The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-02-01 00:00:00

Our Fl3llllOll
.-Compoitbent.

(We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The days of formal mourning for the Princess Alice
are at an end; but even had not the Grand Duke of
Heese Darmstadt and his children not come over to
see the Queen at Osborne just now, there would be no
danger that the memory of his wife would be allowed
to die out with the period of official mourning ordered
for the Court. There is an unvarying etiquette by
which these arrangements are governed ; but so far as
the Queen herself is concerned, we all know that senti-
ment rather than routine has been her guiding prin-
ciple; and that no matter what may be the rule,
custom, or practice ordered by the Master of the
Ceremonies, the mourning which she put on seventeen
years ago has not yet been taken off. As to the Princess,
whose death so startled the country on the 14th Dec.,
the proposal to perpetuate her memory by an extension
of the operations Of the Alice Hospital at Damstadt
seems an eminently useful and practical one. She
seemed never to be so much at home as when minister-
ing to the wants and necessities of the sick and the
afflicted; and when the hearts of others failed them,
she is described as being, so far as her manner could
be accepted as an indication of her mind, hopeful in
the midst of the surrounding despondency. The
people of this country knelt:very little of the Alice
Hospital at Darmstadt until after the death of the
royal lady who founded it, although they had heard
of her devoted care and attention to the wounded
during the Franco-German war; but they knew
enough of it to be assured that it was an object dear
to the heart of the Princess Alice, and they are never
slow to recognise the value of works of love and deeds
of charity.

The length and severity of the.preatint winter are
almost without parallel in the recollections of those
ho are approaching middle age; and its equal has
never been experienced by those who are just setting
out into life. For more than eight weeks the frost
can scarcely be said to have given way to •any ap-
preciable extent, and the consequence of this has been
to add immensely to the distress previously existing.
It is natural that men and women who find it
alisaost a struggle to live in such weather with all
the aid of plentiful nourishment and warm clothes
should think with deep compassion of the suffer-
ings of the poor. The old controversy about charity
has been revived. It is plain that the efforts
of the State and private but organized charity
to rescue the people from extremes of poverty
have not been altogether successful. It is to be feared
that the well-meant practice of giving doles is not
absent from the list of causes which foster indigence.
When individuals are eager—very much to the credit of
their hearts—to assist in the mitigation of distress, it
often enough happens that their kindness is thrown
away on objects which do not quite deserve it. The
purpose of a wise charity is to help its recipients to
reform,.and one simple rule which would prevent much
evil is that alms should be given only where there is
personal knowledge of the character and circumstances
of those to whom it is given.
It is not only in the crowded city, with bands of
frozen-out labourers, parading the streets to the song
of "All froze out and got no work to do," that the
hard grey weather of the pres( nt winter has been felt.
For an abnormal length of time snow has covered the
silent hill-side and the peaceful plain ; it has enveloped
alike the mountain-top and the far-spreading land-
scape ; and the black east wind has swept pitilessly
across moorland and glen, dale and heather. Cattle
have died from want of pasture and exposure to the
bitter weather, While in the great towns navigable
rivers have been rendered impassable by densely-
packed fields of ice, in the country hundre3s of even
the hardiest of our wild birds have died miserably
from cold and hunger; while their survivors can only
limp about in a sorry plight, thin and tame, so per-
fectly stupid as to be utterly heedless of danger. When
a bird is brought to that state that cat or hawk, stoat
or weasel, may have him if they like, and he will make
little or no effort to escape, there is no more to be said
in order to prove the overpowering frigidity of the atmos
phere. It is a long time since our feather d friends and
favourites had to pass through such a time, They
have been picked up in groups of a morning, having
fallen frepa their perches dead, while in other cases
they have been found with their feet frozen hard and
fast to the branches of the trees. In hundreds of in-
stances the survivors are limping about lame from
frost-bitten feet; and those of the maimed and the
halt who live will meet the early spring and summer
crippled and deformed, with but little chance in the
battle of life against those who have had the good
fortune to pass scatheless through the winter.

