The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-09-06 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN,

Cholera continues to rage with much virulence at
Cabul. The British Embassy has escaped the disease so
far.

In the Clyde on Saturday a swimming match oc-
curred between Miss Geddes and Miss Gew. The dis:ance
was half a mile, and the former won by four yards. Die race
was very exciting, and was witnessed by many thousands of
persons.
It is stated that Mr. Newman Hall will preach
in Christ Church, Westminster Bridge-road, London, on
Sunday week, the 14th inst., and that on that occasion all
seats will be free unless occupied by their usual holders
a little before the regular time.
Mr. Longman, last of the original partners in the
great lirm of publishers, died at noon on Saturday in last
week, at his country residence, FunborouglaMlii. The de.
ceased gentleman bad long been ailing, buil be parawd away
wigiout auffering.


A monkey house is to be added to the attractions of
the Brighton Aqnsrium.

Bicycles are the latest innovation of civilisation in
Japan.

King Alfonso has officially announced to his Minis.
tera t i 4 intended marriage.
Owing to the backwardness of the harvest generally
throughout England there was very little partridge-shooting
done on lionday, and it is anticipated that there will not be
much tpqrt obtahiable for the next fortnight.

Count Carlo Peed', th:s Pope's eldest brother, who
has been para:yvd tor come years, died at Rome on the
29th inst., aged 86.

The Lord Mayor of London hag received from the
Emperor of AustriA the Star of a Knight Commander of the
Order of Francis Joseph, in recognition of the services he
rendered to the sufferers by the floods at Szegedin.—Mr.
Soulsby, his Lordship's secretary, has been created a Knight
of the same Order.

During the recent thunderstorm a number of Eerolites
fell at Wendover, Bucks. One of these is being exhibited at
Aylesbury, being between three and four inches long, and
about six inches in circumference, weighing twenty ounces.
-

_
Subscription lißts have been opened in Sornereetshire
to present Colonel Pearson with a sword of honour in recog-
nition of his gallant services at Elcowe.

-
Extenisve supplies of clothing for the troops at the
Cape are being prepared at the Army Clothing Establish-
ment, under orders for shipment without delay. The cloth-
ing consists in great part of sea kits for the regiments
which are to proceed from the Cape to India and other
stations.

The building trade if, remarkably active in Buchareat,
a visible evidence of the large amount of money left here by
the Russians during the late war.

At a meeting of the General Committee of the
Birmingham Musical Festival, held on Saturday, a report
was adopted showing that the rec,eicts amounted to £11,729,
or £3,430 below those of the festival of 1876, The Mayor,
who presided at the meeting, said he regarded the financial
result as satisfactory considering the depression in trade.

It is said that the reports from the hop districts in
rent are of the most gloomy character. In many districts
the hops are so bad that they are not worth picking. In
addition to the weather, which has spoilt the yield, mould
has now appeared and promises to eat away what few bops
there are. Altogether the growth must be characterised as
an utter failure, and Is the worst known for many years.
Prince Alexander of Bulgaria, not content with
founding a public library for his people, has determined to
educate their histrionic, as well as tneir literary tastes and
has accordingly engaged a theatrical company from Vienna
to give me Bulgarian public an idea of the operetta and
drama of the West.

During Saturday's manceuvres at Bruck Major
Ritter, an officer of some standing in the Austrian army,
fell dead from his horse, having succumbed, it is supposed,
to an apoplectic fit.

Brevett-Major Hackett, 90th Regiment, who hal
lad arrived in England from Natal, where he lost the sight
of both eyes in action, is to receive the retirement of a
substantive major, and the rank of lieutenant-coloael, in
addition to the permanent pension for wounds.—Army and
Navy Gazette.

A meeting of BritiAh residents in Constantinople
has been held in consequence of a proposal by the Turkish
Government to increase the taxation of foreign subjects. A
memorial has been forwarded from the meeting to Lord.
Salisbury, which declares that trade is pre-eminently pre-
carious in Constantinople, and condemns in the strongest
terms the proposed new tax.

A serious accident occurred at Aden on Monday on.
board her Majesty's corvette Euryalus, 16 guns. The opera-
tion of lowering the anchor was being performed when,
owing to the storminess of the weather, the capstan bars
swung round suddenly, killing two men, and seriously in-
juring several others.

The damage done by the great fire at Irkutsk has
proved to be considerably more serious than was at first
estimated. A report embodying the results of the latest in-
vestigations on the spot states tkat the number of houses
burnt was nearly 3,400, including almost every Government
building and most of the schools and churches. The number
of lives lost at the fire has been ascertained to have been
sixty, most of them children.

