The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-12-27 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

At a meeting of the board of the Great Northern
Railway Company the Right Hon. Lord Colville of Calross,
K.T., was unanimously elected chairman of the company, in
the place of the late Colonel Dancombe.
The Princess Louise (Marchioness of Lorne), previous
to her leaving Ottawa for England, gave instructions for a
"clearing" to be made In the woods of Rideau Hall and a
veritable backwoociii shanty to be constructed upon it. The
work is now in progress, and will be ready when she returns
to Canada. This seems to indicate that her Royal Highness
has been charmed with life as she has seen it in the Cana-
dian backwoods.

A project is reported of a railway to be carried
across Paris, partly underground, and partly on the elevated
principle, connecting all the railway termini. The plans
have been laid before M. Grevy, the President of the Re-
public, who expresses great interest in the scheme.
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At a recent meeting of the Scottish Food Reform
Society, the company, to the number of twenty. sat down to
a repast, consisting of six courses—lentil and barley soup,
haricot-bean plea, haricot-bean omelets with sauce, hominy
pudding, pearl-meal pudding, and tapioca and apple. The
cost of the whole, exclusive of cooking, came to 31d. per
head.

The obituary of The TiIIICS of December 17, recorded
the deaths of 11 persons, eight ladles and three gentlemen,
whose united ages amounted to 916 years, giving an average
of exactly 86 years to each. The eldest was a lady of 93, the
youngest a lady of 80 years of age; of the other six, the
otaa.t waft an anti tha swinged 83.

The Constantinople corresp A Clu-aut vi the Parts
Temps reports the foundation by a number of Armenian
ladies of asoctety Intended to combat extravagance In dress.
These ladies agree not to wear any but simple and cheap
clothes, the richer members devoting the sums thereby
economized to the improvement of schools.

At a meeting held at Kohat on October 17 it was
resolved that a committee should ascertain and report as to
the best form of a public memorial to be erected by volun-
tary subscriptions by the Nawabs, chiefs, and others of the
district, in the city of ohat, to the memory of the late Sir
Louts CavagnarL

Abd•el-Kader, ,the Independance Beige is informed
from Damascus, is not dead as was reported, but on the con-
trary in the enjoyment of excellent health.
In the French Chamber of Deputies a bill has been
presented for the extension of the docks at Marseilles. The
traffic of this port, which has for a number of years been in-
creasing by 100,000 tons annually, and is expected soon to
reach a total of 6,000,000 tons, together with the gradual
substitution of steam for sailing vessels, demands a con-
siderable increase in the dock accommodation. The exten-
sion will take place at the south end at the port, and is esti-
mated to cost 61,000,000 francs.

The Peskr Lloyd states that on the high grounds in
the neighbourhood of the Hungarian capital the temperature
on the 7th, B'h, 9th, 10th, and lith of December stood at
225, 315, 88, 428. 40•5 drg (Fahrenheit) of frost. Several
persons have been found frozen to death and many retuned
when in a semi frozen condition.

The question of introducing ladies into the board
of managers of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary is about to
be opened, and the contributors are being canvassed for
their votes in favour of Dr. (Miss) Jex Blake, Mrs. Rtussel,
and Miss Flora Stevenson. The Edinburgh Courant under.
stands that the managers have expressed themselves de-
cidedly opposed to the appointment of ladies to the board.
The Queen and Princess Louise (Marchioness of
Lorne), Princess Beatrice, and Prince Leopold, attended
divine service at Osborne on Sunday last. The RE V. Canon
Prothero officlated.—The Prince and Princess of Wales
attended Divine service at St. Mark's, Hamilton.terrace, St.
Marylebone. The Rev. Canon Duckworth preached.
The six days' pedestrian feat which was begun in
Dundee on Monday In last week ended on Saturday night.
The conditions were twelve hours' locomotion a day, the
pedestrians to go any way they chose, and the prizes were
£5O, £2O, £7, and £3. There were eighteen competitors, and
the contest was very keen. The winners were as follows:
let, W. Smith, Paisley, 353 miles Slaps; 2nd, P. hiliellan,
836 miles, 21 laps: 3rd, M. Fox, 331 miles 14 laps ; 4th, .T. S.
Robson, 329 miles 16 laps.
The rapid growth of Transatlantic Cities is pro-
verbial, but few have sprung up so quickly as Deadwood in
Dakota, which was recently entirely demolished by fire.
Ten weeks after its destruction the town was completely re-
built with fine brick buildings far superior to the original
structures.

