The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-08-02 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

On Saturday evening, as the carriage of King
Alfonso was passing through the Calls de Los Tragineros at
Madrid, an old woman throws stone at the vehicle. She has
been certified by the medical men to be of unsound mind.

It is proposed to hold an ecclesiastical art exhibition
in the Royal Albert Hall during May and June next year,
open to British and foreign art.

A meeting convened by the Anti-Flogging League
was held n Tuesday evening at the Memorial Hall,
Farringdon-street, London, to protest against the continu-
ance of flogging in the army and navy. Mr. A. J. Otway,
M.P., presided, and among the speakers were several mem-
bers of Parliament, and resolutions were adopted calling for
the aboliti-n of the cat, and declaring its use to be a viola-
tion of the legal equality among men which was a funda-
mental principle of British justice
An alteration in the size and shape of photographs
has now been made and a consequent revolution in the
photographic-album trade may be looked for. The new
pictures are of similar width to the cartes-de-vlsites, but are
greatly elongated, and as pictures are very effective. They
are becoming very fashionable.—Court Journal.

A lithographed newspaper' published in a Vienna
mad-house, is contributed to by the inmates.

At a recent meeting of the Governors of the Chelsea
Hospital for Women. the Earl of St Germans (the President)
received, at the hands of the Rev. Canon Fleming (one of
the Board of Management), an anonymous donation of
£l.ouo towards provioing furniture for the new hospital.
There are two vacant thrones on the West African
Coast—those of New and Old Calabar—the voidance in each
case having been caused by death. A number of petty
chiefs are striving for the supremacy in both places, the
result being much quarrelling and shedding of blood and the
loss of many lives, but when the last steamer left the coast
none of the combatants had succeeded in making good his
claim to the allegiance of his fellow chiefs.
The Peruvian Minister to the United States has
received the following cablegram from the Peruvian
Minister for Foreign Affairs :—" The Huascar has entered
the blockaded port of Iquique. She fought the Chilian
squadron for two hours, leaving hors de combat the Cimino
and Abtas. The Haascar sustained no damage."
A young man named Bird, of Coventry, died on
Tuesday from injuries received while riding in a bicycle nomrn
petition on the Midland Counties Bicycle Grounds in that
town. It seems that while Bird was running in the fourth
heat of a bicycle race on Saturday, he and another came into
collision. He was thrown violently to the ground, became
unconscious, and lingered in great agony until next day. He
leaves a wife and two children.

Hospital treatment is evidently appreciated in
Russia, for two-thirds of the sick persons throughout the
Empire in 1877 went into hospital, and only one third were
attended at home. Accordingly the existing hospital ac-
commodation Las been found totally insufficient, even In
ordinary times, much less In the event of any epidemic, and
the establishment of fresh buildings is being earnestly sought
after.

The Earl of Egmont has intimated to his farmers
tenants on the Cowdray estate, Sussex, a remission on lin
half-year's rent due Lady-day last of 10 to 25 per cent.,
according to the nature of the holding, certain strong lands
having suffered more than lighter soils.

Lord Derby, in a letter read at a meeting of the
committee of the Anti-Flogging League, says he does not
think that the punishment of flogging in the army can or
ought to be maintained after all that has passed, but that it
Is useleas to attempt to do away with it by action in the
House of Lords, and that the question would have to stand
over to a new Parliament.

According to tho American papers, a striking cure
has been effected by Dr. W. B. Neftel, of New York, the
patient being a lady, aged 63, who had become blind in con-
sequence of cataract. In regard to the modus operandi, we
are only told that electricity was repeatedly applied in
vicinity to the affected organ.—Electrician.
At the afternoon service of the Exetor Cathedral on
Sunday the infant son of the Bishop of the Diocese was
baptised in the name of Frederick Charles. The Bishop
himself performed the ceremony, the eporsors being Lord
Frederick Cavendilh (who was represented by the By.
Chancellor Harrington, as proxy). the Rev. Canon Lawson,
and Miss Temple, sister of the Bishop.

The seventeenth centenary of the Church of St.
Peter•npon-Cornhill, London, was celebrated on Monday.
According to a venerable tradition it was founded in 179.

An 'Old Sportsman," in a letter to The Times on
the grouse prospects, says :—" From every important dis-
trict in Scotland—indeed, perhaps from every one without
exception—the reports assure us of a great grousing season,
which is all the more gratifying as it gives a little bit of
blue sky in the midst of all this gloomy commercial and
financial weather."

