The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-12-18 00:00:00

THE ICILEENNY_EAT CURE.
If Fenian mot.s would only tight.
With IMAM demanding Tenant Right,
Bo as ache other to ilesthroy,
hold Ireland a ould have We, me bhoy. —Punch.

lintelligente„
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

SEVER WINTER.—We regret to state that our
favourite bibliographer is westberbouud, in Rus,ia.—

Punch.
GEoRGE FRANCiS num. —We (New York
Times) grieve to say that an old and eloquent Melia
of sure, who has often been particularly mentioned in
these columns--the American Demosthenes, otherwise
known as Mr. George Francis Train—is most dis-
reepectfully spoken of by several of the West. rn
journals, and that he never was parquinaded before
with such versatility of rhetoric and ingenuity of
ebuee, except, may be, in some woman's convention.
He is tbus addressed : "Good-bye, old windy good-
bye, old gaspipe ; go borne and eoak your head in
whisky, so BA to rive some strength to your apology for
brains''—all which, to say the least, in not c maplimen-
Very to Mr. Train phrenologically. We must, with all
our force, protest against this light method of soon-
timings man who, in our opinion, cAn in one hour
talk more and say less than any other being that ever
existed, or is ever likely to exist. Honour to whom
honour is due—New York Tribune.
VISIT OF HER MAJ4STY T,/ AN AG ED WIDOW.—
It having been intimated to her Majesty, through the
medium of that well-known agriculturist, Mr. Head-
ington, of Ragstone Farm' that a Mro. Plumridge, the
widow of an agricultural labourer, living on a small
income derived from the aaviega of her late husband
and herself as agricultural servants, at Touch-en-end,
in the parish of Bray, 13esks, and who is at the
advanced age of 101 years, had repeatedly expressed a
wish to see her Majesty. the Qaeen, in the most con-
siderate scanner, gratified the wishes of the old lady on
Wednesday in last week. Her Majesty, accompanied
by Princess Beatrice, and attended by the Hon.
Caroline Cavendish, drove to flagstone -Farm, when
Mr. Headington hail the honour of shewing her
Majesty the way to widow Plumridge'n cottage. It is
needless to say how much the old lady felt honoured by
the visit, and the kind way in which her Majesty and
the Princ-es conversed with her.
THE FENIAN GOTRAOR Ilf CLERKENWELL.— I
Monday, the 131 inst., which was the second anni-
versary of the i ntrage at the Middlesex Home of
Detention by the Feniana, who destroyed the homes of
many industrious families, and killed and perruanenny
injured a great many persons by this cowardly action
against authority, was marked by a very pleasing
cereals my. Mr. Willcorks, the enurchwarden, pre-
sided over A meeting of the committee at the Clerken.
well Vestry-hall, at d congratulated them that by the
If orts of the press and the committee TO lentil
sum than £10,075 was raised and expended in giving
te m 1.0. ary anaistance to sufferers, and in nmkMg
provision for those eermanently injured. Oa
the very night of the outrags a number of gentlemen
formed themselves into a relief committee, with the
viaar of Clerkenwell, Mr. Robert Megaire, at their
head, with Mr. Paget, the vestry clerk, as honorary
secretary. The committee themselves had personally
subscribed, and had obtained other subscriptions an
order to mark their sense of the services of these two
gentlemen' and he then I resented to the Rev. Robert
Maguire she manfully engrossed memorial, and a silver
salver of kcal workmanship, both bearing record of
the great outrage, and testimony to the service
rendered. To Mr. Paget a like engrossed memorial
was given, and a cheque for £lOO, not intended as any
remuneration for services spreading over along peril,
bub as a slight acknowledgment of his plrilanthro; ic
endeavours to aid the suffering. _ _ _

