The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-05 00:00:00

Misallaneuus
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

"MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM" (June, 1879).—
Blankets and Eider Downs.— Punch.
AN OVERSIGHT.—In the debate on fl-)gging in the
army, when it was decided to reduce the maximum
number of lashes, an ineffective proposal was made to
the effect that the pattern of the "cat" should be sub.;
mitted to the House. But was it forgotten that there
is already such a thing as a Parliamentary whip?—
Judy.
A. REIIMISCENCE OF THE LATE PRINCE IMPERIAL,
interesting reminiscences of the late Prince,
Imperial are contained in a book entitled "Napoleon
IV., par Leonce Dupont," which was published a few
years ago in Paris. The writer says that the young'
Prince's favourite subjects of study were geography,
natural philosophy, and history. He had an excellent
memory, especially for dates, and his enthusiailm was
easily roused by deeds of heroism. His favourite hero
of classic times was Alexander the Great, cai account
of his skill as a horseman and his magnanimity to.
wards 1) irill9. Of the great men of the French his-
tory the Prince's favourite was Bertrand Duguesclin,
though he placed him and all others far below his
great•uucle. A clisAacteristic anecdote i 3 related of a
quarrel which took place between the young Prinoe
and the daughter of the Princes Metternich, when
they were both children, at Fontainebleau. The chil-
dren were talking about a doll's dress klonging to the
Pcincees, and the latter was so provoked by the
Prince's remarks about it that she boxed his ears. The
Prince reddened, drew back as if to avoid the tempta-
tion to return the blow, and then said in a haughty
tone: " Madeinoielle, what you have done is very
vulgar; you would deberve that I should do the same
to you ; hut I mutt not, for you are nothing but a
rage

