The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-12 00:00:00

alisallanttrus ntitligent,e,
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.—An
onAcnAstEnrueertiin of a
American en
gineer, who, being engaged n
railway in China, has had unusually favourable op-
portunities of examining the famous Great Wall"
built to obstruct the incursions of the Tartars, gives
the following account of this wonderful work :—The
wall is 1,728 miles long, 18 feet wide, 'and 15 feet
thick at the top. The foundation throughout is of
solid granite, the remainder of compact masonry. At
intervals of between 200 and 300 yards towers rise up,
25 to 30 feet high and 24 feet in diameter. On the
top of the walls and on both sides of it are masonry
parapets to enable the defenders to pass unseen from
one tower to another. The wall itself is carried from
point to point in a perfectly straight line, across valleys
and plains and over hills, without the slightest re-
gard to the configuration of the ground, sometimes
plunging down into abysses a thousand feet deep.
Brooks and smaller rivers are bridged over by the wall,
while on both banks of larger streams strong flanking
towers are placed.—Pall Mall Gazette.
MOUNTAIN RAILWAYS.-7-SOlllB railway memoranda
lately published in Germany gives the highest points
yet reached by existing railways passing over moun-
tain ranges or through mountain passes. The Apennine
line reaches a height of 617 mefres (2,0241 t. ; the
Black Forest line, 850 metres (2,789 ft ) ; the Semmer-
ing, 890 metres (2,9201 t. the Caucasian line, 975
metres (3,198 ft ; the St. Gothard (tunnel), 1,154
metres (3,786 ft. ;the Brenner, 1,367 metres (4,475 ft.
Mont Cenis (tunnel), 1,338 metres (4,39011. ; the North
Pacific, 1,652 metres (5,4201 t the Central Pacific.
2,140 metres (7,021 ft. ; the Union Pacific, 2,513
metres (8,573 ft. ; while a railway over the Andes
climbs to 4,769 metres (15,646 ft ).

IRISH SUNDAY CLOSING RETURNS.—The returns on
the results of the Sunday Closing Act in Ireland,
ordered to be printed by the House of Commons,
show that in the six months from the 13th of October,
1878, to the 13th of April, 1879, the arrests for
drunkenness on Sundays throughout Ireland save in
the five excepted towns, were 707, as against 2,364 in
the same six months of 1877 and 1878. In the five
towns where the Act only restricts the former home
the numbers were—from the 13th of October, 1878, to
the 13th of April 1879, 1 268 arrests, against 1976, in
the corresponding period of 1877 and 1878. Of the
large towns, there were in Dublin alone during the six
months immediately succeeding the corning into opera.
tiou of the Act 689 arrests for drunkenness, as against
1,262 in the same six months before the passage of the
Sunday Closing Bill; in Belfast the decrease Was from
422 to 340; in Cork, from 179 to 162: in Limerick,
from 54 to 41; and in Waterford from 59 to 36. The
results show that in Ireland the decrease is seven per
cent. greater than that of Scotland in the first six
months after the Closing Act came into operation.

HYDROPHOBIA IN PARIS.—It appears from statistics
drawn up at the Prefecture of Police in Paris that the
number of cases of dog madness certified last year waes
502. They were distributed through the four seasons
as follows :—First quarter, 141; second quarter, 175
third quarter, 133; and fourth quarter, 53. To judge
by these figures, there are fewer cases in the summer
and autumn than in the winter and spring. The differ-
ence may be due to the more energetic measures taken
in the later months of last year. The Prefecture of
Police announces that all dogs not provided with
collars bearing the name and address of the owners
will be seized, taken to the Prefecture, and, if un4

claimed, killed.
SINGING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.—A report just
issu d by the Education Department shows the extent
to which singing is systematically taught in elementary,
schools, and the proportions in which various methods
are used. In England and Wales 697 schools use Mr.
Hullah's system, 534 use the old notation with the
moveable "do," 44 use more than one system, and
2,297 schools we Mr. Curwen's tonic-solf a system. The
remaining 19,921 by far the larger proportion teach by
ear. In Scotland only 10 schools use Mr. Hullah's
system, 105 use the old notation with the moveable
"do," 25 use more than one system, and 1,338 use
tonic solf a. The remaining 1,404, a less proportion