Women in India have now a periodical of their own
written emecially for their benefit by Hindoo ladies—the
Bamabodhini Putnca Redivirus.

--
In New South Water, says the Sydney Morning
Ilera7cl the weather on the 231 d of October was very hot
indeed. On Sunday and Monday it was 79deg. On Tuesday
it rose to 82deg., and on Wednesday to Bideg., and on Thurs.
day it reached 59deg.—the maximum, so far, of the present
season. _

------
In digging the foundation for a gasometer a
lionaco, nine bracelets, a gold medallion of Gallian, a gold
bust ot Galßan 21n. in height, and eight gold medals have
been discovered. Some of the bracelets are believed to be
decorations belonging to a Roman General under Probus.
A New York telegram says fifteen hundred dollars
have been collected at a meeting at St. Paul, Minnesota
for the relief of the Irish poor. The money will be for-
warded to the Land League for distribution.
Wedding presents in Rome generally take the form
of complimentary sonnets, which are treasured by the bride
throughout her lifetime. Copies cf these sonnets are sent
with each " participatory letter "to the friends of the happy
couple, which takes the place of the British wedding-cards
and cake.

A celebrity of the French directory has attained her
100th birthday at Lyons—Macrame Louise Lacene, slater•ln•
law of Camille Jordan who was a distinguished mamba of
the Council cf the Five Hundred In 1796. Madame Lacene
was a devoted friend of Madame Rdcamier, and her salon
was frequented by numerous political notorieties. _

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Napthalined gas is now used by the Great Northern
Railway in lighting carriages that are to run long distances.
The gas is comprested into strong vessels containing
napthaline, and is thus highly carburetted.
The Turkish refugees in Eastern Roumelia are said
to be suffering very severely. Many are said to be dying
from starvation, cold, and sickness. The French and English
Consuls appeal tor subscriptions for their relief.
According to a return prepared in the Financial De.
partment of the Government of Belgium, the total value of
the foreign commerce of the kingdom in the year 1878 was
4,393,600,000 francs (£175,740), being about 25,000 000 francs,
or £,1,000,000, more than in the preceding year, 1877. Of the
total sum the imports represent 2,383.800,060 francs, or
£95,352,000, and show an increase of 27,000,000 franca, or
£1,080,000, over 1877. The exports amounted to 2,009,710,000
francs' or £80,388,000, which showed a decrease of
of 2,000,000 franca, or £BO,OOO as compared with 1877.

At Bologna the cold has been more severe than bad
been known since 1829—c17., 16deg. Fahrenheit of frost, and
the public gardens are thickly covered with snow. Mount
Vesuvius haa also been covered with snow.

Further particulars are given of the accident on the
15th lust, to the miners of the salt mice at WilhelmegHick,
Saxony. The men were preparing at the outhouse to de-
scend into the mine, when suddenly some saltpetre, with
which they were provided for blasting the rock salt, caught
fire. The door of the hut in a moment, owing to the ex
piosion, closed with violence, at.d could not be reopened till
ten of the Inmates were burnt to death. 01 14 others who
were severely injured four have since died.
The Comte de Paris, writing to a gcntleman in
Galway, says :—"I should be glad to be able to do much for
the alleviation of the sufferings of the poor people of Conne-
mara, but, unfortunately, we have both in Paris and in the
country equal suffdrinas whtch impose a heavy tax upon
the charity of every Frenchman, and especially of land-
owners. lam obliged, therefore, to limit any offering to a
small sum as a token of sympathy for the victims of the
bad harvest in your country. I have instructed Messrs.
Coutts to send you the sum of £lO "
The St. Petersburg Vidomosti states that in the
realization of the Budget for /378, instead of the expected
deficit of 27,000,000 rouzdes, there is an excess in the ordi-
nary revenue over the ordinary expenditure to that amount.
This is exclusive of 408,000,000 roubles expended daring the
late war.

