The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-30 00:00:00

usual

SPIRITUALISM FOR SOHOOLBOYS.—The
tippings."—Punch.
WAR MATERIAL FOR RUSSIA AND TURKEY.
—Both Russia and Turkey have for some time past
been sending large orders for small arms and cartridges
to America. A supply of Colt's rifle machinery has
been sent to Russia, and is turning out large numbers
of rifles for the use of the Russian Army. The
number already manufactured in Russia by machinery
purchased by General Gorloff from Colt's Rifle Com-
pany is estimated at 3,000,000. Russia has also during
the past year imported from another American firm
100,000 pistols. There has likewise been perfected in
America what is now called the Russian cartridge,
20,000,000 of which have been made in Bridge Port,
Connecticut. Cartridge machinery has also been sent
from America 'to Russia, and 4..0,000 cartridges are
being manufactured daily at St. Petersburg and
Moscow. The Turkish Government has entered into
a contract with the Rhode Island Company for the
supply of 800,000 Martini• Henry rifles, of which
250,000 have already been shipped; 100,000 more are
ready for export, and materials tor another 100,000
are on hand at the works.
PUBLICANS' AND GROCERS' CERTIFICA.TES.—
Dr. Cameroon has obtained another return to the
House of Commons in reference to drunkenness in
Scotland. The present paper shows the number of
publicans' and of grocers' certificates granted in Scot-
land during the year ended the 30th of June last, with
other particulars connected with such certificates. The
burghs in Scotland allow that the number granted by
Justices or magistrates to publicans was 99 and to
groc§rs 72. The aumber granted on appeal to Quarter
Sessions, after being refused by Justices or magistrates,
was 20 to publicans and five to grocers, making a total
of 110 to publicans and 77 to grocers. In counties, the
total granted by magistrates and also on appeal was
69 to publicans and 81 to grocers.

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DEATH OF SIR ROBERT BOOTH, M.P.—Sir
Robert Gore Booth, LP. for County Sligo, died at
his residence in Sligo on Thursday night. The de-
ceased baronet was the eldest son of the late Sir
Robert Newcomen, third baronet, who assumed the
title of Gore-Booth. He was born in 1805, was edu-
cated at Westminster, and at Queen's College, Cam-
bridge. He married first, in 1827, the second daughter
of the first Viscount Lorton, but she died in the fol-
lowing year. In 1830 Sir Robert Gore Booth married
a daughter of Mr. T. Goold, some time a master in
Chancery in Ireland. He succeeded to the title in
1814. In 1830 he filled the office of high sheriff of
county Sligo; and he was first returned for Sligo in
1850, and continued to represent that constituency in
the Conservative interest down to the time of his death.

SrocK IN AUSTRALIA.—An Australian Re..
turn shows the number of live stock in the Australian
Colonies at the close of the year 1875; but the return
for New Zealand is for 1874. The number of sheep,
without counting about 12,000 on islands in Bass's
Straits, is 63,845.719, or more than double the number
in Great Britain. There are no less than 24,382,536
sheep in New South Wales, 11.749,532 in Victoria,
6,179 395 in South Australia, 7,227,774 in Queensland,
11,704,853 in New Zealand. The cattle are 6,884,527,
a lasger number than in great Britain; nearly half the
oattle, 3,134,086, are in New Ssuth Wales, and Queens-
land, with its 1,812,576, stands next. The horses have
increased to 935,252, the number in New South Wales
being 357,696, and there being 196,184 in Victoria,
The pigs are 673,729, of which number 199,950 are in
New South Wales, 140,765 in Victoria, 100,562 in
South Australia, 123 921. in New Zealand. The area
under cultivation in 1875 is stated at 451,138 acres in
New South Wales, 1,126,831 acres in Victoria, 1,444,586
acres in South Australia, 77,347 acres in Queensland,
332.824 acres in Tasmania, and 47,571 acres in Western
Australia making a total of 3,480,297 acres in
Australia. The return for New Zealand shows
2,377,402 acres under cultivation in 1874, but no less
than 1,770,264 acres of this number are returned RS
what is called "permanent artificial grass."

A VISIT TO ARTHUR ORTON.—On Thursday
(says the Daily News) a visit to the convict Orton at
Dartmoor was paid by Mr. Guildford Onslow, Mr.
Helsby, and a Mr. Stubbs, whose family have been
tenants on the Tichborne estates for the past two
hundred years. Instead of the visitors seeing the
prisoner in the deputy-governor's office, as on previous
occasions, the newly-appointed governor insisted upon
the prison rules being observed and the interview
taking place in the ordinary three-compartment
room, with a warder between the convict and
his friends. Orton was more downhearted
than on any previous occasion, and complained that he
was treated cruelly, and expressed a hope that the
matter would be brought before Parliament, so that
there might be a commission of inquiry into his case.
He seemed to be in good health, but complained of an
affection of the throat and head resembling erysipelas.
The Home Secretary had declined to allow more than
the regulation twenty minutes, and at the expiration of
that period the visitors quitted.the prison and left for
Plymouth in company with Members of the Tiokborne
Release Association.
GHOSTS AND GULLS.—As an argument for the
credibility of alleged spiritual manifestations, we are
continually reminded that there are more things in
heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy.
Unluckily the spirits never tell us any of them.—
Punch.