There were 52 British and foreign wrecks reported
cluing the past week, making a total of 963 for the present
year, or an increase of 95 as compared with the corresponding
period of last year. The approximate value of property lost
Was £400,000, Including British £320,000.

The Speaker of the House of Commons, in address-
ing a gathering of farmers on his Glynde estate on Saturday,
warned them against looking to I'4rllament for relief from
the present agricultural depression ow supposing that the
price of articles produced by them will be raised by taxation
to the detriment of the population generally,

- -
A most complete system of torpedo defence for the
principal Indian seaports has been drawn up by Captain
Albany Featherstonhaugb, R.E , and a large supply of sub-
marine engines will shortly be despatched to India to be
stored in case of emergency.

A well-knawn actor of San Francisco was recently
travelling in Nevada, when the coach was halted by "road
agents," and the passengers were all plundered While our
hero was standing with his hauds in the air, and a masked
highwayman was benevolently relieving his almost destitute
pockets, he was recognised by another of the gang, who had
probably witnessed his artistic performance of the heavy
villain of Virginia City. "Hello, old Let-us-dissemble," said
the jolly knight of the double-barrelled shot gun, "don't be
alarmed; this is only a stage robbery."

Or. Moesta, the geologist, has docuvered the re.
mains of an oak forest at a depth of 7ft or Bft. near Roten-
burg. The number of well-preserved trunks as enormous;
one of them is 18 metres long and 1 metre and a half to
diameter. This bog oak will be used for carving.
On Sunday evening the members of the Sunday
Society visited the Grosvenor Gallery, London which was
again placed at their disposal by Sir Coutts Lindsay. The
duors were opened at six o'clock, and between that hour and
half-past eight upwards of 300 ladies and gentlemen had
entered and inspected the various works of art which
.form
this 3ear's collection.

A violent hurricane has occurred at Trieste, by
which twenty-three vessels were damaged and one sank.
Several lives are said to have been lost.

Sir Francis Truscott, Master of the Stationers'
Company, in presiding at the distribution of prizes awarded
to the successful students at the Stationers' School, founded
for the education of the sons of freemen and liverymen,
said the school bad not yet been established twenty
years, but it had done great things, and it had turned out
bays that were now doing well. Ile hoped the boys, when
they left school, would not despise trade and commerce, as
It was that which had made England what it was.

The Kremlin at Moscow was set on tire in broad day-
light on the 19th, a wooden staircase having been saturated
with petroleum (says the Correspondent of The Times.) In
five hears the flames were extinguished, but the damage is
considerable. Red flags were displayed on the church
towers the tocsin was sounded, and the whole population
hurried to the rescue, but the Palace was only saved by great
exertions.

A meeting of London engineers, composed both of
men at work and on strike, was held in London on Satur-
day evening. The secretary to the executive committee
presented the twenty-third weekly balance-sheet, and read a
statement which expressed regret that, in consequence of
the diminished subscriptions, the reduction hi strike pay
had to be continued, but the committee were determined to
fight the struggle out "to the bitter end." The meeting,
after some discussion about emigration, resolved with accla-
mation to continue the struggle.

Mr. James Ashbury, M,P., left Liverpool on
Saturday by the mail steamer Corisco, bound for Bonny, on
the West Coast of Africa Ells yacht Iberia, a yawl of 90
tons, left Cowes on the litn inst. for Bonny, and, on joining
her, Mr. Ashbury proposes to sail in her southward down
the coast, about 400 or 500 miles, thence heading westward
for St. Helena and Ascension, the mouth of the Amazon,
Demerara, and all the West India Islands.

A movement for erecting a statue to John Knox is
heiog set on foot in Edinburgh. The late Dr. David Laing,
Editor of "Knox's Works," bequeathed a legacy of £lOO to
the fund, and promises of subscriptions from other sources
have been made. No statue of the illustrious reformer
exists in the northern capital, although In Stirling his eitlg7
stands on the rock, while a colossal statue croaus the
summit of the Glasgow Necropolis,

The Earl of Shaftesbury in presiding at a ru_estini
of the Society for Promoting Legislation for the Control and
Cure of Habitual Drunkards, said they were about to enter
upon the work the Legislature had put in their hands. The
Habitual Drunkards Bill was carried as an experiment, with
a view to see if in any degree the enormous evil of drink
could be reduced, he did not understand that they were
going to found institutions of their own, but to bring about
the establishment of model institutions for Imitations. It
was a grand work in which they were engaged, and he be-
lieved there were thousands who would avail themselves of
the means of cure.

