The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-23 00:00:00

ur Yonbon orrtspolthent.
[We dcem it right to state that we do not at all ti=ea
asntify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The propensity for wood-cutting shown by Mr.
Gladstone has often been used as a figure by politi-
cians, admiring and otherwise, but judging by
appearances, the pastime, invigorating as it may he,
has its drawbacks. One of the first things which
struck many in the crowd on Blackheath at the com-
mencement of "the woodman of Hawarden's " recent
address was the absence of the first finger from
the speaker's left hand. Whilst addres3ing those
beneath him this hand was in frequent use, and the
loss was perceivable even to these on the outskirts of
the crowd. The zeal of the ex-Premier In cutting
down trees is a similarly vigorous passion to that of
Lo:d Palmerston's fig leaping fences, a pastime in
which he delighted air which he practised until within
a week of his death. At Hawarden there is plenty of
room for the removal of trees, as in some parts of it they
are planted very thickly and, as Mr. Gladstone,
casually observed to a meeting held there a few weeks
since, some need to be cut down for the benefit of the
rest.

Whilst in the speech referred to Mr. Gladstone paid
a high compliment to the activity and diligence of the
Prefs of this country, it is worthy of notice that the
London evening papers almost excelled themselves in
their endeavouts to provide a full and early report of
theaddress for their readers. A great proportion of
the reporters in the enclosure before the hustings were
attached to these papers, six being sent by each, who
Individually took a share of the speech, and hastily
sent it on to London. Mr. Gladstone commenced at a
quarter to 4 p.m., and sat down just exactly at a
quarter to 5, the subsequent proceedings occupying a
very few minutes. In two hours from the time last
named a full report of the speech was being sold in the
streets of the metropolis, and by breakfast-time the
next morning it was being read in the villages of Corn-
votal and Northumberland. The Press and the Post-
office worked well together to furnish those who wished
for the speech with a complete report of it.

This year's weather.has been somewhat puzzling to
meteorologists and very annoying to ordinary people.
Thesnmmer was so late in arriving that many thought
that there was to be none, bat when it came the heat
was so intense that sunstroke was not an exceptional
illness. The hot weather departed, however, just as
quickly as it came, and there appears to have set in a
cold autumn which is likely to lead to a long, even if
not intense winter. With Longfellow, one might
say—

Thcfn earnest, Aatamn, heralded by the rain,
With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,
Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,
And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!
Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,
Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand

Outstretched with benedictions for the land.
The harvest, however, having been gathered in and
there having been 4,air yield in most parts of the
country, there will n'ot be so much cause for lamenta-
tion as last year, when the rain descended, and the
winds blew, and the floodi came and spoilt so much
corn and hay.

