The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-10-14 00:00:00

Mist('liancous itlatelligence,

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLCMIAL,

A LITTLE OMISSION. Materfamilias was
rather taken aback the other day at receiving a bill for
a " pair of 'infants.' " account hail been made
out with an excess of conciseness : the addition of one
word—" gloves "—would have prevented all misappre-
hension. —Arndt.

AN ANTI-COMMUNIST ASSOCIATION. The
rabic calls attention to an association of workmen in
favor if Order, the Ottrricrs Compagnons. This
society, which is said to number 60,000 members, Las
a committee sitting in Paris. Its programme is short
but decisive. "Each member, to whatever trade he
may belong, pledges himself not to join any section of
the Internationale. None of its members are to join
in any strike. They bin 4 themselves, moreover, that
in all the towns if France they will assist the Govern-
ment in bringing about the pacific resumption of labour
and in maintaining order."
A HEfiofi: LlFE.—During the storm of Satur-
day week Francois Tixier, of Dunkerque, met his death
whilst he was endeavouring to rescue others, He is
said to have saved more than fifty lives, and to have
rescued more than thirty vessels from shipwreck. The
municipal authorities of Dunkerque, in recognition of
his noble services, gave him a public funeral.

FASHIONABLE CIRCLES. Round Dances.—
/ Huai._ . . .

A Meeteet. VIEW OP SPIRITUALISM.—At the
opening of the medical session at the King's College
Hospital, London, the other day, Professor Thither.
ford, who delivered the inaugural address, spoke of
the spiritualists. He characterised their pretensions
as an outrage to science and to common sense. It
WAS stated, he said, upon the authority of a certain
noble lora, that a Mr. Home had the power of
floating in the air at will. Mr. Home and his dis-
ciples did not yet seem inclined to make a public ex-
hibition of their powers, but continued to ride in
omnibuses or cabs, finding it safer not to trust to con-
veying themselves about by their own power of wilL
Such impositions had been common in all ages, and
table turners and spirit rappers had made dupes of
many simple-minded people, but now they had become
so lexterous that they could make dupes of some per-
sons who were well educated.

DEATH FROM EXCESSIVE DRINKING. An
inquest has been held at Liverpool upon the body of
Michael Clare, a man fifty years of age, and who bad
been f.oinerly a detective officer in the Royal Irish
Constabulary. Some short time ago he began to drink
heavily, and on Wednesday was removed to the work-
house, where he died on the followingday from delirium
tremens. The woman with whom he lodged stated that
she had known him drink as much as a quart of brandy
in a day, and he had had in her house in one day not
fewer than seventeen pints of bitter beer. The jury
returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased died
from delirium tremens, brought on by excessive drink-
ing ; but said they regretted that his friends did not
get him removed earlier to a hospital or some place of
restraint.

A HARD HIT !--On a certain occasion Henry
Ward Reedier preached a sermon on the injustice of
obliging, men to work on Sunday. The rent day, while
riding down to Fulton Ferry, he entered into conver-
sation with a ear-driver, and asked him if he did not
think some plan might be adopted to dispense with the
need of running the cars all day on Sundays. The
driver, in ignorance of the name of his interrogating
friend, made a frank reply:—" Yes, sir, I think there
might. But there's no hope of it so long as they keep
that Beecher Theatre open in Brooklyn. The cars
have to run to accommodate that."

_
THE MITRAILLEUR AND TORPEDOES.—The
Brawl A mow understands that the efficacy of the
mitrailleur as a weapon of defence has been very much
increaned by an invention of Captain Stone, of the
'7th Regiment, in which atmospheric pressure in used
an a motor for giving it an elevating and depressing
action above and below the parapet, characteristic of
the Monerieff principle. He proposes also the applica-
tion of this principle for the treatment of heavy guns,
a proposal which offers many novel advantages. The
same inventor has also dincryered a method by which
submerged torpedoes may be destroyed without hazard
to the operator. Captain Stone has hitherto refrained
from submitting his plans to the Government, in order
that they should first pass the ordeal of a rigorous
scrutiny by certain high mathematical authorities,
whose verdict has been given very :derily in their
favour.

