The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-04-07 00:00:00

SCHOLASTIO,—Why is a retriver, being taught to.
beg, like the leather strap and buckle it wears around
itc neck ?-15ecauee it is a dog scholar (coilar),—Judy
TELEPHONY.; EXTENSION IN FRANCE.—Telephonio
communicetion is : eceicing rapid development in
Paris. From the Ist of July next telephones will be
annexed to all telegraph offieee in Paris, and the chief
once in the provinces, as well as at the leading railway
stations. The cherge to those using them will be 25'
centimes, and fat this sum five minutes will be given,
for the reception and transmission of messeees. The
apparatus will be established in private residences at
an aenual subscription of 170 francs in Paris, and 200
francs in the provinces.
AGRWULTURAL PROsPECTS.—FieId work has made
very fair progress during the week (says the Magnet).
A great deal of seed has been got in, and the general
agricultural prospect has improved. The weather
also has become milder, and vegetation may now be.
expected to make some progress. On the Continent.
the state of affairs is much the same as with us..
Vienna advices, dated March 26, state that the frosts
of the past week have greatly damaged the oilseed.
Winter corn on the contrary, having been thickly
covered over with snow, suffered but little. Agricul-
ture is, however, influenced unfavourably by the late
frost, which in a great measure prevented the neces-
sary outdoor work from being commenced.
MILITARY SAVINGS BANICS.—A DOW code of regu-
lations for the future mana.osment of military savings
banks has been issued from the War Office. Military
savings banks are in future to be maintained in ever;
regiment battalion, and depots of regular cavalry and
infantry, and in the Royal Artil,ery and Royal Eogi-
neera. The maximum of each soldier's denesit on
which interest will be allowed is limited to £3O in any
one year, and to £.'oo in the whole, inclusive of in-
terest added. The interest allowed on deposits -will
be £3 15s. per cent. per annum. The regimental funds
and the sergeants' mess funds may he deposited in the
military savings bank. Should a soldier be a depo-
sitor in a civil savings bank he must withdraw the
money therefrom before he can become a depositor in
a military savings bank.
POSTAL WORK IN AUSTRIA.—The report di the
Austrian Post Office for the past year states that as
number of persons employed was 7,669, and that tho
number of letters which passed through the Post
Office was 434,82,935; of post-cards, 47,857,850; of
newspapers, 78,878,000 ; and of other printed matter,
37,343,250. Registered letters numbered 21,722,615,
and unpaid letters 5,388,000. In Vienna alone
upwards of 120,000,000 letters passed through the
Post Office, and the capital contributed 33 per cents
towards the postal revenue. The total revenue of the
Austrian Post Office has increased within the lint
fifteen years from 107 to 342 million florins.
DETERMINED SHICIDE.—On Saturday afternoon an
inquest was held at Peckham, touching the death of
Mr. Edwin 'Jobb Simpson, aged sixty-four years, a
confectioner, lately residing at Peckham, who coins
milted suicide by blowing his brains out with a
double barrelled gun on the 27th ult. The widow
deposed that on Tuesday evening, in last week, she
i
left the deceased sitting n front of the fire and on •
her return home she found the front door locked. Her
son managed to enter the house by a window, and on
entering the back kitchen they struck a light, whew
she discovered the deceased sitting in front of the fire
with a double-barrelled gun between his legs, the
right hand barrel having recently been discharged.
The deceased's brains were scattered about the rooms
and a portion of his face was torn away by the fora
of the explosion and blown a distance of Bft. Deceased
had been out of employment for some time. The
jury returned a yeti:net of "Suicide while suffering.
from temporary insanity."
THE LATE MASTER OF THE ROLLS.—In London, on
Sunday, the Rev. Andrew Wallace Milroy, M.A.
preacher at the Roll's Chapel, Chancerylane, referrsd
in his sermon to the death of Sir George Jessel,.
observing that the late judge had raised the tone of
commercial morality, upheld the purity of domestic,
life, and maintained the rights of the people against
the selfish encroachment of the few. When men
wrote the legal history of the Victorian era, Sir
George Jessel would, he felt sure, have a foremost place 4,
as a tower of justice and an ideal judge. They might " I
regard it as not mere accident, or the irony of history, i
but as natural fitness or a moral triumph, that that , .1
ancient house—originelly founded for members of the
Jewish race, and which, upon their unjust expulsion
from England, became the Depository ot the Rolls—
should have had for its head a member of that very com-
mie ity, one who without compromise of principle,
and by sheer merit and genuine worth, took his place
among the highest of the land.