A. remarkable prophecy was made recently by Dr.
Werner siemens at Berlin, when lecturing on the uses of
electricity. Speaking of the tranamtesion of force, be pre-
dicted that the energy of the solar rays manifested in currents
of alt (elude) or in rails of water, would by and by be used
through the medium of electricity to furnish all necessary
heat and render us independent of ordinary fuel. So much
has been done latterly in the field of electrical discovery,
that the prediction may be nearer verification than is
generally stapposed.—Echo.
The artesian well at Buda•Pesth, which has just
been completed, Is in many ways an interesting achievement.
The total depth is now 3,200 feet, and the water, which
comes up at the rate of nearly 170,000 gallons per minute,
has a temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, rather too
warm for a hot bath. Wherrfirst bored the yield was much
larger, but it has been reduced by lining the bore. The re-
sidents of Buda-Pesth will no doubt fled a use for the warm
water, but the interesting fact is that there must be some-
thing very warm under the city. Taking the surface tem-
perature of 60 degrees, it gives a rise of one degree for
every thirty feet—a result quite unprecedented in under-
ground temperatures in coal mines.—Echo.
Public warming rooms for the poor and destitute
have been opened in Paris, where the homeless are allowed
to sit by the fire, and are given b3wls of soup without need-
ing any ticket or recommendation. Wood fires were made
in the streets for the poor in 1729, while during the hard
winter of 1776 JAW/ XVI. ordered tires to be lighted in the
Tuileries Gardens and soup distributed. Eight years later
the Parisian princes and nobles used to light piles of wood
before their hotels to warm their retainers and hangers-on,
and in 1788 0 the notorious Philippe Egalito was most active
In establishiLg public fires.

Mr. Lefevre, M.P., speaking at a meeting of tenant
farmers at Reading on Saturday afternoon, attributed the
agricultural depression to successive bad harvests, and the
immense importations from America through low freights.
He, however, said that as trade revived there agricultural
produce would rise in price. The main thing required VMS a
succession of good seasons.

The Marquis of Waterford had a severe fall from
his horse while hunting the other day with his foxhounds,
near Basborough, county li'lkenny. Ttie spot where he fell
is but a short distance ftom where Lord Henry, the third
marquis, met with a fatal accident whilst hunting.
A shocking accident occurred on Saturday morning
on the Cheltenham and Banbury Railway. It appears that a
young man named Eldridge, a tipper employed on the line, was
at work when by some means he got run over, the wheels of
the waggons passing over his feet and legs. The unfortunate
man was conveyed to the hospital, where it was found that
the injuries were such as to necessitate the amputation of
one leg at the knee, and the foot of the other leg at the
ankle.

On the 9th inst. M. Jacob Jacobs, one of the most
eminent of the Antwerp school of painters, died at Antwerp.
He was chlefly celebrated for his landscapes and marine
pieces, and had for a long time been professor of landscape
and animal painting in the Antwerp Academy. 133rn in
1812 at Antwerp, he studied in the Academy of that city
and subsequently perfected himself on his travels in Italy,
the East, and in Scandinavia. His tint works were exhi-
bited when he was only twenty years of age at Antwerp,
Brussels, and Ghent, and at once achieved a reputation,
His "Shipwreck on the English Coast," exhibited in 1349,
brought him the distinction of the Order of Leopold, and
the painting is now in the New Pinakothek at Munich Other
notable works of his are " Me Golden Horn," J 552;
"Waterfall in Norway," 1855, now in the Belgian GallerY,;,
"Flight of a Caravan before a Storm in the Desert, f
"Rains of the Temple of rata, in Nubia." "In the Gal,
of Lepanto," "'he Ruins of Thebes," " Soyne Fiord,
and "Entrance into Bergen Harbour." The funeral of re
deceased was attended not only by the members of
_ $
he
Antwerp Academy but by the n.aunicipal authorities and
'lnge concourse of otttzenc—Obctuary of4.244Cuoids. ui-J

The Queen has purchased the painting in oils exe-
cuted by one of the students of the Female School of Art,
for which the gold medal was awarded.

An old man who offered a bit of bread to an elephant
In a menagerie at Amsterdam was seized by the animal by
the arm and thrown down so violently as o break several
ribs. He is not expected to survive.

At Martino, near Novara, three men and a woman
of one family have been found dead in a room, suffocated,
apparently accidentally, tutt after dinner by the fumes of a
charcoal lire. A child six months old all but perished also.

