The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-08-30 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.
In consequence of the depressed state of agricnl.
true in Scotland several reductions ot rent have been
announced.

Mr. R. W. Hanbnry, M.P., speaking at Bagnall,
on Monday, said he thought it was desirable for Parliament
to sit out its seven years, if possible, and it seemed most
likely that the present one would do that.

A weaver named Dyson, aged 46, employed at
Portland Mill, Lindley, near Huddersfield, was fixing a strap
on a drum, when he was caught by the shaft and whirled
round at great speed. The engine was stopped speedily, but
Dyson was found to be dead.

Prince and Princess Frederick Charles of Pruasia
will celebrate their silver weddiug in November next, and it
Is anticipated that on that occasion the Duke and Duchess
of Connaught will pay a vikit to Berlin.

Messrs. C. S. Read, M.P., and Albert Pell, M.P.,
left Liverpool in the Inman steamer City of Montreal on
Tuesday for New York, to collect evidence in the United
States and Canada for the Royal Commission on Agricul-
tural Distress.

The " Honeymoon " is the name of the last Paris
raper. It calls itself the "Journal of Bachelors, of Betrothed
Pairs, and Married Couples."

Daring the ensuing twelve months 769.000 men will
serve with the colours in France, In accordance with the
military regulations of this year. For financial reasons only
one class of the reserve is to be called out.

The Manchater Examiner's Barrow correspondeat
says there is marked indication, in the activity at the iron
and steel works throughout the north-west of England, of
the improvement which has set in during the past few
weeks, The output of the furnaces has had to be increased
to meet delivery engagements, and makers find themselves
in receipt of a very large accession of orders.
William Lancashire. one of the Manchester, Shef.
field and Lincolnshire Railway Company's oldest engine
drivers, fell from his engine and was killed on Sunday in
descending the declivity, of Hazelhurst Bridge, between
Woocihead tunnel and Sheffield.

The Rev. Canon Prothero was the preacher at
Osborne on Sunday morning. Her Majesty the Queen, with
the Princess Beatrice and Prince Leopold, attended divine
service.

The Dail?) News' correspondent at Rome telegraphs
that the drought and heat of the last two months in Italy
have proved as di.astrous to husbandry as the rains that
preceded them. From all parts of the peninsula the same
accounts come.

"It is a poor cause that can find no defence; but
there is a bold originalizy about the following plea in justi-
fication of the growing practice of powdering the face, which
I take from a ladies' magazine for this month :—' Powder is
a protection and a comfort in long journeys, and in the city
dust. If the pores of the skin must be filled, one would
prefer clean dust to begin with.' "—Mayfair.

The sword worn by the Prince Imperial when
killed by the Zulus will, it is reported, be presented to the
Empress by Lord Chelmsford on his arrival in England.—
Court Journal.

The general maneeuvrea of the German army, which
take place next month in the vicinity of Konigsberg, Stet-
tin, and Strasburg, will be preceded by cavalry operations
on an extended scale at Namslau and Bernstadt, near Bres-
lau. These will commence an the 22nd of August and con-
tinue until the 4th of September.

The steamers of the principal lines leaving Liver.
pool for New York have been for some weeks crowded to
their utmost capacity with cabin passengers, the homeward
stream of American tourists having set in. The Cunard
steamer Gallia sailed from the Mersey on Saturday for New
York with about 300 saloon passengers, amongst whom were
the Earl of Dunraven, Lord Caledon, Lord Rodney, the Hon.
Isaac H. Bailey, the Hon. Mrs. Wodehouse, Admiral Steed.
man, and Chief Justice Curtis.

Since the fusion of the posts and telegraphs in
France there has been a considerable increase in the number
of telegraph lines laid down, and by the end of this year the
total length of these will be about 110,000 miles, or 50 per
cent, more than it was just before the fall of the Empire.
The annual rate of increase was about 3,000 miles up to the
beginning of last year, since when some 12,000 miles have
been added.

The Belgian Minister of Education has issued a
general order to the governors of the various prcvinces in-
structing them that for the future the payment of the fees
of elementary schools is to be remitted in the case of chil-
dren of paupers, of day-labourers with no other means of
subsistence except their wages, and of other persons who
are known to be in impoverished circumstances. Another
ordinance fixes the honorarium of the teachers of religion
in the elementary schools at 1001. annually for each class
taught.