It is in such weather as that which has lately been
passing over the country that the minds of many have,
by a combination of circumstances, been turned
towards the Canadian dominion, one of the most
valuable of the British possessions. The fact that one
of the Queen's daughters is now vice-reine of Canada
has lent additional interest to any information respect-
ing the resources and extent of that great and im-
portant dependency. We never hear from Canada of
those famines which descend upon the sunlit plains of
India, and which make that country a constantly.
growing burden.
.And when we are told of the
agricultural wealth of the United States, it may
be pointed out that the cultivation of wheat,
barley, peas, and oats, is, acre for acre, greater in the
Canadian dominion than in the American Republic.
Three fourths of the population of the former are
either directly or indirectly interested in the cultivation
of the soil. Timber is Canala's greatest production,
but another considerable source of wealth is the
fisheries in the rivers emptying themselves into the
St, Lawrence. Last year the value of these fisheries
was estimated at £2,400,000, over one-half of which
found its way pickled or preserved in tins to this and
other countries. Canada is indeed a country which
opens up a large field for enterprise. Its greatest
drawback is tile length of its winters, which are.not
eompensited for by its short but almost tropical
summers. Of the loyalty of the Canadians to the
British throne there never has been any doubt what-
ever, notwithstanding its proximity to the greatest
Republic of the day; and even if there had been, the
reception of the Marquis and Marchioness of Lorne, at
which the Queen was so pleased, would have speedily
set it at rest.

The food supply of a people must at all times be a
question of the highest possible interest and impor-
tance. The population of those islands has increased
SO rapidly that we have found it necessary to draw for
our supplies upon various quarters of the world, and
the figures given in the preceding paragraph, showing
one direction taken by the produce of the Canadian
Fisheries, illustrate one source of the origin of a
valuable and nutritious article of food. While
Canada sends us so much of her fish, America fur-
nishes us with an enormous quantity of animal food.
The entire quantity of meat imported into Great
Britain in 1876 amounted to 16,165,6321b5., the money
value of which was £389,395. In 1878 it had risen to
53,661.21611)e., with a money value of £1,264,764; while
from Europe the total money value of dead meat was
only £66,535. The value of the imports of all classes of live
stock into Great Britain last year from America and
the Continent was £7,451,432, and with dead meat
added £8.785,781. Of that sum nearly £4,000,000
was from America. Every yeir Europe can spare
fewer cattle, and it is to America we must look to
make up the deficiency in the home supply. The de- 1
rdand for meat in this country, which arose with
the improved social position of the working classes has
therefore been met successfully—not indeed out of our
flecks and herds, but from the fat kine which improve
upon the rich pastures that are so luxuriant on the
other side of the Atlantic.
The question as to how health can best be com-
bined with recreation is one which is often discussed,
and upon which diverse views prevail. So far as life
in great towns is concerned, the conditions of exist-
ence, whilst varying materially from those which came
under the experience of our forefathers, seem to increase
in their demands upon the mental and physical
strength of those who have to get through the world
by putting forth the forces of both mind and body. It
has been said that the longevity attainedby the ancient
Greeks who were amongst the most noble specimens of
humanity the world has ever seen, was attributable to
the fact that they had neither work nor play; they
had only life. But life with us is very different
from what it was with Agamemnon and Achilles
and those who are engaged in an intense mental
strain eleven months out of the twelve, often devote
the holiday month to pursuits which overtax the
physical strength of the constitution and inflict some-
times an injury upon it which is irreparable, under the
mistaken idea that this is recreaticn. In this view a
man frequently makes his holiday a time of the most
jaded
rather toil, and returns to his ordinary duties
rather than invigorated. He sets out with the i
notion
that inordinate walking or excessive bathing s to
restore a frame which has been enervated by a year of
sedentary labour, and too often the human
is
i
breaks down under the experiment to which t s sub-
--Acted. As each man has his own view a what IS work,
and what is recreation, it is impossible to lay down
any general propoeition defining either the one
or the other. But upon one point there e'en
?,e no question whatever, and that is, that anxiety and
worry kill more people than hard work. The nervous
and excitable man who is constantly throwing off
ny quantity of force upon multitudinoug details, often
has none loit to mat a ustlou3 attack; and worn out

and exhausted, falls an easy prey to any tenacious
ailment of which he may be assailed,

