The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-23 00:00:00

Our Indon Cornspoatnt.

We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Mentify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

The winter has opened sombrely with the
severest storm that has visited the kingdom for
years, and the tale of loss of life by wreck and
of damage to property by flood is a lamentable
one. Gales are, of course, to be looked for
whenever winter comes, but it is seldom that
one is at once so violent and so widespread in its
operations as that with which we have so re-
cently been devastated. From the coast have
come tales of rescue by lifeboat which have
somewhat relieved the sombreness of the picture.
But it is little in the way of light that can be
cast upon so much shade • and although there
has not been the same foss of life inland, the

floods which have visited some parts of the
country have entailed much damage upon many
who can ill-afford it. When such floods occur
the suggestion always comes to the front that it
is a pity so much water should not only be
wasted but hurtful, when at other seasons of the
year it is so greatly wanted. But the solution
of this problem by our civil engineers is ap-
parently no nearer than ever it was.
It is easy enough to say that the
surplus water should by some means be
saved for coming use, thus preventing present
floods and future scarcity, but the question of
what means can be adopted is dfficult to answer.
Perhaps science will at some time teach us what
to do in this important matter, but for the
present all that is apparently to be done is to
lament the damage and hope for better things.
Improvement continues to mark the earnings
of most of our railway companies, as compared
with the corresponding period of last year, and
the impression that we have turned the corner
of the depression, which has crippled English
trade for so long, is growing general. There is
no one who will not hope that the impression
will prove well-founded, for the desire for
an improvement in trade is a question upon
which all will agree. The signs of such are
various, though so many of them are apparently
small, but those which tend in the same direc-
tion are worthy of note. It will not, however,
do to ignore the fact that a deep depression
continues to brood over several of our im-
portant industries, and that we are still far
from out of reach of that period when
masters fail to make profit and men can-
not earn an honest livelihood. In certain direc-
tions the outlook for the winter is far from cheer-
ing, and much misery must ensue unless things
take a turn for the better. That is why even
those who are personally unconcerned in the
fluctuations of trade look with eagerness for
every symptom of improvement. Politicians and
philanthropists alike are interested in the ques-
tion, for a distressful winter gives both a great
deal of occupation. Social questions are so inti-
mately mingled in these days with those which
are commonly thought more purely political, that
statesmen are bound to take them into considera-
tion; while philanthropists will find their hands
more than full if the winter happen to be what
is popularly known as a hard one. There are
thus all sections 'of society concerned in the
question of improvement in trade, and little
reason fcr wonder consequently exists at the
eagerness with which every statement of facts or
table of figures is scanned which at all bears on
the subject,
New features are promised the citizens of
London for their Lord Mayor's Show this year,
and as we have been having so much talk of the
colonies, it is somewhat natural that those
features should be distinctly colonial. Trophies
representing the industries and products of
various portions of the vast dominions which owe
allegiance to the English crown are to be borne
on cars through our London streets, and an
"object lesson" will thus be enforced even upon
the mind of the most careless which would never
be derived from newspapers or books. Should
the weather prove fine, the crowd in the thorough-
fares through which the procession is to pass
will be likely to be even larger than ever, for
your true Londoner never seems tired of looking
at the show, and the number of country visitors
appears to increase every year. Unfortunately
on the coming ninth of November there is pro-
mised to be a discordant element in the proceed-
ings which may prove disastrous. A handbill is
being extensively circulated calling upon the
unemployed to "leave their slums" and
follow the procession, so as to afford
a striking demonstration of the difference
between rich and poor. But that is a difference
which is perfectly understood already, and which
at every Lord Mayor's Show can be plainly seen.
For it hardly needs asserting that the crowd
which annually assembles on the occasion is not
exclusively composed of rich people, and certainly
those who turbulently surge through the streets
immediately in rear of the last coach are not to
be numbered with the opulent. The police, how-
ever, are taking all precautions to prevent the
extraordinary invitation which has been given to
the inhabitants of the slums from resulting in a
riot, and with these the public generally will
doubtless find reason to be satisfied.
How our soldiers are to be armed is one of
those problems which the military authorities are
ever attempting to solve, but the subject presents
difficulties which no amount of experience seems
to overcome. Just now there is much discussion
in military circles as to the new army rifle which
has been designed, and which is intended to
supersede the Martini-Henry; and with the
amount of disputation that is going on counsel
appears to be darkened. Within a comparatively
recent period there have been several important
changes in the arming of our men. The old " Brown
Bess," with which English soldiers, in Peninsular
and Waterloo days, did much service gave place
to the long Enfield, and when the time for
muzzle-loaders was past the breech-loading
Snider took the field. In process of time the
Snider had to make way for the Martini-Henry,
and now the last-named will have to yield its
position to the proposed Enfield-Martini. It is
fot experts to say what good results will accrue
to our army from this latest change, and to all
appearance this is the very point the experts can-
not agree upon. Whatever private views may be
held as to the wisdom or the righteousness of
war, there will hardly be two opinions upon this
point—that as long as we have soldiers, they
should be in possession of a rifle second to none.
The object of those in authority is to secure
this, and outsiders, who do not understand the
technicalities involved, must be content to accept
the opinions of the experts who do.
Discussion as to the feasibility of making a
canal across the Isthmus of Panama appears
endless, and until the work is accomplished—if
ever it is accomplished—there will be a great
number who will stoutly disbelieve in its possi-
bility. It is a curious instance of how persons,
doubtless in perfect good faith, manage to sea
just what they wish to see—that those who
buliovointho power of M. do Tt(aqqapfl to enroitruct
the Panama Canal come back from the isthmus
with glowing accounts of its progress, while those
who are root-and-branch opposed to the scheme
return from the same spot with the most doleful
accounts of the whole affair. Sir Walter Raleigh
is stated to have been brought to the opinion
that history cannot be truly written because
aye-witnesses of the same affair could not agree
as to the details. It is with much the same feel-
ing that one rises from the perusal of the various
reports as to the progress of the Panama Canal.
But, good reports or bad reports, those who have
faith in the capacity of M. de Lesseps will point
to the doleful prophecies which accompanied
his construction of the Suez Canal, and will
point to the triumph which there rewarded
his operations, as a reason for believing
in him again. It is easy to see how disbelievers
attempt to dispose of this by the familiar argu-
ment that circumstances alter cases; but those
who are not concerned either on one side or the
other will wait results before interfering with
their opinions in the struggle.
Talk of one great engineering work naturally
leads to talk of another' the more especially
when that other is also American. It is pro-
posed to construct a tunnel under Gray's Peak,
in the Rocky Mountains, so as to shorten the
distance between the two oceans which wash
American shores. It is stated that, if such a
tunnel were made, it would lessen the distance
between Denver, Colorado, and Salt Lake City,
Utah, and consequently the distance between the
Missouri at St. Louis and San Francisco by not
much short of three hundred miles. This is
a consideration of no light import to a people
who are ever throwing in the most
practical fashion their belief in the saying that
time is money. And if the tunnel be made, it
will be.a great addition to the comfort of those
who have to cross the Continent, and to whom
the lessening of the distance by 300 miles will be
a boon indeed. As to the practicability of exe-
cuting such a work, if once it be resolved upon,
there should be no doubt. After European ex-
perience with the tunnels under Mont Cenis
and the St. Gothard, American engineers are not
likely to be baffled. A quarter of a century ago,
the idea of tunnelling Mont Cenis was laughed
at by many who considered themselves practical
men, but the idea of thus avoiding the journey
over mountains has grown now to such a degree
that there is frequent talk of making tunnels

