The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-23 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOICEIGN.

The barque Gabriel, of Memel, bound to that port
from Liveriyool with salt, was totally wrecked on Sunday
morning on the rocks at Langenss, Isle of Man, and the cap-
tain and two of his crew were drowned.

A Reuter's telegram from Newcastle, New South
Wales, says that the English cricketers pled and won a
match against the eleven of that town on Friday last.

The value of eggs imported this year to the 30i.h
ult. was £2,453,993 ; last year in the 11 months £2426806.

Milliners in Paris who furnish ladies out of town
with their bats send for their photographs before they make
the selection of shape and colour of trimmingL

- -
There were 183 prisoners for tiial at the Liverpool
Police-court on Monday, 146 of whom were drunk when
arrested on Saturday night and Sunday.

_
The Moscow Gazette points out that France is at pre-
sent showing a certain sympathy with Turkey, though she
formerly sought the friendship of Russta
Travellers comiug from St. Petersburg report that
the outbreak cf war is there considered as a matter detrr.
mined upon. The situation of the R 115318.11 commercial and
manufacturing classes is very gloomy.

Mr. Millais is painting a portrait of Mr. Carlyle,
which will appear in the next exhibition of the Royal
Academy,

The declared value of literature exported this year
was lets than last. The quantity is 75,269 cwt. and the
vain. £799,435. In the same period of 1875 the quantity
was 72,249 cwt. and the value £.832,872.

From the recent report of the Aestetante Publique it
appears that 2,833 infants were abandoned in Faris during
Dab. The chief handicrafts represented in the list are
laundresses (75), sernpstresses (229), servants (601), opera-
tives of all kinds (1,013), occupation unknown (261), &c.
In Wyoming Territory, the officers' wives and
laundresses attached to the regiment cln vote, not being
"sworn into the -United States service," but neither °Dicers
nor sobasrs can do so.
Speaking of Russia's attitude in the matter of the
guarantees to be exacted from Turkey, the St. Petersburg
Herald Ins that the utmost concessions which Ituuia can
make is to accept an occupation by neutral troops.

Amongst the latest improvements in the trumpet-
mouthed fog signals need on the English coasts is a clock-
work arrangement by which steam passes through a pipe and
gives intermittent signals at stated intervals.
The eainmakers of South Staffordshire have given
their men notice of another reduction of wages equal to 2d.
per cwt. The men having recently gone in after a fruitless
strike against a reduction on smAll work, declare that they
cannot submit to this reduction,

The Had&peon Courier states that a will cat has
been trapped in the Cocklaw Oagle, Oldhamptocka It
meatured 35 inches in length, 16 inches in girth, and
Inches in height, and weighed 10lb.
A Berlin telegram reports the defeat of the troops of
Yakoob Beg of Kashgar by the Chinere, who took lianas and
killed 1,600 men and a large number of women and children.
Yakoob Beg has sent a special embassy to Taahkend to ask
or help or mediation.

Mr. Ramsay, MP., mada a novel suggestion at
Hamilton on Biondm. He proposed, not exactly t 3 abolish
the Lord Privy Seal but to turn that dignitary tote a Secre-
tary of State fcr Scotland, who could not only take a general
care of Scotch business, but act as a sort of "Lord of-all-
work," as the Lord Privy Seal does at present.
It is said that a member of the International Gan
and Polo Club, has accomplished the feat of shooting a hun-
dred penny pieces successively in Ifty minutes, the arrange-
ment being that the thrower up of the pennies should stand
eight yards from the gun, and that the pennies should not be
thrown more than three feet above the thrower's head.
It is announced that the officers of the 10th Hussars
will be permitted to wear the Prince of Wales' plume in
silver on the undress sabretache. The crest and nrOtto of
his Royal Highness the late Prince Consort is to be worn over
the regimental device on the dress sabretache of the 11th
Hussars.

