The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-16 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The Hospital Saturday Fund in London amounted
to 42,750.
Mr. J. M. Hayman has died from exhaustion and
exposure caused by the snow avalanche at Zermatt, this
making She third life lost by the accident.
It has been decided that the British Association
should meet in 1878 at Dikbllu ; the place for next year's
meeting being Plymouth

More than 200 liquor saloons have been closed in
Boston since the Ist 01 July.

The wheat crop of California is said to be the largest
ever grown in that country.

Since January last, seventeen patents have been
taken out in France for improvements in roller-skates ;
then there are patents for skattng hats, costumes, and
boots.

A man with two wooden legs is said to be one of the
most indefatigable dancers at Saratoga; and a lady of that
city, who is overdressed, is called Sarah Toggery.
There has been a considerable increase in potatoes
imported this year. Up to the 31st of August the value as
declared was R,1,231,741, and last year £811,903.

Work on Mr. Moody's amphitheatre in Chicago will
be begun very soon. It will seat 8,000 persons, and will be
finished about the let October.

Tha value of property insured in London is
£510,000,000. Of the fires which occurred in London during
the past five years, four-fifths occurred to uninsured pro-
perty.
A large eagle, measuring 6 feet 11 inches from tip to
Up, was shot by Mr. John hi'llonald, at Blakely Point, Prince
Edward Island, on the 28th of July. It Ls said that this eagle
had been in that vicinity for the last 50 years.
In connection with the new aquarium now approach-
ing completion in New York will be an apparatus for fish cul-
ture, which will have a capacity of hatching from 50,000 to
100,000 trout at a single hatching.
- -

young lady in has just died from
sheer fright, produced through a foolish fancy. Raving had
her photograph taken, she showed a copy to her mother, who
discovered the farm of a skull on the picture. Another
skull having been figured out, the young lady grew pale,
took to her bed, and died.
The work of charging the drill holes in the Hell Gate
excavation at New York harbour with dynamite, according
to a Times telegram, began last Monday. Twenty thousand
pounds will be placed in over 4,00) charges in the rock and
supporting columns. When the charging is finished
the excavations will be flooded preparatory to the final explo-
sion.
The Rev. J. R., Davison, ALA., vicar of Moseley,
near Birmingham, died under painful circumstances at the
Vicarage on Sunday night. A short time ago Mr. Davison
was struck by lightning, and rendered temporarily insensible.
With the aid of restorativea he apparently recovered, but
shortly after bad a relapse, and has been gradually sinking
ever rince. The deceased was appointed to the incumbency
in 1852.
A very industrious index-maker, who let nothing
escape hini except now and then the main subject of the
sentence he was dealing with, made in his index the following
entry :—" Greatness of Mind, instance of." This corres-
ponded with a passage in the body of the work which related
how a certain judge had declared that he had "a great mind
to send the accused to prison without the option of a fine."—
Macmillan's Magazine.

