The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-05-09 00:00:00

Punch.

PRISON MANAGEMENT.—A deputation from
the Council of the National Association for the Pro-
motion of Social Science waited on the Home Secre-
tary on Saturday, to call attention to the manage-
ment of gaols, and to suggest the expediency of a
Royal Commission on the subject. Mr. Hastings,
president of the association, stated three points into
which he thought it desirable inquiry should be made.
(1.) The want of uniformity in the present system, of
which the county prison of Exeter and the borough
gaol of Exeter represented objectionable extremes, the
one carrying out industrial labour and the other penal
labour with great rigour. (2.) The large number of
prisons compared with the small average of prisoners
in each, there being 45 prisons with less than 50 in-
mates, 27 with less than 25, and 10 with It-s 8 than 10;
and (3.) The question of industrial labour. After
, other members of the deputation had expressed them-
selves, Mr. Cross said he had had the matter under
consideration for some time, but what course the
Government would take he could not say. Although
it was an important subject, he feared the inquiry
could not take place this year. The deputation then
withdrew.
L'AFRICAIN.—After a careful examination of
the remarkable gold ornaments-brought from Ashantee,
the connoisseurs seem to be of opinion that the natives
knew but little of the art of soldering. Perhaps it
was as well that they were not also better acquainted
with another art—that of soldiering.—Punch.
DOUBLE EXECUTION—HORRIBLE SCENE.—A
double execution has just taken place at Toulouse.
The culprits were two men named Laaserre and
Mitron' condemned for the murder of M. de la Tom-
balk. On arriving at the scaffold Mitron was guillo-
tined the first. The assistants of the executioner then
seized hold of lasserre, who cried out, "Non Dieu!
sum Dieu ! you are going to kill an innocent man !"
: Having kissed the priest, he was pushed, or rather
fell, on to the fa-al bascule, still protecting his inno-
cence. In a second his head was in the lunette, but
the knife, instead of falling instantaneously, by some
accident stopped half way. A thrill of horror and
surprise issued from the crowd of spectators, while the
man tried to extricate his head from the grasp of the
lunette, and his body struggled violently in the hands
of the assistants who held his legs. The knife was
drawn up again, and the next second the head of Las.
serre dropped ill the basket beneath by the side of that
of Mitron, and the sad scene was lire r.
' -

A CENTENARIAN.—JosepIi Turner, who lived
to the age of 101 years and 2 months, has just died
at Wallrow, Highbridge, near BristoL The deceased,
a carpenter, possessed a remarkably • strong constitu-
tion, and only kept his bed a fortnight previously to his
death. Up to the last his (amities were very clear,
and when high wages and the dearness of provisions
formed the topic of conversation he would refer to the
time in his life when he worked for half-a-crown a day
and paid is. 10d. a loaf for bread, and the same price
per foot for timber. Turner brought up a numerous
family, and by prudent habits had saved sufficient to
maintain himself in comfort to the end of his unusually
long life.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR TECHNICAL IN-
STRUCTION.—It being intended that the annual Inter-
national Exhibitions should be made instrumental in
affording technical instruction to artisans and others,
an association has been formed to carry that object
into effect; and has accordingly placed itself in com-
munication with various industrial corporations and
societies. The council of the Working Men's Club
and Institute Union is anxious to enable the members
of its affiliated institutions in London to avail them-
selves of the proposed advantages. There are now 15
clubs and instituti.sis in union having about 10,000
members. The Earl of Lichfield, one If the vice-
presidents of the society, has accordingly subscribed.
ill with the view of placing at the service of the union
200 artisans' tickets, and the council hope that others
will adopt the same course, in order that the whole of
the affiliated institutions may have the twortuthity
of technical study afforded y the exhibitions and

