The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-08-12 00:00:00

Itlistrilancous

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

A MoNsren or THE DEEP.----All extraordi-
nary haul waa 'mule by some fishennen i. Kenniare
Bay one day last week. They 1113de a i,al on a shoal
of salmon, and humwliately the net sank, they thought
front tine weight of the salmon. They immediately
t mk steps to get in the net, and after no little difficulty
Slleeet, lea tin d. sing sit. To their intense surprise, with
a number ,d fine salmon they found they had taken a
fish of immense size, and similar in appearance to the
saline in. They left it secured in one boat which they
towed ashore with the other. On endeavouring to
remove it with ropes, Washed about, breaking the lines
and smashing; the gunwale of the boat, so powerful
were the blows. It proved a very handSOnte fish, and
measured no less than nine feet in length," and seven
feet kip chi, and weighed 8 cwt. None knew the name
of tiff fish but it Li supposed to be a sturgeon.

"A CHEER FOR PAT !"—A little incident which
occurred at the distribution of the prizes at the Cattle
Show in Dublin last week, gives an illustration of the
popular feeling in Ireland :
Among the successful exhibitors was a respectable farmer
named Sweeny, to whom 30 sovereigns had been awarded.
When receiving the prize he took the opportunity of stating
that he had been requested by the successful competitors to
assure his Royal Highness that they lamed to have many
opportunities of seeing hint, and that Royalty ought to come
more frequently among them. Then, taking the sovereigns
in his 101111 i awl holding them out, he added that, much as he
valued them, be would willingly give thorn away if he could
see the Royal family e,tull I:. among the people. the Royal
Highness was warmly weeted. In fact, (says the writer)
no call has been more frankly responded to during the whole
week than that of "a cheer for Fat."

No "Trafalgar," 1871. Ministers have been
"baited" enough. - Punch.

AN EMPIRE CITY.—Our metropolitan popu-
lation is nearly three times as large as that of the
Papal States, nearly three times as much as the whole
population of Norway it exceeds by 3011,000 the whole
population of Portugal, by 1,300,000 that af tinitzer-
land, by 200,000 that of Roumania. It about equals
that ef %made, exceeding it by 80,000 only; surpasses
that of the Netherlands by more than half • million.
These include independent States, strouo end stable
Monarchies, aml L onion is but a city; still, the is the
Niagara of eitice. The roar of her population is heard
afar id ; and, as one man is as good as another in
these days, she is, at the lowest estimate, even IT the
rule of counting heads, the most important place in the
JameiB AfTwzinc.

DARINiI ESCAPE Or A PRISONER.-011 Monday
aftetnonn a daring attempt was made by a prisoner to
escape from custody whilst being conveyed by train
from Uxbridge to London. At the Uxbridge Petty
Sessions in the morning, a young man who gave the
name of 'harks Adams, was outvictee e 4 a till robber?
at the Postoeffice, Hillingdon, and sentenced to three
ninth,' imprisonment with hart labour. His con-
duct in court was of so extraordinary a nature
that the magistrates thought it rislet to refer his
case to the medical officer of the prlsem,and accord-
ingly endorsed the warrant to that effect. The Uxbridge
prisoners are conveyed by train to and from the court
and the House of Deteutinn ; and the prisoner in
question was handcuffed at Uxbridge, and sent by
train in charge of a constable. When the train hail
arrived about midway between Hayes and Southall,
prisoner, who bad not shown FigllS of violence pre-
viously, suddenly made a rush at the w indow of the
compartment, which he smashed with the handcuffs
on his wrists, and, having unfastened the door, leaped
from the carriage while the train was in full motion.
The constable, who had charge of him succeeded
in seizing hold of his clothes ; but he struggled so
desperately whilst partly suspended outside that the
attempt to hold hint had to be given up, and he was
seen to roll dawn the embankment torn and bleeding.
Immediately the train was pulled up at the Southall
Station, the constable gave the alarm, and he and
several other persons started down the line, expecting
to find the prisoner lying dead or seriously injured. It
was found, however, that although much cut about the
face and legs, the man had recovered himself, and run
a distance of nearly two miles. He was stopped in a
corn-field by some reapers, and was taken back to
SouthalL

UNFORTCNATE C1101(T.—It thq, oomfort of
the soldiers hall been the vials c,n4levation with the
War Office, the authorities there wtluld certainly not
have fixed on Ilerks as the lest plaee for the September
muster, hut rather in Beds, or, perhaps, for self-evident
wunnissariat reaaons, Oxun.---Punch.

