The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-07-26 00:00:00

EGYPT AND lail SOITDAN.

The Khedive has just received a telegram from
the Governor of Dongola, announcing the arrival there
of a messenger with a letter from General Gordon,
duly signed and sealed, dated Khartoum, June 22,
and addressed to the Governor. The letter in ques-
tion states that Khartoum and Sennaar are in a per-
fect state of defence, and adds: "The bearer of the
letter, Mahomet. Achmet, will give you news about
me; give him, also, your news for me. Let
me know at onoe whereabouts are the troops which
are being sent to relieve me, and what is their
number. I have here at Khartoum 8000 men with
me. The Nile is rising very high. Give the bearer
100 dela." Some doubts are expressed as to the
authenticity of the story, owing to the conduct of the
Mudir.

An emissary of the Mandi, accompanied by five
men, has appeared during the past few days between
Korosko and Assouan. Half a squadron of cavalry,
which left Assouan on Saturday to march to Wady
Haifa, received orders to endeavour to capture the
emissary. Two companies and some guns of position
are going to reinforce Wady klalfa and Korosko.
The troops have received orders to consider themselves
on active duty in the fiold.__

A
AN ACTION FOR BREACH 0 -
PROAISE.
At Leeds on Saturday, Mr. E. Gray, Under-Sheriff,
and a jury were engaged assessing damages in an
action for breach of promise to marry brought by
Rachel Ann Moss, daughter of a farmer at Pudsey,
against Walter Jowett, schoolmaster of Pateley-
bridge. The defendant is head master of Parkes
Endowed School, Pateley-bridge, being 26 years of
age, and the plaintiff is about a year his junior. In
1876 the parties became acquainted, their friendship
culminating in a recognised engagement which
was energetically prosecuted on both sides until
Eater, 1882, when the defendant's love began
to grow cool. Explanations were demanded,
and the defendant ungallantly accused the plaintiff of
falsehood and deception, ultimately forsaking her
altogether, and refusing to consider any explanation
which she proffered. Mr. Mellor, who appeared for
the defence, addressing the jury in mitigation of
damages, denied that the defendant had acted dis-
honestly or disgracefully. Like silly young fools, he
said, they became engaged at the early age of sixteen
or seventeen, and like boys and girls they at first
thought it nice to have a sweetheart. They made a
mistake, and discovered that there was no love between
them existing afterwards, and so they parted. The
jury awarded the plaintiff .£lOO damages.
. .

THE PROPOSED EXPEDITION TO '
KHARTOUM.
A train of narrow gauge trucks and passenger ear-
singes for the proposed railway across the desert
between the Red Sea and Berber are in course of
shipment at the Royal Arsenal for Souakina. The
passenger trucks will each carry twelve soldiers, and
a brakeman on a platform in rear. They are lightly
built, with tilt covers, and are open at the sides, but
have stout blinds of oiled canvas on rollers for use if
necessary. Although the under carriage is fitted to
the narrow gauge of eighteen inches, the body of the
vehicle is six feet wide, and the seats are balanced
over the wheels like those of an outside car. The
goods trucks are longer, but not as wide as the
passenger carriages, and are more numerous.
With them are being sent a further con-
signment of the railway iron, and a large
quantity of timber. Meanwhile, the hired
steamer Dudluce, just returned from Souakim,
is being reloaded with ordnance and commis-
sariat stores, and a considerable freight of
medical necessaries. She has drawn from the reserves
in the dockyard at Woolwich more than two million .
pounds of preserved meat and other provisions for
the men forming the proposed expation, together
with a supply of compressed forage for the horses. In
front of the Ordnance Store Office specimens of the
inaia-rubber tanks which are to be used for holding
water in the desert have been set up and filled for in-
spection. One kind is completely enclosed, as a pro- .
tection against contamination and evaporation, but the
-1
others are open at the top. They are eupported by
lashings to ordinary picket posts, and ago likely to •$i
prove very serviceable in the desert. ,
, 9.k e" • ^
' l'l

