The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-10-23 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

The will of Mr. Robert Higgins, a well-known Liver-
pool merchant, has been proved under £140,000 personalty.
The death ia announced, at the age of eighty-seven,
of Mrs. Charles Mathews, senior, the mother of Mr. Charles I
Mathews. the comedian. Mrs. Mathews, whose maiden I
name was Jackson, retired from the stage about the year
1803, not long after her marriage.
"Dear Nell,-1)o write. I cannot believe you are
, gone without a goodbye to me; and your last word, • To-
morrow,' is always In my ears! J. ll."—Advertisement in
The Time,.
Photographic portraits can now be printed with
printers ink. They are necessarily permanent as a printed
text, and so easy of production that 12,000 may be produced
from a single plate lu one day.
The "unemployed working men of London" propose
to make a demonetration on the occasion of her Majesty's
visit to the City to open the new Blackfriars-bridge. It is
Intended to form a line two or three deep, along the route to
he taken by her Majesty ; divided, as far so possible, into
dhtricts ; and each district having a placard stating the
locality to which it belongs.
The Jtiviah Chronicle states that at the instance of
the board of deputies of British Jews Sir Moses Mont:nor°
has consented to undertake a journey to the Continent, in
order to confer personally with Prince Charles of Roumania,
and bespeak his Ilighneee's favourable consideration on be-
half of the Roumanian Jews.
A correspondent of the Northern Whio states that
Mr. Nioholson, of lialrath, who was tired at in his carriage
some days since. alien his coachman and female raative
were shot, has determined to sell his farms and leave the
country, and mat two hundred labourers have been already
discharged.
The aho,men in six drapery eataliliahmenta in Paris
have "struck," and the employes in three ocher similar shops
were expected to take a similar step. It is anticipated that
the masters will engage young women in their place.
A Liverpool fishmonger has been sent to prison for •
a month with hard labour for selling unwholesome fish, in
Mary bone, a smatter inhabited only by the very poorest of
the population.
The German emigration to the United States and
the c.sequent competition among the steam lines for the
service continue to increase. According to some statistics
furnished by Mr. Consul-General Ward, the number of emi-
grants forwarded trom Hamburg direct to transatlantic
countries in 1808 was 40,628, while those who went Indi-
rectly by way of Great Britain were 6,422, making a total of
50,050, which greatly exceeds the average annual emigration
of the last live years.
L His Highness Prince Hassan, second son of the
Viceroy of Egypt, who arrived at Claridge'. Hotel, in Lou-
don, last Saturday, from Paris, left town on Monday, to
resume his studies at Oxford.
-- • •

The Smithfield Club Cattle Show have issued the
programme for their Exhibition, which will open at the
Agricultural Hall on December 6 The money prizes will
exceed £O,OOO, and there will in addition he various others
in the shape of pieces of plate and medals.
In several Scotch towns the working men have
decided upon making an elf ort to return one or more of their
class as town councillors at the approaching municipal elec.
Mons. The members of the Edinburgh frades Council have
taken up the matter, and have resolved to bring forward at
least one working-man candidate at the elections in that city
next month.
At the Lancaster quarter sessions the chief constable
reported that there was no decrease in drunkenness in the
comity. According to the chaplain of Lancaster Castle, 154
of the criminals confined there "ascribed their imprisonment
directly or indirectly to drink "
Four persons were recently descending the shaft of
the Gardner coal mine, Illinois, when the wire hoisting rope
broke, and the men fell with the cage, a distance of 150 feet,
to the bottom of the shaft. All had bones broken ; one lad,
about fifteen years of age, has since died, and two others
were supposed to be beyond recovery.
A Mississippi judge hart just decided that the inter-
marriage of whites and negroes "in lawful in the State of
ississippl, the law of the State to the contrary notwith-
standing."
A Sheffield butcher, named Ellaby, committed
suicide the other night by cutting his throat. Formerly he
was • hard drinker, but of late he had become a strict
abstainer, and wter giving up the bottle he was, says a local
reporter, "is. a very desponding state of mind." Notwith-
standing this rather ambiguous way of putting it, most people
will agree that it was the former hard drinking, and not the
atter teetotalism, that drove the wretched man to suicide.
A Denver (U.S.) store has a sign up, " FyNe KUt
2 bak Oh !"