--- -
FROM ENGLAND TO FRANee.—ln an essay on
the late Baron Josef Eiityds, Franz Pulsky tells the
following anecdote. V,triis has just returned from a
journey b. England. and speaking at a Continental
table nide with the greater enthusiasm of British
life and institutions, he terminated, "reef saddinee."
A Frenchman, who was sitting opposite, said, "Du
sahlinte au ridicule il n'y a wean pas," "Olui, It Pas
dc Calais," wan Feittes' answer.

1N Ban IREPain.—We kthm a luau, moving
in good aociety, who has Laughed so much in his
Sleeve, that it is quite worn out. —Punch.

A Fo'molt Cumcism.—The Nord of Brussels,
remarks

" The manner in which the London papers have received
the demands put forth by the mitten) assembled in a Con•
ference at 3ftrthyr Tydfil shows that in England purely
economical RIM social questions receive far more serious at-
tention than they do ins neighbourhing country whose in-
stitutions are nevertheless based upon univeral suffrage.
In whatever manner the phenomenon may be explained, it
6 certain that in aristocratic England everything which re-
lates to the well being, the education, and to what may
lit- enile-il liar humanization of Or Mi 11014214 is at the pre-
Sent time attracting the attention of all parties, while
France social tinzblems are systematically put aside as insp.
portutte snail insoluble The English are ill HO great Marty
to change the political institutions of the% 11111 l try, anal in
any ease they perceive that it) order to modify them with
advantage to the nation it is necessary first to alter the etill-
ditium of existenee of the 1113.1.94.5. The French. on the other
hand, seem to be always persuaded that any change In their
political institutions must lead to a corresponding alteratb
Is the moral and material conditions of existence ad the
nation. That shows how it Is that reformers of the two
nations ran never agree, antrit Is interesting to observe that
French Socialists who have landed in England are obliged
to admit that the operations unite French propaganda in no
degree meet the necesaities of the situation it, London. and
the great manufacturing centres of (treat Britain."

THE LATE MR. JAMES DENISON.--Thc Times
records the following :

Mr. James Denison:who for upwards of 41 years was our
representative on the Western Circuit, died on IVednesday
last (the 4th Inst.) at southern'. Ile was formerly in practice
as an attorney at Cain's Cross, in Gbreestershire, and he re-
ported for this journal the trial of the Bristol rioters and
many other matters of interest. Ile usually managed our
earresses in the west of England at a time alien railways
and electric telegraphs were unknown, and many struggles
occurred between himself and Mr. Charles Dickena. who
then represented the Morning Chronicle, to secure priority
of information for their respective journals. Mr. Denison
was upwards of 73 years of age at the time of his death.

TIIE STAPLE OF THE SOCIAL CONGRESS.—
Yarns. —Punch.

MR. TOMLLNE AND THE BULLION QUESTION.
—ln connection with this subject, Mr. Tomline has
sent the following explanation to the Daily Ntirs for
publication :

Permit me to correct an error which I find in a statement
of yours, " that! have been wonted in the law courts in my
quarrel with the Chancellor of the Exchequer n specting the
right of the subject to have silver bullion converted into
coinage." I have not been worsted, as the question of silver
has not yet been before the law courts. The facts are these:
the Court of Queen's liench decided that lr. Lowe acted Ille-
gally In refusing to coin my gold. lathe case of silver the low
oaken of the Crown declined a suggestion from one of the
Judges, that the question should be argued and decided then.
The points, therefore, will not be argue I till after the long va-
cation. The sooner it is decided the better satisfied I shall lie,
but neither the judge on the bench nor Iliad power to pre-
vent delay caused by the law officers of the Clown. What-
ever the merits of the dispute may be, one thing is certain,
that no Minister before Mr. Lowe ever claimed the preroga-
tive of the Sovereign to limit the number of silverscolns in
Great Britain and Ireland, and it is right that some one
should challenge the exercise of a secret and dangerous power
before it becomes a valid precedent.
-