lectures.
SIGNING WITH A CROSS.—Persons who cannot
write sign their name as is well known, with the mark
of a cross. Such marks, however, can be easily
imitated, and how, in ordinary circumstances, are
forgeries to be detected? In the following, there is
perhaps a solution of the difficulty. A wealthy mer-
chant in Chili could not write, and he signed with a
cross. A bill upon him, with a forged cross, on being
presented for payment, was refused. A lawsuit en-
sued. The judge before whom the case was brought
asked the merchant how be could prove that the mark
was a forgery. In reply, he mid the proof was a
secret which he would reveal to him privately. He
then explained, that in sig lug with a cross he drew
the pen along the side of his thumb, so that each
belt of the cross was the side of the thumb in profile.
The proof was deemed satisfactory. The holder of
the bill was non-suited.
SALE OF LIQUORS tIN SUNDAY.—A Bill to
atop the sale of liquors on Sunday has been prepared
and brought in by Mr. Wilson, Mr. Birley, Mr.
Osborne Morgan, Mr. Cawley, Mr. Edward G. Haven-
port, and Mr. William M'Arthur. The preamble
states that the provisions in force against the sale of
fermented and distilled liquors during certain hours on
Sunday have been found to be attended with great
public benefits, and it is important to extend such pro-
visions to the other hours of Sunday. The Bill there.
fore enacts that from and after the paining of this Act,
all premises in which intoxicating liquors are sold or
exposed for sale by retail shall be closed during the
whole of Sunday, subject to the provisions (except SS
to the hours of °lining on that day) of the Licensing
Act, 1872,
A PlAnotni WILL—A Poitevin gentleman.
dying in 1595, made a singular will, reported by P.
Gartu.se, who prefaces the account by stating that he
was an old atheist. In the first place he orders that
his body shall be enveloped in a tanned pig-skin and
buried perpendicularly before the high altar of the
church, on a pill of charcoal ; giving as a reason
that " there is no other god in the world than the in-
corruptibility of the body, and that charcoal and
tanned loather are two agents sufficiently powerful to
prevent putrefaction." This man had amassed con-
siderable wealth, and held the bulk of it in coin and
jewels; these he kept concealed in a large ground floor
room, on the ceiling of which he had had painted the
twelve signs of the zodiac and the planets. The walla
were covered with the word Gripyillernini, repeated
over and over again. On the door was written in large
and grotesque characters, Qui poted capere, capia ;
and i I the centre of the vault the inscription,
Q./recite et Intrenietis. In his will he apprises him
executor that his treasures are all contained in this
room, and, according to the directions which follow,
the doors were to be thrown open to the public, and
each was to he allowed to take whatever he could find
and was able to defend from the rapacity of less fortu-
nate searchers. He desired that his funeral might he
conducted with every species of north and hilarity, and
that all who :tasisted at it should carry a laurel branch
instead of a taper. It seas at the conclusion of this
ceremony that the vault was to be opened awl the
marauding scramble was to take place. Alm ! for the
speculators ; during their master's illness, the servants,
it was found, had one by one decamped, after clearing
out between them the entire hoard.— filuatcatert condor,
21'nes.
A GOOD NIBBLE ON LOCH TAT—Consider-
able amusement (says a Scotch contemporary) was fur-
nished to the anglers in and around Killin by an inci-
dent which lately occurred on the hotel section of
Loch Tay. A gentleman, who shall be nameless, was
out troding for salmon. As the Earl of lireadalbane'a
pretty little eteam yacht wan Railing quietly along, the
RE(r.matid angler booked what seemed a very large fish.
, On wont his bee ; whirr, whirr, whirr, went the reel ;
, and eve 7 angler knows what music there is in its
eoned, the boatillan backed, and baled. and backed
--bit all would not do. (nit, and out, and .alt went
his line, until at lenoth, to the infinite dismay of the
piscator, the end was reached--snap went the line, and
the hundred and twenty squats, with the phantom
! salmon at the end, was sidling somewhere down the
loch. There was this satisfaction, however, that the
largest fish ever known on Loch Tay side had been
hooked, and the disappointed fisher made the best of
Oda after his return to the hotel. The pleasing delusion
was on the following day dispelled by a polite note from
the Earl expressing his regret that Mr. —'s tackle
had been caught be the propeller of his little yacht ant
been carried off. ".Alao with the note came hi tt tackle
and line.
ROCHEFORT'S ESCAPE.—The Republique Fran-
cai4e, M. Gambetta's organ, has received the following
details of the escape 4.f 51. Roehrifort and his com-
panions from captivity in .54.ew Caledonia :—They were
in the Pecos peninsula, where those condemned to de-
portation are kept in a fortified place. This territory,
Is altered by shouls, runs akar/' the western coast of the
island in trait of Noum4a, the capital. A line of
coral reefs extends in a parallel direotion, and between
It tool the shore vessels of a small draught of water can
• penetrate to make bargains with the houses of corn-
- meree in the neighbourhood. A schooner, towing its
7 own pinnace, entered the canal. M. Rochefort sued
his friends were engaged in fishing. The schooner
, cast if her boat, which approached the Hume
r reninsula and received the fugttives, who swam out to
meet it, no ship immediately sheered off.

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