The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-10-18 00:00:00

Etc teittrlnke o:6serlnv

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18th,1884.
THE HEALTH EXHIBITION.

As the October days glide by and each
brings nearer to its close the Exhibition at
South Kensington, the number of visitors to
what in slang term has been described as
the Healtheries increases rather than
diminishes. It is not only that Londoners
are availing themselves of the opportunity
to go over and over again to a place which
has attained such a marvellous popularity;
but the extraordinary facilities offered by
the railway companies are bringing country
visitors in crowds to the capital, where by
omnibus and underground railway they are
conveyed to the wonderful collection of pro-
ducts and exhibits, which even in what is
called the dead season drew people to its
gates at the rate of 200,000 a week, a total
which is now much exceeded. Those who
. declare that when Parliament is not sitting
and a few hundred West end families are 1
out of town London is empty, would have
altered their opinion on paying a visit to the
gardens of the Health Exhibition on any
evening between the prorogation of the
Legislature in August and the present time,
when we are within a few days of its re-as-
sembling. The multitudes who thronged to
see the illuminations of the fountains and
the cascades, with the Chinese lanterns
gleaming through the trees, testified to the
interest felt in the efforts of those who have
so successfully revived the taste for Inter-
national Exhibitions.
The appearance of--Sir Henry Cole's auto-
biography is most opportune at a period
when people are crowding in such numbers
towards the Health Exhibition. For many
years the Companionship of the Bath be-
stowed upon this indefatigable public ser-
vant was spoken of in a tone of ridicule.
' !Tole, C. 8., ' was the subject of jibe and
mocking laughter. The Smith Kensington
clique - was a term of reproach applied to
snch men as the grandfather of the present
Sir Charles Dilke, Mr. Cole, and others, who
worked hard to popularise art and science
when it was by no means an easy task to do
so, These men and their coadjutors laboured
in the days when the press was hampered
with restrictions in the shape of a duty on
advertisements, an impressed stamp of a
penny, and an excise duty on paper. They
had to contend against prejudices which
I thirty years of enlightenment, spread chiefly
by the penny newspaper, have gradually
cleared away. But in the days when Mr.
Dilke and Mr. Cole began their work the
idea of issuing a journal at a penny, even if
' it had entered the head of a brained being,
must have been at once dismissed-as a fig-
ment of the imagination or as an unsub-
stantial phantom of the night. First, how-
ever, the advertisement duty went, and this
was speedily followed by the relaxation of
the rule requiring the impressed stamp to
be compulsory. This was enough to give
the penny press a start, and a very good use
was made of the chance. Its conductors
had to wait five or six years for the removal
of the excise duty on paper, but even this
came at last, and there was then no obstacle
to the amazing success which the cheap
journals of this generation have achieved.
These have gone alike into the cottage of
the humble as well into the mansion of the
. wealthy, have brought the masses of the
people acquainted with the existence and
the value of those rich stores of art which
' are alike beautiful in design and costly in
material, thus rendering easier the mission
which those described in derision as the
South Kensington clique took in hand at a
time when very little encouragement at-
tended. their exertions.

_
As one of the humble workers who con-
tributed to the surprising successes of the
Exhibition of 1851, Sir Henry Cole, who did
not get his Knight Companionship of the
Path until late in life, rendered a national
:ervice which was but inadequately recog-
r ized by the distinction of C. 8., so frequently
n.ade the subject of jest and ridicule. We
all remember the extravagant expectations
ft rmed of that magnificent gathering of the
peaceful arts of all nations. At that time
there had been no war in Europe for nearly
ft rty years. With the overthrow of Napo-
lion Bonaparte the Continent bad peace.
The Duke of Wellington, who had rendered
that splendid service to the world, was pre-
sent at the opening of the Great Exhibition,
and was regarded by the sanguine as in some
degree an anachronism, a type of antidelu-
vian representative, of a mode of settling in-
ternational disputes, which had passed away.
It had lasted from the earliest days of Old
Testament story until the beginning of the
nineteenth century; it had had its day, and
that day had gone. So sang the optimists
in 1851. We all know what became of all
these roseate anticipations. Within three
years four European nations—Great Britain
amongst them, were at war upon the bleak
shores of the Black Sea, then followed the
Indian Mutiny, the war between France and
Austria, the four years' internecine straggle
in the United States, the war between
Austria and Prussia, France and Germany,
Turkey and Servia, Russia and Turkey, not
to mention other conflicts of a minor charac-
ter. But for the visions which were seen
beyond the Palace of Glass Mr. Cole and his
fellow workers were not responsible. They
bad, however, laid the foundation of a series
of exhibiticns which took the popular taste,
and the latest development whereof is seen
in that familiarly spoken of as the Health-
eries to-day.

TEE IRON TRADE.

Wolverhampton, Wednesday.

Following the quarterly meetings the market this
afternoon was somewhat tame, the transactions in
mo,t instances being of a limited character, and
confined ; o iron for immediate consumption. Nc-
,go iations which were commenced at the
e: inos last week and not concluded are ap-
Oft, hint; settlement, the question between
the Loyers and dU rs being mainly one of price.
in joi y of the works in the district are now
a ell supplied N% ith orders, which will keep the
ninohin'ry lirisk!y in some cases for months,
and in others for fully ItHlf of the quarter, come-
que Ey there is no dispositioo on the part of. em-
pkyers to give way (.11 the question of rates. Some
of them are even quoting high- r figures than have
ruled during tie summer, but they still comp]: in
that tiny get little or nothing on their bargain?.
lin!, sheet makers are best off for orders. Corning
next are the makers of medium bars, chiefly of the
smaller sizes. Girder plates and heops met with a
Stu ady request for lccal consumption, but there is
Fti doing in nail reds, boiler plates, and strips. For
pig ir.n the demand his dropped off, owing in inly
to the large bargains completed b.- foie the qua' terly
mc c;ingA. Numerous producers are well sold
forward, and are not disposed to further negotiate
until the execution of some of ti eir contracts has
stid more adyaneed. Prices are steady, though
perhaps on the whole not quite so firm as a few
weeks ago. :Mere coal is selling. The terminati,,n
of the strike is, however, throwing larger quantities
of fuel on the market, and there is no prost eet of
colliery owners obtaining higher terms than they are
now seething.:

TIITJrsDAY.
T 1 e rosition of tie b al iron tiade continues to
improve, thole tbc pr guts is very slow. At t'•e
market this artertiocn tranr actions were tokrab y
numerous for mest (las es of iron, but the contrw.ts
were prmcipally for small lofs f r immediate con—
sumption. Prices were fully maintained, but there
NA as ro change in quotation, upon those of quarter
day. Sheets were quoted at ..t7 10s ar singles de-
,ltverey Lirerpcol, N• it h ICs extra for doubles.
Tie !beet manirfacturcis hove a fair number of
orders on their tooks, aud to ..e of them are unable
to add to their engagements Pig iron met with a