--
A LA's GALLASTRY.—At the last meeting
of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, it was re-
solved to grant the silver medal of the institution to
Miss Jane Campbell, of Drogheda, Ireland, in recog-
nition of her Wave conduct in wading into the surf
during a strong easterly gale, and saving one of the
crew of the brig Mantes, of Whitehaven, which was
wrecked in the recent storm, near Drogheda. A copy
of the vote has also been sent to Miss Campbell, in-
scribed on vellum. It was stated that the sailor would
inevitably have perished hail it not been for the heroic
and thoughtful conduct of this lady in fimt rushing,
at great peril, to his rescue, and then using proper
means to restore him to consciousness. The thanks
of the institntion, inscribed on vellum, were also pre-
sented to Mrs. Fox, of Kell, near Drogheda, in testi-
mony of her valuable services in aiding and encouraging
Miss Campbell in her efforts.

EXAGGERATED COMPLIMENT !—Blarney (pro-
pus of the habit of exaggerated compliment), an Irish
contemporary, says
Wanted, in any part of Ireland, a station mister who is
not courteous and attentive; an audience which is not large
and fashionable ; a barrister who is not eloquent and per-
suasive; a Judge who is not learned and distinguished ; a
manufactnrer who is not liberal and enterprising ; a work-
man who is not sober and attentive: a woman who is sod
chaste and beautiful ; a policeman who is not active anti
efficient a doctor who is not humane tnel skilful under-
taker who does not please hie customers; an entertainment
which is not amusing and instructive; a book which should
not be on the table of every household but, above all, a
man of any age, weight, size, or colour, who is not ready to
perish on the altar of his country.
ONE O'CLOCK BEER DRINKING.—The Food
Journal remarks :
There can be no doubt that the habit of beer drinking
an early dinner often tends to make men drowsy, heavy, and
disinclined to a proper activity during the afternoon. In
addition to this, the extensive use of malt liquor, coupled
with sedentary pursuits, Is an undoubted source of many
renal disorders, and all these reasons may have led to the
desertion of liter for shorty by many business wen. It is
not our provinee to enter Into the question of " office
alcoholism." lately so much talked of awl written about,
but to substitute a highly spirituous wine for the discarded
.• bitter" 600111 S t.l be a rallictly as bad as the dispose.

. •
FATAL ACCIDENT TO AN ACTOR.—lntelligence
has been received in England of a sad fatality which
has befallen Mr. Edward Shafto Robertson, a younger
brother of the late Mr. I'. W. Itobertson, the
esteemed dramatist. Mr. Shaft.) Robertson, who had
only reached Melbourne a few months ago, where be
had accepted a theatrical engagement, was, in cotse-
quence of the great talent he displayed, specially
selected to join a theatrical company proceeding to
India. He had embarked in the steamship Amer',
and, whilst conversing with Mr. Howe, a tragedian,
who was the companion of his voyage, a sudden lurch
of the vessel precipitated him through the open hatches
of the engine-room on to the steel cylinder, at a depth
of fourteen feet. The violence of the blow caused con-
cussion of the brain, and he expired three days after-
wards, Lis body being commtted to the deep &ring a
burial service read in the most impressive manner by a
clergyman on board. lie was only twenty-seven at
the time of his death, which took place on the lot of
September.

AN IMPERIAL APPEAL.—The new Bonapartist
paper, Etiediy, publishen the following letter, written
by the Empress Eugenie to the Emperor of Russia
after the disa.ster of Sedan:—

" ila.tings, Sept. la. ISM
Sire,—A fugitive from nip country, I now write to your
Majesty. If I had a few days since, when the destinies of
France were still In the hands of the authority constituted by
the Emperor, taken the same step, I should perhaps have
appeared in the eyes of your Majesty us entertaining doubts
of the real strength of my country. The last events give me
liberty to act, and I may appeal to your .Majestys heart.
If I have rightly understood the reports made by our
ambassador, General Henry, your Majesty w•uld d priori
repudiate the ultimate dismemberment of France. Sire,
fate has been against us the Emperor is a prisoner and is
maligned. Another Government has undertaken the task
Which we considered it was our duty to perform. I now be-
seech your Majesty to use your influence to bring about the
conclusion of an honourable and lasting peace when the right
moment shall come. May France find is your Majesty,
whatever may belts Government, the same disposition which
von have displayed towards us in those bitter trials ! Such
is the prayer I address to you. I beg your Majesty, there-
fore, to keep this communication secret, which your generous
spirit will readily understand, and to which I am impnhledtsy
the recollection of your Majesty's sojourn in Paris.'

