The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-05-27 00:00:00

AMERICAN HUMOUR.

A Southern nigger arrested with chickens in his sack
declared, "De man dat put 'em der was no fren' of mine."

A New York baker-advertises biscuits so exquisite
that persons "sigh as their flavour dies away upou their
breath."
A Texas paper speaks of "the death of several re-
sidents of this (listfizt by affections of the throat superin-
duced by mars."
"What was the result of the trial of that horse-
steal( r P.' asked a Missourian of his neighbour.—" Oh, he was
left hanging in suspense," was the reply.

- - -
A Kentucky editor speaks of a local mina who has
been a persevering contributor to the office waste paper
basket for several years.

"Who dat hit me? Where's dat lantern?" were the
exclamatioas of an astonished Virginian nigger after being
throa n something like an hundred feet by a locomotive.
A New York paper says, "China has abolished the
ko-tow. We don't know what it is, but we are glad it is
abolished, for we never liked it."
- - -

A Yankee paper informs the public that board for
the summer can be obtained "at a large and shady brick
gentleman's residence."
A Yankee advertising for a wife, says, "It would be
well if the lady were possessed of a competency sufficient
to secure her against excessive grief, in case of accident
occurring to het companion."

A Pennsylvania farmer has had his son christened
"Slippery Elm." If honouring the father is essential to
longevity, that youth will probably die young.

i frontier Texan, who was asked if he was going to
attend the Centennial Exhibitinn, guilelessly replied, "I'd
like to, but I'll have to put it off till next year.

An exchange asks—" What are our young men
doing '' We can't answer for the rest of the country, but
around here they are engaged mainly in trying to lead a nine-
dollar existence on a seven-dollar salary.
A Wisconsin editor illustrates the prevailing extra-
vagance of the people of the present day by calling attention
to the costly baby carriages in use now, while when he was a
lad they hauled him around by the hair of his head.

A San Antonio (Texas) newspaper says :—" A gen-
tleman who came several thousand miles to view the country
with the purpose of purchasing laud, got a large-sized red ant
on him a few days ago, and, stranger as he was, he tore about
and used as appropriate langusge as it he had lived here all
his life and moved in the best society."
A fair and buxom New York widow who had buried
three husbands recently, went with a gentleman who, in his
younger de, had paid her marked attentions, to inspect the
graves of her dear departed s After contemplating them in
mournful silenc,s, she murmured to her companion :—"
James, .sou nai;.;ht have been in that row now if 3 Ott had only
had a little more courage."
A young lady graduate of a Western medical college,
when asked by her father what he should get her for a birth-
day present, caused that gentleman to turn pale by exclaim-
" Oh, my dtriing pa! if you would oxly go to the
hospital end buy me the head and arm of a man, I should
he the happiest girl in the world, I could dissect them on
the kitchen table, you tee."
An old bccbelor at New Orleans has been deterred
from committing matrimony in the following way :--Think-
ing over the su-ject, and particularly of the expense of
maintaining a family, he set the table in his lonely abode
with plates f, it. himself and imaginary wife and live chi:dren.
Ile then sat down to dine, and as often as he helped himself
to food, he put the same quantity on each of the other
plates, and surveyed the prospect, at the same time com-
paring the cost. He is still a bachelor.
" BEECHER'S " CANDLE„—An honest old gentleman
from S.monta county, who came to the city to speed the Sab-
bath with friends, was. asked by one of them what the people
up his way thought of the Beecher scandal. He replied that
he never tried it, and didn't know anything about It; that
he and all his neighbours burned kerosene.

Nottingham and the neighbourhood were visited on
Monday aftercoon by a heavy thuudyrstorm, accompanied
by frequent fearful flashes of lightning. At the village of
Ratcliffa, a man name I Franks was standing on a high cliff
overlooking the river Trent, when he was struck by ligntning
and killed instantaneously, the electric fluid passing through
several parts of his body,

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN,

The decease, at Bordeaux, is announced, at the age
of 104, of M. Collantea, formerly equerry to Ferdinand VII

The Princess Christian, it is announced, is making
such satisfactory progress that it is not considered necessary
to issue any more bulletins.

A Hindostanee work on music says that "music is
the painfully acquired art of speaking very loud in a shrill
Voice."

Prince Louis Napoleon visited the Prince of Wales
on Saturday.

