The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-03-26 00:00:00

A witticism of the day in Paris recently defined a
masked ball as "a merciful institution for plain women."
A functionary of the Mont de Piet, of Rome hag ab-
sconded with 70,000 f., which has excited great consternation
among the poor,
• • •

" There is a rumour, which will much interest thin
country, of the speedy marriage of a German Prince with a
Princeu twenty-two years of age—Coors Journe.
In a contemporary's summary of Mr. Childers's re-
cent speech, the words " changes of policy" were migurtnted
"charges of felony."
. . . . . . . _

- -
A celebrated French priest, praising the soft word
that turns away wrath, salit—" It Is with honey that we
catch Mee." A listecer replied—" Yes, to kill them "
Mrs. Albert Smith, widow of Albert Smith, and
elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Keeley, died on Saturday
night.

It has been observed that by a rather unlucky coin-
cidence, the Government introduced its Irish Coercion BM
on St. rattick's Day.

The neighbourhood of Isfichileaborough is found to
contain immense deposits of rock salt, underlying the lower
part of the Tees Valley.

"A. letter in the Cearcese sap that at Alamangnape
are two women, one of 110 yearn and the other of 130, the
Itte.r of whoot has 121 descendants."— A ogle-Bo aztlices
itne,S.

A few mornings since, two gentlemen in London
were accosted in the following magniloquent terms b •
beggar :—"Gentlemen. will you administer the balm of con-
solation to a debilitated constitution I.

"Sir Charles Mordr.nnt will, it is Baia, leave Eng-
land at an early day for America, Intending 0 anoint •
season In the enjoyment of the sports of our Western
prairies."—Ameriadn Paper.

A letter of George Ikashington'e, occupying twenty.
two pages, was sold in London last week for thirty-live
pounds. Twenty-two pages! surely It was sold by the
pound as well as bought with it.

A matrimonial -advertisement in a Paris paper
reads A single gentleman, Protestant, and possessed of
relates, wf.hco to marry a Protestant lady, very distlngulahed
and possesaed of more rentes."

Prim Czartoryaki (says the Westminster °acetic)
has just entered the very convent of the Carmelites at Cracow
concerning which the world heard so much a little while
in connection with the insane nun, Barbara l'bryk.
Scene at a restaurant after a mat ked hall in Paris:-
Waiter (to two young ladies in costume tie "What
may I have the pleasure of bringing you?" Answer; "Two
glasses of punch and a gentleman to pay for them!"
-

- Wm. Thomas Graves, third Baron Graves, in the
peerage of Ireland, died on Sunday morning, at Plymouth,
aged sixty-bye. ills ion, Clarence Edward, born 1847, sub.
ace& to the title.
Dr. Skae, In his yearly report of the Edinburgh
Lunatic Asylum, states that a girl, nine years of ago, had
gone out of her mind through fright at suddenly meeting a
dancing bear.

In consequence of the decision pronounced by the
arbitrators in the dispute between Qdeen Isabella and her
husband, Don Francis d'Assises, the Moniteur says an ar-
rangement has been made that the ei-Kurg shall travel for a
year in foreign parts.

The Rev. J. Denman, a Newmarket clergyman, has
received from her Majesty a donation of £3, for the benefit
of Mrs. Howlett, the wife of a labourer in that town, who
was recently delivered of three chddren. One of the chil-
dren has since died.

The Alarq aim of Aliso, who was lately thrown from
his horse while hunting, died on Sunday morning, in the
fifty-fourth year of his age. His lordship is the first tem-
poral peer whose death has been announced since the be-
ginning of the present year.

- - -
M. Louis Blanc, in a letter published in-Saturday's
Tamps, calls the passing of the second reading of the Irish
Land Bill by a majority of 442 to 11, a "grand et science"
CrOnement." Bat he asks, will Ireland be either satisfied or
pacified? Ile is a bold man who would venture to any so.

A correspondent at Rome states that the Vatican
makes no secret of its Joy at the death of Montalembert.
Even the Pope suffered himself to exclaim, " Oh, what good
fortune' Ills Holiness has recently condemned severely
the whole party of Liberal Catholics.

The Limerick Farmers Club, on Saturday, adopted
a resolution adverse to the Land Bill, and declared that if it
were hot greatly altered in committee it should be rejected.
and repeal of the Union sought for. A considerable minority
dmented.
It is saidthat the Marquis of Cana (husband of Patti)
and the Duke of Hamilton are about to play a game at domi-
noes for £4,000. The game is to consist of 100 coups. Bets
to the amount of £20,000 have already been made on the
match.

