The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-01-05 00:00:00

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rWe deem it right to state that we do not at all tiraCE 1
ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

It is surprising bow FL on the holiday Beason paese
,way and gives place once more to the round of daily
eil. This is reit only the case with adults, whose
isure time at Christmas is but limited, hut also with
e younger simong us, who, though released from
esholaatifs duties for several weeks, find that, so far
time hanging heavily on their hands, it glides all
swiftly lay, and that they are back again at their
of treition before they have fairly realised the
they have been granted. To the ordinary
schoolboy the Christmas holiday ie, perhaps, the most
,enjoyable of all that he receives, It is true that in the
Jammer he may have much more eut-of- door pleasure,
for an English winter is more apt to be damp than to
be dry, more apt to be redolent of fog than to be
productive of frost. But, this fact notwithstanding,
it is not difficult to see why the Christmas holi-
day should present additional charms. When are
the elders more ready to make allowance fo
the pleasure-wants of youth, when are the younge
ones more ready to enjoy themselves in hearty
fashion, than at the "festive season?" Parties of all
kinds are the natured products of Christmas-time;
and although summer picnics are not to be despised,
winter parties are those which the young most fondly
cling to. Such reasons might be multiplied for the
belief which has been expressed, but enough has been
said to show why it is that of all times of the year, the
last few days of the old one and he first few days of
the new are generally regarded as the happiest.
The question of the relative enjoyment by the
young of the various holiday seasons can scarcely be
mentioned without raising a discussion as to the pro-
priety of granting such holidays at all. Perhaps even
the most hardened cynic among us would not con-
tend that holidays should be abolished, but one is
accustomed at this time of the year to be told that the
present system is one which is largely in excess of
the needs of the young, and that it would be to the
interests of both parents and children if it were cur-
tailed. There may be much to be said from a practical
point of view in favour of this contention, but it would
be reluctantly assented to by many who fondly cling
to the old adage that "all work and no play make
Jack a dull boy." These will argue that, when Lord
Campbell, once Lord Chancellor, wrote nearly fifty
years ago, "In England, where boys go to boarding
schools, if the holidays were not long there would be
no opportunity for cultivating the domestic affections,"
he was stating that which was the literal truth ; and,
rather than sacrifice their theory that holidays, and
long holidays too, are good for the young as well as
the old, they would argue on the side of Lord Camp.
bell from one festive season to another.
It is almost impossible, when writing at this time of
the year, to keep the pen away from holiday subjects,
and one more reference to such may be permitted.
No one who has ever been in London, and especially
in the innermost parts of the City, on a Christmas
holiday, can fail to be struck with the strange aspect
that is presented. Where on most days of the year
are to be seen the glitter of the shop-windows and the
glare of the gas, there is only to be witnessed a dull,
damp line of street almost unilltimined, and given up
to a seemingly endless stream of sight-seers, who have
apparently no sight to see. Thousands of persons pour
into the metropolis upon such occasions, anxious to
teat for themselves what London is like, and they
depart wofully disappointed. It would be a kindness
on the part of those who know the circumstances
if they would tell those who do not, and who
are thinking of visiting London on a public holiday,
that this is the very worst day that could be selected
for the purpose. London, to be admired at all, must
be seen when it is in the full blaze of business; when
business is stopped, the metropolis, by reason of its
huge size, is the dullest place to visit in the three
kingdoms.
A recent death has brought home to men's minds
reflections not only upon the enormous wealth which
may be acquired by persistent and judicious adver-
tising, but also upon the manner in which such wealth
may best be used to perpetuate the memory of a well-
known name and at the same time to benefit deserving
fellow-mortals. In the 'United States it has been
proved to be no uncommon thing for men who have
amassed riches to set aside a large proportion for the
endowment of some institution having for its object
the better provision of educational facilities or the
readier cure of disease. This has not to the same
extent been the case in England. It may be that our
giits are less spasmodic, and although not so indi-
vidually large are more general and regular; but
broad facts aro those which most strike the popular
eye, and it may be that the example shown by the