A great writer of our time, among whose merits that
of a clear handwriting is not conspicuous, in describing the
Mount of Olives and his own brilliant discovery of the pre-
cise road taken by the Saviour on His triumphal entry into
the Holy, City, had abbreviated the word "Jerusalem" iuto
"Jerus." But this hardly justified the compositor in pro-
moting the sentence with this striking variation :—" On
reaching this rock we were at once unexpectedly greeted by
a moat magnificent view of Jones."—Maenullan's Magazine.
In the'Geographical Section of the British Associa-
tion at Glasgow, Commander Cameron read a paper giving an
account of his African travels. In the discussion which fol-
lowed:a variety of suggestions were made as to the beat means
of promoting African civilization. Commander Cameron's
Own opinion was that a commercial company might be
granted a special charter to work the wealth of the country,
on condition that they put an end to slavery; but the general
feeling of the meeting seemed to be with the president (Cap-
tain Evans), when he remarked that they would require to
have a more intimate acquaintance with the country before
they could come to a decision oa suoh a matter.
births and
of pe
andlp,2Jeenlti, he
deaths
werel nLondon
registered. la
t Awlloeweking2'ror4 increase
births exceeded by 143
the c wren) ie
43iwhereas the deaths w
s were
ee2l thl3be last
the average numbers t
tt ehne ytiexa rpsr. e Te
dhiee badde a teht r adt
iel y f
dr
eo
emu
nael
dl
fcauses,ern
igw2htiechloin3
included prevailed
hatahs
gawnneusekal
measles, 50 from scarlet fever, 6
ree rehl,yoCwoe,
efku rs tinh ecre ft ehltl, te on
dlSein4f,
jauleces.
Thera it:land e
5 from small-pox, 11 from
hooping-cough, 15 from different
from diptheria, '24, from
t4'werteherefeservreend
against numbers declining
9zfyrmwformootmiodlocealgarr3,ol332(e2l4sol;dthethathtuhsse
principal six forms of
diseasesf ever aoio2-d the
weeks. .
An exciting scene occurred in
daring e spor o e local
on Saturday afternoon,
the
Harbour,
swimming club. Panellgan descend to or from the ne pier
from the steam launches which
cross the harbour ascend or
sloping footway across a pontoon, which rises or fails
by a al° bout two o'clock on Saturday afternoon
w
with the tide, and a
ddenls.
persons were assembled for the purpose
the sport u y from some cause or
opoftrhowebrai,tbnLyeemi i2enlway snapped in the centre, the pontoon began
to fill, and one half went down, about 50 persons who were
on that part of the footway falling with it into about 20 feet
of water; the other half of the pontoon soon filled and also
went down. Happily plenty of assistance was at hand.
Boats were at once manned, a number of persons lumped
into the water, and by one means or other the whole of those
who were unable to swim, a large proportion of whom were
children. ,brought ashore alive.
In London, on Tuesday afternoon, a mad dog was
discovered at large in the Waterloo-road. Kortly after two
o'clock the attention of a policeman was called to a large
Scotch collie dog, which was foaming at the mouth and
snapping at persons who were passing. While the policeman
was endeavouring to attach a cord to its collar the dog flew
at him and bit him in the right hand. It then broke away
and sprang on a little boy, knocked him down and began to
tear his cheek. Fortunately, several policemen were at
hind, and the child was rescued, but his cheekbone was
laid bate, and he had a wound extending over an inch and a
half in lehgth. Meantime a policeman had procured a
hammer, bat before he could stake the dog it flew at a man
and bit him on his leg. At last the policeman struck it on
, the head, another man stabbed it with a butcher's knife, and
it was ultimately shot. The injured persons were removed
tig CAUrgiri, Thera their mute Were dreliede

The latest reports of the South Australian harvest
prospects are of a gloomy character.
General Todtleben, the defender of Sebastopol, is
among the foreign officers who will attend at the French
Autumn Manceavres.

One of the Prussian provincial governmenta has pro-
hibited pigeon-shooting matches on the ground that they
come under the definition of cruelty to animals.
Mr. Richard Wild, of Birkdale, a justice of the
peace fnr South-west Lancashire, died suddenly on Tuesday,
In his eSth year.
Sir John Richard Oman, one of the puisne justices
of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice,
died on Tuesday.

A Universalist church in Newiraven will be shortly
opened as an opera house.

"U.—Letter safely received, for which I -run truly
grateful, and return you my sincere thanks. Have nothing
fresh to tell you. All just the same as when I saw you. last.
Ever yours faithfully."—Advertisentent in The Times.
This is an advertisement that, for the enlightenment
of English residents at Vienna, has lately figured Ins well-
known tailor's window; "Inlandish and outlandish suits
always ready."
The "big tree," as it is called, which grew in Cala-
veras County, Cal., and contained bOO,OOO feet of inch lumber,
was recently felled by five men, working twenty-tvilkand a
halt days, making 112 i days' labout. • • ,
While the crew of her Majesty's gunnery ship
Cambridge were experimenting with torpedoes in Devonport
Harbour on Friday evening, one of the torpedoes exploded
at an nndesigned time and place. A boat was in the imme-
diate vicinity and was sunk, but her crew were promptly
rescued. The accident caused great consternation.