through the Pyrenees and under the Simplon.
And as America always wishes to possess the
biggest things, there is a sentimental as well as
a practical reason why its citizens should not
wish to be beaten by Europe in this matter of
mountain tunnels.

Allotments have now passed out of the posi-
tion of being a party political question, and men
of all shades of opinion are agreed on the desira-
bility of their extension. It is strange to find
how many people there are who, however, well-
informed on other matters, think that this :Ines,
tion of allotments is altogether a new one. But,
as everybody of experience with the country
knows, allotment gardens have been in existence
for a long period in various parts, and very useful
they have been proved to be. Dwellers in London
can only look on the spread of the system with
envy, for such a spread is impossible to us. The
suburban resident with a taste for horticulture
has to content himself with a strip of ground
which would appear absurdly microscopic to one
who lives in the country: and it is, therefore,
all the more credit to him that he manages
to extract so much from it. The " much " would
apply ratlier to the pleasure than the profit,
for, although of the former there may be a great
deal, of the latter there is certainly none. It matters
not, however, t the amateur town gardener that
his potatoes and his peas, his flowers and his
fruit cost him at least three times the amount
for which he c,uld procure similar articles at the
nearest greengrocer's, for he feels that the bodily
exercise he manages to extract from the work
amply repays him for all his toil and all his
money. Besides there is the proud feeling of
being able to raise vegetables for oneself, and
though they may be few and of no great size,
the suburban gardener can boast in an adaptation
of the words of Shakespeare, "That though they
may be small things they are his own."
A. F. R.