The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-08-19 00:00:00

WATER FOUNTAINS IN PARIS.

There are many ways of enjoying a day in Paris;
and he must have been somewhat lacking in imagina-
tion who spent eleven hours last week—from eight in
-tile morning till seven in the evening—in watching
--thetverione persons who came to drink at one of Sir
lUcrd Wallace's free fountains—that in the Place
Lav Ch&feau ci'Eau (says the Pall Mall Gazette),
During this time 1,738 came to draw water. Waiters
'tram cafe came with bottles of a well-known shape.
destined to figure in company with glasses containing
a modicum of absinthe or curacoa and bitters.'
Soldiers, too, presented themselves with cang.
which somehow to others seemed strangely suggestive
of three parts of wine to one of water. Women
again, were freenent visitors to the fountain, but often!
with jugs and children, which, taken in combination,
recalled the idea ornecessary but retarded ablutions
rather than of recruits for the Band of Hope.:
Lastly, there were children (without nurses) who
came for the pleasure of splashing themselves and
casual strangers, till a "guardian of the peace," ren-
dered irritable by the heat, ehould deem it recessary;
to interfere. There are forty of the " Fontaine&
Wallace in the city of Paris, and ten more are to be
erected, all at the cost of the benevolent gentlemen
whose name they bear. There are also, it may be
worth noting, nearly 25,000 . cafes, or public-houses,
within the same space, to say nothing of 180 music-t
halls and 238 public ball-rooms, where "refreshment "'
of various degrees of alcoholic power may be obtained'
at exortetant. prices. Taking the population of Paris
in round numbers at 2,000,000, it will be seen
there is one free fountain to every 40,000 persons,,
shop to every eighty.
, •
THE MINISTRY,
Lord Malemsbury has retired from office, and al
30 years of political life has resumed the character o
free country gentleman. Singularly unobtrusive
unostentatious, his qualities have always been highlyi
valued by those who knew him well. The intimate
friend of the late Lord. Derby, he accepted twice the
post of Foreign Secretary in his first two Governments.
while in his third Government and in Mr. Disraeli's!
two AdminiArations he has filled the Cabinet office ofl
Lord Privy Seal. As Foreign Secretary his name has
beericonnected with two great acts of policy. In 1852,
against the protests of the three Great Powers alleged
to be founded on the Treaty of Vienna. he recegnized
Louis Napoleon's assumption of the Empire under the
title of Napoleon 111., thus for the time securing
the sincere alliance of France under the second Napo-
leonic r4jime. In 1859 the exertions of Lord Malmes-
bury prevented the Prussians from joining Austria
against Napoleon 111., while lie dissuaded the latter
from infringing the territory of the Germanic
Confederation in the Tyrol, and thus localized the
war, Had Lord Malmesbury not been successful in
this policy the events of 1870 would probably have
been anticipated as to France, and the North of Italy
might still have remained in the possession of Austria
or Germany, for the late Emperor admitted that he
could nut have withstood the united attack of the two
German Monarchies. It is believed that for the present
the new Lord Beaconsfield will combine in himself the
two offices of Lord Privy Seal and First Lord of the
Treasury,—The Times.
The Corriere della Sera of Milan states that some
thieves who had concealed themselves in the Duomo car-
ried off a part ot the jawels with which the statue of the
Vir,in was ornamented. But the robbers were themselves
tanieu in, as the atones were false.
A fearful fire broke out at Aldwarke Main Colliery,
near S. afield, on Tuesday, and was not f xtiogulahed until it
has s'ic horses, ciestroyed the lamp roam, and done
gre•tt darnel; ti the working. The fire was canoed by a buy
*hopping a light on aorre paraffin oil in the pit.
During his recent stay at Ischl (the Eastern Budget
slys) the Emperor cf Austria saved the child; of a poor
woman from a violent dee, h. As he was passing through
the B,ettenbach gorges a trly of four years old fell over a
precipice, and, his clothes having caught on a projecting
branch, was suspended over a torrent some fifty feet below.
The Emperor, whose proficiency in all athletic sports is well
known, jumped across the precipioe, freed the boy from his
perilous positioe, aßktes# balt,* to hi mother.
' '

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