Napoleon the Third's Life of Cmsar is at last to be
completed by Colonel Stoffel, who for the past three months
has been travelling about Italy to collect the necessary
materials, considerable assistance being rendered by the
King of Italy.

German capitalists have petitioned the Govern-
ment for permission to construct an electric railway in
Berlin.

Americans manage to invent odd expressions. The
other day a young American lady was at a London ball.
Dancing heated her. "1 feel a little dewy," the said to her
partner, as she wiped the perspiration from her brows.
Up to the 28th cnly 33 Public Acts have received
the Royal assent.
-

Sleeping cars are to he put on all direct trains from
Paris to Turiu, and from Turin to all the chief cities of Italy,
beginning with Rome. •
The ralnacrantz mitrailleuse, or machine gun, with
which a long series of experiments have recently been
carried out in England with very satisfactory results, has
also been adopted in Russia as a weapon for armament of
ironclads against attacks by torpedo boats.
The Maidstone Journal says that the hop plantations
are beginning to manifest signs of improvement, the weather
of the past few days having been more settled, less rain fall-
ing, with several hours of sunshine.

Lord C. Paget distributed the prizes to the success-
ful students of the City of London College for Ladies)m
Saturday. He expressed his satisfaction that so much pro-
gress had of late years been made in the higher education of
women, that now, in that respect, England stands at the
head of European nations. He admitted, however, that we
are still behind the United States.

It is now calculated that the Turkish war coat
Russia £150,000,000 sterling, and the loss of 200,000 men.

The army in Germany is now about to be made in-
dependent of Parliamentary control. Certain reforms are
being matured at present; but toe most remarkable of these
is, that the eatimates are to be framed once for all as a stand-
ing charge on the Exchequer, and are not to be renewed and
voted upon afresh every year.

According to a return published in 1878, twenty-two
thousand livts were lost by snake bites in India in the pre-
vious year

The monster Canadian cheese recently exhibited at
Kilburn has been cut up and distributed to a favoured few
of the Press. There were, it will be recollected, two of
these colossal specimens of dairy produce, each weighing
three quarters of a ton. They were cut by electricity.

The contest over the Tower High Level Bridge Bill
(London) has been the most costly Parliamentary struggle
of modern times. The expenses incurred amount to some-
thing like £60,000, and the whole of this sum will fall on the
ratepayers of the Metropolis.

A telegram from Lloyd's agent at Valparaiso, dated
July 26, reports the loss of the Pacific Steam Navigation
Company's Royal Mail steamer Illimani on the Island of
Mocha. All the passengers and crew were saved. The
Illimant was a large iron screw steamer of over 4,000 tons
burden, and was built on the Clyde in 1873. She left Liver-
pool on Jane 11 for Valpariso.

A proposal has been made to hold, in the month of
September, at the Agricultural Hall, London, an exhibition
of the machinery, &c., employed in brewing, malting, and
distilling, and in the manufacture of wines, aerated waters,
&c., and of the various materials used therein both by Eng-
lish and foreign firms.

The London Gazette of Tuesday publishes a long list
of honours and promotions as the result of the close of the
Afghan war. Major Cavagnari is to be made a K.C.8., and
a like hori.ur is to be conferred on Generals Stewart,
Browne, Maude, Biddulph, Roberts, and Lumsden. The
Order of the Star of India is to be given to the Khan of
Khelat and many others

About 1,400 colliers are out of work in the Dron-
field and Unstone districts' owing to their refusal to accede
to a proposed reduction of wages to the extent of 10 per
cent. The men have issued a mrcular. appealing to their
neighbours in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire to as-
sist them during the lockout, on the ground that if the de-
mand was agreed to a general reduction in the other dis-
tricts would follow. The masters sav that it is impossible to
keep the pits open at the oltt rate of wages except at a loss.

From Memphis it is reported that on Saturday and
Sunday there were 27 eases of yellow fever and 12 deaths.
On Sunday morning there were three new cases. The total
number of deaths in Memphis during the last week was 71-
34 from yellow fever and 10 from malarial fever. One death
from yellow fever is reported at New Orleans.

At Katkoff, a little thriving town on the Dnieper,
17 houses and some bales of wool have been destroyed by
tire.