The London papers of Tuesday psinted an address
which has been sent to the Queen by. the Mahomedan com-
munity of India in reference to the Eastern Q sestion. They
declare their opinion that in the present crisis the conduct of
her Majesty's Government has been such as to call forth the
gratitude of the whole Mahomedan world, and for it they
express their deepest obligations.
-

Another death from emall•pox has occurred at
Chatham. Mrs. Peake, wife of the aev. U. E. Peaks, curate
In charge of St John's parish, caught the disease whilst tick-
visiting, and OW on Monday. The interment took place
immediatsly. The deceased lady had only been married
about eighteen months.

-
A het o 6 the principal winners of the English and
Scotch races during the season of 1676. which is published in
Belle Life, shows that Count de Lagrange won 20 rapes and
£17,500; Lord Happlin 16 races and £14,866; Lord itosebery
25 races and £13,890; Lord Falmouth 28 races and £10,410;
Sir George Cketwynd 41 races and £7,874; and Mr. J. H.
Hoaldsworth 25 races and £9,871.
According to the return of the Registrar-Genersi,
the deaths from small pox In Llndoo, which had been 67 and
50 in the two preceding weeks, rose to 75 last week, the
highest weekly number since the commencement of the
present epidemic; 3& were cert;ll3d as unvaccinated, 25a5
vaccinated, and in the remaining 16 cases the medical certi-
ficates did not inruish any information upon this point.

At Holkham, on Tuesday, the Prince of Wales and
party commenced shooting through the Ein of Leicester's
preserves, the sportsmen, besides his lOyal Highness, being
Count Gleichan, the Marquis of Hartington, the Esti of
Clirendon' the Earl of Dunmore, Lord Rendresham, Lord
11:,wport, Lord Powerscourt, Lord Alexander Paget, Lord
Lewisham, and the Esti of Leicester. In the afternoon the
Princess of Wales drove down and saw the shooting.

. The Right Hon. Jane, Countess of Egremont, died
at her residence, Orchard Wyndham, near Taunton, on
Monday. Her ladyship was the third daughter of the late
Rev. William Roberts, of Eton, and was born at Eton
0-diege, Windsor, in 1798 She married in 1820 the Right
Hon. George Wyndham, Earl of Egremont and Baron Cocker.
mouth, in the peerage of Eugland, and Earl of Thomend, in
the peerage of Irslitsnd. Hie lordship died without leaving
issue, April 2, 180, when the title became extinct.
An influential meetirg was held on Saturday after-
noon at Carlisle to promote a memorial to the late Mr.
George Moore; Lord Muncaster, aLP., presided. It was
resolved that steps should be at once taken to raise a suitable
memorial, and a oonimittee was appointed to consider what
form It should assume. It was made an instruction to the
committee to examine a scheme projected by Mr. Moore, by
which he had intended to devote a sum of £12,000 to the
foundation of scholarsthips in elementary sohouls In Cumber-
land and Westmoreland.
Dr. Hardwicke has held an inquest in Longford.
street, Munster-square. London respecting the death of
of Randle Jackson Waters, aged forty-one, telegraph
engineer, who was found dead in bed on Sunday morning.
A bottle that had contained "hylrate of chloral," which he
had been in the habit of using to procure sleepl was on the
dressing table —Dr. Mason said the Cause of death was
failure of the heart's action, caused by an overdose of
chloral. The jury agreed to a verdict of "Death by misad-
venture."

The Massager du'Midi states that in view of what
may occur in the Ewa the greatest activity prevails in the
marine arsenal of Toulon. Every effort is being made to
finish and complete the equipment of the ships of war at
present under repair, or in course of construction. The
Trident, an armour-plated vessel, which was launched on the
9th ult., has already been supplied with its armour plates,
and before long its machincry will be completed.
The Empress Engdote bad a private audience of the
Pope last Saturday morning, and remained with Ills Holiness
for halt an hour. Toe Empress was accompaniedby Cardimtl
Bonaparte. The Libertd says that the Empress no godlier
saw the rope than she fell on her knees and wept bitterly,
till, after some minutes, yielding to the Pope's entreaties,
she permitted herself to be raised by Cardinal Bonaparte
and her son, and de, d her tears.
- - • • •

