The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-08-17 00:00:00

g_listellantous &telligturt.

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

GRAMATICALLTRELAXED.—It ia said that the Cyprian
ladies dye their hair to a fine brown colour by means
of a plant called "henna." This accounts for the
climate being pronounced hennavating.—Fun.

SuNsTnosE AT CTPRUS.—A correspondent, in a
private letter from the Channel fleet at Cyprus, writes,
under date July 30, as follows :—The island on shore
is very sickly, and the intense heat also is telling upon
our men and filling our sick lists, Six British soldiers
have died from sunstroke, and one young man, a signal-
man, of the Minotaur, belonging to Portsmouth, was
found on the beach and sent on board. He was sup-
posed at first to have been drinking, but soon after
reaching the ship he died. It was then found to be a
case of sunstroke, and deceased was buried ashore with
full naval honours.

APPROPRIATE.—There were in London, a few days
ago, forty-five bishops, most of whom preached twice
on the Sunday. This unusual state of affairs is due to
most of the prelates being Americans on a visit to
what is affectionately called in the States, " the old
speck of dirt"—Angiice, the Mother Country. Their
lordships are presumably over here in order to devote
themselves to lawn tennis.—Judy.

A FATAL ACCIDENT.-Mr. Alfred James Morrell,
the well-known ink-maker of Fleet-street, London,
was found dead on Friday morning in last week with
his neck broken at the foot of the staircase leading
from the shop. He had just returned from the country
and early next morning the housekeeper, hearing a
crash, came down and found Mr. Morrell dead. It is
believed that in reaching over the banisters to turn off
the gas he overbalanced himself and fell through the
well of the staircase.—An inquest has been held, A nd
a verdict of "Accidental Death" was returned.

A FUNERAL BOAT.—Fuueral reform, which ;), short
time ago occupied so much attention, has for the
moment been put aside. If sanitary considerations
only were worthy of attention on the question, crema-
tion would be generally adopted, probably, as the
most simple method of disposing of the remains of the
departed. In the meantime a suggestion is made by a
correspondent of one of the French papers that bodies
might with advantage be buried in the sea, which he
considers to be the natural cemetery for the dead. He
proposes that funeral boats, large enough to contain
several bodies, be periodically despatched from con-
venient places on the seashore, and that the bodies be
committed to the deep at such a distance from the
land as will prevent all possibility of their interfering
with the public health. The Japanese seem to have
adopted some such system; for the schooner Parallel,
which arrived at San Francisco on the 23rd ult.,
reports that on the 7th of July of/ the coast, about 100
miles north of San Francisco, she fell in with a
Japanese junk. There was not a living person on
board, but a number of corpses were found, some
shackled together. They must, from their appear-
ance, have been dead at least a month. Many of the
bodies were dressed in costly materials There was
no food in the vessel. Anything more " uncanny "
than a funeral boat of this description floatiog about
the ocean with its cargo of corpses can hardly be
imagined.—Paa Mali Gazette.