An inquest has been held at St. Thomas's Hospital,
London, touching the death of Mr. Thomas Proud, who
came by his death in a singular manner. The deceased,
who for many years past carried on business as a coal mer-
chant in Lambeth, a short time back in stepping from his
front door fell and hurt his left wrist, which gradually got
worse till he died. The jury returned a verdict of "Acci-
dental death."

Mr. W. H. Smith, M.P., in distributing the prizes
to the cadets on board the training ship Worcester, advised,
them as sailors and officers to hivariably do their duty, look-
ing forward to that help which was always at hand. Doubt-
less there was a great deal that was disagreeable in duty,
but In neglecting it conscience would make the result much
more disagreeable. Without brag, there were no sailors
like English sailors, and no boys took so readily to the
water.

A Russian physician, M. Malarevsky, struck by
the prevalence of shortsightedness among literary men, pro-
poses that books should be printed in white ink on black
paper, and he has made experiments with fifty persons
which tend to confirm his view.

About 100 peasants are exploring for the treasure of
Ivan the Terrible, burled according to an old document, in a
wood between Solowizy and Borzy. in the province of
Smolensk. Two gold horseshoes have been found, but a
gold cross weighing 33 kilogrammes and sacks full of coin to
the value of 49,000,000 roubles have yet to be discovered.
The electors of the United Kingdom form 9 per
cent of the whole population. Taking the members of the
House of Commons as numbering 650, there is consequently
one member to 52,300 of the population, and on the average
4,616 electors to each member. The number of electors since
the last general election in 1874 has increased a quarter of a
million. In that year there were 2,749,000 electors, or nearly
Si per cent, of the whole population, there being one mem-
ber to 49,200 people, and an average of 4,230 electors to each
member.

Lord Derby, who has acted as umpire in the
Durham coal owners' case, has awarded a further reduction
of 11 per cent., which, with the 8/ reduction upon which the
men went to work after the striae, makes 10 per cent —the
concession which the owners offered from their first demand
of 15 per cent, to avoid a strike.

A singular accident happened at the Wigan station
of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway on Saturday after-
noon. The through train to Southport ran into the station
at too great a speed, and dashed into the local market train,
which was standing at the end of the platform. Oue carriage,
full of passengers, was tilted four feet in the air, the occu-
pants being much bruised and shaken. Several had their
heads cut, and a young lady had the end orone of her fingers
taken off. The majority suffered from shock.

Information was received in Leicester on Monday
from the Home Office intimating that Her Majesty had been
pleased to respite the sentence of death passed upon John
Biggs, a youth eighteen years of age, for the murder of
Mary Ann Bromwich, at Leicester, and directing that the
convict be detained in a criminal lunatic asylum during Her
Majesty's pleasure. The prisoner is suffering from mono-
mania, and, although almJet constantly expressing his desire
to tee the murdered girl in a future state, appeared grateful
that the death sentence had been remitted.

Dr, Hardwicke has held an inquest in London on
the body of an unknown man who was found dead in a
lodging-house. It was stated that before going to bed the
previous night the deceased man ate for his supper two
pounds and a half of bacon, besides bread and potatoes. A
doctor, who had made a post-mortem examwation, said
death was caused by the overloading the stomach and the
effect of the surfeit upon the heart, which was the smallest
one he had ever seen. The jury returned a verdict in accord-
ance with the evidence.

The North-Eastern Railway Company has given
notice of a reduction of wages to the extent of le. per week
ail round to the men, some hundreds in ntimber, employed
at the locomotive and other engine works in Darlington.

A school of poor children, having read in the Bible
the denunciations against hypocrites who "strain at a gnat
and swallow a camel, were afterwards examined by the
benevolent patroness as to their recollections of the chapter.
"What, in particular, was the sin of the Pharisees, chil-
dren ? " said the lady. " Aiting camels, my lady," was the
prompt reply.

- - - -
Since Saturday (July 19th) when the Empress
Eugenie went for the first time to the tomb of the late
Prince, she has on four different occasions repeated her
visit. each time quite alone. On Sunday morning Monsignor
Goddard celebrated mass at the tomb, and the Empress,
with the entire of her household, was present. The public
was not admitted, but a crowd waited respectfully outside.
In consequence of an alteration of the afternoon service
from half-past three to half-past two o'clock some hundreds
of visitors were unable to see the tomb, to their great
disappointment.

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