The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-08-25 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Princess Louise will, as at present arranged, leave
Quebec for England early in September, and Lord
Lorne will follow as soon as possible.
The Russian Government is organising at Kharkoff
an exhibition of sheep, to which foreign exhibitors
will be admitted. It will be held in 1884.
No intelligence has been received of the missing
Danish vessel Dymphna, which started last year on a
voyage of discovery to the North Pole.
A society is being formed under the auspices of a
number of Radical members of Parliament for the
purpose of promoting the "political education" of the
agricultural labourer, in view of the probable eaten.
tion of household suffrage to the counties.
- -

The St. Gothard Railroad, which cost about
£8,000,000, in the first eleven months it WAS open,
ending with April last, earned £358,000 gross and
£198,600 net. The largest earnings of any months
were £40,540 is September.
- - -

Intelligence has just been received from Iceland at
Lerwick stating that the cod fishing there this season
has been almost a failure. Several smacks attempted
to proceed as far as the North Cape, but were pre.
vented from doing so by barriers of ice. The Shetland
fleet is expected home about the end of September.
The leaders of the telegraph strike in America have
issued an cfficial annonncement to the effect that the
movement has proved a failure.

It is computed that at least £300,000 changed hands
during last week in the sales of Hampshire Down
sheep in Wilts. They have been bought for distant
parts of England, and even for Germany. The beet
draft ewes have gone up to as high as 1645. per head.

A case of attempted murder and suicide occurred at
North Shields on Tuesday. Thomas Mendigove, a
musician, while in bed, Was stabbed by his wife, who
afterwards attempted to kill herself in the same way.
A policeman on entering the room, found both hus-
band and wife bleeding profusely. He sent for the
police surgeon, who dressed the wounds, bath parties
being in a precarious condition.

- -
A Reutees telegram, dated Tunis, August 18, says:
—" The English steamer Arid, from Girgenti to
London, laden with esparto and sulphur, which
entered the Goeletta roadstead yesterday with her
cargo on fire, was sunk by cannon shots during the
night in three fathoms of water, no fire engine being
available to extinguish the flames,"

The Chimborazo, which has just arrived at Plymouth
from Australia, brought 5,1C0 carcases of sheep and
lambs in refrigerators. The meat is said to be in good
condition.
On Friday in last week a miner named John Jones,
sixty years of age, residing in Daisy Bank, near
Bilston, leaped down a disused pit shaft in Bilston, of
the depth of 136 1 ards, at the bottom of which were
32 feet of water. Before leaping he pulled off his coat
and hat, and deliberately walked towards the mouth.
When just getting over the fencing he was seized by a
passer by, but shook him off, and jumped. The
mangled body was afterwards recovered.
The additions to the Zoological Socicty's Gardens,
ne,ent's Park, Lcuidon, during last week included a
bonrc.t monkey from India, presenttd by the hon.
Mrs. Pigott Carleton ; two Maholi galagos from South
Africa, prt-sented by D. Hugh Exton; a rude fox
from Demerara, presented by Mr. Clement J. Bate-
man ; a suricate from South Afric, preeented by Mr.
Charles H, Wootton ; a collart d seecary from South
America, presruted by Mr. Fritz Zureher ; three ',ere.
grine falcons, European, presented by Mr. J. Snowdon
Henry, F,Z.Y. ; two JavanH
adjutants from Java ; two
Indian tantalus from India, presented by the on.
W. H. Ravenscroft ; a Sclater's curassow from South
America, presented by Mr. John Ardran ; a wood owl,
British, presented by Mr. G. Carrick Street; two ring-
tailed lemurs from Madagascar, a black bear from
North America, a greater sulphur•crested cockatoo
from Australia, deposited; three Indian pythons from
India, purchased two mule deer born in the gardens.

The smoke of the engine on the Green Mountain
Railway at Mount Desert can be seen in a clear day
from Belfast, forty-five miles distant.

