The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-22 00:00:00

WITCH-BURNING IN RUSSIA.

The St. Petersburg Goternment Messenger reports that
early last month a woman named Agrafena Ignatjeva was
burned as a witch by the peasants in the viilage of Wratshevo,
in the Government of Novorod
It seenls that the wretched woman, who was the
widow of a soldier, had the reputation of being a
sorceress and witch, and strove to promcte this delusion
by every means in her power. The peasants of the
whole neighbouring district had such a dread of her
powers of mischief that they endeavoured even to antici-
pate her wishes, and although an absaute pauper she
lived very comfortably on the contributions spon-
taneously made to her. There were many persons in the
district suffering from epilepsy, audit was popularly
believed that the witch had thus prnished them for
offending her in some way. One cf these epileptic
sufferers, a girl from a distant village, besought some
peasants to burn the witch and so rJease her from her
sufferings. At an assembly of headnen and seniors of
the villages it was resolved to extitguish the source of
mischief. They proceeded to he' hut, which they
found fastened up. They broke t open, discovered
the wretched woman, charged her with the crime, and
then nailed up the window and lour to prevent her
escape. By this time over 200 men had assembled
around the hut, and amid their jeers and shouts of
exultation it was set on fire, an the whole crowd re-
mained tratil it was quite consuned.

- •
The sum of 21 roubles and 91 copecks (nearly £3 Cs.)
was collected and offered to tie rural policeman as a
bribe to secure his silence. lilt he rejected it, and so
Maki terrible tragedy asme olight.
)n Tuesday (18a) tie thirty-first birthday of
Priwi:,,icessosr
with the
ous
Martcomkioanryeri of Lorne, was celebrated at
re
joicings.
grand banquet was given in Constantinople on
Mon ay evening by the Swan to Admiral Hornby and the
offiara of the British test. Many Turkish Ministers,
genents, and admirals ',ere also present. The Sultan, in
propost,g the health c.f men Victoria, spoke in high terms
of the se.vices rendereehY Admiral Hanby and the officers
, of the i%et, and expr,ssad hopes that the union between
I Turkey rud England vtilld become closer,

SMELFUNGIIS on FEMALE SUFFRAGE.

(In Gnaw to an inquiring Privy! )

Yes,'Sir, I do think the House did well toiling out.
the Ladies' Bill.
No, Sir, I don't object to Female Suffrage at all,
Quite the reverse. But I hate half measures. Mr.
Courtney's Bill was a half measure, Sir. It left out
the married women; the better half of Mankind.
Yes, Sir • and the better half of womankind, too—l
mean for electoral purposes.
No, Sir; not because married women are at all
better qualified to vote then single by greater experi-
ence and knowledge ot affairs—though they ought to
be. But, Sir, because protected by the ballot, a great
many of them would vote in contrariety to their hus-
bands. Does not Mr. Carlyle, Sir, affirm that the
people of this country are mostly fools? If, as such,
the men generally vote for the wrong caddiaate, their
wives, voting for the other aide, would vote for the
right one.
Yes, to be sure, Sir, although no 'wiser than their
husbands.

No, Sir; Female Suffrage would not necessarily
lead to Universal Suffrage. Legislation is seldom
logical. But the enfranchisement of all women should
be included in that of all men.
Yes, Sir; the reasons that hold for Female Suffrage
hold for Universal Suffrage. too. If none had votes
but those -who had sense and knowledge enough to
make a wise use of them, the constituencies would be
small. You would have an oligarchy, Sir, composed
of persons like you and myself. The next best thing
to that would be the largest possible constituency, in
which the majority, incapable of voting with intelli-
gence, would be subdivided into the greatest possible
number of parties and persons. Then, Sir, its nume-
rous conflicting elements, their votes being dictated by
their opposite passions and prejudices, could politically
nullify one another. Sir, the Tories refrain from
Voting for Female Suffrage only because they are biding
their time to dish the Liberals by conceding Universal
Suffrage to Democracy. In the meanwhile, Sir,
hooray for Female Political Emancipation.—Punch.

LOSING AND FINDING IN PARIS.
It might have been expected that the Exhibition
year in Paris would be a rich one for the finders of lost
articles, and the returns just issued by the Prefect
of Police fully bear out this anticipation. It must
be observed that the list issued by the bureau makes
no mention of those cases where the articles lost have
been stolen or have fallen into the hands of thieves,
although we may be pretty sure the great ma-
jority of the property dropped or mislaid shared
this unlucky fate. Excluding, however, the wholg
of this category, and counting only those things
which were brought to the deptits and retained there
to be claimed, we have still a list of most astounding
dimensions and of most heterogeneous crtents. The
amount of actual money in gold and silver and bronze
paid in to, the office amounts to about 63,000 francs,
and the value of the notes, bonds, • Shakes, and
securities for money, to no less than the extra-
ordinary • total of 984,747 francs. Gold and silver
ornaments and jewellery sufficient to furnish forth a
large jeweller's shop have been stored at the office
for months, and of watches there were alone found
and brought to the police no less than 500, almost
exactly half of which were gold and the other half
silver. The record at any rate is highly to the credit
of public honesty in Paris, although it would have
been interesting, could that have been possible, to
compare it with a list of articles lost and never heard
of again. An enormous number of the things re-
covered were found by cabmen in their carriages, and
it seems that the French practice of publicly signalis-
ing the driver's honesty under the name of an "act of
probity" is not without its effect upon the character
of the class. Probably the most astounding part of the
whole return is, however, that which gives the propor-
tion of articles claimed to those unclaimed. It appears
that of the whole number of about 22,000 articles
found, only about 12,000 were ever called for, so that
as a rule, not more than a very small percentage of
the persons who lose an article in the streets ever take
the trouble to go to the police to make any inquiries
at all about it. The world is after all more honest
than the people of the world suppose.—Globe.