By the recent Act on trade unions, those unions
whether registered or not, which insure or pay money on
the death of a child under ten years of age, are brought
within the provisions of section 28 of the Friendly Societies
Aot; 1875.
-- - -

The Seven Keighley Guardians imprisoned in York
Castle for disobedience of an order of the Court of Queen's
Bench to carry out the Vaccination Act, were on Friday
bailed out, the sureties undertaken by eight gentlemen
being for £l,OOO Jointly.
The force of the Savings Bank Department was
augmented in 1876 by the addition of a staff of female clerks,
"and I am glad to be able to report" says the Postmaster
General, "that the experiment has been attended with very
satisfactory results."

-
The longest bridge in the world over a running
stream is now being constructed by the North British Rail.
way Company over the Tay at Dundee. Its length is 10,321
feet, and in shape it somewhat resembles the letter B.
A captain of French Marines, named Mariet, sent
out to New Caledonia to quell a disturbance amongst the
native tribes, has, it is said, been captured and eaten by a
warrior chief named Poindl Patchouni.

A Yankee inventor has attached to a pair of barber's
scissors an elastic, hollo% ball, which is compressed by the
operation of cutting, and a current of air forced out from the
ball, is direzted along the edges of the blades, and blows
away the fragments of the hair as fast as they are cut.
In London, on Tu9sday morning, the watermen at
Blackfriars Bridge discovered the body of a young woman in
the Thames, presenting the appearance of having been In the
water several hours. She appeared to be about 26 years of
age, and was but poorly clad.
On Tuesday the streets of Belgrade were decorated
n honour of the birthday of the Emperor of Rants, and a
"To Deum" was celebrated in the cathedral, all the Mints.
ten s in Belgrade attending the service.

Ostriches have reappeared in the Algerian Sahara,
where they have not been seen for twenty years. The birds
are especially plentiful in the south of Constantine; but the
Arabs are pursuing them with much vigour, as t,le present
fashion is creating a great demand for ostrich plumes.

A conference of colliery proprietors and miners was
held in Manchester on Tuesday, for the purpose of consider-
ing the question a the proposed reduction of wages. The
representatives of the men urged that the reduction (lei per
cent) was excessive. The masters agreed to refer the ques-
tion to arbitration, the decision of the arbitrators to take
effect on the 21st inst.

The Court Journal says the health of the Empress
Eugenie is such as to cause some uneasiness amongst the
Imperialist party. Her medical advisers have not to combat
any actual disease. and her ailment may be best described as
loss of vitality. Grief and disappointment have produced a
depressed condition sufficiently serious to causi anxiety,
though not alarm.

According co a return procured by Mr. Kay-Shuttle.
worth, recently printed, the total number of visitors from
October, 1804, when the numbers were first ascertained, to
the end of last year was 29,721,355, of which 25,445,035 Were
to the general collections. Last year the number of visitors
was 663,898, against 601,843 in 1874.

"Accidents never come singly" (writes the Paris
correspondent of The Times). 'After the fire in the Rae de
Bondy on Monday night, an explosion occurred next morning
in the shop of a gunsmith named Reynaud, in Montmartre,
the inventor of a plan of charging projectiles. Ile was un-
screwing a shell when it exploded and killed him, as also a
newavendor who had just entered the shop, bealdes fnitiring
two boys who wet.° passing."
A serious accident occurred on the Great Western
Railway, near Banbury. Some cattle strayed on the line,
and one of them was cut to pieces by an express goods. train.
Six waggons were thrown off the metals, and the line,was
torn up for upwards of halt a mile. The engine aud tender
kept the rails, and the driver and stoker were unhurt. Men
were engaged several hours clearing and repairing the line,
and traffic was worked on a single line.
Sir Wilfrid Lawson tells the following story :—Tlltare
was once a mayor of an ancient borough who was a staunch
teetotaller, and well known to be so. He attendedlhe
festivities promoted by a neighbouring borough, and some-
body who knew the mayor well put a glass of milk punch
close to his plate. The mayor saw the glass; he could not
resist it; he took it up and quaffed it off, and set it down,
saying, "Lord, what a cow!"
•
The Belgrade Correspondent Lf. The Times writes :
"Immediately after the Cauncil on Friday, an order was
passed rendering old soldiers mutilating themselves liable to
imprisonment for life or execution. Before the publication
of this order, however, many men had been executed for the
offence, on one occasion as many as forty in one bateht I
have been told that there are hospitals in which more than
half the patients are of this class."