The Rev. Dr. M'Kerrow, a Presbyterian minister at
Manchester, has just entered on the fiftieth year of his
ministry and public life in that city. The event was cele-
brated on Monday night by a presentation consisting of a
congratulatory address, s silver urn, and the endowment of a
fellowship open to the children attending the Board Sthools.
Mr. Samuel Watts presided, and Mr. Jacob B!jght, M. P.,
the Mayor .of Manchester, Mr. Bee!Amin Arrnitege, and
others tok part in the proceedings.
A lady a abort time back presented a telegram at a
London post-office. The message was enclosed in an enve-
lope. Oa receiving it, the official at once proceeded to
open it. "What are you about'? ' exclaimed the lady. The
clerk explained that he could not send a message without
first seeing it. "Then," observed the lady angrily, "do you
suppose I'm going to let you read my private affairs? I
won't send it at all ! " And forthwith sire flounced out of
the ati.,:e in disgust.
Daring last week 5,906 births and and 3,424 deaths
were registered in London and 22 other Lege towns of the
United Kingdom. The natural increase of population was
2,482. The mortality from all causes was at the average rate
of 22 deaths annually in every LOCO persons living. In
London 2,648 girth. and 1,443 deaths were registered, the
former having been 185 above, and the letter 348 below the
average numbers. The annual death rate from all causes in
the metropolis was 21 per 1,000.
The Whitehall Review states that Colonel Valentine
akveer lately sink
al yf
earrived s
flour BC 04.14.1
taa nudt
inf roopmi hweh
where
s, w ill
hte
will
again take chews of the cavalry organisatioa for the
Ottoman army. Ile has, at the reqneat of the Turkish
Minister of War, selected a few Euglish officers to serve
and to these gentlemen will lip confided, under
under
him; and
the task of Making the Ottoman cavalry what
Ii ought to be.
A sad story comes from the village of Waltou•on-
Trent. Last Sunday afternoon, when the village children
came out of school, one little fellow, aged eleven. named
Jetties Mewls, was teasing a girl, named Charlotte Butcher,
and pulling her dress. She told him to be quiet, and in push-
ing at him with an umbrella the point accidentally entered
his eye and he fell unconscious to the ?round. Ile was
• taken borne, and the elf ct of the shock upon his lather arts
so great that he was seized with a fit, and died shortly after-
wards. The little boy died about seven o'clock the same even-
ing, and his mother has since been confined to the house
owing to the hflaence of the sudden double bereavement
upon her health and spirits.
la France the women of the highest rank post them-
selves at the exit doors of the churches after service with an
enticing little bag, in which they supplicate you to inveat.
This is part of the duties of their church membership. A
correspondent says, "I have teen Patti on her knees on a
praying chair at the great door of the Madeleine, in Paris,
begging those leaving the church for contributions for the
pcor. I noticed that the stream of outgoers passed her Way,
so as to have a good look at the charming diva, and her reti-
cule became fun so som that she was obliged to send for

another."—Court Journal.
Sir C. B. Adderley presided on Saturday at the
annual meeting of the suhscribers and friends of the Saltley
Reformatory, and in the o mrse of an address said that the
success of reformatory schools in reducing ignorance and
crime showed the soundness of the principle upon which
they were established. The children in these schools were
the primary object of the national education of the country.
The primary object a national education was not, as in
America, to educate all clames, but to find education for
those wire could not, or would not, find it for themselves.
Six survivors of the crew of the Evening Star have
arrived at Varditi with the news that their ship was wrecked
during a storm at Little Cayman, one of the West India
Islands, in the middle of August last, and that the captain,
chief mate, and nine of the crew were drowned. The sur-
vivors remained for three days on the beach where they
were cast ashore, and had nothing to eat but the contents
of a barrel of salt pork washed from the wreck, which
they ate raw. An hour after they reached the shore the
ship broke up. At the end of the third day tome English
residents from the other side of the island came round in
boats s n took them away.
The bark Solomon, of 13)ston, United States, Cap-
tain Ferguson, for lire!, with teak from Moulmein, was
cßnapelled to put into Portland It•_ad stead late latt Saturday
night for temp)rary re-pairs, having Wen in collision on
Friday night, Portland Bill bearing at the time 25 miles east
by north. She was run into on the starboard quarter by a
vessel at present unknown, but supposed to be an iron ship.
The collision war a very serious one, the hlow carrying away
14 01 the Solomon s stanobions, her bulwarks, and four
planks below the beud. The nigTit was so dark that it was
impossible to make out what injuries the other ship had sus-
to render any assistance, but all
weed, and she did not atop
,c," as possible got under way again.
Oa Tuesday right the Right Hon. W. E. Forster,
AL F., pra_ided at rin.t annual soir6e of the Halifax 31chanics'
Institute, and after distributing the prizes, deiivered an
address on the (potion of education. Re alluded in favour-
able terms to the Act passed last session, enforcing compul-
sion, but which he rcgretWd was carried by a Conservative
Administration, inasmuch as he would have preferred that a
Liberal Government should take the most material steps in
legislation as regards education generally. Ile spoke at
length on the subject of primary schools, and advocated to a
certain extent the minglimr the classes in the same style as
the American principle Mr. Forster concluded by giving
advice to those who were students in elementary edotation,
SS seat at. to those to pursue their researches in higher
new a knowledge

