The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-14 00:00:00

olr Tcritcrit Crirrtsfonbmt.

tWe deem it right to state that we do net at all UMW
Ldentizy ourselves with otir Correspondent's opinions.]

Although the King and Queen of Denmark moved
about the capital in a very unostentatious manner
during their stay in this country, their departure
seem to haste left the metropolis more dull than it was
before. The Queen will not be horn from Scotland
until the-end of November, by which time the Marquis
of Lome and the Princess Louise will have left for.
Canada, whence they will not return for several years.
The Crown Princess of Germany and the Grand
Duchess of Hesse, better known as the Princess Alice,
are residents in a foreign land; the Duke and Duchess
of Edinburgh now live more abroad than at home; the
delicate health of Prince Leopold does not enable him
to take an active part in -public life; and Princess
Beatrice has not yet gone out into the world.
It will be seen, therefore, that the members of
our Royal Family, although 53 numerous, are
scattered far and wide, and that the per-
formance of ceremonial duties now falls upon a
very
_few. There are but few of these just now; for
the higher classes all go out of town, and the presence
of a King and Queen, like their Majesties of Denmark
is an event which is appreciated in proportion to its
rarity. But they have gone, after a stay more than
usually prolonged, back to their weather-beaten king-
dom in the northern sea. Its population is little more
than half that of London; for three of its duchies,
Sehieswig, Holstein, and Lauenberg, with a million of
, people, were taken from it by the German Powers in
1864. It is a curious fact in political history, that the
- 'government of Great Britain made an offer to France
fifteen • years ago, with a view of forcibly preventing
the intrigues which those Powers were then carrying
on in the Duchies, and that the Emperor Napoleon
replied -that however important as British interest this
might .be, it was no concern of France. Behold the
result, only six years after France had thus refused
her 'co-operation, Prussia, aggrandised by the acqui-
sition of the Duchies, next attacked Austria, driving
her out of Germany, and in 1870 closed with France
herself, leading the Emperor captive, and overturning
a. , his throne. The early days of September in that year
witnessed the culmination of these disasters.
'T A few months ago it was announced in Parliament
that the Shah of Persia intended to pay this country
a visit during the summer, for the purpose of visiting
some of our large manufacturing towns, with a view
of making his sojourn a practical lesson, and not
merely a pleasure trip. Londoners have a lively re-
collection of the Shah's stay amongst them in 1873,
when this Oriental Sovereign created an immense
sensation; so much indeed that when the Czar
came over here in the following year very little
attention was paid to him, although he was a
potentate of infinitely greater impertance. But the
Bummer has passed away, and though the Shah
came as far as Paris, he has not ventured across the
Channel. When. he was here last, concessions were
obtained from him with the view of introducing into
Pirsia the civilization of the progressive western lands,
end the development of its resources by the making of
roads and the construction of railways. Some of these
schemes have come to naught, partly through the com-
mercial paralysis, and to some extent owing to the
apathy of the people themselves. The intellect of the
Persian does not advance with the march of Time.
There was a period in the world's history when he
was capable of accomplishing great deeds, as for in-
stance when the engineers attached to the army of
Cyrus diverted the river Euphrates from its course,
and enabled the troops to pass over the bed of the
stream into the besieged city of Babylon, on the night
when King Belshazzar was slain. But it would ap-
pear that when the eastern mind reaches a certain
stage, it
eis capable of no further progress. For
• , ' ages upon age? Persia has not only stood still, but
has actually retrograded; while other once powerful
peoples, such as Assyria and Babylon, have
.altogether
.disappeared from the stage upon which they played so
prominent a part.
The English capitalist is übiquitous. He has large
'mils of money lying idle, and has an eagle eye fpr ell
s• • ',opportunities of making it productive. Persia, as
, e :already noticed, has been a field for the exercise of his
energies. Then we have Egypt, and Cyprus, and Asia
Minor. It eeems that since the assumption of the Eng-
lish proteptorate over the Asiatic territories of the Porte,
the authorities in the Turkish capital have received