SERVE!) HIM RIOHT !—At the Middlesex
Sessions, on Tuesday, Charles Ricketts, aged twenty-
six, pleaded guilty to stealing a silver watch from the
person of William Gregory. The police made a state-
ment that the prisoner got his living entirely by lying
in wait for drunken men late at night. He was in the
habit of assaulting them and then taking all the
valuables they had about them. A short time ago he
in company with another man committed a desperate
assault on a drunken man. He escaped, but his com-
panion was caught and sent for penal servitude. The
man who was assaulted died shortly afterwards, and
it was believed his death was caused by the injuries he
received. The prisoner had been four times convicted
of robberies. Mr. Serjeant Cox said in the ordinary
course the prisoner would be sentenced to seven years'
penal servitude, but as it appeared that he was
scoundrel who obtained his living by brutally assault-
ing drunken men and then robbing them, the sentence
would be ten years' penal servitude. It was necessary
to make a very marked distinction between the
prisoner and ordinary thieves. The prisoner appeared
very much astonished at the sentence.

"THEY CANNOT GO WITHOUT HELP."—Con-
bilmtions are earnestly requested to assist in taking
about 700 poor oil boys into the country for a holiday
among the green leaves and purling streams. They
belong to the Westminster National Institution, and
they have had but little relaxation since February.
The contributions of the truly benevolent will take the
form of indignant remonstrance with the 1 lireetors of
the Institution, and of distinct intimation that the
public Irsirei to see the poor oldboys set free. Address
G. G. L. G. G., House of LORIS j or W. E. G., House
of CoMIUOII.S. - Peach.

CORPOILIL PUNISHMENT IN THE NAVY.—III
the three years 1867, 1868, and 1869 corporal punish-
ment was ordered to be inflicted on 238 seamen, 06
marines and ben: boys ; but the punishment was re-
mitted in the case of three seamen and nine marine.
The gnat majority of the orders were given by the
captain or other officer commanding ;30 were by
court-martial, and the rest summary. The offences of
the men were as follows :—Theft, 45 ; insubordination,
200, disgraceful conduct, 9 ; desertion, 28 ; drunken-
ness sir smuggling liquor, 20; lighting, 2. Of the 274
men sentenced summarily, 25 were in ships whose
complement was 25 to 60,38 in ships of GO to 120, 84
in ships of 120 to i 250, 127 n ships of 250 to 850. The
conit-inartial punishments emnprise one in a ship of
the class between 60 and 120 complement, seven in
ships of 120 to 250, 22 in ships of 250 to 850.
COMPLETION OF ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL—It
is just twelve months since a scheme wan inaugurated
for the completion of St. Paul's Cathedral in ac-
cordance with the design Id its great anlitmt. Sub-
scriptions were then announced amounting to I:10,000,
and since then only £18,400 has been subscribed, but
of the £3,000 only 1:23,900 is at present available.
and this is stated to be totally inadequate to the work
to be done. 17-pon a rough estimate it is thought that
t 250,000 may be spent before the whole building can
be called finally and thoroughly complete. The Com-
mittee pro] ose ;It once to undertake the decoration of
the roof and walls of the choir and apse, and to fill the
dome with mosaic in the place of Thorishill's grisaille
pictures. The cost of this work will be 1115,000.

