The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-31 00:00:00

I'

Ott fon* E errtsgodent.

11We dKan It right to state that we do wet at all thile:oilie
sourselses with our corraiipoailwaVa el:datums.]

While we in England are enjoying the festive season
—that phrase is respectable from its very age—while
We are meeting in our family groups, and while out
hornet seem more endeared to us than at any other
time of the year, it may well cause a pang of sadness
to think of the very different circumstances in which
two great nations now find themselves. The French
do not think so much of Christmas as we do, but they
make much of New Year's Day, their .our de ran, and
their universal custom of giving Ctrennes is well known.
The Germans, on the other hand, think quite as much
of Christmas as we do, sad it is especially a season for
family gatherings, the children dancing with delight
round the Christmas trees, which in no country are so
numerous as in Germany. But France and Germany
can have bad anything but a merryl Christmas, and
are likely to have anything but a happy new year.
May the year about to dawn, however, bring brighter
and happier days for these lacerated and bleeding
countries. This is a season of peace and gcol.wlll, of
love and kindliness. He whom birth we celebrate
at this period came to bring " peace on earth and good.
will to men." But ah ! how these Christians hate one
another! Heaven speed the time when there shall be
peace throughout the world, That time must come,
but alas! we cannot yet exclaim,—
_

" Peace and no longer from its brazen portals,
The blast of ear's great organ shakos the skies ;
But beautiful an songs of the immortals,
The holy melodies of love arise.'
While such aspirations as these are indulged in only
by the more thoughtful and sentimental, it requires
little observation to ar, ive at the conclusion that our
countrymen and countrywomen are nowniore than ever
anxious for this cruelly disastrous Franco•Prtugsian
War to terminate.

There have been many rumours as to the appoint-
ment to the vacant Preeidency of the Board of leads,
and several names have been confidently mentioned.
I believe, however, that not one of these rumours is
reliable. The poet is not filled up at the time of
writing, and it is not likely that any appointm at will
be made for a few dais.

The Post Office has done an immense deal for us all
and on the whole it is an admirably managed institution,
but that Is no reason why we should not have further
reform, and indeed we have a right to expect this.
Reform is needed in the telegraphic eer vice, for blunders
and delays are numerous (a firm of clothiers the other
day received a telegram, "rend patterns for our
rows, instead of overcoats;) but especially do we
require an improvement in the Sample and Pattern
poet. The feeling against the present regulations is now
becoming as strong that St. Martin's-le-Grand will not
long be able to withstand the preasure from witheut.
However good may have been the intentions of the
directors of the Union Bank of London in prohibiting
the marriage of their clerks with salaries under £l5O
a year, the anti-nuptial mandate certainly does not
meet with general approval, to judge by the prevailing
tone of the correspondence on the imbject, and the
remarks one hears privately. It may or may not be
desirable for a young man with less than £l5O per
annum to refrain from marrying, but for employers
to Wine an order that such young men shall
not marry, seems very arbitrary and tyrannical,
just as was that order (that was never carried
out) Issued by a certain firm that none of their
ernploy6s should wear beard or moustache. This new
order also cannot very well be carried out. Young
clerks can marry and say nothing about it, or they
will be tempted to deny that they have married, to say
nothing of temptations to immorality. It is a great
pity that etch a decree was ever allowed to go forth
from the bank parlour. As to the other decree, that
any clerk being one minute later than nine in the
morning will be fined 2s. d., and if six times late,
discharged; that may be very strict, but still it la
Burt, whereas the anti-matrimonial decree is decidedly
tyrannous.

