The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-06-21 00:00:00

INTERVIEW WITH A ZULU CHIEF.

A oorrespondent of the Manchester Gtuarctian, writing
from the Lower Tugela, on BOch April, says :

"I rode out yesterday to Mr. Fynney's, the border
agent, where Amaqwendu, or Mqwende, is now living
at a kraal under surveillance, and interviewed the
Zulu prince. He is apparently very subdued and
awed by the British preparations, and congratulates
himself on having come over. He last saw Cetewayo
after the battle of Isandula, when all Zululand
was in frantic ecetacy, supposing that that
onslaught on the British had proved sufficient
to establish the Zulu peowees. He stat-s that
our recent successes have had an equally strong effect
in the opposite direction, and that the whole country
is dispirited and cowed; and had we followed up
either of the victories we might, he believes, have
marched where we pleased. This, however, was out
of the question on aceount of transport difficulties.
Zulus have no conception of numbers, and the chief
could not say how many men Cetewayo now had. The
fighting, however, is much reduced, and ha does not
think there will be anotherbig battle, notwithstanding
the boast of the natives who,wheu retreating before our
men on the Inyezane,cried out, "Youhave crossed the
Amatakula, but we shall strongly oppose you at the
Umthlatoosi, and you shan't get over.' Nous verrons.
A number of young men, A qwende states, are
desperate, and will fight to the laet, but the ma-
jority would be prepared to give in at once if
the opportunity presented itself, and a number
of chiefs are being watched to prevent their defec-
tion. This column, he says, has done them more
injury than Wood's late command, but gives as a
reason foe the large force which has been employed
watching the latter Aid engaged against it at Kam
-
hula Hill that the country ie pow open and better
adapted for a large force, whereas along the coast they
fancy that with the aid of the bush they can operate
with fewer numbers. Cetewayo is well informed as to
our movements end reinforcements, but does not
impart his informatton to subordinates. His spy sys-
tem is not so well carried out now, especially in this di-
rection. The men are afraid to act, and eveti desert to
N&tal. He informed me that Cetewayo has issued par-
ticular orders not to attack us in laager, and he
states that when they have done SO it was opposed
to his orders, and at the instigation of his young men.
Nothing but strong guards prevent Mavournongwktna
and Dabalmonzi froku coming in. The meaning of the
word Mqwendo iz touoh. and go,' or a graze :' that
of Dabalmanzi ' a dieider Pf Wetero-' Mqwende
crossed over to the British without any of he effects,
which he left buried near his kraal, The Zulu prince
was not above asking for marley,' or money, and your
correspondent complied with his request to the extent
of a cold coin."

" Government•house, Simla, liae—been lai4 with gas
made from mineral oil. The system has also been tried at
the Lahore railway station with every success.'—rimes of
There is much excitement in Virginia among the
agricultural classes owing to the ravages of the army worm
in some districts of that state. The immense crop on a
magnificent hay farm known as "Glencoe" in Norfo,k
county, and about any acres of "superb timothy " near
11 ep Creek have been destroyed. f)ther grass farms have In
like manner been devastated by tht4 mischievous grub.
Thousands of the worm, it is stated, may be seen pith the
naked eye' which, however, can see little else after their
visit; fort?.?.ey leave not a blade of grass behind them. It is
feared that the worm will do serious damage to the growing
crops, especially to the cora..

A State concert was given by conlmpnd pf the
Queen on Monday evening at Buckingham Mau. The
Prince and Princess of Wales, accompanied by the Crown
Frine of Sweden and Norway, the GrAnd Duchess of
MeckleniArgAtrelitz, and the members of the Royal family,
entered the saloon it twety p.inutes before eleven o'clock,
when the concert immediately eoramen;e4. The Princess of
Wales wore a dress of antique creme satin brooade, trirzmea
point d'Alencon, with tablier of variegated pansies, and
pansy-e3ioured velvet ; corsage to correspond; headdress, a
tiara of diamonds ; arn3inents, diamonds, pearls, and
sapphires. Orders, Victoria and Albert, the Star of India,
St. Catherioe of Russia, and the Danish Family Order, The
vocalists included Madame Patti, Madame Trebelli, Mdlle.
Kellogg, Wile. Hohenschild, Herr Herschel, and s, W.
H. Cummings. The band and chorus, consisting of upwards
of 160 performers, were selected from Her Majesty's
Theatre, the Royal Italian Opera, the Pkilnarmonto and
Sacred Harmonic Societies, together with her Majesty's pri-
vate baud..

