The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-01-05 00:00:00

iieou iiteltigent.

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL

AFRICAN EXPLORATION.—The Times of Wednesday
publishes the following :--

Sir,—To- day a short announcement has reached me con-
cerning the Albert Nyanza, in Central Africa, which will not
fail to interest many of your readers just now. It relates to
a recent exploration conducted by an officer in the service
of his Highness the Khedive and is to the following effect :
—" Colonel Mason has been round the Lake Albert in a
steamer, and corroborates the fact of its 'being a compara-
tively small land-locked lake.' "—I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
11011 ACE WALLEit.—Twywell Rectory, Thrapston, Dec. 31,
1877.

PRIZES FOR TEMPERANCE TALES.—The Committee
of the United Kingdom Band of Hope Union are
offering a prize of one hundred pounds for the bat, and
a prize of fifty pounds for the second best temperance
tale, illustrative of, and adapted to promote total absti-
nence amongst the young. - -

- _
THE BOAR'S HEAD.—A Correspondent sends to The
Times the following note of the boar's head forming
part of a Christmas celebration, only out-of-doors
instead of in-doors, in Essex, half a century ago. It
is an extract from a letter addressed to the Editor of
the Mirror, a periodical which was then in the field
against the Gentlemen's Magazine as a repository of
curious and antiquarian information :—" Sir,—Passing
through the village of Hornchurch, near Romford, last
Christmas Day, my attention was attracted to a
crowd of villagers sAllying forth into a field near the
church, led by a man dressed in a farmer's frock, with
the head of an animal on the top of a long pole, with
an orange in its mouth, which I learnt afterwards to
be the head of a boar. I inquired from a person whom
I met the meaning of so novel a sight, and he informed
me that it was wrestled for every Christmas Day by
the peasantry."

THE LONDON IVIA,SONS' STRIKE.-oErj Saturday
(29th ult.) although there was a slight increase in the
numbers on the strike roll, the committee paid the full
rate of 18s. each man, with is. each for wives and
children under thirteen years of age. The number on
the roll is about 660. Besides meeting the strike pay,
the committee have sent one of the_Americans_who

came with the second contingent back to New York
as well as the whole of the last contingent that
arrived about a fortnight since, which consisted only
of four men. Some few men have also been sent back
to the provinces. The committee still retain in hand
a balance exceeding £4OO. Among the special sub-
scriptions sent in during the past week were £5O from
the Sheffield bricklayers, £2O from the Belfast stone-
cutters, £lO from the Nottingham lace-weavers, and
several smaller sums.

THE PLEASURES OF A HANSOM CAB:—In getting

into a hansom cab, you knock your hat in. In 4ettini
out, you knock your hat off. In getting in or out, the
rubs are about 100 to 1 in favour of your coat takiug a
proof impression of the wheel. If two of you get in,
the vehicle is so small that you have to sit almost in
each other's laps. If you wish to speak to the driver,
you have to throw your head back, and nearly dislo-
cate your neck, before you can communicate with him
through that miserable little trapdoor in the roof. If
you direct the cabman to lower the glass blind, it is
advisable to hold yourself far back for fear the
descending portcullis should fall on the bridge of your
nose, and do it serious damage. If he lifts it up sud-
denly, he turns up your nose for life.
SHAKSPEARE TO WlT.—Science has lost a distin-
_ .