Accord.ng to a Lorraine newspaper, it is intended
to collect the scatte,ed bones of all those Germans
who fell in the battles around Metz and to deposit
them in one hue ossnary, with a suitable monument.
The Duke of Devonshire, Captain Long, left Ply.
month for Queensland, on Saturday, with the follow.
lug emigrants :-157 single men, 223 families, and 94
single women; making a total of 571 souls, equal to
474 adults.

The half .yearly reports of the working of the New
York City Savings' Banks show that there are 593,000
depositors, owning deposits of over 232,000,000 dole. in
amount. The total sum of the deposits has increased
since the preparation of the report by 6,000,000 dole.
Since March 1 to date Chicago packers have
slaughtered 1,084,000 hogs, against 1,192,000 for the
corresponding period of 1882.

New York Bay is at present full of sharks. The
oldest of the fishermen cannot remember any summer
when these ugly visitors were so numerous or so large.
Last Saturday being the anniversary of the battle
of Lincelles, which was fought on August 18, 1793
(when the English and Dutch defeated the French),
the usual custom of decking the colours with laurel
was observed in the three regiments of Guards which
took part in the engagement under General Lake.

A fire broke out at the offices of the Southern Rail-
way Station in Madrid, early on Sunday morning.
The building suffered great damage and the archives
were destroyed, but the station itself escaped un-
touched.

The question of draining the Zuyder Zee is now
warmly agitated in the Netherlands, and during the
International Exhibition at Amsterdam a meeting of
the Royal Institution of Engineers will be held, at
which plans and projects will be considered for closing
the channels between the well-known islands.
In Newcastle and Gateshead a movement has taken
shape for the construction of another high-level bridge
over the Tyne, at a cost of from £150,000 to £200,000.
A man named Granger, who claimed to have served
in the 54th Regiment at Waterloo, died on Sunday at
Springfield, Long Island, aged ninety-four.

Str Charles Tapper, High Commissioner for Canada,
has received the following telegram from the Minister
of Agriculture :—" Total immigrants arrived in the
Dominion to end of July 72,21, against 59,939 same
date last year. Labour still much wanted."
M. Leon Poirier, of the Paris Geographial Society,
has left to that institution the third part of his large
fortune for the endowment of research.

At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
temperature last week was 62•3 deg,, which is identical
with the average in the corresponding week of the last
twenty year'.
Sir Moses Montefiore has sent to each of the fifteen
Jews recently acquitted in the Nyiregyhaza case a
letter exhorting them to remain faithful subjects of
their country. Each letter contained a £lO note.
The greater part of the village of Bersezio. in
Italy, has been deAroyed by fire. The flames Fpread
so rapidly that before they could be extinguished
forty-four dwellings had been entirely destroyed,
besides other damage done. A woman was burnt to
death, and three other persons sustained severe in-
juries.

Several German gentlemen are now on their way
to Canada for the purpose of personally inspecting
Manitoba and the N,rth-West Territory. Amongst
them is Prince Hohenlohe Langenbourg. A con-
siderable number of Germans in excess of those
arriving in any previous year have settled in the
country this season.
In Egypt considerable anxiety is felt regarding the
prospect of the cotton crop, owing to the heavy and
partially saline dew that has fallen recently. The
next eouple of weeks will be very critical, but should
the heat continue without an increase of dew, the pcds
will probably be ripe in fifteen days, and a good crop
may be expected.

Mr. Chamberlain has, after consultation with the
Law Officers of the Crown for Scotland, decided that
it would be impracticable to apply the provisions of
the Fishing Boats Bill to that part of the kingdom.
Scotland will, therefore, be excluded from the opera.
tion, of the Bill

Twenty British and foreign actual shipwrecks were
reported last week, agais.st ten at the corresponding
week of last year, making the total for the present
year 1,134 as compared with 910 in 1882. British.
owned vessels numbered 12 ; N lives were lost, against
18 sat year.

