The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-01-01 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

It is stated from Faris that Queen ,Isabella and
three of her daughters have been suffering from measles.
Daring Act (at present prices).—To beard a single
Native in its shell, much less a whole. barrel of them !-
Punch.
Statisticians sag that there are over 2,000,000
"Williams" in the United States, without counting little
bills.
M. Charles Lafitte, known on the French turf as
Major Fridolin, 'died in Paris on. Suittlay night at the age of
seventy-three.
It has just been decided in the Rolls Court that the •
London and North Western Railway Company catinot manu-
facture engines except for their own use.
The man who imagined himself wise because he de-
tected some typographical errors in a newspaper has been
trying to get a perpendicular view of the rainbow:
The Prince' of Wales attended divine service on
Christmas Day in the Cathedral at Calcutta, and the Princess
of Wales in the Palace Church at Copenhagen.
Toe New York Times states, as an indication of the
growth of the Fall River export trade to Great Britain,
that the Borden City Mills have received an order from Man-
chester for 25,000 pieces of printing cloths.
The visiting magistrates of Newgate have decided
not to allow the statement written by Henry Wainwright
previous to his execution to be published in extenso.
The Dean of Manchester gave a Christmas dinner,
consisting of roast beef, plum pudding, and ale, to 45 aged
people, in the Sunday-school. After dinner a pair of mittens
or a shawl (the work of the Misses Cowie) was presented to
each person. The Bishop of Manchester was present at the
entertainment.
The Duke of Norfolk has consented to sell to the
Corporation of Sheffield his markets in the borough for
£287,000, th 3 payment to extend over fifty-one years, at
three per cent. The committee to whom the matter Sr 9:3
referred has reported in favour of the purchase on the terms
named.
On Saturday (31st) the new Act to amend the law
relating to chimney sweepers will come into force, by which
persons carrying on the occupation and employing any
assistant or apprentice must take out a certificate from the
police in the district in which they reside. Another object
is to obtain a registration, to enable the police to enforce the
Acts of 1840 and 1864.
The bicyclists Keen, Moore, and Cooper ran a mile
race together at Wolverhampton on Monday, for the cham-
pionship of England and a gold medal. The race was well-
contested. The competitors all started at scratch, and kept
well together up to the last round, when Cooper went ahead
and beaticeen a y,nrd I me, 3 min. 13 sec Cooper gets
aprize ortsti Mita gold-mod al. Keen £l5, and Moore £5.
It is stated that great numbers of Irishmen are re-
turning home at present fann the United States. Times
are very bad in America just now; large numbers of people
are out of employment, and many are beginning to find that
Ireland is not so bad as it was, in a commercial sense.
In Liverpool on Christmas Eve, 155 persons were
apprehended, of whom 130 were intoxicated. On Christmas
Eve, 1874, the numbers were 85 and 66. At the Post-office
on Christmas Day there was an immense increase in the
quantity of letters for delivery as compared with last year.
It is computed to be at least one-third. The total number
posted was 178,482, and those delivered 163,195.
Not a single death from small-pox was registered last
week among more than six millions of persons living in 16 of
the largest English towns. The only fatal cases of this
disease reported by the Registrar-General in his last weekly
return were three in the city of Manchester and four in the
borough of Salford.
At Sandringham, on Christmas Day, notwithstand-
ing the absence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the
usual Christmas-boxes were given on the Royal estate, and a
large number Of prime joints of beef were distributed in the
Royal mews to some two hundred families. The Princess of
Wales's customary gifts of clothing to the school children
were made before her Royal Highness left for Copenhagen.