The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-03-25 00:00:00

ROMAN CATHOLIC TEMPERANCE
MEETING.

On Tuesday evening, at Exeter-hall, there was the
annual gathering of the members of the Roman Catho-
lic "League of the Cross," held under the presidency
of Cardinal Manning. Many district temperance
soeieties arrived at the hall in procession, headed by
bands and banners. Lord F. Godolphin Osborn was
amongst those on the platform, as well as Mr. A. Lang-
dale, Father Nugent (Liverpool), the Ron. Mr. Belling-
harp, Ste. Cardinal Manning expressed satisfaction that
the cause ef total abstinence was making great progress
in London. Upon all sides he had rectived testimony
that the festival of St. Patrick had been this year
faithfully, soberly, and honourably observed. Not
onb was this the case on the 17th March, but on the
18th, when upwards at 16,000 of the children of Ireland
met at the Alexandra Palace to celebrate the national
festival. The occasion was marked by good order
and sobriety, He found tteit at the Alexandra Palace,
and after the fête was concluded, not one act had
been eomtni!ted which could bring shame uf. on the
name of St. Patrick or of Ireland. Why was this?
The result was to be attributed to the spread of those
temperance principles which would, in spite of the
vested interests of publicans, bring real peace, true
ccmfort, and ensured prosperity to this glorious
country.
A letigthemed address was then delivered by Father
Nugent, of Liverpool, upon the reclamation of "No-
body's Children " which drew a vivid picture of the
life of street Arabs in the gutters and streets of the
great towns of England, with sketches of adventures
among infant and other gymnasts and ballad singers,
pugilists, strolling players, and other queer "street
characters," and urged, as the proper remedies for
such poor outcasts, religious education, steady and
honest work, and, above all, sobriety.
At the close of Father Nugent's lecture, a vote of
thanks was proposed and passed by acclamation, as
also was one to his Eminence for presiding, proposed
by Lord Francis Godolphin Osborne, and seconded by
Mr. A. M. Sullivan, M. P., and the meeting broke up
about eleven o'clock. • a
The members of the Temperance Aesociationsfiresent
wore the new "Cross" belonging to the League.

TELEGRAPH WIRES.
The traditional passing nn a ladder
ob
je-*. letion
to
pargi: Lder
, may be extended with better reason to passing under
telegraph wires (remarks the Pall Mall Gazette). .They
are likely, it seems, to fall every ten years' even if
the weather daring that whole peri(,d should be tini-
formly calm, and at any moment when the weather
is etoimy. When they do fall, and any one happens
to be underneath, the effect is with difficulty to
be ciistinguishtd from that of the Ruillotine. In
London, unfortunately, if one is never to pass be-
neath a telegraph wire, one must needs go out of the
world. They are like the canopy of heaven, all em-
bracing. It has been insisted that they should always
be carried across thoroughfares at right angles so as to
minimise the slaughter in case they fall; but even if
this precaution were adopted the necessity of passing
under them at least once in drvery street would be a
serious addition to the perils, already sufficiently
numerous, of London travelling. In Germany, it ap-
pears, the telegraph wires are in future to be carried
underground instead of being supported by posts.
The object of this change is to prevent the interrup-
tion of communications which regularly follows
upon a great storm. If it is worth while to
extead telegraph wires all over the country,
it is certainly worth while to keep them con4antly
available, and on this ground alone there is good
reason for making a similar change in England. The
expense of carrying the wires a little below the
surface of a road cwunot be greater than the expense
of sating up and keeping in repair the telegraph
posts. be avoidance of danger to passers by would
be an important additional advantage as regards towns,
while in the country yet another would be found in the
removal of those bare poles which are so strikingly
ugly an adjunct to every landscape.