The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-02-08 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.
The Swit s railways carried last year a million fewer
passengers than in 1877.
The St, Petersburg Correspondent of the Daily
Telegraßh, says that the Czay is looking very unwell, and is
muon troubled by his periodical attack of asthma.
The value of the site on which Christ's Hospital
(the London Blue Coat School) stands is said to be £600,000.
The Astronomer Royal reports that during the
year 1878 the sun was above the horizon during 4,454 hours,
and 1,250 hours of bright sunshine were recorded. The
amount of sunshine was therefore equal to 28 per cent. of
its possible duration.
It is proposed to restore Grasmere Church, with
which the memory of Wordsworth is so intimately associated,
in order to provide additional accommodation for wor-
shippers, but care will be taken as far as possible not to
destroy any of the antiquated furnishings of the building.
All but 50 of the 197 cattle landed from Ontario at
Liverpool have been slaughtered. Eleven of the animals
were suffering from pleuro-pnenmonia. A deputation from
the owners of the cargo asked the Veterinary Department
to allow the remainder of the animals to live to ascertain '
whether they had contracted the disease, but, according to
the law, they were also ordered to be slaughtered.
Three lads, named respectively Ernest Webley,
aged 12, Richard Young, aged 13, and William Banes, were
sliding on a pond at tienhury, near Bristol, with a boy
named Stevens, on Friday eveeing in last week, when the
Ice, which was about two inches thick, suddenly broke.
Stevens managed to struggle to the bank, but the other
three boys disappeared. Their bodies were not recovered
for nearly halt an hour.
The Wesleyan Thanksgiving Fund is progressing
beyond general expectation. Towards a total of 5204,000
eontempiated, £52,000 has already been promised, and
there are good grounds for hoping that the result will far
.exceed the amount originally fixed upon. The metro-
politan districts are expected to subscribe £.50,000. A
cheque for £3,000 has just been received by the committee
from an anonymous donor styling himself •" A Well-
wisher."
On Monday the ironfounders, engineers, dock
porters, lumpers, stevedores, and dock labourers on strike
at •Liverpool were joined by the corn porters, who struck
against a reduction of sixpence per day. The American
liners can neither be loaded nor discharged for want of
hands. The mail steamers announced to sail for New York
will, however, be despatched ptinctually, with or without

cargo.
On Tuesday morning a young man named John
Cheale, residing in white.street, Bethnal-green, Loudon,
murdered his child, attempted to murder his wife, and
afterwards destroyed his own hie by cutting his throat.
Cheale had barely reached man's estate, whiles his wife is in
her 19th year, and the baby, murdered at its mother's breast,
was but ell months old. A fear of future want is supposed
to have been the motive of the crime.
American New Year receptions are remarkable for
their splendid display of flowers. In New York the flowers
are chiefly formed into curious devices, the most fashionable
designs this year being full-rigged ships, well-filled wheel-
barrows and Angot baskets, while the favourite flowers were
Persian lilac, ituasian violets, camellias, and JaqueminOt
roses.
Under the auspices of the Charity Organisation
Society a meeting was held on Monday for the special con-
sideration of the distress in the metropolis. A report was
presented, giving replies received to qnestions which had
been extensively circulated. These had induced the Com-
mittee of the Society to come to the conclusion that any
distress existing has been the result chiefly of the severe
weather, following upon a long period of trade depression,
and that such distress is local, and confined mainly to
certain trades. Several gentlemen representing various dis-
tricts of the metropolis spoke on the sujbect, and a reso-
lution was passed expressing an opinion in accordance with
the conclusions arrived at by the Committee.
The Spanish facade in the Paris Exhibition has just
been solo for the sum of £224. it cost no less than £12,000
to erect this Alhambra-like structure in the Street of Nations,
of which it was one of the most striking ornaments. Its
picturesque effect was much enhanced by the group of Spanish
soldiers in various uniforms who were always to be found in
the neighbourhood. The pretty pavilion erected by the
Administration of Forests in the grounds of the Trocaddro
has not met with so fortunate a fate. It was put up for sale,
but found no buyer, and it has, therefore, been &aided to
pull it down and sell the materials for what they may fetch.
—Paris correspondent of Daily Telegraph.
The number of men employed in Portsmouth Dock-
yard at the present time amounts to over 700 more than were
provided for by the Estimates, the additional hands being
remunerated out of a special vote for the repair of the
Indian troopships. The workmen engaged number 5,670,
and the number provided for 4,961 ; and as the funds have
fallen short a discharge is imminent. But in order to enable
the authorities to tide over as for as possible the interval
which will elapse before the new financial year begins, a
deputation, representing 400 shipwrights, have waited upon
the Chief Constructor for the purpose of suggesting that, to
prevent a further reduction of workmen, a day less in the
week might be worked. Such are arrangement as this could
only be put In force with respect to the " hired " hands.
Harper's Bazaar tells us that the Marchioness of
Lorne has been an active patron of, and visitor at, the
Victoria Hospital for sick children in London. On One
occasion, she noticed some dust on the floor. "This room
ought to be swept more carefully," she exclaimed; then
their entrance,orne
revid
she took it sip, left by the housemaid,
tha
seeing,,.h o vanished
m i o n
1,), and began
playfully to sweep. Her companion remonstrated, when the
Princess said, laughing, "Now do you suppose my mother
left my education so Unfinished that I can't sweep 1" and
accordingly half in J. et, but with a skill many housekeepers
sigh for, the tittle lady vigorously swept the
,apartment,
Paving Wen, the hornely'precantdon ph&hiss vites, s,e'„
gown Wbtd slaçc;adinfinced the Ofttione ~44