The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-01 00:00:00

Our Yoabon Comspoulttnt.

rVit deern it right to state that we do not at nil times
hientify ourselves with our correspondent's opinions.]

"Deeper and deeper " becomes the sorrow that
weighs upon the palls: mind as the awful atrocities of
war continue and increase. Mingled with this feeling
there is a hope that peace may he arranged—a fault
Lope, it is true, but Heaven grant that that Lope may
beoome brighter and stronger till the reality of peace
is assured. At the time of writing, however,
there is a great cleat of sorrow expressed that the mis-
sion of M. Jules Fevre has failed, and it is thought that
M. Thienewill also fail. Meanwhile, the news of actual
warfare is of the gloomiest. The fall of Toul ; Stras-
bourg, where 200 pore no, mostly women, have been
burnt owing to the theatre being fired by • shell,
being about to succumb; Mete in an awful state and
unable much longer to hold out; the Prussians at
Fontainebleau, at Versaiies, and other historic places ;
Nantes cannonaded, and two villages burnt; IPenen,l
Havre, Toulouse, Bayonne, and many other towns in I
a state of the utmost alarm; and Paris enduring the
horrors of a siege, and said to be demoralised and die.
OrgaLlt. iv in itself— Corse sod many ot her horrible items
of war news form the staple of our intelligenoe, to the
exclusion of almost all other news. So rapid is the
march of events that no one can say what may be the
aspect of affairs even an hour or two hence, but I
sincerely trust that I shall soon have to record that the
war is ended.

Subecriptions at the rate of about f:l0,000 a-day tee
pouring into the ex ffers of the National Society for the
Sick and Wounded, and nearly a quarter of • million
of money has thus been rsised.We English are very fond
of overdoing things when the fit seizes us, but there is
no need to fear that this good work will be overdone.
The demands of the victims of war are enormous, and
the number of victims tends rather to increase than
diminish, fresh victims being added to their wounded
brethrth more rapidly than the wounded die ed. I
have heard people seriously argue that this aid to the
nick and wounded is false sentiment, bad policy, and so
on; that the more horrible war is made the less the
world is likely to have of it. Tnere is a grain of truth
in this, but it is not the whole truth, and it is very
hardthearted philosophy. These w Irks of charity and
mercy form the groundwork for the only pleasant
passages in the current history of this awful war, and
they will produce good fruit, it is to be hoped, after
the war is over. True charity, like mercy,

