The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-09-19 00:00:00

Our Yonbou Corresponbtnt.

(We deem ti right to state that we do not at all thllal
identity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

When the sudden storms of rain which so
often mark the autumn first pour their violence
upon us, the floods which are the necessary
result seem to come upon many in the light of
a surprise. The streams have sunk so low during
the summer that it seems impossible they can
ever again become turbulent and destructive
instead of gentle and helpful; and the experience
of previous years, which teaches that in the
course of a few hours the purling brook may
become a rushing stream, the tiny river a resist-
less torrent, appears as if forgotten. Precautions
are neglected with the inevitable consequence,
and when the rains descend with sudden strength
at the opening of autumn, much damage is done
which a little forethought would have avoided.
And it is not only the country districts which
suffer at such a time, as receet experience in
London can testify. The first heavy rainstorm
of autumn found dwellers by the river side
unprepared ; the 'll, ames rose rapidly
above its normal height, and the low-lying
houses on the Surrey bank were speedily flooded.
As these are mainly inhabited by poor people,
the damage is all the more keenly felt, and the
mischief which can be done by a few hours' flood
is almost impossible to be conceived except by
those who have seen it in actual process of being
worked.

This extreme liability to floods of the Surrey
bank of the Thames affords an excellent illustra-
tion of the old truth that nature cannot be inter-
fered with without having its revenge. Singular
as it may seem to those who have not considered
-the matter, it is to the .eiwtion of the Embank-
ment, which between the bridges of Westminster
and Blackfriars protects the Middlesex bank, that
much of the present flooding of the Surrey shore
is due. In years gone by, when the river rose, it
found vent equally on both sides, spreading on
the Middlesex just as on the Sarrey4 and such
flood as there was became pretty equally divided.
But the huge wall which girds the finest prome-
nade in England was set no, the river found its
free course on the Middlesex side interrupted,
and now it pours its fury on the Surrey shore.
After the first rude awakening, the inhabitants
of the latter began
.to prepare for the floods
which they know the winter will bring; and on
days when the tide is high and the rain is de-
scending in torrents, scores of people may be
ri2en stopping up the entrances of their cellars
with boards and clay, and doing their utmost to
provide against that rise of the river which may
do them so much harm.

The news which has been flashed from India,
that there is the possibility of another famine
in the greatest of our dependencies, will
have recalled to many the period of
eight years since, when the last great
famine took place. Despite all that
modern civilisation has done despite im-
proved methods of cultivation and elaborate
measures of irrigation, India is still, as she
always has been, peculiarly liable to famine. To
us who live at home at ease, it is difficult to
realise what such a calamity means. In clays
gone by the population has died of starvation
not by hundreds, not even by thousands, but
actually by millions; and although in these
times effectual help can more readily be ren-
dered, the amount of misery which famine
entails can only be described as appalling. Eight
years ago, when the suffering promised to reach
its height, a Mansion House Fund was estab-
lished for the relief of the unfortunate Hindus,
and in an extraordinarily short space of time
the amount raised by subscription was
over half-a-million of money. Donations
came in from all parts of the country,
as well as from London itself, and in
several of the great towns collections were made
from mill to mill, from factory to factory, and
from workshop to workshop in aid of the suf-
ferers. It may be hoped that, even should a
famine again come, it will not be of so sweeping
and disastrous a character as was that of 1877,
but although it might not reach quite so great a
height, it would be certain to entail an amount
of suffering which cannot be contemplated
without pain.
Th e time during which the Inventions Exhibition
at South Kensington will remain open is fast
diminishing, and those who have not yet visited
it, and who wish to do so, will speedily
have to make up the;r minds as to the
date at which they will. Special excursion
trains from various parts of England, far and
near, have brought their living freights in
great numbers during the past few weeks;
and tens of thousands of persons weekly
flock within the exhibition's doors. Those
visitors who come determined to see everything
that is on view, have their day's work fairly laid
out before them. If they start at the very
beginning, and gaze with awe at the Gatling and
the Maxim guns, at the Whitehead torpedoes
and the Armstrong cannon, they cannot fail to
be impressed with the resource and skill now
applied to the mechanical arts of war. But as
they go on they will see innumerable proofs that
peace has her victories no less than war, and as
they pass from the latest perfected locomotive
to the best things in the apparatus of railway
signalling, and then on to the many mechanical
processes, to be seen in full work, they will per-
ceive the value as well as the beauty of such an
exhibition.