Just five years ago we were in the midst of one of
the most exciting political cases which had been wit-
nessed since the passing of the first Reform Act. On
the 23rd of January, 1874, the Duke of Edinburgh
was married in the Winter Palace at St. Peters-
burg to the only daughter of the Czar; and
the event was celebrated more especially in the
Scottish capital, from which his Royal High-
ness derives his titles, in a fitting manner. But
on that same 23rd of January, Mr. Gladstone
issued an address to the electors of Greenwich, in
which he announced that the Parliament then in
existence was to be immediately dissolved. Dis-
solved it was accordingly on the 26th, and that same
night the writs were carried by the mail trains to
every constituency in the United Kingdom, from the
far-off Orkney and Shetland isles, in the midst of the
wild and lonely northern seas, to the extreme west of
Cornwall, where the dweller at the remote Lands'
End was called upon to say what manner of men
should rule over the British Empire. The firt4 (,1 the
new elections took place on the 30th, but these
were in constituencies where there was no opposi-
tion. The great fight, which really decided the
campaign, was on Tuesday, the 3rd of Febivary,
when the polls were taken in three-fourths of the
boroughs in England and Wales, and we all know the
result. The whole of the elections were not completed
until the *middle of the month, such as those in the
far-west of Ireland and the north of Scotland, but they
could not affect the issue. In a few days there had
been a revolution in the political wheel of Fortune,
and for half a decade tbe effects of this decision have
been permanent. We all know the interest attaching
to many of the bye. elections, which go on at the rate of
between thirty and forty every year, and when each
-vacant constituency is told in succession that the eyes
of England are upon it, that upon its judgment
hang the most momentous issues, and that it is im-
possible to mi-take the significance of its verdict.
At the general election, however, when not one
member has to be elected, but 658, it is impossible to
give these assurances to the voters of any particular
place; it is only here and there that special attention
is attracted to a contest amid the general din of
political turmoil; and it is only to the sum total of
the widespread struggle that serious attention can
then be directed.

DRAWING OF THE PRIZES IN THE
PARIS EXHIBITION LOTTERY.

The Paris Correspondent of The Times gives the following
account of the commencement of the drawing for the
Exhibition Lottery --

The lottery drawings commenced at ten o'clock on
Sunday morning in the large hail of the Trocaddro.
At eight o'clock, though tee roads were thick with
mud, people began to collect outside, and on the
opening of the doors an eager throng, furnished
with pencil and paper, and having their tickets
in their pockets, streamed in as if .counting on
going away possessed of a fortune. Alas, what dis-
appointments! After the four hours' drawing many
hopeful countenances were chapfallen and many
brilliant dreams dispelled. The places set apart
for distinguished visitors were half empty. On the
platform before the organ was a small numbered
wheel to determine the series. Another wheel had
12 sides, numbered from 1 to 12. In front of the
platform was the bureau of the Commission. M.
Marteau, the director of the drawings, read and ex-
plained the mechanism of the machine. The galleries
applauded, anxious to see the entertainment begin.
Three men stood behind the wheel. Upon two taps of
an ivory hammer two of the men advanced, the
third being a supernumerary. One of them put the
series wheel in motion; the other that of the num-
bers. The big prizes come first, so this deprives the
rest of the drawing of interest. No. 978,599 of the
fourth series won the chief prize of 125,000 f. (a
silver service), and No. 167,257 of the fifth
series that of 100,0001. Not one person ap-
plauded. Evidently the winners were not present,
nor were they in the, case of the prizes of 50,0001.,
of 25,000 f., and 10,000 f. The spectators became
rather apathetic, and only occasionally, when one
series came out several times running, or when
the numbered wheels produced some singular
figure, was there any stir, after which they resumed
looking at their tickets to see whether anything hap-
pened. This went on several hours, the wheels re-
volving 75 times an hour, the hammer striking, a
member of the bureau calling out the numbers, till the
people, tired of the monotony, left and made room
for new arrivals, who had been shivering in the cold
and mud. Considering that this is to go on for weeks,
it is to be hoped that the spectacle will not drive people
out of their wits; and how many enemies the Re-
public is in danger of making—for everything that
happens is laid to the Government—among disillu-
sioned people who find that they have simply thrown
away their francs !"

