The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-10-14 00:00:00

THE STO 11 RIDGE OBSERVER.

training which change-ringers practised, were devotees
of the work, but how much more so were the
change ringers and their conductor. It was, he ima-
gined, the wielding of these masses of metal, and
making them send forth in time and tune, over many
miles of town or country, the music so dear and so
touching to many an English ear, and the knowing
that to do this one was exercising so many of the
good qualities that God had given them, which made
them devoted to this beautiful art. Ringers and
ringing were, as a rule, looked down upon,
but, happily, more general interest was now taken in
the bells and in the ringers. It was no longer allowed,
as a rule, that the ringers should be the roughs of the
parish, and that, as such, they should be banished to
a dirty loft in the tower—there to drink and smoke as
they pleased, though, unfortunately, this state of
things had not altogether vanished. Many of his
hearers were doubtless not aware ef the gulf which
separated what • was called ordinary round-ringing
and change-ringing. The learning of the latter was a
matter of impossibility to some men ; others went only a
very short way in the art ; and, of course, others attained
greater or less proficiency. Any man, however dull hie
intellect, could learn to do what was called round.
ringing. °hanging rieging• was very different. He was
6, keen sporteman, but, for the encouragement of would.
be change-ringers, he might say that some of his
happiest and most exciting moments had been in the
church tower. L,tit be only understood that eight or
ten men assembled lathe tower, and that their object
was to ring a peal by more or less difficult methods—
consisting of over 5,000 changes at the rate of about 21
a minute, and probably lasting over three hours. The
slightest carelessness, manual or mental, on the part of
any o ie of the band, the conductor musing a call, or
perhaps making one a second too soon or too late, a
little extra fatigue, the breaking of a rope or the want
of oil in the lamp—any one of these accidents might
happen; should they do so one half minute before the
end, the peal might be lost—i e., the completeness and
success of the attempt—and the ringers would leave
the tower a defeated party. It must be remembered
also that the mind had suite as much—indeed, more—to
do with this than the muscles; that bodily fatigue in-
creased, of course, towards the end of a peal, and that
therefore, the nearer one got to the end of it the greater
the chance of losing it. But a man need not necessarily
be a "peal-ringer"—the technical term for a man who
went in for these long peals—to enjoy all the greatest
pleasure of change-ringing. Was he fond of music?
There he had it, and to the change-ringer's ear
there was as much difference in various touches and
compositions on belle as in various tunes on any
other instrument. Was he an athlete? Here he
could exercise all the muscles of the body. Was
he both? He combined the two. He deprecated
the ringing of bells on occasions of political and
party triumph, and said that one of the main
objects of the Devon Guild of Ringers was to &hellish
prize-ringing, which was a grievous misuse of the
church bells. He reminded the Devonshire members
of the Congress that their cathedral at Exeter pos-
sessed the finest instrument of this sort in the diocese,
and probably in England. Was it right that its
powers should never be developed? The restoration
which had been going on lately in the cathedral would
not be complete until the authorities set about a refor-
mation in their ringing arrangements; for the Exeter
Cathedral bells might be so hung that ten or eleven
men could ring them in the most advanced of change-
ringing methods.
The Rev. C. H. P. Barlow said that bells were rung
either in rounds, set changes or by methods. Bells
which were now in the church towers were always
meant to be rung, and to chime them was merely to
phow a lack of ringers. To have them rung in set
changes was a confession of idleness, because proper
ringing required study and application. The bells
were the external voice of the church, and as Catholic
as the church itself. It was said that the exercise of
ringing the bells was such as to prevent the ringers
attendine service, but this was not the case when the
belfry arrangements were of a proper character. He
strongly' deprecated the belfry being made the lounge
for all the rpughs of ,the parish. The ringers should be
taught the dignity of their office, and the sacredness of
the ringing chamber. The bells should be rung on all
great Church festivals, so that the great days of the
Christian Church might be recognized at once. The
penitential seasons should be marked by ringing giving
way to chiming. On days of national joy and sorrow
the bells should sound forth, as also on occasions of joy
and sorrow among the parishioners. But there should
also be occasions connecting the private life with the
privileges and offices of the Church. He disapproved
ringing bells for causes not directly or properly connected
with the church and parish, as was often dune now. As
frequent practice would make itself known to the
world outside, there might be a good deal of practice on
hand-bells, or the bells might be rung with the clappers
tied. The reader impressed on his brother clergy-
men the great advantage of taking an interest in bells
and those who rung them. No man should be allowed
to do it who did not take pleasure in devoting his
talent to the service of the Church and the glory of
Gad.
The Rev. J. L. Lruigdon Fulford, secretary of the
Devonshire Guild of Ringers, read a paper similar in
character to the preceding ones. He urged the int-
portance of rural deans inspecting belfries.
Mr. J. Carpenter-Garnier, ALP., expressed the
thanks of the meeting to the readers of papers and
uttered a hope that the beautiful towers of Devon and
Cornwall would be supplied with efficient peals of
bells.

