The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-05-28 00:00:00

"llettiiii(;-.l.'lslt, Secretary of State."

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

Virtuous Chicago has fined a barkeeper $25 for
selling liquor to an aristocratic lady of sixteen.

Ordinary means of killing are not sufficient in
Mexico, so earthquakhig has begun.

- -
A poor man who had been sick on being asked
whether he had taken any remedy, replied, "No, 1 haven't
taken any remedy, but lee taken lots of physic."
---

- -
A western reporter does not say a gentleman died
suddenly, tout that Ms "soul instantaneously dropped is.

-
A Maine Yankee has invented a five dollar sewing
machine, which is about as large se a four-bladed jack-knife,
and is self-feeding, and knits a perfect elastic seam. It looks
iko an apple-parer or a nutmeg-grinder.

An eilitor- out West says :----" Interviewing is very
fashionable ust now. We shall 'interview' a num oer of our
citizens next week on the subject of finance. It is not certain
that the result of theme interviews will be worth recording."

Thirty bachelors in Lansing, lowa, have sworn a
solemn oath they will marry none but widows. At a
premium at last, for the bachelors have all turned sixty-
live.
A young lady f Massachusetts was recently offered
000 dole, for her hair, which lacks but hall an inch ct being
six feet long, but refused. The offer was increased to 1,000
dole, and then rejected.

-
A Massachusetts paper regrets that the crowded state
of its columns will not permit it to publish • furnished sketch
of the life of a cenain entleman, but promises to preserve it
as material for an obituary notice.

A countryman, who -had never paid more than 25c.
to see an exhitution, went to a New York theatre one night
to tee 'The Forty lineves." The tlcketreeller charged him
750. for a ticket. Giving the pasteboard back, he quietly
remarked, "Keep it, mister, I don't want to see the other
thirty-nine," and out he marched,

An incorporated society hired a man to blast a rock,
says Mark Twain, and he was punching powder into a hole
with a crowbar, when a premature explosion followed, send-
ing the man and crowbar out of sight. Both came down all
right, and the man went to work again, directly, lint though
he was gone only fifteen minutes, they docked him for lost
time.

A man having fallen into a slough, bin friend called
loud) to another for ausuitanee. The latter, who wag busily
engaged in cutting a log, and wished to procrastinate, in-
quired, "How deep is the gentleman In " "Up to his
ancles," was the answer. "Then there is plenty of time,"
said the other. "No, there's not," rejoined the lint, "fur
he's in head tint"

A sea captain trading regularly to the coast of
Africa, was invited to meet a committee of a society for the
evangelisation of Alrfca. Ile was asked, among numerous
questions touching the habit:, and rtiion of the African
races, "Do the subjects of King Dahomey keep Sunday V'
"Keep Sunday !" he replied, "ye., and everything they can
their liana on.'

EITIO7.;!:OJNEWS,

Eni'l 1S:1 AND eOREIGN,

Petroleum has been discovered in British Burnell.
10,000 copies of Mr. D.sraeh's book have been sold
stres.r.

It b‘ said that a Liverpool tradesman, who died
few ya ago, haa left 10,00 i to the Liverpool charities.
A p,-at Ere has taken place at Quebec. Five
liuz.d buses and two ships have been burned.

two days at week there arrived at Greenock,
In two venal from Trinidad, 18,000 cocoa anti.

The Dutch House of Commons has posed a bill
abolliiiing capital punishment, by 48 votes to 30.
• - - - ' "

_
A Weeteru lecturer is deltghtmg his audiences with
" Dirt, Death, sad the Devil."

Some gold and silver have been recovered from one
of the Spanish galleons sunk In Vigo Bay.

-
Tuesday, the 24th, was the anniversary of her
Mi.jesti's birthday. tier Niajasty was born at Kensington
Palace on the 241 h of May, Bin.

- - - -
The kitz of Slam is seventeen years old, an is s,mply
kosa, as Sqmtletelt Plus Pors-meutiz lisha-Chualon-Kors.
lie Ild, ILO WM"

Bicycles are being introduced into the Poet-office in
en. dellversepoys are being practised in the 1190 of
teem in Mc flush l districts.