According to a report on the coral fishery, published
by the Italian Ministry of Commerce, it appears that
upwards of 4,000 men find occupation in that industry
each year, with an average take cf 66,000 kilogrammes,
valued at 4,200,000 f.

Many experiments have recently been made in the
cultivation of the tea plant in the United States, and
generally with excellent results. In California the
plant has been cultivated with considerable success.
A collision has occurred on a railway in Kentucky,
a train running into the last car of another train at a
crossing. The collision caused the explosion of 400
kegs of giant powder, whereby the station was wrecked
and the engine blown to atoms. The body of the
engine•driver was not found, and there were several
persons killed or injured.
A despatch from Smyrna reports the capture of four
brigand chiefs. Their bands were completely broken
up and dispersed, leaving many of their members dead
on the scene of action. A large number of prisoners
are in the hands of the authorities.

The Balloon Society, after hoaxing an address from
Captain Molesworth, has resolved that it is absolutely
necessary for the growing commerce between East and
West that a canal should be made by way of the River
Jordan and the Dead Sea from the Mediterranean to
the Red Sea.
Christ Church, Kensington, Liverpool, was:foreibly
entered during Sunday night. Some offertory boxes
were broken open and the contents stolen. The thieves
also drank two bottles of sacramental wine.
Among the victims at Casamicciola were a Signor
and Signora Bonavita, who left property worth
5,000,000 f., to which there is no direct heir. Their
relations, in order to determine the succession, have
petitioned to have the bodies disinterred, that by an
examination of the external injuries it may be ascer-
tained who died first.
The returns issued on Wednesday show that on the
last day of the first week of August 50,145 indoor and
34,291 outdoor paupers were relieved in the metropolis,
making a total of 84,436, as compared with 85,7i9 on
the corresponding date last year, 84,383 in 1881, and
82,651 in 1880. The number of vagrants relieved on
the same date was 484.
A few days ago, three young black storks that had
been taken in the forest of Count von Bernstorff, at
Trebel, near Salzwedel, in the province of Salzburg,
were sent as a present to the Duke of Cumberland at
Gmunden.

On Monday morning Sir Albert Woods, Garter
King of Arms, placed the banner and regalia of the
Duke of Grafton, one of the newly-created Knights of
the Garter, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
On Monday morning Joseph Hyde, engineer, threw
himself down a pit shaft at Dudley, because he had
allowed the boiler at the corporation baths to run
dry. He rushed out of the boiler-house shouting
"Ruin, ruin !" and at once jumped down the pit.
His body was fearfully mangled. He leaves a widow
and ten children.

