The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-06-01 00:00:00

ur yonbou Corresponkut.
.(We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Uv ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

The official celebration of her Alajesty's birthday is

one of the very few eceasions in the course of the
twelve months in which the monotony of life in Lon-
_ _

don is varied by loyal demonstrations. The Queen
completes each successive year of her age on the 24th
of May, but a near Saturday thereafter is always

_
selected for the celebration as being a more convenient
day for that purpose than any other in the week. For
on Saturday there is no Parliament, and the Ministers
of State can receive their invited guests without

neglecting their legislative duties. There are grand
banquets, the public offices in Whitehall are Mural-

nated, as also are the houses of the royal trades-
men in Regent-street and Pall Mall. These thorough-
fares are a blaze of brilliant light, and the West-
end is crowded by people who have come from
all parts of the capital. The stars and devices
are seen at their best in the absence of moonlight, and
the celebration is usually selected with the considera-
tion in view. In 1874, however, this did not appear
to have been calculated upon when the day was fixed,
for a brilliant full moon lighted up the streets and
squares, and rather interfered wth the success of the
illuminations. But last year, when her Majesty's
birthday was kept on the 2nd June and again this
year, there was scarcely any moon, and the throngs of
spectators, who left their homes for the purpose of
being gratified, had an ample opportunity of seeing
the streets at their best. The other occasion in the
year when there is any display of this kind, is the 9th
November, the birthday of the Prince of Wales.
Speaking of His Royal Highness, the heir to the
Throne, suggests the prominent part which he has
lately taken part in promoting sooial measures as well
for the encouragement of art and industry as for the
advancement of sanitary reform. The way in which
he filled the office of President of the British Commis-
sion at the opening of the Paris Exhibition was beyond
all praise, and made a most favourable impression upon
the minds of the French people. As President of the
Society of Arts he has initiated a scheme for the pur-
pose of enabling the British artisan to visit the Exhi-
bition, and by a study of what he sees there to improve
the quality of our industrill productions. In the same
capacity, the Prince's letter to the Society of Arts
suggesting that some measures should be taken for,
giving the people pure water, has shown that he
fully appreciates the importance of a great sanitary
question. There are indeed few subjects which
need closer attention. Our supply of pure water
has not kept pace with the increase of the popu-
lation. The augmentation of manufactures and the
development ef mining enterprise have fouled our
streams, and there is scarcely a river in England
which the traveller does not know to be polluted here
or there either by some factory or mine. The angler,
too, could tell us that a valuable and nutritious article
of food is destroyed through this means. The Prince
of Wales's letter has resulted in a conference in
London, where the question has been taken up with
more than ordinary energy, and a Royal Commission
of Inquiry is recommended. The country districts are
in this repect really worse off than the towns; for
whereas the flourishing community of Manchester can
afford to go into Cumberland for its water and bring
Thirlmere to Cottonopolis, the village or the hamlet
which has no governing body to look directly after its
own interests has neither the means nor the
power to utilize the adjacent brook. Whatever
may be the result of the Conference, the Prince of
Wales is entitled to all credit for having given the
weight of his high position to a matter of such vital
importance.
Buckingham Palace has of late revived some of the
activity which was accustomed to reign within its
walls in days gone by. The Crown Prince and Prin-
cess of Germany, with their children, have been stay-
ing there, and in moving about London have lighted
up the dulness of the season. Dull enough it is by
common consent, with the country constantly upon
the verge of what it believes to be an impending war,
trade paralyzed, and industry languishing. There are,
of course, some sections of the population whose
prosperity no crisis, either financial or political, can
affect. A visit to Hyde Park on a summer afternoon
shows wealth and fashion at their best, and would never
suggest smokeless chimneys in south Wales or silent
mills in Lancashire. The Crown Prince, for in-
stance, was at the first meet of the Coaching Club
in Hyde Park on her Majesty's birthday, when about
thirty drags, with some of the best horseflesh in Eng-
land in their shafts, excited the admiration of
thousands of spectators. The horse, every child at
school is taught, is a noble animal, and those who
wish to see him in perfection should spend an hour in
the park when there is a meet of the Coaching Club
or the Four-in-Hand Club. You see the horse then
without either whip or spur, and the way in which
some of our aristocracy handle the ribbons, shows a
marvellous proficiency in that description of skill. The
pure blood belonging to one coach, the mountings of
another, and the general get-up of a third, afford ample
stores of interest to those who, with no pressing occupa-
tion at the moment, can spare the time for a brief
sojourn in the park, which is now at its best, and has
rightly been described as one of the lungs of the
metropolis.

