The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-16 00:00:00

POST OFFICE FACTS.

If the work and business of the Post Office In 1875 be
described on the principle of average, the following results
are shown, remarks The Times :

The post carried 31 letters for every man, woman,
and child in the United Kingdom; or in detail, 35 each
In England and Wales, 26 in Scotland. 13 in Ireland.
There was a registered letter in the year for one in
every seven or eight persons in the United Kingdom.
The postman brought eight newspapers or book
packets for every person, and his load of post cards
was sufficient to allow every person to be addressed
at least twice in the year (most of them thrice) by open

poet card.
Telegrams are to letters as 1 to 50, and the number
of telegrams sent in 1875 was nearly equal to two-thirds
of the population, a telegram to each of two persons in
every three.
The inland money orders were equal in number to
half the population, one for every two persons; in
England three money orders to every five persons, in
Scotland two to every five persons, in Ireland one to
every five persons.
The depositors in Post Office Savings Banks in the
United Kingdom were one in about 18 of the popula-
tion; one in about 14 in England and Wales, one in
about 69 in Scotland, one in about 89 in Ireland.
Including the trustee Savings Banks as well as those
of the Post Office, one in every ten persons In the
United Kingdom had money in a savings bank in 1875,
but in truth the proportion was larger, because penny
banks and other associations placing their fluids in
these savings banks must represent a considerable
number of constituents or depositors.

The 36,393 Post Office letter carriers, sorters' and
messengers at the end of 1875 constitute one to 2,000
of population.
,rlc., ui

FATAL CARRIAGE ACCIDENT.
On Saturday afternoon an inquest was held at
Ampthill Park House, Bedfordshire, the seat of the
Hon. William Lowther, M.P., on the body of Miss Mil.
dred Alice, aged 16, fifth child of Mr. and Mrs. Lowther.
From the evidence it appeared that the deceased, with
her sister Cecily Mabel (14), and her brothers Henry
Cecil (7), and Harold Arthur (12), were proceeding on
the previous afternoon in a wagonette to the neighbour-
ing rectory of Marston Moreteyne to attend a har-
vest festival. The younger boy sat with the
young ladies in the waggonette, and the elder beside the
driver. On descending a steep hill at Millbrook the
horse began to kick violently, breaking the breeching
and kicking strap. This was adjusted by the coach-
man, but directly after he had mounted again the
horse took to flight at full speed along the winding and
extremely dangerous road. Near Mrs. George's farm
Miss Cecily Mabel jumped out of the waggonette from
behind and fell on the road, and directly afterwards
Miss Mildred, who had been standing up ready to
jump out, seems to have fallen orrer accidentally. This
was witnessed by a dealer named Gillett, who had
turned his trap aside to let the runaway pass. Miss
C. Mabel was at once attended to by Mr. George's
sons, and did not appear to be fatally injured.
Her sister, however, wa3 found smothered in
blood, which was gushing from her nose and mouth,
and he was removed to her home in Gillett's
trap. Mr Shinn, surgeon, Arcipthill, was promptly in
attendance, but the young lady's skull had been frac-
tured, and death shortly supervened, she having been
unconscious to the end. Meanwhile the younger of
the boys had jumped out also but sustained no injury,
while the coachman and Master Harold retained their
seats, until near the gates of the level crossing of the
Bletchley and Cambridge Railway the coachman
turned the horse into the yard of Mr. Gray, at the
Station Hotel, where a wall stopped his mad career.
Had the young ladies remained lathe wagonnette they
would have been safe. The inry returned a verdict of
Accidental Death.

Miss Cecily Mabel lies in a precarious state, stiffer.
Lug from concussion of the brain. .-11 sr.