,
,EMIWIATIoN FROM LIVERPOOL.—The emigra-
tion returns for the last ninth shew that there sailed
from the :tiersey, under the act, 28 ships b 1r the United
States, carrying 9,482 steerage and 1.137 cabin passtm-
gers, and 4 ships to Canada, with 2,17 steerage and
212 cabin passengers. Total for the in mill under the
act, 12,988. The emigration not under the act was as
follows ; -United States, 4 Alps, passengers ;
Canada, 3 ships, 121 ; Victoria, 3 ships, ST ; South
America, 6 ships, 90; Africa, 9 ships, ; East Indies,
1 ship, 3 • West Indies, I ship, 20; China, 1 ship, 6
total, 7913. The total emigration for the month
amounted to 13,751, against 13,423 in the correspond-
he' period of last year.
'GARDEN PRODUCE OF 1871.-111 a summary
of the horticiiltwal produce of the season the Gardvicrs'
Mowine reports a general failure of all kinds of fruits
and a general plentifulness of roots and vegetables.
The deficiency of the fruit crop is attributed to the
prevalence of cold rains at the time the trees were in
Hower, dampleing more destructive of pdlen than a
few degrees of frost. Ti, those exceptional cases in
which a fair quantity of fruit has been produced the
quality is below the average. This has been the case
In an etpecial manner with strawberries, which have
eartainly not lacer. :carce, and have grown to a good
size, but have been wanting in colour and flavour. The
Kentish nut mvp is reported to be exceptionally good,
and of eider apples there appears to be a sufacient
production; but nowhere are the trees " breaking
down "with fruit. The continued cold weather, accom-
panied with excessive moisture, serionsly threatens the
potato crop, which in bulk is ithluense, but it is only
too likely to be extensively damaged by disease. The
potato, our contemporary remarks, is dependent on
sunshine in about the same degree as wheat, and in a
cold, wet season both those "staves of life" make poor
return, for the labour bestowed upon them. It is to
be hoped, however, that the weather may even yet
prove fat, swat de to the ingathering of a heavy produce
of roots of all kinds.

-1111 tom 1711PtrilLISHED M.S.-0 It WaB the
depth of winter, and a wild and stormy night. The
tiky was inky black, not is star could be seen, and the
moon lay shrouded in masses of dense cloud. The
what roared, the rain poured, the forest groaned, the
trees moaned, frost and sow were en the ground, and
desolation reigned around. He had long found dith•
culties in his war, lie had lino; been embarrassed, but
[ at bat be treMbled, he hesitated, he sturobled,..he
coaL? !,iria no farther-11c had come to adead pause.
PUNCH.

AORICULTrRAL ."4,ITISTICS OF IRELAND.—Ac-
cortlint, to the Ret.,istrar fier!eral's return for 1871, of
the eateat tirpl.r flax in Irehaul, and the number of
aeutelting mhls' tli"..total decrease in 151ster as com-
pared •cith last year 1. :42,224 statute acre,.; in Lain-
'tar, attativt • in Ninuster, 1,263 are,.,; 'ltd in
Connaught, 2,62 wercs. I' the ,:ounty Armagh Ocin
a decrease of 5,1"a2 +Pres ; in Antritn, 2,91 g ;
Cavan, t 4,625 ;in lionegai :1,247 ; 1/own, 4,066 ,
retinanagli 2,123 ;in -Ntonaghar, 3,62fi ; anti-in
run', 6,904' acrea. 'The total acreage in Ireland is
116,764; and the total decrease is 34,146 a(7414.
.Thia
digki...,e,se is genelul. There are 1;48 scathing i,,tl in
TFTI7-iriX of whiCh-1,402 are it lister, 39 in tein,tc,,
39 in 51;mster, anti 31 ii, Cininaught.
-

A Goon LflaliElt.—The application made by
the War Office to Pickford & Co. for tlw hire of their
horses far the military 111/1/Vrtl Yrefi hial were to have
taken place in Berkshire, is toelerstood not to have
been successful. Should an encampment, at such a
serious distance from London as thirty miles, he ever
again contemplated iliefore the llerman invasion) we
hope negotiations with Pickford will not miscarry, but
that he will occupy his proper place M the army-- the
Van.-- Punch.

LOST LETTERS.—A Post-office return shown
that in the year 1870 936,375,505 unregi,trreil letters
and book packets passed through the ro-t; it was
alleged that 27,913 were lost, but it was aswrtain:.l
that many of these were titles never posted or wera
really &livered. 3,005,991 inland registered lett."
and packets passed through the post in the year, and
only 12 were lost. In the five
.yesm 1686-70 193 per-
sons were prosecuted by the Pthd-office for stealing
letters—viz., 10 persons in the service of the Pod-
office, and 21 other persom, the latter for robbing mail
bags or stealing letters from pust,otlices and pillar-
buses ; 173 persons were convicted. Alsmt half the
convictions were for stealing letters containing postage
I

PETROLEUM ANT) Pt ILICE. —Co onlMillibd in-
crwliarism in Paris has .Iriginato I a new newspaper.
heading for reports of fires-, "Petroliana." The
Petrol, perhaps, in that capital, would afford fewer
ancvdotes if the Patrol were more efficient - -Poach,

