The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-31 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN

A Cattle Disease known as "black tongue" has
broken out in America.

A ccording to advice 3 from St. Petersburg, the
Russian Ministry are about to place private railway com-
panies under the direct control of govenment directors.
There is every indication that the coming crop of
corn in America will be the largest on record, not excepting
the great one of 1872

An attack has taken place on the Palestine exploring
party, and nine of the members
,have been wounded. The
assailants were repulsed.

The money-or-der system between the United States
and Canada will go into effect August 2nd.

The establishment of a system of floating hospitals
for the curing of diseases by means of the pure air of the
rivers and lakes is in contemplation at Chicago.

The execution of the sentence of death passed upon
Michael Murphy at the last session of the Central Criminal
Court has been respited on the ground of the convict's in-
sanity.

Why is the 4th of July?" The insane remark is
made logical by the answer, "01 course it is, and j,u, and I
are the other fourths."
The official German Stacasanzeiger publishes the pro-
gramine of the great field manoeuvres that are to take place
In Mecklenburgh, near Rostock, in the presence of the Em-
peror William, during the autumn. The manoeuvres will
begin on the 19th of September and last a full week. On
the 22nd of September the army corps will rest, and the,
Emperor will review the ironclad squadron off Warne-
mun de.

Further official reports published at St. Petersburg
respecting the state of the crops announce that in the
government of Kaluga the corn crops are very deficient. In
Novgorod the hay crop is satisfactory, wheat on the average
middling. In Simbirsk hay is satisfactory and wheat good.
Winter wheat in Wichseuche and Saratoff is mostly mid-
dling; in some parts bad.
-

It is the fashion now to name any new variety of
flower that is produced after some personal friend of the
ingenious cultivator, and thus we have nurserymen sending
out catalogues of their newest roses with such descriptions
as these—" Miss - (fill in the name hero suppressed)
Beautiful delicate pinkish flesh-colour, large, full, and fine
form, very sweetly scented.
M. Buffet stated on Monday, before the Committee
of Initiative, that he was in favour of the state of siege being
maintained in France until! the Assembly had voted the
Press Bill, which would be drawn up during the recess.
Even after the adoption of that measure he thought that the
state of siege should be kept up in certain departments.
According to the Gobs, it is not true that Russia
has indefinitely postponed the proposed conferen,l3 at St.
Petersburg on the usages of war. It is asserted that all the
European Powers, except England, have promised to he re-
presented at the Congress to be held In the Russian capital
next year.

Several houses have been damaged at Sebastopol by
a rather severe shock of earthquake, which was felt on
Monday morning.

- -
In spßaking of the great regret with which the Queen
heard of the death of Sir Charles Locock, the Court Circular
goes on to state that the deceased physician attended the
Queen from 1840, at the birth of the Crown Princess of Ger-
many, to 1857, and was present at the birth of every one of
her Majesty's nine children. His medical skill was of most
essential service to the Queen, and his kindness rendered
him a valued and esteemed friend of her Majesty and the
Royal Family.
A veritable waterspout has just broken over the
town of St. Etienne. It was accompanied by a violent hail-
storm, some of the stones being enormous and bearing the
most extraordinary shapes. One of the central streets of the
town was completely flooded A similar phenomenon oc-
curred simultaneously at Cbateaudun, destroying the roofs
of the houses and causing considerable damage. Some of the
roofs and walls were carried by the cur nt to a distance of
three or four hundred yards.

The Supreme Court of the United States has given
a decision to the effect that purchasers of cotton from the
Confederate States, who knew that the purchase-money
went to sustain the rebellion, cannot recover in cases where
the cotton was captured and sold by the United States Go-
vernment.
It is said that a Dane connected with the Observatory
at Copenhagen has discovered a mode of sending any number
of telegraphic messages over the same wire, by the simple
method of pitching each message in a different key with the
aid of tuning forks. The next thing we shall hear of will be
that somebody else has disco.vered the means of sending
twenty messages from each end of a wire at the same time.
We seem to be coming hack very fast to another form of the
Tower of Babel —Court Journal.
In the French Assembly on Monday the debate on
the Senate Bill was continued. An amendment was adopted
in virbue of which any senator who is elected simultaneously
in more than one department must select which he will re-
present within ten days of his return. Another amendment,
proposing that the senators should give their services gra-
tuitously, was rejected. An additional clause, declaring
the position of a director of a public company to be incom-
patible with that of a senator, was referred to the Com-
mittee.
During last week 5,413 births and 3,555 deaths were
registered in London and twenty other large towns of the
United Kingdom. The natural increase of population was
1,858. The mortality from all causes was at the average
rate of 24 deaths annually in every 1,000 persons living. In
London 2,330 births and 1,471 deaths were registered, the
former having been 100 above and the latter 162 below the
average. The annual death rate was 22 per 1,000. The
deaths included 35 from measles, 93 from scarlet fever, 11
from diphtheria, 68 from whooping-cough, 22 from different
forms of fever, 138 from diarrhcea, and not one from small-
pox; thus to the seven principal diseases of the zymotic
class 360 deaths were referred, against 335 and 422 in the two
preceding weeks.