The Paris correspondent of the Standard says :
"1 subjoin a list of the principal prizes which have been
drawn to-day (Sunday) :—The First Prize, a service of
silver plate, value one hundred and twenty-five thou-
sand francs, was won by No. 978,599 4th Series. The
Second Prize, a parure of diamonds, worth one hundred
thousand francs, fell to the lot of No, 157,257, sth
Series. The Third Prize, a riviere of diamonds,
value fifty thousand francs, was won by 075,582, 11th
Series. The Fourth Prize, another riviere of diamonds,
also worth fifty thousand francs, was carried off by
number 024,613, Ist Series. The Fifth Prize, an
organ of the value of twenty-five thousand francs,
was allotted to 927,579, 9th Series. The Sixth Prize,
a silver table service, value twenty-four thousand
francs, to 955,089, Bth Series. The Seventh Prize,
a painting by Gerome, representing an Eastern
episode, value twenty-four thousand francs, to
712.199, Series 8. The Eighth Prize, a picture by
Hebert, value twenty-four thousand franca, to
860,016, Series 1, The Ninth Prize, a piano, worth
fifteen thousand francs, to 780,818, Series 8. The.
Tenth Prize, a painting by Meissonier, Fils, worth
fifteen thousand francs, to 887,390, Series 12.• The
Eleventh Prize, a picture by Jobbe Duval, value
fifteen thousand francs, to 688,859, Series 4. The
Twelfth Prize, a statue by Cordier, value fifteen thou-
sand francs, to 295,765, Series 7. The Thirteenth, a
hot-house, at present on the Champs de Mars, whence
the happy winner will probably have to move it, value
fifteen thousand francs, to 904,590, Series 7. Four-
teenth, a silver tea service, value fifteen thousand
francs, to 425,163, Series 2. Ffteenth, a painting by
Des2offes, worth fifteen thousand francs, to 847,104,
Series 11. Sixteenth, a picture by Guillaumet, value
fifteen thou=and francs, to 820,809, Series 3. The
other prizts drawn to-day included a great number of
statues and paintings, as well an several carriages, Of
the more eccentric prizes, the following may be men-
tioned: an iron pavilion, worth ten thousand francs,
fell to the lot of 952364, Series 10. The model of a
locomotive machine, worth seven thousand francs, was
carried off ley 260,235, SeriEs 5. A mail coach, worth
five thousand francs, to '970,323, Series 12. A flour
mill, worth four thousand francs, to 350,671, Series 9.

" A Calculating Boy" writes regarding the French
lottery :—The winning numbers in the first 300 of the
gro3 lots were published on Monday morning. There
were twelve series, each consisting of one million
tickets, and the average number of prizes for each
series, if the wheel of fortune had distributed its
favours equally, would have been 22i. It turns out,
however, that series 1 and 11 each got 31 gros lots; the
third series had 30, the fifth, 28, the twelfth 27, the
second 26, and so on down to the ninth series, which
only obtained 17. It is very curiowi to find that prize
144 is the twelfth prize in the twelfth series. The
total number of gros lots is 1,277, but the 300 first
drawn, are the most valuable. The total number of
prizes exceeds 82,000,—Pa1l Mall Gazette.