It will be remembered that quite • sensation was
created some little time ago by the announcement that
several people in England had received circulars from
New York offering to supply counterfeit sovereigns,
so cleverly made as to defy detection either by weight,
colour, size, or ring. They were marvellously cheap,
and people became alarmed lest these good-bad sove-
reigns should be purchased and put into circulation.
Correerpondt•nts wrote to the papers to warn the
public, people went to the police•courts to make
the New York circular known; and tradesmen
were on the qui rive for these counterfeit sove-
reigns being offered to them. But nobody ever
saw one of these marvellous coins. It now turns out,
INS many of us have suspected all along, that there have
been "no etch 'sovereigns, and that the whole affair
s a scheme on the part of some of the New Yorkers,
who have tried to get some of our good money, in re.
tarn for which they would not send us any bad
sovereigns. And ills probable Enough that some die-
honed people here have sent money to New York, es-
t, • 'l,g a packet of counterfeit sovereigns in return.
If Et -y have deservedly loot the substance in
parrot •• te shadow. Apropos of counterfeit
coin, they te been a large seizure here, and
Its coiner', ein custody. A curious fact came
oat is avid . One of the prisoners had pledged
s . To ere for four ! The coin was
esie of a per ilarly good impression, and the miners
bad timed .• I a " pattern piece." The woman held
the polioetr •• and I suppose the pawnbroker, tha
It was a !so relic, and she did not want to lose it.
But what s • 1 thing, to pledge five shillings for four
shillings:
A:: is ly the case at this season of: the year,
the offew., or benevolent institutions are making
-+ • for funds, but this year money is more
want,a er We might have expected this.
Bach large demands have been made upon the chari-
table for subscriptions in aid of the sick and wounded
In war, that when people have been ',eked for charity
at home they have bad to say, "Well, really, I
cannot afford It; I gave all I could spare to the

lick and wounded, &c." So that many deserving
institutions find themselves now crippled for funds.
This is deeply to be lamented, eepecially at such a
season as this. But may I very deferentially suggest
that we waste a great deal of money in charitable
organisations. We have many institutions which aim
at exactly the same description of work, and two or
three sets of offices, and ditto of officials, are kept up
for the purpose of doing what one office and one staff
could accomplish. Amalgamation and cooperation
would be a grand reform; but then it would throw
out of employment a good many secretaries and
clerks; and perhaps there are more people who make
a good living out of our charitable institutions than is
generally imagined.
The admirers of I%iim Braddon's works will be glad
to hear that a new novel of hers is in the prom, but I
allude to the pant only to refer to a marvellous state-
ment connected with this announcement—that the
work will also "appear simultaneously in Germany,
Italy, and America under the international copyright
arrangement." So then we have "copyright arrange-
merits " with America. I was not aware of it, nor
you either, my courteous reader, I venture to say.
The sooner we have an Anglo-American copyright-law
the better.

Seine time ago the question was asked, what bag
become of M. Gustave Dora! and it was added that
he had not been heard of for a long time. It is
pleasing, therefore, to hear, on good authority, that
he is in Paris, and unharmed. The celebrated artist
bad long been engaged in a work, in conjunction with
Mr. Blanchard Jerrold, descriptive of moms of the
marvels of London life. With such a clever artist
and such a careful and obeervant writer, we ought to
have a valuable work. London is an inexhaustible
field for authors and artists; its mysteries are never
wholly revealed ; its wondrous branches of industry,
Ita Immense wealth, its boundless poverty and wretched.
new, afford scope for volume after volume, and still
the tale would not all be told.

Christmas finds the working classes of this corm.
try on the whole pretty fairly employed, and there
Is oertainly lees •Anperism in thin country than
we have bad during many • Christmae-time
previously. The bitterly cold weather that we
have had has caused much suffering and many
hardship' among the poor, but these have been
greatly lightened by the benevolence of the rich,
and altogether, I ancy, the holidays are being en
joyed as heartily as ever. The amount of travelling
to and from London, and the amount of parcel con-
veyance have been something enormous. The kindly
custom of making present* at this time of the year
shows no falling-off, if indee it has not increased.
Business in London, in a great many trades, was
mensely brisk during all lard week, but now there
will be a hill till the turn of the year. And if we
could but see this unhappy war over, we might fairly
look for something more than a temporary revival of
trade. Whenever the war does 0011110 LO NI end, our
bade with Trance and Germany will be very active,
as indeed it need be, to make up for the lost time.
Tha Tome expresses the hope "that the new
year will not dawn upon all the misery which
now overspreads both Trainee Yid Germany, with-
out at least • promise of early and complete
relief." And this hope must be shared by us all,
though it would he too much to say that there Is any
general expectation of each a dadrable result. None
can more ardently hope thin than the writer, and it is
especially with this hope that he wishes your reader"
" A Happy New Year."

• Warn= from Bardooneche aesouncee the cora-
/Mlles albs Meal OWe Walk