T/IE Si EJEt T OF THE HOUR.—The Strike !
—Punch.

TIIE PROPERTY OF THE ORLEANS FAMILY.—
The A tviir Libirol says that the Administration of
Rivers and Forests have been ordered to keep accounts
of the timber cut on the lands which had belonged to
the Orleans family, distinct from those of the timber
cut on other State property. The Orleans estate, were
decreed tube the property of the State in 18:i2, but it
seems that M. Thiers does not wish the receipts from
the timber cut on these lands to appear in the Budget
for 1872. This looks like a determination to restore
the lands to the House of Orleans.

Tun FIGHTING 331:D.—The regiment which
we (Court Journal) believe is known by the title of
'The Fighting 33rd " is remarkable for its smart mili-
tary appearance, and we observe many of the men
wearing one, two, and three medals for service in the
Crimea, the Indian Mutiny, and Abyssinia. It may
be interesting to notice that the 33rd was the first
regiment at the storming of Magdala, and the honour
of being the first to enter was conceded to Drummer
Magner, for which he received the Victoria Cross.
Among the trophies carried off WM an Aflyssinian
" tom-tom," of costly workmanship and plated with
gold and silver. It was egg-shaped, with the exception
of one end, in which the skin was fixed. The conical
end was entirely of silver, and has since been made into
a punch-bowl by the 4th Regiment. The most valuable
portion was converted into an English dmm of the
ordinary shape, from which it only differs in its un-
usual weight. It is chiefly of gold and silver, the gold
predominating, and wrought with native art. A square
Plate f gild bears an inscription in Amharic, of which
the following is a translation :

" This drum of gold from the Dijaj Mulch Qubie which
he gave to Queen Menraen. in the year I d S.,int Mark, 1737.
Nlay his kindness never be forgotten. Say the bo.d's prayer
for bins." On a silver plate is this record—" 33rd Regiment,
Magdala, April 13th, laga."

, .
A stand for the drum was made out of the super-
fluous silver surroundings of the original tom-tom, the
metal of which is worth 1:5. The drum is placed on the
stand, and forms an interesting trophy on the officers'
mew-table. It is taken out on every general parwleof
the regiment, and is carried by Corporal Honig,
(brother of Sergeant-Major Itoulger, whose capital
shooting in matches with the (olehester Volunteers,
about two years ago, earned for him the suhriquet of
Bull's-Eye Boulger) who naturally feels proud of his
valuable charge.

NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE.—Some rooms
reconstructed and remodelled were formslly opened on
the ISth of September. The principal apartment
the Board-room, 51ft. by 74ft., and nearly 64.1 ft. in
height. An immense safe, containing 61S compart-
ments for the use of members, is in the basement. In
1792 the sessions of the Board were held under a
buttonwood tree in Wall-street, where ks.me 25 or 30
brokers, who had banded themselves together for the
purpose of buying and selling stocks, were accustomed
to meet at certain hours of the day and transact busi-
nem at one-fourth of one per cent. commission. The
exchange has now 1,062 members.

How VERY CONSOLING.—We are fast sinking
into the sere and yellow leaf of national existence, if
we may credit the opinion of a writer in the Posen
Gazette. This gentleman is a German, and we need
scarcely say not the first German wh.) has assured us o
our impending dissolution. He says there are only two
powers in Europe—Russia and Germany. "England
Is a declining N enice." He proceeds to say :—" The
isolation of the aristocratic class from the rest of the
English nation is, he thinks, an unmistakable sign of
its coming falL England has abstained from inter-
ference in Continental politicos since tLe Crimean and
Mexican wars, probably because she feels that hervital
forces are being exhausted. . . These is no alternative
for her but either to ally herself to Germany, or to
perish with her antiquated prejudices and obsolete in-
stitutions."

