The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-04-17 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

- PRESERVING THE MIND.

Fresh air and- relaxation of mind are of more import--
ancethin exercise; which last is indeed mainly valuable
securing them. The limits of weariness should not be
transgressed. The attempt to compensate for excessive
literaritoilW excessive bodily toil is based on a false
conception of the relations of matter and spirit, worthier
of an ancient Gnostic than of a modern philosopher,
which has more than once led to fatal results. I had
for some years as a patient a literary lady who wrote
much and well in magazines. She would go straight
from her study to her garden and glebe, dig furiously
and mow with a scythe, despising or rather luxuriating
in fatigue. Gradually paralysis came on, showing
itself first as "writer's cramp," and then creeping
over the whole body. The mind and senses were as
:feet as ever, and so long as she was able to
inove the tongue she dictated lively monthfrarticles,
,d at last died apparently of sorrow at being
unable to communicate her thoughts. Tobacco should
not be indulged in during working hours. What-
_
ever physiological effect it has its sedative, and so
obstructs mental operations. But as a relaxation
afterwards it is in moderation beneficial. As a calma-
:tive before retiring to rest it has the sanction of a
vigorous brain labourer, John Milton, whose supper,
4lve are told, consisted of bread, water, olives, and a
pipe of tobacco. There is a flavour about the fare oi
the happy days he had passed with an elegant literar
circle in Italy. —A Manual of Diet in Health an,
Disease. las us

GI g.2..i451 i 1

WHAT WILL THE GLAZIERS SAY?.
(From Punch.)
"Let all in vitreous tenements wlifidiviti"dlU,,nr.:
(rupper, an old saw set in a new strain)
---"Forbear the flinty missile to propel." --
7. ~..,,,rroverbial wisdom teachers must explain
"ITl•'}lereafter, when Brown, Robinson, and Jones;
May in glass houses live, and yet throw stones.
ailonsietir de la Bastie, French sage,
Remote some distance from an ass,
Has added to the marvels of the age,
By finding out a way of toughening glass.
rile dips hot glass in heated oil Oat ot 903 a
-•• •
So the old heathen tried the ilaint to boil,
7 , Who rose the livelier out of that ordeal,
" s Mich in a trice will glass anneal,

n _Am as zest Evnorapsr na A Ir,
""I's With , fam_ to`thine ears,'
fa V:ktd-glass or,tumbler dashed on kitchen floor;
And windows smashed by boys who roam,
Or thine own idle brats at home.
H rathi.cisements shardincipetbawill dery;•!..
Nay, Jars from "ciatikpults " let fly.
tt
Thy wm Mirk falls, decanters flinging,
If guests should ever bottles shy.
Yet toughness hinders not hard glass from ringing,
With unimpaired sonority of tone:
Glass bells in steeples soon will chime, -
Big Bens, perhaps, in no long time
tal`laqiisfead of being founded will be blown,

