The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-09-12 00:00:00

Ete ,Stourbribge Ob•sertiera

COMMENTS ON CURRENT THINGS.
SPAIN seems really to have been within
measurable distance of war with Germany
during the few days past ; and but for the
calmer dignity of the latter Power, hostilities
wonld doubtless have been indulged in.
Such a state of things would have been la-
- THE .struggle for situations in all branches mentable indeed. When we look at the cause
of business and active life is constantly going of the disturbance—the right to the insigni-
on, whether trade happens to be brisk or ticant oceangirt isle of Yap—we are con-
dull, though it becomes more intense, of strained to speak of it, in the language of
,cenrse, in the lattei case. At the periods Michael Cassio, as "A quarrel, bat nothing
• when depression is exceptionally heavy, af- wherefore." So small a matter as the pro-
-fecting almost every industry, from agricul- nouncement as to whether Kaiser William
ture to the decorative arts, it is the working- or the Spanish sovereign has prior claim to
. . classes, including skilled and unskilled be called king of this interestine. individual
•artisans and labourers, who are the greatest isle in the Caroline group could surely have
,sufferers, as they are liable to be thrown out been arrived at with decisiveness without
-of employment in large numbers; but clerks resort to all the horrors of war between two
and others, whose services can be dispensed great nations. The hot blood of the Span
with when business is slack, have also to iards has been displayed over this question
bear the brunt of hard times. In the or- indeed, for we find manifestations of anti-
dinary run of years, when the pulse of trade Teutonic feeling have taken place all over
is beating steadily and healthily, it is in the the provinces, as well as in Madrid, and the
largest and busiest towns that applicants police and the military have had hard work
always experience the most difficulty in oh- to prevent a general rising. The truth of
taming suitable situations. There are many the thing is that Spain, smarting under the
in all parts of the country who are possessed cholera scourge, which has so direfully
with the idea that, if they could only once smitten the land, is discontented with th e
get up to London, they would have a pretty
gool.chance of speedily falling on their feet.
Bat a vision of the eager and changing
groups clustered every hour of the day
around the windows of the newspaper offiees.
. in Fleet-street and elsewhere, in which the
advertisement col tuns are conveniently dis-
played pro bon° publico, would soon have
the effect of undeceiving them on this point.
While occupations and openings have im-
mensely increased since the far-off times
when famous Dick Whittington left Glou-
cestershire to try his fortune in the metro-
polis, there has also been a corresponding
increase in the number of applicants for
employment, and it is now more difficult
than ever to find an opportunity for making
a start in life or for getting in again when
once out of a situation. The same difficul-
ties in this respect are experienced by young
men and young women, and the members of
both sexes have to undergo similar disap-
pointments during weary weeks of anxious
striving and hope deferred. All businesses
seem to have their barriers of one kind or
another, and obstacles more or less serious
have to be surmounted before an entrance
is effected at last. Even good education is
not in itself an open sesame; it requires to
be rigorously tested in order to ensure fit-
ness for the duties of certain vocations.
Pupil teachers have to prepare themselves
for the ordeal of examination before they
can receive appo:ntments, and the same rule
applies to young men and young women
who are desirous of obtaining clerkships in
the money-order or telegraphic departments
of the Post Office. Bad spelling, which is a
too common defect, want of readiness in
reckoning, and indifferent style of penman-
ship may pre mit success in the case of
otherwise well-qualified candidates or appli-
cants. Premiums form a barrier which can
only be surmounted by those whose parents
have money to spare; and there may often
enough be domestic circumstances render-
ing it impossible to close with the offer of a
situation in which the privilege of learning
the business is considered to be sufficient
payment for service. Many of the adver-
tisers of vacant situations append the words
"Apply by letter only" to their announce-
ments with the design, in most instances, of
avoiding the risk of a perfect host of appli-
cants to their houses or premises stretching
half-way across the street, which is not un-
likely to be the case if the time of calling is
fixed at specified hours, or if the situation
offers advantages of an exceptionally at-
tractive kind. But the injunction to apply
only by letter has also its suspicious side,
especially when the advertisement relates to
home work for ladies described as being
certain to prove highly profitable, the evi-
dent object being to inveigle unwary corres-
pondents into transmitting a stated amount
in postage-stamps in prepayment for speci-
mens and instructions which are likely to be
found, on receipt, about equally worthless.
There are kinds of employment, however,
in connection with which personal applica-
tion is invariably required. This is indis-
pensible in the case of waitresses, barn-aids,
and parlonrmaids, who must have a present-
able, if not quite prepossessing., appearance.
Young women of this class can hardly fail
to find it rather galling to be bluntly told
that they are too slim or too stout, too short
or too tall, or that they do not quite come
up to the required qualifications in hand-
somenesslof figure or goodness of looks But
it is fortunate for them that tastes differ,
and that disheartening rebuffs only prove,
in the long run, the rough approach to ex-
cellen.f. engagements. The girl who has a
retiring disposition by nature discovers that
she is not considered suitable for the shops
to which ladies most resort, as she wants
the pertness, art of pressing, and volubility
needed to induce customers to make more
purchases than they actually intended to do ,
whes they walked into the establishment.
Many of the applicants for vacant situations,
advertised in the metrepolitan newspapers,
are frequently subjected to unnecessary
trouble and outlay by the misleading
character of the announcements, or their in-
definiteness—arising sometimes from a de-
sire to cheapen the price by curtailing. the
words—which is every whit as bad. After
travelling by the handiest modes of convey-
ance from Peckham to Pimlico, or from
Stoke Newington to Rotherhithe, and thread-
ing their way on foot, in the final stages of
the journey, through a labyrinth of unknown
streets, they often find, mach to their dis-
appointment and chagrin, that the place.
does not answer their anticipations at all.
The so-called business establishment turns
out to bea trumpery little shop where mis-
cellaneous articles are sold, or the clerkship
a mere tedious process of checking in a
large warehouse permeated with unsavoury
smells. Disappointm.ents also result from
not making snfficient allowance for the
bight-sounding names, such as Poultenay-
parade and Gllolphin-road, which are oftcni
attached to narrow and obscure streets in
every district of Lrnl)n. 1) y,-ne..itie sex_
rank oat of place, have the tvivaata7e of
being able, for a small fee, to get their
names an I addresses entere 1 in registers,
which are kept for inspection at house agen-
cies or stationery or other shops. Some-
thing of this kind is absolutely requisite in
their case, as serve.nts are so often in the
habit of falling out with their mistresses,
and mistresses !with their servants, many of
whom are almost as nomadic in their nature
as gipsies. If the demand for them were
not so constant they would likely exhibit
less love of change for its own sake, and a
greater desire to remain statio• ary when
they found themselves in good situations.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12th, 1885.