A correspondent writes us (Mechanics' Magazine)
that Sir Titus Salt has recently had expansion valves fitted
to the whole of his steam engines at Saltaire—six in number
—the result being sinning of 50 tons of coal per week !
Last week, by direction of the chief constable of
the county. the Gloucestershire constabulary made a
simultauecus visit to all the bakers to obtain bread for
analysis. The result has been a plentiful crop of prosecu-
tions throughout the county against bakers for using alum.
A German scientific journal recommends laundresses
to use hyposulphite of soda in place of common washing
soda. It does not attack the fabric in any way, and at the
same time exerts some bleaching action, which greatly im-
proves the appearance of linen and calicoes.
"Occasionally, when the train arrives at Middle.
town, a nice young man lamps off and kisses the best-looking
girl at the depot, supposing it to be his sister, lie apolo-
gises no nicely that the girls are getting used to it, and they
look for him regularly."—Amerioan Paper.
The Prince of Wales has purchased Dallf our Woods,
between Balloter and Abergeldie.
An Antwerp paper states that the body of a lady
unknown, but appearing to have belonged to good society,
was found three days back in the Scheldt. She had on a
black silk dress and black bonnet, and carried a gold watch
and chain at her side.
Dr. Temple, the Bishop designate of Exeter, pre-
sided on Tuesday night at a great meeting held at Manchester
to connection with the movement for the total suppression
of the liquor traffic, and met with a very warm reception.
He said, although he was not a member of the Alliance, cir-
cumstances might arise to induce him to join them. Suppos-
ing it to he wrong to put a atop to the liquor traffic
altogether, still, he thought, something might be done to
emove the temptation of the beer-houses and public-houses
t rom the working classes.
Vern. serious rumours are afloat as in the condition
of the Emperor of Russia. Ills Majesty is said to seclude
himself tor days together, ref using to see any one.
An English gentleman in Rome, who possesses all
the Murillo series of the Prodigal Sou with the exception of
the one picture on thin subjegt is the Vatican, has petitioned
the Pope to allow him to purchase the missing scene, for
which he offers a picture of Bordfazio Veneziano and one by
Beats Angelico da Fiesole, together with 11.,000 francs in
cash. The Holy lather has referred the proposal to the
Academy of St. Luke.
All day on Sunday there was mow on the Yorkshire
moors. On the previous night the temperature was gi
degrees, and the same on Sunday night. Ice waa one-eighth
of an inch thick.
On Tuesday night, shortly before nine o'clock, a
special train from Kelso races to Edinburgh ran into a coal
train at Nicirhy station, about six miles from Edinburgh. A
number of persons were hurt and a large quantity of plant
was destroyed. The guard of the coal train was seriously in-
jured. and is not expected to survive. There were seven Car-
dues broken to pieces, and It is surprising the passengers
escaped with their lives.
(In Sunday morning a youth named Mark Pickup,
while in charge of the Dalsyfield station, near Blackburn,
missed Ma tooting while attempting to mount a waggon of a
ballast train, which passed over him and nearly severed both
his legs. Ile died immediately.
A farmer named Hunt has been murdered at
Goolaney, county Sligo, by three meu, who waylaid him,
and beat him no brutally that he died in a few hours. Two
men who have been arrested are said to be fully Identified.
.No cause is assigned for the outrage.
A gun accident is reported from Wa,shfield, East
Devon. Two brothers went out shooting rabbits, and one of
them received the contents of a gun which the other fired
from the other side of a hedge. The man lies Inn precarious
condition.
Count Wratislaw, privy councillor and comptroller
of the Vienna Palace, who was present on the sth at the
dinner given in honour of the Prince Royal of Prussia, ew
out his brains the same night with a pistol. Pecuniary diffi.
culties are said to have preyed on his mind.
Thomas Hyden, alias Green, the murderer of Mr.
eur at Whitton, was buried last Saturday afternoon in
Twickenham Cemetery. The Rev. W. G. ilowtayne, vicar,
read the burial service over the body, but without taking it
into the chapel
On Saturday morning a man entered a hairdresser's
shop in Chelsea, asked to be allowed to shave, and upon
obtaining permission to do so cut his throat with the razor.
He was taken to St. George's Hospital, where he soon died.
The Galway prisoner, Barrett, ha, been removed to
Dublin, to be detained there until his trial for a second time
tskes place. As the train moved off from the Galway mat'
" several persons lathe crowd raised their hats," but '
was no further demonstration.
