The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-10-17 00:00:00

en yodel Carrespodent.

SWe deem It right to state that we do not at all tiniC.
Lentify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

No sooner has the cricket season terminated,
and bats and stumps have been oiled and balls
put away, than the talk of those who love an
outdoor amusement turns to football. It cannot
be contended, even by those who most admire
this- winter game, that it is as generally popular
as the one which can only be played in the
summer, and there are various reasons for the
difference. Football is a rougher, and oven, it
TrnisT be Said, a more dangerous form of amuse-
ment than cricket; and although w`e may often
hear of a hand being injured by the blow of a
cricket ball, it is to the not uncommon breaking
of legs, and arms, and collar-bones that much of
the dislike which remains towards football can
be traced. But whether one likes it or not,
even the most determined opponent of football
cannot dispute tl; at, it has advanced in popularity
to an extraordinary degree during the last few
years. it is not, perhaps, of London that this can
be said, for although naturally out of a population
of four millions a great number are interested
in football, yet the proportion does not grow in
any very marked degree. A difference is shown,
however, when one travels north. In Yorkshire
and Lancashire—in the former county especially
—the popular rage for football has within the
last few winters risen to a height which can
only be called astounding.
So great has grown the love for football in the
manufacturing towns of the West Riding, that
the contests on Saturday afternoons between
the various local clubs to decide the ultimate
winner of the coun'v cup attract crowds, which,
for size and enthusiasm, far transcend any which
can be gathered for cricket. The excitement
which is aroused would appear well-nigh in-
credible, if merely described and not seen; the
bespattered and bedraggled player, if he chance to
be on the winning side, is treated with a defer-
ence almost amounting to awe; and when the
victorious team, if it has been playing on a
strange ground, returns to its own town, bands
and banners are in readiness to escort it through
the streets, and even a torchlight procession may
be improvised for the occasion. A curious proof
of the rapid growth of this enthusiasm for foot-
ball has been afforded in a Yorkshire manufac-
turing borough. Some years ago a new cricket
ground was purchased, and laid out at heavy
expense, a considerable debt being left to burden
the shoulders of tin club. The main portion of
this was ex ci ‘cted to be gradually defrayed by
the money paid at the gates to witness the
cricket matches, the football competitions which
were then held being so few, and these so sparsely
attended, that little revenue could be hoped for
from them. But now all is changed. It is from
football that the larger amount of money accrues,
and the debt, which seemed likely to hang like a
millstone around
.the club's neck for a score of

years, will disappear in about seven.
Golf is the great winter game of Scotland, and
Punch has just givcn a humorous illustration,
showing how at this season of the year" the
Golf Stream" flows northward, and is participated
in by young and old, male and female, gentle and
simple. There are, of course, links to be found
in England, and on some of them good play is
occasionally to be seen. But if it is sought to
witness the best play it is to Scotland, the home
of golf, that the step must be bent. A Southerner
imbued with all the prejudices of a man who
persists in seeing nothing that is good in any-
thin!, which is not English, may not be willing to
admit, at his first sight of the game, that
there is anything in it which can justify
the enthusiastic praise which has been given
to it by all sorts and conditions of Scotchmen.
But if he watches the game for a little time and
masters a few of its technicalities he soon begins
to find himself warming towards it, and .he will
be surprised to perceive that he is becoming
almost as eager in its praise as if he had been
born north of the Tweed. The best feature of
the game, perhaps, is, that Old and young can
equally enjoy participation in it. "Once a
golfer, always a golfer" has been observed con-
cerning it, and it does not need a prolonged sur-
vey of the pastime to know that the observation
is true.
Since it was announced that, by payment of a
guinea yearly, the privilege could be secured of
registering at the Post-office a single word which
should cover a whole telegraphic address, the
rush to secure such registration has been very
great. It has been, in fact, upon so extensive a
scale that it would not be surprising if it in some
measure defeated the end which is had in view
when a telegram is despatched. The object in
sending a messageby wire is, of course, to secure
its prompt delivery; but if it be forwarded to a
registered address there is very serious risk
of delay becath, e of the extraordinary number of
these which have been placed on the official list
since the introduction of the Cheaper telegraph
system. When there were only a few, it was
easy for the clerks to carry them in their head,
and to forward them to their destinations imme-
diately upon receipt. But this is impossible
under the altered conditions; no clerk, however
good his memory, could be expected to hold in
his head several hundred of such abbreviations,
and the consequence is that one or two or even
more books will have to be consulted in some of
the largest offices before one of these messages
can be delivered. The system, however, is not
the same in all offices. In some the plan adopted
has been to erect a rack containingcompartments,
above each of which is one of the registered names,
the compartments themselves containing tele-
graph envelopes, bearing the printed full address
of the firm meant. Then, if the clerk receives a

