The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-28 00:00:00

JOCULAR CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN
PAPERS.
The Boston servant girl carries a roll of music in
her ham' as she goes out to walk, and thousands of people
take her to be an opera singer.

When Jeff Davis re-enters the Senate he will open
his arst speech with, "As I was saying here when ray re-
marks were interrupted by a noticeable incident "-

A Ridgefield man has invented a chair which can be
adJustedto 8,000 different positions. It is designed for a boy
to sic in when having his hair cut.

A woman witnessed an earthquake in Venezuela
last month, and when the upheaval had ceased and the
reverberation stopped, she exclaimed, "Oh, how sweet! it's
too lovely for anything.
Mr. Edison's latest novelty, according to Josh
Billings, is an air-tight trunk. The keyhole is hung on a
strap and fastened to the handle.
The American Rochefoucauld says :—Few people
are wise, and fewer are weatherwise ; but many are other-
wise.
Brigham Young spoke a few words of wisdom to a
meeting before departing to the eternal hunting ground (for
new wives). Ile said "Young men, be sure that you are
thorough with your search for the kind of partner you want;
be sure you have got the pattern of a woman that suits you,
before leading her to the altar. Don't wait until after mar-
riage, as I did, and then be obliged to keep on sampling."
A California paper says' the Japanese "will win
universal respect by a sort of heathenish habit they have of
minding their own business."

THE SCHOOL BOARD.—Mistress: "Now, Mary, you
will see that the work is all properly done in time."—
Mary: "Yes, ma'am, if nothing should intervene to
impede."—Fun.
A SuBTERRANEAN LAKE.—A singular phenomenon
has just occurred in the environs of the village of
Clauzel, near Bona, Algeria. About a week ago,
during a violent storm, a shock of earthquake was felt.
Au enormous rock was detached from a neighbouring
mountain, leaving exposed a large opening. Some
inhabitants of the country have penetrated the grotto
to a certain distance, and found themselves in presence
of a subterranean lake, neither the extent nor the
depth of which can be judged at present. The water
is almost as cold as ice and as smooth as a sheet of
glass, and yet, in the distance, a noise is heard re.
sernbling the falling of a cascade.

OH OH !—ln Most countries the field-labourer is
the happy peasant. In Kent he is the hoppy peasant.
—Punch,

THE SPARROWS OF NEW YORK.

The rcizi of New York is seriously exercised at
present by the quastion of sparrows, and residents in
that city are variously deciding whether the little
birds ought to be encouraged or exterminated (re-
marks the Standard). Years ago the parks of New
York and all the walks bordered by trees were ren-
dered disagreeable by certain "inch-worms," which
bred in great numbers, passed a gluttonous life on the
branches, and when too corpulent or apopletic to hold
on any longer, dropped for choice on the hats and coats
of passers-by. "Having alighted on a coat the worm
began a rapid march, measuring his own length at each
stride, and inevitably crawling into the neck or up the
sleeve of the person upon whom he had alighted.
What with the fear of having three or four worms
crawling down one's back or dangling over the hat-
brim into one's eyes, the parks, at the season of the
year when the worms flourished, became exceedingly
disagreeable places to pass through. The result was
that they were avoided, and for the time abandoned
to the ravages of the inch-worms." At length It was
suggested that the nuisance would probably disappear
if some English sparrows were imported, and cages of
our familiar London friends were shipped to New
York. The monotony of the voyage, however, was
too much for the sparrows, and they amused themselves
by fighting. The cages were speedily found to be
littered with blood and feathers, and on an average
only about ten out of a hundred arrived. Separate
cages were tried with more success, and when the
sparrows reached New York they made very short
work of the inch-worms. This was eighteen years
ago; and now some inhospitable persons assert
that the sparrows are worse than the worms,
and propose the extermination of their guests.
The native impudence of the English sparrow
is in no way checked in his new home. Sparrows
swarm like flies. The writer from whom these details
are borrowed complains of their impudence, and
especially of one felonious bird which stole some pieces
of " cracker" from the very plate from which this
scribe was eating. The sparrows do not even respect
the American eagle himself, and on the shoulders of
one of these birds, fixed over the Arsenal, a daring
couple of sparrows have for the last four or five years
produced and educated many broods. One complaint
against the sparrow is that it drives away and kills
other little birds. "Until its appearance the common
song birds of the country were sometimes seen in the City
parks, and it was common to find wrens,blue birds, yellow
birds, chipping sparrows, bobolinks, and phcebe birds in
Central Park, where they nested and raised their
young. All of these birds have disappeared, not only
from Central Park, but from the neighbourhood of
towns and villages where the sparrows abound." Even
pigeons are assaulted by these belligerent little
creatures. A few years ago pigeons were compara-
tively common, but "their right to feed in the streets
has been disputed by the sparrows so persistently that
they have yielded their old feeding.grounds to the
new-comers, and now keep to their coops; but even
there they are not safe from the incursions of thew
chattering enemies, who pursue them without fear
into their own quarters, robbing them of their
food, and worrying them until pigeon life in
the City must be a good deal of a burden." They are
no more civil to the farmers than to the pigeons, and
agriculturists complain loudly of their depredations on
the young crops. Only a few cagefuls were in the first
instance shipped to America; but as it is calculated
that a four-year old sparrow dies with some 30,000 or
40,000 very near relatives, none of them more than four
removes away, exterminating the descendants of the
few originals would be, if it were undertaken, a task
of some magnitude, We hope severe measures may not
be put in force against the American cousins of our
London birds; but the sparrow pan be trusted.to take
pretty good care of himself, however enemies may
conspire against him.