Mysteriously disappeared from her home, near
Wilton-crescent, London, Friday, 15th inst., a young Lady,
twenty years of age, middle stature, glossy dark-brown hair,
coffee-coloured brown eyes, small mouth, and good teeth;
wan last seen in plaid poplin walking dress and black hat
with raven feather) at Victoria Station, carrying small red
'n ecessaire ;" supposed no other luggage. Information to
Mr. Pollaky, Private Inquiry-office, 13, Paddington-green,
London."—Advertisement in The Times.
The petition for adjudication of bankruptcy against
the Duke of Newcastle, whose pecuniary difficulties have
now been for sonie time before the public, came on for hear-
ing in London on Wednesday, before Mr. Commissioner
On Saturday last Robert King, sixth Earl of
Klngstrai, died at his London residence, aged 64 years. lie
was eldest son of Gemral Viscount Lorton, and only sue
ceeded to the family hortonrs of the Earls of Kingston on the
death of his cousin James, 111th Earl, last month.
An order has been leaned from the War-office stating
in effect that the Secretary of State for War is willing
to dispose of the percu-sion firearms now lying at the
Tower of London, which have been superseded by those now
in use.
Lifts are called hoists in the United States, and lifts
and hoists are vulgar things In common hotels and ware-
houses for conveying ordinary people, sacks and casks to
upper stories. Lifts have, however, got up in the world, and
the Pope by means of 000 now ascends to his apartments in
the Vatican.
At Rochester, the Rev. F. O. Mayne, vicar of
Strom, has ref used to permit the Church prayers to be read
over the man who recently died while in the act of plunder-
ing aln use lido which he had broken. At the inquest held
on the body of the deceased the jury returned a verdict of
" Died by the visitation of God," and on application being
made for the interment of the body in the burial-ground the
clergyman refused to allow the last Christian rites to be per-
formed over the remains, and the deceased was consequently
Interred in what is termed "uncoesecrated " ground, with-
out any religious service being held. An intention is said
to be entertained to have the deceased exhumed and the body
re-interred with the usual religious ceremony.
A gunner named Craver, belonging to the 11th
Brigue Royal Artillery, out his throat with a razor at the
Artillery Barracks, Woolwich. on Sdturday mon mg, and is
not expected to recover. Ile had been military servant to
sir Edward Wavle, the late commandant, WOl lie ie-signs by
writing upon a slate that lie had "the horrors," that tie was
not fit for soldiering after being in service, and that he
"never could clean harness."
The Revising Barrister for Reigate has struck out
the whole of the claimants who appeared in the report of the
Parliamentary Commissioners appointed to inquire into cor-
rupt practices In the bormuh of Reigate (1666) to have been
bribed. The mayor, who said he was personally interested
li. the decision, contrbded that the Revising Barrister was
exceeding its authority The latter intimated his willingneas
to grant a special case for the Queen's Bench.
William Staples, !ships' steward of the first oleos,
borne on the books of her Majesty's ship Indus, was on
Saturday tried by court-martial at Devonport for stealing
Sib. of tea, the property of the Crown, and Joseph Hyde,
corporal of Marines, serving on board her Majesty's ship
Lions, was tried by the same court for receiving the same,
knowing it to have been stolen. The court considered the
charges proved, but as both prisoners had borne excellent
characters previously, adjudged Staples to be dismissed the
service, and Hyde to be reduced to the rank of private in the
Marine., and to be placed in the second class for conduct.
The following is the description given by the
I uthanopolia Journal of the scene at the undertaker's after
the late accident arising from the bursting of a steam engine
in the fair grounds in that city;—" In the hack yard and
rear shops, upon rude planks and benches, were stretched the
dead. The mutilations were fearful, and cannot be fitly de-
seribeii. blackened and begrimed, bloody and dusty, with
protruding eyeballs, lolling tongues, and clenched hands,
the dead lay, silent but (earl ul witnesses, calling for a prompt,
thorough and fearless investigation of the disaster of which
they exec's, fearful relics." The number killed by the explo-
sion isgi len by the American newspapers as twenty-seven;
the wounded tifty-six. The general opinion Is that the ex-
plosion was caused by a want of water in the boiler, but the
verdict. of She coroner's jury has not yet been rendered. 1.1

station

The manufacture of gunpowder on • large male will
shortly commence at Tsai:tore, in India.
