The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-03-20 00:00:00

Nisallancous
HOME, FOEEIGN, AND COLONIAL

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONET.—The reckless man-
ner in which the Supplemental Estimate for the Abys-
sinian War was recently carried in the House of Com-
mons may well strike terror into the bosom of the
British tax-payer. That a sum of £3,600,000 should
be asked for and supplied off hand with only a little
desultory grumbling on the part of a few outside mem-
bers is perfectly astounding. Now that the money has
been supplied and handed over to the Indian exchequer,
it is late in the day to raise any ugly questions over the
charges of a million and a half for mules, a million and
a half for land transport, four millions for sea trans-
port, and half a million or more for coals ; but it may
as well be noted for future guidance, in ease of our
finding ourselves in a second Abyssinian difficulty, that
the con,luet of the expedition should not be entrusted
to the Indian Government, at all events if this country
is again to find the money. Official nature is human
nature after all, and even officials are apt to be lavish
and extravagant in stealing with money which they do
not themselves have to raise and collect.—Tomakatek,sl
A VALUABLE ANIMAL.—The Societe d'Accli-
matation, at its last sitting, awarded several prizes for
the rearing and training of yaks. This animal is a kind
of ox. with a tail and back not unlike those of a horse,
a woolly fleece similar to that of the sheep, and a grunt
which might be mistaken for that of a pig. In Thibet,
its native country, where it feeds on the short grass of
the elevated regions, it performs the duties of a beast
of burden; being very sure-footed, it will carry its
rider safely through the worst mountain passes, and
the female provides the natives with excellent milk.
H. de Montigny, French Consul-General at Shanghai,
brought over his flock of this breed to Europe, in Dell,
and entrusted it to the care of the above society. It is
hoped that, as mules are now getting exceedingly dear.
the yak will be fund a good substitute for them, and
some have already been successfully trained in France
.for that purpose. Gastronomers also have east their
eyes upon it, its flesh being considered a delicacy. The
Journal Offieiel states that some time ago, U. de
Lahayenaix had one slaughtered, and sent some
portions of it to various hotels of Paris, Nancy, and
Neuchateau, also to the mayor of Epinal, and to M.
Tisserand, director of the Emperor's agricultural estab-
lishments. The meat gave excellent broth, and stood
the tests of the gridiron and spit equAlly well ; it par-
takes of the flavour sf venison. If acelimatisat;on dos-s
not make it lose that quality, the yak will be in
great denmusl during those seasons when game is pro
hibited.
Mons; or THE INCoMP.-TAX ! —The new Member
who declared the other day that he felt so strongly
the " hernmr and glory" of being in the House of
Commons that he could look back with complacency
on his election bills displayed a cheerful temper which
English t ix-pavers may find it hard to imitate (remarks
The Tones). We have had our honour and glory as a
nation, and the bills are still coming in. Mr. Lowe
made a supplementary demand for £3,600.000 last
week, and he significantly misled that he could not
guarantee us against further calls on our resources. It
is, indeed, stated, with sonic show of authority, that
when the Indian accounts are made up we shall have
additierol reason for distrusting the accuracy of those
Indian Estimates, which somehow prove so untrust-
worthy in fact, though declared to be admirable by
Indian officials. It is said that another £1,000,000 or
£1,400.000, bringing up the total cost of the Abyssinian
Expedition to a round sum of ten millions, may not
improbably be required. The amount is large, and its
largeness brings us no consolation. We have our
national faults, but we believe we are free from the
vice of taking pride in the amount of our expenditure.
We should have been better satisfied if our honour and
glory, most reluctantly sought, had proved less costly
in the winning. But the money has been spent, and
must be repaid, and we fear that, grumble as we may
at the total, we shall be reduced at last to confessing
that the only practical question is how the funds shall
be raised to repay it.
To PRINTERS.—May " Copy " be called "Slips
of the Pen?"—Judy.
