The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-09-28 00:00:00

atistellantous ntcll

HOME, FOREIQN, AND COLONIAL.

A Hum—Prince Arthur has opened a new
Park at Leeds. It is called "Roundhay " Park. We
beg our Leeds friends not to corrupt the word into
"Rowdy," lest mistakes might occur ; as we have,
thanks to patriotism, a Rowdy Park in the Metropolis,
W. District.—Pusch.

ASTRONOMICAL PREDICTIONS !-ThO Clutrivan
publishes the following, which some people have taken
as serious :

"Xl. Plantamour, the celebrated astronomer, who had
predicted the destruction of the globe for the month of
August, now admits that he was mistaken in his calculation,
but he has just made another with Incontestable proofs, and
announces that the world will end on the 21st October, 2011.
On that occasion the earth will not approach so near the sun
as to be net on lire, but will depart no far from it that a
general cougelation will take place. People are already
laying in a etock of wood in prevision of that event."
-- •

AUSTRALIAN GOLD.—The imports of Austra.
Ban gold into the United Kingdom appear to be rather
smaller this year than in either 1871 or 1870. In the
first eight months of this year the aggregate imports
were valued at £4,082,831, as compared with £4,625,142
in the corresponding period of 1871, and £4,331,624 in
the corresponding period of 1870. In the whole of 1871
the imports of Australian, or rather Australasian, gold
were valued at £6,898,826, as compared with £6,478.616
in 1870, £7,892,757 in 1869, £6,989,594 in 1868,
£5,801.207 in 1867, £6,839,674 in 1866, and £3,031,170
in 1865.

TEM WORKING MEN AND THE CrENF.VA AWARD.
—At a special meeting of the Labour Reprw•entation
League, beld in London one evening last week, the
following resolution, moved by Mr. R. Marsden
Latham, the president, seconded by Mr. Henry Broad-
hurst, and supported by Messrs. Paterson, Campin,
Applegarth, Eccarius, Savage, Mottershead, and
Brighty, was carried unanimously

" That the Labour Representation League having repeatedly,
by resolution and otherwise, urged the settlement of the
Alabama dispute by arbitration, feels bound to express its
approval of the Geneva Award, without, however, expressing
any opinion as to the equity of the amount awarded in •
merely commercial point of view This League feels thatthe
great object to be aimed at by the Governments of both
countries Is friendliness of relationship between two peoples
mutually pledged by ties of kindred to amity and peace, and
It views with unmixed satisfaction • settlement which leaves
England and America, as they ought to be, side by side in
promoting the advancement of industry and eivilLsation
throughout the world."

CATHOLICS AN D CATHOLICS.-6 6 A Catholic
Layman" writes to us (The Times) :

The English public, which, in spite of difference of belief,
has such a high opin on of Dr. Newman and forms such a
Just estimate of his power, will be surprised to learn that his
recent letters, instead of being welcomed as a powerful and
opportune defence of the Pope's infallibility, 63 r ghtly
understood, have been very coldly received by the small but
influential faction which convulsively attempts not only to
narrow Catholic IP,erty, but to impart its own peculiar linca
to the great body of English Catholics. One of the
peculiarities of this clique Is a singular Jealousy of Dr. New-
man's silent and involuntary influence, and which shows itself
in the absurd attempt to • supress him' by silence. Conse-
quently, one of the Catholic papers known to be under in-
fluences adverse to Or, Newman, actually passes ovdr his
letters, which have been discussed during the week all over
England, without sword of comment, and treats Ids eloquent
and powerful defence of Papal Infallibility as if it were
an event of no higher importance tnan • sermon of Dr.
Manning's."

CANON LIGHTFOOT ON THE OLD CATHOLIC CON.
RSS.—Last Sunday afternoon Canon Lightfoot, at
the commencement of his sermon at St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, made pointed reference to the Old Catholic Con-
gress at ologne. Ile said that the 22iid of Septenber
was an important day in connection with the long
desired unity of the Churches throughout the woad,
as being that immediately following the week when an
iffort had been made to unite the Old Catholics
with the several Christian Churches. The Congress
which had been hell within the tut few slays at
Cosigne was fraught with the neeinst interest to the
entire Catholic and Chrtetian Church. One of its
main objects was to protest against the dogma of a
particular Church, a dogma which ignored the various
Christian Catholic Churches in Christendom, and a
dogma which declared that the universal Catholic
Church was represented in one man alone. He trusted
that the result of the labours of the Congress would
be the knitting together in closer bonds of unity the
various Christian Churches, and that differences in
points of doctrine and practice in the several Churches
might be found to be reconcilable.

