The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-07 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Spanish Gendarmes are in future to accompany the
express on the Northern line of railway from Madrid. Each
carriage will have an alarm bell attached.

A new Baptist chapel—the third—is about to be
built in Rome.

In the London corn market on Monday the value of
wheat was unaltered from last Monday. Bailey was 6d. to
Is. dearer, and maize was rather against the buyer. Oats
realized an advance of 6d.

"Engagement Bracelets" are amongst the latest
fashionable novelties across the Atlantic. They are fitted
with combination locks, of which the husband in prospective
keeps the key.

-
At a meeting of the nailers' delegates on strike,
held at Brierly-hill, on Monday, the resolution passed on
Wednesday to reduce the demand was rescinded, and it was
decided to return to the original terms of 10 per cent. off the
183 list. The masters show no signs of yielding, and the
strike continues.

An outbreak of Asiatic cholera is reported from
Sweden. Several cases there have terminated fatally.

For the first three months of the Paris Exhibition
the receipts have been 6,056,139 t.; for the same period of the
Exhibition of 1867 the receipts were 3,846.479 f.

According to the Correspandencia de Espana, the late
Queen Christina has left a fortune of eight millions of francs,
which is exclusively inherited by the children born of her
marriage with the Duke of Rianzares, her other daughters
Queen Isabella and the Duchess of 3fontpensier, having
already received all that was due to them at her death.
-

The ship Roden By arrived at Brisbane on the 26th
of August. The passengers were landed all well. The pas-
sage occupied 79 days.
- - - - -

- -
An army pensioner, named Bernard Mace, has died
in the Billericay Workhouse, Essex, at the advanced age of
95. Ho had a Victoria medal, dated 1848, with ten clasps, for
engagements in Portugal, Spain and France and having
erq.)yed a pension of is. id. per day for 55 years he had re-
ceived a total of £l,OBO.

•
The Prince Imperial of Germany has again ex-
pressed his thanks to England for the kindly feeling ex-
pressed in connection with the sinking of the Groeser
linxi nrst

"A Beardless Buoy."—The one at the Nore !
Judy.
A sad accident has occurred on a lake adjoining
Brymslow House, Somerset, the seat of the De Vesci family.
Three young ladies were rowing on the lake when the boat
capsized. Two of them were rescued, but the third, Miss
Helen, the third daughter of the Hon. Spencer Fousonby
Pane, aged IS, was drowned.
Eight persons, all Gen evese, were drowned at Geneva
on Tuesday morning by the upsetting Om small boat outside
the breakwater. There was a strong rise at the time, and
the lake was very rough.
- - -

The vaatatrix is said to hare been !doing
considerable damage in Portugal, and a committee are vow
Investigating the matter.
-

- -
Another child, a daughter, NN-as horn to the Duk
and Duchess of Edinburgn at Coburg on Sunday moniing.
The medical bulletin announced that the Duchees and the
infant are well.

The Eurydice has at last been safely brought t,-) the
surface, the floating operations having been successfully
accomplished, and the vessel was towed into Portsmouth on
Sunday, exactly twenty-three weeks after her homeward
voyage was brought to so abrupt and sad a termination.
Even yet am in the dark. Your hurried letter in
pencil made me suppose it was all right, but not hearing
again frc.m you I don't know what to think, except you're
lazy and dhagreeable. When am I to see you again? D,
write.—Yours, W.—Advertisement in The Times.

Oa Saturday 1,103 Liberals from Leigh and district
visited Knowsley-park, by permission of the Earl of D,rby.
This was the flrat visit cf a Liberal organisation to Knowsley,
the same body having also been the first to go to Mr. Glad
-
stone's seat at Hawarden. Mr. I'. T Hayes, Jun. afterwards
presided over a meeting at which a determination was ex-
pressed to win the next South West Lancashire election for
the Radicals, ii doing which they hoped to have the assist-
ance of the Earl of Derby. This was loudly cheered by the
meetir.g.

In the last number of Peterman's Geographische
Mitthiuungen the number of inhabitants of the globe 1 s
estimated at 1,439,145,300, of which 312,398,480 are set down t ,
Europe, 331,000,000 to Asia, 205,219,500 to Africa, 4,411,300
to Australia, and 86,116,000 to America. The number of
horses existing (China and Japan not included) is said to be
51,000,000. Russia is stated to possess 21,570,000, the 17nited
States 9,504,000, the Argentine Republic 4,000,000, Germany
3,352,000, France 3,000,000, Canada, 2,624,000, Great Britain
2,265,000, Hungary 2,179,000, Austria 1,357,000, Turkey
1,100,000.
A motto for an enthusiastic Eeronaut.—
naught?"—Fun.