Thirteen scholarships, varying in value between £BO
and £l5 per annum, will be offered for competition at Marl-
borough College on June 14 and follnwing days. Particulars
are to be had of Mr. &Hick at the College.
It is stated that a party of French civil engineers
have lately been in London for the purpose of inspecting the
Underground Railway, with a view to the introduction cf a
similar mode of locomotion in Paris.
The disposition to resort to "short time" in the
cotton trade appeals to be becoming more generaL Al a
meeting of spinners and manufacturers of Whitworth, near
Rochdale, It was resolved to close the mills in that district
during the whole of Whit week.
-

The total receipts of revenue from the Ist of April
to the 20th of May were £10,201,993, against £10,776,058 in
the corresponding period of last year. The expenditure was
£11,622 160, against £12,483,112 last year.
An item from India says that the Wurors coal
mineF, in the Central Provinces, have been proved to contain
over 20,000,000 tons of coal at depths varying from CO to 450
feet from the surface."

In cons( quen( e of the deprespion in trade a number
of the spinners and manufacturers of Bradford have decided
upon giving their hands noti.ie of a reduction in wages
amountiug to at least 10 per cent.

Prince Napoleon has addressed a letter to his elec-
tors, in whicn he says ;—The Republic exists; patrioii,m
imposes it on us; it is the only form of government in the
actual situation of France ; I accept it loyally and unre-
servedly."
One of the greatest defects in the education of boys
consists in teaching them that the world will always Le just
to them. It is not true. The world is often usijust ; it uoes
not hang a great many people who deserve it.

The Windsor Castle, which left on Saturday, took
out two little steel vesstis for the Church of Scotland. One
is for mission service on Lake Isryassa, and the other for the
purpose of establishihg trading stations.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledges in The
Times (as" Conscience Money ") the receipt of the second
halves of bank-notes for £735,,,fr0m "N. B." for Income
T. x.
Da you know how a church fair works? The prin-
ciple 13 a very ingeulorts one. Some ladles borrow money
from their husbands, buy materials, and mage up fancy
articles, which they give to the fair. Then thfy change
places, borrow more money, and buy the articles back again.
—Court Journal.

The eelect committee of the House of Commons
appointed to "consider a petition addressel to the House
by inhab.tanta of the town of Boulogne sur having
taken evidence, and searched for precedents, do not advise
the reception of the petition by the House.

In London, on Sunday night, a little before ten
o'clock, a boat, containing a parts ot friends who had been
on a pleasure excursion down the Thames, was capsized off
the Houses of Parliament, end six persons were drowned.
An official notice is published in Tuesday night's
London Gazette stating that Her Diajesty's Government has
given orders to Sir W. Hewett, the naval commander on the
West Coast of Africa, that no blockade of the posts of
Dahomey is to be e,tanlianed until after the 30th of next
month The blockade was to have commenced on the let of
June.

At Greenock, on Sunday afternoon, a large sugar
store belonging to the Harbour Corporation was cansumed
by fire. The store contained about 2000, tons of raw nutter,
which was also destroyed. The total damage, which is esti-
mated at £OOOO is covered by insurance.
Lord Suffield, who accompanied the Prince of Wales
to India, returned to North Waltham, Norfolir, on Monday
night, and was heartily welcomed and entertained. His
lordship, in speaking of India, said the native army was in
fine condition. In his opinion the natives were attached to
England.

An estate of the Earl of Gosford in county Cavan
was put up for sale on Tuesday in the Landed Et ',tea Court
at Dub:ln in 91 lots. The entire estate contained 6,761 acres,
and the clear yearly profit rent was £4,673 Considerably less
than half of the entire property was sold in 49 lots, and pro-
ducel upwards of £33,000. 01 these 33 were purchased by
tenants in occupation, the aggregate purchase money of such
lots being about £:14,0€0.

The CorresFondent of the Standard (in a telegram)
says that the mental condition of the Sultan causes grave
apprehensions. He is tortured by fears of persecution, and
Is alarsLed at the idea of being burned alive. He, therefore,
sleeps in an iron cased bedroom, guarded by a large posse of
armed police. Ills principal wife Vallde must superintend
personally the preparation of his nv-aLs.

Application has been made to the English Govern-
ment on behalf of some French engineers for permizsion to
take soundinos in British wAters, so as to determine the
point of the English coast which may be the naost suitable
for the opening to the proposed tunnel between this country
and France.

Tile new ship Oakland:, 955 tons, chartered by the
Agent-General for South Australia, sailed for Port Adelaide,
from Plymouth, on Saturday, with 379 emigrants, comprising
married and single agricultural and other labourers and
mechanics and single young women, domestic servants. Dr.
G T. Eadson, is surgeon superintendent, and Miss Collins is
matron in charge of the single women.
On Tuesday the Duke of Abercorn, as Lord-Lieu-
tenant of Ireland, opened the industrial exhibition and
iya tar in cmnection with the Belfast Working Men's Insti-
tute. In the sections of natural history and antiquities the
Queen contributes a largo number of interesting relics; there
are also several cases of articles from the South Kensington
Milgrim, and a selection of arms and armoury from the
Tower.