THE GERMAN EMPEROR THE IDOL
OF HIS PEOPLE.
The Ttil7l4s of liouday gave an interesting article from
their Berlin Correspondent oaths German Emperor and the
' strong place he holds in the affections of his subjects. We
quote the following extracts therefrom
There seem to be few earthly honours which the
German Emperor before the close of his long life is
not likely to attain unto. Heaven, as if bent on
recompensing him for the trials and bereavements
of his early youth, has already showered on his
manhood and old age its very richest blessings. A
King once, he has become a Kaiser, and it has
been granted him to live through the most mo-
mentous period of modern times and to figure
se one of the chief actors in a great historical
drama. He is connected by family ties with the
most powerful of European Sovereigns; the proudest
orders of Christendom sparkle on his breast; his
palace is crowded with costly tokens of the love and
esteem of the mighty and the great. Victory has
frequently encircled his brew with the warrior's wreath,
and the arts of peace acknowledge him as their most
munificent patron. In his domestic life he has been
richly favoured. His varied fortunes have been
sympathetically shared by a Princess whose fame and
virtues posterity will not willingly let die, for she has
proved herself to be the model consort of such a
Sovereign. The good of his people has been her
highest joy ; she busies herself in providing shelter
for the orphan, in visiting and consoling the sick,
in securing prompt attention to the wounded in the
field ; and the various charitable institutions
founded by her all over Berlin will be the best epitaph
that could be written on the Empress Augusta.
Fortunate in the possession of such a wife, the Em-
peror is no less favoured in the matter of his children.
He has a son and daughter—the one allied to .the
eldest daughter of the Queen of England, the other
to one of the proudest of princely houses in Germany ;
he has a huge array of sportive grandchildren, nieces
and nephews, and the nucleus for an army of his
great grandchildren has already been formed. When
all the members of the Royal and Imperial House
assemble, as they do on certain special occasions
like the present, the group looks quite as for-
midable in point of number as an Highland clan
or an Arab tribe. All the women are fair, and
the men are of a tall, stalwart, armour-bearing type, a
marvellous instance of the almost unbroken trans-
mission of those qualities of mind and body which
centuries ago prompted the young and bold-hearted
Conrad, cadet of Hoherzollern, to quit the cramped
and lazy indolence of his father's keep and seek service
in the wars with Kaiser Barbarosea. But, apart from
all these blessings, the Emperor William has achieved
the highest honour which can fall to the lot of any
Sovereign—the deep and undivided love of his people.
His throne is their hearts. Let but the v.enerable
Monarch appear in any popular resort—an exhibi-
tion, a theatre, a place of promenade—and rousing
cheers will rend the air. In whatsoever town His
Majesty appears the citizens instinctively resolve
themselves into a guard of honour, and when he drives
from his palace to the drill-ground south of Berlin his
way lies through dense lines of respectful spectators
eager to catch a glimpse of the helmeted old hero.
His regiment greet him with hoarse but enthusiastic
'hocks.' His Majesty's afternoon drive through his
capital is the bee; possible proof of the fact that habits
once learnt cannot easily be forgotten; for no sooner
does the Impend equipage come abreast than civilians
of all grades, 'hose appearance would certainly not
otherwise suggest any particular previous acquaint-
ance with the irill•sergeant, instantly square stiffly
up and salute the passing head of the army with a
formal precisim which immediately reminds you
that you are in a land of universal military
service. Nor ire these honours prompted by a feel-
ing of decorous respect for a social superior; they
are the hearty outcome of real admiration and
gratitude. Tie Duke of Wellington in his most
popular Says was not more familiarly laeown and
beloved than the Lmperor William. His laurelled
bust, flanked ey the famous paladins of his Court, is
in every house; his photograph is in every album; the
proprietor of the meanest village ale-house in the
Empire think; it as necessary to procure and hang
up a painting of the Kaiser as to purchase a licence
for the sale of liquor. Without the one he would not
be permitted to receive customers, and without the
other his cuttomers would desert him. The corn-