The yarns of Biltish and Irish spirits exported in the
last U months was £2.86,22.8, against 4,250,540 in the same
perioti of the previoits year.
A railway collision has taken nlace in France on the
line between Chatillon and Aix. Eight persons a ere killed,
and fifteen wounded.

This year the value of butter imported was
£8,972,940, and last-year in the 11 months £1,897,195.
Osman Pasha, who was made prisoner by the Mon-
tenegrins, congratulated the Prince of Montenegro on his
fete day, and the Prince restored to him his liberty.
The al-Jawaib of Constantinople states that the con-
tributions to the war from the Ottoman dominions
mounted, up to the 7th inst. to 330,000 Turkish lire.
A distinguished Russian officer has written a letter,
In which be states that the Rufstan troops would have
crossed the frontier long ago but for the impracticable state
of the roads ce,used by bad weather. A correspondent of the
Temps, writink, from Bucharest, expressed a similar opinion.

A great increase in the importation of potatoes has
occurred this yecr. The value is £1,01,808, and last year in
the 11 months £911,480.

A friend told me (writes Mr, Haweis in his "Oar-
rent Coln ''), Nch;A: he was in Scotland last year walking ever
the m0c,...1, he cAdd walk the keepers off their feet becatuse
he drank cold tea whilst they drank whiskey.
The latest good purpose to which photography has
been put is to aid in identifying domestic pets. Attached to
a bill advertising a lost dog in a tradesman's window in South
London, is a carte-de-visite of a toy-terrier.
In the last 11 months the value of coal, coke, &c.,
exii,ried was £3,312,991, and in 1575 in the same period
£8,981,790. The quantity this year was 15,144,C09 tons, and
last ye.tr 18,388,271 tons.

The sentence of death passed upon Emily Church at 6,
the Cantrsl Criminal Court, for causing the death of her
child on Weunington Marshes, Essex, has becn commuted
to penal servitude for We.
Indian advices gays that a crowded meeting of
Mahomedans has been held at Umriteir ; the proceedings 't
opened with a long prayer for the Empress of India. The
sum of B,ooors. was (*Meted for the wounded in the Turkish
army, and resolutions passed ef sympathy for Turkey and of
gratitude to England.
The Bombay Ga.7ette says that a native merchant,
living at Prodatore, in the Cuddapah district of the Madras
Presidency, hi.a, for the past two months been feeding at
he own Expense, 2,000 of the people in his neighbourhood, ;
where scatelp and fara!ne sire prevalent
-
There was a large increase in the quantity of beef
Imported in the last 11 months, compared with the corre-
sirmding period in the preceding year. This year salted
beef, t 426,733, and fresh or slightly salted, £370 31R were the
declarea values. Lest year the amounts were £321,t31 and a
£115,400.

