The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-01-22 00:00:00

triE STOtTEBRIDGE OBSERVER.

piece-work where the Workman has not done 50 per
oent. more work in the same time, and increased his
wages in the same proportion. In the great majority
of cases, the skilful and industrious workman has
doubled his wages.
Convinced that our future supremacy as a manufac-
turing nation depends on our recognition of so vital a
principle as payment according to skill and industry, I
have ventured to trottble you with this experience of a
MA.NUFACTI7RER.
London, Jan. 14.

A NOVEL CONSIGNMENT BY POST.
The arrangements of the Post Office are in some
respects inimical to private enterprise, and it was but
the °User day that a person residing at some distance
from Dantzic, having been requested by the proprietor of
a menagerie in that town to forward two hares to his
address, found himself confronted by a postal regula-
tion forbidding the transmission of live animals by
Post (says the Pall Mall Gazette). It then occurred to
him to chloroform the hares, carefully caloulating the
dose in order that they might remain in an insensible
condition until delivered. But the train was late, the
parcels were verified, and laid aside in the sorting room
to be sent out next morning. Accordingly a sorter
entered the room at dawn, went through the letters
and parcels, and missed "108. two hares." He looked
for them high and low, but in vain. This disappear-
ance seemed inexplicable; the lock .of the door was
intact, the window barred, and the whole staff unani-
mously declared that the parcel of game was there the
night before. As the bewildered sorter again looked
round the apartment, one of the hares shot by him,'
followed by the other, on the back of which the Post
Office stamp 108 was plainly visible, and both darted
out at the open door. This was too much for the
nerves of the sorter, who almost fell to the ground in
astonishment and horror; and the thought of the
spectral hares would long have embittered his lonely
hours had not the proprietor of the menagerie called
to inquire after the expected consignment, and ex-
plained the circumstances. It is needless to add that
108 and his companion have not been seen since their
hurried exit from the Dantzic Post Office.

which" would make leading opera singers or ballet
dancers jealous. But the reserved lake, with its ball-
room manners by broad daylight, a talk full of refine-
ment, its girdle of handsome carriages, is a less ani-
mated spectacle than th,-, bottom of the lake given up
to the puhlic from the bridge separating the two parts
of the lake surrounding the small islano There
is a curious and lively spectacle, the syrrcunding
snow making more prominent its somewhat sombre
character. There the skaters could be counted to-day
by hundreds, the spectators by thousands, the small
bridge itself being crammed with the latter to such a
degree as to soh-e a problem in mechanics. Apart,
however, from this coup d'ccil, taken as a whole, the
crowd had not a gay aspect, but seemed crawling.
rew of the softer set ventured on skating, and those
only very cautiously, for it is difficult to fall grace-
fully on ice. To seek bold and elegant lady skaters,
therefore, you must go elewhere, where a lady runs
no risk, but is confident of her talent and success. The
small fauteuils a traincaux are commoner and simpler
on the public lake, and most of their occupants have
the air of being seated behinda drapery or perfumery
count'er. Skating, however, on this scale, is so rare a
thing in Paris that enjoyment beamed on every face,
and on the way home there were bursts of merriment
as if on the return from the fair of Suresnes or St.
Cloud.

GERMAN IMMIGRANTS in AUSTRALIA.
Advices from Australia bring the intelligence that
extraordinary disclosures have been made respecting
the proceedings of a band of German immigrants who
came to the colony in the Sontersetshire last April.
They were induced to leave a small village in Silesia
ailed Habaau, in consequence of the prophecies of
an epileptic woman named Maria Heller, who pre-
dicted a terrible war in Europe, and declared
Australia to be the only safe place in the world.
Arrived in the colony, they took up land on
the hill plains, in the north-eastern district, living
togetfier and having all their property in com-
mon. They soon expended their small capital, and
became miserably destitute. They were assisted with
food for a time by a settler in the district, who was a
fellow-countryman, but they quarrelled with their
benefactor because he wished them to leave their camp
and obtain work. The woman Heller, who was im-
plicitly obeyed, as being under direct influence from
Heaven, forbade anything of the kind, and the unfor-
tunate people have been struggling on in a state
of semi-starvation, having little to eat but flour
and a few vegetables. In order to keep the com-
munity together, and so to retain control over them,
the woman Heller would not allow any assistance
to be asked for either in the shape of food or medi-
cal attendance, the result being that many of the
poor creatures have been almost starved to death.
Eight have died and been buried on the pllins, and a
boy and a young man are now in a very bad state
from scurvy. The camp of these unfortunate crea-
tures being far removed from any township, their con-
dition was not known until a few days ago. Upon in-
formation reaching the Government, Inspector Brook
Smith was osdered to visit the place and render
assistance if necessary. He did so, and found the
state of affairs to be as already described. On behalf
of the Government he ordered provisions to be sent,
and a medical man has also been sent to the spot to
render assistance.

person buried was Wolfgang Mozart, and he wus a com-
poser of music. They placed the coffin in a common grave,
covered it with earth—at which proceeding the grave-
digger assisted; but few persons visited the grave in the
next few years, and later no one at all visited it, or
troubled themselves aboy,t the distinguished dead. But
he, the gravedigger' upon whom the music in
Stephen's Cathedral had made such a deep impression,
after many years, when the bodies were exhumed,
went to the grave and took from the coffin (in which
lay the last remains of 'Mozart) the skull of that distin-
guished composer, and this skull he had preserved until
that moment as a most sacred relic.—London Medical
Record.