The BOrsen Courier states that a landed proprietor
in the neighbourhood of Breslau named Schafer first
hanged his five young children and then himself.
The Guion Mail steamer Alaska has made another
of her usual fast passages, viz., seven days forty-seven
minutes. She left Queenstown on Sunday, August
12th, and arrived at New York at six a.m. on Sunday,
the 19th.
The supply of live stock, &c., from the United
States and Canada landed at Liverpool during last
week was a slight increase on that of the preceding
week, and the total arrivals amounted to 3,467 cattle,
6,761 sheep, 7,893 quarters of beef, and 555 carcases of
mutton, against a total of 3,327 cattle, 5,106 sheep,
7,785 quarters of beef, and 407 carcases of mutton for
the former week.
One of the New England manufacturing companies
has introduced an educational qualification into its
works and is said to be discharging all employes who
cannot read or write. Before doing so, an opportunity
was offered to all to qualify themselves, a night school
being established for that purpose.
A telegram has been received by the Lords of the
Admiralty stating that Prince George of Wales, in
H.M.S. Canada, arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland,
early on Monday morning, after an excellent passage
from Halifax, all being well.
The number of visitors to the Fisheries Exhibition
last Saturday was 20,153, making a total for last week
of 100,810. The total number from the opening of the
Exhibition has been 1,337,623.
The Spanish papers give details respecting the sur-
prise and plunder of the express train near Granollers.
The passengers, including several foreigners, were
robbed of their money and valuables, but their luggage
was left almost untouched. Thus an Englishman
saved £520 which was in a box. The brigands took
jewels, rings, and earrings from the ladies, but gal.
lantly allowed them to retain a few trinkets when told
they were family heirlooms, and to the poorer tra-
vellers they left a few coins each.
On Monday morning an alarming accident took
place at Selly Oak, a village three miles from Birming-
ham, An engine and a number of carriages left the
rails of the West Suburban Railway, and dashed into
the parapet of a bridge which it completely de-
molished. The driver find stoker managed to jump Great
from the engine, and so escaped injury. !irreat
injured
The was done to property, but no one was
The son of a pork butcher at Birmingham has jL at
died under peculiar circumstances. Six weeks ago he
was playing with a pig, when the animal bit him in
the hand. The lad was treated at the hospital, an
dfo• a time the wound seemed to be progressing
faetosily, but symptoms of blood poisoning set in and
i
the unfortunate boy died n great agony, frothing at
the mouth.
On Sunday a heavy storm fell upon the north-west
of Ontario. At Listowell there were two feet of water
in the streets. At Wingbam the river Maitland rose
twelve feet. A railway bridge and track were washed
away, and the country was covered to a depth of four
feet. The standing grain was destroyed.
The weekly Parliamentary Return of Public Bills
under conaideratif,n in the Hoipe of Commons during
the Session of 1883, issued on Monday, shows them to
have been 224 in number. Of these, up to Monday,
28 had received the itoyal assent, 21 had been passed,
and 36 still had to pass through one or more stages,
Of the 139 lost Bills which had occupied the attention
of the House of Commons, 73 had been dropped,
generally after second reading, 57 had been withdrawn,
and nine rejected.

The United Steamship Association of Copenhagen
has offered a free passage by their vessels to all Danish
fishermen desirous of visiting the Fisheries Exhibi-
tion

In Milwaukee the cigar makers on strike have been
defeated by the importation of workmen from Ger.
many.

It has been decided to hand over to the British
Museum the whole of the exhibits sent from the
Madras Presidency to the International Fisheries
Exhibition.

On Monday a large shed used for storing flax at
Dundee Harbour was burned, 150 tons of flax being
destroyed. The damage is estimated at £3,000.

- The Committee of the Daphne Disaster Fund have
granted 13s. 63. per week permanently to the fifty-
four widows, and have agreed to educate their 150
children.
In London, early on Wednesday morning, a young
woman, apparently about the age of 18, was observed
to mount the wall of the Victoria Embankment, near
the Temple Gardens, and throw herself into the
Thames. She is stated to have been dressed in black,
with a satin jacket, trimmed with crape.
Although a number of the colliers on strike in North
Staffordshire have returned to work, several thousand
men are still out, and at a meeting on Tuesday it was
thcided to continue the struggle.
Mangold crops throughout Cheshire are reported to
have been entirely destroyed by insect pests. The
insects attacked the young plants as anon as they ap-
peared, and whole fields are barren.
The lung plague among the cattle at Salem, Massa-
chusetts, began a month ago. It is reported that
several cattle have died, having been quarantined by
order of the State Commissioners.
The conscience money received by the English
Chancellor of the Exchequer during the last financial
year represents an unacknowle3ged income of
£317,472,
The Lori Mayor of London has received from the
Mayor of Warrnamhool, Victoria, a draft for £3OO for
the relief of the distress in the Western Isles and
Highlands of Scotland.
A boiler exploded at the Star Paper Mill, Fennis-
cowles, near Blackburn, on Tuesday. A man named
Arnold was killed, and another man seriously injured.

Last week's receipts of cotton at all United States
ports were 10,000 bales; since Ist September, 5,941,000
bales. Week's exports to Great Britain, 14,000 bales;
to the Continent. 2,000 bales; total since Ist Sep-
tember, 4,650,000 bales. Stock at all ports, 265,000
bales.

