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

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.
A great fire has taken place at Irkutsch, in Eastern
Siberia, and the most important part of the town has been
destroyed. A large number of the inhabitants are without
shelter.
A review of the troops quartered in Paris and its
neighbourhood is to be held on the racecousse at Long-
champs next Sunday, in the presence of the President of the
Republic.

The Cologne Volkszeitung reports that at Rhode a
few evenings ago a priest was killed by a stroke of lightning
in his confessional chair, just as he was dismissing the last
of the persens he had been confessing. This person was
found insensible. The steeple of the church was also struck.
Mr. Knowles, beadle of the parish church at Preston,
died very suddenly on Sunday morning during the service,
just after escorting the clergyman to the chancel.
Thirteen hundred sheep which arrived at Liverpool
last week from Boston were pronounced to be suffering
from foot-and-mouth disease, and an order was received
from the Privy Council directing their immediate slaughter.
This was effected on Tuesday, tne sheep having been taken
for the purpose into the new lairage for scheduled cattle at
the Huskisson branch dock.
Mr. J. E. B. Hammond writes from 12, Baker.
street, London, W., to The Times :—" I wish to call your
attention as to what can be done on the house-tops in Lon-
don. I have at this moment some strawberries grown here
and ready to pick, also a frame of cucumber plants which
bid fair to have a good crop. I have grown cucumbers here
successfully for two years.'
On Wednesday night in last week heavy storms
with tornadoes raged in Winconsin and Minnesota, 51n. of
rain falling in St. Paul in 15 hours. Tne towns of Vasa,
Warrentown, Mountain Lake, Winnebago, Lewars, and
•Menomeree have been seriously damaged, 21 persons being
killed and many injured.

It WA3 reported in Constantinople on Saturday that
the ex-Sultan Murad, having become alarmed by the in-
creased number of guards and soldiers near the palace in
which he is confined, had made his escape. Next day a semi-
official contradiction of the rumour was issued.

The hay harvest in Berks, Bucks, Middlesex, and
Surrey is becoming pretty general, the crop being rather
heavy. A great many meadows have already been cut, and,
although the hazy weather has proved of some service, a hot
111 PC,ll.liVoa t 11.1 ah mss.l.
to be spoiled by the frequent showers.

There was a violent thunderstorm in the north of
Scotland on Tuesday.

A well•dressed young man, believed to be a German,
threw himself from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, on Mon-
day, and was dashed to pieces.

Advices from Canada state that a reaction has set in
agaivat the Protection policy of the Government, and that a
reform of the oppressive tariff will probably soon be
affected.

The Duchess of Connaught has promised to pre-
sent new colours to the 12th Regiment, which is stationed
at Portsmouth, but no date has yet been tLxed for the
ceremony.

There were 18 British and foreign wrecks reported
during the past week, making a total of 715 for the present
year, or an increase of 21 as compared with the corresponding
period of last year. The approximate value of property lost
was £310,000, including British £.240,000.
Uniformity in the Russian Army is being carried to
such a pitch that the cavalry are distributed into companies
according to the shape of their noses and the general con-
tour of the face. One squadron is formed of nothing but
fair-haired men, the next contains those of medium com-
plexion, and all the swarthy warriors are collected in a
third Following the same custom, the horses of the various
regiments are also selected according to colour, one com-
pany having chestnut steeds, another black, and so on. At
least so says the Paris Globe.

The Committee of the National Liberal Federation
met at Birmingham on Monday, and prepared a circular tube
addressed to the Liberal Associations throughout the country,
urging them to get up an agitation in favour of the total
abolition of flogging in the army.

The receipts on account of revenue from the let
April, 1879, when there was a balance of £6,015,756, to July
5, 1879, were £19,640,467, against £19,815,100 in the corres-
ponding period of the preceding financial year, which began
with a balance of £5,243,389. The net expenditure was
£25,786,610, against £26,674,665 to the same date in the
previous year. The Treasury balances on July 5 amounted
to £1,153,124, and at the aame date in 1878 to £1,081,546.
An inquest was held at Abingdon on Saturday on the
body of Mr. R,. A. C. Eddrup, student at Royese's School, and
a younger son of the Rev. E P. Eddrup, vicar of Bremhil,
Caine, Wilts, who was accidentally drowned whUe boating
on the Thames, near Nuneham, on the previous evening.
Deceased and two companions went up the river in one of
the school rowing boats, and, contrary to the rules of the
school, obtained and hoisted a sail. A sudden gust of wind
caused the frail craft to be capsized, and the occupants, all
of whom were good swimmers, endeavoured to reach the
bank. Deceased got among the weeds, threw up his arms,
and sank, his b, dy not being recovered for some time. A
verdict of "Accidental Death" was returned.

