The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-05-10 00:00:00

Our Yonbon Corrmfootnt,

[We deem it right to state that •we do not at all times
identi!y ourselves with our Correspo indent's °pillions.]

The banquet of the Royal/4,eaderay,which is always
held on the Saturday eveni-Ag that precedes the open-
ing of the exhibition on t. 1e first Monday in May, is one
of the chief events of t'Ae year so far as the London
season is concerned. The president takes the chair,
and assembled at Cele hospitable board of the Acade-
micians are the naost eminent men in statesmanship,
politics, the Charch, literature, science, and art. It
was at an academy dinner fourteen years ago thal
'Charles Dickens made the last speech that he evo7
--uttered in -public. It was pitched in a mourdrul
ley. A few weeks before, Daniel Maclise, his
intimate personal friend, and known to vast
*umbers of the public as the painter f the
two magnificent pictures in the Houses of Paiiiamens
—" Waterloo and "Trafalgar"—had been-gathered
to his fathers; and the speech of Dickens in respond-
ing for literature, seemed but as the shadow cast
before the coming event. At the Academy banquet
Ministers of State and their predecessors in office,
philosophers, authors, painters, artists, learned mee
in all walks of science, judges, and ambassadors, al:
meet at the same festive board. The after-dinnte.
speeches are bound to be good; and so is the feaf-,
. itself, for the people who go to Academy banquets•na-
doubtedly know what good dining is.
Then there is the exhibition itself, thrown open on
. .
the first Monday in May to all who care to pay a
shilling to go and see it, and a more marvellous
slaillingswortla there is not to be had in any civilised
. land. The Old Masters we have always with us.
• The choicest works of Rubens, and Tintoretto, and
'Fan' Veronese may be seen for nothing on the open
days of the National Gallery; and long may they
remain to adorn the N. .11s of the great budding in
'Trafalgar-square. But the collection of pictures
annually gathered together in the galleries of the
Royal Academy in Burlington-gardens, Piccadilly, is
the product of the best effort of the active moving
artistic life of to-day. It does not deal with the
manners and, customs of centuries ago, or of the
habits of the Italians in the middle ages; it is the
outcome of the art of the nineteenth century, and of
the best part of it. No wonder the place is crowded
during.t,hethree months in which it is open.
The funerals of two well-known men this week
suggest the lessons taught by workers in widely-
different walks of life. Mr. Bass was an Englishman
who has sent the name of the vast establishment of
which he was the head all over the civilised world.
Statistics have been multiplied to illustrate the extent
of hie enormous business; but the fact that the firm
paid 1180,000 for the conveyance of beer over
the Midland Railway in one year is sufficient to show
what it was like. Representing Derby for five-and-
thirty years, he retired only twelve months ago, the
late hours of the House of Commons not suiting a
man who had long passed the eightieth year of
his age. Few more thorough gentlemen in manner
have ever sat in that assembly. His private
munificence was in proportion to his boundless
wealth; and, dwelling amongst his own people,
his goodness of heart was as apparent as was his lack
of ostentation in dispensing his benefactions.
The other, also Michael by Christian name, was
known in a very different sphere. Laid at his rest in
the catacombs of Kensal Green, Sir Michael Costa,
an Italian by birth, but an Englishman by adoption,
will be regretted as a musical composer of eminence
whose lose, we can ill afford. For nearly half-a-
century he: has been before the public, but those of a
later generation will remember him chiefly as the
conductor of the grand concert at the opening of the
International Exhibition of 1862, and of the Handel
festivals at the Crystal Palace from 1857 up to
and including 1880, when he was seventy years of
age. He e had intended to conduct the Festival of
- '
last year, bilt his strength failed, and his place was
taken by Mr. August Manns. With 4000 vocalists
and instrumentalists facing him and his eye fixed in-
tently on the music before him, he could detect a false
note even if it Came from the farthest corner of the
orchestra. The great assemblages which gathered at
the Crystal Palace on those occasions never failed to
admire Sir Michael's punctuality.- He would ascend
the dais about three minutes before the hour fixed for
the beginning of the performance, and this left him
just time to arrange his music. Precisely at the hour
„itself tlje engagement of the day would begin, and a
-wholesome lesson was thus conveyed to many who
consider that a few minutes either way is not of so
eery much importance.