A MARRIADE UNDER EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUND
STANCE,. - An affecting incident is related in connec-
tion with a recent occident to an engineer on the Albany
and Boston railroad. The poor fellow's loge were both
terribly crushed, and he woo taken to the city hospital
in -Roston, where a young lady, to whom he VMS en-
gaged, sought admission with the object of nursing
him and alleviating the pains of his wounds IT the
tender ministrations of love. The rules of the insti-
tution, however, prohibited her attendance except as
his wife, and the boon was therefore denied her.
Nothing ilatinted she secured the servioes of Dr. I,id
and the twain were made one, when she remained w ith
him until he died, two days afterwards.

ANOTHER IRISH GRIEVANCE !—A young buly
in Dublin, at one of the late ball, having iliaeovereil
that her chignon was dishevelled by fast waltzing was
heard complaining of its want of "fixity of tenors."
—Punt*.

THE REASON Wia foll,,wing signifi-
cant sad not unamusing remarks appear in the pro.
spectux 1.7 a new French scientific journal Franse
has just met with a great disa.ster, and people now
understand that the cause of this disaster is, to a great
extent, to he found In the insufficiency ,f our scientific
instruction. To raise our isumtry from its fall and re-
place it in the rank which belongs to it in the world,
we must learn to conquer Germany on the gromal of
science, in order to defeat her afterwards 4si the field
of battle. It is necessary, then, above all things, to
spread scientific tastes and studies." Accordingly,
subscriptions are invited for the Revue Seieuttlique, the
success of which is somehow to lead to the reconquest
of Alsace and Lorraine.

No WONDER, EITHER !—Tlle Votk.vh«ft
errs cc that there is an unwillingness to allow the full ex-
tent of the German hisses in the late war to transpire. •
especially with regard to the devastation brought about
bysickness. A serni-official corroboration now suddenly
apj war: of the worst rumours which were circulated Ur
process of time. The Central Bureau of Information
itt Berlin, under the inspection of the highest military
authorities, has published a report of its work, from
which it appears that the institution has within the
space of twelve months authenticated 633,000 sick and
wounded cases, and that of these only 7,01.10 belonged
to the French, the remainiog 5:i.).000 to the German
army. The circumstance that only 46,000 of these
were South Germans, and that nearly 508.000 were
North Germans, shows by the disproportion of the
minds-es that the bureau had really been occupied by
the North German army. The frightful tigure4s,
which besides make no clahn to completeness, are
according to this, far below the truth. And if we
reckon the wounded at a hundred thousand in round
numbers, we shall certainly still be within the truth if
we estimate the number of the unwounded sick-at
half a million.
IRISH PRISONS.— The hopeeters-General of
Prisons in Ireland notice in their Report on the year
1870 that prison discipline as practised in the comity
and borough gaols of that country seems to have lad
little deterrent effect. One-third of the males con -
mitted in the year and above half the females wesia43
offenders. Of the 0,421 females committed in the •••-•
1,046 were re-committed more than once in that
year. 634 of these women had been in gaol 21 tin
or more; 44 a hundred times; one 244 thrum ; one
times. It Ira blot on the prison system that theretoe
women who occupy the gaols of the country ntontle
after month, And year after year, sortie spending eight,
nine or ten narnthe of the year in prison, mat oe-
caaionally being recommitted within a few days Cr
hours after being discharged. These loose women awl
vagrants are able to regard the gaols more in the light
of asylums and hospitals than as places of punishment
or for reformation. .

MAXIM ON MARA AND ITYMIIN.—Money
:iahl to be the Finemi of war. It i equail.r the sinew.,
of marriage. Without it no couple can carry the war

OFFICER 3 AND OPERA-GLASSES. —The triumph
gained by the Germans in the great Continental
Tragedy ended by the Fall of Paris, is now Keen to
have been mainly owing tr their sedulous attention to
rehearsal. In practising the maructivres •d mimic
warfare, it appears, from some account of their exer-
cise in such campaigning, that every German officer
carries an opera glass. The officers of our crack regi-
ments are generally provided with this instrumeut,
too; but whereas it is very much employed by German
officers in rehearsing operations •ii the hell, our
Guardsmen and their gallant compeers for the most
part limit their use of Opera-glasses to the I Opera.—