By the death of a brother of Sir John Watson
Gordon, formerly president of the Royal Scottish Academy,
a bequest of £ll,OOO, which had been left for the foundation
of a chair of fine arts in the University of Edinburgh, has be-
come payable.

- -
"People accustomed to the London asphalt pave-
ments had a very imperfect idea of what a showyard is like
after a wet week. One young lady was tramping about on
one of t},e wettest days in low shoes and worked stockings."
—Mark Lane Express.
Sunday was the 11th anniversary of the birth of the
Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary, second daughter of
their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The youthful Princess was born at Marlborough House on
July 6, 1868, and was baptised there en the 6th August
following.

-- -
The French transport and hospital ship the Scham-
rock, recently completed at Havre, is the lark eat ship of the
kind in the French Navy. She is intended for the convey-
ance of troops to and from Cochin China, and is provided
with accommodation for 1,03 men, in ordinary service, or
2,000 men in time of war, besides her crew.
Agricultural prospects in Kent (according to the
31aidatone Journal) have never looked so gloomy as they do
at this moment, rho wheat plant is everywhere turning
yellow, the peas are "harvesting" off without a crop, and
barley and oats are poor. Beans look a little better, but
everything is sadly behind, the wheat not yet being in bloom.
A good deal of clover and meadow grass has been cut for
hay, but there has not been a chance as yet of making it,
and the quality will deteriorate.

- -
According to a Swiss paper, the Assecuranz•Blatt,
Prince Louis Napoleon, before starting for the Cape, has had
his life insured by an English insurance company for £30,000.
The Bristol coroner, Mr. Wasbrough, has held an
Inquest on the body of Mr. William Hardwell, a local
butcher, who, while attending to his pickling vat in a cellar
beneath his shop, was seized with a tit, and falling forward,
his face became immersed in the brine, and he was suffo-
cated. He had for some time past suffered from giddiness.
The Jury returned a verdict that the deceased was accident-
ally suffocated.
A handsome tablet has been placed in the chapel of
the dockyard at Portsmouth, by permission of the Admiralty,
and is a tine specimen of the sculptor's art. On a tablet of
Jet black marble is a cross and anchor ard cable resting on
rock covered with seaweed, and beneath a scroll in white
block marble, the latter bearing the follo%ing inscription,
surmounted by the word "Eurydice," and having under-
neath the crest and motto of the deceased in affec-
tionate remembrance of Francis Hope Tabor, Lieutenant
Royal Navy, who was drowned by the capsizing of H.M.S.
Eurydice off Dunmore, Isle of Wight, March 4th, 1878, this
tablet was erected by the officers of the ships in which he
had served."

Dr, Krause, at a scientific meeting at Stuttgart, a
few days ago, referred to the recent swarms of the Vanessa
Cardin butterfly. A like phenomenon occurred in Piedmont
in 1741, 1826, and 1857. This year a swarm passed through
Turin on the 2nd of June, through Switzerland from the 2nd
to the 9th, Alsace, France, and Spain from the 515 to the
10th, and Wiirtemburg from the 11th to the 21st. Professor
Eimer, of Tubingen, found that 18 out of 19 specimens were
females full of eggs, and he attritnites the march to the
search for a place to deposit their eggs; a march directed
by their keen scent. Caterpillars have already been found on
thistles in the districts visited, and a large number may be
looked for.

The Earl and Countess of Tankerrille have received
intelligence that their eldest son, Lord Ossulton, of the Rifle
Brigade, died from cholera on the 20th ult. He was attacked
on his return from Afghanistan to join the headquarters of
his regiment at timballa He was born December 31, 1850,
passed for a direct commission in the Army in May, 1570,
and joined the Coldstream Guards in November that year.
He afterwards exchanged into the Rifle Brigade, and pro-
ceeded to India with the 4th Battalion of the Brigade.—
Monday's Times.
The hope which was excited by a slight increase in
the exports in the Board of Trade returns for the month of
May is not encouraged by those for June. There is again
a falling away in bzith exports and imports; and as the
figures last year with which those of this year compare
snowed a decline as compared with 11i77, U is evident that
the reduction La contlauona.