The very poor accounts of the Darmstadt wedding
telegraphed to this country have been the subject of
some observation. Ladies especially have complained
that there was no description of the dresses, either of
the bride or her attendants, nor any account of the
wedding presents. Looking at the interest which a
wedding always commands amongst the female
; portion of the population, it seems strange that the
writers told off for this duty should have omitted all
reference to a topic which like dress is so dear to the
feminine heart. It does not escape notice that in our
town official reports, supplied by the Court newsman,
of the Queen's Drawing-Rooms, State balls, and con-
certs, an elaborate :description of the dresses is in-
variably furnished, and this is perused with more in-
terest by the lady contingent of the newspaper-read-
ing public than any other part of the journal.
The opening of the Health Exhibition at South
Kensington was to have been performed by the Prince
of Wales but for the unexpected and lamented death
of th. Duke of Albany. The promoters look forward
to its being as great a success as the Fisheries of last
year, and as the venture is a bold one, it deserves
every success. The title, however, is not such a good
one. " Have you seen the Fisheries ? " was a question
often asked and easily understood; but asking a person
if he or she has seen the" Health" is a very different
affair. Whose health, will naturally occur to the one of
whom the inquiry is made. That the Fisheries was rather
a Misnomer, and to many a disappointment, there can
belittle doubt. Many went there under the impression
that_ they were going to witness an immense aquarium,
equal at least to that at Brighton, where the habits of
the interesting denizens of the deep could be studied
under every condition of advantage. They found it
to consist largely of appliances for catching fish, and
for savinglife at sea.. There were some living fish
there, no doubt; and a large fish market, with a
capital restaurant for supplying fish dinners—an in-
stitution which many who go to the Health Exhibi-
tion would be glad to see perpetuated. An exceed-
ingly ;wholesome meal was obtained at a very reason-
able price.
Then there is the Crystal Palace International and
vereal, Eibitjon, Which country visitors to
London should not fail to see. It is one of the best
4at'it kind„whichhas.ever been brought together and
Ill'e'railwv facilities for getting to the Palace from
24 part of London are now such that time, to use a
faclenTyed.expressien, is annihilated. It is the lack
of these facilities which has so consistently told
agalirt.:thi; suceesa of the Alexandra Palace on
Muswellehill, at the other end of the capital.
• ,Bilsybkicly's ,victory in .the One Thousand Guineas
went -for seriething to enable her purchaser to make
ul) what Ise gave for her at Lord Falmeuth's sale
Zith?eelOr four days previously. Certainly, 8800 guineas
se4o; a horse seems a heavy sum, especially when it is
reineMbered that Lord Derby's Toxopholite, one of
the Derby-rsmners of 1858, was valued at less than
half tiqtat eum=3ooo guineas. lord Derby—the late
- earl of that title—was Prime Minister at the time
• he r.F.n. hie horse for the Blue Ribbon of the
the House of Commons adjourned for
th 4 rates in the midst of a debate involving
"1" v9tP elmisur?, on the Government. It we.s
said at the timethat a defeat in the House involving
tho. xesign4ion of his MiniEitry would have
veTecl.the earl•pp_chless than the defeat of Toxopho-
lite,in deer= for tcle Derby. High, however, as were
the prices given for Busybody and Harvester at Lord
. .
• Faimouth's sale, they did not come up to the figure
given. soriee yeaps.ago for Blair Athol, who fetched
1•9,5b0 guineas, the highest amount ever realised by a
untry. 1.46 rd Falmouth's stables
eliprWin this co
were cleared at a time when the May' meetings are at
the.iiitliiekes'i, and the fact that more than 36,000
' guineas -were fbrthcoraing for such a purpose did not
esc;l3B attiention." ttracted especial notice at the
annuel ir.leeting. of the PishoP of London's Fund at
Willis's Rooms a day-or two- afterwards' orgardsa-
lion; ,vl:kose incoir:e has, of late; ieriously fallen off.
I,IIIIM.

NOT TO BE HANKERED Arrint.—The latest thing in
the way of shows is said to be an exhib:tion of pocket-
handkerchiefs. Of course the promotei's will do all
they can to make it "wipe out" all its rivalth—Funnv
-Folks