Sir Arthur Guion, of Dublin, b given £60,000
for the Ethintton Niece. He and he brother have sub-
.:Jibed £24,01,0 to the Church Subtrntation Fund.

Seven Ain,rican ladies are engaged as sculptors in
Rome at the present time— %Imes limner. Whitney, Lewia
(coloured). Freemen, Stebbins, Foley, and Virginia Ream.

--
Acaording to intelligeh ce received in Liverpool from
the United Stater, the eripments of thou, wheat, etc., from
Chlc,age, Milwaukee, and Toledo punkin° to be very large
this season

At the Preeton Sheriff's Court, on Monday, a breach
of promise ot marriage case was disposed of, in which Miss
Ann Dent was awarded 4250 from Mr. William Dirtwhistie,
an innkeeper at Accr ngton.
- - -

e-
Mr. Motley, the American Minister, and the ladies
of his family, were pros nt during the debate on the Greek
murders in the Rouse of Lords, and manifested their sympathy
with the victims by wearing mourning.
-

A Berne telegram Wes that Russia has again
demanded the extradition id Nl. Netchajetf. Amen has been
arrested at Geneva under that name, but was afterwards re-
leased, his identity not being proved.
A contemporary sap :—'During the past week the
post-office telegraph mersenger boy has been seen running
hither and thither. with the correspondence of the wire dressed
in the °fetal uniform ! "

A correspondent, in alluding to the arrival of the
Right Hon. John Brig i t od Mrs. Bright ati the hotel at
Colwyn, North Wales. " The right hon. gentleman to
looking pretty well, nmi says he feels better."
The drivers in the employment of the Birmingham
Omnibus Company have struek work, in consequence of the
company desiring to make a change in the mode of paying
them.

A disastrous stonm mowed over Council Bluffs, lowa,
recently. A new church lust completed, at a cost of
15,000 dols., was entirely demolished. It is estimated that
the loss will reach in the aggregate 30,000 dohs.
•

A San Francisco neonatal of the Bth it. reports
that " a grand Fenian pc-nic " had been held that day at
Redwood City, and that there were between 20,000 and 30,000
persons present.

Last -Saturday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
acknowledges in The Times the receipt of £4O "for the
public account." The benevolent donor did not give even
his initials.
The Noncomformid ministers of Nottingham have
resolved to send a deputation to Mr. Gladstone to advocate
the adoption of a tines-table conscience clause in the Educa-
tion Bill.

The list of business for the Divorce Court for the
term commencing on Thursday was issued. It contains as
many as 140 cases, of which 13 are to be tried by special
juries, 90 by common Juries, and 99 without juries.
On Monday, a fatal accident occurred to Mr.
Streeton, an undergraduate of Corpus Christi College, who
was upset in a canoe on the Cam, near the bathing sheds at
Grantcheater.

The • peculiar expreeeion of George Washington'a
mouth' on the tlew posti.ge Stamps 'ls only to be accounted
for by the (set that the gum is placed on the back of hla
head '"

The Jewish congregations in Manchester met to-
gether on Sunday, and adopted petitions to Parliament in
favour o the Government bill for the abolition of religious
tests at the Universities,

A correspondent of the Newcastle Chronicle, about the
men in women's clothes, writes that Boulton is a son of a
northern country squire; and that Park, his friend and
accomplice, is the sou of a gentleman holding a high position
in one of our Common Law Courts.

Au American haa invented a musical instrument, a
species of organ of colossal proportions, which imitates per-
fectly the human voice from the shrillest treble to the most
prof °end bass. The inventor purposes an Invasion of Europe
with his formidable discovery.

•
Saturday's South London Courier says :—"lf the cen-
Semon who took a black cloth overcoat from the editor's
room of this paper, on Monday last, will kindly return the
papers he found in the pockets of the same, he may keep the
coat for his trouble."

The Westminster Gazette informs its readers that the
Pope has sent his " apos.olic benediction" to the writer
Whose letters from Rome have appeared in that paper. The
Gazette adds that on two former occasions the Papal bene•
diction has been "specially bestowed "on the paper.

