed gas.
Waren D by Old Time) —The fellow to "the
other day."-- Punch.

PuLICEMEN, DBTLCTICI:f, AND OJNVICTION.—
The following characteristic sketch is from feriae:
Tale By W. Steuart Trench, author of "Realities
of Irish Life" :
" A very strange story Indeed !" observed the earl, 'tend
that In more respects than one. You had full Information,
It seems, that I was to he fired at to night; you dogged the
smarts. MI the very pit from whence, t^ey were to C./M-
1.31 G the minis ; you had all your arrangements made ftr
alleging lh ni when the crime was cdromitted; and yen
et ver gave the slightest blot to me of the seriou• danger In
which you knew I was placed." "Quite true, my lord.' said
the datable. " But tan what a tang It would have been
In the country to have caught the rascals red.handed in the
very net of firing at the Eel of Killarney ! In we dash upon
the ruffians, and take them In the very ant of attempting to
commit a mord,. They would all be barged as sure a
fate. Whereas had we taken them before they had in any
wry committed themselrei, they would have sworn us black
In the face that they were only lying in wait for wild ducks!
' filgh:-shooting,' as thy call it: and they would have pru
ducdtwenty men to swear tat this very epot was the only
best pass In the couetry for wild decks going out ti feed at
night. I hope, therefore, your lordship will see that it was
absolutely actuary for tam to commit the satires in some
way, or the whole plan would have proved an utter f al! are "
" Well, certainly," observed the earl, "this to a somewhat
mow mode Ming expected to die for one's country. There
are dungers enough, as I know to my cue, to he encountered
Jo poiend, gv, lowdoolly In Tipp-retry. But bring exposed
a cork-shot a order to endbl, the poace more s.lleaually
to suppress crime. Is a d.ger, 1 conform, I had not exactly
calculated or ." "Well, you see, my lord, we can't quite
help it now and then," said the constable agitating. -Just
cor calve what a thing it would have been if we had actually
caught the fellows after they had fired, /sod probably missed
sour lordgilp, or perhaps t'uly put • slug or two itgo the
Aorta. • Detected crime,' my lord, and convicted mime,'
are everything to a policeman, and form grand column. In
the police report.. But the truth is, my lord, I don't recol-
lect any column for ' prevented crime.. That very often
goon for nothing, crone only gets a backslap In the face frvm
the authorities as if there had been no real danger. Depend
ou it, my lord, Doge Is nothing like letting one of those
rascals commit himself, arresting him red Mated in the
very act, 0011101 a special commlaxlon, If pantile, and bang-
Mg him up before he knows where he to

VALUABLE COUNTY lIISIORIEEL—IU a sale of
51essrs. Puttiik anil Simpson's, of Leic-ster rquare,
Lundon, the other day, there occurred several valuable
county histories and other semen and important books.
The following are the prices of some of the more in-
teresting :-489, Ddichn's Bibliographical Works, 8
vols., bound by Bedford, £4O; 490, Dils-lin's Biblio-
graphical Decameron, large paper, £3i: 10a. ; 502,
Molifire'a Works, 1773, 6 vol., large paper, Ell ; 611,
Surtees Society's Publication, 1806 69, 24 Tops, £l2;