The New England Convention of Fat Men IS said to
have eaten 2250.6173009741266111329 down baked clams. And
It was • very poor day for clams.
It is stated that if but one penny a Mile could be
saved on all the miles of train run in the United Kingdom in
the course of a year there would be an additional sum of
a 6 18,000 to distribute among the ordinary shareholders.
The rowdyism of Philadelphia is illuetrated by a riot
which lately occurred there, the Keystoue Club attacking the
Republican Invincible* with pistols and various Misaiiell.
Eight persons were badly wounded, but none were killed.
Her Majesty has declined to continue to carry on
the Prime of Wales's pack of harriers; and at the adjourned
meeting held at Windsor on Saturday. W whieh this decision
was announced, a committee was formed for the purpose
of aseertainiug from the landholders whose ground the
Princes pack had been hunted over whether they would
permit the same privilege toe subscription pack should they
succeed in establishing it.
On the 2nd and 3rd of this month a tremendous
storm of wind and rain visited a large area of the united
States. There were floods In all directions, from Washing-
ton to Philadelphia, Albany, and Syracuse; landslips are
also reported, and great damage has been done—bridges
broken down, lines of railway wrecked and swamped at dif-
ferent points, and houses and workshops thrown into ruins.
On the fist of August, at three in the afternoon, a
shock of earthquake at schemacha, in the Caucasus, which
destroyed not only the greater part of the houses in the
town, but also those of the village of Sundt, at the distance
of eighteen vents. The duration of the earthquake was
from fifteen to twenty-two seconds.
A New York commercial paper reprints one of Mr
Spurgeou's sermons every week.
In the French cheese-making districts the entail pro•
prietors bring each his dally contribution of milk to a com
soon dairy, and each contribution being accurately registered,
the contributors receive ultimately an amount of cheese in
proportion to the milk that each has supplied. If any con-
tributor puts a drop of water in his milk he is for ever ex-
cluded, not only from his own society, but from all societies
In his neighbourhood.
According to a return in the London Gazette the
number of foreign cattle affected with contagious disease
landed at British ports was 1,602, all of which were
slaughtered by order of the customs authorities. 370 were
from liamburgh, 1,033 from Rotterdam, and the remainder
from other ports.
"On Sunday evening last two Hibernians. Bacchi
plead, who were reeling home from Gourock, bona fides
doubtless, quarrelled at the corner of Cardwell-place. 'Pat.'
said one, 'come into this field, and I'll fight ye.' 'Murphy.'
said the other, •if you do I'll kill you. • Well' said Pat, 'lf
you do, I'm not the boy to say anything about it.' 'Phil
may appear like an invention, but it is an actual tact.—
Greenock Advertiser.
The Evangelical Alliance Conference will be held
this year at Derby. The business will commence on
Tuesday, the 23rd of November, and terminate on the
following Friday, New York will be the place of meeting
next year.
The Prince of Wales returned to London from
Chester last Saturday, not much fatigued apparently by the
round of duties, or pleasures, he had gone through during
the previous two days, for he visited the Princess's Theatre
in the evening, accompanied by the l'rincess. The Mayor of
Cheater, who is to be honoured by knighthood—Mr. Thomas
Gibbon Frost—is a miller in an extensive way of business, a
supporter of the Government and very popular among his
ellow-townsmen.
Mesea,ges to and from all parts of France now cost
only one franc—instead of two—for twenty words ; and
messages between two stations in the same department five-
ence for twenty words.
While a party of five young men were sitting on •
rocket, the coast near Montrose during the gale last Sunday
afternoon, a large wave swept over thern and carried them
away. Three of the number clambered up, and were saved,
but the other two, aged twenty and twelve, were drowned.
A charge of murder has been preferred at New York
against Captain Hall, the Arctic explorer, for killing Patrick
Coleman who, the captain declares, mutinied during his re-
cent expedition in search of Sir John Franklin's party.
Both the Bridgwater and Norwich Election Com-
missions adjourned on Saturday, to hold their next meetings
li, London—the former on the 2nd of November, and the
latter sine die.
In London, a journeyman tailor, while in the act ot
pressing a coat which he had been making, knelt on a needle
accident...lb left in the garment. It entered the knee, and
broke in two pieces, one of which remained in the limb until
It WWI extracted at the hospital. lie seems not to have taken
airy alarm at the occurrence, and went about his work as
usual; but in a few days violent inflammation set In, followed
by erysipelas, and his death was the result.