A telegram has been received at the India Office
from the Viceroy, dated Simla, August 14th, calling
attention to the rapid increase of deaths from cholera
at Bombay. During the fortnight ending July 7 the
mortality was 32, and in the next fortnight 10q,
whereas for the last fortnight the deaths from choldb,
numbered 202.
The Blue Book containing a return of the judicial
rents fixed during May shows that the Sub-Commis,
sioners fixed judicial rents in 3,954 cases, involving a
total reduction of rent from £68,989 7s. 90. to
£55,015 is. 30. During the same period the Irish
Civil Bill Courts dealt with 161 cases, reducing the
rent total from £4,119 ss. 3d. to £3,318 14s. 7d.
A most glaring case of brigandage in Turkey was
recently reported. From the particulars since received
it appears that upwards of a hundred men made a
descent on Florian, about six hours from Salonica,
and captured the Governor, the Cadi, and all the
members of the Coancil which happened to be sitting.
A ransom of £20,000 is demanded,

An important discovery relating to Swiss history
has been made at Barcelona. Her Schaller, of Berne,
has found there, among some papers belonging to the
State, the archives of the Swiss Regiments in the
service of Spain; and at the instance of the Federal
Council, these documents, which are said to be equally
valuable and interesting, have been presented to
Switzerland, and are now in Berne.

Dr. Daniel Ashbury, of North Carolina, is prepar-
ing for a public aiirial ascension and sail. The two
canvas wings of his flying machine stretch thirty feet
broad from tip to tip, and all the man-bird has to do
to regulate his flight, so the report states, is to work a
a pedal like that of a sewing machine,
On Wednesday morning a carter named Charles
Hersey, together with the horse and cart of which he
was in charge, were swept sway by the tide at
Chiswick draw-lock. He was watering his horse, and,
it is supposed, went too far. His body was recovered.
The horse and cart wece found about a mile down the
Thames.
At Lincoln on Monday, an inquest was held on the
body of a child, aged three and a-half years, named
Walter Walker, son of a foundryman, which was
missed on Sunday. On a search being instituted the
mother found it heels upwards in a swill-tub, quite
dead. A verdict of accidentally suffocated was re-
turned.
—7l-Ee Directors of the Florida Ship Canal and Transit
Company have approved the report of the chief
engineer, which estimates the cost of a canal 1371
miles long, allowing the passage of two steamers of
the first class, at 46,000,000 dole. It will save a
distance between New Orleans and Liverpool of 412
miles.
An "Allotments Extension Association " is being
formed to aid in carrying out the new Act which
directs that the Trustees of Charity Lands left in
trust for the benefit of the poor shall offer such lands
in allotments, not exceeding one acre each, to
labourers and others who may apply for them.
The official statistics of the foreign trade of France
from the Ist of January to the 31st of July, 1883, show
that the total of the imports amounts to 2,801,634,000 f.
which, compared with the same period last year, is an
increase of 58,343,000 f. The exports amount to
1,953,304,000 f., which is, compared with the first
seven months of last year, a decrease of 50,077,000 f.
A strike commenced on Monday amongst the tin
plate workers employed at Birmingham owing to the
employers attempting to reduce wages and to intro-
duce boy labour. The men are supported by the
Society, so that a protracted struggle is anticipated.
A way to measure the speed of trains is to count the
number of fish plates passed in 14isec. in the case of
ordinary rails 21.1 t. long, and in the case of steel rails,
which average in length 301 1,, 20isec.—the number of
plates passed in the time stated being equal to the
number of miles travelled per hour.
James Kelly, 23, who was sentenced to death at the
last Sessions of the Central Criminal Court for the
murder of his wife, Sarah Ann Kelly, and who was to
have been executed last Monday morning, has, by
order of the Home Secretary, been reprieved, and his
sentence altered to penal servitude for life. The con-
demned man, who had given up all hopes of his life
being spared, was informed of the fact on Saturday.

