The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-09-12 00:00:00

Our fodon earresponbatt.
me deem It right to state that we do not at all Wass
identU7 ourselves with our Correspondent's opinioniaj

Her Majesty the Queen, in what may be called
her public benefactions—those connected with
pensions on the Civil List—has a gracious knack
of remembering the artistic work of the talented
pencils of which England most justly has reason
to be proud. It is seldom that a nomination is
thus given which does not find instant and
popular approval; but few of the Civil List
pensions will meet so ready a national assent as
that which, to the value of £lOO, has just been
awarded to the four sisters of the late Mr. John
Leech, artist. To the finer taste of a later day,
accustomed to delicacy of execution, many of
Leech's pictures may seem a little broad,
but who does not remember the hilarity
they caused when they first appeared, or who
could look over them now without feeling a
breezy, contagious humour, or the influence of
their laughing asides, and their rollicking, broad-
shouldered joviality? Leech—so quickly does
time speed along—seems almost removed from
us by the same indefinite sense of distance which
marks mention of the names of the elder caries,-
ttaists, and it is somewhat with surprise that the
public will learn that four of his sisters are still
living.

A 'great disgrace is about to be removed from
the escutcheon of London. For many years the
sensibilities of St. Paul's Churchyard have been
outraged by the damaged and mutilated statue
of the late Queen Anne. Tourists are said to
have come from far and near to see the most
hideous nightmare in stone that was ever perpe-
trated in the memory of living man. The iron-
work surrounding it from long contemplation of
the hideous effigy, sans nose, sans hands, sans,
indeed, everything that is statuesque, gradually
became frightened of the indistinct stone horror
which they enclosed, and gave way to a sugges-
tive droop in the knees which threatened to
bring them all down together. But though the
mills of the Corporation of the City of London-
grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small,
and at last they have commenced to grind
sculptor Bird's work out of existence. The new
statue, which will replace it, is a replicate in
Sicilian marble, and will be the work of Mr.
Richard Belt.

It is a standing reflection on the morals of
humanity that the hope of obtaining something
. .

for nothing keeps pace with the cle-verest inge--
nuity. In most of the railway stations lately
automatic weighing-machiner, have been placed,
which, by slipping a penny into a small aperture
can be made to obligingly tell the exact number
of pounds avoirdupois a person registers. But
the hapless machine, it appears, can be trifled
with in a manner which certainly must be a
severe strain upon its sense of honour. Once

the penny is pilt into the slit any number of
people may be, weighed by a second
person stepping on to the machine before
the first gets off. Instead, therefore, of,
say, the automaton handing its inventor a
shilling for weighing twelve persons, twelve
persons may weigh themselves by the payment
of a solitary penny. It has been suggested that
to make the automatic machine perfect it should
have an automatic arm for the arrest of those

who play practical jokes with it, pleasantries
which must result in a pecuniary loss to the pro-
moters.

Only those who have considerable experience
of the poor know how dense is their ignorance
on medical subjects. The silliest remedies are
often applied for serious cases of illness, and
simple therapeutics appear to be absolutely
unknown. A notable case in proof of this, if
proof were neoclel," has just oc-iii.recl
at Rishton. Two children were suffering
from sickness, and their mother stewed
poppy seeds, and gave them the decoction. The
coroner expressed, of course, no surprise that
death was the result of doctoring in such a
deadly fashion. The parents of the poor little
deceased, who were twins, looked gr,atly dis-
tressed but it certainly is a reflection upon the
general spread of education in the land that even
at Rishton a mother could be found who did not
know that poppy broth was not quite so inno-
cent a beverage as dandelion tea.
A painful story comes from Hungerford. A
father and mother, by no means apparently in
good circumstances, went out, like Ruth, to
glean in the fields of the local Boaz, taking with
them their little lad, some two and a half years
old. Adjoining the farm, where the corn
had just been cut down, was the East Garston
Wood, and into this the poor little baby,
attracted by bird or flower—who can tell ?
somehow wandered. As the shades of evening.
fell, and the child was missed, hurried search
was made for him by hundreds of willing volun-
teers. The place, indeed, to all seeming, was
thoroughly scoured. Day after day passed on;
but still the volunteers in their crowds continued

the search. At last, when it was too late, the
body was found by some men who were out
rabbit stopping. This unfortunate modern babe
in the wood had endeavoured to satisfy his
hunger by eating leaves, and a painful sensation
was caused by its remains being discovered close
to the place where the child had first been
missed. The would-be rescuers evidently jumped
to the conclusion that the baby had wandered
far afield, and overlooked the portions of the
wood nearest the farm from which it strayed.
Some time ago it was rumoured that Covent-
garden Theatre was destined, if not exactly to
take to itself wings and fly away, at any rate to
bow its proud facade before the approaching
enlargement of "Mud-salad Market." The
rumour, however, that the great Covent-garden
place of fruit and flower sale would extend in
the direction of Bow-street has now, for the
present at least, been contradicted. About the
same time that the public heard of the contem-
plated destruction of Covent-garden Theatre,
further rumours were spread that her Majesty's
Postmaster - General absolutely required her
Majesty's Theatre for postal extension. This
statement, too, has been explained away, so that
the two houses of Italian opera in London,
although Italian opera itself can hardly be con-
sidered as in a very flourishing condition, are
yet to be preserved intact for a little time
longer.
The Royal visit to Sweden, Norway, and
Denmark must so far have been a most enjoy-
able success for all august personages concerned
in it. The Prince of Wales this week will enjoy
a long round of hunting, two days being devoted
to stalking the noble elk, and with the com-
mencement of next week he will meet his
Royal wife and the three Princesses of Wales at
Copenhagen. Here there will also be assembled
the Princess of Wales's sister, the Empress of
Russia, the Czar, and the brother of the Princess
of Wales, in the person of the King of
Greece. The latter will be accompanied
by his wife, and King Christian of Denmark may
congratulate himself upon entertaining a family
party, the splendour of whose rank can be
equalled by no other such gathering the whole of
Europe over. The Princess of Wales is said to
have derived very great benefit from the change
she is enjoying. The usual flight of strange and
wonderful people who rim 11 OVAT an happy AR
when they are dwelling in the immediate vicinity
of Royalty, of course, passed northward to Nor-
way and Sweden when the Royal yacht Osborne
ploughed her way across the seas to Odde, with
the Prince of Wales on board. Consequently
the Royal party has been in places rather severely
tried by the attentions of a good-natured
English mob, who, though small, was somewhat
i
impertinent in the obtrusiveness of its civilities.
By various devices, however, allbeing fair in love,
war, and Royal progresses, the Prince of Wales's
eompagnons de voyage escaped the infliction very
well, and much better than is usually their fate
in this favoured isle. G. R.