AN OLD ENGINEEIL—The death is announced
of Mr. Thomas Pilgrim, engineer, aged a year, on
the 6th MA_ at his sons residence, Plumstead, Kent
who for the last 35 years was intimately n-soeiateci
with Mr. Francis Pettit Smith and the introduction of
the screw propeller. It may be remembered by some
that Mr. Pilgrim acted AN l'lnef engineer of the A rchi-
•,er4o4, celebrated in the history of steam navigation
an the first ship ever sent to sea propelled by the screw.
Dtws IN LANHAM/H.—There arrived at Jersey
last week, on board the schooner Typhis, from New-
foundland, a )oung lean named Parbeleau, suffering
from a number of dreadful lacemtiobs received from
sixteen fens•ious dogs at Labrador. Barbeleau, it
appears, was employed in the establishment of De
Ouetteville and Co., of Jersey, who have a fish•enring
dep:t at that place. He was rook to the gang of men there engaged, and one day while crossing the yard to
the cook-honee, carrying some meat which he was
about to prepare for dinner, he was suddenly set upon by the d.,l,ts kept at the establishment to draw the
sleighs in the winter season. his piercing cries
brought his fellow-ma rknien to the spot, but before
they cull drive away the infuriated animals they had
torn away portions 01 flesh from the neck, arms,
and thighs of the poor vomit; fellow, who presented a
most pitiable sight. There was no medical assistance
to be lush on the spot, but he received the best atten•
tin that could be afforded him at the establishment,
and at the earliest possible opportunity WAS sent home
to Jersey. He is now in the hospitaleand it is expeeted
that he will have to suffer the loss of his right arm by
amputation.

A VIRTUOUS AND NUTRITIOUS DIET. The
acquisition of Alaska by the United Statist promises to
place some new articles of diet before the Yankees.
Indulgence in sea lion meat and whale meat is recom-
mended by theAlmbs Herald, which assures its readers
Chat these viand, will "snake a man virtuous and a
woman corpulent." It intimates, however, that such
dainties are hot easy to digest unless washed down by
an "aromatic draught of whale oil." An apothecary s
advertisement in the same journal warmly extols "a
chymical dilution of the west tender and delicate parts
of that phosphoric animal the fur seal," which the
editor elsewhere announces that he haA tried, and found
to be "the greatest propelling power of the age."
I SION OF THE AUTUMN SEAsON.—The States-
man and_Stumlb—poneh.

AN UNPLEASANT CATECIIIsM.—Paria has re.
covered her old humour. A commission has been
deputed to examine the titles of the officers gazetted
between September 4. ' 1070, and the close of the war,
and has sent to each officer the subjoined most un.
pleasant catechism :—" What rank before the war'
How many cami.aigns? How many battles? How
many years of service? How =thy wounds? What
recompenses?' A wag fill, up this paper as follows
" liank before the war- None. Campaigns —None.
Rattles—None. Years of service—None. Wounds --
None. Ilemmpenses Colonelcy, and Cross of the
Legion of Honour."

THE TUILERIES CARDEN.—The Francais gives
a melancholy account of this once beautiful garden,
with its well-kept paths and gay parterre:B
The late rains base 50 thoroughly soaked the ground
which had already been cut up and filled with nits by the
cannon placed there during the Commune that the main
walk and that around the basin are impassable. The whole
place is littered with fragments of broken tables and chain.
The trees which daring the last reign had is-en too hastily
re-planted when the paths were raised are eying one after
another, and are not being replaced. Very soon there will
remain but the recollection of those masses of hiliage which
gave such a charm to the garden. The statues remain in
their mutilated ....million, and everything boars the appear-
ance of intentional ahandonment."

MARRIAGEIN FilaNcE.--The following mar-
riage-certificate drawn up by the Paris Commune may
be considered a valuaMe contribution to the history
of civilisation in the nineteenth century :