The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-10-09 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.
BRITISH AND FOREIGN. .

There are two million bee-hives in the United
States.
Mr. Alderman Jessop, of Sheffield, has given
£21,000 for anew hospital for women in that town.

It is stated that there are seventeen journals in Paris
devoted exclusively to music, and seven to the stage.
The value of printed books exported in the last eight
months increased to £563,179 from £538,111 in the same
period of the previous year.

British Columbia intends to send to the Philadel-
phia Centennial Exhibition a flagpole 14011. long, composed
of a single tree.

The Perth town council has adopted, by fifteen votes
to seven, a by-law prohibiting passenger traffic on Sunday at
A harbour.

The Archbishop of Canterbury recently stated thpt
thirty millions sterling had been spent in forty years in
church-building. , _ —. •

The— 'Chafer Courant says a trout weighing 261bs.
, was caught in the river Seiont, near Glangwna, last week. The
link was presented to Mr. Davies, "St. George's" Hotel,
Llandudno- . ,
A' public meeting at Plymouth has resolved unani-
mously to invite the Church Congress to hold its th 76 Meeting
inthat town, and a committee has been appointed to pro-
mote the invitation. -111.71
The shooting season in France has beets. nalide the
pretext for many political meetings in the disguise of hunting
parties, and. Where the only game aimed at has been the
• future elections. • • - - ;
Monday morning's return of ' the ' foot-and-inoUth
disease inEa.st Sussex shows. a .decrease; as compared with
last week, of over 9()0 animals. • 1
Awards of ,medals for long service and good conduct
have been made by the Admiralty to a considerable nlimber
of seamen';' in one case—that of Andrew Murray, coxswain
of the launch of the Excellent—the award took the form of
a £lO gratuity.
• A breach of promise case was recently tried at
Colombo, in which the plaintiff was Kandavalagey Issohamy,
and the defendant was named Kudakankanamylagey
Apposinho. The lady, who wished to have a still longer
name, demanded £l, but she was non-suited.
. ,
Whilst some men were 'engaged on Monday in
blasting rock at the proposed landing-stage works of Jersey
new harbour, the charge suddenly exploded. One nian was
kllled'and another very seriously injured.
There has been a considerable increase in the impor-
tation of boots and. shoes. This year to the 31st ult, the
value was £147,585, and last year £99,410.

Japanese toothpicks are the latest novelty, made of
hard wood, with a peculiar scented or flavoured bark re-
maining on one side, similar to our birch or sassafras bark.
;.
The'note!". and Workshops Acts Commissioners
resumed their sittings in London. on Tuesday, having spent
the summer in visiting the manufacturing districts of Eng-
land, Scotland, and Ireland.
A letter was read from General Ponsonby at the last
meeting of the Inverary Town Council expressing, on behalf
Of the Queen, the gratification of her Majesty at the unob-
trusive loyalty displayed by the town on the occasion of her
Majesty's recent visit.
The death
thi

The death is announced of Dr. Pilz, the surgeon-
moral of the Russian army corps of the Guards. During
~te Franco-German war he was very active on the battle-
fields and in the hospitals. Ile published later a large work
on his experiences during the war.

- -
A Presbyterian minister, while fnarrying a couple
of his rustic parishioners, felt exceedingly disconcerted on
his asking the bridegroom if he were willing to take the
woman for his wedded wife, by his scratching his head and
saying, "Ay, I'm wullin, but I'd rather hae her sister !"
A French soldier,- recently met by a distinguished
general, was thus adeosted :—" What department do you
belong to " Alarmed at being addressed by so distinguished
an officer, the poor fellow drew up trembling and pale, and
exclaimed—" General, general, lam innocent !"
It is' Stated that at the beginning of next Session a
Bill to amend the law relating to the property of married
women will be introduced. The object of the Bill will be,
as heretofore, to secure to a married woman her own pro-
perty and to make her liable for her own contracts, as if she
were a single woman.
Early on Sunday morning the Bayer, a steamer
from Lubeck to Copenhagen, was burned In Kjorge Bay ; out
of twenty-live passengers on board only one is reported to
'have been saved, wbile eleven of the crew are said to have
perished. A Lloyd's telegram from Copenhagen, on Monday,
gives the total number of lives lost as twenty. ,
It is probable that a considerable iradif'm live stock
will be opened up with Iceland. The steamer Fifes/sire has
arrived at Leith with 650 sheep, which were, despite terrible
storing, brought in good condition, and in spring a large
number of cattle will be exported from the island.
During the recent heavy gales the lifeboats of the
National Lifeboat Institution saved 77 lives from various
wrecks. Most of the services were of the bravest and most
determined character, and they were unattended by a single
accident either to boats or men.
The Bank of California was reopened on Saturday.
Crowds filled the neighbouring streets. Flags were dis-
played, a salute was fired, and a large business was done
both.in deposits and payments. When the business closed
the deposits exceeded the payments by 766,000 dols.
The Lords of the Treasury have arranged with
Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode for the issue of a cheap
edition of the Public Statutes of 1875, with a good index.
The volume will be ready in November, and the price in
cloth boards will be 58. 3d.