_ . .
CURIOUS APPEARANCE. The SI, i.q.qMes
says that the influx of visiteirs to the Eigi has as-
Sul fled collossal proportions. On Saturday last, the
trains between Zurich and Zug succeeded each other
in rapid succession until midnight. Beds have be•
come rare things on the Rigi, most of the travellers
being obliged to pass the night in the corridor, and
dining-rooms of the different hotels. OccasionallYr
in the months of June, July, and August, prior to
the setting in of the wet weather, an illumination
resembling a bright fire can be seen before sunset,
on the huff-Alp, behind the Seeboden, on the Rigi.
which lights up the whole district, as far as
Freienanit Connected with this phenomenon, them
exists a legend amongst the pea.sanby, to the effect
that the abbot of the convent of Murk, which formerly
owned this portion of the Rigi, gave instructions that
a fire should be kindled on a slab (made of a soft porous
stone found in the district which has the property of
abssorbingni,sisturefromthe atmosphere) placed in a con-
spicuous position on the t.q,sf the mountain as a warning
to the surrounding district that rain ought be expected.
The peasants, at the present time, are under the ine
pression that the practice is still continued, and that
the light seen by them is the reflection of the fire on
the mountain. •It was seen distinctly four different
times last :31111111Her, When it assumed in colour, size,
and iluratii in, the character of a large bonfire, and pes.
sussed the peculiar powyr of illuminating objects at
distance, while everything near remained shrouded in
darkness. The Swiss Sisiety of Natural IlistorY
appeals to those who take an interest in scientific
jeat, to aid them in discovering the cause of this 1.'4
curious and remarkable phenomenon _

-
SLEEPING CARRIAGES ON RAILWAYS.—It has
often been remarked (says the Coon t Jrairsol,) that in
point id providing,' for the comfort of night passengFre
on railways the Americans have made far greater ad-
vances than we. For years past they have hail sleep.
rag carriages ; but, so far as we know, no one has yet
ventured to suggest such a thing for any lent hi
England. Any one, therefore, making a long journey
at night has to content himself by sleeping in what
posture he may, which is too often one full of discom-
fort. There is now, however, in the course of con-
struction at the Saltley Carriage Works a carriage in-
tended to change all this. The length of the earriag
is 32 feet by 8 in breadth, and is thus somewhat larger
than the carriage in ordinary use on our line§. During
the day it will not differ in appearanee, except in size,
from any other railway carriage, and it is so arranged
that the passengers can themselves alter it when they
decide upon going to bed. This is accomplished by
taking down a padded shelf in a recess in the partition
of the carriage, and turning up the arms of the seats.
By this means six sleeping births are provided in each
compartment of either a first or a second class carriage.
The inventor and jiatentee of the carriage is Mr.
James Hewieson, of Glasgow.
CURIOUS ACTION gOlt ASSIULT AND SLANDER.
—At the Galway Assizes, on Saturday, before Mr.
Justice Keogh, the Very Rey. Dean Seymour, Protes-
tant rector of Tuam, stied the Rev. Edward Thounn:,
Roman Catholic administrator in the same town, for
£l,OOO damages for assault and slander. Mr. Robinson,
Q.C. Monaghan, and Mr. Roper, Q.C., were counsel
for laiistiff; and Mr. Hugh Macdermott Beyagh.
Q.F., and Mr. Francis Nolan, were counsel for de-
fendant. It appears that on the evening of June
Fi last the rev. defendant was walking through
the streets of Team when he met two children,
who raised their hats and slightly bowed, as a mark
of respect to him. The Rev. Mr. Seymour thinking
the children went en their knee to salute the de-
fendant, went o‘er and upbraided them for so doing in
the hearing of the latter, and aling the children why
they knelt to that man, at the ;xi, time tellinethem
they thould kneel to none but the hisiU God. Mr.
Th,mas, thinkhra the obser.atien was calculated to
lessen the respect the children entertained for him as a
clergyman, at once went over to Mr. Seymour and,
laying his hand on his shoulder, asked him if be meant
those remarWs as an insult to him. Mr. Seymour
Lavin: made a reply, Mr. Thomas called him a low,
lying :scoundrel, and told Iran he was a disgrace to his
religion. The case having been fully investigated, the
jury brought in a verdict for one farthing damages,
and his lordship refused to certify for costs. The
case caused great excitement in the town, and during
the hearing of the proceedings the comt was densely
crowded!