Immense quantities of asparagus are being received
in the London markets both from the neighbourhood of
Paris (Argenteuil) and the neighbourhood of Toulouse. The
Paris ‘• grass" in the finest and usually blanched; the
Toulouse samples are good, and large, and green for some
Inches. Garde n
"In consequence of several English travellera having
penetrated into remote parts of the Ru elan Empire where it
is not desired that they should appear, orders have now been
issued by the Russian CI ,vernment that all foreigners on
crossing the Russian frontier shall report themselves to the
Consul of their cottntry, who will be held responsible for
their subsequent movements."— Vanity Fair.
A letter from Shetland reports the loss of the smack
John Walker, of Lerwick, manned by fourteen men. It
ontited from Shetland for the Faroe cod fishery, and is now
reported to have been lost in the gale on the 27th March.
She was owned by the Shetland Fishery Company. Many
widows and children have been left destitu'e by the sad
disaster.

Two tramps stopped at the house of a lone widow,
and one went in to beg. Very soon he came out with a
bloody nose and a first class black e 3 e. "Well, did you get
anything, Jack?" "Yes," growled the sufferer, "I've got
the widow's might."

-
The Coaching Club opened the season on Saturday
by a meet in Hyde Park, thirty drags assembling but one
o'clock, and being marshalled in view of a large and brilliant
company by Colonel Artnytage. Sixteen of the coaches were
driven down to the Alexandra Palace, where the owners and
their friends had luncheon.

The Queen, on the recommendation of Mr. Disraeli,
has granted to Mrs Trege.les, widow of the late Rev.
Prideaux Tregelles, LL D the eminent Greek scholar, a pen-
sion of £lOO annually for life, in recognition of Dr. Tregelles'
great services in connection with the Biblical translation.
the memorial asking that this might be done was signed by
twenty-six archbishops and lOshops, and a l‘roportionate
number of the other Church dignitarlea.
The strike or rather resignation of 800 goods guards
in the employment of the Midland Railway Company has
been averted. The directors of the company have jest
Issued a revised circulAr with respect to the proposed altera-
tions in the conditions of the service of the men. The rail-
way servants, with a few exceptions, have withdrawn their
resignations.
Tao loges of the Independent Order of Good Tem
piers in Middlesex held a convention on Saturday, at which
a political manifesto was adopted declaring that while de-
manding the power to prohibit the liquor traffic, the mem-
bers of the order should heartily support measures for Sun-
day closing in England and Ireland. The lion A. Fox, ex•
Premier of New Zealand, who was amongst the speakers,
stated that there were 9,000 Good Tempters in that colony.
The Crown Prince of Hanover visittcl Chelsea
Barracks on Tuesday, and was conducted over the building
by the commanding officer of the Grenadier Guards. After
luncheon King George and Queen Mary and their family
drove to chis-Riursr, and paid a visit to the Empress
Eugenie and Prince Louis Napoleon. The Duke of Cam-
bridge paid a visit to the King and Qusen early in the fore-
noon. Count and Countess Gleicheu and a number of other
visitors also called during the day.

•--- --- -
The fifth annual council of the National Agricultural
Labourers' Union was opened at Oxford on Tuesday The
report stated that the union was stronger than ever both in
members and fonds. The total receipts during the year
amounted to £12,60, and a balance of £2 530 remained on
lista The Rev F. S Attenborough, who presided, said in
the course of his address that the union ought to promote
such reforms as the disestablishment of the Church, full
political rights, the withdrawal of women from agricultural
labour, and the education of agricultural labourers' children.

A remarkable instance of the extent to which ice will
transmit a vibratory shock is related by Mr. James Lamont,
the Arctic explorer, in his Notes of Travel. "I am perfectly
sure," he says, "the vibrations of a boat striking against the
ice edge are conveyed a distance of two or more ranee.
Directly the boat comes in contact with the ice, every seal
for miles mites its head and is on the alert."

Mr. Nathaniel Barnaby, Director of Naval Con-
struction at the Admiralty, was one of the speakers at the
Scientific Conference, at South Kensington on Monday. He
expressed his belief that fighting ships of the future would be
of the class of the Nelaon and Northampton, building in
Scotland, with central armour protecting all vital parts, and
a strong shield fore and aft, a high broadside battery trained
and fired by electricity from fore and aft screen, without any
exposure of the crew.

