The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-08-26 00:00:00

Alisallancous

ROME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.
PLAYING CARDS.—The Stamp Duty on playing
cards in the year ended the 31st of March amounted
to £13,810 18s. 9d., as appears from a document just
issued.

A CENTENARIAN. There is reported from
Stornoway the death of a woman at the age of 115
years; and it is said that the age can be authenticated.
It is noteworthy that she resided all her lifetime in a
little thatched hovel. She was never married, and
until the last few years enjoyed pretty good health,
and was able to be out of bed occasionally.—British
Medical Journal.
BIINYAN'S GRAVE IN BETNEILL.FIELDS.—The
carved stones over the grave of John Bunyan, whose
remains for nearly two hundred years past have rested
in the Bunbill-fields Nonconformist burying ground,
will, unless steps are speedily taken, become almost
unrecognisable. Although restored so lately as 1862,
owing partly to atmospheric causes, but more to the
vandalism of tourists visiting the shrine, the more
prominent portions of the sculpture are rapidly dis-
appearing.

A LADY TIGER-KILLER. A lady, Mrs.
Havelock, has just received the usual reward for
destroying a tigress on the grounds near her house, on
the Koondahs. Mrs. Havelock had noted the
proximity of the beast, and set out some poisoned
food for it. The beast ate of this, and was killed. The
Neilgherry paper observes that all the more credit is
X•IIMCL ual.rocutl
was away from the estate at the time.

MEM. FOR HARVEST TlME.—Owing to the
eTtreme heat, which has affected our American cousins
as well as ourselves, the Rhode Island farmers have
bsen mowing their grass by torchlight. This torch
system must be inconvenient enough, but to do the
work in the daytime is torcher. Any English farmer
who thinks he might find this hint useful is kindly
welcome to it. —Judy.
A WONDERFUL MIRAGE. —A curious phe-
nomenon appeared in Stanley, near Wakefield, on
Friday evening in last week, about seven o'clock, and
is described by an eye witness as follows: --Houses,
the outlines of which were wonderfully distinct; trees
and fences separating grass fields were discerned along
the western sky; in fact the reflection of a large tract
of country was seen, and remained a considerable
time; but as the sun's rays grew more feebl,,, or were
for a time obscured, so this mirage became less dis-
tinct, or almost died out, until the beams of light
again burst forth. Then as darkness came on the
whole illusion, from the horizon upwards, disappeared.

A FEMALE FIRE COMPANY.—There is a female
fire company at Wellerley College, Massachusetts, for
it is believed that, however incombustible the college
building may be, the students should be taught to put
out fires in their own homes, and be trained to presence
of mind, to familiarity with the thought of what is to
be done in case of fire, and to a full realization of the
moat important fact that any fire can be put out at the
beginning. Twenty hand pumps are distributed
throughout the building, each supplemented by six
pails filled with water. Every pump has its captain
and company of six girls, one of whom is lieutenant,
and all the companies are drilled at convenient oppor-
tunities in handling the pumps, in forming lines, and
in passing the pails. The whole organization is officered
by a superintendent and secretary. Hose companies
for the operating of the great steam fire-pump are
organized in a similar manner.

-ALARMING BOILBIt EXPLOSION.—On Monday
morning a boiler in Connection with No. 2 Pit,
Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, exploded with terrible
force and did great damage to property. The boiler
itself was thrown a distance of 500 yards on to the
Caledonian Railway, passing in its course between the
engine house and the chimney stack, and then carrying
away a portion of a house, fortunately without injury
to any of the inmates. One of the detached ends ot the
boilerlell and crushed an outhouse. There was not a
whole pane of glass in the adjacent village. At the
time of the accident a smith was in a shed doss to the
boiler, and the slight scalds and bruises he received are
the only injuries to human life which resulted from
the occurrence.

