The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-08-28 00:00:00

ur yonbon compact!.
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r (We deem It right to state that we do not at all ftes
loentify ours Aves with our Correspondent's opinions.

Prince Alexander of Bulgaria, who has joined
the ranks of monarchs out of business, is a
brother of Prince Henry of Eattenberg, tha hus-
band of Princess Beatrice another brother, who
is an officer in the English navy, is also coEnected
with our Royal Family, having married a grand-
daughter of the Queen, one of the datight(-rs of
the late Princess Alice. The deposition c 1 the
Prince is therefore a matter of personal interest

to the Royal:Family as well as oipaliticalinii.ort-
ance to the country. Indeed, it has been hinted
for a long time that the Prince's relationship to
the British Sovereign, although only indirectly
and by marriage, did his Royal Highness no
good. It gave rise in Russia to the opinion
that the Prince's independence of that
Power was due to his connection with England.
This was the reason for the announcement, which
it may now be stated came from a Royal source.
that the Order of the Garter was not proposed
to be conferred on him, a persistent rumour to
that efict having been circulated, and having
been unfavourably received in Russia. Prince
Alexander came to England on the occasion of
Princess Beatrice's marriage; but his Royal
Highness was totally eclipsed by one of his
attendants, a veritable son of Anak, with a uni-
form of dazzling splendour, and a moustache which
stood out half a yard on either side. The Prince
is reported to have prepared for a rainy day, and
to have invested his savings in British and
German securities. It was privately stated at
the time that his selection for the Throne was
communicated to him in a German beer-garden.
He may not care to return to the enjoyments of
his student life, but he will probably find more
pleasure in his present retirement than in the
occupation of a precarious Princedom.
Since the time of the Great Exhibition there
have probably not been so many pro-
vincial visitors to the metropolis as during
the present summer. The "Colonies" must
have brought thousands of our Indian and
Colonial fellow-subjects' but they are but as a
a drop in the ocean of humanity which consti-
tutes this city. But our country friends we
meet on every hand, and they give a new enjoy-
ment to life. The heartiness with which they
enter into everything, and the interest which
they take in sights and incidents which were
previously passed unobserved by Londoners, is in
itself contagious. Residents in the metropolis
certainly see more of the city in which they live
when their friends visit them from the country
than they do when left to their own promptings.
Shopkeepers have complained that the general
election spoilt the season, but the number
of visitors must go far to balance
any loss sustained on that score. Up
to the close of last week the attendance at the
Exhibition had amounted to over two millions
eight hundred thousand, which was far in excess
of any previous year, and nearly double that of
the first of the series, the Fisheries, in 1883.
With such a success it is no wonder that the pro-
posal to make the present collection a permanent
institution is being widely supported.
The people who said, when railways were first
proposed, that if the invention were generally
adopted horses would become useless, the breed
would deteriorate, and eventually become extinct,
were false prophets. In London, at all events,
tramway lines and omnibuses are far better paying
investments than railways. Some idea of the
V.monnt of travelling done by road in the metropolis
may be gathered from a statement made at arecent
meeting of the London General Omnibus Com-
pany. This company, which pays a dividend at
the rate of twelve and half per cent., owns nearly
nine thousand horses, and during the last six
months carried thirty-seven and a half million
passerwers. This is about two hundred thousand
a day. The London Road Car Company, which
is of recent growth, pays five per cent. This
company deserves the thanks of the community
for the roominess of their vehicles and the
comfort of the garden seats on the top of them,
besides the convenience of the staircase
for getting up and down. This latter
improvement has popularised outside seats
ninon," the ladies, and one of. the best ways to
study life in the streets is from the top of one
of these 'buses. To strangers it can certainly
be recommended as a improvement on the
Underground Railway.
Speaking of the streets, Sir Charles Warren,
the new Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police, deserves thanks for the crusade he has
inaugurated against the vendors of indecent
pictures and literature. It is bad enough that
these things should be kept under the counters
of shops in certain streets, but it was intolerable
that the ears of respectable women should be
forced to hear the sounds which have too long been
-allowed. The difficulty in dealing with the
scandal, however, arises from the fact that the
indecency is more in the title of the pamphlet or
picture and in the suggestive manner in which it
is shouted than in the actual contents. The
police are consequently at a disadvantage in
proving the cases which they bring. But if they
can only succeed in preventing the continuance
of the more flagrant of the evils they will do
much good. The state of the streets and the
disreputable characters which are allowed to in-
fest railway stations are two of the crying
scandals of London.
An instance of the difficulty of obtaining suit-
able employment for young women in London
has just come under oservation. Two well-
educated young ladies who desired to earn their
own livings, instead of staying at home and doing
nothing, the altered circumstances of the family
almost rendering it necessary that there should
be no drones in the hive, made application for
employment at a large establishment in the
fancy goods line, to the proprietor of which they
had a personal recommendation from a friend.
To their dismay they were informed that con-
siderations of friendship would absolve them
from payment of a premium, but that they
would have to give the first two years'
service for nothing. The friend of the proprietsw
who had recommended them was formerly
engaged in the same establishment, and it was
then the rule to pay all the employs at
gradually increasing rates. One of the appli-
cants, it should be observed, was not without
business experience, and both were capable of
almost immediately becoming able assistants.
The terms, of course, were opposed to the very
object they had in view, and they find that in
whatever direction they turn the female labour
market is overstocked, and that those who do
obtain employment get insignificant wages in re-
turn for long hours and hard work. As a
contrast to this picture comes the incident
told me by a lady who takes an interest in send-
ing respectable and well-educated young women
to the colonies. Less than a year ago she was
instrumental in emigrating a young lady from
London to Australia, the cost of the passage to
be repaid in instalments commencing at the .end
of twelve months. The lady, who is well known
in connection with this movement, has just re-
ceived the full amount advanced, with an intima-
tion that as the young emigrant was about to be
married to the brother of her employer, himself
in a large way of business, she would be glad to
have two servants sent out to her.
A new application of labour-saving machinery
to everyday purposes is to be observed. For
some time we have been familiar with the weigh-
ing machines which required no attendant, but
were set in motion by dropping a Denny into a
slit. The same idea has been used for selling
cigar-lights, a penny on one side producing a
box of fusees and put in on the other a box of
wax matches. Now, on the Underground Rail-
way Stations the juveniles and children of a
larger growth can spend their pennies, amuse
'themselves, and purchase sweetmeats in the
same ingenious way. The idea is capable of
infinite expansion. Whether we shall ever
get to supplying a dinner simply by putting
a coin into a machine is a question,
but there are somany little things which a penny
will buy, and which are always in request, that
instruments of this description may become more
plentiful than pillar-boxes. It would be a con-
venience, indeed, if alongside each letter-box were
an automatic machine for dispensing post cards
or penny stamps. People often reqnire to post
communications late at night, and find them-
selves without the necessary stamp, or an otlice
open at which one can be obtained. In one form
the country has set the metropolis an example in
the application of the invention. In one
of the large provincial towns three pennies
dropped into a box at a call-room, will
place a person in communication with a tele-
phone exchange where he can be switched on to
any subscriber with whom he wishes to hold
conversation. It ought not to be long before
this system is introduced in London.
Although Parliament is sitting, the House of
Lords has nothing to do with national money
matters, and consequently fashionable society is
nit recniired to return to town. The mansions
of the West-end, dreary enough on the outside
at the best of times, look still more uninviting
with the shutters closed and the furniture hid
beneath wrapcere. The Court has moved to ,
VAlrarlal, and ne,rthwarcla, atxn, have spea
manv of the reoreeentatives of rank curl renown.