What may Posterity not make? : -
Cannon perhaps, fortifications, - . - '
Out of a glass no common force can break
Our Alexandras and our befastatio72B
And Minotaurs, "my Lords," in future days,
„instead ot plating, possibly will glaze.
1
• d :
0 -•,'
'X TREES AND FR
tiOST.
T I 4t -
K W 1.; 4ls r r 'IL fruit trees are ,exceptionally late
this season, and, therefore, tolerably safe, and- as this
is universally admitted it is somewhat surprising that
so little is generally done to retard the blossoming
of fruit trees on walls. Various expedients might
be adopted-"for this purpose, the most obvious of
Which are to shade the tfrpes from early stinshinej to
move them bff the wall during the winter and spring
months, ,and/ to change the aspect in the case of
some of 'Our more excitable fruits. The ques-
tion of shade is a somewhat difficult one, and has been
brought into disrepute through a rentless and thought-
-less-use of it; for instance, where canvas rollers are used
tolerably close toithe wallthey are often lettflown during
bright dais, and hb dolibi; -dint .bilt-thaZirect light of
Abe sun; butoon the other-hand, they allow hie begiA to
pbur through them into the small space between the
-canvas and the wall, whence there is no outlet for the
heated air. Without ventilation at the top such modes
of shading are useless, and are even Worse than if tht!
blinds had been left up, The increase of temperature
alid close atinosphere draw out and induce the buds td
ld with unusual rapidity, and add to their tender-
- id delicaey. If any sort of textile fabric is used
for shading, there should be a free space left between
its upper edge and the face of the wall. By such a
disposition of the shading material the direct rays of
the sun are not only kept off the blossoms, but a cur-
rent of air is established. next tb opaque screens,
~.woollen netting, &c.' perhaps the moist ueeful kind
idf shading for fruit trees on or off walls are boughs
of spruce, yew, or branches of laurel and other
lihrubs. If properly arranged, they shut out
le sun by day, and help to keep off frost
night. They cause innumerable eddying cur-
rents of air in the immediate vicinity of the blossoms,
tending to the modification alike of the heat of the
warmest day and the cold of the coldest night. These
„primitive shades may also be said to be self-adjusting.
'They gradually become defoliated, and so get thinner,
and by the time they are least wanted they have be.
Some mere skeletons, and they be tethoved without
risk or injury to the blossoms they have Sheltered eL
, shaded. Rough straw bands, mounted. on poles if&
foot or two from the walls are also among
the most efficient of all available means for the
shade and protection of fruit trees. The loose
straws, in motion or at rest, cut asundet as it were,
direct rays of the sun, and likewise tend to inl-
the energy of radiation. The removal of fruit
—. off the walls in winter is a sure mode of retard-
ing their blossoming.- Trees thus treated else enjoy it
much more uniforna_temperature than those left upon
the wills: In fact, a south wall, while furnishing,
upon the whole,qhe highest temperature available in
our Climate: also 'eXpc4its trees to extreme variations.
It is the latter, rather than any absolute degree of cold,
that creates most damage among fruit trees. The
sudden alternations of heat and cold so unsettle the
blossoms that they are often ready. to • drop off, or be
destroyed by the merest breath of cold that would tiot
-ve injured them in the least hactit' found • them in'
sound condition.7-fiardert, -
.
, -
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FAULTS," &el
61'1 ThgtiCtiltrti•altabetireniin England, and even the
iseasantry in Ireland, seem to be coming to the con-
clitsiOn that theie iiie ''perhaps'ivorse places in the
world than heme.(remarks the Pall Mall Gazdtc),-,anti
the, emigration returns from Liverpool for the past '
tthree months just issued show a marked decrease in .
~the number of emigrants. During the period referred
:to 12,204 emigrated from the Mersey, 9,649 sailing ,i
.-.under terms of the Emigration Act, and 2,555, not . .1
--under. the Act. Of these 7,822 were English, 341511
Scotch, 1,468 Irish, 2,365, foreigners, and 222 .whose,
nationality was not given.. 7 -Awe n thousand and.f
sixty-eight sailed to the .United States in 100 ships,-
' 325 .to _Nova Scotitt,in 8 ships, 389 tor Australia in 1
ship, 42 to Victoria in 2 ships, 20 to West ,Indies in 6
siiiiipag4.39 to West Indies in 4 ships, 18 to China in 4
?hips, .34 to Africa.in 5 ships, 269 to Victoria in 141
• ships.. These figures show a decrease, when compared,
' with the corresponding period in 187400 f 2,46o.,During
"the month of March, there sailed -from the Mersey ,
under the terms of the Etnigration'Aett twenty-eight.l
'Ships to the United States with 4,967. and one to Nova:
Scotia with 155 emigrants. Not under the Act there,'
sailed to the United States three ships with 108, tin
Ao Nova Scotia with 71, one to Victoria with 28, six to
" est Indies with 20, three to East Indies wlth;39,
. China with 8, five to Africa with 34, and four
South America with 71 emigrants. These figures make
It total of 5,501, which is a decrease of 567 as compared
• *th the same month in 1874. It is by no means im-
probable in the course of the next few years, if the-dif-. I
ficulty of getting good domestic servants continues,; ,
, that we shall have an influx of Chinese immigrants; i
1 who will give far less trouble, be far less discontented,:
1 and be far more efficient helps than the restless, pam-
eorreed ,traz.,heig hly„ptiiiedys:arvv:nintatztar liiii3stritiothtpt
house.
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