The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-11-22 00:00:00

isallantaus
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLOICUL.

FRENCH REAL ESTATES —During last year 980,680
real estate sales took place in France, the conveyance
duty on which brought the sum of 138,650,260 f. to the
Treasury.
NEWSPAPERS IN JAPAN.--Japanese newspaper enter-
prise is making rapid progress. It is stated that no less
than three vernacular newspapers published at Tokio
and one at Kobe have sent special correspondents to re.
port the proceedings in the war in China.
RAILWAY COMPENSATION.—The "Railway Engineer"
for November gives the value of the compensation paid
by railway companies between 1870-76 as £3,893,216,
and between 1877-83 as £3,254,240, or £638,976 in favour
of the latter period, although the mileage was 320,121,322
miles greater.
SHIPBUILDING IN AMERIC.A.—Twenty-two thousand
men are building ships in the United States. Twenty-
two millions of dols, are the shipbuilders' capital, and
40,000,000 dols. a year is the product. In the transporta-
tion trade—for our railway trains are also our ships--
they employ nearly 2,000,000 people, or as half as many
as in all their manufactures.
Tax FRICNCH REVOLUTION.—The Municipal Council
of Paris are considering a project for a monument to
commemorate the French Revolution. *lf the consent
of the State is obtained, it is proposed to ezect it on the
site of the old Tuileries, and to inaugurate it at the time
of the Universal Exhibition of 1889. The artist will
be chosen by competition.
A NEW Pmoniums' Socurrx.—A society named" The
Palestine Pilgrims' Society" has been formed in Boston.
Its objects are to issue to subscribers translations of the
records of the successive pilgrims who have left journals
in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew' in old French, and in
old German. The society's first issue consists of an
account of the pilgrimage of Antoninus.
CREMATION mr Getaisirr.—Cremation continues to
win favour in Germany. Thus the 200th case has just
been registered at Coburg, where 54 people have been
cremated this year alone. These 200 cremations have
occurred since 1878, when the furnace was first erected
in Coburg, and the cares include 62 inhabitants of the
Duchy, and 138 foreigners-426 men, 69 women, and 5
children.

CHEATING AN AUTHOR.—A smart trick has been
played Mr. Max O'Rell by a Yankee firm. Before the
sheets of "John Bull's Womankind," sent in advance
of publication to America, could be got into type, the
work had been translated from an early copy of the
French original, and issued by a New York publisher.
The author's chance of any profit from the American
sale of his book is, therefore, destroyed.—" Athenaeum."
DEAF MurEs.—The number of deaf mutes in the
world is roughly calculated to be from 700,000 to
900,000, and of these 63 per cent, are said to be born
deaf, the others losing their hearing by different acci-
dents. The number of deaf mutes in Great Britain is
probably about 20,000. To meet the educational wants
of these there are on the face of the globe 397 institu-
tions, containing 26,473 inmates of both sexes, and
employing over 2000 teachers.

WATan.—A note on distilled water used
for drinking purposes was recently read before the
Paris Academy by M. A. Hureau de Villeneuve, in
which the author argues the importance of the use of
distilled water, and that the price might be greatly re-
duced by obtaining it from steam engines at work in
mills. He considers it neither unpalatable nor difficult
to digest; that it generally contains a sufficient quan-
tity of air, and that the absence of calcareous salts is
rather an advantage than a drawback.
DIRECTORSHIP OP THE GRAND OPERA.
M.
Lamoureux, the manager of the Château d'Eau Sunday
coecerts, has declined the appointment of director of
the Grand Opera. He considers that, in view of the
exigencies of the administration and other complica-
tions, there is no hope of his being able to effect that
reorganisation of the chief musical establishment of
France which he had contemplated.
MANITOBA.—The official report of the superintendent
of Protestant schools of Manitoba for the last year has
just been issued, and affords striking evidence of the
rapidity with which the settlement of the province is
proceeding. In 1883 there were 271 Protestant schools,
with nearly 11,000 pupils, in the province, as against
182 schools and 6972 pupils in 1882, and 128 schools
with 4919 pupils in 1881. Compared with 1880 both
the number of schools and the attendance have in-
creased nearly threefold.
THE EDELWEISS THREATENED.—The Edelweiss is
seriously threatened, not by tourists alone, who after
all care little about the protection laws existing in
some of the Swiss Cantons, but by the regular traders,
who ship off the plant in quantities, bath dried and
living. Already Switzerland and the Tyrol cannot
supply this famous Alpine plant in sufficient quanti-
ties, so that the merchants are scouring the Corinthian
Alps and the Valley of the Isonzo for specimens, while
some cultivators try to raise the plant in gardens.
Last year one merchant alone sent off 1,500,000 living
Edelweiss, and another despatched 400,000 in a pressed
condition.

VALUABLE Girr.—Mr. Astor has relently made
another gift to the Astor Library, New York. It con-
sists in part of the manuscript collections made by
Lord Chancellor Hardwicke and his sons, comprising
original correspondence with foreign Courts during the
reign of George 1. and George 11., and several interest-
ing transcripts from State papers of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. The whole are in 140 volumes,
folio and quarto. Among the batch are letters and
copies of letters from John and Robert Bowes to 4Sir
Francis Waisingham, 1582-90; Lord Salisbury, 1609-10;
Lord Stair and Mr. Oraggs, 1717; Lord Whitworth and
Lord Polwarth, 1722-23; and M. D. Sapherin and Sir
Luke Schaub, 1717-31.
FRENCH Coms.—French copper money has been
systematically bought and brought over here. A napo-
leon in copper equals 200 " deux sous" pieces, which
pass here as 200 pence or 16s. Bd. But a napoleon may
be bought for something less than 16f. English ; thus
sid. at least is the profit on every napoleon's worth of
copper money brought over here, or nearly 5 per sent.
Invest £94 10s. in copper money when you go to Paris,
and you will find that you have £lOO in your pocket
when you arrivein England, if you pass them as pence
and half-pence, as you can to any extent, and will have
made a profit of £4 10s. by the transaction. A thou-
sand pounds will produce £45 profit; not a bad busi-
ness if only you can do enough of it.

-
EDINGBIIRGH MangumTr.—The educational depart-
ment of the Edinburgh New University Buildings is
now practically completed, and all that remains to be
done is connected with their internal equipment. To
accomplish this, and to enable the acting committee to
discharge all the obligations incurred, it is estimated that
£15,000 will now suffice. Mr. M'Ewan, of Palmerston-
place, who has taken an active interest in the scheme
and has already given it very liberal support, has
promised that in the event of £lO3OOO being subscribed
by Whit Sunday, 1885. he will contribute a further sum
of £5OOO.