The Standard of Monday said :—" One of our
Special Correspondents at the seat of war has penetrate 4 as
far as Deligrad. Ile was furnished with an i4troduction to
General Tchernajeff, but was not permitted to see the tier-
vian commander, and was invited' to leave the cananyith-
, out delay. The position, he says, is a very strong one, but
not sufficiently garrisoned."
At the British Association in Glasgow Dr. Oack
read an address upon compulsory education, one of-his
principal recommendations being that no agency short of
compulsion could bring Ireland on a level in popular educa-
tion wills her sister countries. Miss Lydia Becker took
part in the discussion and advocated the entire sibolition of
corporal punishment in schools.
News has reached Liverpool that the steamer
Arbitrator, of Liverpool, belonging to Meurs. Harrison's
regular line between Orleans and Liverpool. was struck .by
an iceberg on the 23rd of August, and foundered in twenty
minutes. The captain and crew were saved by the brigantine
Dublin.
A country curate, in aletter to Blackwood's Magazine.
says that on one occasion he baptised a child named ' Acts.'
Afterwards in the vestry he asked the good woman *Nit
made her choose such a name? Her answer was this—
" Why, sir, we be religions people; we've got four on 'em
already, and they be 2.aal'd Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John, and so my husband thought he'd compliment the
Apostles a bit."
Mr. Longfellow has been persistently annoyed by
all kinds of requests to write verses in honour of the Cen-
tennial. He has invariably refused, and the report is that he
' is busily engaged in composing a long poem on an Indian
• subject, which, with references to the boundary disputes,'ls
expected to have a political tinge.
Marshal MacMahon arrived at Lyons on Saturday
afternoon, and in reply to the speech welcoming him to the
city, expressed his intention to do all in his power to main-
tain quiet in France. He was cordially received by the
populace as he passed through the streets. Replying, at a
later stage, to the President of the Tribunal of Commerce,
the Marshal said he hoped the time would shortly arrive
when, military preoccupations having vanished, it would be
possible to devote himself exclusively to peaceful matters.
The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Easlern
Budget says that the agitation in Russia on It9half4or the
Servians is assuming alarming proportions. Whatevesrmay •
have been the case three months ago, there can now be no
doubt of the genuineness of the sympathy felt by the
Russians for their fellow Slays, and the Government seems
to have lost all influence over the movement. in the army,
especially, incidents are daily occurring which are totally
Irreconcilable with military discipline, bat the authorities
dare not interfere.
A new pattern bayonet, adapted to the Martini.
Henry rifle, has, says the Ar2ny and Navy Gazette, been ap-
proved, and is to supersede that now in use. The blade is
22k. Inch long ; ills equilateral, and has no outward cant
when fixed on the rife. The weight of the bayonet, with
locking ring and screw complete, 24 oz. A saw-backed sword.
bayonet is also ordered to ba manufactured for Issue with
the same arms.
Cremation has crossed the Atlantic, and the body
of a cotton planter in South Carolina has been publicly burnt
The deceased had threatened his sons with disinheritance if
they failed to carry out his wishes, and had even chosen the
spot for the ceremony. Americans, however, have little
respect for that grim tyrant Death. The latest fashionable
name for coffins is "Wooden 'Ulster' ;" while one New York
journal, anxious to increase its circulation, offers to its sub-
scribers of three years a prize of an elegant coffin at their
death:"