recently deceased millionaire will have the effect of
inducing others possessed of enormous wealth to follow
in the line he has so strikingly laid down.
nf Eh niaa ern all
to make emooth the path of daily life is promised to
be very shortly introduced by the authorities at the
General Post Office. It has for a long time been a
problem with the public why there should not be pro-
vided increased facilities for the purchase of postage.
stamps. This has been felt not only in large towns,
where the distances between stamp-offices are often
very great, but in small ones where, although the
distances may not be as large, they are sufficiently
so to cause much loss of time. At length it seems
as if something will really be done to mitigate
what can scarcely be called an evil, but which
certainly has often proved an annoyance. Visitors
to the Continent will remember that very little
difficulty was ever presented to them in the endea-
vcur to procure postage stamps; all they had to do
was to go to the nearest tobaoco-shop, and this
was never very far away, and there they were at
once supplied with that which they required. It is
not probable that such a state of things will immedi-
ately obtain in England, but it is understood that,
under the scheme contemplated by the chief postal
authorities, the task of purchasing a stamp will be
rendered much more easy in.the future than it has
been in the past.
At tho same time as there has been an agitation
for the more convenient procuring of postage-stamps,
there have been thrown out:several suggestions that it
would be well if railway tickets could be obtained
more easily than at present. No one, accustomed to
travel, can have failed more than once to have lost
both time and temper in the struggle at a crowded
booking-office to get a ticket. In London and in some
of the largest towns, there has, it is true, been adopted
within recent years a system of branch offices, by
means of which it is possible in the case of the larger
companies to avoid going to the station itself when a
ticket is required. But these branch offices are so very
few and so extremely scattered as to do comparatively
little to remedy the public complaint. It is to be pre-
sumed as certain that, if it were as easy as some seem
to imagine for the companies to alter this state of
things, they would speedily do so; but there are many
who hope that, at no distant time, a way will be per
ceived by the companies which shall enable them to
prevent the repetition of at least one grumble by the
public.
One wonders what the shopkeepers of Oxford-street
and Regent-street, of the Strand and Fleet-street, of
Ludgate-hill and Cheapside, would say, if it were pro-
posed that at the beginning of each year booths
for the sale of all manner of gay and glittering
wares should be erected along the pavement out-
side their establishments. It is easy to fancy
the storm of indignation that would be aroused
by any such proposal, but this ie just exactly
what is annually done in the great boulevards
of Paris, which in many respects correspond to
the London thoroughfares just mentioned. The
"Jour de l'An," or New Year's Day, is a much•noted
day in France, completely overshadowing Christmas
in the number and variety of its celebrations, just
it does in Scotland. On that day it is the custom to
distribute " dtrennes "—gifts of articles more for orna
ment than use—with as much liberality to friends and
acquaintances as Christmas cards are distributed in
England ; and the boulevard booths supply a great
wriber of these presents, They are a nuisance and a
sOlrce of loss to the shopkeepers, but these are not as
yet sufficiently powerful to get rid of them : but to the
ehildren they are a fund of much enjoyment, and it
may be thai. for the sake of the little ones their aboli-
tion will be long delayed.
To use a conventional and perhaps on the whole a
rather stupid term, London has been "empty " for
months. It will soon, however, begin again to fill—
that is, to fill with the fashionable world—for with
the opening of Parliament on the fifth of next month,
" The season " will commence. It is not probable
that Londoners on this occasion will be able to gratify
their sense of loyalty hy (leering the Queen, for
although, to the great joy of all her subjects, hcr
Maje,ty is now much better in health than she
recently has been it is not thought likely that she will
feel herself equal to the fatigues of opening Parlia-
ment in person on a cold and probably bleak day in
February. It is now four years siree her Ma asty
drove down the Mall from Buckingham Palace to per-
form this duty; and the older ones among those who
assembled in the House of Loris on that occasion
could not fail to be struck and somewhat p mined by
the difference between the time, when a proud and
happy wife, the Queen used to read her own speech
to those present, and that at which a lonely widow,
she sat and listened to the Lord Chancellor delivering
her word.

About 250 workmen engaged in the factoriea at
Cambray have struck work.


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