[The above report is from The Times of Tuesday. The
Tunes of Wednesday ms.kes this oorreclion :—" The paper on
"Church Belle" attributed in our report published yesterday
to the Rev. G. 11. P. Barlow, was not written by him, but by the
Rev. F. IL Fisher, Vicar of Fulham, who, being unable to
go to Plymouth, requested Mr. Barlow to be his mouth-
piece."]

FAIR HAIR AND BLUE EYES IN
GERMANY.
For a long time the idea of a German, more particu-
larly of a German lady, was that he or she had blue
eyes and fair hair (remarks The Times). The Germans
themselves have frequently protested against this
sweeping assertion, and a careful examination of a
Garman regiment or of a German school would have
sufficed to show the strong admixture of black hair
and brown eyes. But anthropologists went on assert.
lug their own views, formed on what they called
their own long experience, till at last the public
insisted on having the matter settled by a regular
9eneus. Government assented, and on a certain day
every school in Prussia had to make a return of
the black and blue and brown colour of the
children'S eyea. Many of the pupils came home on
that day telling their parents, with a mysterious air,
that their eyes and hair and skin had been examined
at school. Some of the parents thought it an undue
ihterference with their rights, but the thing was done,
and angry protests against what the Government cora-
man& or allows to be done are of little avail in Ger-
many. After a short time the results of this anthro-
pological commission have been published, and they
are, at all events, curious, though, perhaps, not of much
scientific value. The number of persons examined in
Prussia amounted to 4,127,766. Out of that number,
4,070,923 were under 14 years of age. With regard to
the colour of their eyes, 42 97 per cent, had blue, 24'31
per cent, brawn eyes. With regard to the colour of the
hair, 72 per cent, had blonde, 26 per cent, brown, and
1.21 per cent. black hair. With regard to the colour of the
skin, Prussia has only 6'53 per cent, of brunette com-
plexion. In Bavaria the brunette complexion
claims 15 per cent, the black hair 5 per cent., the
brown hair 41 per cent., the fair hair 54 per
cent.; and it is argued from this that the darker com-
plexion in Germany came from the South—rather a
bold generalization, if one considers the mixture of
tribes in Germany even at so late a time as the inva-
sion of the barbarians into the Roman Empire. The
Report contains a number of curious observations; for
instance, that nearly one-third of the Jewish school-
children are fair, which would certainly not be the
impression left upon a casual spectator by the ordi-
nary run of the Jewish population. •