"STIR THE Son."—lf I had to preach a ser-
mon on horticulture," says Downing, '• I should take
this for my text : 'Stir the soil.'" In dry weather it
is very essential that the soil be stirred often. The
air waters the fresh dug soil much more effectually than
we can do. A man will raise more moisture with a
spade and a hoe in a day than he can pour on the earth
out of a watering-pot in a week. If the ground be
suffered to become close and compact, the cool surface
exposed to the air for the reception of moieture is
smaller, and what is deposited does not enter into the
earth far enough to be appropriated; but if the soil
be loose and porous the air enters more deeply and de-
posits its moisture beneath the surfaee. Almost any
soil in which a seed will germinate, may be made by
continued hoeing to produce a crop. Above all, cut
away every weed that appears. One year's seeding
makes seven years' weeding. The only use of weeds
Is to make a necessity of tilting the ground more fro-
quently."—A merican Paper.
•airEE GARDEN Op ENGLAND.—" Thousands of
the tourists who annually visit the western Garden of
England '—for Devonshire well deserves that nan:e—
whilst deeply
_impressed with the general loveliness of
the county, nevertheless find it difficult to explain
what it is that lends the peculiar character of sottness
and grace to the scenery. Here is the secret. The
whole county• is richly and luxuriantly clothed with
ferns. The number and variety of the most exquisite
forms of these beautiful plants to be found in Devon-
shire are equalled by those of no other county in the
United Kingdom. Devonshire is emphatically the
'paradise' of the British ferns. There they are in very
truth at home. The soil and the air are adapted to
them and they adapt then.reelves to the whnle aspect
of the place. They clothe the hill-sides and the hill-
tops: they grow in the moist depths of the valleys;
they fringe the banks of the streams; they are to be
found in the recesses of the woods; they hang from
rocks and walls and trees, and crowd into the towns
and villages, fastening themselves with sweet fami-
liarity even to the houses."—The Fern Paradise, by
Francis George Heath.
EMIGRATION STATISTICS. —The last Report
from the Board of Trade shows that the total emigra-
tion from the United Kingdom during the past year,
including British subjects, foreigners, and others whose
nationalities cannot be distinguished, amounted to
173,809 persons. Of these, 105,046 went to the United
States, 17,378 to Briti.h North America, 35,525 to
Australasia, and 15,860 to all other places. An
analysis of nationalities shows that of the total num-
ber above mentioned, 140,675 were persons of British
origin, 84.510 of whom were English, 14,686 Scotch,
and 41,449 Irish. A further appendix also shows that
Dathertiztot:sil,o4sli3 embarked at Bristol, 13 at Cardiff, 24
at four,stGriliiiiinit, 89,540 at Liverpool,
26,779 at London, 8,080 at Plymouth, 10,348 at South-
ampton, 15,070 at Glasgow, 39 at Greenock, 1,908 at
Belfast, 17,374 at Cork, and 4,112 at Londonderry.
The ship Bebington, conveying emigrants to Auckland,
New Zealand, which was reported a short time ago as
having put into Algoa Bay on account of sickness on
board, has since arrived at her destination.

INTERESTING FACT. —it is not generally
known that in the construction of the Indian Great
Trunk Railways, a good deal of the work is done by
elephants.—Judy.
THE LATEST IDEA IN DRESS. —The latest
new idea is the " classical " dress for" ladies' evening
wear." It is something worse than the trousers with
only one leg, which Punch declares women now walk
in. It is made in the most simple fashion. The trim-
ming is of the slightest. There is nothing to disturb the
graceful "classical" outline. The bodies are very low
Indeed; the trains are very far from what ladies call
full; and the sleeves are just a narrow strip of braid.
The arms, the shoulders, and the neck are quite dis-
played, and the figure in all respects is fully shown.
This is the new notion in London during the recess.
A GNATTY AFFAIR.—A gentleman writes to
say that he was stung the other day by a gnat, and the
place, instead of swelling, bled profusely. He adds
"Is not this a peculiar symptom?" We should say no,
a very gnatural one.—Pun.
PLEASURING.—Vicar (to old lady, who is
returning from a funeral) : "Well, Martha, I'm afraid
you've had a sad afternoon. It has been a long walk,
too, for you—"—Martha " Snre-ly, 'tis, Sir I Ah,
Sir, 'taint much pleasure now for me to go to funerals;
Ibe too old and full o' rheumatiz. It was very diffe-
rent when we was young—that 'twer l"--Punch.
HUSBANDS AND WIVES IN WORKHOUSES.—
Au important provision appears in the new Poor Law
Act as to husbands and wives in workhouses. It is
enacted by the 10th section that "when any two per-
sons, being husband and wife, shall be admitted into
any workhouse, and either of them shall be infirm,
sick, or disabled by any injury, or above the age of
60 years, It shall be lawful for the guardians of the
union or parish to which such workhouse shall belong
to permit in their discretion such husband and wife to
live together, and every such case shall be reported
forthwith to the Local Government Board."

