The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-06-25 00:00:00

AN ESTATE IN ENGLAND CLAIMED
BY A PITTSBURG FAMILY.

In the latter part of the last cmtury, and about the
coming in of the present one, the Coward Family have
made great innovations in the diet of many hale and
hearty Englishmen, who were convinced that carden
truck was the only fit food for the stomach (says the
Pitt:burg Commercial). To revolutionize society more
couneletely on the subject colleges, churches, school-
houses, hotels, and gardens were eetabliehed under their
auspices, and communities were founded to promulgate
the peculiar vegetarian ideas of the fomiders. After
the novelty of the experiment had worn away most of
the followers of the new phil vophy fell again into the
way of consuming fliedl, fowls, and beef, awarding
yetetablen second ',Lee on their bills of fare.
In 1810, William Coward, the het of the foreign
line of the family died in England, leaving the vast
accumulation of real eetate to be divided in the interest
of heirs whew., whereabouts he knew not of. The pro-
perty was placed in charge of trustees to await the
coming of chimantit, and through half a century has
been accumulating and growing more valuable.
Recently the Engl eh Court of Chancery appointed
D. W. Hendr:ckson, a celebrated lawyer of Monmouth
county, N.J., commiesioner and trustee for heirs to the
estate who might be found in this country. The pro'
pony at the last valuation woe asseeeed to be worth
250,000.060 sterling, or about £250,000,000 in gold coin
ot the United States. In 1867 he visited Europe in
his official capacity, and obtained such data and info',
mation as led to the discovery of surviving heirs in this
country. A family of Cowards in Trenton, N.J.,
claimed the estate, but thus far have failed to trace
out their genealogy in manner eatiefactory to the re-
quirements of the law. Not Img ago, correspondence
was Opened with Mr. Robert Coward, the well-known
brickmaker of this city, and in a very short time it
was made apparent that the united claims of himself
and brothers to the estate were sufficiently clear and
well-founded to warrant legal prosecution. Eminent
attorneys in England were at once empt yed in the
case, who, acting in comperation with lawyers of this
country, the Messrs. Coward anl Mr. Hendrickson,
trustee, have met with much soccese in tracing the
ins of descent of our Pittsburg family to that extinct
in England. Mr. ":ward will leave shortly for flag-
land to advance his interests, and unless souls link be
missing in the records of his family to prevent his suc-
cess, it is very probabl, that he will come back one of
the wealthiest men of the country.

A NOVEL EXPERIMENT.
A correspondent of The Times Writes
In order to solve the question whether a portion of
the skin of a negro would, If applied immediately after ex-
cision to a raw surface of • white person, adhere in Talia-
cotian fashion, and, if so, whether dark colouration would,
in consequence, extend to the surrounding skin, the follow-
ing experiment was made a few days ago at one of our me-
tropolitan hospitals. The auhjec'a of this experiment were
a man of colour from the S•mthern states of America, who
has lately been employed as an artist's model st the Royal
Academy, and a child having a sore suitable for the pur-
pose, who was a patient in the hospital. A circular piece
of akin was alit not Of One of the shoulders 01 the negro, and
instantly placed upon the sore of the child, but with what
result I an. at presint unable to state Tne negro a day or
two afterwards appeared at the Royal Academy with a
plaister on the shoulder which had been operated upon, and
declared that he was Induced to submit to this treatment
from the assurance of the medical officer that in so lolmig lie
would save the life 4.1 the child, an assur ince. I need hardly
remark, having no foundation in truth. by way of remunera-
tion the victim received a sovereign.
. The case, I submit, is inn which demands Inquiry on the
part of the governors of our hospitals, and there will be no
difficulty in discovering the operator, the victim, and the
locality. If fatal erysipel is had supervened in the case of the
negro—a contingency riot impossible—an unpleasant verdict
might have been returned by a coroner's jury. Moreover,
suppose the child to become permanently marked with a
black patch of transplanted negro skin, the operator, may
hod hlMtelf in au unpleasant legal predicament.