SCHOOL BOARD LOANS.—School Boards are autho-
rind by the tenth section of the Elementary Educes-
tion Act of 1873 to spread certain payments over such
number of years, not exceeding 50, as may be
sanctioned by the Education Department. Mr.
Hanbury has introduced a Bill for reducing the maxi-
mum period over which these payments may extend
from 50 years to 30. The expenses to which the pro-
vision relates are those that have been incurred or are
to be incurred in providing for enlarging a echool ,
house; or in paying off a debt charged on a school-
house or on land acquired by the Board in any way;
or in such works of improving or fitting-up a school-
house as in the opinion of the Education Department
ought, by reason of their permanent character, to be
spread over a term of years.
THE FAMINE IN BRAZIL —Advices from Rio Janeiro
represent that the Chamber of Deputies in Brazil has
voted a relief credit of 10 million milreis in conse-
quence of the famine which has been decimating ,
Brazil. The famine votes already amount to forty
million, and there is reason to fear they will finally
reach sixty million dollars, as the rains in the north-
east have not sufficed in general to secure crops, and a
further large relief expenditure must continue for
some months longer, at the least. Unfortunately,
also, the herds of the region have been nearly exter-
minated by famine and thirst. On the other hand,
the rains have sufficed to give pasturage and water,
and thus mule trains will be able to travel into the
interior with food, which was not possible in the two
preceding years of drought.
ARMED WITH ALARMING ARGUMENT.—It was in the
Far Far West. The bar-keeper had been crossed in
some way during the afternoon, and was in ill-humour.
Up stepped a thirsty citizsn and rapped impatiently
on the bar. "What shall it be, jedge ?" asked the
muter of drinks. "Well," said the " jedge," 'make
it a gin cocktail with a bit of mint in it." "That
ain't what you want," answered the barkeeper; "you
want whiskey straight, you do." "No, I don't," per-
sisted the" jedge ;' "I tell you I want a gin cocktail
with a hit ---." "No, you don't, jedge ; no, you
don't. You're goin' to have whiskey straight; and,
more'n that," he added, trying the keen edge of his
bowie on his thumb-nail, "you're goin' to drink it out
of a tin dipper." The " jedge" admitted the force of
the argument, and changed his mind.
THE SPREAD EAGLE —Few persons are aware that
the proud boast of Englishmen that the sun never sets
on the British Empire is equally applicable to the
United States. Instead of being the western limit of
the Union, San Francisco is only about midway
between the furthest Aleutian Isle, swanked by our
purchase of Alaska, and Eastport, Maine. Our terri-
tory extends through 197 degrees of longitude, or 17
degrees more than halfway round the globe. The
Rocky Mountain Presbyterian, in commenting on this
fact, sears :—" When the sun is giving its good night
kiss to our westernmost isle, on the confines of
Behriug's Sea, it is already flooding the fields and
forests of Maine with its morning light, and in the
eastern part of that State is more than an hour high.
At the very moment when the Aleutian fisherman,
warned by the approaching shades of night, is
pulling his canoe towards the shore, the wood-chopper "
pf Maine is beginning to make the forest echo with
the stirring music of his axe."—Philadelphia Record.
GOLD MINING IN VICTORIA.—It was recently stated
publicly that the Magdala Quartz Company's shaft
at Stawell, which is now sunk over 2,100 ft., was get-
ting very near the depth from the surface of the earth
at which it would be found too hot for men to work,
and the manager was requested to test the temperature
at various depths in the shaft, The following is his
report, which shows that there is very little difference
between the temperature on the top and below :—" I
have taken the temperature of the shaft. When the
thermometer was close to the bottom the mercury
stood at 82 deg. Fahrenheit; when suspended 10ft.
from the bottom, at 80 deg.; and in the chamber at
74 deg.; in the western drive, at 82 deg. in the face;
in the rise, where no air pipes carry air, at 84 deg.
On the same afternoon the same glass showed the tem-
perature inside the office on the surface of the ground
to be 80 deg."
THE GOOD OF BAD TIMES.—The Pittsburg (Penn-
sylvania) Telegraph of the 7th of June Bays : ' This
morning Pittsburg was as clear and smokeless as any
city in the Union. Liberty-street and Penn avenue
stretched forth a clear-cut vista to the eye, and the dis-
tant hills were plainly visible for miles. This singular
phenomenon is attributable to a cause which every
Pittsburger hopes may soon be removed—namely, our
smokeless mills and 'slnking' puddlers and iron.
workers. This being Saturday, other mills not in-
cluded
in the strike are shut down, and the general .
effect is a singularly unusual one in the City of Smoke."
"NOT FOR JOSEPH."—Wayfarer. "Can I get
through this way to the Agricultural Show, my '
man ? " Farm Servant. "Oh, 'ees— nicely sur ;
straight on till yer comes ter the madder where Stiles'
bull 's kep wot killed a man last week; go acrost there s
through the plantation, on'y take keen of the mantaaps I
an' spring guns; then yer comes to a field where they I
are a-bnrnin' rubble and elitist' cinders; t'other side 1
yer'll find a rick-yard, on'y moind the blood'ound ' 1
wot'e kep there, 'cos 'un boites, then yer'll see yen way I
quite easy."—Fun. A
THE REVENUE BETURNS.—The revenue returns for
the quarter ended June 30 show a net increase on the
quarter compared with the corresponding period of
last year of £104,355. There was a decrease in Customs
of £300,000, Excise £325,000, land tax and house duty
£66,000, Crown lands £3,000, and miscellaneous
£128,619; and there was an increase wader the head
of stamps of £254,000, property and income tax
£631,(100, Post Office £16,000, and interest on advances
£25,974. On the twelve months ending on Monday,
June 30, there was a net increase of £3,506,201, as
compared with the year which ended on June 30,
1878.

DEATH OF A CENTENARIAN.—There died at Wor
cester on Sunday last Mrs. Hartshorne, at the age of
100 years and 11 months. Mrs. Hartshorne was
twice married, first to Dr. Nash of Worcester, and
secondly to a Staffordshire gentleman, whom she sur-
vived for many years. She retained her faculties to
the last, and up to a few weeks before her death was
to be seen occasionally walking with an attendant in
the streets of Worcester.
THE AMERICAN AND CANADIAN FOOD SUPPLY.—
The arrivals at Liverpool from the United States and
Canada last week of live stock were again very large,
particularly as regards sheep, the number of which
was greater than for many weeks past. The steamers
were the Massachusetts, with 398 cattle and 1,669
sheep; the Bavarian, with 100 cattle, and 1,828 sheep;
the Prussian, with 290 cattle and 600 sheep; the
Linhope, with 100 cattle and 730 sheep; the Quebec,
with 328 cattle; the Lake Champlain, with 289
cattle ; and The Queen, with 125 cattle, being 1,630
cattle and 4,827 sheep. With fresh meat, the follow-
ing steamers arrived :—The Queen, with 1,389 qrs. of
beef and 485 carcases of mutton ; the City of Chester,
912 qrs. of beef and 250 carcases of mutton; the
Baltic, 584 qrs. of beef and 190 carcases of mutton;
and the Bavarian, 338 qrs. of beef; the totals for the
week being 3,223 qrs. of beef and 913 carcases of
mutton.