Lord William Beresford, A.D.C,, the Court Cir-
cular says, had the honour of dining with the Queen, at
Osborne, on Sunday, on his return from Zululand, and re-
ceived from her Majesty the Victoria Cross, "for which he
had been recommended for his conspicuous gallantry in
saving the life of a sergeant at the risk of his own," during
a reconnaissance before the Battle of 'Ulundi.

On Saturday afternoon two youths, named Ernest
Topham, a pupil teacher at the National Schools, Runcorn,
and Ernest Rampson, aged sixteen, were drowned whilst
bathing at that town, near the iron bridge that crosses the
Mersey. On Sunday morning the body of Topham was
found so deeply embedded In the mud and sand that
another tide would have altogether prevented its discovery.
Up to Sunday afternoon the body of ifampson had not been
found.

The French Minister of War has just issued a regu-
lation providing each regiment of infantry with 1,100 tools of
various descriptions. Each of the twelve companies which
form the three battalions on active service will receive forty-
eight implements—namely, hatchets, pickaxes, spades, and
saws—which will be packed in a case to be attached to the
knapsack or belt, and thirty other tools are to be carried by
a mule, making in all seventy-eight implements for 220
soldiers. Besides this the sappers will carry thirteen ales
and other tools, and 162 more will be kept as a reserve in
the regimental cart.

No cheap luxury ever so readily became a general
favourite as "the Japanese hat, price one penny." Ladies
and gentlemen alike, as well as persons of low degree and
lofty pride, appear to delight in making a display of what is
termed—for an unaccountable reason—" a Zulu."—Court
Journal.

The exact terms of Mdlle. Sarah Bernhardt's en.
gagement have been published. She is not to cross the
Atlantic until September, 1880, and is to receive 600 dols.
for each performance, besides 20 dols. a day for personal
expenses, Mr. Jarrett also defraying all other charges, In-
cluding steamer passages and railroad fares. Previous to
her American tour Mdlle. Bernhardt will play in Russia,
Holland, and Belgium.
The joincrs and carpenters of Bristol have followed
the example of the masons, and the strike in the Bristol
building trade I+ now practically at an end, a large number
of the men having returned to their work at the halfpenny
per hour reduction. The notice of reduction was given by
the employers in November last

"We have to announce the death of Amy Mary,
Countess of March, who died, after a lingering and painful
illness, on Saturday morning at the family residence in
Grosvenor-crescent, London. The Countess was in her
thirty-third year. She was the eldest daughter of Mr. Percy
Ricardo' and married on the 10th of November, 1868, the
Earl of March, by whom she leaves a young faintly, the
eldest, Charles Lord Settrington, having been born in
December, 1870."—Obituary notice in The Times of Monday
The Marriage of Viscount Coke, Scots Guards,
eldest son of the Earl of Leicester, and the Hon. Alice
White, second daughter of Lord and Lady Annaly, was
solemnized at All Saints' Church, Ennismore-gardens, London,
on Tuesday, in the presence of a large circle of relative's
and friends. The bride's presents were numerous, and in-
cluded Of is from the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and
the Duke of Connaught.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledges in
The Times (as "Conscience Money ") receipt of the second
halves of Bank-notes for £2O, sent anonymously, for under-
estimated Income-tax.

A still further application of straw is reported from
San Francisco, which will largely affect the cooperage trade.
Straw pulp is made, by pressure in a machine, into the form
of barrels and kegs, which, with their wooden hoops, only
weigh about 161 b. The cost of a barrel or a pail is exactly
the price of wooden ones, and one man only is required to
attend to three machines, which can turn out 750 barrels
per day of ten hours.

There were 21 British and foreign wrecks reported
during the past week, making a total of 1,046 for the present
year, or an increase of 115 as compared with the correspond-
ing period of last year. The approximate value of property
lost was £440,000, including British 050,000.

