The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-06-06 00:00:00

. .
INCIDENT IN A PoLISII THEATRE.— A letter
frcm Warsaw says that the other evening, just as the
French company at the Grand Theatre were about to
commence, a general in full unifomi appeared on the
stage and read a telegram in the Russian language,
announcing the birth of a new grand duke. The
theatre being full of Russian officers, great enthusiasm
was exhibited, the National Anthem was called for and
sung. At last wane huh ladies, in a box opposite
Count de Berg, being fatigued, thought they might sit
down. The husband of one of their', well known to
suffer from weakness in the legs, also dia the same.
The goret nor saw the movement, and, getting into a
violent passion, sent the police to expel the party from
the theatre. The next day the Count stinunoned the
husbands, and soundly rated them. The incl already
alluded to pleaded his infirmity, and added that he
did not not know what was being song, as he was not
acquainted with Russian. The General exclaimed that
he should start on the instant for one of his (the
gentleman's) estates in Russia, and stop titer- until
he had learned the language. And he was obliged
to go.
EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE.—A singular.accident
occurred on Saturday afternoon last in the Par': at
Auckland Castle, the residence of the Ilishop of Dur-
ham. About four o'clock a nurse of Mr. Braithwaite's,
Bishop Auckland, was in the park with five children,
railing in age front twelve months to ten years, when,
as she states, having taken the baby out of the peram-
bulator, Florine, a child about three years of age, got
into the perambulator, which immediately started and
ran down a declivity, and fell over &cliff about thirty feet
in height into the river Galtuless below. The screants of
the nurse drew the attention of Mr. Longstaff, a book-
binder, and Inc gallantly rescued the child. 'rite escape
is remark able, as the child, which remained seated
the perambulator, fell into five feet of water, and had
it fallen a foot or two Oa either side it must have struck
upon a rock or stone and been limited to pieces. The
fall being perpendicular, the child escaped without a
scratch, and was rescued before its immersion in the
water had done it much harm.
COST OF TELEGRAMS. —ln France the greatest
distance over which a message can be transmitted is
about 600 miles; in Prussia, about FAO ; in Belgium,
aluait 160 ; and in Switzerland, about 200 miles. he
charge for a message of 20 words over the greatest dis-
tance in France is Is. SII. ; in Prussia, Is. Gd. ; in
Belgium, Fab ; and in Switzerland, Ed. In Great,
Britain 2s. is charged for the transmission of a flies.
sage over 5o) or GOO miles, and Is. Cal. for any message
sent 160 or 200 utiles.
EXTRAORDINARY GUN ACCIDENT. Joseph
Rollins, a miner. living at Broom-hill, Darfield, on
Friday went out for the purpose of shooting corncrakes,
and carried with him a small instrument used to imitate
the cry of those birds. While using the instrument
he accidentally knocked out of his coat pocket the
barrel of his breech-loader. The breech part of the
barrel fell upon the ground, while the muzzle rested
upon his thigh. It instantly exploded, and the whole
of the charge was lodged in the back part of his thigh,
causing severe laceration, and a fracture of the hip
bone. Ile was conveyed to the Infirmary at Lee !• in
a very critical state.
SAD AN Soda Ci.MENTS.—(FrOM the Obituary of
The Taneh. June 1:
On the 25th April, perished in the wreck of the Queen of
the S.tth, at the nteuth of the !Are, inn laer 23rd year. Annie
Julia, wife of Augustus Ernest Sitficen, of Callao, formerly of
Snareabrook, Ewa, yiningest daughter of the tete I homes
Bisset Baillie, M.D. of Victoria, V. 1., and granddaughter of
the late General Baillie, of Calnibroe, Lanarkshire; also
perished with her mother, Margarita Amelia, aged five
months, only child of Annie Julia and Augustus Ernest
Siffken.