A. general order has 'Plat been issued from the War
Office giving the names of about 2,500 non-commissioned
cflicers and men who are to be at once presented with the
medal for long serYice and good, conduct, together with Urc
usual gratuity ol £5. Some of these rewards are consider-
ably overdue.
Speaking at a gathering at the Royal Arsenal,
Woolwich, on Saturday evening, 3140r-General Sir John
Ayde rbmarked that the volunteer force had existed for up-
wards of sixteen years, and had not only maintained its
place, but had never failed to comply with those strict rules
which the War Office hai laid down with a view to improve
Its efficiency. Re spoke hopefully of our armed forces
generally.

An American paper relates that a man rushed into a
Main-street restaurant the other day in an awful hurry, and
dropping into a chair, stalled for "call's head soup."
"Calf said what, sir?" inquired the waiter. "Calf's head
soup! " roared the impatient guest. Admonished by the
wrathful tone, the waiter moved away, but paused to in-
quire, as a kind of appendix, "You didn't hear him say
what kind of soup, sir ?"
Dr. Cameron, 111. P., lecturing on Saturday, before
the Glasgow Andersonian University Medical Society,
advocated a State primary examination for medical degrees.
He condemned the Act pasted last session for regulating the
practice of vivi.ectioz, and contended that there was tar
more cruelty inflicted on animals by wholesale battue
shooting than by scientific inquiry, through which great good
resulted to mankind.

The public sale of newspapers in Berlin is about to
undergo a revolution. At present singla copies may be
bought at certain places at a comparatively high rate.
'Within a few days there will be one hundred newspaper boys
in uniform hawking papers about the streets at the reduced
price of a groschen the copy.

Over the tiny grave of the only body—that of an in-
fant—washed ashore at Lydd, near Dungeness, from the ill-
fated emigrant ship Northfleet, has been placed a slab with
the simple inscription "God knows," that haying been the
tonchlig reply of the parish constable when he was appealed
to by the undertaker as to what name sbould be engraved on
the coftln-Plate.
In presenting the prizes at the Devonport Hig4
School for Girls, Sir John St. Anbyn, alluded to the
establishment of schools of cookery in connection with the
institution, and rem.arked that the EJgilsh were the word
cooks in the world. There was more waste and less facility
In adapting the producos of Nature to man's use in Ei.gland
their; in any other country in Europe. He thought such
schools would tend to remove this stain on the national
character.

The astonishing and rapid diminution in height of
our soldiers within the last few years has suggested various
theories and questions, one of which is whether the general
standard of height in Great Britain has or has not been
lowered It this were the case other nations would hardly
escape being affected similarly, considering that in no one of
them is bodily health so well cared for as is is here. But it
seems that in France, at any rate, no such falling off has
been noticed. On the contrary, although the standard has
remained very nearly the same, the nutaber of men rejected
for insufficient height has been decreasing year by year.

At the Barton•on-Humber Christmas Stock Sho
dinner, Mr. Rowland Winn, M P., in reply to the toast,
"The Members far North Lincolnshire," said the last session
was the most onerous since he had represented the division.
He spoke of the purchase of the Suez Conal shares is a good
commercial speculation. As to the Eastern Question, he
believed they would soon have a satisfactory rotation. The
Russian Emperor had pacific intentions, but the war party
was strong, and after the occupation of the Christian pro-
vinces it would be some time before the troops could be
withdrawn. However, he hoped that through the Conference .
Buda a danger would be averted.
The anniversary of the shutting of the gates of Derry
was 031e5ved in Derry on Monday. Flags were hoisted during
the night on the city walls, Corporation Hall and the oath e draL
from the pillar of Walker's testimonial a large egy of
Governor Lundy was suspended for cremation, the pybells
of the old cathedral pealed at Intervals from early morning
until the hour for divine service. The procesiou 4 the
"apprentice boys," and their friends formed on the Mall,
and led the way to the cathedral at twelve o'clock. The
sacred edifice was aeon filled. The Rev. Samuel R Craig, of
the Free Church, preached. On leaving the church the
procession reformed, headed by Dr. Darcus, president,
and Mita° tho uar.l parade at the walls uni principal
streets.

J

tof
'ova;
,
;Tot