Tons os HABIT. —Recently two Bankers
aid abroad. They at once began to Ceripare Notes, -
Punch.
THE Puts oAns.—The Liberie announces
that • movement has commenced amongst the fre-
quenters of cafes in Paris to resist the charges, more
and more exorbitant, now levied on ocwimmere by the
proprietors
of those establishmenta. "Thus," it says,
aemail cup of coloured water, digned by the name
of coffee' is charged nine sous, and a man is thought
mean if he does not give 10c. to the waiter. An asso-
ciation has been formed, the members of which sub-
scribe their names in a book, and pledge themselves
not to enter one of the cafes placed m the index until
prices shall have been coulderably reduced and the
necessity of feting the waiters done away with. The
registers of adhesion, handed about, begin to be covered
with signatures, and a general strike will begin on the
let October, unless the enemy capitulates before."
AN AMERICAN TURTLE. —At the present time,
when a pleasing suggestion has been made that turtle
should take the place of mutton and become an article
of daily consumption by the poorer classes, a peculiar
interest attaches to the following essay, which, it is
stated, received the prize at the last school exhibition
in a town in Maine (writes the Pall Mall Gazette):—
"On the Turtle—This animal is found most always in the
water, but sometimes he leaves the water and thou he comes
on the laud. the turtle cannot fly. If the turtle was the
right kind of bird he could Hy ; but if he was a goose bird or
an ostrich he could not fly The turtle has four paws and •
mouth like the American eagle, which makes the British
lion and the uniform tremble. The turtle has a shell, and
sometimes folk puts fire on his shell, and then she turtle
crawls out ; but hognever crawls back again. When the turtle
crawls out of his shell he is very wet and sticky. There are
two kinds of turtles—the mud turtles and the other kind.
We don't have any other kind in our ponds. treirdi and
Irish people eat turtles and frogs, but I should not like to.
I caught a turtle once, but it didn't do me any good, for I
swopped it off for a jack-knife and cut my linger. Fattier said
it was a judgment, but I thouglit it was a knife. I don't
know much about turtles, but rblow for old Grant —Yours
respectfully, LUCIUS TEWKSBURY FAL"
_ .

REMAINS OF OLD WESTMINSTER.—III making
the foundations for St. Stephen's '.2lub, at the corner
of the Victoria Embankment, London, the workmen,
after cutting through the road to the old bridge and
clearing away the accumulated rubbish and made soil
of ages, reached in the maiden earth, at a depth of 20
feet, a thick wall built of stones of great size' and
standing upon piles about eight feet long, topped with
thick planks. The wall, which enclosed a considerable
space, was probably the remains of the houses built
for the accommodati in of the canons V the collegiate
church of St. Stephen in the time of Richard 11.,
which are described by Maitland to have stood adjacent
to the old woffistaple (wool and general market in
which the octrios of the day were collected), demolished
in 1738 to form the approaches to the first Westminster
Bridge. Several barrow-load of bones, chiefly animals
have been found, among which were the underjaw of a
boar, with tusks three inches long, and a single bone
stated by the workmen to have been four feet 1 mg and
eight or nine inches in diameter, but which appears to
have been lost before a proper examination could be
made of it. A key with a bow shaped like a flattened
Gothic arch, and some rude specimens of pottery ap-
parently worked up without a wheel, were also dis-
covered.
RUSSIA AND KHIVA.—The Cologne Gazette of
the 20th inst. says that again this autumn a military
expedition is being fitted out to penetrate into the
steppes west of Khiva from Krasnowodik, the seaport
founded a few years ago on the shores of the Caspian.
This place is gradually becoming the stronghold and
central point of the new Russian possessions in south-
western Turkestan. Tn protect it a fort has been built,
which on the side lying towards the sea is provided
with very strong defences. The Russian Government
is endeavouring to make it an important stragetical
point, and at the same time to convert it into a com-
mercial centre for the whole surrounding district, as
well as for Khiva. It is only 94 miles from Khiva,
while the distance of the latter by the road from
Orenburg is twice as great.
THE LATE SUICIDE OF A FRENCH DRAMATIST.
—The Journal du Ha-re has received from one of its
correspondents, known on the Paris press under the
psendonyme of " Quatrelles," some details relative to
the suicide of the late M. L6on Laya, the dramatist.
The writer's information is the more precise that he
has for several years lived in the same horse and
occupied an apartment on the same storey as the
deceased, and was, moreover, one of the first to assist
in cutting down the body before the police arrived.
The question of money bad nothing to do with the
fatal resolution of M. I,Fon Lays, who was, in fact,
almost rich. But during twenty years the author of
Doc Job had lived with a woman, formerly married, to
whom he was deeply attached, and whoshad died a few
years ago. The piece which, under the title of Anna
will shortly be produced at the Gymnase, is nothing
else than the romance of that connection. During
the reading of that work before the actors the emotion
WM manifest cf the writer, whose uttelance became
at times abrupt, dry, and difficult. As to his self-
destruction, it is explained in a letter which he left
behind, and in which he declares that "since she
cannot see his piece played he will not witness it him-
self."