- --
The American papers state that Captain CoM-
merell, other Majesty's chip Monarch, has written a letter to
the Secretary of the Bolted States navy to express thanks
and acknowledgements m behalf of the Q ;men and the British
navy for the attention which the officers of Ms vessel received
while in America.

Early last Month a German vessel named the
Gazelle was attacked and robbed by pirates in Chinese waters.
'the piratical junk was afterwards captured by the North.
German man-of-war Bertha, and the crew were tried and
executed at sea.

The business at the Liverpool police-court, on Mon-
day, was momnally great No fewer than 307 prisoners were
hooked 253 for being drunk. The Lirerpool Mercury states
that only eighty-seven of these had money upon them. The
inference is that the remainder had spent their last penny in
drink.

The Times of India says that a belief is rapidly gair-
Ing among the lower classes in Northern India that
the increased income tax Is to pay for the expenses of the
Duke of Edinburgh's visit to India; and ignorant people are
most devoutly praying that the Queen will keep the rent of
her children at home.

Wednesday woo the anniversary of the birth of her
Majesty's third daughter, Princess lielena Augusta Victoria,
who was born on the 25th of May, 1.846, and who has con-
sequently entered upon her twenty-fifth year. Her Royal
lbgtooas was married on the sth of July, 1866, to Prince
Christian, of Schleswig-llolsteha.

A telegram states that the ship Asturias, of Boston,
from Cardiff to Hong Kong, was blown up on Sunday morn-
ing, fifteen miles distant from Lundy Island. The calamity
was caused by an explosion of coal gas. Captain Sloane and
the man at the wheel were blown to pieces ; the rest of the
crew reached Penzance In a boat.

A farmer, named Sullivan, residing near Kantnrck,
In County Cork, purchased some poison for dressing sheep •
few days since. On Tuesday • servant used some of this
poison for making bread, mistaking it for soda, and shortly
after dinner the whole family manifested symptoms of being
pohoned. Medical assistance was promptly obtained, but
the patients are not yet out of danger.
The Petite Press states that as some women were en-
gaged the other morning at the Paris Central Markets in un-
packing the panniers, in which pork was generally packed,
they found in one of them two human heads freshly cut off !
Information was at once given to the police, and an investi-
gation commenced. In the course of the day a journeyman
butcher was said to be implicated.

A young married couple in the city of Edinburgh,
during the past fortnight, were blessed with their first child.
TMs child has two grandfathers and two grandmothers, four
great-grandfathers and four great-grandmothers, all hying,
and most of whom have lived all their lives in Scotland.

On Monday, Evan Jefferies made his 143rd appear-
ance at the Salford Police Court for being drunk, adding to
his offence • refusal to quit the police office on Saturday
night. He had only come out of gaol that evening, where he
had been imprisoned for a week for a like offence. He was
fined be., In default, seven days more in gaol.
According to a despatch in the American papers
just received, the Red River New Nation says that Colonel
Rankin, was expelled from Winnepeg because of his Fenian
proclivities ; that he offered Rid the services of two or three
hundred filibusters from the United States, and the offer was
declined, without thanks.

" A capital hair dye may be made as follows :—Six
pounds of treacle, eight pounds of black lead, one pound of
soot, two ounces of glue, three raw onions, a bad oyster or
two, and as much Yarra water (near the falls bridge) as re-
quired. Simmer the whole twenty minutes and apply with
a black ing brush.' —.Veibeurne Punch.

A great improvement in the crops is reported from
many parts of Ireland, especially from Meath and Louth.
" Itis very gratifying," says a correspondent, "to be able to
state that .p to the present we have not been for many years
favoured with more hopeful prospects. Wheat Is looking
splendid every side one turns, and promises an abundant re-
turn. The same may be said of oats and barley, both of
which crops have been got down in good time."
The gossips of Lisbon and Madrid have it that the
lady te whom the ex-Portuguese King is married is of an am-
bitious turn, and has succeeded in doing what Prim and
Olozaga were not able to do—namely, in persuading Don
Fernando that the re-offer of • Crown, which is not made to
every man, is a thing not to be lightly despised, and hence
his willingnem to my " Yes "if tempted again.