With the exception of the continent of Australia,
New Guinea has been proved by recent survey to be the
largest island in the world, surpassing Borneo, which held
the first rank until recently. Itstsuperflcial area covers a
quarter of a million square mites, and is, therefore, larger
than Branca. Its extreme length is 1,500 miles, its greatest
width 400.
The Tinies of India says that in a cyclone which
occurred at Ongole on the 19th nearly half of the houses in
the place were laid in ruins, and the largest trees torn up by
the roots.
Oidly enough, although the owner of nearly every
rnaosion in Cavendish-square and its neighbourhood, the
Duke of Portland did not own Harcourt Holm in which be
die d.—Court journal.
A German staying in England is engaged in perfect.
ing an apparatus for cheLking the number ot passengers
travelling on or in omnibuses and other vehicles for public
convenience (says the Court Journal.) The invention con-
sists of a piece of clock work mechanism which shall regiPter
correctly the number of persons entering in or riding outside
the vehicle, the advantage of this over the plans yet tried
being the impossibility of altering the figures on the dial by
tampering with the machine.
The officers of the Grenadier Guards ate shortly to
be instructed in the treatment of sick and wounded in the
The remarkable pedestrian, or "man locomotive,"
as he is styled, Achille Bargossi, is at present staying( n
Paris, and some of his past exploits are being much talked
of just now. Among other feats be is said to have accom-
plished that of tiring out a horse in a twenty-four hours'
walk, the quadruped having to succumb at the end of the
twenty-third hour. Bargoasi gained similar victories at
Milan and Naples, and some months since walked front
Montpelier to Bordeaux, a distance of 600 kilometres,(
five days Quite lately, again, he is reported to have come
on foot from Lyons to Paris in fort y eight hours. Bargossi,
it may be added, is, as his name indicates, an Italian, and
hails from the Romagna.—Court Journal.

- . .
It is a Biagular commdence that the late Duke of
Portland and the late Viscount Chetwynd were born in the
same year (1880), within a few weeks of each other; they
died on the same day (December 6, 1879) and were buried in
the same place (Kenaal-green Cemetery) within a few hours
of each other.

Of the foreign trade with Servia it has been weer.
tamped that Great Britain has 20 per cent., Austria-Hungary
40, France, Germany, and Switerland 10 each, the remaining;
10 being divided among other countries. Through the c_on-
'remotion of a railway from Salonica to Belgrade, via Nish,
England would gain a large part of the trade with Austria
and would divide with her the trade in the Balkan States.

S )me one who knows all about it says that " to ride
the velocipede successfully a young man should see that his
hair is carefully parted in the middle, having no more on
one aide than on the other, in the way of balance."

Mr. T. C. Bruce, M.P., speaking at Portsmouth,
said it was not ltkely the Government would, before their
policy had been carried out, break up the gratifying support
they kad received from both sides of the House, and thus
throw their position and their policy, as well as the future
of the country, to the hazard of a general election. There
was not the least evidence that the Opposition would win
at the next election, knd the Government would not be
afraid of the result of the impending political conflict.

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The Dutch Minister of Finance has declared posi-
tively in the Second Chamber that the Dutch Government
remains firmly attached to the principles of tree trade, and
opposes the suggestions of some deputies to return to pro-
tective duties, at least with re gArd to Germany. The deficit
Is to b 3 covered chiefly by direct taxation.
Sir Massey Lopes, M.P., speaking to the cadets on
board her Majesty's training ship Britannia, at Dartmouth,
said the qualifications for nasal officers had become more
arduous since the introduction of steam, iron ships, monster
guns, and torpedoes. At the came time one ol the greatest
attributes for an officer was to be a gentleman. The effi-
ciency of the navy was never greater than now, and he
hoped its character would not deteriorate in their charge.

Messrs. Puttick and Simpson have recently mold the
autograph MS. of Handel's Opera Arnadigi, 73 pp, folio, for
1.35 10$, and that of Mozart's Qaintett in D major, 39 pp.,
for 43 guineas. These were from the collection of the late
Mr. F. amee, of the Bank of England.
An office has (says the Eastern Budget) been opened
at Moscow, under the direction of a Russian clergyman.
named Ponomareff, for the purpose of recriiring subscrip-
tions of Russian books, to be sent into Bulgaria for the for-
mation of publics libraries there.

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In the last financial year 200,164,1E3 penny receipt.
were issued, and the revenue derived was £.831,017 Bs. 7d.
The correspondent of the Daily News writes:—
" This morning I visited the markets of the Rue de Ltsbonne
and the Madeleine. There ware scarcely any purchasers,
and there was very little to purchase. The scarcity of fruit
and vegetables reminded me of siege times nine years ego.
Leeks usually two sous a bundle were sold at four sous,
and meagre lettuces at from 10 to 14 sons, which in normal
weather would have been offered at the rate of two sous
apiece. Milk, as in Russia, I. literally vended in blocks,
and is very irregularly supplied from the country."