-
ARCHBISHOP MANNING AT LIT ERPOOL.
Archbishop Manning preached last Sunday at the re-
opening of St. Mary's Church, Liverpool. Ile spoke
of the relations between the Cathclic Church and the
world, describing the latter as in an apostate condition
as compared with the ages of fa'th, but insisted that the
Church was never so luminous in the eyes of men as
now. The frequent accusations of Protestants against
the Church for persisting in old errors proved its immu-
tability. In reference to the Old Catholic Congress at
Cologne, he alluded to the presence of the Bishop of
Lincoln, one of the most extreme of High Churchmen
and a profound believer in Catholic orthodoxy, of whom
it was impossible to speak without profound veneration.
It was surprising to find him attending in company
with another distinguished ecclesiastic whose advanced
rationalism alarmed eves his own brethren. For gen-
erations the world had been driving God out of its pub-
lic life unril now religious education was threatened,
and because the world disagreed about belief, children
were not to be educated in faith. In the evening an
address was presented to Dr. Manning by the Catholic
Young Men's Societies.
CONSUMPTION OF SPIRITS.—III the filet half
of the year 1872 duty was paid on 12,282,478 gallons of
home-made spirits for consumption, as beverage only,
in the United Kingdom, being an increase of 1,142,514
gallons over the corresponding half of the preceding
year. The quantity retained for consumption in Eng-
land was 6,646.059 gallons, an increase of 625,996 gal-
lons ; in Scotland, 2,821,468 gallons, an increase of
324,867 gallons; in Ireland, 2,814,951 gallons, an in.
crease of 191,6.11 gallons. The quantity of foreign
spirits entered for consumption in the United King-
dom in the half-year was 4,117,345 proof gallona, an
increase of 15,194 gallons over the corresponding half
of the preceding year.
SCIENCE IN SEASON.—The weather, this year,
was very suitable to the proceedings both of the
National Association for the Promotion of Science,
and the Social Science Congress. It was remarkably
dry. —Punch.
"INSOLENCE ADDED TO INJCMY."—An Ame-
rican paper laughingly says :—" How could John Bull
trust its interests in the hands of such a set of old in-
capable., who have let him in for three millions and a
quarter in the shape of experimental philosophy in
politics—called " arbitration?" The result will go in
at one ear of all nations and out of the other. "The
first experiment," says our contemporary, "has taught
old John a lemon from young Jonathan, we hope."
This is nice, but what we expected.

A FLOWERY SERVANT.—Max Adder Say sthat
Mrs. Smith was thus addressed by her new Chinese
servant, when he wanted to know if he should bring
up a pail of water :—" Would the beauteous dove who
broods like an angel of peace over this fair heaven of
domestic felicity, cooing soft notes to her affectionate
mate, desire me to conduct the wooden vessel from the
sublime subterranean apartment where they are ex-
cluded from the glance of her soft eyes? Mrs. Smith
thinks the Chinese much excel the French in politeness.
CURIOUS MARRIAGE IN FRANCE.—" Mdme.
Claude Vignon," says the Salut Public of Lyons,
"authoress and statuary, has just married M. Rouvier,
Radical deputy for Marseilles. With reference to that
event, we may remind our readers of the celebrated
suit brought a few yeses since by the Abbe Constant,
husband of the lady mentioned above, against her.
She conceived a strong repulsion for her spouse when
she learned that he had been ordained, and she did not
hesitate to consider herself as free from all ties, since
she has now remarried. The most curious part of the
affair is that (1 din t were born from the first union.
The father, s claimed them, had his demand
rejected, n • Itheloquence of M. Jules ',acre,
then ,ow Is lathe Paris courts, and the Tribunal
would not even admit them under the title of recog-
nised children, seeing that 'marriage with the Church
excludes the matrimonial state and everything which
may result from it.' "
A CENTENARIAN.—The death is announced
at Petit Biretta, adjoining Paris, of a man, name!
Odiot, at the age of 102 (says Gal ignani) He was
born in 1770, and embarked on board the Ocean, a
ship of the line, as a cabin boy. At Reunion he ran
away, and entered the service of a planter of the colony,
who adopted him. Having returned to France in 1788,
he was arrested as a deserter, and sent to Fort
Latnalg,ue, where he remained for four years. In
1793 he was set at liberty and appointed, by the Re
volutionary tribunal gaoler at the Prison des Carmen,
where he stayed until the period of the Directory,
when he enlisted in the regiment of Grenadiers
instituted as the guard of the First Consul. From
that time down to 1815 he served in five dider-
ent regiments, and made all the campaigns of the
Empire. After the Hundred Days, be warn ad-
mitted into the Royal Guard, and appointed canti-
flier, in which capacity he remained until 1830, when
he retired on a pension. He purchased a small house
at the above-named village, where he lived quietly, and
having made a claim against the government, in his
quality of adopted son of the planter, had an indemnity
of 100.000 f. accorded him in satisfaction of all demands.
As be had no relatives, he has bequeathed all his pro-
perty to charitable institutions.