questioned. An acquaintance formed at a watering-
place Involves no obligation of any kind after the
end of the season. A lady may dance with a new
acquaintance every evening for six weeks at Long
Branch, and a slight passing bow in the street is all
that the most stringent etiquette requires of her in
New York or Philadelphia during the following
winter. Even this is given more from that kindness
on whistle all courtesy is based then because it is de-
manded by etiquette; and a gentlemen is expected,
like the ball-room acquaintance of a single evening
in England, to await his recognition from the lady.
This rule is so well established here that even
such people as would like to disobey it and
take advantage of an acquaintance formed at a
summer resort are entirely overruled, and seem
to be perfectly harmless. Under this law of the
Medea and Persians—for such it has be,come—the
most careful father or mother sees no . danger
in the formation of " promiscuous " acquaintances
during the summer, so far as mere social en-
tanglements are concerned. The only serious
danger is of the kind which the otherwise harmless
" detriwental " introduces into English society.
A daughter may find herself interested in a young
man of pleasing address and unexceptionable man-
ners, whose character and resources are such that
he would be anything but a desirable son-in-law. By
the word "resources" is meant, in this connection and
in this country, his ability to work successfully, in
business or a profession rather than the present possesaion
of property. This danger, however, is one which is
cheerfully and rather recklessly encountered.
American parents seem indifferent, as a general rule,
to the ancestral antecedents of their sons' or their
future companions, and they are singularly ready to
run Frave risks, to say the least, as to their personal
qualifications. There is little restriction, therefore, in
the formation of new acquaintances at the summer
resorts, and nearly any young gentleman of good
manners appearing at one of them is taken
up and utilized for the temporary uses of the dance
and flirtation. In ninety-nine cases ilea hundred he is
laid aside again at the end of the season with
quite as little ceremony. The process is constantly
going on at all the seaside and mountain resorts. A
stranger would hardly notice it at such crowded
centres as Cape May and Long Branch. He would
find many secluded circles, too, among the throngs at
these places in which very "strict" ideas prevail. But
these are mere eddies in the general current of Ame-
rican society. They represent no important class, and
may be regarded as individuals only. At either of
these resorts the stranger seas the result; he sees a
great conglomerate social mass; but he would be con-
fused if he attempted to learn how people have become
acquainted with each other who had never met before;
how the most intimate social relations have come
to exist among utter strangers of the previous week.
Let him go to the Delaware Water Gap, or Spring
Lake, or Brynmaur. or any of the minor resorts
within equally easy reach of Philadelphia, and ,he
will understand the process in a day. He will Rect.&
young man arrive, for instance, at a small hotel in
the afternoon, well-dreamed and of good manners.
The new visitor will smoke a cigar, offer another
gentleman a light, exchange a few words, drop into a i
chat—play a game of billiards, perhaps. There s
dancing music in the drawing-room during the evening.
There are two, perhaps three, ladies for every gentle-
man. Sets are to be formed for a quadrille. The
ladies' curiosity has already been piqued as to who the
young stranger is, and what he is like. His cigar-
acquaintance approaches him: "Dance ?—good. By
the way, what did you say your name was? Oh, yes;
I'll introduce you. Mr. —, Miss Where is
papa, the English reader naturally asks? He is
talkiug politics or business with a friend of two hours'
standing on the piazza, and will probably go to bed at
ten o'clock without disturbing the rest of the family.
And mamma? She is sitting in a corner of the
drawing-room chatting with another matron. It
may or may not occur to her that she has sever
before seen the gentleman her daughter is dancing
with. In any event, the evening is supposed to
count only for itself, and the partner of the dance
is a temporary convenience having no necessary con-
nection with any future social relations. As to the
young man himself, he becomes one of the party from
that moment, and is depended upon by the young
ladies as an attendant in the drawing-room, on
pleasure excursions, and at other times. By similar
easy processes the acquaintances of families are
brought about. A few words between the fathers or
between the wives, a look and a smile between the
daughters, and friendships warm enough for the pur-
poses of summer society are formed at 011C3. Personal
congeniality is the only consideration among the
ladies ; politics and business are enough to. interest
the gentlemen in each other. All that we have thus
seen in a small hotel goes on continually at Long
Branch and Cape May, though the simple original
processes are not so readily observed. The one thing
that makes them possible, as I have said, is the
universally recognized law that "watering-place
acquaintances" do not " count " after the season is
over, except when both sides desire them to be
permanent.
It is on account of this peculiar freedom of social
intercourse, this temporary throwing off of restraints
considered imperative at other seasons, that an
American summer resort may be considered one of the
pleasantest places in the world for the casual tourist.
The way is even more open, if possible, to an English
visitor than an American, the native ladies and gentle-
men feeling a certain responsibility for the extension
of hospitality; nor can any number of valuable letters
take the place of the universal welcome—pro Um.
extended to the stranger. One young Englishman of
my acquaintance, whose face and manners are in them-
selves a passport, surprised me the other evening at a
summer hotel where we were remaining but a single
day. We had arrived about two hours before, and were
watching a few ladies and gentlemen who were
dancing and chatting in the drawing-room. My com-
panion left my side, addressed one of the ladies
pleasantly but respectfully, seemed to enter into a con-
versation, and presently became her partner in a quad-
rille. When we afterwards met I asked him how he
had managed to walk so quietly over the few impedi-
ments which even I had always found. "Oh," he
answered, "I told her I was English and a great way
from home, and had no acquaintances here—and she
took me up in a matronly sort of way, as if she felt it
her duty to make me as comfortable as possible. I
often do that in America, you know, at a summer
resort." This of course, is an extreme case: it implies
tact and a very respectfull manner on the part of the
gentleman; and it could only happen among people
that can be called members of good society here, at
a small place where the dangers of imposition by
adventurers could never occur te the mind,
as at Cape May or at Long Branch. While, however,
the proceeding is more direct than an Americas
gentleman could safely venture upon, and the lady's
approval depends on a good-natured recognition of a
stranger's position, it involves no social principle
which is not recognized heee in the summer season.
Except among that "strict" few, representing no
general class, to whom I have aleady referred, the
ladies most likely to resent such a direct self-presenta-
tion on the part of a polite foreign gentleman belong to
a lower rather than an upper order of American society
—to that class who feel obliged to follow the" rules"
of etiquette, without trusting themselves to make their
own exceptions as circumstances may suggest.