The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-11-18 00:00:00

)hia

A G.B.ASSHOPPER PEST. —Tilo
Correspondent of The Times writes under date October

27 :
" The Governors of Minnesota, lowa, Missouri, Kansas,
Nebraska, and Dakotah have been in conference this week
at Omah to devise means to extirpate the grasshopper, which
has made such havoc among the Western crops. They have
adopted resolutions calling upon the Legl,latures et the
States and Territories affected to offer bounties for the.
destruction of grasshopper eggs and the null:Aged insects,
and to pass laws to prevent the destruction of birds feeding
upon the insects. The Federal Congress is also to be
memorialized to pass similar laws."
THE RUSSIAN FLEET.—When he cuts and
runs.—Punch.
OREGON SALMON. —The Portland Oregonian
•states that during this fishing season there have been
18 salmon canneries on the Lower Columbia River.
and that they have put up 428,730 cans. Of these, over
4 0,000 cases contained four dozen 1,11). tins, and the re-
mainder censisted of 21b. and 21)).* tins. Over 100,000
cases have been shipped direct from Asforia 'tee Eng-
Und in the paet.theee months., .
DEAvustrAji4AFALGAR lIERO.—The Dundee
Advertiser announnes the death of James Chapman,
who fought at Trafalgar. He was born in 1784, and in
1803, when with his ship in the Thames, was pressed
into the IL9yoel Apvy. He was put on board the
Victorg, aricreerver two 'years under Lord Nelson and
Waii,present•VilienAlea Admiral was mortally wounded.
Mr. Chapman'. lead now pension, but received the
Trafalgar and 'Victoria medals. He was never ,
,wounded. _ ,
FLOWERS OF FASHION.—DIeSSMaker ; "How
would you like the dress made?"—Cook : "The latest
fashion, in corirse."—Dressmaker e "A pocket, I sup-
pose ?"—Cook : "No 1 Everybody wears pockt2ts
now-adaya: "Even minis and you* miss has 'em 1' :
Punch. ,:1) ','' .
' SOMETHING LIKE A BEARD !—A member of
the Humboldt County Pioneers has a beard five feet
in length. It has been growing ten years, and had it
not been -for an attack of- sickness it would have been
. several inches longer. Already it is almost to the
ground, and as the owner walked the streets recently a
crowd of people surrounded him at every turn and
bored him with the u•-nal interrogatives incident to
such a strange eight. The pioneer who boasts of this
beard signifies his intention of exposing it to the public
gaze only upon each anniversary of the society of
which he is atespected member: '
A Flew . WORDS ON -OROS. —"A School-
master "writes tfethe Dailg -Rye :--" I am sure that.
many schoolmasters who are stiuggling against the
superstitions which their aneegors have bequeathed to
them 'will thank you for your sensible leader of to-day.
leen oue-ef the few maisfere,perhape, whoihave eintie
cjpated. Mr. Duff's suggestion to make' Use of cribs.
As Soon as
.a boy knows his grammar fairly vvell,aied
has gone through an easy prose construing book, I
allow him the use of a literal translation. It is simply
a waste of time to make boys puzzle their brains for
hours over Eta passage of Jiivenal or-Sophocles, when
the thing can be explained to them in a few minutes. It
is nonsense to talk about the mental training to be
derived from this process. The vast majority of boys'
have learned by long experience that it is quite useless
for them to try and 'make sense' and content them-
selves with looking out the words, (another much over-
rated mental gymnastic) . I can only say that since I
have allowed my upper clasees cribs the
_work has im-
proved in quality and quantity to an amazing 'extent,
and there are few, boys in them who cannot construe. at
sight Moderately difficult Latin and Greek. - e• •
A DIFFICULT SURGICAL OPERATION.— The
Gazette des Hopitaux of Paris records 'the 'Successful
performance at a rare and difficult operation by Dr.
Vermeil), at the Hospital de is Pitie. A lad of seven-
teen having swallowed a quantity of solution of caustic
potass, the upper orifice of the cesophagus become so
constricted that death from inanition was feared. A
large elastic tube was therefore inserted in an incision
made in the stomach, and through this tube he has
been fed with soup, fine chopped meat, mashed vege-
tables, and driek. He is said now to be in good health,
and to have almost as much strength and energy as
before the accident, being able to help the hospital
assistants in their work. This is said to be the first
time such an operation has been performed succese-
fully.
THE DAYS -OF STAGE-COACHING. -- Between
1833 and 1831 stage-coaching had reached perfections
says the New Qu,arter:y Magazine, and there was quite
an army of first-class whips, professional and amateurs
ready to take the reins and keep time at a moment's
notice. In 1830 the Independent Tally-ho did the cne
hundred and nine miles from London to Birminghane
En seven hours and thirty-nine minutes. The Edie-
burgh Mail ran four hundred miles in forty hours,
stoppages included • the Exeter Day Coach one
hundred and seventy-three miles in twenty hours. The
Mail to Holyhead, in 1833, performedthe journey, two
hundred and sixty-one miles in twenty-seven hours—
twelve 'thileS 'an hour, including stopping for refresh-
ment and changing horses, the latter averaging a
'minute at each change, was a usual pace. These fast
coaches required nearly a horse to every mile
--
for one hundred and fifty miles one hundred and
fifty horses. The Liverpool and Manchester Railroad
was opened for traffie in 1834. Before the trains
began to run clear-sighted coach owners saw that their
trade was doomed. Mr. Brotherton, the great coach
proprietor, soon after the opening of the Liverpool and
Manhhester Railway, tried an experiment which satisfied
him that horses could not compete with steam. He hit
Tiled a party of friends to travel free by a special four'
horse coach from Liverpool to Manchester, and -gave
'them a luncheon at the end of the journey. A member
of the Common Council!of London, who is still-living,
,was one of the party ; the distence was done splendidly
-- atebt, ...Z.ters 4g• V llourri-- bfro 1n0n......44,-. Wal spoken
'of with great contempt in the' luncheon sp'ecaee;- oat
Mr. Brothetteti soon took his coaches off all the rode,
an retired on a well-earned fortune.
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