SAVINGS BANKS.—An Act has just been issued
to amend the law respecting the powers and duties
vested in the barrister appointed to certify the rules
of savings banks. The duties hitherto vested in the
barrister appointed are in part now vested in other
officers of savings banks. The duties of certifying
rules and of settling disputes between the trustees and
managers of savings banks or Post-office savings banks
as to depositors are transferred to the Registrar of
Friendly Societies. The Treasury may charge a fee,
not exceeding £l, on a certificate, award, &c., which
fee is to be paid into the Exchequer.
FEMALE DOCTORS. —An Act of Parliament
has just been printed (39 and 40 Vic., c. 41) to re-
move restrictions on the granting of qualifications
for registration under the Medical Act on the ground
of sex. It enacts that "the powers of every body
entitled under the Medical Act to grant qualifications
for registration shall extend to the granting of every
qualification for registration granted by such body to
all persons, without distinction of sex, provided always
that nothing herein contained shall render compulsory
the exercise of such powers, and that no person who
but for this Act would not have been entitled to be re-
gistered shall by reason of such registration be entitled
to take any part in the government, Management, or
proceedings of the Universities or Corporations men-
tioned in the said Medical Act." The present statute is
incorporated with the Medical Act as amended by the
22nd of the Queen, c. 21.

AN OLD FAMILY. —A few weeks ago a strong
beaver was shot near Wittenberg, though none had
been seen in that neighbourhood during the last 20
years. This animal is supposed to be a descendant of
the old family of beavers which has been settled for
more than a hundred yeers in the so•called Biber-
lache, near Barby, not far from Magdeburg. Its old
ancestral grounds and buildings are carefully described
in Reichenbach's "Fauna." Beavers are certainly
growing very scarce in Germany, but a few scions of
the old families are known to survive in the Duchy of
Aiahalt, in Bavaria, and Bohemia. They are extremely
shy and reserved, and never venture out except by
night to collect food. Beaver mothers have seldom
more than twins, and as they generally die young—a
beaver of 15 is looked upon as a patriarch—it is
feared that the noble race of beavers—at least in
Europe—may soon share the fate of the Bourbons.
Beavers in Siberia. and North America supply our
market with excellent skins, but their blood is not con-
sidered so pure as that of the European beaver.

"CAVIARE TO THE GENERAL."—We rarely
meet a soldier without hearing some complaint about
the small pay he is getting. Still, we must say we
are startled by the following advertisement :

_
Wanted, a Plain Cook. Wages, £l6; all found. A good
General would suit.

I Really, such an offer is an insult to the Army, and the
Horse Guards ought to notice it. However paltry he
may deem the pay he is receiving, surely no good
General would consent to an exchange which would
make him leave the Service for the place of a plain
cook.—Punch.
THE LArrousaz OF HIS FATHERS.—A few
L.
weeks ago, the Duke of Sutherland, accompanied bY
his factor, was inspecting some railway works which
he is constructing in the neighborrhood of TrenthaM
(says the Court Circular). Coming to a gang of navvies
he inquired of his factor if there were Highlanders
:amongst them. One was pointed out to him, a fine
specimen of a Sutherland man. The Duke went to
him, shook hands with the astonished Gael, exclaiming
as he did so, " Cia Martha thu ? Dell a Ghaidlig egad
fhathasd ?" " Tha gu-be-dembh," replied the delighted
Gael "I am very glad to hear it," said the Duke,
"never forget the language of your fathers and always
mind you are a Sutherland man." From that very
hour Mac.a-Mhuiileir has grown in self-respect, and
even stature, vowing the great chief can speak Gaelic
as well as wri, ana that ha ia I,4aff. ohiv,
among men.

AN OBJECT OF SUSPICION.—Tourist in Scot-
land, who are of confirmed temperate habits, and
liable to be shocked by any appearance of excess,'
would do well to avoid Loch Drunkie—at least until
a scientific analysis of its contents has satisfied them that
there is no whiskey mingled with the water. (N. 8.1--
Loch Drunkie is not to be confounded with Loch
Brandy. Why is there no Loch Whiskey in Scot-
land ?—Punch.

MUZZLING DOGS.— The Paris Correspondent
of the Daily News says :—M, Voisin, the Prefect of
Police, has instituted a very bold reform. He has
abolished the muzzles which it has hitherto been
imperative to put upon the mouths of dogs in hot
weather, as a security against hydrophobia. Early in
the summer the usual proclamation concerning Miens
et boule dogs (so, time out of mind, ran the ordin9.nce
condemning unhappy dogs to the torture of the muzzle)
was issued. But now M. Voisin has come to the con•
elusion that the muzzle, illusory as a precaution, tends
to drive dogs mad, and he no longer insists upon it.
But the police are ordered to seize every dog at large
not hearing a collar on which the owner's name is
legibly engraved. This rule can only protect the publics
against being bitten in so far as it tends to diminish the
number of dogs, which, since the last dog was eaten
during the siege famine, has increased in Paris in an
astonishing ratio, and that notwithstanding a tax, the
enforcement of which I take to be the principal mean-
ing of the collar.