- --
A young and rather expensive French lady corn-
pl oc 1 recently of the 111011111.411 of her husband, but not
fo..d f .avitar at his own expense. " Would you believe it !"
she xc:dined "he said recently that for what I cost him
he could keep eight racing-horses." "A complaint, my dear,"
refp,miled her friend, "to be of the value of eight race-
horses is the highest estimation any Parisian gentleman, to
these sporting days, can place on • lady."
The Spanish Order of Noble Ladies, which has just
been conferred on Madame 011ivler, carries with it the title
of "excellency," and confers a rank equivalent to that of
Grandee. The cordon consists of a violet ribbon and white
stripes, to which • medal is attached. There are at present
In France ten other ladies who have the right to wear it—
The Empress, the Duchess de Morichy, the Princeu d'Essling,
the Duchess de Malakoff, the Countess Walewska, the
Marquise de Tarifa, Madame Thiers, Madame Drouyn de
Lhuys, Madame Barrot, and Madame de Preston.
A Welsh elopement case was heard in the Liverpool
Police-court on Monday, where a young man named William
Jones, a farmer's son, was charged with having committed
perjury in making a false declaration before one of the
registrars of marriages for Liverpool. It seemed that Jones
had eloped with a rector's daughter, and it is alleged that
the perjury was committed in order to obtain the young lady
in marriage. The defendant was remanded, but admitted to

At the half-yearly meeting of the Royal Agricultural
Society In London It was stated that there are now 5,438
members on the list. The balance-sheet for 1869 showed that
the receipts had exceeded the expenditure by £675. At the
forthcoming Oxford meeting the prizes to be competed for
amount to £5,130 10. live stock, and £395 in addition to the
10 sliver medals, for implements. Lord Vernon was elected
President for the ensuing year.

- • ----
Viecounteee Dambray, widow of a late peer of
France, son of the Chancellor of that name who signed the
ordonnauces of 1830, has just died at her chateau of Mon-
tlgni, near Dieppe. With this lady the Weatintmter Gazette
says becomes extinct the last remnant of the Anjou branch
of the Plantageuets. Iler father,pount Deshaye, who was page
to Louis XVI., and who was personally known to many now
living, bore the arms of England on his escutcheon.

•
An inquest was held on Monday, at Itchha's Well
on the bodies of two children of Mr. Jones, farmer. On
Thursday in last week, a servant left the two children at the
yard door for about three minutes, while she took in a
message to the house, and during her absence one of the
children, between two and three years of age, is supposed to
have pushed the perambulator containing the younger one '
into a pond about twenty yards away from the house, and to
have been dragged in herself, for on the return of the servant
the children could not be seen, and on search being made
their bodies were discovered in the pond. The Jury returned
a verdict of accidentally drowned, but thought the servant was
to blame.
Earl Russell has given notice that he will bring for-
ward the following motion on the subject of the colonies in
the House of Lords after Whitsuntide :—"That an humble
address be presented to her Majesty, stating that this
House has seen with great satisfaction the spontaneous
expressions of loyalty and attachment to the British Crown
which have lately emanated from many of the colonies.
That this House humbly preys her Majesty to appoint a coin-
, mission to inquire into the means best fitted to guarantee
the security or ararr Part of her Majesty's dosnlatosa"

The Duke of Newcastle has been suffering from an
attack of small-pox in PKth.

A native, a weaver by trade, said to be 125 years
old, baa just died at Hyderabad, &lode.

Lord Muncaster was in the House of Commons, on
Friday night, during the debate on brigandage in Greece.
"Mr. Spurgeon has recently announced his intention
of delivering a lecture to rich men only; none will be ad-
mitted to the Hall except he has £4o,ooo."—Court Jourtua.
Amongst the political squibs in Madrid is a caricature
of the thirty different candidates who have, at one time or
another, been proposed for the throne.

The celebrated Schamyl ha a just arrived at Mecca,
with the intention of residing there for the remainder of his
lite.

During the past fifteen years the Surrey County
Club has spent £30,000 In fostering and developing the noble
game of cricket.
It is said that when Lady Muncaster found that she
would Inevitably be taken by the brigands, she speedily took
oil her beautiful rings and put them into her mouth, fearing
that the barbarians might cut off her fingers to attain the
more speedy possession other jewels.
•-•

The rapid growth of mercantile intercourse with
Japan is attracting much attention in the United States, and
an Impression a. ems to be general that an a few years the
government of the Island will have been placed on a Mains
uwirly In harmony with that of all commercial nations.