,
THE AGRICULTURAL OUTLOOIi.
In an article under the above heading the Daily
Telegraph says :
All reports which have come to hand during the
past week from every quarter of the kingdom repre-
sent wheat-fields as likely to yield bettor than they ~
have done for the past ten years. There was a quiet,
~41
sultry period for the blooming, and just the kind of '1
weather the wheat plant thrives best with for the
germs to set well in the heads for the kearning. The
brightness of the fields shows very even ripening, with '
little or no blight_ or mildew, and throughout the :
1
southern half of England there are very confident
anticipations of the grain yielding well according '
to straw or the thickness of plant in the ground.
In the clay soils there will be defalcations on this
score, but even heavy - land farms that are under
good management may be expected to give a fal. ,
average. High farming will this season yield the
most golden returns, so far as the grain crops are
concerned, and, as a matter of course, it always ...
answers best for root and green produce. Unfortu-
nately, however, a large proportion of farms in some
districts have been so impoverished by niggardly
wretched management since the depression set in that
the wheat plants in the field appears thin in the ,
ground, attributable undoubtedly to there having been
no tillering or luxuriant growth in the spring, which
would have been the case had more fertility been i I
imparted. Barley has become even of more import-
ance than wheat in recent years, and it must be ad- '
mitted that the drought in June had an injurious
effect on the prospects of the crop wherever it had
been sown late. A month ago many fields exhibited . 7
plants so short in straw as they were shooting into i
ear that the ground was scarcely hidden by the I
foliage. The abundant rains which have since fallen
proved the salvation of these late-sown fields, except :
where, through impoverishment, the wild poppy had t
acquired complete possession of the situation. In all ,
cases where the crop was put in early, with sufficient '
fertility in the soil for good development, prospects
are bright, with indications of the yield of barley
being likely to be over an average. Reports are also
better respecting oats since the rains, which, having
been accompanied with heat and alternated with
abundance of sun, proved of injury to nothing
except the hay crop. Great difficulties have
been experienced in drying grass during the past :
fertnight, or rather in taking it free of the damp- s
1
ness imparted through the frequency of showers
falling. It has just been the kind of weather for hay '
spoiling in making, which could only be prevented by A
unremitting care and assiduous exertions in cocking 1
the drying grass while yet green, and keeping it as
little exposed on the land as possible. Fortunate are
those who cut down their grass, however light, in the
magnificent weather for haymaking experienced in A
June. They not only secured what they had in, :
capital condition and of high-class quality, but have .
now second crops coming speedily forward, which in
about another week or fortnight will be fit fora second
cut or to feed, as may be most convenient and pro-
fitable. The same rains which have proved so disas-
trous to fodder for hay have caused grass to grow so
rapidly that there are already full bites for cattle
in fields that were totally bare only a fortnight
since. We shall hear no more of shortness of
keep far dairy cows and razing stock owing to these
abundant July rains, which in many places have been
quite of a tropical character, causing everything green
to respond with a luxuriance not often witnessed in .
this country. They have also not merely redeemed
the turnip crop from failure but imparted to the
prospect such a halo of brightness that antieipations I
may be fairly entertained that it will turn out even
better than last year. Since the rains came there have k
been few complaints of loss of plant, and.the rows of
late sown have not only a satisfactorily but highly '
promising appearance. With this gratifying change "*
I
in the situation, who can doubt that at the '
approaching autumn sheep fairs the late de- -
preciation in values will be fully recovered. At -"
the Sutton lamb fair—the largest in the East of -
England—which took place about a week since, '-
over 9500 sheep were penned, and although there was
a depreciation from the rates of last year, most of-the
animals changed owners, and a very good trade was
reported. It was then rather too early for the market
to be fully influenced by present improved keep
prospects, but when the grass grows so rapidly as it
does now, all farmers who have the means will be
desirous to buy more stock to consume it. Many,
however, will be compelled to await the ripening of
their grain crops ere they can do this, and in the event
of the grand prospects of late-sown turnips continuing,
their will be a great run after steam-thrashing mnrhines
during harvest and immediately afterwards, and the
grain may be rapidly sold and converted to specie, to
be made use of for the purchase of sheep or grane
cattle. . ,

A little girl, on hearing her mother say that she
intended to go to a ball, and have her dress trimmed
with bugles," innocently inquired if the bugles would
blow while she danced. "Oh, no," said the mother,
"but your father will blow me up when he disccirer3
I h_av_k;

:,_-_.,--_-,','.--1---‘,:i.t.P...'-,'•

-