WATERING HORSES. Mr. B. Cartledge,
member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons,
writes to The Times from Sheffield :—" Several years
ago you did me the honour of inserting in The Times a
letter on 'Watering Horses.' In that letter I urged
the great necessity of allowing an unlimited supply of
water to these animals, and I alluded to the very mis-
taken notion among grooms and others having the
control of horses that water ad laitum was injurious.
While grooms and others drink without stint them-
selves, they profess to know when a horse has drunk
sufficient, and so take away the pail before his natural
wants are half satisfied. Horses will not drink to ex-
cess if watered frequently, and in their case drinking
does no harm. The present oppressively hot weather
has again suggested my asking to be allowed to draw
attention to ithis matter."—Noticing the above "A
Horse Lover" also writes to The Times
Apropos of 31r. Cartledge's remarks in The Times, I
wish to add my testimony as regards the necessity of water-
ing horses sufficiently. For 20 years we have kept in our
stables an average of ten horses. We have never known
a day's illness among them. Several are over Se, and
capable of any amount of work. We attribute this entirelY
to my daily visit to the stable, when I always firm either a
trough or pail full of water within reach of each horse. By
this means I know that at least once a day they are able f ally
to quench their thirst. I never had dealings with a coachman
who did not think it a risk to let his horses have more than
a modicum of water. I would just add that we have not
such a thing as a bearing rein in our harness-room, and I
always drive without wiLkers. I should be greatly obliged
if you would insert these few lines."
" YOUNG BENGAL."—A correspondent writes
to the Pall Mall Gazette :—" Young Bengal" is apt to
boast of its acquirements in the direction of European
literature, and is especially proud of its skill and
potency in drawing from "the well of English pure
and undefiled." There can be no doubt that the Cal-
cutta University annually bestows numerous B.A.
and M.A. degrees upon Bengali students who have a
marvellous talent of repeating and adapting phrases
from our most eloquent writers, whether in prose or
verse, but especially in the latter; though, when they
are called upon to arrange their own ideas in homely
English, they utterly and entirely fail to write even
common sense. At this moment I have lying before
me a letter addressed by an educated Bengali youth to a
deputy-commissioner, asking for employment, with an
evidently complacent faith in his peculiar qualifications
for serving the Government. It rune as follows :
I, the student entrance class of the school, under-
signed, most respectfully beg to offer myself a
Candidate for a Service under your Mortified feeling,
which I have a clear hope, and entirely out of secret
errors in my mind, will not fail to enlist my name.
It will not be out ox its place to add here regarding my
qualification that I appeared last year in the university
examination. Let me Conclude, adding that if Ibe
so fortunate as to have the post for I hope, I will not
fail to give you very satisfaction in the faithful die.
char.Te of the duties that will confer upon me."

_
TITE EX-EMPRESS CHARLoTTE.--Nme year
ago Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, closed his brief
reign ii the courtyard of Queretaro, where be was shut
by entimand of the late President Juivez, and ever
since his widow, the ex-Empress Charlotte, Las been
a prey to acute melanchol,a—the paroxysms of which,
however, were at first followed by Intervale of partial
return to reason. In these she was allowed to amuse
herself—if amusement be the word for an occupation
which turned upon the deepest tragedy—in writing the
experiences of her hustand and herself in their few
months' sojourn in Mexico. Thi's she has long aban-
doned, atid in the cbat( ah of L seken, where she is under
strict medical Surveil.lauce, she has relapsed into con-
firmed dementia, whioh her phys'c'aus have given up
all hope of coring. As in similar cases, she recurs to
the predilections of childhood, one of which was a
passion for Bowers, and, Odhelia-like, she spends moss
of her time over them, feeding as they oo her once
lively but now diseased imagination. Their attraction
for her was touchinaly manifested the other day.
Eliding the watch of their attendants, she had fled
from the castle, but when overtaken it was found
impossible to induce her to return, except by the use
of means which would certainly have proved hurtful.
One of her physicians bethought himself of her morbid
affection for flowers, and by strewing them from time
to time before her she was gradually lured on her waY
back to the chlteau where a closer surveillance hay
since been placed over her.—Lancet.