Scientific surprises have been numerous during the

past few years, and we all remember the interest which
surrounded the production of the Telephone, when it
was announced that it would convey sound along the
telegraph wires. More recently we have heard of the
Microphone, a little instrument which renders the
faintest sounds audible. It is the invention of Pro-
fessor Hughes, who has also given us the type-printing
telegraph. Professor Barnett, of Trinity College,
Dublin, has also been experimenting upon the micro-
phone, and found that every motion of a fly across the
disc, was heard through a telephone working at a

distance of two hundred miles, as though it were an
elephant's tramp. When a human hand was laid on the
disc at a distance of a hundred yards, he heard
every beat of the pulse, making quite a loud sound
This invention might be useful in developing the re-
searches of the medical profession; but whether this
be the case or not, we have become so familiar with
the wonders of science, that it must be a very mar-

vellous discovery indeed which would surprise us now.

The coat of the army is a subject of some interest at
the present time, and it appears from a return just
issued by the War Office, that a Royal Engineer dis-
mounted involves an expenditure of £5B Bs. 3d. a year;
a private in the Household Cavalry, £56 15s. 11d. ; a
Royal Engineer mounted, £4B 14s. lid.; a private in
the Royal Horse Artillery, £46 us.; Royal Field
Artillery, £44 4s. 5d.; Royal Garrison Artillery,
£44 7s. sd. ; Cavalry of the line, £43 12s. 7d. ; Foot
guards, £42 9s. 2d.; infantry of the line, £39 lie. 6d.
In addition to his pay a soldier has the opportunity to
earn rewards for skill in rifle, sword, and lance prac-
tice, and the artillery are about to be granted rewards
for practice in gunnery. These extras do not include
the sums which a private can earn in other ways,
such as keeping accounts, and giving instruction in the
particular branch of his profession. Again, in addi-
tion to the average rate of good conduct pay, the
private receives on his discharge from the army, or on
his passing into the reserve, out of the drunkenness
fines, a sum of ten shillings for each good conduct
stripe. There are other ways in which a soldier is en-
couraged, Parliament and the Executive having found
it necessary to hold out inducements for military
service if the recruiting sergeant is to successfully
contend with the labour market.
The lobby of the House of Commons is generally a
reflex of the state of feeling in the assembly itself.
Early in the present Session, when the war excite-
ment was at its height, the crowd in the lobby would
eagerly throng around a member who emerged through
the glass doors, and gather from him the prospects of
continued peace, or of probable war, according to the
statements which had been made from the Treasury
Bench. Of late this condition of affairs has somewhat
cooled, for it is not possible always to remain in a
fever heat even upon such a momentous question as
that, and of late the lobby has been remarkably quiet.
It may be stated that admission here is secured only
through an order granted by the Serjeant-at-arms, who
must be satisfied that the applicant has legitimate busi-
ness which calls him there. The lobby seems an entirely
different world from the House itself, where the
atmosphere is so often charged with political elec-
tricity, and the triumphant shout of the Ministerialists
is answered by the defiant cheers of the Opposition.
A speaker is put out by a running fire of interruptions,
or irritating cries of " question." In the lobby all is
changed. Liberals and Conservatives stand chatting
together in groups; they button-hole each other, and
walk about arm-in-arm. Suddenly the division-bell
rings, and they all with one accord crowd into the
House to hear the question put. They file out under
the lynx eye of the respective whips, and although
occasionally a member gets into the wrong lobby by
mistake, party organisation is generally so perfect
that this is very seldom the case. When it does
i
happen, and a member has voted contrary to his
n-
tention, he is permitted to correct it if he has not
heard the question put by the Speaker, but not other-
wise.
Esizsc cnce wmt• en interesting treatise on modern
stimulants, which he described as (suttee, tobacco, and
wine- Tobacco he hated; wine he cared nothing
• about; but he died from drinking coffee, which he
consumed at the rate of from twelve to twenty cups a
day. Wine, however, is by no means only a modern
stimulant. The children of Israel, after their wander-
ings in the wilderness, took to wine, but oily at the
end of their repasts—a practice which the greatest
modern authorities on diet reeommend in the present

day. Wine as an institution is as ancient as the oldest
literature in the world. The Bible, Herodotus, Homer,
and all the Greek and Latin poets, speak of wine.
Solomon in moments of depression, said some bitter
things against it; yet there is no question that, from
the earliest times examples have been recorded of the
evil effects produced by drinking water at unsuitable
moments and in excess. Plutarch tells us that King
Cleomenes lost his voice for ever by drinking water
when he was in a heat. The soldiers of Alexander
the Great, after crossing the desert, drank the water
of the Oxus with so much avidity, that more men
died from this imprudence than had been slain in
any one of Alexander's battles. In Napoleon's retreat
from Moscow, Baron Larrey, the Emperor's physician,
noticed terrible effects from sudden and immoderate
water-drinking after long periods of abstinence, To
this day soldiers on the march are strongly forbidden
to leave the ianks in quest of water, even when it is
close at hand ; yet there can be no question that after
a fatiguing march on a hot day even the best troops
can scarcely be restrained in presence of a running
stream. A French physician has thought it necessary
to publish a series of cautions, in which he warns per-
sons not after a long walk to drink cold water without
sitting down for a time, to eat something before dr ink
ing, to drink in small quantities, and not to take too
much at a time. Might not these rules, more especially
the last, be rec6mmended also to drinkers of wine?