than in England, teach by eir.
MAXIM FOR BARBERS.—A penny shave is a penny
gained.—Judy.
AN OLD WRECK.—An Ystadt newspaper states that
a diving cutter engaged in surveying the bottom of the
sea at Sandhammer, Sweden, fished up about the
middle of June a large anchor and three oaken casks,
containing a powder resembling potash. To the anchor
was attached a large hempen cable, and the anchor
stock was marked Collingwood, N. Shields. Both
anchor and casks showed signs of age' and were sup-
posed to be from eighty to a hundred years old. At
the place where they were found there appeared to be
hundreds of similar casks, in fact a whole bottom
cargo, but no attempt to recover them would be made
until the nature and value of the contents had been
ascertained. For this purpose samples have been
sent to Professor Blomstrand, in Lund, for examina•
don.
"A PEEP."— A Correspondent of the American
Register writes :—ln some parts of Georgia and Florida
they have a comical expression to indicate distance—
about a peep " or "a peep and a half," or "about a
mile and a peep." I iecollect riding in the autumn of
1877 through an immense yellow pine forest in Eastern
Florida on the way to Jacksonville. We stopped at a
miserable shanty some miles from any other habitation,
all alone in the midst of that grand expanse of timber.
land and white sand, to inquire the way to the next
river-ford. An old "cracker," as the poor whites are
contemptuously called, came to the door of his hut and
bawled out, "You nns must go on for about a mile
and a quarter and then its only a peep or p'raps a peer
an' a half furder !" Generally speaking, a "peep"
means the distance me can see through the woods at a
" clearing "—a place where the forest has been
away and the road is laid open for some distance.
NOT SUCH A FOOL AS HE LOOKS.—On the Under-
ground Railway.—Guard (to country-looking party
who has inquired the way out) : Do you know you've
been riding second-class with a third-class ticket?
You'll have to pay excess.—Country L. P.: Orli be
be biled if I dew. I paid tuppence for my ticket, and
I got in a carriage wi' a 2 on it. [He was let off.—
Judy.
ORIGIN OF "UNCLE SAM."—It is said the name
originated from Samuel Wilson, a beef inspector at
Troy, N. Y., during the revolutionary war. He
was very popular with the men in his employ, and
was always called Uncle Sam. The boxes of previ-
sions were shipped to a contractor named Elbert
Anderson, and were marked "E. A., U. S." A joking
workman was asked what these letters stood for, to
which he replied he did not know, unless it was Elbert
Anderson and Uncle Sam. The joke "took," and
afterwards packages marked U. S. were said to belong
to Uncle Sam. .

AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN.—The following
are the average prices of British corn for the week
ending July 5, as received from the inspectors and
officers of Excise :—Wheat, 425, ; barley, 245, 6d.;
C
oats, 245. 2d. per imperial qr. orresponding week
last year :—Wheat, 465.; barley, 375. 2d.; oats,
275. 11d.

INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGY.—Among other re-
commendations made at the recent meeting of the Inter-
national Meteorological Congress was the adliption of
the meridian of Greenwich as the starting-poinl for the
construction of synoptic weather charts. In the event
of another meridian being used in the construction of
metrological charts the Congress recommended that
the difference of longitude between the meridian em-
ployed and that of Greenwich should be stated on the
chart. General Myer, Commander of the United
States Signal Corps, has arrived in Paris, from Rome,
on his way to Lf4ndon, where he will have an inter-
view with the Meterological Board, for the purpose of
establishing an understanding in matters of common
interest, especially on the subject of exchanging tele-
grams with America, so that both nations may enjoy
a daily summary of the weather on each continent.—
Nature.

----- --
CROWNING A ROSE QUEEN.—On Saturday the annual
excursion in connection with St. Austin's Miss ion. Lock's-
fi elds, Wal worth, London, took place, the locality selected
being the Crystal Palace. The party, numbering some
500 or 600, proceeded from the Priory, New Kent-road,
shortly after ten. The crowning of the Rose Queen,
which has been revived by the Provost of St. Austin's
Priory, the Rev. George Nugeo, took place in the
central transept of the Palace. Her Majesty on this
occasion was a comely young maiden named Miss
Jessie Archer, who, by reason of her good behaviour
and maiden-like conduct during the past year, was the
chosen of her sex of the locality for the reception of the
floral crown. The Rev. Father Nugee, after the coro-
nation, presented the queen with a Bible and testis
monial, accompanied with a gift of £5. Other awards
were made to deserving recipients.
COLONEL MOORE, V.o.—An "Old Brother Officer'
writes to The Times :