telegram for some condensed address, he does not
need to refer to a book, but he simply draws out
an envelope already addressed from the compart-
ment in the rack which bears the corresponding
label, and puts the message into it. By this
arrangement it is claimed that all delay is
avoided, and the trouble is reduced to a mini-
mum, while the revenue benefits from the regis-
tration fee, and the public from the less number
of address-words to be paid for. But whether it
would work with equal satisfaction all round at
such a huge office as the central department at
St. Martin's-le-Grand is not so certain.
This question of abbreviated addresses has
more than one side to it, as a number of corres-
pondents in the daily press have already pointed
out. One gentleman states that, on going to his
local office to register his address, a book was
handed to him containing a large number of
names, with a request that he would select
his telegraphic appellation therefrom. He
appends some of the words which he
says he " culled at random" from this
valuable and interesting collection, and these are
certainly astonishing. They are as follows:
"Awkward, blacking, booby, buffoo4, cabbage,
carroty, calkin, chuckle, choky, chicken, deuce,
devilry, dipper, dodger, dogtooth, dolt, dotard,
earwig, eyeglass, flapjack, fleabite, flummery,
goose, gosling, gorilla, hubbub, howlet, jackdaw,
kimbo, knobbled, limbo, lobster, lucifer, mangle,
mewl, muffin, ribbler, newt, onion, oxlip, oyster,
pancake, periwig, phlegm, pickles, putty, quaffer,
quip, rabbit, relish, rooster, sausage,
scratch, shrimp, snipe, sneeze, thumbkin,
thurnmm, wildcap, itc." Those who
desire to find a word to represent
their address have certainly a large field of
choice here; but it would surely not be many
who would care to take one of those which.
have Luca, quotod a. 1-incl prArppflisil
riiolr-
name.

One of the topics always recurring in the
"dead season" is as to whether it would
not be wise to levy a tax upon bache-
lors. It is said that when the new
Chamber of Deputies assembles in Paris, a pro-
position will be laid before it by an influential
member to place a tax upon the masculine un-
married. The especial reason for this is stated
not to be so much to aid the revenue as to
stimulate the bachelors to marriage. There are,
it is estimated, just two millions of them within
the French borders who ought to have wives,
and it is thought that, by placing a stigma upon
them in the shape of a tax, something may be
done to compel them to enter the marriage..
state. Whether this calculation is well-based is
a point upon which we are not likely to receive
sufficient data, for it is exceedingly improbable,
even if such a measure be brought forward
that it will be passed into law. In
these days legislation is not accustomed to go
out of its way to place anything in the nature of
a reproach upon citizens who are generally well-
conducted. Bachelors in France need not, there-
fore, have any immediate fear of being subjected
to the suggested tax.
With the rapid approach of the General
Election, there is a great increase in the number
of speeches delivered, on both sides of politics by
prominent statesmell. Reports of these oratorical
efforts are, therefore, being multiplied, and one
sometimes wonders whether the average news-
paper-reader gives soomuch as a t. hought to thQ
amount and extent of the orgamsation which is
required to secure the due and dialy presentation
of such reports to the publia. Whether the
speech is delivered in the metropolis, or a small
and remote town, a large staff of reporters has to
be present to ensure that every word shall appear

die next morning in all the daily newspapers. If •
the sc.-ene of the speech-making is in London, this
is not a matter of great difficulty, for the central
organisatima of the Post Office is close at
hand, and everything can be rapidly flashed
through the wires to all corners of the king-
dom. But when the political leader has to
appear in some small town, not only has a special
staff of reporters to be sent from London to take
a verbatim note of the proceedings, but a special
corps of telegraphists has to follow in the wake,
as the local clerks would be unable to cope with
the sudden and unusual influx of work. Even
while the speaker is on his legs much of what
he has been saying is placed upon the wires, and
before he has sat down some of it is very likely
to be in type hundreds of miles from the plat-
form on which he is standing. Organisatien
needs to be perfect to secure such a result, and
the public which profits by its existence ought
to be made aware of the difficulties which sur-
round it.
We are still more than two months from what
is always known os "the festive season," and
already Christmas cards are to be seen in some
of the London booksellers' windows. These are not,
however,intended for home consumption; they are
offered for sale in order that those who have
friends in the United States or the Colonies may be
able to secure them in time that the Christmas
greetings may reach their destination just as the
twenty-fifth of December arrives. From year to
year prophecies are freely uttered that the popu-
larity of Christmas cards as a social institution
will speedily die away, but these have not yet
been fulfilled. Like many another good thing,
this may in many eases have been overdone; but
if we condemned everything of which this could
be said, we should condemn much of what is of
very real value to the world. There may be no
particular good to be derived from the observance
of the custom of sending Christmas cards, but as
it can do no harm, and as it certainly contributes
to stimulating friendly feeling, there does not
seem much reason for hoping that it will die
away. G. R.