The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-02-24 00:00:00

THE FLOODS IN AMERICA.

The Neto York Herald has opened a fund for the
relief of the sufferers by the recent inundations, and
has itself contributed 5,000 dollars. A despatch from
Vicksburg announces that several breaks have
occurred in the levees on the Misiissippi above that
place, causing alarm to the planters in the neigh-
bourhood.
The scenes witnessed in the flooded districts, it is
reported, are appailiag. BeyoDd Post Royal people
i
are rowing about n boats searching for their houses,
the roofs of which cannot be reached with oars ten
feet long, A glass greenhouse when floating about
has caught on a church spire; a stable has been
planted on a housetop, and a ff)ating dwelling has
lodged among the branches of elm trees. The
weather is now becoming cold, and disease prevails.
The people whose homes have thus been overtaken
by disaster nevertheless evince much courage. Such
is the desire manifested to do without extraneous help
that some cities to which assistance has been offered
have intimated that the aid had better be sent else-
where. Since the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis
there has been no equal to the calamity of theseqloods.
Louisville estimates its losses at 3,000,000 dols. The
aggregate losses of the entire,Ohio valley are believed
to approximate 20,000,000 dole,

Generous contributions are be sent to the funds
for the relief of sufferers by the Western floods. From
Nev York 30,00 dole. has been sent, including
2,500 dole, from Mr. Vanderbilt. The people of Phil-
adelphia have furnished 6,000 dole. The citizens of
Cincinnati, although five square miles of the town are
still overflowed, decline any outside aid, passing it
over to less fortunate towns. The Cincinnati Relief
Committee provides for all cases of suffering by the
floods in the city.
The work of restoration is progressing, and some of
the railways have resumed traffic, Business is active
where it can be done.

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

A youth begged a belle to;,give him something he
could wear next his heart. She sent him a red flannel
chest-protector.
A marriage notice tops off in this way: "No cards,
no (Ake, no flowers, no presents and nobody's
business."
"Please, Mr. Smith, papa wants to know if you
won't lend him the model of your bat?" "Certainly,
my son—what for?" "He wants to make a scare.
crow."
The clergyman in a certain town, as the custom
having published the banns of matrimony between
two persons, was followed by the clerk's reading the
hymn beginning with these words "Mistaken souls,
who dream of heaven."

"Dogs, under favourable circumstances, live to be
30 years old," says an exchange. ',Favourable cir-
cumstances" probably means a family without boys or
neighbours.
The fact that the Chinese put a fan in the coffin
with their dead "for luck" suggests to a Chicago
paper that it may be all right for the Chinese' but in
this country it would be taken as a hint that the
deceased was going where a fan would be in constant
demand.

A fashionable lady received a telegram, and her face
blanched and her hand trembled as she held the un-
opened envelope before her. Giving it to her daughter,
she said, "Read it." The girl obeyed. "Papa has
broken his leg and gone to the hospital," she said. The
mother's face brightened. "Thank Heaven it is no
worse," she said; " I feared he might be going to
bring somebody to dinner!"

A hearty welcome was given on Sunday afternoon
at Plymouth to the Highland Light Infantry Regi-
ment, that landed from the troopship &Tapia. The
4,
men, nearly 800 strong, were marohed to the Citadel,
otompanted_ by.. tame military
bands. playing 4rium-
-04 mud°.