Some relics of Burns were recently sold at Edin-
burgh—the poet's Masonic apron, and the mallet and minute
book of the Lodge of St. Andrew's, Dumfries, to which he
belonged, his signature to the bye-laws being inscribed in
the book. The Grand Master of the Lodge of Scotland
bought the shventrs for £2l, In order to present them to
the Lodge.

The -Emperor of Morocco has sent over for pre.
sentation to hi. Grevy, the President of the French Re-
public, several superb stallions of the famous ehara breed,
known as the "Charal or Rib," or drinkers of air.

The old church bells of Bt. Peter's, in Zurich, are to
be melted down, and the metal used in the casting of a new
set. The Antiquarian Society of the canton has interfered
to save one of them, the so-called "Schlagglocke." which
was cast by "Johannes der Glockengeisser" in 1201. The
bell is fifty-seven years older than Zurich's adhesion to the
Swiss Federation, which took place In 1351.
A recent telegraphls despatch stated that the
Canadian Government had determined to provide food this
winter for the destitute Indians of the north-west. Mail
advice' show the necessity to be urgent. A despatch from
Fort 3d.'Leod, dated November 29, says that there are 3,000
Indians in the immediate neighbourhood on the point of
starvation. Some c:.ttle of the settlers have been killed
and eaten by them, but only to an insignificant extent. The
Saskatchewan Herald also announces that seventy lodges of
Teton' (a branch of the Sioux) have arrived at Prince
Albert settlement in a destitute condition.

Mr. E. A. Leatham, M.P„ speaking at Bradley,
Huddersfield, held that politicians of both aides were re•
sponsible to a great extent for the condition of the farmers,
and must do something to provide a remedy. The chances
as to the weather were in favour of good years, and the
English f trmer was 40s. per acre better off than his Ame•
rtcan competitor. As regarded ,abour, he advocated the
Legislature giving farmers sezurity for unexhausted im-
provements, longer tenures should be encouraged, there
should be a greater distribution of land, and one important
source from which land was to be acquired was the Church.
The cfficial stamp representing the rampant
horse of Kent, in use by the inspectors of weights and
measures and from time immemorial recognised as the
county atmi, will, after Janu.ry 1, be abrogated, at least so
far as weights and measures are concerned. A new
regulation enacts that weights and measures throughout
the entire kingdom are to have one uniform stamp—the
crown, surmounting the initials V.R., and beneath thia an
official number.

Copious rains are reported to have fallen on the
COatt of Morocco, giving prospects of a good harvest next
year.
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A suggestion has just been made in China to send a
small scientific expedition to make investigations regarding
the hiaat-ttsze, who are said to exist in large' numbers in
the south-west of the empire, and are believed to be the
aboriginal inhabitants of the country. Though the antiquity
of these tribes is undoubted from their being mentioned in
the early Chinese classics, no serious attempt has ever been
made in modern times to obtain accurate information
respecting them, and all that we know of them is derived
from casual observations made by a few travellers.

A fete on behalf of the sufferers from the floods in
Murcia was held in the Hippodrome, Paris, on Thursday
night in last week, and was a very brilliant and successful
affair. The arena was occupied with buildings representing
a street In a Spanish town and a procession of men engaged
In the national amusement of bull-fighting, of guitar players
and others opened the festivities with a vivid picture of
Spanish life. Dances and music concluded the first part of
the entertainment at midnight; the second part consisted
of a fancy fair, at which the leading actresses in Paris were
the saleswomen. Queen Isabella, occupied the principal
box.

Count Andrassy is, it seems, learning to skate, and it
is said that he is not so skilful on the ice as on the slippery field
of diplomacy. The Neue Freie Presse observes that it is
interesting "to see the man who for so many years has re-
presented a monarchy in all diplomatic and commercial
matters gliding cautiously alone, first on the right foot, then
on the left; while his hands, sshich have guided the ship of
the State as far as the Bona, wave about uncertainly in the
effort to keep his balance. He moves hesitatingly from right
to left—the only action which is now permitted to him,'

The market for pig iron at Philadelphia shows a
somewhat increased activity, with a tendency to greater
firmness in price, particularly for best brands, and, as there
Is very little accumulation of stock, it is expected that the
early part of the coming year wi I show a god demand. An
uncertain feeling is kept up by the continued importation
of foreign iron, though the quantities of this le diminishing.

I