A Frankfort chemist has lately given a public
exhibition of his ability to make a delicious beer at a mo-
ment's notice out of nothing but a small quantity of brownish
powder and a pail of water. It is said that certain experts
present—some of them brewers themselves—could not dis-
tinguish the beverage thus made on the spot and that drawn
Irons the orthodox cask. The new beer powder can be sold
at flvepence an ounce, and oucounce is sufficient to produce
gallon•of beer. At this rate a glass of ale will cost about a
farthing. And the process is so simple! Take some pure
cold water, put the powder into it, stir well, and the beer is
ready. The inventor, moreover, declares that by a slight
change in his ingredients he can alter the quality of the beer
and produce any kind that may be desired.
In addition to the gift of 20,003 dole. to Williams
College, the will of the late Orrin Sage of Ware, Mass., makes
the following public bequests :—To the American Board of
Commisssoners for Foreign Missions, 10,000 dole. ' • to the
American Home Missionary Society and American Mission-
ary Association, 5,000 dole, each; to the Congregational
Society in Blandford, where Mr. Sage formerly lived, for a
ministerial fund, 6,000 dole. ; to the East Congregational
Society at Ware, for a parsonage, 5,000 dole. ; to the town of
Ware, for care of the cemetery, 3,0u0 dole. ; to the Hamilton
Normal Insti,ute and Mount Holyoke Young Ladies' &mi.
nary, 1,000 dole. each.

A young Swiss lately walked from New Jersey to
San Francisco in 135 days. He determined to reach San
Francisco without cast to himself. He walked from the
starting point to Philadelphia, thence to Pittsburg, Cincin-
nati, St. Louis, and thence along the line of the Union Pacific
and Central Pacific Railroads until ho arrived. Ile obtained
food by asking it from the men in the section houses along
the railroad, and at almost every place he stopped he was
kindly treated, and was furnished with something to eat and
a place to sleep. He says that the Chinese labourers on the
line of the Central Pacific wore more hospitable than the
whites of the Union Pacific. On one occasion, while crossing
the Alkali desert, he was stopped by six Indians who searched
him for valuables, but finding he did not have any on his
person, left him to perform his journey alone. He went to
San Francisco to seek employment.
Ducks are among the most formidable enemies to
, very young salmon. The eggs being deposited by the parent
, fish in the grave gradually develop, and in the spring Mr.
,• Buckland says he has often turned up small fish about the
size of, and not very unlike barley-sugar drops It is at this
time the terrible duck commits its ravages. Its bill seems " es-
pecially formed for robbing salmons' nests of their contents,"
and it exervises its capacities to the fall. in a few minutes
a single duck will clear out of a salmon's nest every infant
fish. Six or eight ducks let loose in a spawning stream
make. therefore, it may be supposed, enormous havoc among
the fry, and materially damage the general stock of fish in
1 the river.