flower, now tie national emblem of Prussia, has sup-
planted all tie fair inhabitants of the garden in the
affections of tie people, The ladies wear it in their
bonnets and embroider it on their dresses. Publishers
are sure a bock of poems will sell if but the cornflower
is tastefully vorked int the binding*. . . .
"Of all the English Sovereigns King Henry V. was
probably mcst popular, because he had subdued
France and flattered the military instincts of his
countrymen, and for the very same reasons the
Emperor Wiliam is the idol of his people. Before
all things he is a soldier. His army never goes forth
to fight bit be places himself at its head, and
the spectacle of so old a man enduring all the
toils and hardships of the tented field probably does
more than tnything else to inspire his helmeted legions
with that courage and endurance which enable them
to conque, wherever they go—which nerved them in
the teeth of a deadly iron hail to pour triumphantly
into the ndoubts of Dappel, to strew the ground with
the flower of Austrian manhood at Sadowa, and to
scatter b the winds the fairest chivalry of France on
the ensenguined plain of Gravelotte. The Emperor is a
Sovereign of the type of Saul, a very leader of his
fleck. His cheery ` Guten Morgen, meine Kinder'
as he rides along the line of his guaros calls to
mind the enthusiasm created by Royal Harry
among the English archers at Agincourt as he
walked from tent to tent and 'bad them good
morrow with a modest smile, calling them brothers,
friends, and countrymen.' Even in the palace his
Majesty's habits snack of the camp, being both
regular and simple. He sleeps en a bed which for
hardness of bottom and lightness of covering would
have even satisfied the Duke of Wellington. He
smokes not, neither does be snuff, but he is fond of
flowers and fresh air. "Meer Luft, mehr Luft" is a
delicacy he is for ever, in quest of. His Mejesty is
most temperate in the use of wine, one glass of
burgundy or so
.being all the stimulant a day
desires; but, on the other hand, he is still gifted
with an appetite for solid nutriment which
certainly betokens anything but failing power.
He has always been an early riser, and a cup of
coffee with a biscuit, placed cat his writing-desk in his
favourite corner rooq looking out on the Linden, is
sufficient to sustain ball through the working part of
the day. His Majeste's midday meal is taken as if
he had suddenly dismounted at a wayside inn and de.
sired to snatch a morsel of nourishment before press-
ing on to engage the enemy. On the ledge of a book-
case bearing the inscription Kriegsgeschichte the
Emperor's frugal lunch is placed, which he always
takes alone, not even sitting down the while, but
wandering about the room opening a volume or
examining the various objects of art and beauty
stored in perplexing, profusion around. And this
severe simplicity of life is the secret, doubless, of his
unimpaired constitution. At an age when physical
frailties make existence a cruel burden to most men,
His Majesty is still in the enjoyment of lusty
health and vigorous power of wcirk, nor does the
weight of over eighty-two years perceptibly bend his
tall and stalwart frame. He scorns to be thought on
the wane, and the consideration which would occa-
sionally offer him an assisting arm or sympathize with
a passing ailment is not always entirely welcome.
His Majesty is never happier than when receiving the
reports of his Ministers and Generals, never more con-
tented than when reviewing his Guards. Every day
almost of the last few weeks has seen him for several
hours in the saddle, and upright in it, too, sometimes
beneath a scorching sun, cautering across the parade-
ground with a firmness of seat unequalled by the
youngest General on his staff. But though a soldier
hy birth and education, the Emperor is a close ob-
server of the course of Politics; and posterity will dis-
cover, perhaps, that the brilliant galaxy of men who
surround and support his throne are not altogether
entitled to the honour of having initiated events which
are sometimes laid to their exclusive credit. • . .
"All these things, therefore, combine to make the
allegiance and congratulations now tendered to the
Emperor William on the occasion of his Golden Wed-
ding a national demonstration of the heartiest and
most genuine kind. There may still be grumbling and
disaffeeted spirits here and there in his dominions who
still cherish separatist. hopes, or secretly foment the
agitations of tie Socialists; but all alike, though they
may rail at the Empire, adore the Emperor." . . . .