According to a statement made by the Rev. J.
Clapnam, chairman of the annual meeting of Wesleyan
ministers of the Sheffield district, which has just been held
at Barnsley, the trial of the 0 wston Ferty gravestone case
co:t the Wesleyan Methodist body £16,000. The only ques-
tion in dispute was the right of Mr. Bleat to call himself
"Rev.' on his daughter's tombstone.
Lut Friday a lady named Hodson, seventy years of
age, died suddenly at the Danmark-hill Railway Station.
She took a ticket for Ludgate-hill by the 1L45 train, saying
to the booking clerk, "I have half killed myself in hutrying
to catch the train." The clerk replied, "There was no occa-
sion for that, 3on have live minutes to spare." Ilaving gone
half way down the steps to the platform she stopped, and
then fell forward. The porter, who had been watching her,
ran to her ariatance, and he called the station-master, by
whose directions a medical gentleman was soon in attend-
ance, but life was found to be extinct.
An inquest has been held in London, at St, James's
Vestry•hail, Piccadilly, respecting the death of Mr. Charles
George Wynch, aged 4!, formerly an assistant magistrate in
Bengal. Toe evidence showed that the deceased for some
time past bad res•ded at 101, J.:rmyn-street, Oa Saturday
evening he went to bed apparently in good health, but early
the nex morning he was found dead on the floor. Ta 3 medical
teetim,,ny was t, the effect that death was the result of
ap,pl, xv, probably induced by a sunstroke from sylriet the
deceased had suffered in India. A verdict of .` Death from
Natural Causes" was returned.

Mr. J. E. Davies, a barrister of London, and Cap.
tato Heaton Ilaywood, the trustees under the will of Mr.
ho ward Roy +rood, have prepared a scheme for the disposal
a the 00,003 bequeathal by Mr. Iliywood to Bursietn for
charitable purposes. £14,000 Is to be devoted to'the endow-
ment end UCO to the erecting of a hospital and dispeLsary,
,000ivill provide for 'he e.tablishment of a ward for
Barslem patients in the North Staffordshire Infirmary, and
the balance' will be invested to send convalescents to the
seaside, to provide Lurees for the poor, and suitable food for
the sick.

Actors occro,i,mally hold the mirror up to Nature in
a nvinnPr whicl even in these realiric days may be C,lll.
Eidert d exeetive (.ays the Correspondent of the Standard)
An twstance has just happened at the Grand'lt o 7& re of
Lyons. Tie ptece was the old stock melodrama of Alfarceau,
ou les Enfants de la Republique. An actor named 31ono•
basun played the r6fe of Marceau. In the merle where he
enters on horseback at the head cf his troops to attack a
redoubt, Marceau fell horn his horse in the mitht of the
charge, and lay struggling under the lEgs of the anlm,l The
audience thought this a floe piece of acting, and applaudel
most vehemently. The actors also appeared to consider I: ,
merely a part of his rdle, and did not go to his rescue. At
length Marceau fainted, and it was then discovered that I.e
had not been acting, but had accidentally f.lienfrom his
horse and received a kick on the head. The curtain was at
onae dropped, and Marceau was taken if to the hospital in
las motley.