......
guished follower in Herr Ruhmkorff, the inventor of
the famous " coil " which bears his name. Herr
Ruhmkorff, who was as benevolent as he was scientific,
has just "shuffled off this mortal coil" at Paris, at an
advanced age.—Punch.
MR. RUSKIN'S ADVICE TO STUDENTS.—First culti-
vate all your personal powers, not competitively, but
patiently and usefully. You have no business to
read in the long vacation. Come here tomake scholars
of yourselves, and go to the mountains or the sea to
make men of yourselves Give at least a month in
each year to rough sailors' work and sea fishing. Don't
lounge and flirt on the beach, but make good seamen.
Then, on the mountains, go and help the shepherd at
his work, the woodmen at theirs, and learn to know
the hills by night and day. If you are staying in level
country, learn to plough, and whatever else you can
that is useful. Then here in Oxford, read to the
utmost of your power, and practice singing, fencing,
wrestling, and riding. No rifle practice, and no
racing, boat or other. Leave the river quiet for the
naturalist, the angler, and the weary student like me.
You may think all these matters of no consequence to
your studies of art and divinity; and that I am
merely crochetty and absurd. Well, that is the way
the devil deceives you. It is not the sins which we feel
sinful, by which he catches us; but the apparently
healthful ones,—those which nevertheless waste the
time, harden the heart, concentrate the passions on
mean objects and prevent the course of gentle and fruit-
ful thought. —From "An Oxford Lecture," in the
Nineteenth Century.
THE MIDLAND ANGLERS.—The Fishing Gazette says
that the Sheffield anglers, who number over 8,000, are
getting up a petition to be presented to Parliament in
the ensuing Session, praying for the passing of an Act
for the better protection of fresh water fisheries. The
extent to which netting, poaching, and unseasonable
fishing is carried on in the neighbourhood of Sheffield
is something to be deplored, and so impressed is Mr.
Mundella with the facts which have been brought
under his notice, that he has consented to bring in a
Bill dealing with the grievance. The question is also
receiving considerable attention in Nottingham and
other towns on the Trent, and petitions will be pre-
sented from these places by their local members.
UGLY LANGUAGE (FOR THE RUSSIANS).—PIain
English.—Judy.
THE FIRST MEERSCHAUM PIPE.—The Museum at
Pesth has recently acquired what claimed to be the
first meerschaum pipe (says Mayfair). It is said that
an ancestor of Count Andrassy brought with him from
Turkey a peculiarly light and porous,,stone which he
had stumbled upon, and bagged as a curiosity. It
occurred to him to have a pipe made out of the stone,
and he entrusted the work to a shoemaker of the name
of Carl Kovacs, who had a local reputation for carving
pipes out of the roots of trees. Carl made two pipes
out of the piece of stone, one of which he gave to
Count Andrassy, and the other he took the liberty of
keeping for his own use. During the cutting it hap-
pened that one of the pipes fell upon a wax plate,
which Carl using for waxing his thread. Some spots
of wax adhered to the stone, and Carl noticed that
when he smoked his pipe these spots developed a beau--
tiful brown colour. He then steeped the whole pipe
in wax, and presently it became overcast with the
fine brown colour dear to the heart of the smoker.
The date of this remarkable discovery is fixed at 1724.
GOOD NEW YEAR'S RESOLVE.—To buy Punch's
Almanack, and turn over all its new leaves.—Punch.
A MUNIFICENT GIFT. Miss Ryland, who has
already presented Birmingham with two public parks,
one at Canon Hill and the other at Smaltheath, re-
presenting together over a hundred acres of wooded
land, has expressed her desire to contribute £4,000
towards the laying out of the last-named park, in ad-
dition to £lO,OOO which she has already expended
upon the embellishment of the former. Her offer has
been accepted by the Birmingham Town Council. It
is stated that the value of Miss Ryla,nd's benefactions
to the town now amounts to about £lOO,OOO.
A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE.—" Now go to school,
and be a good boy. And mind you don't use any rude
words I "—Rude Words ! Tell me a few. Mummy,
and then I shall know, you know ! "—Punch.
DRUNKENNESS IN LIVERPOOL.—A discussion took
place on Tuesday at the meeting of the Liverpool
Select Vestry upon the subject of drunkenness, dur-
ing which Mr. Rathbone, M.P., said he was convinced
that the mere arbitrary diminution of the number of
public-houses had the effect of converting the old-
fashioned and quiet taverns into gin palaces, and thus
increasing the temptations to drunkenness. This was
the case in Liverpool. The cure for drunkenness, he
was convinced, would lie in the firm and courageous
application of existing laws to punish publicans who
permitted undue drinking. A resolution was passed
expressing entire concurrence with the Toxteth guar-
dians as to the effect of intemperance in increasing
lunacy and pauperism, and their willingness to
memorialise the Home Secretary in favour of shorter
hours and more stringent application of the laws
against the permitting of drunkenness.
TEETOTAL FESTIVITIES.—Cakes, but HO more ale.
Punch.