The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-05-08 00:00:00

A FAIR SHARE OF THE CRUMBS.

Noticing the frauds of Benjamin Higgs, a corres-
pondent of a London daily writes
would like to state a case in my own experience, showing
that the extravagant rate of remuneration awarded to the
"stile accountant" is not a solitary one, and that share-
hoklers and business men have but themselves to thank, if
employes, through actual poverty, are unable to do their
duty and resist temptation.
I had a friend who was for many years engaged as the
manager of the general office of a large firm of ship-brokers.
On his entering the office his salary was £l3O per annurn,
with four juniors below him. In two years the clerks in-
creased to twenty-three, and the office hours usually were
Irons 0 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m., frequently till 11 or 12, without
extra pay. In seven years my friend's salary reached the
enormous amount of £lBO per annum, or an average in-
crease of about £7 yearly, and not a farthing more could be
squeezed out of the employers—men of p,sition and standing
in their trade—although at this time be was keeping cash
also and discounting £lO,OOO to £20,000 of paper in the
market far-mat daily.
The secret of his remaining with them was his having a
family arid no private resources, and he could not afford to
throw away even half a loaf for no bread.
I trust, sir, this simile statement of facts which I am
confident call be repeated almost indefinitely, will produce
a feeling in the hearts of those "who ride in their carriages,
and live on the fat of the land," that they who eminently
arolst to earn their living for them should have for their
littleones sad themselves a fair share at least of the crumbs.

A VISIT TO A TURKISH SLAVE
MARKET.
The following interesting letter, dated from Smyrna.
April 13, written by Mr. John Ripley, was published
in the Morning Star of the 3rd instant:—
Will you kindly allow me a corner In the Star to detail
something which may be of interest to your readers? At
present I am assisting Mr. Cook in his great tour to the
East, the particulars of which will be duly published on the
completion of the excursion. With a party of fifty ladies
and gentlemen, we have visited Egypt and Palestine, and are
now en route fur Constantinople. We arrived in the Austrian
Lloyd's steamer Saturno in the Bay of Smyrna yesterday,
and to-day, being anxious to attend the religious service at
the church of the English Consulate, I spoke to a guide who
proffered his services, and suggested that after the church ser-
vice we shnild go ant see and hear the dancing and howling
dervishes and also visit the slave market. After the services of
the church, a party of us, under the leadership of our guide,
passed along Frank-street, and then turned up through the
bazaars and the Persian market, and on till we passed
through a kind of gateway, in whtch several Turks were
smoking. Here we found a moderately sized square, sur-
rounded by a number of low buildings; a few Turks were
lounging about, and two or three boys as black as ebony
stood eyeing us with considerable curiosity; but there was

CAPTAIN TARLETON'S FITNERAL.—In the dis-
course delivered at the interment of Captain Tarleton,
by the Rev. William Woods, in Killeigh Church, where
the body was buried, the preacher said—
What a spectacle do we present to the world ! Here,
where personal freedom is enjoyed almost to excess, and res-
pect and obedience to the law are reasonably supposed to be
Inculcated and valued, what an instance of insecurity of life
and property—what a contradiction of any moral regard for
justice, loyalty, or liberty of action ! Here, where manliness
is boasted of, what a spectacle in the cowardly, treacherour,
and cruel attack on a single man, unaware of the presence
of his enemy, stolen upon and slain like a beast of prey. Is
there no Christianity in my country ; is there no sense of
justice and morality among my professing Christian brethren?
These things shame me, and excite my indignation. Let me
not excite angry or revengeful feeling. Rather let us try to
quell as for as possible the holy horror and almost passionate
excitement which must necessarily exist at suck • crisis."