From Antwerp it is reported that an alarming
accident happened the other day to a French balloon, the
Ville de Cherbourg. M. Duruof ascended in the balloon,
accompanied by M. Solomon, editor of Phare de la Manche.
The balloon fell into the sea soon after its ascent, but was
eventually taken in tow by a steamer, and the aeronauts
escaped unhurt.

According to reports from San Francisco the coal
war has broken out afresh in Eureka, Nevada. During a
riot among the coalburners of that district at Fish Creek, a
sheriff's posse, consisting of nine men, interfered. The
officers, according to one account, were confronted by 100
armed Italians, who fired at them. The officers returned the
fire with fatal effect, killing five Italians and wounding
several others.

The United St,des show a total of 81,841 miles of
railway out of 197,617 for the entire globe. More than two-
fifths of the mileage of the world has thus been constructed
by the American Union. Year by year the amount rises.
Last year. when trade had only begun to recover, 2,691 miles
were added to the sum, and that number will be exceeded in
1879.

The scarcity in Cashmere is less felt now than a few
weeks since, though the pressure of famine will probably
continue for some months to come. Reports from the dis-
tressed districts in Bombay are favourable, but about 61,000
persons are still on relief works or receiving gratuitous
assistance. Rata, which greatly damaged the grain, have
been killed in large numbers.

During the last ten years no fewer than 43,403
patents have been taken out for new inventions in France.
A preliminary prospectus of the twenty third
general congress of the National Association for the Pro-
motion of Social Science, which is to be held in Manchester
from the let to the 10th Octobbr, has been issued, and shows
that among the subjacts considered will be the renewal and
extension of commercial treaties, State aid to art, the
national ater supply, laws regarding uncivilised nations,
and the marriage laws.

"A sad accident occurred at Simla, on August 3,
Mr. Trevor Fo!tter, assistant-suptrintendent of the Bengal
police, was examining a small pocket•pistol, when the
weapon went off in his hands. The bullet struck him in the
centre of the forehead, and caused a wound which has
reduced him to a very precarious condition. The doctors
have not been able to trace the course of the bullet."--Born.
bay Gazette.

As the result of the competetive trial between gas and
electricity for the illumination of the Picton Reading-room
of the Corporltion of Liverpool, the Library Committee will
advise the Council at their neat meeting to arrange with the
British Electric Light Company (Limited) for the supply of
an engine, machinery, and fittings for lighting the Pictou
Reading-room and other parts of the building; the engine
to be for ten lights of 4,000 candles each, and the other
apparatus to be for three lights, including six lamps, at a
cost not exceeding 429.

Sir John Astley, in presiding at the Owersby Ram
Show, said we ought to limit the importation of foreign corn
by the imposition of a small duty. This would not in his
opinion interfere with the price of the poor man's loaf. He
was not in favour of reducing rents as a remedy for agricul-
tu:al depression, as better times would follow.

A very considerable commerce has sprung up of late
between San Francisco and the Sandwich Islands, amounting
to nearly a million dollars in the first three months of this
yi ar, and far surpa.sing the trade of previous years The
exports from California conaist of machinery for various
fActorier, drain and irrigation pipes, hardware, and cutlery,
while in return she receives a regularly increasing supply of
coffee, sugar, and rice. But the increase in exports is not
likely to be maintained, as the Sandwich market is rapidly
becoming glutted with American articles.

A Parliamentary return was Limed on Monday "
the names, and nature, and place of employment and
iu,laries of Englishmen empl led in the Civil Goternment of
Cyprus. The list of the personnel of the Government of
Cyprus, which commences with the name of Sir G. J. Wolse•
ley, high commissioner and commander in chief, with a
salary of £416 13s. 4d. a month, contains the names of 48
cfnetals, nearly all of them military men, and in receipt of
regimental pay in addition to their salaries as commis-
sioners, assistant commissioners, &c., in the island The table
of public works show a total expenditure of £12,616 9s. 83,
on roads, barracks, repairs of prisons and konaks.

_
Visitors to Paris this year would do well to spend an
hour at the new Museum of Otuservatory, where are exhibited
a great many curious instruments of both modern and
ancient construction, such for instance as two globes of
Macatcr made in the sixteenth century, on one of which the
great lakes or the interior of Africa are marked, the glass
with which Cassini first observed Jupiter's satellites, instru-
ments for determining the diameter of the larger planets, and
many other objects of considerable interest to people of a
scientific turn of mind.

SpeAing at the dinner of the Selkirkshire Pastoral
Society, Sir Graham Montgomery, member for the county,
who presided, referred to the subject of agricultural de.
pression, and said he was one of those who thought it was
to be attributed principally to the bad seasons, and taat
they should probably in the course of a few years be back
where they were before.