ATROCIOUS OUTRAGE.—A woman has been
charged at Liverpool with inflicting grevious bodily
harm upon her husband. It seems that, they occupied
a decent position in society, and resided in Lonsdale-
street. On Saturday evening they quarrelled, when
the pros tier, taking up a vessel containing paraffin oil,
poured .t all over her luckless husband. By some
means the liquid was ignited, and the poor fellow was
speedily enveloped in flames. Ile was removed with
all 'peel to the Royal Infirmary, where he was found
to be fearfully burnt on various parts of the bwly. At
the hearing it was states! that he was in a very pre-
carious state, and it was feared he would not recover.
Soon afterw.srds, dangerous symptoms set in, and the
magistrate attended at the Royal Infirmary, to take
the injures! man's depositions. The prisoner has been
remanded for a week.
ASSAULT UPON A CHILD.— At the Lewes
Assizes Thomas Jones has been indicted for brutally
assaulting his daughter, Lily Jones, a child three years
old. The prisoner and his wife reside at Hastings,
and it appeared that, for some reason or other, they
had taken a deep hatred to their child. The mother
had beaten it in the pnissiner's absence, and then placed
it in a tub of water; and, when the prisoner returned,
he renewed the beating, leaving the poor child a mass
of bruises. The prisoner having been found guilty,
the judge dilated upon the enormity of Ins conduct
and sentences! him 'to twelve months' imprisonment,
with hard labour.
AN ELECTRIC Bo Y !—Our old friend the elec-
tric eel, which used to electrify London as it wriggled
in its tub, has now a rival in a baby which has just
come in to this world in the village of St. Urb‘sin, in
the department of Ardeche. This bouncing boy emits
sparks froin his toes and fingers like a Leyden jar,
though that has no such extremities; moresamr, his
infantile person is so strongly charged with electricity
that neither his nurse nor his mamma can touch him
without being ehoeked. The local p were teem wth
long accounts of this baby, and tell us that at certain
periods objects such as plates, papersknives. Szc., are
subjected to a trennilreue motion when put in contact
with the chilsre extremities.
SPORTSMEN AT SEA.—Tont (exhibiting en tern
alto* he has shoth—l say, 'Arry, wot bird 's this 'ere?
'Arro. A auk, I should say. Tom. What yer calls a
sparrerauk ?—'Arns. No. Hay, u, It, auk without
the sparres—Punch.
THE SUN.—The gun is not simply, as was sup-
posed of old, a globe of incandescent matter. The
light we receive from him, comes, indeed, from an
incandescent source, but it has been subjected, before
reaching us, to a very singular and characteristic pro-
cess—a process the traces cud peculiarities of which
there is no mistaking. From the incandescent matter
which supplies the solar light, there stream forth
light-waves of every possible length between certain
limits, namely, between the length belonging to the
extreme red end of the solar spectrum and that be-
longing to the extreme violet end. But when the
light reaches us certain wave-lengths are found to be
wanting. The case corresponds to that of a harp, in
which certain strings are missing here and there. Or,
rather, if a harp were constructed with all indefinite
number of strings increasing gradually in length be-
tween the usual limits, 80 that on striking the finger
across than, a sound would be produces! changing by
indefinite gradations from the gravest note audible by
human ears to the most acute; then if strings were
removed here and there—and sometimes several close
together—to the number of several thousands, the
sound produced when the finger was drawn across the
strings would differ from that before produced, pre-
cisely as the light received from the sun differs from
that which is actually poured forth by the incandes-
cent central 111888.—St.
TWENTT-ONE MURDERS IN TEN DAYS.—A
letter from Lafayette, elated Feb. 24, in the New York
Times, gives the following picture of the state of crime
in Indiana :
The extraordinary prevalence of crime In nearly all parts
of our State soil contitues to mgr.ss the public mini in
Indiana. Twenty-one murders wxre committed in Inillans
In the course of the past ten days. In ten of these cases only
were the murderers arrested; in Eve others they were well
known to the authorities, but succeeded in making good
their escape, and in six cues the assassins are not eves
know", and all efforts to detect and apprehend them have
been fruitless