The weekly return of metropolitan pauperism shows
that the total number of paupers last week was 81,509, of
whom 33,066 were in workhouses, and 48,433 received outdoor
relief. Compared•with the corresponding period in the years
1872. 1873, and 1874, these figures show a decrease of
29,391, 16,330.: and 9,746 respectively. The number of vag-
rants relieved on the last day of the 'week was 367, of whom
247 were men, 104 women, and 16 children under 16.
A race in the Bristol Channel between two pilot
boats of Cardiff and Newport terminated on Monday morn-
ing in the victory of the former. The stakes were £lOO each
side. Thousands of persons were at the Pier-head, Cardiff,
where the successful crew landed.

The typhoid epidemic on the South Side, Glasvow,
is still on the increase. Three deaths have occurred, and it
has been estimated that about 20 per cent, of the popula-
tion resident in that part of the district extending from
Eglingtou-street to Govan have been attacked by the fever.
Many of the cases are of a serious nature.
The Bishop of Salisbury has issued a pastoral letter
to the rural deans of his diocese, in which he states that he is
anxious to ascertain the thoughtful judgment of the clergy
and representative laity of the diocese on the subject of the
Burials Bills. He puts a series of questions which he re-
quests may be discussed at the ruri-decanal meetings.
A circular has been issued to boards of guardians by
the Local Government Board, stating that the new act for
the registration of births and deaths has increased the salary
of each registrar by £4 10s. per annum ; but, "in order that
no additional burden shall be imposed upon the local rates
by this increased remuneration, provision has been made by
her Majesty's government in the estimates for the current
financial year for a sum to be applied in repayment to the
guardians of the extra expenditure.'
Next year there will be a great exhibition of works of
art and artistic industry in the Crystal Palace of Munich, which
by its peculiar arrangement, will offer unusual interest. The
exhibition will not, like other exhibitions, have the character
of a mere museum; the exhibits will be arranged so as to
represent a series of palatial saloons in the different styles,
the works of art industry being used as furniture, the paint-
ings and statues as decorations of the said rooms.
A crime, extraordinary from the youth of. the per-
petrator, has just been committed at Lurche (Sarthe). A
farmer, named Lerat, had two children, one 20 months old,
and the other three years and a-half, and a servant girl,
Marie Ouvrard, aged 13, to attend to them. A short time ago
one of the little ones died, as was supposed, of croup, and a
little later the second was found dead in a cowhouse, and
without any apparent cause. Some suspicions fell upon the
girL She was, arrested, and taken before the examining
magistrate, finally confessing that she had killed them both
by pressing her pockethandkerchief on their mouths. Her
motive for this terrible deed is not yet known.