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SOMETHING LIKE A DRESS !—The Empress
of Brazil has presented the Queen of England with a
dress the equal of which has never been seen. It is
woven of spiders' webs, and is, as may be imagined, a
work of art as regards quality and beauty. The hand-
somest silk dress cannot compare with it; bat it can
only be admired, hardly imitated. There have already
been many attempts to make use of the threadd
spun by spiders, but up to the present the experi-
ments have not been satisfactory enough to encourage
any further efforts in this direction. In the year
1710 it was discovered that to make a piece of silk it
would require the webs of 700,000 spiders. The
Spaniards had already tried to use the spiders' threads
and made gloves, stockings, and other articles of the
sort; but, even these were so troublesome and yielded
BO little profit that, in spite of the fabulous priced
paid, they were obliged to abandon the trade. In car.
tam n parts of South America garments made of those
threads are worn; but the spiders in these lands are
unusually large. It is likely that the above•mentioned
dress was made of the threads of the smaller species
of the American spider. There is, therefore, some
hope that the time is not far distant when, thanks to
the :progress of modern industry, fashionable ladies
may have the satisfaction of wearing elegant silks of
the same delicate texture.—Court Circular.
SINGULAR RAILWAY ACUIDENT.— (Specially
reported by our own Penny a-Liner.)—An accident of
rather an unusual character:occurred at Euston Station
on Monday morning last, on the instant of departure of
the nine o'clock express. The train was actually in
motion, and, indeed, had well nigh left the platform.
when suddenly the signal-cord was violently pulled,
and a bare head was seen protruded from a first-olass
carriage window, whence, by several of the bystanders,
loud screams were heard proceeding, such as seemed
to be the shrieks of anguish or despair. On the stop-
page of the train, the cause of the disturbance WM
speedily explained. It appeared that an old gentleman,
who was travelling to Scotland with his wife and his
two daughters, in order to spend Christmas veil
wisely, awayirom his own home, had, by aecident,
omitted to purchase Punch's Almanacle to amuse them
on the Primo,. In the excitement which attended
the discovery of his neglect, the worthy traveller pro-
ceeded to signal the disaster, forgetting that he eta,
could make the wished-for purchase at any of the
bookstalls at which the train would stop.—Punch.
A BORN ORATOR (IN THE Essr).—Fermer
(proposing Landlord's health). "An' if a' Squiears
dew as our Squiear dew, there wudna be so many on
,em as dew as they dew dew I"—Punch.

A CARELBSS ARTIST.—Diaz, the late French
artist, was most reckless with regard to money, and
M. Charles Blanc relates a curious anecdote of hia
carelessness. An amateur had just paid Diaz £24 tor
a study of beeches as M. Blanc entered the studio, and
Diaz taking the money, threw it over his head on to
the floor, where the napoleons rolled away in various
directions. "Now," said the painter, "when I want
any money it gives me the greatest pleasure to find it
by chance in a crack of the floor, amongst my port.
folios, or in a dark corner, and when my EOM ask re°
for cash, or a poor comrade comes for help, I say,
Let us fish for gold,' and unknown treasures come to
light."—Diaz was a devoted husband and father, and
when he used first to paint in the Forest of Fontaine-
bleau was always accompanied by his wife, mounted
on a donkey, and his three children in the panniers.

A WORD IN SEASON.—The Lancet says :---
" The report of the death of the wife of a clergyman at
Chatham from small pox, contracted while visiting the
sick in the parish—the unfortunate lady had been
married only 18 months—leads us to give a word or
two of advice to those similarly engaged. We should
be sorry to say anything of a nature to damp the
ardour of lady visitors to the homes of the sick poor.
Those members of the profession whose duties take
them into the most wretched and squalid quarters of
our metroplis will testify to the courage and devotion
with which ladies carry on the noble work of sue
-
coining the sick and distressed, and acknowledge the
assistance they often receive in this manner in the
treatment of disease. It may not, however, be out
of place to remind district visitors that, at a time when
small-pox is so widely prevalent, the utmost care and
precaution should be observed to secure their persons
against infection. We assume that all whose selfina•
posed duties carry them into suspected quarters have
already submitted themselves to revaccination. Two
other perservative meaeures, disinfection and fumigo*
gation, should be practised as far as possible. With
regard to the disinfection of rooms lately occupied 13/
person with infectious disease, no better agent could be
used than the bisulphide of carbon, which, on ignition,
evolves sulphurous acid in vapour. The substance is
not costly, and may be burnt either in an ordinal/
spirit lamp or in an open dish. It should be used witn
caution, as is extremely inflammable."
THE SABBATH ALLIAICE OF SCOTLAND.—A
correspondence which has lately taken place between
the committee of the Sabbath Alliance of Scotland
and the Lord Advocate involves a question of COLP
eiderable importance. It seems that on Sunday,
the sth of November, a bridge over the Caledonian
Railway near Slateford was blown up, and the
noise of the explosion, it is affirmed, was dig°
tinctly heard in various parts of Edinburgh dir
tracting the attention of persons on their way to
or attending public worship. The committee of the
Sabbath Alliance therefore complained indignantly of
the incident to the Crowns Office, and on the 7th inst.
received a reply from the Crown agent stating that the
bridge was not blown up by any of the Caledonian
Railway officials or by their orders, but by the order of
a contractor in the course of carrying out an arrange
ment made for the removal of the structure between
the governors of George Watson's Hospital and the
railway company. It is further explained that the
bridge was blown up at an early hour of the mornings
and that the explosion did not lead to any disturb'
ance of public worship, or interfere in any way with
persons on their way to attend it. Under these et,'
camstancea the Lord Advocate "cannot order criminai
proceedings to be taken." The Sabbath Alliance Coro'
mittee, disappointed at this decision, wrote again
the Crown Office expressing their disappointment, se._
begging that the matter might be reconsidered. Tile
Lord Advocate, however, by a letter dated the lals
Inst., declines to alter his dentition, and here the quid'
tion rote for the moment.--24 Hag GetutbeA