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• • numerous_ applications from railway and mining,
i.e./ figs speculator, who are anxious to improve the communi-
;4o.Elfs;-.4-w., qation,and to develop the resources of the country. A
speculator ;Li, however, a term of wide interpreta-
-lion,— What- one man might describe as a specu-
-w"4 ;- rtin 'an k• rn
an • othiA regard
t as a piece of enter-
, . • - °
priA'and a third as a perfectly safe thing to do. The
••=.11:04011 . fact, ayev,er sands that English money in abundance
it4l;rr, 2;3, at the, disposal of the Porte for relieving Asia
',linor from the stagnation from which it has suffered
.441 '4444' during,centhries of • Turkish rule. The land can be
cultivated, Its mineral wealth utilised, and railways
' made if its Ottoman governors are willing. But it
Skeen
jigria appears that most of the projects have been referred
• is back to the Grand Vizier by the Council of State, as
40*-- " unworthy of being seriously entertained. Yet it is
•"4 444 obvious that if Asia Minor is to be regenerated, and its
mit r_
decaying cities freshened into anything like the active
.st!
life which according to the pages of history they once
OP,^:, enjoyed, it must be by the application of such skill
41 VI and industry as that which this country is enabled to
" set in motion, and is totally foreign to the ideas of the
Turk. To sit cross-legged in the sun, to smoke a
Arit
ChibOuque, and to sip hot coffee the live-long day, is
LLwz e not to make the best of a splendid climate and a
•Af luxurious soil, which would be the envy and the ad-
dt miration of the hard-working agriculturists in our
'2'l C'• less favoured latitudes—less favoured, at least, in such
respects as these.' • •

•••14 A • •

,14tV

Twelve months ago the votaries of science rose
rejoicing over the wonders of the Telephone; now the
Phonograph has suddenly claimed the public atten-
tion. The invention is still in its infancy, and it is
therefore impossible as yet to form an adequate idea
as to the practical application of this marvellous in-
strument. Certainly our friends across the Atlantic
have sent us quite a variety of good things. They

preserve vast quantities of beef and fish for us in
--!eases of tin; and in the phonograph they treasure
up sound for us in sheets of foil. The Americans
claim for the phonograph that a man's last will
and testament need no longer be engrossed on
sheets of parchment, but it may be laid past
for years in phonographic tinfoil, which will pre-
erve the very accents of the testator. It is even
declared that had we had the phonograph some time
since, it might have been so improved that a few
of the great Theresa Titiens's songs might now be
enioyed by us, notwithstanding the fact that the
gi.ted prima donna is no more. Truly enough we live
in days of extraordinary achievements, and it is satis-
factory to note that the inventive intellect of man is
not Entirely devoted to the devising of weapons of
destruction. The costly ironclad which sails the seas
is in her fittings and arrangements a marvel of human
ingenuity, but surely nothing can surpass the triumph
• of ti mechanical agency which preserves the sound of
the human voice long after the author of the utter-
ands has passed away. "He being dead yet
speaketh," here assumes a new and literal signifi-
cance. •

This subject is suggestive of another intimately
bearing upon the properties and effects of sound. An
- eminent writer has propounded the theory that a
sound once launched upon the atmosphere is never
lost. It may float away beyond the reach of human
ears, but it still lives amid the undulating waves of
air which surround us. Thus if the atmosphere pos-
sessed the same properties as the light of the sun, and
extended to all created things, according to this
theory the sounds given forth in one world might
be wafted to another, and the bells chiming upon
the earth might be carried far away to Mars, our next
ntizhbour upon the one side, or to Venus, our nearest
r! acquaintance on the other. The moon is not peopled,
so we could hear nothing from our faithful satel-
lite; and it would be too distant a journey to
Jupiter, which, we are told by astronomers, has been
• cooling for thousands of years, being now in the condi-
tion of our own globe at the creation, "without form
ajacl ijoid,", and perfectly uninhabitable. But Alpine
:tlia„vediera, who have witnessed disastrous effects result
ing,fivin the faintest sound, tell us that the slightest
• cantle of movement or the smallest shock may cause
the. fall of enormous avalanches. The start of a bird,
. a cry, sometimes even words pronounced in a low tone,
are sufficient to produce a catastrophe. In dangerous
'places the guides recommend those under their charge
to observe an absolute silence, lest even an uttered
syllable should snap in twain the frail filaments of ice
which bind the anew to the slopes, of the mountains
and cause the avalanche to carry ruin and devastation
into the valley beneath.
The yield of the harvest is generally a question
which transcends in interest most others, political or
social, fcr it is not only this or that particular
party or sect which is affected by the result, but the
whole community. The capricious weather in the
ilritiah Islands must always render the harvest more
or less a matter of uncertainty; for there are few
Years like those of 1868 and 1870, when rainless weeks
and months passed over the land, Perhaps there is
no celebration in the year, if we except Christmas,
which in surrounded with so many quaint customs
as that of Harvest Home. In his search after
recreatim and rest the dweller in the town leaves it in
the autumn for a quiet country district, and makes his
sojours there just as the harvesting season is in
progress. On a fine night, beneath the broad
beams I a full moon, :le is clnfrouted with a