The passion for mountain climbing which has
developed so strongly among the English within the
past few years does not seem to receive much
check from the accidents which are so frequently
recorded in the newspapers. These sad occurrences,
however, should tend to make intending visitors
to mountainous regions more careful than before.
There are some adventurous spirits who are never
so happy as when running into danger, but the
ordinary practical Englishman is built of sterner
stuff and, although sometimes foolhardy, can
scarcely be said to be so by nature. Attempting
to scale mountains without the aid of a guide is one of
those achievements which some may boast of, but so
many accidents have thus resulted that this is likely to
be discouraged. Talking of mountain climbing, it is
interesting to notice how the facilities for foreign travel
have so increased the number of visitors to Switzerland
that the Alps are becoming stale and fresh fields,
and pastures new are sought to be found in
the Balkan, the Caucasus, and even in the Ural
Mountains. The time may come when the Appenines
will be included in a summer tour, for already the
Becky Mountains are becoming over-visited. The
latter, by the way, are said by many who have seen
them to be very much more imposing in guide-books
than they really are.
When post-cards were introduced into England on
October 1, 1870, it was thought that they would never
become very popular, as the people in this country are
so reserved that they were nilk held to be likely to
write a letter in such a way that the postmen and their
own servants could read it. This idea was more
justified after the mice was risen thee ee. it
...Len nave just been issued it appears
as if the cards are gaining in favour. The increase
per Cent. during 1875 over 1874 in the number used
was 10 7, as against an addition of only 42
per cent, in letters. The number of letters in the
first-mentioned year in the United Kingdom was
1,008392,100; of post-cards, 87,116,300; and of book
packets and newspapers, 279,716,C00—a grand total of
1,375,224,400. These are very large figures, and it is
a good sign that they are increasing. As might be
expected, some ingenious calculations have been
founded upon these returns, the most of them
being more interesting, and probably more instructive,
than such information as to the number of paving-
stones in London, or of the miles of gas piping in New
Zealand. It has been stated, for instance, that if one
man were to attempt to deliver the total of letters, &c.,
just mentioned, au the rate of one a second for the
twenty-fours right through, week days and Sundays,
never stopping to eat, drink, or sleep—pausing, in fact,
for nothing—he would occupy 43 years in getting
through the work. One such calculation is enough to
take one's breath away, and others of the same class
need, therefore, scarcely be given.
The efforts to provide better dwellings for the work-
ing classes residing in London have not met with such
success as at first promised. There seems to have been
a dislike on the part of those who were intended to be
benefitted to occupying model houses--the name being
apparently sufficient to £ei4hten them. The much-
abused "speculative builder" has done much to
render living in slums by those who could afford
better accommodation, but who could not get it, un-
necessary. Of course, there is the matter of distance
from the City to be considered, for most of the new
houses have necessarily to be built at a distance
of from five to seven miles from it, but the
number of suburban lines, and the increase
in the total of trains run upon them have
greatly helped to keep the working population
"out of town." It is not only in London that the
want of suitable houses for the labouring devises has
been felt. In many a small as in many a larger town
nattered through the land, there is a loud complaint
that dwellings are not to be found which are sufficiently
roomy, and yet sufficiently cheap. Capitalists hesitate
to invest in what can scarcely be a very paying
speculation, and philanthropists do not seem able to
risk the requisite money under those ciroumstances,
much improvement in the matter is not to be looked
for, at least for the time.

The recent demand, expressed at some public meet-
ings, fir the convention of Parliament for an autumn
se,sion, recalls the last occasion upon which one
such was convoked. In the autumn of 1867 the
Abyssinian War commenced, and Parliament—which
had had an unusually long session that year,
having been opened by the Queen n person on
Feebruay 5, and prorogued by commission on August
21, the heated debates on the Reform Bill filling up
most of the tivae—met on November 19, being opened
by commission. Four days afterwards a vote of
£2,000,000 to the expenses of the Abyssinian Expedi-
tion was agreed to; five days after that an additional
Penny was voted to the Income.tax ; and, on December
7. an adjournment was taken to February 13, 1863.
Autumn sessions are naturally rare—only being held
when there is some emergency. They ara certain
never to be popular with the members, for these gem-
tlemen are summoned from their shooting-boxes, their
continental baths, and their oountry homes, just as they
are expecting %little rest after the a of the session.
To those ev—n—o--k—now what parliamentary work
means the last expresaien will commend itself,
for those who have never tried the experiment of sitting
and listening to Roods of talk for nine or ten hours a day
four days in the week, for six mouths at a stretch, and
Caose the hottest of the year, can scarcely appreciate
the labour of a conscientious representative. It is not
to be supposed, hoveever, that there are many in the
House of Commons who work so hard. Perhaps there
is one member in each session who attends every divi-
sion, but he is looked upon as a /ems nature; and
there are many more who are present at none, some of
these being away from their place for two or three
years in succession without any reason being offered.
The number of divisions wh'ch a member attends is
not, however, always a fair test of the parliamentary
work which he does. In addition to there being com-
mittee labour for those who seem most
adapted for it, there are, in the course of some
evenings, a large number of dimions on a compara-
tively unimportant subject, which many members care
nothing about, and therefore go home. Those who
attend on these occasions get credited thereby very
often with a large number of divieions, which swells
their total in undue proportion as against the members
who only vote on questions of great public interest.
A late trial in connection with bicycling has proved
that this pastime has not died out to such an extent as
some of its detractors would have people to believe.
Seven or eight years since, when bicycles were gene'
ally introduced in the place of the more ungainly but

fatigue