The tide of tni*ration is still setting strongly west-
ward. About 6,000 persons left the Mersey last week f.,r
Canada and the United States, and it is expected that at
least 7,000 more will embai k before the close of tills week.

•
It is understood that upon the Queen's return from
Balmoral, the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Crown
Mime and Princess of Prussia, and the Prince and Princess
Louis of Ilesse, will visit her Alsjesty at Windsor Castle,
where a State breakfast Is shortly to be given.

Fines amounting to £lO5, with the option of im-
prisonment for terms extending to nearly twelve months,
have been imposed upon a picture-frame maker of Birming-
ham, for selling photographs of celebrated pictures, of which
Messrs. Graves and Co., of Pall-mall, possess the cop)right
Of the two penalties, the defendant chose imprisonment.

A sad occurrence in the family of Baron Alquier,
deputy for La Vendee, is reported from Paris. His daughter,
ten years of age, was slightly unwell and had been ordered a
prescription, which was sent to the chemist's to be made up,
By some error the bottle au tilled with a poisonous Mgr*
client, and the child died in a few hours.

Mr. Buxton, AI.P.. has given notice of the following
motion for the 14th of J tme :—" That, hi the opinion of this
llouse, the time having come when the authorized version of
the Scriptures ought to be revised, it Is desirable that this
work should be placed in the hands of a Royal Commission
Instead of being left to a Committee of Convocation."
The Rev. Mr. Bymth, minister of Eleventh-street
Church, New York, who was recently tried and let off with
a rebuke by his congregation for having drunk gin and milk
one Sunday morning, bas lance been tried again by a meeting
of sixty members of his congregation and declared out of the
Church.
A walking match is reported to have come off, for a
thousand guineas, between a noble lord and a baronet, The
thing to do was to walk up a high mountain in :icotland, the.
nobleman walking backwards with heavy boots on, the
baronet walking forward, but with an open umbrella, the
match to come off on a windy day. The umbrella man was
defeated.

In many French villages the first Friday in the
Month is looked forward to with great expectations. On that
day the young girls who desire to he married offer the follow-
ing prayer to St Nicholas, the patron saint of bachelors :
" It is the first Friday of the month, and 111 raise my kg and
plant it against the foot of the bed, I hope the great St.
Nicholas, who Is the patron of bachelors, will show me as I
sleep the husband I shall have when I awake !"

"Madame B— a Parisian ?ady, is eaid to pre-
serve her rare and beautiful complexion by the application
of fresh strawberries to the skin every night. A friend who
called upon her last week too early in the morning and saw
her en d.4habille was so alarmed, supposing that Madame
B— had the smallpox, that a sudden attack of 611111Hp0X
was the result to the visitor. The narrator, imagination is
lively enough."—Court Journal.

- -
Mr. Baxter, M.P., secretary of the Admiralty, in
replying to • vote of thanks from the workmen of Arbroath
for the administrative reforms in which he has taken part.
says :—"The tub undertaken by my colleagues and myself
at the Admiralty was indeed no light one, and we had to face
a determined, united, and bitter opposition. But already
the fruits of an improved system begin to appear, and I feet
confident that ere long the naval service itself will be tensible
of the beneficial nature of recent changes.'

Early on Sunday morning a thunderstorm of great
violence passed over the Isle of Thanet, succeeded by torrents
of rain. The storm culminated in a clap of terriflic force.
The electric current struck a substantially-built villa resi-
dence in the upper part of the High-street of Ramegate.
knocking down a stack of chimneys and the head wall of
the house one storey in depth, and passed out of a window
the glass of which it completely shattered. Fortunately
no one was injured.

A most important announcement is made by Bcll's
Life—viz, that government are determined to abolish the
whole of the list-netting at Epsom, and the clerk of the
course and Messrs. Barnard and Langlands have already
received notice not to let any part of the ground they hire
from Mr. Briscow the lord of the manor, for list-betting.
There will also be an attempt to put down the bag-men.