We know all about shooting stars, but we often
target the: this worldief ours is a revolver. —Judy.- ''!'
tin his recent report, Professor Riley, State Edo..
mologist, estimates the damages to the State of Missouri,
from the ravages of the chinch-bug in 1874, in the etaple
crops of corn, wheat aud oats, at 19,000,000.
Frenchwomen are divided in opinion as to the revival
of bonnet-stringF, one party wishing to have bows under
their chins, while the others are contented with keeping
beaux under their thumbs.
A fire broke out on Sunday evening in Constanti-
nople, in the Rue Pere, and about twenty houses situated
between the Spanish Embassy and the Hotel Bysance were
destroyed. •
The Nord points out with much 'satisfaction that
the Swedish press considerithe viiit of the King of Sweden
to Russia as terminating the old enmity between Sweden
and Russia. i) "
The corn and rye' harvest 'hail' "Commenced in the
environs of rariS. It is believed that the crop will yield one- -
third more than that of last year.
Potato disease has made a very marked appearance -4.-
in several parts of Jersey, the cause being attributed to the
excessive rains which have lately fallen in the island. The
grape crop is reported to have been attacked with mildew,
and heavy loss to the growers is anticipated.• i
A nationalconvention of representatives of the cotton
exchanges has been held at New York, and has resolved to -
establish a mixed beard at Liverpool to arbitrate upon cotton
sale disputes.
The drought in Portugal having been fatal fo the
crop of Indian corn and to the pasture in many districts of
Portugal, a famine is expected. A -Ministerial Council was
held on the 16th to consider the subject, and the resolution
come to, it is stated, was to send assistance to the distressed
districts at once.
The receipts on account of revenue from the let
April, 1875, when there was a balance of £6,265,322, to the
24th inst., were £22,697,1116, against 421,916,724 in the cor-
responding period of the preceding financial year, which
began with a balance of £7,442,84. The net expenditure
was £27,406,728, against £26,939,127 to the same date in the
previous year. The Treasury balances on the 24th inst.
amounted to £1,44.8,187, and at the same date in 1874 te
£1,688,396.
The Parisian Omnibus Company has preserved 1)
curious relic of the late Commune in the shape of an omnibtur
which the Communists used for one of their barricades, and ti
which was riddled through the street fights between the Va. " a ad,
miles troops and the insurgents by as many as 800 shots or
bombshell splinters. The coachman's box IS broken and only Vulli .111
one vheel hangs on to the vehicle. WIG
A Conference of the Association for the Reform and t, ;41 nag
Codificstion of the Law of Nations will be held at the Hague
on September 1. The object of the association is, "to or- '414
ganise the peace and well being of the nations upon the wells .rfOil
defined basis of international law, and to secure the settle-- f,,d
ment of the differences of nations by peaceful methods.
nyo4l
At a meeting of the executive committee of the fund
for the relief of the distress caused by the inundations in the
South of France, held at the Mansion House, in London, on TE4W/11
Tuesday, it was reported that, including promises £21,000
had been collected, and a statement was presented, giving
an account of the visit of the two gentlemen who were ..4
delegated to visit the scene of the disaster on behalf of the siedr
committee and their recommendations as to the distribution.
of the fund. ' oasei.
A Monthyon prize is assigned to M. Malassez, for
researches on blood. He has contrived an instrument, said ‘aostfutes
to be superior to those previously used, for ascertaining the 101 kit
number of red corpuscles in a given space. It consists of a -
capillary tube into which blood and artificial serum are in. etno•
trodueed, and which is graduated so that the contents of a t4a
given length are known. The mean number of red corpuscles
is human blood is 4,000,000 in each cubic millimetre. A
greater number is found in small arteries than in large, and
in veins than in arteries, and most in veins that have lost.
part of their serum by exosmose. They are fewer in cases of
cancer and tuberculose. Lead poisoning also lessens their '
number.
A very interesting incident in connection with the
Bunker Hill Centennial was the opening of a box of cigars
that were manufactured in 1706 by Cyrus Green (afterwards
of Revolutionary fame) at a tobacco store on Tremont-street,
Boston. The cigars were found in a good state of preserva-
tion and of fine flavour. After several of the cigars were
taken from the box the rest were again repacked in an air-
tight case, withiocopy of the Boston Herald containing an
account of the celebration, and marked ;—" This box is not
to be opened until the second Centennial anniversary of the
battle of Bunker ion "
The ancient Egyptians had bedsteads and mattresses
or spring beds woven of bamboo or palm branches. "The
Egyptian bedstead," says a learned writer, "although there
seems to have been considerable diversity in the shape of the
canopy and the means by which it was decked with hangings,
and although it sometimes resembled a four-Poster, was
generally similar in form to our couch. It manifested a con-
siderable amount of taste. One end was raised and receded "-
in a graceful curve; the legs were sometimes straight, :9 I
sometimes curved, and the led were often fashioned to .
resemble the claws of animals. The fittings for the day
seem to have been different from those used at night. In
the daytime there were spread over them coverings, on the
gorgeous decorations of whieh those who were able were
lavish in expenditure; they then answered much the same
purpose as our sofa. Thus we were told that, when the
murderers, bent on their deadly work, went to Ishbosheth,
the son of Saul, they found him lying on his bed. When,
too, the deputation waited on David to thank him for con-
ferring his crown on Solomon he must have been reclining
on his bed, for it is said that, in token of his pleasure, he
raised himself thereon. It is also related of Jacob that he
laid himself on the head of his bed."

U) - 1

:13 thltia
13 oaks,

Inge

U US

411
3

wiit •
teod

VOW