CHEMISTRY IN COURT.—The Tribunal of Coe-
rcetiunal Police in Paris has just been engaged for
several sittings in the trial of M. Fontaine, chemist,
if the Place de la Sorbonne, on a charge of homicide
by imprudence, miring out of the terrible catastrophe
of tha Ifith March lost. The evidence failed to explain
the cameo of the explosion ; the most plaudble hypo-
thesis, however, appeared to be that it was due to
certain atmospheric conditions. That supposition de-
rived an additional importance from the following fact
quoted by the jodge in hie summing up, from the
Moniteur Seient, fivie On the day of the aeciderit
the ozonometer marked in l'aris at noon nearly 52 mil-
limetres, the highest point yet obeerved ; on the fol.
lowing day the instrument stoed at 23 only. M.
llouz•am thinking that the modified oxygen might
have had some influence in producing the explosion,
prepared a phial of esone, and introduced into it five
decieraunnes of picrete of potassium ; a detonation
followed immediately, and the bottle was burst into
fraguieuts." The court m nsequently decided that the
negligence of Fontaine was me- suffidently established,
and acquitted him.
" WllO BATH MADE US TO DIFFER ?"—Nearly
all the courts it Waishington are just now occupied
with cages arising from the equality rscioutly conceded
to the negroes. One is brought by a woman who had
a limb fractured by being thrust out of a railway
train, and another by sons of the negro grater Frederick
Douglass for a similar outrage upon them. The
National Theatre is sued for ejection of negroem who
had purchased places. The Rev. Sella Martin, lately
of London, eues the trustees of a district school for re-
fusing admierion to his daughter on account of her
scarcely perceptible African blood. The suit insti-
tuted by the 5555 of Mr. Douglass brings to mind a
story lately told of their father, who, having to pass
:he night in a train, wrapped himself up in his cloak
and stretched himself on a seat made to hold two.
Ciongratulating himself that his colour would keep the
other pelt of his era; vacant, he had hardly entered on
his nap when a white claimant for the place entered.
" I am a nigger," growled Douglas. "1 don't care
who you are," calif the other, "I want that Beat."
Mr. Douglas gave way, grumbling at the hardship that
the negro should have at last "bat his right to two
ea its."
MDMPL GRIM'S OPERATIC CAREER IN LONDON.
—During the late Mdme. Gain's Lond•-n operatic
career, extending over a period of twenty-seven seasons,
she Bang some 925 nights. The following chronological
list of the operas in which the great Finger has contained
characters, with the number of times she has appeared
in each before a London audience
"La Garr Laura," 47; "Anna Dolma," 42 ; " Otello," 86;
" II 1.),..n Giovanni," 89; "L. 13,111101 W Lego," 21 ; "
cif Corinth." ; "Semiramitle." 41; "II Barbiere," 38; 'La
Sonitambula," ii; " Marino Fallero,' 8; "I Purataid," 92;
Prova d'usi Opera Serbs," Si; "Norma," 79 ; "1 Brigantt"
6; 11 Matrinionto Segreto," as Caroline, 10 ;as Lisetta, 9 ;
Malek Adel," 7 ; Ildecenda," 2 ; "Parlsina," ; "Noss:
di Figaro," 21; " Falstaff,' 4; " Lucresia Borgia," 100; "II
Giuramen to," 9; '• Fausta, 2; " 11,1.erto Devereux," ; "Don
Pasquale," 29; " Cenerentota," 3 ; 'Don carton," ; corado
el'Ai tame/a," 1 : "Ii Pirata," ;"1 Lombardl," 11; I due
Foscari," 3; "Li Favorita," 29 ; " I,s Iluguen..ts," 04;
"Rots rto 11 Diavolo," .2 ; "11 Flauto Magico," 3; "Le
ProptSte," 9; "II Trovatore," 16.
The prima donna's pm formances may be distributed
among the thirteen composers thus : —ln operas by
Donizetti she appeared on 218 nights; by Rossini, 197;
by fiellini, 105; by Mozart, 108; by Meyerbeer, 105;
by Verdi, 3d; by Mercalante. 14; by Costs, 12; in
an opera by Grieco she appealed on 21 occasions; by
Cimarosa, 19; by 13alfe, 4; by Martiani, 2; and by
Ricci, once only.
, Bk..TTER STAY AT HOME !—A German settler
in Mexico has aildrersed a leiter to the Cologne Gawk
as a warniug to intending immigrants. An anony-
mous society, he says, has been established in Mexico
for the purpme of inducing Europeans to settle in
Guerrero, Oaxaca, Vera One, Chiapas, Tobacco,
Tehuantepec, and Yucatan, and it has already pub-
lished a prospectus Living an imeiting pkt ire of the
mineral wealth of thise provinces, and the advantages
they offer for colonisation. The truth is, says the
correspondent, that these States are the most un-
healthy in Mexico. "Fevers of all kinds prevail
there more or less all the year round, and they are
particularly fatal to Europeans." The fo ci, too, is of
a kind to which Europeans are not accustomed. There
is no bread, potatoes, butter, or meat to be had except
at enormous prices. Wheat or rye does not grow in
that climate, and tbe on'y substitute for then is maize.
The milk is of bad (11.1.417, and is only to bo hod in
the rainy season, namely, ior three or four mouths it.
the year. These disadvantages, added to the insecurity
of life and property caused by endless revolutions,
have reduced the settlers now in the country to misery
and financial ruin.
INGENIOUS AND USEFUL—A French paper de-
scribes an insenioun plan for utilising the old wooden
shoes worn by the French peasantry. The watchman
of a communal forest has exhibited at Colmar some
roosting places for titmice of hie own invention, which
are neither more nor lees than old wooden shoes with
a hole in them. The insects made such ravages on a
property under the charge of the watchman in questien