A POWERFUL DRUG.—Cures of that terrible malady,
hydrophobia, are from time to time reported from one
point of the globe or another, without eliciting much
attention, the said cures being generally considered as
apocryphal. The latest on record comes from Dues
seldorf, where a woman was recently bitten by a rabid
dog. Ere long she felt the premonitory symptoms of
hydrophobia, and although convinced herself that she
was beyond the reach of human aid, was persuaded by
her friends to apply to a doctor residing in the town,
who had the reputation of coping successfully with the
horrible disease. The latter at once proceeded to
operate on the patient by injecting under the skin
twenty centigrammes of curare. This treatment, we
are told, bore unhope 1-for fruits, the woman being
completely restored to health within a few days.
Curare, which is said to have effected the cure in this
case, is a deadly poison employed by certain Indian
tribes to combat epilepsy and a few other diseases. It
is administered by the Indian Esculapius as their Euro-
pean colleagues administer morphine, either as an in-
jection or a pill. It serves also for less humane pur-
poses, being used to. poison the warriors' arrow-tips,
and an enemy wounded with one of these arrows is
mortally wounded, however slight in appearance the
injury he has received may be. Curare is also em-
ployed occasionally in whale fishing, the system in
vogue being that advocated by Dr. Thiercelin, by
means of which the leviathan of the deep is despatched
without danger to men's lives. An explosive bomb is
filled with the poison and discharged at the whale at
the moment it appears on the surface of the water.
Forty grammes of curare are, it is asserted, sufficient
to poison in a few minutes a whale weighing forty
thousand kilogrammes. This may be true, but curare
as a cure for hydrophobia has yet to prove its claims to
a serious belief in its virtues.—Evening Standard.
SHOULD LIKE TO BE A NATURALIST.—The following
is from the Science News :—lt is not long ago
that a young man went to one of the wise men at the
Sedthsonian Institution and said: "I think I should
like to be a naturalist" "Well be one," replied
the doctor in charge. "But I don't know how, and
wish you would get toe rightly at work at the start."
"Very well," said the willing master, "there is plenty,
to be done right here; let us begin on these fishes.'
Turning to a can of fishes from Arizona in spirits, he
opened the cover, pulled up his sleeve, and brought
forth two or three dripping examples. They were
well preserved, but the smell—well, the lees said about
that the better; it was very " ancient " and somewhat
"fish-like." "There, see what more you can get out
of that can, and I'll show you what to do next." The
young man paused in dismay and tugged very gently
at his kid glove. Finally, in deprecating tones he
asked : "Doctor, is it necessary, in order that I
become a naturalist, that I plunge my hands in that
alcohol?" "Of course—no other way to study objecte
of natural history properly, except in the field."
"Well," was the reply. very decided, albeit somewhat
rueful, " I—l think I'll go back to Long Branch."
And go back he did.
BEES' SWARM IN A HANSOM CAB.—It is not often
that we find a hansom cab employed in hiving a swarm
of bees, but this actually occurred lately in the
Brixton-road, just epposite Kennington Church, only
about one mile aid a half from London Bridge. A
largo swarm settled in e :aburnum tree, the ovirr,r was
fetched, and soon arrived with his hive to captesee
them. The tree, however, was toe slender to support
the weight of a ladder. A hansom was called, and the
driver directed to draw on to the footpath under the
swarm. The bee-master mounted to the roof of the
Ciab, and in a very few seconds secured his bees, greatly
to the amusement of a crowd of people who had beP
attracted by the unusual. eight —Land and TfrateF:
THE AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS Ac.—The Cobden-
Club has republished the speech which Mi. /3.
Samuelson delivered on this subject in the House, of
Commons on March 25. Mr. Samuelson submitted the
following question among others to a large number of
correspondents in every county of England and Waleo
--" To what extent has the Agricultural Holdings Act
been adopted in your district?" There is a singular
unanimity in the 210 answers. The following are
specimens :—" A dead letter "•' "Landlords object to
it '' ; " On about one farm in fifty " ; "Very limited
extent " ; " Quite exceptional " ; "Everywhere re-
jected " "Seems to be a nullity." Throughout the
correspoudenen ths chlrra ors rung on these Loa
sunilar expressione. Nearly all Mr. Samuelson 's cor-
respondents give gloomy accomto of we present state
cf the agricultural distriets.—mgy nu's,