-- -
The amount of gold raised, since the first Californian
nuggets were pickeu from the crevices of a quartz reef, thirty
years ago, is roughly reckoned as equalling that of all the
gold then in circulation. It Bays much for the complex
character of our civilisation that prices have not actually
doubled within that time. As regards silver, we have, since
the discovery of America, received about as much aswasin
human hands in the reigns of the latter Plantagen fs; but
the waste has been much greater than in the case of gold,
and the demands of ladle. and China have for fifty years been
a serious drain on the resources of Europe.
gmtuailawbayy
oirathiteinleguththe
phosavoyie
and
powderdnepetwahtP'Cientre) has been developed
A. Noble, F.R.S.By
available upon up on the sot bed before hit
rbeysent be ascertained, the powder is
oa f pointth the systemcartridge as o fnearfir
i firing
sg
(its
usefully burnt, theewhole of the re-
mui into
on
rag
non, successful
and
;dual:
hpeeraranacfatoltrc practice
ecdenutrpalonigin4l9-
suiting gases being made a
laireavafeatetrhethgre,lintooeintehregyshboetin. glust
iselecellyedextpehen,l
Igni-
tion system."
At several of the London churches on Sunday last
the Turkish atrocities were the subject of comment by tlfisi.
preachers' Hin At Christ Church, West the mysteries
the eßev.
Newman all said, speaking o
Provi-
dence, that evil was often allowed to culminate in order tliat
it might terminate. These atrocities might open the eyes of
Europe to the real and abiding character of the Turk, and,.
lead to the entire emancipation of the provinces, long • the
victims of his tyranny.
The tablet which the members of her Majesty's
Diplomatic and Consular services in China have erected pin
memory of the late Mr. Margery at the cathedral in Hongr
Kong is a shield, carved in marble, and bears the following.,
inscription :—" This tablet is erected in token of affectionate'
esteem by the seniors and colleagues of the late' Augustus..
Raymond Alargary, of the British Consular Service in China.
Re had successfully completed a difficult journey through
China to Burmah, and was murdered, when returning.,, at
Manwyne, in Yunnan, on the 2lst February, 1875. 'Quit ye.
like men '-1 Corinthians, xvi. 13." , #
Commander Richard'. William Charlesson, RNse
whose death has j eat been reported, entered the navy in Marc*
1805. He was on board the Africa on October 20, 1808, whorlt
she was attacked, while escorting a large convoy, in the-
.lsialmo Channel, by a pcwerfril flotilla of gunboats, with'
whom she continued an action of nearly four hours: be was;
slightly wounded in Lord Gambler's attack in 1809, on tire'
French shipping in the Basque Roads, attended the expedil:
idols to Flushing, and served at the siege of Cadiz. Aftfl.;
farther service in 'serious parts of the world he was Prss4
moted to lieutenant in February, 1815. He afterward ,
sery
• a'
1853. d in the coastguard and revenue service until (Mae",
a letter from Mr. Sanderson. of the Forei
h g
ncation re-
Mr. Wooler, a Darlington magistrate,mhasee,
him, on the part of Lord Derby, for his
si by the Turkish
c°mmuni
specting the prevention of further exce,e rtheceankivineg
troops. The letter says
toh
s
Derby's most serious attention lie hopes
theha s
Ti
fr er cif
fe
si vhe
Gd 0
rLeorpr dr. .
went are now filly
au
forces under proper control,
and of p
ti
acts of spoils on or undue severity. He
is y u eventing to the utmost.;
of their power any
will continue to impress t on them, and urge the
necessity of punishing the authorshthtdeuat matter
noefe6 of keeping their
rP slaty
the recent outrages. , -
1:110 deceased, who is the son of
An inquest has been held at 'Bangor upon tio bedp-T,I
don near Banbury, was descending the
the late Rector of Ey ,
tCAlebmerenvitafenr3fpson, of Winchester School,- who was
when he all eii,
Lon
d fifty yards, falling on the rocks at the
south side of the falls close to the spot where Mr. Paine, a
and was precipitate
koifileUrddon barrister, was killed two years ago, w's pp
footof or
the falls,
him. Death
as
his
walsteirusstazdtantheeeirustgovA yecet ot
arnsa srwera
waiting
awls:l=W cleat,ll rax requrned

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t