The Ministry of Marine at St. Petersburg has deter-
mined to publish a history of the Russian navy. Several
distinguished naval men, thoroughly acquainted with the
navies of Russia and other countries, are already employed
on this work, the materials for which are to be taken
chiefly from official documents in the possession of the RUlliall
admiralty.
Wild boar hunting promises to be very productive
this year in the forest of Ardenne, Belgium, where those
animals are now unusually numerous. A sportsman shot
three of them within two hours near Marche a few days ago.
Eight convicts, who managed to effect an escape
from Fort Blair, on the Indian coast, were lately captured at
a spot named Klopee, on the Burman coast. It appears they
were forty-eight days on their passage from Fort Blair to
Yea, accommodated in two very small canoes, and driven
about from place to place by wind and tide. They will be
wet hack to Port Blair.
The Congregational Union commenced its autumn
session in Wolverhampton, on Monday.
A Wall.street speculator returning home one even-
ing recently in no enviable frame of mind, thus announced
the result of his operations to the family group —"No.
more silk dresses this winter, my dear; no more balls and
parties ; no more opera boxes ; " and then, warming with his
subject, "no more infernal wirings and Sittings, and no more
nonsense of any sort, Matilda."
Last month, during a large gathering of Jews at
J asaey, numerous b 'dies of young Roumanians, mostly stu-
dents of the local high school, rushed forward and drubbed
the Jews soundly with sticks, rods, and other weapons,
which they had kept concealed Its order to catch the Jews
defenceless. The notice declined to interfere.
nmober ~f messages through the French Atlan-
t.c TWe_vaeh !luring the week ending October 16 was sic,
the cable charge thereon being £1,508, showing a decrease of
£712 from the preceding week, when the receipts were ex-
ceptionally awoden by all interruption of the land lines in
connexion with the Atlantic Company.
Ten guineas; premium were asked on Saturday, at
Liverpool, to effect reinsurances on the new iron ship Mel-
pomene, Captain Osborne, which left Liverpool, on 2nd June
last, for Melbourne, and was, when the mail now at Galls
left Melbourne, 113 days at sea.
On Sunday morning a respectable widow, named
Dawson, attended the independent chapel, at Cole( ord,
Gloucestershire, where the Rev. Robert Stevens, M.A., is
minister. On her return home she went up stairs to take off
her clothes, and as she came down the heel other boot caught
the top of the lower flight, and she tell head foremost to the
bottom, where her head came in contact with the door-
frame. She sustained a serious fracture of the skull, was
taken up insensible, and died the same evening.
It is currently reported (says the South London
Courier) that Mr. Spurgeon's congregation were so impressed
by a recent lecture of their pastor on " Bells," that they in-
tend to present him with a peal for the use of the Taber-
nacle.
A fresh strike has just occurred at Mons, in Bel-
gium, where more than 1,200 millers have left their work.
A quantity of molten lead and tin, to form enamel,
was being run into a reservoir of water, at the factory of
MM. Rogeat, at Lyons, when one of the workmen fell into
the water, winch was nearly at boiling point. Two of his
comrades hastened to his assistance, and fell in also. The
other men succeeded in extricating all three, who, though
badly scalded, are not in danger.
The Gazette de France states that among the dishes
composing the bill of fare of the dinner given by the Sultan
to the Empress of the French, on the evening of her arrival
at Constantinople, was oue composed entirely of the brains
of ostriches.
The fishing smack Jenne Dail*, of St. Malo, picked
ups dead porpoise, weighing 600 lbs., a few days ago. On
opening it twenty-three cuttle fish were found in its stomach.
It measured eight feet in length, and, in judging by the
teeth, was of a great age. Some of the cline fish had got into
the windpipe and choked it.
Traupmann, the Pantin murderer, is reported to
have said the other day:—" Now my name is known
throughout all France, and, indeed, throughout Europe, I
will authorise a photographer to take my portrait, who will
pay me for this privilege 10,000 francs, and he will soon make
cent. per cent. profit. I shall keep carefully this 10,000
francs, or perhaps not—l will rend it to my family, in order
that they may emigrate, go to America, and there amass a
fortune."—lt is said that a French journalist has offered
Traupmanti, the sum of 20,000 trance for his memoirs.
Hier; I