The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-15 00:00:00

VIOLENT ASSAULT ON A BROKER'S

MAN.

In London at the Westminster Police-court, Lilian
Murray, of 13, Ovington-gardens, Brompton, was
charged on remand before Mr. d'Eyncourt with com-
mitting a murderous assault on Edward Lyons, a
brokers man, by beating him about the head and
body with a poker. The posecutor, who had been
for over twenty-one days in St. George's Hospital, now
attended, but had to be seated, as he was very weak,
with his head enveloped in surgical bandages, and his
face fearfully scratched and torn. The prosecutor
deposed that he resided at No. 8, Yeoman's-row,
Brompton-road. On the 15th of list month he was
put in possession of No. 13, Ovington-gardens, in the
keeping of the prisoner, under a distress for rent. He
did not remember the circumstances of the assault by
the prisoner, but on the 17th, being drunk, he found
himself lying in the prisoner's bedroom on his right
side. He had taken a little too much whisky, and he
so suffered from the effects that he recollected nothing
till the next day, when he was treated as an in-patient
at St. George's Hospital. When he recovered con-
sciousness he found that he was fearfully bruised
about the left side, his head cut open, and his teeth
beaten out, so that he could not take solid food for
days. He thought now that he was in a fair way of
recovery. In answer to counsel the witness said that
the prisoner poured out some whisky and made him
drink it, and invited him to her room. A remand
was granted for the attendance of the surgeon from
the hospital.

MATCHES.—The people of the United States, so
some genius figures out, use 280,000,000 matches per
day. This is about five matches each for every man,
woman, and child.

MUCH TOO POLITE.—She: "Would you please ex-
cuse me not dancing the next set with you? We are
going now." Ho: "Oh, certainly. Only too de-
lighted !"—Funny Folks.
TIIB TRUTII—BY ACCIDENT. Deluded House-
holder (who has had to employ the British Work-
man) : "Now, my boy, how much longer is this job
going to be? Why doesn't your father come and
finish it off ? " Small British Workman: "Please
sir, father's gone to look after a fresh job. If he get.
it, we'll be out 'o this in a week; if he doesn't, +,
dunno when we shall be done I "—Funny Folks,


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UNDERGROUND TELEGRAPH WIRES.

Whatever may be said as to the expense of putting
the telegraph lines of this country underground, "to
that complexion we shall come at last" (remarks the
Edo). Both in France and Germany, the main
lines, at least, have been put underground, and in
France more than 11,000 miles are in daily use, and
such little difaulties as are incidental to their posi-
tion have been overcome by invention. The wires
are, of course, perfectly free; from damage by wind-
storms; and experience has proved that in the case
of electric storms, powerful earth-currents, &c., there
is less disturbance than with aerial lines. The main
lines in France are, as a rule, laid in trenches four feet
deep. with inspection stations at intervals of about a
third of a mile, and it is found that for lengths of :250
miles the speed of transmission is quite equal to
that of aerial lines. By the use of "relays"
at suitable intervals it is found that the
length of line is practically unlimited, and the
Telegraph Department can afford to laugh at storms
which upset the posts of systems dependent on the
a,;rial method of carrying wires. Both France and
Germany have a special reason for putting theit
telegraph wires underground, but the Americans have
also arrived at the same determination from very
different reasons, and a bill has been introduced into
the New York Senate, which provides that in all
cities of half a million inhabitants telegraph and
other wires shall be put underground before the end
of 1885. The simple fact is, that the arrangement of
the telegraph wires in this country is crude in the
extreme, and is not consonant with present knowledge
or re Tuirements. Business men and newspaper men
—the latter of whom are both the servants and the
representatives of the public—cannot any longer
accept the excuse that the wind has blown down the
telegraph poles. They must have a telegraph service
which is not liable to be disorganised by every wind
that blows with a little extra force.