DENSITY OF THE POPULATION IN THE UNITED'
STAre e—Although New York is the most populous of ,
the States, csontaining about one.tenth of the entire .
p .pulation of the Uwon, it has not the densest popu• =
lation. The number of square miles in the whole
Republic, not including the Indian territory and some
unorganized tract, is 2.900,170. The population in '
1880 was 50,155,785, or 17 29 per square mile. But in
Rhode island the population reaches the enormous
figure of 254.87 per sq.lare nele ; in Massachusetts it .
is 221.78. in New Jersey 171.78, in Connecticut 128.52,
and in New York 10614.
THZ BIG FATHER'S INDIGNATION.—In a tailor's ,
shop in West Virginia was a clerk who, at the age of
1
fifteen, was very small for his age. One day a huge -
customer came into the shop—a man who weighed
three hundred pounds, and came of a race to the full
as large—to buy cloth for a suit for his bay. He ,
didn't know how much it would take he said, and' .
seemed quite puzzled as to how much he should buy-
The young clerk spoke up: "How old is your bor,„.
sir?" "Fifteen," was the reply. " Just my age,
said the clerk? "is he as big as me ? " "Big as ,
i
?,ou 1" ejaculated the large customer, stepping back a
pace and surveying the boy from head to foot with * '
look of the most unutterable contempt. "Big Se ..- .
you !He was as big as you when he was born!" ,
"Editor's Drawer "In Harperie Magazine.
AN ADVANCING STATE.—A remarkable increase of
wealth is registered in connexion with the State of
of Colorado during the last few years. In 1882 it pros.
duced 21,799,189 dole, worth of bullion. In five year
Leadville alone has produced 55,912,906 dole. ot
bullion, and last year the yield exceeded that of anl!
preceding year by 4,030,000 dole. The taxable list of
the various countries of Colorado aggregates
104,440,613 dole,, being an increase of more than
8,000,000 dole. in the past year alone. The output of
soft coal at the mines of the Colorado Coal and Iron
Company was 2,000,000 tons, and of anthracite 2,000
tons. 'Upwards of 53,000 tons of iron ore were mined
and over 80,000 tons of iron and steel manufactured.
The iron trade is being extended in several directions
AN AUSTRALIAN ASBESTOS MlNE.—Every day Reif
applications ot that eurioue incombustible materiels
asbestos, are being found out, and the discovery of a
fresh source of supply is therefore an event of no
little importance. Hitherto it has been found
ohiefly in the older crystalline rocks of the Alpine
kyrenean ranges, the mountainous region of North
America, and Silesia, and the best specimens of all
have been obtained from Savoy. It has long bees
known to exist in Tasmania but the claims of gold
and tin on the attention of the miner have been
held superior to those of asbestos, and the deposits
have been left almost unworked. Recently, a largo
cieposit has been found at le'undagai, in New South
Wales, where a few enterprising miners have
systematically undertaken the "winning " of 0110
new Australian mineral. The lode has been pro-
spected to a depth of about fifty feet, and 1.
described as very much resembling a quartz reef.
Its trend is north and south, and it has clearly Or
fined walls and veins running into it on both side'
Where these veins join the main body the richest ar
posits of asbestos ate found, often in large bueohele
resembling the solidified produce of the silkwornie
embedded in the solid rock, the fibres being beautiful-1Y
white, flexible, long, and regularly laid. To prepay.
this "petrified silk-like " substance for the market,
all that has to be done is to knock away the serpentln!
rook in which the lode is encased. The expense 0
mining is consequently very small, and there is none
of the loss attending the " working " which is so cited
experienced in gold mining. So confident are tha
finders of this mine of asbestos in the extent of the]:
find that they have formed a company for utilising the
products of the mine in various manufactures, rotor
of which are already familiar in this country. Th.
latest applicetion of the mineral is in the manufacture
of gloves for the use of electricians, asbestos being *
non-cenduoter of electricity.—Celenies and india,