THE STRUGGLE FOR SITUATIONS.

,
IGV.cr; Ti)liuTlifilLei : -Ar.i Jul. or eke:, in 3 ()Or rest
by a sick child s.afiering with tits pal., it tatting teeeth
lid at oece t, . ~heny.t and get a b:.ttl- of NI re.
ston's Soottling syrup. It Wii relit.ve the pclor
sufferer itLinsei atoll. It is perftctly harmless and
. pleasant to taste, it produces future!. quiet sleep by
e c
g
relievin the from paid.
_ and the litt:e ch erub
swakft *as bright as n badon.” Its fatties the child
. it softens tht gems. an",
..-aii pain, reliaves wild
regulates the bowels, and i 4 th I beat know re,nely for
dysentery and diarrh e 4, whether ari.in 4 fro a tee-1,-
! Ing o• oth• r c .uSet Aft WillAbiee.
.),)thiog .; y ril
is st. d b: Medui e dealers ev,ryCrere at Is Ii I p-r
bottle
istauvra Moitar.—Sinc'air's Cold Water Soap saves mono.y
0 . time. fat , and temper. It does the family wash
It ith.tut the misery of a steamy house. A boon to rich and
p.ur ...ko. the magic cleanser for all purposes. Recont•
u, uhileu to c,vry L'Quaanife. lie IMP you kelt for Sinclair',
Ulna IFOoer sad oilmen

things that are, and in a heated state of un-
rest. It would not take much to stir up a
revolution in the sunny land, indeed the
throne stands on a foundation which is far
from secure. We trust, however, that Spain
may yet be spared from war and rebellion,
and that her public health and national
happiness may be restored. The dreadful
cholera cloud seems to be slowly rolling away
from the country it has for months past en-
shrouded with deadly gloom.

THAT was a sad death the other day of a
lady in London, resulting from injuries re-
ceived at the International Invention Ex-
hibition. The poor lady's dress was set on
fire by a carelessly dropped taper which
some thoughtless smoker had thrown away
burning after lighting his pipe in the
gardens, near the illuminated fountains. The
case should convey a. serious warning to those
who indulge in the fragrant weed, and who
even in crowded thorongfares, recklessly
throw away blazing vestas and matches.
What happened to the unfortunate lady who
was witnessing the evening fete at Kensing-
ton might occur at any place of popular en-
tertainment, or, indeed, in any place where
people most do congregate. It is the easiest
thing in the world to prevent such fearful
accidents. If the smoker extinguishes the
light before casting it aside there can be no
danger of causing a conflagration, ending in
a sad case of death by burning