- -
A correspondent draws public attention to the fact
that In Clause 12 of the Gm and Water Facilities Bill (which
Is now before Parliament) the Board of Trade will have abso-
lute power to fix the gas rates and water rates hereafter to
be authorised In any district In the United Kingdom, except
In the metropolis. There are, he alleges, no adequate
securities In the bill to guard the new system being properly
worked.

The Bishop of Manchester preached in St. Stephen's
Church, Salford, on Sunday morning, and at St. Andrew's,
Ancoats, in the evening, on behalf of educ..tional objects.
At Salford be took occasion to rotor to the decay in the ob-
servance of Church festivals, and expressed a fear that it was
to be attributed to lukewarmness with respect religion
Itself. In the evening his Lordship palmed over a beaten
track.

The death is announced at the advanced age of
ninety, of Colonel George liacdonell, CB., whose father was
engaged in the rebellion of 1745, and is said to have been on
the calf of Prin. Charles Edward Stuart at the hattle of
Culloden. Colonel Diacdonell entered the army in 1798, and
sow active service in the war to North America with the 79th
Foot. He was, like his an zestors, a member of the Roman
Catholic communion, and married in 1020 the lion. Laura
Arundell, sister of the Lord Mundell of Wardour. This lady
died in 1854.

Another outrage has been perpetrated on the pencil,'
of come of our countrymen. This time the offence has ixen
committed on Spanish territory. It appears that while four
Englishmen were passing some four miles from Gibraltar
they were pounced upon by a band of brigands and carried
off as prisoners. Orders have been given by the Government
to pursue the band and recover the captives. It is hoped
the pursuit will not be fatal, as in Greece, and that our
countrymen will soon be liberated, and the brigands well
punished.

A Londoner expresses fin The Times) the greviouv
annoyance which the inhabitants of the inetropolis suffer
from their country cousins who repair in shoals to the metro-
polis durinz the months of May and June, and Iniagiue that
fashion requires the habit of frequenting Hyde Park between
the hours of live and seven o'clock. The result is Hyde Park
is blocked up, and the police compel every one to follow his
neighbour in a rank of carriages which moves at about a mile
an hour. He asks that a clear space should be reserved for
those simply passing through the Park to their own houses.

The Lord Mayor of London presided on Monday
over a public meeting at the Mansion House, to consider an
Invitation from Protestants in America to hold a Conference
In New York, which should include Christians of all denomi-
nations. The Earl of Chichester moved a resolution hailing
with satisfaction the projected gathering, as likely to exert
a beneficial influence upon Christians throughout the world.
This was seconded by the Bishop of Ripon, supported by the
Bev. T. honey, and carried. Thanks were voted to the
Americans for their invitation, and cordial hopes for the dis-
semination of peace and charity were expressed.

The North German Correspondent says that a literary
forgery of importance has lately been exposed by German
scholars. During the last tea years numerous documents
have been brought from Glisten° on the Island of Sardinia,
which are preserved in the library of Cagliari under the title
of Manuscripts of Arborea. A commission was nominated by
the Berlin Academy of Sciences to examine the matter. It
was composed of Messrs Mominsen, Haupt, Dove, the late
J5llO, and some others. These gentlemen, after a careful
study of the al Si., have prooounced them to be the work of
a band of modern forgers, who have made use of the latest
works for their purpose.

Lord St. Leonards has caused to be placed in the
window of one of the principal shops in the borough of which
he lithe High Steward Kingston-on-Thames) two of the forged
letters which have been written in such numbers to his lord-
ship's annoyance. One Is the letter to Messrs. Hedges and
Butler, of Regent-street, requesting samples and prices of
" best old port, sherries, and clarets," to be sent to Boyle
Farm, together with the prices of port in pipes ; and the otter
one addressed to Mr. Fowler ordering choice Alderneys
of a dark colour Attached to this last document lea pamr
bearing, in his lordship's own handwriting, the following re-
mark A forged letter in the name of the Rev. Frank
bugden, Lord St. Leonard'. son, to Mr. Fowler, Bushey,
Herts. The writer probably meant to steal and sell the
cattle—Bt. L."