•
In noticing the drawing of Monday, the Paris
Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph writes : '
To-day's successful numbers include the following lots :
A, medallion composed of brilliants and diamonds, richly
mounted in gold, won by Number 051,953 of Series 5; an
elegantly designed bracelet of gold, jewelled with. rose dia-
monds, rubies, and emeralds, given to the holder of Number
111,464 of Series 11, Prize 304 consists of a magnificent
brooch in diamonds and lapis-lazuli, the winner in this
Instance being Number 049,881 of Series 11. The preceding
prizes are each valued at 3,000 f each. An ebony bed-
stead, of elegant workmanship, falling to Number 219,974 of
Series 12, must be something extraordinary to cost a,
like amount. Number 367,878 of Series 10 wins a taste-
ful liqueur cabinet in the Louis XVI. style; 018,363
of the same series two ma,sive candelabra, each of
these gifts also worth 3,0006.; Number 187,710 of Series 4
gains a table of the purest malachite, estimated at 2,900 f. ;
and the following prize, the 333rd, ccnsiata of an artistic
silver tea service, enamelled and gilt, coating a like amount;
a drinking horn of ancient design in chased silver, equal in
value with the preceding, falls to Number 641,261 of
Series 11; a tasteful Item, de-lys branch, jewelled in bril-
liants, is the prize of Number 269,965 of Series 9; a
vine-leaf in gold and brilliants is won by ticket 782 366 of
Series 10; a lady's mantel of snperb white satin, trimmed
with Valenciennes lace, goes to Number 136,426 of Series 4,
the holder of which may congratulate him or herself on the
possession of an article of attire worth 2,800 f., or over £lOO.
"The owner of No. 398,637, Series 10, becomes entitled to
the sole possession of an omnibus; and number 117,887 of
Series 6 is now the master of a steam engine. Prize 355 on
the list goes to Number 290,540, Series 7, who receives a
beautiful Marquise ring in brilliants, priced at 2,750. A
flower-shaped aigrette in brilliants, tastefully designed,
won by Number 148,832, Series 3, is valued at 2,600!.;
a voiture, costing a similar sum, comes to Number
012,319, Series 9, and, to vary the list, Number
588,276 of Series 10 wins a splendid sabre with a real
Toledo blade, supposed to be worth another 2,500 f. Prizes
numbered 366 to 4014 inclusive, consist of works of art in
marble, and paintings by most of the rising French painters.
These are valued at upwards of £lOO each. Number 500,570
of Series 4 wins a dining-room chiffonnibre of superb work-
manship carved in the renaissftnce style; Number 012,293,
Blades 7, takes a pair of pistols; Number 231,703, Series 12,
a lovely brush cage in delicately carved Ivory; Number
201,684, Series 5, a cluster of brilliants; Number 337,788,
Series 1, a splendid steel lustre; Number 635,247, Series 12,
an elegantly embroidered habit ; while Number 029,498,
aeries 10, takes a notable audition to his or her house-
hold furniture in the shape of a dining-room buffet,
a carved table, and two comfortable chairs. The preceding
lots are valued at 2 4001. each. Among the remaining
prizes were a Victoria, a dessert service, a rink silk dress,
priced at 2,000 f ; a bedateaq of the most ingenious kind,
made of forged iron, also estimated at 2,000 f.; auother
beautifully carved bedstead, made of datewood ; an Arabian
coffee seryice, an ebony clock of the chastest design, a
machine for stripping the bark off trees, eeveral pianos anti
organs, and, lastly, a Clarence. None of these last-mentioned
pri/es were of less value than 2,0006, and all are magnificent
examples of the particular speciality they represent."

Writing on Tuesday night, the Paris Correspondent
of the Daily Teleyraph says:—

" Figara declares that the first pr;ze in the lottery
has been won by a conaerga of the Boulevard Rochechouart.
The lucky woman, continues the journal, who is a Widow,
and very hard working, yesterday morning paid a friend
20 francs to do her staircases for her. Other rumors are
however, rife as to the winner of the £5,000 prize, some asurt:
tog that it has fallen to a cafs waiter, some to a grocer's
boy, while others maintain with equal.persistanoe that a
commercial traveller is the favoured individual upon whom
tort= hal smiled. I X ot tho putt GaUeottol2 ol

brillianis is really and truly none,other thanAtojbAcco vendor
near Valentiuo's. Certainly the fickle goddess is no respecter
of persons, and ladies of beauty and fashion may have to
content themselves with medicine chests and umbrellas of
wondrous size' while their humbler sisters are gorgeous in
gold and precious stones, and all manner of finery. Altera],
what would a lottery be without these freaks?

"A strange story connected with the lottery was going
the round of Rouen on Sunday evening. Last week a
railway employe of that town, by way of a piece of bravado;
lit his pipe with ticket No 956,089, and that there might be.
no doubt on the subject he chalked the figures on a wall in
the presence of several of his comrades, who stood all agape
at the sight. Now, chance has so willed that the number
in question has turned out a famous prize, and lisd the
employe only been able to produce his ticket he would have
received in exchange the sum—to him a fortune—of 24.0001.
The despair of the unfortunate fellow may well be
imagined."

The Paris Carrespondent of The Times says :—"The
winner of the grand ptize of 125,0001. is a Journeyman
currier named Aubriot, a native of Toul, and the occupant
of two rooms on a fifth floor in the Rue Cardinal Lemoine
He is 45 years of age, is a steady workman, and learnt hi
good fortune from a newspaper on Sunday evening. He held
eight tickets. Ills master took him to-day to the Trocadero
to establish his claim. The second and third prizes are
still unclaimed, but the fourth of 50,0001. has fallen to an
insurance company's clerk. A number vf people have had a
brieLdream of happineas who fancied that they had wonprizt s,
not noticing that, though their number was the same, it
belonged to another of the twelve series."