The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-10-16 00:00:00

Mgt!Cantons
,11ttIlignite,
HOME, lOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

SERIOUS ACCIDENT TO THE EARL OF STAIR.—
A. very serious accident has occurred to the Right
Hon. the Earl of Stair. His I,ordsh;p, who was the
guest of Colonel Heanage, at Killochan Castle, Ayr-
shire, was shooting with • numerous party on Saturday
last, when a shot, discharged about fifty paces behind
him, accidentally lodged part of its contents in his left
shoulder and cheek, and one of the lead pellets, re.
bounding from his fowling-piece, penetrated the left
eye. Lord Stair was at once removed to Eillochan
Castle. and a telegram was sent to Glasgow for the
assistilive of Dr. Wolfe, an oculist of note in that city.
Dr. Wolfe, on his arrival, found that it would be neces-
sary to perform an operation in order to save his
Lordship from total blindnees, but as he was without I
the necessary instruments and aid for such an opera-
,tion and as no communication could be obtained with
Glasgow on the Sunday (the railway and telegraph not
working on that day), it was not until Monday fore-
noon that it could be performed. After the removal
of the eyeball • pellet was discovered in the posterior
part of the socket, showing • very narrow escape from
penetration of the brain and consequent instant death.
His Lordship's condition is still very alarming,.but as
he is in the prime of life and otherwise in robust health
it is hoped he will recover.

THE PvVIIR OF THE PENCIL—For the past
twenty-one months there has been in existence, in her
Majesty's printing-office, in London, a fund which was
set on foot in December, 1867, for the purpose of
assisting the unemployed in the parish of Poplar.
The subscription was • penny per week, and the
proceeds were d stributerf on Sundays once a fortnight,
by one of the workmen, in the shape of tickets for bread
and grocery. A final balance-sheet just submitted to the
subscribers, shows that the handsome amount of
£94 9s. 21. has been collected in this way (inclusive of
occasional donations), and that no fewer ehan 1,079
tickets, of an average value of le. sd, each, have been
given amongst some 300 or 400 different families. A
new feature in this charitable effort has been that there
(has been no expense either of management, collection,
or distribution, charged to the fund.
New OFFICI Le.—Mrs. Malaprop is still mightily
taken up with the Pope's " Economical " Council, and
reads all that the papers say about it. Her present
difficulty is a statement that "the Bishops will be re-
ceived in collective audiences, to which they will be
introduced by categories." Who, she wants to know,
are these " categories" ? Ushers, she supposes, or
Popish beadles, or something of that sort—Punch.
FRENCH JOURNALS AND ENGLISH HUDIOURIBTS.
—Mr. Punch ought to be careful what he is about, or
he may seriously degrade the character of his country.
men in the eyes of the world. Not long ego he pub-
lished a cut representing an elderly gentleman suddenly
wakened out of a nap at church by the collector of
"the offertory," who, forgetting where he was, met
the intimated demand with the magic words, "season
ticket." Last Sunday the Patrie, amid its faits divers
narrated the following anecdote :
NI. X , a rich banker of London, lives with his family do?-
lug the season in a pretty villa situated in the enrironl of
I the capital. Last Sunday, being at church surrounded by his
foalThl'preanadctlvrergrPlainotnocea bletehpesteeapt. 63111ithsselitsauen3r ewnatis
sot interrupted until towards the end of the service, and till
the moment when, with the poor box in his band, one of the
aesit pan m
ts who was akingthe collection toncbed him lightly
u ,
M. X., waking with a start, and believing
himself to be addressed by the guard of a train, murmured,
without opening ha e 3 es, "Season ticket" Worm! „ and im-
mediately fell asleep again in holy ignorance of the mistake
which he had made and the smiles which it had called to the
bps of the faithful in Ids neighbourhood.
AMERICAN TELEGRAPHS.—The first line of tele-
graph in the United States, which was between Wash-
ington and Baltimore, was laid down in 1844 ; but the
experiment was no unsuccessful that the Postmaster.
General, in his report of 1845, expressed his opinion
. that the eevenue could never be made equal to the
expenditure under any rate of charges which might be
adopted. The Western Union Company alone now
• works 52,099 miles of line, and 11:1.1,584 miles of wire,
this company having amalgamated by far the larger
portion of the telegraphic lines of the United States.
Mr. Orion, the president of this company, has issued
an elaborate report? in which he estimates the aggrm
gate for all the United States' companies as follows:
Miles of line, 73,038; miles of wire, 130,695; number
of stations, 5,029. Of his own company, he statee
that its nett earnings for the past three years have
been 8,161,645 dole., or 2,720,548 dole, per annum,
which is over si per cent. upon the capital. Its gross
receipts this year have averaged 600,000 dole. a month,
its expenses about 375,000 dole. The aggregate
amount of news delivered to the newspapers of the
United States by the lines of this company during the