•
IMPORTS OF FOOD.—The imports of food into
the United Kingdom in the first eight months of 1072
compare as follows with the imports in the first eight
months of 1871:—The imports of corn—wheat, maize,
barley, oats, peas, beans, wheatmeal, and flour—in-
creased from 49.898,725 mtg. in the first eight months
of 1871 to 59,699,147 cwts. in the corresponding
period of 1872. ihe import of bacon increased from
669,489 cwts. in 1871 to no less than 1,441.417 civt.s.
in 1872; hams, from 35,324 cwts. to 114,338 cwts. ;
'' meat " imenumerated salted or fresh from 19.367
cwts. to 37,715 cwts., sod treat "preserved "otherwise
than by salting from 134,867 cwts. to 214,248 cwts.
On the other hand, the import of beef, fresh or salted,
shows a decrease from 210.776 cwt.& to 158,642 c sts. ;
and pork, rafted or fresh, from 244,884 owls, to 178,592
cwts. The result is that this import of dead meat in
the first eight months of 1871 ansfunted to 1,314.707
meta and m the corresponding period of 1872 readied
2,144,95? owls. The import of poultry and game was
of the value of £70,908 in the former period, and
£88,567 in the latter; and the impwt of fish, cured or
salted, shows an increase from 198,932 cwts. to 227,761
cwts. The import of live animals declinerl,—oxen and
bulls from 87.987 in 1871 to 70,186 in 1872; cows from
39,248 to 21,363; calves from 29,814 to 27,L99; sheep
and lambs from 595,867 to 57Z482; swim from 61,590
to 10,388.

SPTJTTERINGS FROM "JUDY'S" PEN.

inWhaa.HENmaistkr
iirizborbherenvygw,ellr my whether it will be
TEE man who cultivates his Mends often finds it end ty
their hoeing him • lot. One who weeds his friends finds it
expensive stone shilling per mild havanua.
PERE TACINTUE has now become a paired Hyacinthe.
Are not hyacinths akin to tn.lipi I
THE youth who is three parts drunk can scarcely be said to
be a young man of good parts.
• •

- -
GIVING lady away at a wedding is simply a farce. The
old proverb says, 'Where th,rea s trill there's a coy." Con-
sequently, as all the world knows that every lady haa a tvt/l
of her own, giving her • way" seems quite superfluous.

BITTER known than the pos-tman's 'moo' kto so-me people—
The innkeeper's tap.

NAUTICAL —When a ship "DAMS stays," does she lie
becalmed tuatil they can he found, or go down without 'em

" THERE, now,'' cried tittle BEssl- the other day, runinv,g-
Ina a iiraaer in the bureau, "grandpa has sons to htutvel,
without his spectacles."

MOCKING BIRDS—L& Chiaens for dinner.
JUDY'S safety matches have struck—agaiust the hos.
A guint a's still the good physician'. fee,
The reason why I'll tell you. If you're willing
Jim ouverelp. he Is for too loyal to me.
Without a shilling.
-

PLEASE TO KELP IT UISPER LOCK ANI, KET —"HOW I
VIA I could take a leaf out of your book," add a scapegrace,
one day, to his pious friend. Substquent events proved tat
It wash's friend's cheque book on which the young scamp had
fixed his mental eye.