On the night of the 21.1.1 Ma). drownol near Lamorna,
JAM'S End, Cornwall, by the wreck of the steamship Goi onne,
Mary Erskine Muir, aged thirty-six, wife of James Muir,
Ego , Olasgow ; and at Name time, Mary Ersijne, in her tenth
year ; Margaret Elisabeth, aged eight years; and Anna
El,N,lfie Jackson, aged nine months—their children ; also
Madeline and Marie, their nurses. Friends will please accept
of this intimation.
OLD WHITSUN CUSTOMS.—AIIIOIII2 singular cus-
toms, now obsolete, observed in the Whitson season,
may be noticed one at Ensham (Oxford). There the
townspeople were allowed to cut down and carry
away as much timber as they could lay in the Abbey
yard, the churchwardens making the first chop on the
trees. As much as they could carry out, in spite of the ,
opposition of the servants, they were to keep for the
reparation of the church. By this service they kept
the right of commonage. Kifllington, in the
same county, had a custom, on the Alin:clay after
Whilitun week, to run after a live fat lamb. The
manner wart that the maids if the town, having their
hands tied behind them, should pursue the lamb until
one caught it with her teeth. This expert was titled
"The Itatlyof the Lamb." The victim was then dressed, ,
and, with the skin hanging on, carried on a pole before
the lady and her conipanions to the green. here a
niorris dance was performed, and the rest of the slay '
spent in dancing and merry-making. The day follow- I
ins, the lamb was part baked, boiled, and roasted for :
the lady's feast where she presided. with her cows I
panions, music, and attendants. And thus the affair
ended. 1
RkTURN OF FATHER lONATIUS.—The Erening
Star says :
Father Ignativa resumed his ditties, Ater along illness, on
Friday last, at St. Edmund the Ring, lonibard street, bindon.
Notwithstanding the pelting, pitiless storm which raged at
the time, the churchless completely Clint, and men stood-in
the aisles for want of seats. Since his aloence from church
work Mr. Lyne appears to have contracted a great aversion
to West-end people, whose churches, he said. were filled
every Sunday with fashionable prostitutei end tido es. Tine
vices which prevailed in West-end society were, he said, Just
the same. elthough apparently more refined, than those
which were to tie witnessed in full play in Statelifi.highway,
Petticoat-lane, and the eastern slums of London A pleasant
sight, indeed, it would be to see sinners of this kind trans-
mogrified and transubstantiated into saints. Ilia language
was so strong—not to say ferocious—on this point that tut,
ladies rose end left the church, a circumstance on which he
commented with great severity. Ile will eontintie hlslectures
es-cry Friday, at one o'clock, at Lombardatreet.
D. STRCCT,OS OF VINEYARDS.— The Mortiteur
Yin i col • publishes a letter dated Ay (Marne), May 28,
in which the writer says :
I have jest uit ne ,cd a mod distressing spectacle. Imagine
to Y..urselt too until e c.ournunc: el.tol,letelv ruined. One,
the COMMMIN nf Disy, contains ISO inhabitants the other,
Chanipillon, 229. On the 25th must the hilu,bilanlm of these
conumines, who are nearly all vine-dresser*, at two o'clock in
the afternoon were holiotriously ;mooing.; their labour
among the vines. showing leaves and bunchea of grape: tin
more tin on usual abundance. Suddenly a st..rm sense which
iItOVN all to seek shelter, awl in the c..nrse of a quarter d as
hour not a single hunch of fruit remained qt these two vine-
yards, comprising reepectively Le and its huutares. The
hailstones were Si, tntnnreesnUo and H. large that on the follow-
ing day. notwithstanding 211 degrees RlAlallier of heat, they
couhl stlll bc I:Mitered in heaps.
LADIE.9 " WITHoI T AN OarEcr."—Lsolies often
give as a reason why they do not take exercise, "Oh,
Ido not like to go out without an oltect." Now,
nothing could prove more clearly their deplorable
physical condition
frame,
motithanothis ima freshremark; sainirce.rito
well-
organised