" Air-or-

It has puzzled many to decide why rosewood once BO
highly valued should have been a little outrivalled by wal-
nut; but the fact is that necessity has forced the latter into
undue favour, as rosewood has been disappearing off the
face of the earth. We learn from recent accounts that some
of the forests where it once grew abundantly, now have
scarcely a single specimen. In Madras the Government has,
however, had great plantations of this tree set out in order
to keep up the supply.

The court-martial, at Portsmouth, on the survivors
of the Eurydlce's crew gave its judgment on Monday. The
Court held that the Eury dice foundered on the 24th of March
by pressure of wind on her sails during a sudden and excep-
tionally dense snowstorm which was obscured from view by
exceptionally high land: that the upper half-ports being
open materially conduced to the catastrophe, but that they
were justifiably opened. The Court were of opinion that no
blame was attributable to anyone, the captain beingf re-
quently on deck; and they were furtheK ofppinion that the
question of the Eurydice's stability had been properly con'?
sidered. They acquitted the survivors of all blame.

California can spare a million tons of wheat this
year.
A fire broke out on Tuesday afternoon in the ware-
house of Sir C. Price and Co., oil refiners, Castle Baynard
Wharf, Upper Thames-street. With such inflammable ma-
terial the fire obtained an almost immediate and complete
mastery of the premises, and raged until the building and
Its contents were entirely destroyed. It was with great difti
catty that the firemen succeeded in preserving from a similar
fate the adjoining premises, to which the tire at one time
spread.

A curious version of Rip Van Winkle exists in a
Japan legend (says the Graphic):—" A young man fishing in
his boat on the ocean was invited by the goddess of the sea
to her home beneath the waves After three days be desired
to see his old father and mother. On parting she gave him
a golden casket and key, but begged him never to open it.
At the village where he lived all was changed, and be could
get no trace of his parents until an aged woman recollected
hearing their names. He found their graves a hundred
years old. Thinking that three days could not have such a
change, and that he was under a spell, he opened the casket.
A white vapour rose, and under its influence the young man
fell to the ground. His hair turned gray, his form lost its
youth, and in a few moments he died of old age.
A Spanish lady has appeared on the Boulevards
leading a pet dove, with a rose ribbon, instead of a scented
poodle; the change is deliciously poetical.—Court Journal.

The Magnet says :—The unsettled weather of the
past week has been a great drawback to the prosecution of
harvest operations. Of the grain cut a somewhat large,pro-
portion has, unfortunately, been carried in bad condition,
suggestive of a deterioration in quality. Reports from Ire.
land respecting the harvest are satisfactory, but the weather
is necessary to complete the prospect.

Thirty-one British and foreign wrecks were reported
during the past week, making the total for the present year
982, or a decrease of 177 as compared with the correspond-
ing period of last year. The approximate value of property
lost was about £200,000, including British £lOO,OOO.
The other day, in London, there was offered to
public auction the freehold building site situate 21. Cock-
lane, Giltspur-street, being the house in which the well-
known Cock-lane Ghost imposition of the last century took
place in the year 1762, the perpetrator being a ventriloquist.
-IA shocking accident. has occurred to Dr. and Mrs.
Wollaston, of Lyme Regis. It appears that they were on
Saturday evening last returning in their carriage to Lyme
Regis, when the bolt of a shaft got loose and the horse
suddenly started. Dr. Wollaiton, greatly frightened jumped
out of the vehicle, coming in contact with a wall at Colway
Lodge. He was immediately conveyed home, where he was
attended by Drs. Holmes and Skinner, bat the extravasation
of blood on the brain has led t-) his death. He never re-
covered consciousness. Mrs. Wollaston, who retained her
seat in the carriage, remained unhurt. The deceased was a
member of the Lyme Regis corporation, and the parish
doctor.

The body of Mr. William Lee, aged 37, a well-
known citizen of Oxford, was discovered floating in the
Isis, near Binsey, on Monday mo'rning It appears that the
deceased, who Lad been unwell for some days past, com-
plaining of faintness, went on Sunday to Godstow, as was
his custom three or four times a week, and proceeded by the
river side in the direction of his home. Nothing was seen of
him until Monday morning, when he was discovered dead in
the river near the " Perch "at Bineey. An inquest was held
on Monday, when money, a gold watch, lockets, and gold and
silver coins were found upon him, and the body entirely frees
from marks of violence. A verdict to the effect that the de-
ceased was found dead in the river without any evidence how
he came there was returned, it is supposed that the de-
ceased had a fainting fit and fell into the river, or that he
walked into it through the intense darkness of the night
He was, however, a good swimmer, and the first supposition
Is probably the correct one