Sir,—One cannot but feel glad that the personal bravery
of Lieutenant-Colonel Moore, late 88th, but now of the 93rd,
in the late Caffre War has not been overlooked. As one
who knows the circumstances in which he earned the
Victoria Cross, I may mention—what is naturally omitted
in the official account—namely, that after receiving the
assegai in his arm he rode off, and finding it impossible to
extract the barbed point, he pushed the head through and
thus extracted himself. He then had his arm tied up, and
continued to ride, in command of his party, till be returned
into camp. No braver man, nor more heroic, unasattraing
act of bravery ever earned the token of valour.
THOSE PRINTERS !—A sucking Poet Laureate oom•
posed a nice little poem on "A Dead Love" (a rather
sentimental effort) and gave it to the editor. He ap.
proved it and handed it to the printer. It appeared
as a"A Dead Dove." The writer was horrified, and
begged the editor to correct it, which he did in this
manner: "We have been requested to correct a typo.
graphical error in the title of the poem in our last
issue. For ' dove ' read 'dog."
DESIDERATUM.—The place where there in space to
turn rouLd in—Eastern Room-melia.—Judy.
MATRIMONIAL CHANCES —Many romantic stories
are related of marriages resulting from correspondence
between strangers. Here is a story of a pair who, after
exchanging letters, met by appointment (says the
Court Journal,) "The surprise with which she die.
covered that he, instead of being twenty seven, tall,
dark, and aristocratic, was forty-six, stumpy, red
headed, fat, and bow legged, was only equalled by
the rapturous amazement with which he discovered
that she, instead of being willowy of figure, just
eighteen, with warm golden hair, an opalescent coma
plexion, and blue eyes like limpid lakes, was six feet
one, if she was an inch, fifty-two if she was a day,
weighing three and twenty stones if she did an ounce,
and with no warm yellow or any other hair of her
own.

AN IMPROMPTU RIDE.—A San Francisco man
bought a sugar hogshead the other day to use as a
water tank. It was delivered in front of his house,
above Stockton. He crawled inside to determine as
to its being water-tight, when it began rapidly to roll
down the hill. At the Kearney-street crossing it
knocked down a horse and buggy, and jumped clear
over a furniture waggon near Montgomery-street.
Near Battery-street it upset a car on the track and
switched off into a wholesale drug store. When the
passenger was taken out he screamed " Fire ! " for
about fifteen minutes without stopping. He couldn't
remember exactly That had happened, but had an
unutterable conviction that something was wrong.
CHRISTMAS AND MIDSUMMER. Christmas comes
but :once a year. Does it? It did, in time past, and
so did the Cattle Show, coming just before Christmas.
But now we have had a Cattle show held at Mid-
summer in weather which would have been seasonable
had Christmas been close at band. Can Christmas
this year then be going to come twice; the first time,
at the usual period of harvest? Is that one of the
consequences to be expected from the conjunction of
Saturn and Mars?—Punch.
THE YOUNG GIRL AND HER H4.IIL—A charming
story of a hair has recently been told as having occur'
red at Vienna (says the Court Journal). A poor girl
with beautiful hair went to a barber to sell it. Hp
tried to make a close bargain, saying hair was plenti-
ful this year, and declared he could only give her eight
florins. The little maiden's eyes filled with tears, and
she hesitated for a moment while threading her fingers
through her chestnut locks. Finally she threw her-
self into a chair and said, "Then take it quickly."
The barber was about to cut off the fair tresses, when
a gentlema twitting in one of the chairs interrupted
him, and spoke to the girl. "My child," said he,
"why do you sell your beautiful hair?" "My mother
has been nearly five months ill. I cannot work enough to
support us. Every thing has been sold or pawned, and
there is not a penny in the house." "No, no, my child;
if that is the case I will buy your hair, and give one
hundred florins for it." He gave the girl the note, the
sight of which dried her tears, and he took up the
barber's shears. Taking the locks in his hand, he
selected the longest hair, cut it off, and put it care-
fully in his pocket-book, thus paying one hundred
florins for a single hair, He took the poor girre
address, in case he should want to buy another at the
same rate.

WEATHER FORECAST.—The following cable message
has been received at the London Office of the New
York Herald, from the Herald weather bureau, New
York :—" Disturbance preceded by depression will
arrive on the British and Norwegian Coasts, between
the 9th and llth inst. ; rains, lightning, south. west,
veering to north.west gales low temperature follows."
THE ENGLISH HOME-RULER.—The Lady of the
House.—Punch.

THE ZULUS As SKIIIMISHERS.—It was a sight well
worth seeing, the quick, decisive way in which the
Zulus ran from cover to cover—no delay, no crowding
—they seemed to know Intuitively what hill or bush to
make for, and get there at once- and when compelled
to retreat from them by the "Uhlans," would make
off to the next position near which our column would
have to pass. In the rear they were equally active,
keeping as close as our rear-guard would allow them
on the heels of the column, seldom showing themselvee,
but harassing us the whole way. It was fortunate
that they had few Martinis amongst them and were
such bad shots, the nearest approach they made to
hitting one of us being knocking a carbine out of *
conductor's hands. If we could only get our men to
skirmish like that! The habit is born with there
though, and has not to be "drilled" into them, as into
our soldiers; besides, we could never make a British
soldier eo mtiyo es they are.—litackWood for *MY'