,) It has to be confessed, however, by those who
have attended most often and watched the
visitors most closely that the main attraction to
the majority is not the exhibition proper, but
the grounds which are attached to it. Thousands
seem to hurry through the buildings as if they
felt bound to say they had seen everything, but
their glance is ever and anon turned towards the
grounds, and they arc not satisfied until their
feet have taken the direction of their eyes. When
they reach the open air they become happy. They
sit under the trees, they smoke a cigar and drink
a cup of coffee, and they give themselves up to
the enjoyment of listening to music from the
best military bands which England and even
Europe can furnish. As the evening draws on
and the shadows lengthen the point of attraction
is evidently the large basin in the centre of
which the fountains are to play. There the
people stand in thousands, waiting eagerly,
for the time announced in the day's pro-
gramme at which the darkness now sur-
rounding the grounds shall give place to a
flood of light. The clock strikes the appointed
hour, and, as if by the touch of an enchanter's
wand, thousands of coloured lamps appear to
spring into being. The trees, the grass, the
.beds of flowers, the arcades the conservatory,
are in an instant seen to be filled with lights,
and a murmur of an admiration which is almost
awe arises on all sides. And then the splashing
of water is heard, the fountains burst into view,
from above and below many hued lights are cast
upon the rising and the falling streams, and it is
possible even to forget dark, murky, work-a-day
London for a few moments and to proceed in
imagination to fairy-land.
A good many people, who have been accus-
tomed year after year for a long time past to
attend the Social Science Congress, will regret
its absence this season from the customary list
of autumnal engagements. The fact that a
general election is so shortly td take place is
assigned as the cause for this departure from
rule, and it will strike a large number as a pity
that a purely political event should interfere
with the success of one which is mainly social.
The Congress was always an enjoyable outing,
and although the unkind among its critics often
asserted that this was the best that could be
said of it, there were uses to be extracted from
its annual meeting which have been proved to
be of value. It brought together every year a
large number of persons who felt a deep interest
in the welfare of their fellow-man, and who were
prepared to contribute their utmost to a dis-
cussion of the evils under which the body social
suffered, and of the remedies best calculated to
meet them. The result of such deliberations
could scarcely fail to be profitable, for it
was the outcome of the matured thought
of those who had given the most careful con-
sideration to the points raised. It is true that
many of the questions which were brought up
for debate year after year are even yet unsettled,
and appear likely to continue so for a long time
to coins; but that is saying nothing more than
that there are a large number of difficult
problems in the social economy of the world
which, to the human mind,
soluble. are practically in-

The contest 'which has raged for so many
paving is most suitable
years as to what nd of
for the main thoroughfares of large towns, where
the traffic is both continuous and heavy, is
renewed in London upon every occasion that a
street has to be taken up previous to re-laying.
Almost every system which has ever been tried
has its advocates, and these rush to the
fore at each possible chance with an eager-
ness which 'is amusing to the onlookers to
witness. There is one consolation which
arises out of the turmoil thus raised, and that is
that every system has its fair chance. Within
the boundaries of the City of London there is
very little macadam but there are asvhalte.

:14 , •

,

granite, and wood, and there appears no general
consensus of opinion m to which is the best.
Asphalte and wood are the most commonly used

in the leading thoroughfares, arid they are em-
ployed with an impartiality which indicates that
the final decision upon paving has not yet been
taken. What is chiefly wanted in such a place
as the metropolis is a pavement which shall not be
noisy, shall be easily cleaned, and shall be safe for
the horse's feet. It is too much to say that per-
fection in these points has been reached, but
continual experiments will perhaps bring us as
-.ear it as can be hoped. G. R.