Eight persons have been killed in a colliery accident
at Chesterfield County, Virginia.
A commencement has been made at Chatham
dockyard in building the armour-plated turret ship Aga-
mNAatmionaatleu Lifeboat
eCb
ar
memnon, 8,4921t0n5, 6,C00 horse power.
tisty institution,Minstrelsbinhave
e
presented £5O odstOintoghthae
result of entertainments given by them in aid of its funds.
The whole of the ground, not occupied by bones irt-;:`
tt e catacombs, under the City of Paris, is occupied in growing
mushrooms of peculiarly fine quality for the table.
There is an enormous South American spider in the
Paris Z ioloeiial Gardens, and the gamins drive a brisk trade
by sal iug a special preparation of black thread to country
cousins, as specimens of the insect's web.
The Queen did not go to church on Sunday. Divine
service was performed in Balmoral Castle by the Rev. A.
Campbell, of Crathie.—Pall Mall Gazette.
In London last week 2,353 births and 1,341 deaths
were registered, the former having been 51 above, and the
latter 63 below the average numbers. The deaths included
one from small-pox, 41 from measles, 39 from scarlet fever,
5 from diphtheria, 65 from whooping-cough, 20 from different
forms of fever, and 15 item diarrhce ; thus to the seven
principal diseases of the zsmotic class 186 deaths were re-
ferred, against numbers declining from 217 to 100 in the four
preceding weeks.
The annual meeting of clergymen and church-
wardens in connection with the Bishop of London's Fund was
held on Monday under the presidency of his lordship, who
stated that the land had been in full operation for.twelve
years, and that of the million sterling fcr which the public
bad been asked when it was established, in order to meet
spiritual necessities in the metropolis, more than halt that
amount had been received and expenued. In regard to the
future, still larger means would be imperatively required.
Some one who professes to know all about the New
York papers has been appraising the money value of them in
the Cincinnalti Gazette. He rays that the Herald is worth
£4OO 000 the Mites £200,000. the Tribune the same less a
mortgage, the World £50,000, the Journal of Commerce
£llO,OOO, the Evening Express £5OOOO, the Evening Post
£140.000 the Commercial Advertiser £30,000, She Evening:
Mail £20,000, and the Sun £40,000.
The United States Senate has confirmed the appoiiit--
ment cf the first woman who has ever received a State office.
To lacy's name is Josephine Shaw Lowell. She was
nominated by the Governor for the office of State Commis-
sioner of Charities in the place of Commissioner Marshall.
Mrs. Lowell belongs to a distinguished New England family.
Her husband—a eephew of the poet Lowell—and her may
brother were killed in the late war.
The American correspondent of The Times tele-
graphs that the number of admissions to the Philadelphia
Exhlbltien is gradually increasing. On Friday, in last week,
the number of admissions on payment was 16,100, and on
Saturday, I 8 ,IS2 The agitation for the Sunday opening of
the Exhibition continaes, and both sides are holding public
meetings. In the meantime the Centennial Commission, to
avoid a decision, has adjourned till July.
At the annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural
Society it was stated that Liverpool, in preference to Carlisle,
had been selected for the exhibith. n in 1877, the former town
being more readily accessible from Ireland.—A considerable
sum has been granted for a scientific investigation Into cer-
tain virulent animal diseases. —The effer by the Duke of
Bedford of a farm upon wnich t 3 make experiments relative
to agricultural matters was awarded a cordial vote of thanks,
especially as his Grace has undertaken to defray the entire
attendant cost.
Oa Monday M. Victor Hugo addressed the French
Senate in support of his motion for a complete amnesty. Oa
the conclusion of his speech, in which he virulently attacked
the late Emperor and his regime, the Extreme Left alone
applauded; and 11 Dufaure and M Tolain rose and said the
Government found nothing to reply to in IL iluge's address.
The motion was then rejected almost unanimously, only
eight or ten hands on the Extreme Left being held up in
&yew of it.
On the Harwich branch of the Great Eastern Rail-
way on Saturday afternoon a child of seventeen months
namea Alice Benson was instantaneously killed at Ray cross-
ing by a passing train, Her brother James, aged ten, seeing
her danger, ran to her aid and had pulled her frem the
middle of the line to the rails, when they were both struck by
the engine. The little girl's legs were severed from the
body and the boys' skull was fractured. He died next morn-
ing. The children had strayed from the gate-house oa to the
line.
A lecture on National Societies for Aid to Sick and
Wounded Soldiers in War has been delivered at the United
Service Institution (London) by Mr John Earley. Ile matn-
tained that the result of the establishment of Red Cross
Societies had been that hundreds of lives had been saved, and
the wounded and dying in battle had received an assistance
and consoiment which otherwise they could not have ob-
tained. Under these circumstances the societies should
avail themselves of peaceful tiraes to educate a staff for the
work which they prole, sed to be able to perform.
The animals deposited in the gardens of the Zoo-
logical Society by the Prince of Wales, include, among others,
two musk deer, two 1 har gnats, four Indian elephants, aged
about 7,6, Ik, and l years ; five tigers, a cheetah, a Viver-
rine cat, five leopards, an Indian civet cat, two dwarf zebus,
seven Indian antelopes, three Axis deer, three ostriches,
several pairs of impeyan pheasants, cheer pheasants, horned
tragopans, Chukar partridges. Beetles the Prince's speci-
mens, the following are the most imeortant additions of the
week :—Two secretary vultures, presented by Mr. H. G.
Ancel ; an leuptian coema, presented by the Rev. G IL R.
Fisk; and a Mahon galago, presented by De. It A. Zseders
berg, all from South Africa.
The death is announced of a promising young officer,
Lieut. Christopher George Williams, of her Mejesty's alaip
Excellent. It seems that he had been removed to the hos-
pital at Hasler, where it was found that he was suffering
from typhoid fever, and that in his delirium he jumped from
a window in one of the upper storeys. When picked up he
was found ta have been fatally injured, and death ensued
shortly afterwards. Lieutenant Williams won the chief
scholarship at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, at the
last general examination, which is worth £lOO a yeax for three
years, and had just received his appointment as Junior Staff
Officer of the Excellent after completing his gunnery course.