The Daily .News says that a "Welcome Home"
dinner was given the other evening, in the Prince's Room of
the Holborn Restaurant, London, to Mr. William Simpson
and Mr. Melton Prior, the well-known Special Artists of the
Illustrated London News, who have recently returned re-
spectively from Afghanistan and Zululand, the campaigns in
which countries have been fully illustrated by their pencils.
Mr George Augustus Sala was in the chair; and Mr. Archi-
bald Forbes, who was among the Special War Correspondents
present, received also a cordial "Welcome Home," and
made a humourous reply to the toast of "The Special Corres-
pondents," proposed by Mr. Sala with his customary elo-
quence.

. -
American humour has broken loose, and has invaded
the ponderous gravity of the U.S A. Patent Office, One in-
ventor has patented a device to receive and hold a quid of
tobacco in the mouth," with the aject of producing a
hm,
,11:011x:30711hruoiFet
tltrtatinle
in
nf
has et chgoeonnobemi
gt yo
e combinedtnhde
ofexpensea w it
pickled h.
f patentinge enjoymentggl , IN
aotminute
toAnother e
beaten, a third has brought out "a patent egg" itself 1
tab'e documents or
ton, supposing of course that vaL
Afterup A'
bfaeltwA snlyaelekraest marked "To
i n't
gch'ereoa
deeds of property, rich jewellery, or cosi Y
toys
I late would
child that had gone chest
bartleemmwoaaysne dohpflaerdns
opened
in o hbeyesatsteahleol
11 oe
xfic
ekrceou.cl:
the toys of his little child.—Court Journal.
In most of the North Lancashire districts the crops
scooldesfiwshe,rewdheicahr. realised i
averages e d fai r
experienced for some time pact.
of cod
was a fair supply of
before him. Dear objects to him were
of
fe
d herrings at Whitby, 80 boats with 5,000 to 6,000 fish
LAeeseokosi,ahtieoncoant3iNdeewroaY:
wouldl r , i n
afune potatoes found
l''
iat.r e Bta
almostll they
ruined iounb
y4thweasaltmheostotyincoefshsanis
se
pa
ics::hnn,
dinda Tuesdayq2ouaitt
quality,
morningao,nodoosu l adlsfl.
at
fleet
en ofacahv.e aboutria ,average
hl .0
herrings
ror3i
ns boats.g ps ew re
rdieoi soo
it. ..
has recently bLess making souse explorationn cont•e;.thxt with
the proposed canal througn the fistismui of Paisanta has
were those yid Ntcangua and l'euamit, and dwelt upon the
b:mpll:43:‘ drrelh:TailAeveceitcdhaenre'kenheater a—r:irwhe' advantages
e2pg'
was
les:blisng.rtili 6:3:
.(11):latri nl
()be. middlingindispensable
theifei ot.rh°l'eot3i
recently4antitsculol .johlrtedl6mph,l riescpeolh:rwafi
Batioebi Philadelphia
: route.t:o T'elaUepbt. ohLi'!hi:: 1 eit °tola in England The
P.aeraeTct
ii
lneel 13a8iv:yaf:oyorsu:tehsoe
saotaiggreat that our furnaces
t601,030001t GP::
Bessemer furnaces in Pal T 1 dy 1V8.121a 10.,:e0. iron,
i,h e
at prices which make the cost 21 dots per ton duty paid and
landed in the United States. Large lots of old rails have also
cannot supply it. The estimated American consumption
Americasb li
i boughtd demand
aEundg lfaotri d
1,
rag ries g
for 1879 is 3,000,000 tons of pig iron, and 1,100,000 tons of
rails, which is a much larger consumption than in any pre-
vious year."
The 100th anniversary of the great Swedish natura-
list, Berzelius' has been celebrated in Stockholm with great
enthusiasm. All the Journals devote articles to descriptions
of his lite and his place in scientific development. After
being known only as a crest military power under Gustavus
Adolphus and Charles X[l., Sweden acquired an eminent
place in the world of European science by that great teries of
naturalists of vhom Dramas and Berzelius are the most
distinguished and widely known.

The Times of Tuesday said :—"There is now no
reason to doubt the accuracy of the report that Colonel
Thomas Bourne, of Liverpool, brother of the member for
Evesham, has been drowned in Scotland. He WAS salmon
fishing in the River Fyne, Argyllshire, on Thursday in last
week, and he is supposed to have fallen over some cliffs in
the river near Arokinglass, as there are trace‘ at that point
of someone having slipped downwards towards the bed of
the river. The stream was swollen by the recent heavy
rains, mid it seems more than probable that the body was
carried down by the flood. The deceased, to whom compli-
mentary reference was made by the Liverpool magistrates
on Monday, wal Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Lancashire
Militia (L4glit Inf& ,try), and was honorary Colonel of the
15th Lancashire Ma Volunteers. He was a Justice of the
Peace for Lancashire, and took a prominent part in the
maosement of several of the medical charities of Liver-
pool.