" Droppeth 911 ste gentle rain from heaven
l'pon the place beneath . It is twice Linseed,
It bleueth him that gives and him that team"
But it is a sorrowful thought that, whilst so much is being
done to succour the sick and wounded, there is a heart-
sickness that no money can relieve, and wounds that
no love and sympathy can beat. Nothing can com-
pensate for the toes of those husbanls and fathers who
have been shot down for glory," in a quarrel that
they did not raise and could not stop; and what shall
compensate for the ravaged fields, the ruined homes,
the burned harvests, the pillared househuld treasures
that this cruel war has brought about? No tongue
can tell where or when its effects will cease, as no pen
can describe its full horrors now that the war rages
Though France is excluded front the plane of tourists,
Germauy may still enter into their calculations, and
during, the fineweather we have recently had numbers
of people have gone over there by ateamer to Rotterdam
mad Artwerp. Germany. in fact, is quite free from
the horrors of war actually waged on their territory,
though its baleful influence is, of coerse, felt throughout
the country. Italy, Belgium, Holland, and Switzer-
land are also open to tourists, and many rersons have
gone, but the continental tourist season this year will
probably prove the woret in the memory of the oldest
parent or kellner of the oldest-established hotel in
Europe. On the other hand, the hotels in Great
Britain and Ireland ought to be, and I believe are.
doing well, The disturbed state of the Continent has',
of course, exerted a marked effect, and it is only the
snore adventurous spirits who have determined to have
a continental trip this amumn ; the natural reeult being
that the watering-places of England, the lochs and
moors of Seotland, the lakes of Ireland, and the
mountains of Wales have been and are patronised to
an unwonted extent. And then we have large numbers
of French visitors, who seem to have turned their pro-
perty into ready money and come over here to invest
it and spend it. I fancy the number of such
persons is greater than is generally thought.
But it is sad to think that a for larger
number have come over here under very different
circumstances. It is no exaggeration to say that there
are many, many thousauds of French refueesi in
London alone—veritable refugees who have flown from
their country to escape the borers of devastating war.
From l'aris, from Has-re, from Raven, from Cherbourg,
and many other town', whole families have flown to the
hospitable. (to those who can pay for "hospitality ")
shores of England. Hundreds of people under such
circumstances have I recently seen. At the Waterloo,
Charing Cross, and London Bridge stations there have
been excitirgtnd painful scenes. French people—men,
women and coildren—have arrived, and have been at
once made to feel the bitterness of being among
stranzers. Knowing how great would be the exodus
from France, one would have thought that a few inter.
preterit and commissionaires speaking French would
have been provided ; bue instead of this, French people
arriving, unable to speak English, have been at the
mercy of hotel touters and capacious cabmen. Su large
has been this French invasion that it is not surprising
that the fereien hoteLe about Leicestetesenare, Regent-
street, and Soho—hotels of all sorts, some t 4 them were
coif ce-ahope—are filled with involuntary patrons.
There are, of course, people of all classes, but
the great majurity (I have conversed with
numbers of them) appear to be people who had some-
lit the Cape mail, which arrived in London. on Monday
thing to lose, and have brought that something with several parcels of diamonds were brought, and the private
them. The pnoreet classes, absolutely ruined by the coon ml IVlVieell Are Very I rhi as mgarda the
animation these diegiveries have created in the colony. At
war, have not been able to come. We have an inva- present the number of explorers is about 1,500 and erne:le:me
son of poor Germans also—people who have been thus far seems to show an average return for their labour of
compelled to come, who have scraped together a little,
esitep.ei,e.tleeds :01•01.5sir tyth, tittothoeoxinufluiTtilthadistricit. wsas,o
but very little money, and who, on that little will sub- mUes from Cape Town and rather leas from Natal, and the
shit • long time—who will get some employment, ob- community will have to constitute its own form of Govern-
ment. There is. however, a Prussian Protestant mbraionary
tain a good living, and never go back. on the spot, who appears to collet a kind of export tax on
The gentlemen composing the Social Science Con- Use authority of acme ol the local chiefs
tress, like the members of the British Association. may
meet and talk over matters of great 'meal and seine :
tific interest, but such discnissione fall very flatly just
now upon the public ear. So to speak, we have eyes
and ears for nothing but the war. It serlously
affects commerce, retail trade, art, lit-rature, and
sc'ence ; in fact, it has a universally depressing
effect. The present is a bad time for men with
grievances to complain of, with theme, I to "venti-
late," or hobbies to ride. Scarcely any r;nblic topic
hilt the war excitee any interest, and it is a private
topic, too. One noticeable effect is that newspapers
are more widely circulated and more read than ever,
and it is worth noting that especially amongst women is
tiewnpaper-reading spreading. The politics of the wan
they do not profess to understand (end many of us who
do profess to understand the political canoes and bear- ,
inga of the war know very little about them), but the
narrative of bloodshed and devastation they do tender- '
stand as well as the cleverest of ua, and feel the
horrors of warfare more acutely than most of ne.
Most persons who have read the evidence in the
" baby Laming case' must sgree with the verdict of
the jury, who, after the summing up of Lord Chief
Baron Kelly, could Lave scarcely any option in decid-
ing between guilty and not guilty. Perhaps, however,
the majority of people must have been startled
at finding the unhappy woman sentenced to death—a
sentence all the more remarkable when compared with
that of eighteen menthe' imprisonment on the other
accused. Same readers can see very little difference in
the wrong severally committed by the two women ; and
that one ahould have a lighter sentence than she deserves
(according to the Lord Chief Baren'e statement) be-
cause RO terrible an example is to be made of the other, I
will be generally considered perhaps rather etomalone.
The condemned wowau,however, will not he hanged—
that is pretty certain. Whether she deserves it or
me may be matter of opinion, but in all probabifity
she will be doomed to buffer the in some respects
inure horrible puniehniere of penal servitude for life.
Toe Post office authorities air preparing for a great
accession of work on and from the Ist of October,
when the new arrangements take effete. The new
post-card will perhaps agreeably surprise most people
when they see it for the first time. It is aleont .11
inches by :;,, which give ° ample room to write (at tue
back) a letter of " a pretty considerable bigness." Yon
might break a =WEI heart, or put him into a delirium
of joy, by employing your pen soil ink on that amount
of space.

THE BRAVE 8AP...8.1dt e."—The North GLYfird
Co vefp.,ndt,/ gives a (iceman version of the massacre
at B acilles, which is simply a resort to the old ex-
iled 'of making victica and perpetrator ebangesidee
aap :
" are are now in. position to Inform our reader* how the
bar _dog of the village f &none's, really took piece. Poring
the °Atte of Sider, eh; lit ti.;‘ e o'clock in the s'tern.
whfle the artillery tiro wits raging on both aides, some
hava•uni treorvi were marching past the village, when end.
denly 01 ustuket•ainds were aimed at them from
a (mow The Bavarians, who had been virtues of similar
treachery at Weisseuburg, Loaned Intel:, broke the door onen.
hut ttte,lo.3:ii.:g .Ilaghille hail tied. the house was set on
flee, awl the inhahitante api nod is regular fusillade on Ins
i•ermme from every window. At six o'clock the whole
villag; wet. In flames. Our 30;diere tell frightful stories of
the ferocity of the people. Men an( worofaisalieiii
maseacrire e,UOiili Bavarian soldiers In the street, and
were t 0 1,0 tern itftio.; ti-in op and throulno them into thr
earn, i Tb. village was deetro3ed, bet comparatively few of
the Inbabitents perished. and we Pre serimed by an eye-
wiliness. that French. or even English troop*, would have
trterminuted the whole murderous population
The smell et charred flesh, of which the Duke do Melaniee
speaks In his letter, came moat probably from the bodies of
our brave liavarian brothers !'