Mr. Gladstone has declined the invitation of Mr.
G. Barnsley, the Master Cutler elect of Sheffield, to
be present at his feast in September. The right hon.
gentleman states that the orders of his physician pre.
chide him from undertaking any duties of the nature
of a public entertainment which can possibly be
avoided.
On Saturday Mr. H. P. Foster, a member of the
Portsmouth Town Council, was presented with a silver
medal for having, a few days previously, rescued from
drowning Mr. Cotton, manager to a local firm of
hosiers, who suddenly became faint and sank while
bathing at Southsea. Mr. Forster dived in after him,
and succeeded, after much difficulty, in bringing him
ashore.

The emp.loyers of the !late Mr. William Spottis-
woode, President of the Royal Society, have resolved
to erect a monument to his memory, which will be
placed in front of her Majesty's printing office in
London. Mr. Bolt has been commissioned to execute
the work.
It is stated upon good authority that in the counties
of Waterford, Tipperary, and Kilkenny there is not
visible the slightest trace of potato disease, and that
the crop bids fair to be one of the best and most abut'
dant for many years.

A New York telegram says that the visible supply
of wheat on Aug. 17, was 20,400,000 bushels, as against
18,800,000 bushels the previous week. Visible supply
of Indian corn 10,800,000 bushels, as against 10,900,000
bushels the previous week. The export clearances of
wheat for Europe during last week amounted to
1,500,000 bushels. The export clearances of Indian
corn for Europe during last week amounted to 940,000
bushels.

The Daily News says that arrangements have been
made for the issue early in the Recess of an instructive
paper showing the number of days the House of Com-
mons sat in the Sessipn now closing, the total number
of hours occupied in lhe sittings, and the average tirak
also showing the number of hours during which itho
House sat each day, and the number of hours after
midnight,

In London, on Tuesday, a public meeting was held
at the Mansion House in aid of the fund now being
raised for the sufferers by the earthquake at Ischia.
Resolutions were passed commending the Lord
Mayor's appeal for aid to relieve the sufferers, anci
appointing an executive committee. Among the
speakers were Sir A. Lusk, M.P., who occupje".; the
chair, Sir Julian Goldsmid, Mr. S. Morley, If., Mr.
Alderman Whitehead, and Mr. Vitali.
At the Liverpool Police-court, on Tuesday, James
Macdermott, who a fortnight ago was arrested on
board the City of Montreal on its arrival in Liverpool
from New York, on a charge of being concerned in
the dynamite conspiracy with the other men recenVy
sentenced to penal servitude for life, was again brought
up. The prosecution asked for another remand, which
was granted.

A young man named Reeve, who was bathing off
the Ramsgate sands on Monday, narrowly escaped
drowning. He sank twice, when two gentlemen swain
out to his rescue. Meanwhile, however, a bath ng-
machine attendant, named John Burvill, went to
Reeve's assistance at the same moment, and hay ng
secured him, brought him with considerable difficulty
to shore, amidst the cheers of the spectators, who
raised a subscription for Burvill.

A shock of
,earthquake sufficiently strong to move
beds and displace crockery recently occurred at
Scbuols, Pontresina, and Te.rasp, in the Engadine.
The bhock was preceded by a violent storm and
heralded by a peal of subterranean thunder.
The Paris Temps asserts that there is a woman living
in the village of Auberire•en-Royans, in the depart-
ment of the Isere who was born on March 16th, 1761,
and is consequently in her 123rd year. Her name is
Marie Durand; she was born at St. Just-de-Claire;
was married on December 30th, 1783, to Claude Girard,
who was born in 1749; and she has been a widow for
96 years.

In the annual statement relative to the orphan
houses at Ashley Down, Bristol, it is stated that since
the establishment of the institution. 6,685 bereaved
persons have been under its care; five large buildings
at an expense of £115,000 have been erected, and
£638,339 has been given for the orphans without any
appeal, but simply as the result of faith and prayer to
God, The year had been commenced with 2,000
orphans and 110 helpers and a balance of only 13s. 7d.,
but the Income had reached £28,800.