IF the organ-grinder's lot is not exactly a
happy one, it is in some instances at least a
remunerative oue. There used to be an old
song of which our grandmothers were very
fond, the refrain of which ran somewhat in
this sort ; "Of all the trades in England, oh!
beggi_ig is the best." We have often of late
heard of wealthy mendicants, whose hidden
hoards have amcunted to such a goodly sum
that one s almost led to sigh because an un-
kind fate has not found for us an opening in.
the begging profession, instead of confining
us to a less lucrative if more orthodox callirg.
The ordinary beggar does not seem to have
attuned the altitude in the art of money-
making gained by his organ-grinding col-
leafg,ue. An ltalian—all organ-grinders
seem to have originated from the Adriatic
shore—saved the snag little sum of £127
over and above expenses and cost of living
from the proceeds of his summer's musical
rambles in the cotton capital last year. The
fact has been disclosed in the Manchester
Police:court, where the knight of the
handled organ had a charge against a corn-
-patriot for feloniously appropriating the
major proportion of the rumint he had
amassed by untiringly grinding out a suc-
cession of tunes in the streets of the Lanca-
s7lire city._ It would be interesting to know
how much of this goodly sum was sub-
scribed by sufferers by way of bribe to in-
dice the barrel-music-monger to take him-
self and his din off into an adjoining street.

THE broker is the bugbear of the auction-
room. No matter what is on sale, whether
household furniture, works of art, or some
unfortunate shoprnan's fixtures or stock-in-
trade, the broker is there in force for the
purpose of seizing and sharing the spoil with
his fellow-vultures of the auction-mart. He
will, by a shameful conspiracy of silence,
secure what he has fixed his envious eye on
for an old song; and woe betide the legiti-
mate buyer at. a public auction who dares to
stand between the broker and his prey. The
would-be purchaser finds the whole colony
of broker-men suddenly recover speech, and
he or she is bidden against all round the
room until in excitemAtt the non-professional
buyer is forced on into paying much more
than is worth for the hotly-contested "lot."
Then, after the auction is over, the wily
broker-man will tell you how he could have
saved you pounds and pounds if you had em-
ployed him to bid for you on commission.
rhe fact of the matter is 13'..okers consider
auction sales have been invented for their
especial emolument, and resent strongly the
appearance of the public in the rooms as
something very much like interfering with
their chosen means of livelihood. Hence it
is that public auctions are nowadays not
sales by public competition, but only oc-
casions for bringing grist to the auctioneer's
mill and the plunder to the army of brokers
and their hangers-on. One of the noisy pro-
fessional crew has, we are glad to note, been
fined at a London court for obstructing a
public auction by disorderly conduct. If
such offenders were generally proceeded
against and mulcted in proper penalties for
interfering with the right of public purchase
by their concerted action, hurtful alike to
the vendor and to legitimate buyers, the
police funds would belmaterially added to,
and perhaps in course of time an auction
room would cease to resemble a swindler's
bear garden.

A SCHOOL fIEND.tNCE OFFICER SHOT.
A o itrage itt a most extrar)r.linary character was
cointnitt-d at Kinrer on Thursday. It appeaTs that
a Mr: Jo eh Chance, 8:-!ho..)1 attendance officer for
the SourbLid4e district, was out early in the morn-
ing; in company with a friend named Joseph Sil-
dens, cammercial traveller, of Dudley. In the
course of their ramble they picked up a few mush-
103111g. in returning home they passed through
the Compton Hall Farm estate, and along- a foot-
path through a field in the occupation of Mr. Jos.
Watkins, farmer. Here they were met by the latter,
arm-d with a double-barrelled gun. Mr. Watkins,
retiring the mushrooms which Chance was carry-
ing tied up in a handkerchief, ordered him in a
peremptory tone to put them down. Chance replied
that, as he had not gathered the mushrooms off hi*
land, he should refu:e to give up possession of
them. Watkins rej,ined, "If you d. :net put them
,wn 11l sh ,ot you," at the same time rais.ng
gun in a threatening manner. As Chance still r -
fused to obey his commands Watkins, stepping
back a few paces, delibLrately raised the gun to his
shoulder and fired the contents of one barrel straight
at Chance. The charge took effect, and Chance,
exclaiming,."Oh, I'm-shot," fell to the ground, the
pellets with which the gun was loaded having
penetrtted his thigh and the calf of his left leg,
and n'so his left hand. Medical assistance %as at
o ce obtained, the i3jatel man being attended by
r. Holyoake. t..urgcon, Kinver, after which he was
✓ moved ho.i:e. Information ot the occurrence was
terwards given to Head, and he at once pro-
ceeded to the h)use of Mr. Watkins, and arrested
shooting • on the charge of shootin at Chance with in
-
t nt Lu do him grevious bodily harm. In the course
ot the nihreing the prisoner wee taken before the


EX rIUORDINARY 011 rp-kqE AT KINVER



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