Another step towards the extension of higher educa-
tion for the middle classes was made in London, on Monday
evening, at the City of London Middle Class Schools in Fins-
bury, by the opening of evening classes for teaching English
language and literature, political economy, modern lan-
guages, mathematics, chemistry, physiology, arc. It is hoped
that the pupils as they leave the day schooliwill join the
evening classes, and that other persons anxious to improve
themselves will also become members.
Mr. Jacob, Bright distributed the prizes to the suc-
cessful students at the Whitworth Literary Institution on
Saturday evening. lie claimed for girls the same mental
power that boys possessed, and said we did not sufficiently
acknowledge the fact that it was to the growth of know-
ledge mainly we were indebted for the extension of human
freedom and. for the removal of oppression and of evil of
every kind.' 'Be undertook to say that fifty years hence
Many evils which now existed would be removed; that
education would be universal; and that the sanitary condi-
tion of the country would be greatly changed.
, Mr. Serjeant Wheeler, Q. C., the umpire appointed
by the Board of Arbitration to settle the dispute as to the
wages of the North Wales colliers, made his award on Mon-
day. The drop of Which the masters gave notice was for
fif teen per cent., and this the umpire states in his opinion is
a fair reduction. It is expected the award will acquiesced
In by all, though there may be some grumbling.
Mr. Leatham, M.P. for Huddersfield, addressing
his constituents on Tuesday night,-expressed an opinion that
Mr. Gladstone would return to political life, and said the
fact of his having asked the pertinent question, "Is the
Church of England worth preserving ? ' although ha answered
"Yes," indicated a change in his views on disestablishment.
It was not too much to expect that he would conclude that
political work.

At Edinburgh, in the course of the sitting of the
Factory Acts Commission, evidence in regard to the hours
of workpeople in fishcurers' establishments and as to the
state of education among factory children in Clsckmannan-
shire was taken. A deputation from the trades' council, re-
presenting 10,000 men. pressed on the commission the con-
solidation of all the fActory and workshop acts, and pro
vision for ,proper ventilation and other sanitary arrange
ments in workshops, besides the trial of all cases under th
Consolidated Act by stipendiary magistrates
Since the idea was mooted of assembling the survivors
of the Balaklava Charge at dinner op che'2sth inst., the
, twenty-first anniversary of the evenktv About eighty have
I made their existence known to the committee. Of the "noble
six hundred "198 returned, and, therefore, it is believed that
the number of survivors is greater than eighty, ancitho tom.
munications frue!others have yet to,be receive& 'Many of
the survivors are, fortunately, so circumstanced as that they
can bear their share in the expense of the banquet, but the
majority are unable to afford to pay for dinner And for rail-
way fare. It is hot ed, however, that the railway companies
will convey the gallant men to London free of charge.
In New York City, on the 14th, a new aerial file-
ladder, for Use by the Fire Department, which had just been
built, was .experimented with in the open space at the
junction of East Broadway and Canal•street. The ladder
was raised 120 ft. in the air, and eight firemen mounted it,
arilliam H. Nash, the chief of the battalion, going to the
top. While the men were going through their evolutions
the ladder broke in two, and, 'without a moment's warning,
threw those who were on the upper sections to the grout.d.
Nash was killed instantly, and two others were so badly
hurt that they died in a fear minutes: Several others were
seriously blared.
A jubilee of thanksgiving was held -on Sunday,,
among the Roman Catholic*, for the "restoration of the'
Roman Catholic Eierarchy ti.VEngland," by the Papal Bull of
1850. Cardinal Manning, in preaching at Kensington; Pro-
Cathedral, said that the restoration of the Hierarchy' had
doubled the churches, schools, classes, colleges, and. every
kind an form of •ecclesiastical organisition,and spiPltukl
work throughout England in the Church to which he be-
longed. That restoration, he held,_was_a great benefit to
England herself. He painted the results of the ecclesiastical
work of Henry VIM, b,y,w,hiclr England! was isevered from
Christendom,' in very gloomy colours, and, he spoke of the
Hierarchy of his, Church ea the restoration pnc rdnte lo
Eugland orthi3 Visiblealithority of the' Chttrcla. of God. He
denied that his Church had anything to do.with, politics
" During last week 5,459 births and 3,666 deaths were
registered in London and twenty other large ,townalf the
United Kingdom...Thi6naturatinerease of population was
1,799. The mortality was at the average rate of 25 deaths
annually in every 1,000 p,rsons living. —The annual rates of
mortality per 1,000 in eizhteen English towns ranged froM
20 at Nottligliatn; and -21 itt 'Lendon, to 35 at Huh and
.40ford. In London 2,368 births and 1,401 deaths were
•tegistered. Allowing for increase of population, the births
34ntjeded by 92, and the deaths. by 28, the average numbers
, thei corresponding week of the last ten years. The annual
death-rate from all causes, which in th- three previous weeks
had been equal to 22 6, 20 3, and 200 per 1,000, rose again to
21 2 The mean temperature of the air was Me 1, or o'7
above the average in the corresponding week of the last
sixty yens.