Sir Stafford and Lady Northcote are about to visit
Canada, Sir Staff ,rd, who is Chairman of the Hudson's hay
Company, having consented to cross the Atlantic with a view
to the completion of the negotiations for the transfer of the
lludson'a Bay territory to the Canadian Government.

"Madlle. X—, of the Folien Dramatiques, Paris,
has lust lost her mother, in New Yolk. She appeared at
rehearsst in a rose-coloured Areas. ' Not in mourning !' ex-
claimed a friend. lhe reply was smart, and full of heart—
'You know one does not put on mourning for distant rela-
tives." '—Court Journal.

An old lody lives in Portland, Maine, who was the
affianced wife of Daniel Webster. She is a native of New
Hampshire, and in her youthful days was accomplished and
prepossessing, and still owns a superior mind. She refused
Mr. Webster on account of his using strong drink. She has
never married.

The New York Herald, in an article entitled
" Ancient and Modern Preachers," pursues that vein of
religion, thought on which it has lately entered. It hints
that the press is taking the place of the Holy Scriptures ass
channel for revelation, and the newspaper and telegraph
will in future do the work of the priest and minister.
A Lord Dundreary has come to grief in Rome. He
was a deserter from the Papal army, and went back, as he
thought, sure uot to be detected. lie was; but his reply to
his captors was curious:—' You are mistaken," he exclaimed;
"it was not I. lam my brother r This was too much even
for Pontifical officials.

At une of the London police-courts, while a woman
was mali,og a rambling statement of the 111-usage she had
suffered from a neighbour, a solicitor in the case observed
that she was making an OlMLitt gatheru In kind of complaint.
be woman turml round indignantly, and nail to the magis-
trate, "No, your worthlp, I never used no such words; I
inintgivcnti tot lauguage."

-
The M0:,13..mt cate wat &Iwo 1,r.1 PenzineN
on Tueiciay, ahen an order was made revectiog the pay-
ment o the coats incurred in the late suit. The costs of
the MAU pretioicly to the intervention of Sir Thomas
Nf,iscritile are to be separated from those incurred alter
that time, and the whole are to go before the taxing
master.

A prominent eitizm at Actrian, Micbigan, last big
pocketbook, containing WO dollars. When the tinder, a
young man, returned it to him, the oierJoed citizen, out of
the depths of his gratitude. c tiered the 3 min, limn a cigar for
his trouble. Such SCIA relieve human nature 01 any charge
involving sordidness or meanners.

From Mr. Send:mores a t ment, &Inning the pm.
trees of the portal telegraph Moines., it appears that in the
eek ending 19th March the number of mersages sent out
for delivery in the City of L^ntion was 240 on Sunday, 2,795
on Monday, 2,997 on Tuesday, 3,026 on Wednesday, 3,141 on
Thursday, 3,27.) on Friday, 2 353 on Saturday, representing
an increase in the week of 856 messages over the number
sent out in the seven days ending the 13Lh inst.

A well known Low Church- clergyman, the Rev, J.
W Bardsley, speaking at an Irish Church mission meeting In
Liverpool on Monday, said—.. I think we may admit that
whatever the sin of disestablishing the Irish Church, at
God may bring cool out of evil, and tie may overrule the db.
establishment of the Irish Church for II is own glory and the
saving of souls, even though the sin of the act still remains
and the punishment may follow"
-

The South London Press makes the fcllowing alarm-
ing announcement )—We have it on good authority that In
consequence of the police prosecutions, the journeyw en
bakers of London are agitating for a strike all over England,
in the event of the Government refusing to strike out the
word 'baker' from the smoke-nuisance measure. As the
masters will probably support the men, the reeult, should
the strike he organized, will be one universal closiug of
shops, and the public left without bread (unless they bake
their own.)
A pupil of Wellington College, named Blaekett Ord.
was found dead on Sunday afternoon in his dormitory. It
is supposed that while playing with the cord of his window
he must have made a slip knot, and thoughtlessly put his
head into it, and then fallen. The position in which he was
found renders it probable that he fell so as to be unable to
recover himself, and was thus suffocated. The poor boy was
In the highest form of the middle school, and is said to have
been a favourite alike with masters and boys.

A short time ago the trustees of the Roman
Catholic Church of St. Augustine, Granby-row, Manchester,
obtained from Vice-Chancellor James an interlocutory in-
junction restraining the use of a huge steam hammer in the
works of Sir Joseph Whitworth, which are about 60 yards
distant from the church and rectory. The ground taken by
the plaintiffs was that the hammer was a nodally" and the
defendant, in contesting this position. applied that the
question might be tried before a jury. The Vice Chatcellor,
however, held that the suit must be heard by the judge In
the usual way, and Lot d Justice Gilfard has confirmed this
decision.