A frightful accident occurred on Tuesday evening
at the Seven Sisters Pit, Dowlais, Glamorganshire. Seven
of the second shift men were descending the shaft in the
usual cage, and when about sixty yards from the bottom one
side of the cage suddenly became fixed against the guides,
and at once tilted over, and three of the men were pre-
cipitated to the bottom of the pit, two being immediately
killed, and the third injured so severely that he died three
hours afterwards. The other four men were badly hurt, but
managed to cling to the cage until the engine-driver, notic,lng
something wrong, reversed the eugine and brought the cage
free from the obstruction.

At the half-yearly meeting of the London and
Northwestern Railway, the Chairman, in moving the adop-
tion of the report, stated that during the past half-year
great loss had been suffered in the Irish traffic. The plea-
sure traffic, too, had fallen off, but the short distance)
business remained quite as much as before. The speaker re-
ferred to the great dhaster which had been caused on the
Cnester and Holyhead line during the past ten days in the
destruction of bridges and culverts by the floods; and an-
nounced that traffic had been resumed on every part of those
lines that day.
A crowded and enthusiastic meeting of workingmen
was held at Sheffield on Monday evening, for the purpose of
taking steps to promote the emigration of surplus labour. A
resolution was passed expressing the opinion that it was
absolutely necessary, considering the state and prospects of
trade in England, that there should be a large emigration of
the surplus population. A further meeting is to be held in a
Short time to carry this resolution into effect.
-

There are a hundred thousand Maries in Paris,
according to a calculation of the Paris Figaro, which esti.
mates the sum spent upon the 15th August, the Day of the
Assumption aud fife day of all Mantes, in bouquets of Mlles
alone to amount to £3,000.
A special telegram to The Times from Calcutta,says
that the accounts from Cashmere continue to give a melan-
choly picture of the starvation and misery prevailing there.
The Maharajah and his officers appear to be working well,
and the Puujaub Government is doing its best to forward
supplies; but little improvement in the situation can be
looked for until the arrival of the rice harvest. The despatch
adds that the state of things in Eastern Bengal still causes
some anxiety to the local authorities, but itis hoped the dis-
tress will not attain serious proportions.

There were 2 370 births and 1,322 deaths registered
In London last Week. Allowing for increase of population,
the birth h were 21, and the deaths so many as 186, below the
average numbers in the corresponding week of the last ten
year. The annual death-rate from all causes was 19 1. Daring
the past eight weeks of the current quarter the death-rate int
Loudon has averaged but 18'1 per 1,000.
The 'lndian papers report that Sir P. N, L. Caysg-
Earl was robbed by the hill tribes en route to Cabal of 3.000
runees and his insigna of the O. I.
The Countess of Clarnaryon turned, on Tuesday, the
first sod of the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Junction
Railway, in the presence of an immense number of ladies
and gentlemen assembled, notwithstanding the inclemency
of the weather. At the banquet which was subsequently
held in the Corn Exchange, and presided over by the Mayor
of Newbury, Lord Carnarvon, whose name was associated
with the toast of the day, in his response dwelt upon the ad-
vantage created in agricultural districts by the opening up
throughout the country of railway communication.

An effort is being made, says the Manchester Guar-
dian, to establish a Lancashire Telephonic Exchange on the
American model. The proposal is to connect subscribers'
premises by means of telegraph wires with a central office,
and to use Bell's telephone, with Blake's transmitter, as the
medium of communication between one subscriber and
another. It is little more than a week since the subject
Wa introduced to the notice of business men in Manches,
ter, bud already about fifty of the most Important mercan-
tile firms have signified their approval of the scheme, and
their desire to become subscribers in the event of its bElog
carried out.
Two English n'entlemen, MePere. Haydon and Bed-
ford, on their way from Braemar to Blair Athole, atPempted
on Monday afternoon to ford the Tarff Pool, at the head of
Glen Tilt. The river was much swollen by the recent rains
and when they arrived at the stream they resolved to force
their way, instead of returning or waiting till the river had
gone down. Mr. Ha, don reached the other sido with groat
difficulty, hut his companion was carried away. The sur-
vivor reached Forest Lodge more dead than alive, and a
messenger was immediately dispatched to Visit' Athol() to
telegraph the news of Mr. Bedford's death to his friends in
England. The body was recovered on Tuesday afternoon in
the bed of the river several miles from the spot where he
attempted to cross.